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72-698: There are two permanently moored hotel ships in the USA. The Queen Mary is in Long Beach , California, and the former Lake Michigan carferry City of Milwaukee is used seasonally as a hotel in Manistee , Michigan. The ocean liner Hikawa Maru is a botel in Yokohama . The former ocean liner Rotterdam is currently serving as a hotel and museum in Rotterdam . The former cruise ship and carferry Bore

144-452: A Los Angeles-based company that focused on theme-based restaurants, took over as master lessee the following year. This second plan was based on converting most of her first- and second-class cabins on A and B decks into hotel rooms, and converting the main lounges and dining rooms into banquet spaces. On Promenade Deck, the starboard promenade was enclosed to feature an upscale restaurant and café named Lord Nelson's and Lady Hamilton's ; it

216-464: A gale, she was suddenly broadsided on her starboard side by a rogue wave that might have reached a height of 28 metres (92 ft). An account of this crossing can be found in Carter's book. As quoted in the book, Carter's father, Dr. Norval Carter, part of the 110th Station Hospital on board at the time, wrote in a letter that at one point Queen Mary "damned near capsized... One moment the top deck

288-607: A local millionaire, had fallen in love with the ship because he and his wife, Bonita Granville , had fond memories of sailing on it numerous times. Wrather signed a 66-year lease with the city of Long Beach to operate the entire property. He oversaw the display of the H-4 Hercules , nicknamed the Spruce Goose , on long-term loan. The immense plane, which had been sitting in a hangar in Long Beach for decades unseen by

360-420: A maximum of 212,000 shp (158,000 kW) to four propellers, each turning at 200 RPM. Workers completed most of Queen Mary's work by March 1936 and she left Clydebank for her sea trials. During those trials, she achieved a speed of 32.84 knots. She then prepared for her maiden voyage. The 1,019.4 ft (310.7 m) LOA Queen Mary measured 80,774  gross register tons  (GRT), making her

432-463: A policy to show that British shipping lines avoided the antisemitism evident in Nazi Germany . The cabin class main dining room featured a large map of the transatlantic crossing, with twin tracks symbolising the winter/spring route (further south to avoid icebergs) and the summer/autumn route. During each crossing, a small motorised model of Queen Mary would travel along the mural to indicate

504-572: A reduction of speed on the final day of the crossing, arriving in New York Harbor on 1 June 1936. Queen Mary 's design received criticism for being too traditional, especially when Normandie 's hull was revolutionary with a clipper-shaped, streamlined bow . Except for her cruiser stern , she seemed to be an enlarged version of her Cunard predecessors from the pre- First World War era. Her interior design, while mostly Art Deco , seemed restrained and conservative when compared to

576-500: A result, there has been a steady increase in the number of ships available in recent years and therefore the availability of cruise ships for use as hotelships has also increased. Another reason for the increased use of hotelships is the huge peak in demand for hotel rooms in trade fair cities. Local hotels demanding heavily increased prices during trade fair events has recently led to cutbacks in trade fairs or even their complete withdrawal. Many visitors have stayed away or just come for

648-415: A slightly higher level than during her service years. During the conversion, the funnels were removed, as this area was needed to lift out the scrap materials from the engine and boiler rooms. Workers found that the funnels were significantly degraded, and they were replaced with replicas. With all of the lower decks nearly gutted from R deck and down, Diners Club , the initial lessee of the ship, converted

720-517: Is contradicted by the liner's then Staff Captain Harry Grattidge, who recorded that Queen Mary 's Captain, Gordon Illingsworth, immediately ordered the accompanying destroyers to look for survivors within moments of Curacoa 's sinking. Later that year, from 8–14 December 1942, Queen Mary carried 10,389 soldiers and 950 crew (total 11,339). During this trip, on 11 December, while 700 miles (1,100 km) from Scotland during

792-527: Is serving as a hotel, museum and restaurant in Turku . At times when accommodation shortages can be predicted, for example during trade fairs or big events, hotelships can complement the already existing permanent hotels in a flexible fashion. In Germany, hotelships are evident during trade fair periods in Frankfurt , Cologne , Düsseldorf , Nuremberg and Hannover . The moorings are usually located near

