It seems as though Dubai world has cancelled their plans to turn the luxury cruise ship QEII into a floating luxury brothel hotel at the Palms development, and are now planning to reberth her in Cape Town, South Africa. She is apparently now in dry dock being inspected to ensure sea worthiness before making the crossing.
Dubai World took delivery of the Queen Elizabeth II last year and had big plans to refurbish her and berth her at Palm Jumeirah, but the down turn has hit Dubai particularly hard, and those plane have now been shelved. The new plan is to move her to Cape Town, where there are already berthing facilities in place, leave her there for 18 months and then return to Dubai. I assume the idea is that by this time, the global gfinancial crisis will be over and Dubai will be baclk on top.
As far as I know, none of the massive renovation work has been started. The original cost of the ship was between $50-100 million, depending who you ask, and Nakheel and Dubai World have been close mouthed on the final cost of renovating her. Manfred Ursprunger, CEO QE2 Enterprises, Nakheel Hotels, said in a statement that “Nakheel is delighted to receive the support of the South African Ministry for Environment and Tourism for hosting QE2 in Cape Town, South Africa”.
Permission has yet to be granted, but I do not see the South Africans turning them down. The losses on this venture have to be enormous so far, seeing as the plan was to have her renovated and open as a 7 star hotel by next year.
