English: *A tour of Dubai's floating hotel Queen Elizabeth 2*

The much famed Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE-2) opened its doors to the public on Wednesday after being docked for 10 years at Port Rashid in Dubai.

The iconic ship, that originally made its maiden voyage in early May 1969 from Southampton to New York City, has been undergoing a renovation to turn it into a floating hotel and museum. It took a whopping 2.7million man hours and three years for the revamping of 70,000-tonne ship.

Although the vessel, called the gem of the sea, was opened for viewing from Wednesday, the grand opening, with all facilities in place, will be in October.

An engineering marvel, the QE2 was the fastest ocean liner of its time, travelling from Britain to USA in just five days in May 1969. The famous ship has carried up to 2.5million passengers and has sailed 25million nautical miles till date.

The concept to transform the QE2 into a hotel and museum was to give guests an original experience of the glorious days of the most famous ocean liner in the world, alongside breathtaking views of Dubai.

"This ship is here to 'make more history. This is not your 5-star hotel, this is something different," said Hamza Mustafa CEO of PCFC Hotels. 

He added: "Everything from the rooms, restaurants, dance and cinema theatres have been restored to its former glory days. For example the Grand Lounge was made originally of fibre glass because that was the latest in high class materials back then. Today we just replaced it with new fibre glass! However, some of the rooms have been modernised but we haven't changed the layouts."

The main facilities, include 244 rooms ranging from 3 to 5 stars, six restaurants, a special featured yacht club for high tea and afternoon tea, exclusive venue just for Friday brunch, a dance hall that can accommodate 550 people, which plans to bring western shows to the stage, and a vintage style cinema. Two special features, include The Queens Suite and Queen Mothers suite, where not only the Queen and Queen mother have resided, but His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, has had spent some his time as well.

If you wish to stay on the ship overnight, the room prices start at Dh600 per night. However, if you are looking for more than a suite, you'll need to cough up a Dh15,000 per night.