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864-582: Is the case during trade fairs. Additional capacity through the construction of new hotels is not always possible and indeed not always desirable since in times of low demand outside the trade fair season, this creates excess capacity. The introduction of hotelships takes account of this situation and helps to balance occasional high demand with supply. Hotelships are usually marketed by charter agencies who make use of accommodation made available by shipping companies such as Viking River Cruises from Luxembourg, or private independent shipping companies. Their role

936-567: Is to charter ships and position them in the relevant cities whilst at the same time ensuring and maintaining agreed standards. The charterers keep in close contact with trade fair organisations and tourist offices in the relevant cities in order to provide hotelships as and when required. Hotelships are therefore seen as a way of accommodating more trade fair visitors in the city, rather than in outlying areas. Guests include individual clients as well as companies who usually book their hotel accommodation via specialist travel agencies or directly with

1008-478: The Blue Riband that August; she lost the title to SS  Normandie in 1937 and recaptured it in 1938, holding it until 1952, when the new SS  United States claimed it. With the outbreak of World War II , she was converted into a troopship and ferried Allied soldiers during the conflict. On one voyage in 1943, she carried over 16,600 people, still the record for the most people on one vessel at

1080-541: The British Empire were used in her public rooms and staterooms. Accommodation ranged from fully equipped, luxurious cabin (first) class staterooms to modest and cramped third-class cabins. Artists commissioned by Cunard in 1933 for works of art in the interior include Edward Wadsworth and A. Duncan Carse , as well as Algernon Newton RA whose painting Evening on the Avon hung opposite Bertram Nicholls' Sussex in

1152-532: The Clyde turbine steamer TS  Queen Mary , so Cunard made an arrangement with its owners and this older ship was renamed Queen Mary II . Following her launch, workers began fitting out the Queen Mary. She received 24 Yarrow boilers in four boiler rooms and four Parsons turbines in two engine rooms. The boilers delivered 400 pounds per square inch (28 bar) steam at 700 °F (371 °C), which provided

1224-678: The Cunard Line . Built by John Brown & Company in Clydebank , Scotland, she was subsequently joined by RMS  Queen Elizabeth in Cunard's two-ship weekly express service between Southampton , Cherbourg and New York . These "Queens" were the British response to the express superliners built by German, Italian, and French companies in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Queen Mary sailed on her maiden voyage on 27 May 1936 and won

1296-450: The Port of Long Beach turned over control over the vessel to the city in 1993. On 5 February 1993, RMS Foundation, Inc signed a five-year lease with the city of Long Beach to act as the operators of the property. The foundation was run by President and C.E.O. Joseph F. Prevratil, who had managed the attraction for Wrather. On 26 February 1993 the tourist attraction reopened completely, while

1368-521: The Queen Mary from service in 1967. She left Southampton for the last time on 31 October 1967 and sailed to Long Beach, California , United States, where she was permanently moored . The City of Long Beach bought the ship to serve as a tourist attraction featuring restaurants, a museum , and a hotel. The city contracted out management of the ship to various third-party firms over the years, until it took back operational control in 2021. With Weimar Germany launching Bremen and Europa into service,

1440-421: The Queen Mary's interior spaces. The Bromsgrove Guild constructed much of the ship's interior, while H.H. Martyn & Co. built the staircases, foyers, and entrances . Among the facilities available on board Queen Mary , the liner featured two indoor swimming pools, beauty salons, libraries and children's nurseries for all three classes, a music studio, a lecture hall, telephone connectivity to anywhere in

1512-778: The River Clyde by the John Brown & Company shipyard at Clydebank in Scotland. Work halted in December 1931 due to the Great Depression and Cunard applied to the British Government for a loan to complete 534. The Government granted the loan, providing enough money to complete the unfinished ship, and also to build a running mate to provide a two ship weekly service to New York. One condition of

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1584-500: The United Kingdom and its shipping companies did not want to be left behind in the shipbuilding race. White Star Line , Cunard's chief British rival, began construction on the 80,000-ton Oceanic in 1928, while Cunard planned a 75,000-ton unnamed ship. Cunard's Chief Naval Architect, George Mcleod Paterson, was the principal designer. Construction on the ship, then known only as "Hull Number 534", began in December 1930 on

