SPF’s home City of Southampton today waves goodbye to the QE2. After almost 41 years of service, the Queen Elizabeth 2 will leave Southampton for the last time at 8pm on the evening of 11 November 2008 on her way to her new home in Dubai where she will be transformed into a five-star luxury floating hotel.
The QE2 will be joining The Palm, currently under construction and due for completion in 2011 – She can be seen in the computer generated image below:
The QE2 arrived in the Eastern Docks in Southampton at 7.15am on 11th November. The docks are generally a restricted area so Southampton City Council and Cunard have arranged for a temporary giant video screen to be installed in Mayflower Park which will broadcast live and archive footage of the QE2 throughout the day courtesy of the BBC.
Southampton City Council and Cunard have planned a spectacular farewell party – live music, fireworks, fly past by an RAF Harrier from No. 1 (F) Squadron, plus live coverage of the departure with a message by the ship’s Captain.
For more information on events click here.
The QE2 will become a five-star luxury floating hotel at “The Palm”.
The Palm is the result of five years of planning and land reclamation, The Palm, Jumeirah lies just off Dubai’s coastline. It forms part of The Palm Islands, along with The Palm, Jebel Ali and The Palm, Deira, the world’s three largest manmade islands.
The Palm, Jumeirah measures 5km², has created 560ha of land and has added 78.6km to the country’s 72km coastline.
- Construction Started: 2002
- Project Type: Mixed-use artificial island
- Location: Off the coast of Dubai
- Completion: First phase 2006
- Area: 5km²
Key Players:
- Client: United Arab Emirates
- Overall Concept Design: Helman Hurley Charvat Peacock (HHCP)
- Lead Contractor: Hill International
- Specialist Contractor: Van Oord
At the peak of construction, 40,000 employees were working on the project each day, turning 94 million cubic metres of sand and seven million tons of rock into a leisure and lifestyle resort fit for the 21st century and beyond.
When completed in 2011, it will become home to 32 five-star beachfront hotels with 25,000 guests, 20,000 day visitors and about 60,000 residents in apartments and villas. Its population will have five beach resorts, four marinas, a monorail and thousands of metres of retail and commercial units at their disposal.
Promotional Video of The Palm:
![Mar. [Explore]](http://static.flickr.com/4083/4950621171_7bcd1ab457_t.jpg "Mar. [Explore]")
I can tell that this is not the first time at all that you mention this topic. Why have you decided to touch it again?