An emotional farewell party will take place when the QE2 docks in Liverpool next month.
The most famous liner in the world will sail into the River Mersey on October 3 for a 10-hour stay in the city.
Last year, thousands of people flocked to the waterfront for a glimpse of the ship, which officially opened the new cruise liner terminal at Prince’s Dock.
Cunard bosses today said they expected at least as big a reception in October, when people will have their final chance to see the 41-year-old liner before she sails to her new home in Dubai.
The day-long visit will end with a giant firework display as the ship slips her moorings at 10pm.
Following last year’s successful event, passengers and crew are expected to pack Liverpool Cathedral earlier in the day for a celebratory concert.
Speakers at this year’s concert will include former QE2 captain Robin Woodall, who lives in Wirral, Liverpool’s Dame Beryl Bainbridge, and Falklands War veteran Simon Weston...
A spokesman for Cunard said: “The concert is primarily for our 1,700 passengers, but we hope to have some tickets available for members of the public.
“We are talking to the Culture Company about how we could do that and the final details are yet to be decided.”
Opera singer Natasha Marsh, the RLPO and the Welsh Guards will also take part in the cathedral event.
The Cunard spokesman added: “October 3 is the QE2’s ninth visit to Liverpool and this will be her farewell.
Liverpool’s new cruise liner terminal will be officially opened as the QE2 makes a 40th birthday visit to the city.
HRH the Duke of Kent will unveil a plaque to formally open the terminal on Friday September 21.
The ceremony will be attended by Margaret Hodge, the Minister for Culture and Tourism, Carol Marlow, President of Cunard Line, and representatives of the organisations involved in developing the terminal.
Margaret Hodge said: "Liverpool has a rich history and is recognised internationally as a thriving creative and cultural centre.
As it gears up to become Capital of Culture, bringing thousands of visitors from around the world, it is fitting that Liverpool will be able to welcome cruise liners in style."
The £19m terminal will allow the world’s great cruise ships to return to the Mersey on a regular basis. A total of 23 vessels with more than 25,000 cruise passengers are already confirmed over the next 18 months.
I thought it all sounded good - a luxury marina development with the QE2 as its central focus, and the QE2 does appear to be floating.
But then I looked closely at the artists impressions of the ship and realised to my horror that the entire superstructure appears to be rebuilt in the style of the QM2 - many extra decks added on top.
This might just be because the artist got the 2 ships confused when doing his impression or they could be going to entirely rebuild the ship.
"In Clydebank the crane jibs are lifting and swinging
In the yard, builders' hammers on steel plates are ringing
All over the hull, welders' torches are glowing
Out on the slipway the great ship is growing
The hull is complete and the launch day is nearing,
Her name is revealed now, as thousands are cheering,
The ritual bottle breaks on her bow plating,
There on the slipway the great ship lies waiting
At first, on the 'ways, she seems doomed to remain there
Then, anxious to leave, as the drag chains restrain her
She enters the water, her proud stern lifting
On Scotland's great river, the great ship is drifting
Silver the moonlight upon the sea flashing
Hard 'gainst her bows the great ocean is crashing
Like great Queens before her, her power is unfailing
'Cross the Atlantic the great ship is sailing
Far to the southwards the war hounds are baying
Already the ships of the task force are sailing
Her country has called, flames of war are igniting,
The great ship responds, and sets sail for the fighting
Decks crowded with troops she comes back to her home port
The soldiers' homecoming, their families to comfort
Wives, sons and daughters, their hearts filled with yearning,
laughing and crying. The great ship's returning
To the fjords of Norway, the warm Caribbean,
To far distant islands, around the Aegean,
Her passengers savour what soon they'll be losing,
On the seas of the world, the great ship is cruising
Regally, stately she moves from the quayside,
Away down the Solent she slips on the ebb tide,
Heart-rending and poignant her siren's last crying,
Her faithful are weeping - the great ship is dying.
Her faithful are weeping - the great ship is dying."
"Without question, QE2 is legendary.
One of the most beloved ships in our 169-year history, we anticipate a good showing of QE2 enthusiasts in each of her final ports.
She has been a hostess to royalty, celebrities and the most noted personalities from all over the world.