1656-433: The first commercial transatlantic flights by jet began a completely new era of competition for passenger liners. With a London–New York travel time reduced to just 7–8 hours, demand for multi-day ocean crossing dropped precipitously. On some voyages, winters especially, Queen Mary sailed into harbour with more crew than passengers, though both she and Queen Elizabeth still averaged over 1,000 passengers per crossing into

1728-627: The 1970s. During international trade fairs it was often difficult to find good quality accommodation in a convenient location because of shortages of hotel rooms. During the International Textile Trade Fair in Frankfurt , the idea was born to moor a river cruiser on the banks of the Main and thus increase bed capacity in the city centre. Even today, the Frankfurt am Main harbour authorities offer moorings for hotelships on

1800-550: The Blue Riband. However, in 1938, under the command of Robert B. Irving , Queen Mary took back the Blue Riband in both directions, with average speeds of 30.99 knots (57.39 km/h; 35.66 mph) westbound and 31.69 knots (58.69 km/h; 36.47 mph) eastbound, records which stood until lost to United States in 1952. Arthur Joseph Davis of Messrs, Mewes and Davis, and Benjamin Wistar Morris designed

1872-806: The Hotel Queen Mary closed on 30 September 1992. The owners of the Spruce Goose , the Aero Club of Southern California, sold the plane to the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum in Oregon . The plane departed on barges on 2 October 1992. The Queen Mary remained open until 31 December 1992 when it closed. During this period, the ship was nominated and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993. Also

1944-720: The Long Gallery. In late August 1939, Queen Mary was on a return run from New York to Southampton. The international situation led to her being escorted by the battlecruiser HMS  Hood . She arrived safely and set out again for New York on 1 September. By the time she arrived, war had been declared and she was ordered to remain in port alongside Normandie until further notice. In March 1940, Queen Mary and Normandie were joined in New York by Queen Mary 's new running mate Queen Elizabeth , fresh from her secret voyage from Clydebank. The three largest liners in

2016-769: The Nizza Werft. During the last 10 years, river cruises in Europe have become a growth area of the tourism industry. Since the completion of the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal , the fall of the Iron Curtain and the expansion of the EU , there has been a huge increase in the potential for river cruising as part of the cruising industry. River cruising has become more comfortable and so has increased in popularity, allowing it to compete with European coach tours. As

2088-568: The North Atlantic, having carried 2,112,000 passengers over 3,792,227 miles (6,102,998 km). Under the command of Captain John Treasure Jones , who had been her captain since 1965, she sailed from Southampton for the last time on 31 October with 1,093 passengers and 806 crew. After a voyage around Cape Horn , she arrived in Long Beach on 9 December. Queen Elizabeth was withdrawn in 1968 and Queen Elizabeth 2 took over

2160-482: The Queen Mary Hyatt Hotel. By 1980, it had become apparent that the existing system was not working. The ship was losing millions each year for the city because the hotel, restaurants and museum were run by three separate concessionaires, while the city owned the vessel and operated guided tours. It was decided that a single operator with more experience in attractions was needed. Jack Wrather ,

2232-595: The Sea opened, with a quarter of the planned exhibits completed. Within the decade, Cousteau's museum closed due to low ticket sales and the deaths of many of the fish that were housed in the museum. On 2 November 1972, the PSA Hotel Queen Mary opened its initial 150 guest rooms. Two years later, with all 400 rooms finished, PSA brought in Hyatt Hotels to manage the hotel, which operated from 1974 to 1980 as

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2304-461: The Sun Deck in separate spaces previously used for first-class cabins and engineers' quarters. A post-war feature of the ship, the first-class cinema, was removed for kitchen space for the new Promenade Deck dining venues. The first-class lounge and smoking room were reconfigured and converted into banquet space. The second-class smoking room was subdivided into a wedding chapel and office space. On

2376-474: The Sun Deck, the elegant Verandah Grill was gutted and converted into a fast-food eatery, while a new upscale dining venue was created directly above it on Sports Deck, in space once used for crew quarters. The second-class lounges were expanded to the sides of the ship and used for banqueting. On R deck, the first-class dining room was reconfigured and subdivided into two banquet venues, the Royal Salon and

2448-474: The Windsor Room. The second-class dining room was subdivided into kitchen storage and a crew mess hall, while the third-class dining room was initially used as storage and crew space. Also on R deck, the first-class Victorian Turkish bath complex, the 1930s equivalent to a spa, was removed. The second-class pool was removed and its space initially used for office space, while the first-class swimming pool

