It really has been an amazing two years here, when you stop to think about it. A rollercoaster ride with someone else at the controls, and us all sitting in the seats holding on. I think we’ve been so involved in it, and it’s gone on for so long, that it’s worth taking a step back for a moment.
When she arrived in Dubai, we had all had many months to accept her weird fate – we knew she’d be chopped up and have horrible things done to her, in this strange land. We knew it would take years – 3 at least they said – and we knew that they were going to start work on her any day now. We had got used to these ideas, even if we didn’t like them. Things like the last webcam image were real tearjerkers. I started a poignant page on my website with ‘the last images of the intact qe2 from Dubai’ and I vowed to not look back after they started to chop her up. My QE2 Story was over.
But I had in fact registered theqe2story.com a year earlier with grand ideas for it, paid for it, and it was just sitting there doing nothing with a holding page on it. Other cruise ship forums were understandably? Fed up hearing about QE2, because the ‘farewell’ had been going on for 18 months, and were ready to move on. But we needed a refuge, and over the previous years, my personal website (one of the first 2 in the world about QE2 in 1994) had caused me to build up a fairly huge list of QE2 contacts around the world. So in one evening, on a whim, I set up the forum with a basic structure, and asked some friends to trial it for me, and if they thought it was a good idea. I honestly didn’t expect anything to come of it. After some more tweaks, a few days later, I let all my contacts know about it and the forum took off within a few weeks. It was actually quite exciting, especially to those who had never used such a system before. New members arrived, through word of mouth alone.
Initially, I didn’t even create a ‘Dubai’ section because that wasn’t what I wanted the forum to be about, but speculation and rumours were the order of the day, because nobody official was saying anything concrete, and I knew they’d spoil the rest of the forum if there wasn’t somewhere to put them. We didn’t know the plans for her were already off. For a few months every tiny photo of the ship was like a nugget of gold in the dust for a prospector. She was still in the same place! She wasn’t in the dry dock being rebuilt! The webcam images started to appear from visiting ships tying up behind her – they were poor quality images, but were good enough to see that she was intact and her funnel was still smoking. Then some of the passengers on these ships sent us images, and we could see in higher quality what state she was in.
That page of 'last images' on my website grew longer and longer until I had to totally rewrite it with an explanation of what was going on, and redirect them to the forum for more information.
But then something unexpected happened. Various people started to contact me with information. They wanted rumours to be corrected. They had the inside story. They were involved in Dubai, or had been. Or were they? How could I know for sure? Some got short thrift and were just attention seekers. Some of their stories conflicted. But the truth started to show through the various pieces of information given, and I learned and validated the true sources, and I carefully shared the information with the forum, and we were able to quash many rumours between us. The regulars on the forum learned the true story, and were able to concentrate on wondering about her new future… while elsewhere on the internet daft rumours continued (and still do).
Then news of Cape Town broke – and we had an exclusive on it, early doors. Those many months in 07 and 08 of preparing ourselves to witness her horrible fate were erased from our minds; she was to be saved, rejuvenated, and to have another stage in her life, intact. In the longer term, it gave us hope of a more sympathetic plan for her, in a more appropriate location. She was dry docked and re-fitted. She looked even amazing than she had when we last saw her up close. Sadness at seeing SOUTHAMPTON and CUNARD removed from her and replaced with PORT VILA and the jolly flag of Vanuatu was totally overwhelmed by being given comprehensive explanations as to why this happened, and the very good reasons for it. It seemed incredible, but it was true. By this point we were even being contacted by shadow ministers in the south African government seeking additional information - the high level discussions had not included them. But as the day of her departure never quite arrived, we finally received word that it was off, due to local politics. Be in no doubt, however, she had been ready and raring to go. Her additional crew for the voyage stepped down, and she was laid up once more. Attempts at other similar plans fell through despite every effort and QE2 was all dressed up, but with nowhere to go. The faithful old lady, ready to serve once more, had been stood up.
It’s not unreasonable to say, at this point in time especially, the forum became *the* source on the internet that for QE2 news - a completely unexpected situation to me – and one that brought further hassle along with it. At times, the forum and associated emails etc. was like a full time job.
And so, for over a year, we have been left in limbo and the forum finds itself back in the role of correcting rumours and waiting.
Many of her former passengers have not cruised since and have found other holidays, others have simply moved on to other ships, either with Cunard or otherwise, memories of last trips on the QE2 are replaced by fresher memories of more recent trips. Things have understandably got a bit quieter.
The only real news has been her being moved out of the way to allow even more cruise ships to come to her new home port. Once she had led the way when people thought large cruise ships would never succeed; now she was just in the way. She didn’t need an active cruise terminal to berth at. She still looks great. Her engines are still running to keep her safe and her lights on. Her interiors are almost entirely intact. Her crew, especially her captain, are proud to serve on her and are looking after her as best they can. These are the facts.
If something horrible happens to her now, it will be even harder to take than it would have been at the end of 2008.
If something brilliant happens to her now, it will be even more marvellous.
But I feel a bit exhausted after 2 full years of this - those actually involved in the project, or those who have been, must be completely exhausted too. To retire QE2 just exactly as the credit crunch hit, was, depending who you were, brilliant timing, or awful timing.
Speaking personally, I found a visit to the SS Rotterdam this year to be hugely uplifting. This magnificent, proud and beautiful ship has been converted in a way that I would simply not have thought possible. I am in awe and inspired by the geniuses who put this together. I realised that if this was to happen to QE2, I would be very ok with it.
At the moment we have the cruel illusion (created by the smoke from her funnel) that she may just start sailing again at any moment, but a far better situation would be for her to be carefully preserved like Rotterdam has been and for her mighty engines to take a well earned rest. It might take years though, like it has done for Rotterdam, but the longer she remains intact and safe, the longer it remains a possibility.
Like Rotterdam, it is utterly essential that she remains the same ship after conversion, that she was before so that people such as myself can say "I stood on this exact step of the queens room in 1987 with my dad" or "I partied in this bar in 2007 with my friend" or "I leaned on this rail with my Mum and watched the sun rise over Africa". She is a ship packed with people's happy memories and they're contained within her rooms.
The $ numbers involved in doing *anything* with her always have 7 zeros after them… and there is a global financial meltdown still ongoing … so how can we save her? Well *we* can’t. There are numerous facebook groups etc claiming to be trying to do the same, but unless they get millions of ‘members’ and hit the headlines, I fear they do more harm than good. A facebook group with a small number of members makes it look like there is a lack of support for the cause, rather than the opposite. QE2 is not something the masses are interested in, especially not the masses who choose to use facebook, so this simply won’t happen.
I believe the most important thing we can do, and the most important thing the forum can continue to do (in this section at least), is to simply and reliably keep the truth about her out there in the hope that it helps with her future. I hope everybody – both in front of the scenes and behind them – will continue to help us to do this.
Thanks all, and stay patient and hopeful.
- Rob