In addition, she has been a witness to history, serving magnificently as a troop carrier in the Falklands Conflict.Carol Marlow, president of Cunard.
Adored the world over, she is, quite simply, irreplaceable,"
"For nearly half a century, the QE2 ruled the open waters as a reminder of an era gone past -- when people sailed instead of flew, when they packed steamer trunks instead of wheeled suitcases."
“The arrival of QE2 is one of the most anticipated events of the year and we are proud to be the custodian of such a historic treasure. The world’s most famous ocean liner will form the focal point of an exciting new development that will be a spectacular and must-see attraction on Palm Jumeirah.”
On August 9th, the Queen Elizabeth II left the port of Stavanger for the last time.
There was a lot of other old steam-powered water vessels. It was pretty neat.
A lot of Stavangerites (totally make that term up but it sounds right) were on hand to wave off the ship as it was escorted out of the port with several ships by its side.
There was also a fire truck parade and some old cars on display.
The liner will make her last voyage in Scotland on October 7 and large crowds are expected to gather on the coastlines of Edinburgh and Fife. The Firth of Forth send-off will include a fly-over from RAF Leuchars, tugs with a water display and a flotilla of yachts. The events are being organised by Edinburgh and Fife councils, the Forth port authorities, and Cunard. Edinburgh Lord Provost George Grubb said: "The competition we are running will provide a great opportunity for people of all ages to go on board this historic vessel. "We are planning a spectacular and fitting send-off for the QE2 and one which everyone in Edinburgh can come out and enjoy." The liner will berth in the Forth estuary in the morning and leave that evening for Southampton before her final voyage to New York, and then Dubai. There she will be de-commissioned and berthed at a pier at the world's largest man-made island to begin a new life as a luxury floating hotel, retail and entertainment destination. Built at Clydebank and launched by the Queen in 1967, the QE2 has been the flagship of the Cunard line for 40 years.And Dr. James Wilkie, a reader from Vienna wrote yesterday:
I was at the launch of this magnificent vessel, the last of the superliners.
The much larger cruise ships that are being built nowadays have something of the character of pontoons (or in some cases fish boxes) with engines, whereas the QE2 was built to double as an express liner in the transatlantic tradition.
She has the lines of a racing yacht, with hardly a flat plat in her.
I believe that Clydebank put in a bid for her, but the oil sheikhs could not be beaten.
Still, when the oil runs out and Scotland is filthy rich on renewable energy, who knows? - we might get her AND the Queen Mary back again.
"Addicted to cruising and love or are interested in Cunard?(Picture from this blog originally uploaded by Rob Lightbody)
This blog has all the new news about Cunard"
In 1982 the liner was requisitioned for use by the British Government as a troopship in the Falklands Islands war
It took just nine days to prepare the luxury liner for her tour of duty in the South Atlantic - the lounges were turned into dormitories, helipads were constructed over the swimming pools and she was blacked out to avoid detection.
She was then loaded up with her passengers - thousands of troops made up of Welsh Guards, Scots Guards and a battalion of Gurkas plus a civilian crew, before setting off on her 8,000 mile voyage.
The QE2 returned to Southampton on 11 June 1982 carrying warship survivors.
It was a national event with HM The Queen Mother welcoming her home from the decks of the Royal Yacht Britannia.
I have read many books before and since on ocean liner history, but I would have to say that Maxtone-Graham's work "The Only Way to Cross" is simply the best and finest crafted on the subject.
His blend of technical facts and figures along with his witty observations on shipboard life truly gives the reader the sensation of being on-board one of these "floating palaces" at sea.
Even someone like myself, born after most of the Great Liners were already gone, could get a palpable sense of shipboard life and could even feel whistfully nostalgic about these days long past, like I was actully there...no other book has ever left me with such a sense of longing for those days past as this one has.
If you are at all into the history of the Great Liners, then please add this book to your library---it is the yardstick by which all other books on the subject should be measured; with most falling very short indeed.
I recall reading about an elderly English woman who was spending her retirement on the QE2; apparently her pension/retirement benefits were enough each month for her to literally live the rest of her life on board.
With the QE2 having been slated for this new entertainment complex in Dubai in 2009, have you heard anything about what might happen to her?