2520-544: The battle of the Atlantic. Without their aid, the day of final victory must unquestionably have been postponed.” By the war's end, Queen Mary had carried over 800,000 troops and traveled over 600,000 miles across the world's oceans. After delivering war brides to Canada, Queen Mary made her fastest ever crossing, returning in early 1946 to Southampton in only three days, 22 hours and 42 minutes at an average speed of 31.9 knots. From September 1946 to July 1947, Queen Mary

2592-551: The bid of $ 3.45m/£1.2m from Long Beach, California surpassed the Japanese scrap merchants. Queen Mary was featured in the film Assault on a Queen (1966) starring Frank Sinatra . That August, Queen Mary made her fastest eastbound passage since August 1938, crossing in 4 days, 10 hours and 6 minutes at an average speed of 29.46 knots (54.56 km/h). Queen Mary was retired from service in 1967. On 27 September, 1967, Queen Mary completed her 1,001st and last crossing of

2664-447: The case of deep sea cruise ships , there is no seasonal transfer of ships to warmer areas. The result is therefore more efficient use of the ships outside the main cruising season. The main thoroughfares for river cruises in Europe are the rivers Rhine , Main , Danube and Elbe . Since many cities here lie directly on the river, this is also a particularly interesting area for hotelships. Moorings are usually conveniently located in

2736-784: The city centre, for example at the Konrad Adenauer Ufer in Cologne , the Altstadtufer in Düsseldorf or the Holbeinsteg at Nizza, Frankfurt . These locations are all close to the city centres and the trade fair grounds. Because of this network of inland waterways, hotelships can be positioned where and when required, and usually without lengthy transfers. The origins of hotelships in Germany can be traced back to

2808-424: The day and have been able to do so because of reduced transport costs with budget airlines or ICE train connections. Hotelships redress the balance during these temporary peaks and, in spite of criticism from local hotels, help make trade fair locations more attractive and more competitive. Hotelships operate as a balance in the hotel market where the market is too inflexible to react to periods of high demand such as

2880-477: The duration of the war. The woodwork in the staterooms, the cabin-class dining room, and other public areas were covered with leather. Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth were the largest and fastest troopships involved in the war, often carrying as many as 15,000 men in a single voyage, and often travelling out of convoy and without escort. The Queens high speed and zigzag courses made it virtually impossible for U-boats to catch them, although one attempted to attack

2952-412: The hotel for 30 years. When they finally succeeded, they also acquired Queen Mary. This was never marketed as a Disney property. Through the late 1980s and early 1990s, Queen Mary struggled financially. Disney pinned their hopes for turning the attraction around on Port Disney , a huge planned resort on the adjacent docks. It was to include an attraction known as DisneySea , a theme park celebrating

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3024-411: The hotel reopened partially on 5 March with 125 rooms and the banquet facilities, with the remainder of the rooms coming online on 30 April. In 1995, RMS Foundation's lease was extended to twenty years, while the scope of the lease was reduced to operation of the ship. A new company, Queen's Seaport Development, Inc. (QSDI), was established in 1995 to control the real estate adjacent to the vessel. The dome

3096-472: The latter half of the 1940s and well into the 1950s. They proved highly profitable for Cunard (as the company was renamed on 31 December 1949). On 1 January 1949, Queen Mary ran aground off Cherbourg , France. She was refloated the next day and returned to service. In 1952, Queen Mary lost the Blue Riband she held for 14 years to the SS United States during her maiden voyage. In 1958,

3168-735: The light cruiser HMS  Curacoa off the Irish coast with a loss of 338 lives. Queen Mary was carrying thousands of Americans of the 29th Infantry Division to join the Allied forces in Europe. Due to the risk of U-boat attacks, Queen Mary was under orders not to stop under any circumstances and steamed onward with a fractured stem . Some sources claim that hours later, the convoy's lead escort, consisting of Bramham and one other ship, returned to rescue 99 survivors of Curacoa 's crew of 437, including her captain John W. Boutwood. This claim

