Carnival Orders New Queen Elizabeth Ship

CanadianCruiser · October 10, 2007

Carnival orders new Queen Elizabeth ship (Miami Herald)

Carnival Corp., the world's biggest cruise operator, ordered a new Queen Elizabeth ship after selling the iconic Queen Elizabeth 2 to the Dubai government.

The luxury Cunard line will begin taking travelers on the 2,092-passenger vessel in 2010, Miami-based Carnival said Wednesday in a statement. Cunard also operates the Queen Mary 2 and will introduce the Queen Victoria in December. The new Queen Elizabeth, at 92,000 tons, will be built by Fincantieri SpA, the Italian state-owned company making the Queen Victoria.

Carnival sold the QE2 in June to the Dubai government, which plans to keep the 40-year-old ship in port and convert it into a hotel and museum. The Queen Elizabeth will restore Cunard to a three-ship fleet after the QE2's departure.

''The decision to order another ship for Cunard Line has been taken as a result of the strong booking response to the new Queen Victoria,'' Cunard President Carol Marlow said in the statement. ``We are delighted that her majesty, the queen, has given her blessing to our calling this new Cunarder Queen Elizabeth.''

Cunard began 167 years ago with the first regularly scheduled trans-Atlantic service. The Queen Mary, the line's first vessel named after a queen, has been moored in Long Beach, Calif., since 1967 and now operates as a hotel and tourist attraction.

The original Queen Elizabeth, built in the 1930s, had a troubled 28-year history, according to the Cunard Line website. The ship was requisitioned for the use of British soldiers during World War II. In subsequent use as a leisure vessel, it ran aground in 1947 and collided with a U.S. cargo ship in 1959.

In the 1960s, the ship was sold to a group of U.S. businessmen who docked the vessel and used it as a hotel. The hotel closed after less than a year because it was deemed to be a fire hazard. The vessel was then bought by Hong Kong shipping group C.Y. Tung, which planned to use it as a floating university, and was destroyed by arson in 1972.

The new Queen Elizabeth will be 10 percent heavier than the original, but will carry 91 fewer passengers. The ship will accommodate 301 more passengers than the QE2. Once Cunard takes delivery of the Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Victoria, Cunard's three ''queens'' will have capacity for about 6,562 guests, compared with 4,411 now on the QE2 and the Queen Mary 2.

The company will pay $705 million for the new ship from Fincantieri, based in Trieste, Italy. The Italian government said in July it would sell 49 percent of the shipbuilder in an initial public offering in 2008.

The Queen Elizabeth will offer ''opulent public rooms and impeccable service,'' the cruise line said in the statement. The company will announce routes and design details ``in due course.''

Carnival is adding ships to its European lines, including Costa Cruises and AIDA Cruises, as demand increases for trips in the region. By 2010, 62 percent of Carnival's ship capacity will be in North America, down from 69 percent in 2007, the company said in June. Costa serves passengers from Italy, France and Spain, while AIDA is geared toward Germans.

The QE2 ship sold to Dubai was launched in 1967 by Queen Elizabeth II. The Queen Victoria will be formally named in December by the duchess of Cornwall in the presence of the prince of Wales, Cunard said.