Beatrice Muller is looking for a new home.
Ideally, it should be within easy reach of shops, a ballroom and a community of committed duplicate bridge players.
She does not need much space, nor is she fixed on any particular location.
Indeed, her chief wish is that her new home be perpetually floating over the ocean between one location and the next.
In other words, she is looking for a new home that is almost exactly like her present one: a cabin on board the Queen Elizabeth 2, in which she has lived for the past nine years....
Even at the age of 89, Mrs Muller refuses to contemplate such a stationary life.
“What would I want to do that for?” she said this week, while her home was moored at Southampton.
“I was married to a wonderful man for 57 years. I have done my penal servitude – I want to travel.”
Cruise holidays had never appealed to her until 1995, when she stepped on board the QE2 with her husband, Bob.
Both were smitten, and returned year after year.
In 1999 her husband died on board. Mrs Muller, from New Jersey, had no grandchildren and most of her friends had died or moved to France.
She had far more friends on the QE2 and her two sons suggested that she live there.
She sold almost all of her landlocked possessions and moved into a small, windowless cabin permanently.
“My sons are delighted I’m here and safe and out of their hair,” she said. The rates – about £3,500 a month – compared favourably with a Florida retirement home.
“It’s far more pleasant,” she said.
“They don’t organise you like senior citizens’ homes must do, and I’m hard to organise.”
Every morning she reads a printout of The New York Times, works on her memoirs and calls on friends.
In the afternoon she plays duplicate bridge until tea time: then there are cocktails and dancing.
The ship has a number of “hosts”, dapper gentlemen on hand to cut a rug with single ladies of a certain age...
Between the cocktails and the dancing and midnight buffets – “and sometimes I find time to sleep” - Mrs Muller writes e-mails to sad landlocked souls who have heard of her extraordinary life and wonder how they too might find a home on a cruise ship.
She now finds herself in a similar position.
“I’m looking for a new home at sea,” she said.
It is a tight market.
“The only liner left in the world is the Queen Mary 2.
The Victoria is lovely but she’s not built to go as far as these ocean liners – she’s not as strong.”
Mrs Muller is hoping to persuade Micky Arison, the owner of Carnival Corporation, Cunard’s parent company, to take the QE2’s officers and put them on theQM2.
“That would be the place to turn,” she said.
The Queen came to say a final farewell to one of the great icons of her reign, the Southampton liner, Queen Elizabeth 2, and to leave a simple, but lasting, message: "Thanks for the memories.'' ...
Although the day was tinged with sadness, the ship's officers and crew were determined it would also be full of pride, and tradition but above all, one that would celebrate the unique and remarkable story of QE2.
Despite her advancing years, QE2 was a magnificent sight alongside her usual berth in the city's Eastern Docks. It was as if the ship knew that this was one day she had to look her best and the grand old dame of the sea carried it off with aplomb...
With the Queen to acknowledge QE2's unique role was former Prime Minister, Baroness Thatcher who ,during her time in Downing Street ordered the liner to be transformed into a troopship and join the South Atlantic task force to recapture the Falkland Islands in 1982...
The Queen was presented with a bouquet of 55 red roses, one flower for each year since the Coronation, by QE2's executive housekeeper, Roz Price Evans, the longest serving female member of the crew.
One of the most memorable moments came when the Queen unveiled a large painting by the renowned marine artist Robert Lloyd depicting QE2 taking her leave from Southampton to begin her one-way voyage to Dubai...
The Queen was initially greeted by Cunard president and managing director, Carol Marlow, who escorted the Royal party on board and into the ship's lobby where she was welcomed by QE2's last ever masters, Captain Ian MacNaught and Captain David Perkins.
Among those presented to the Queen were nine former masters of QE2 including Captain Peter Jackson who was in command during the Falklands crisis.
In the Officers' Wardroom another small part of the liner's life came to an end when the Queen was invited to sign the ship's visitors' book. Hers was the first name on the first page, recalling the day of the ship's launch, and now this same signature was written on the last page.
After a reception in the Queen's Room, the liner's ballroom named after the monarch, guests joined the Queen for a gala lunch prepared in the vessel's galley by QE2's famed brigade of chefs.
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