3240-465: The loan was that Cunard merge its operations with the White Star Line, which was also struggling due to the depression and had canceled construction of its Oceanic . Both lines agreed to the merger, and, on 10 May 1934, the companies created a third company, Cunard-White Star Line , to manage their newly combined fleet. Work on 534 resumed immediately with a launch scheduled for 1934. Prior to

3312-518: The local tourist office. During the 6-month season in 2008, hotelships in Germany boosted the market with an extra 100,000 beds and their turnover was about 10,000,000 Euros. This only represents a small part of the total hotel capacity in Germany. Berlin alone, for example, has a daily capacity of 97,441 beds (figures from December 2008). During the COVID-19 pandemic , river cruise ships were used to provide nearly 1,500 beds for medical workers in

3384-501: The middle 1960s. By 1965, the entire Cunard fleet was operating at a loss. Hoping to continue financing Queen Elizabeth 2 , which was under construction at Brown's shipyard , Cunard mortgaged the majority of the fleet. Due to a combination of age, lack of public interest, inefficiency in a new market, and the damaging after-effects of the national seamen's strike, Cunard announced that both Queens would be retired from service and sold off. Many offers for Queen Mary were submitted, and

3456-471: The name was a closely guarded secret. Cunard intended to name the ship Victoria , in keeping with company tradition of giving its ships names ending in "ia", but when company representatives asked King George V 's permission to name the ocean liner after Britain's "greatest queen", he said his wife, Mary, would be delighted. Accordingly, the delegation had no other choice but to report that 534 would be called Queen Mary . The name had already been given to

3528-559: The public, was installed in a huge geodesic dome adjacent to the liner in 1983, attracting increased attendance. Wrather Port Properties operated the entire attraction after his death in 1984 until 1988, when his holdings were bought by the Walt Disney Company . Wrather had built the Disneyland Hotel in 1955, when Walt Disney had insufficient funds to construct the hotel himself. Disney had been trying to buy

3600-406: The remainder of the vessel into a hotel. In 1969, it was reported that the hotel would be operated by Sky Chefs, the catering and hospitality division of American Airlines . Diners Club Queen Mary dissolved and vacated the ship in 1970 after their parent company, Diners Club International, was sold, and a change in corporate direction was mandated during the conversion process. Specialty Restaurants,

3672-413: The removal of all the boiler rooms, the forward engine room, both turbo generator rooms, the ship stabilisers and the water softening plant. The ship's empty fuel tanks were filled with local mud to keep the ship's centre of gravity and draft at the correct levels, as these critical factors had been affected by the removal of the various components and structure. Only the aft engine room and "shaft alley", at

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3744-473: The same time. Following the war, Queen Mary returned to passenger service and, along with Queen Elizabeth, commenced the two-ship transatlantic passenger service for which the two ships were initially built. The pair dominated the transatlantic passenger transportation market until the dawn of the jet age in the late 1950s. By the mid-1960s, Queen Mary was ageing and operating at a loss. After several years of decreased profits, Cunard officially retired

3816-399: The ship today. On 8 May 1971, Queen Mary opened her doors to tourists. Initially, only portions of the ship were open to the public as Specialty Restaurants had yet to open its dining venues and PSA had not completed work converting the ship's original First Class staterooms into the hotel. As a result, the ship was open only on weekends. On 11 December 1971, Jacques Cousteau 's Museum of

3888-607: The ship's hull, superstructure, and funnels were painted navy grey. As a result of her new colour, and in combination with her great speed, she became known as the "Grey Ghost". To protect against magnetic mines , a degaussing coil was fitted around the outside of the hull. Inside, stateroom furniture and decoration were removed and replaced with triple-tiered (fixed) wooden bunks, which were later replaced by "standee" (fold-up) bunks. A total of 6 miles (10 km) of carpet, 220 cases of china, crystal and silver services, tapestries, and paintings were removed and stored in warehouses for

3960-476: The ship's launch, the River Clyde had to be specifically deepened and widened to cope with her size, undertaken by the engineer D. Alan Stevenson . On 26 September 1934, Her Majesty Queen Mary launched Hull 534 as RMS Queen Mary . Eighteen drag chains slowed the ship down the slipway , which checked the liner's progress into the River Clyde. The ship was named after Mary of Teck . Until her launch,

4032-557: The ship. On 25 May 1944, U-853 spotted Queen Mary and submerged to attack, but the ship outran the U-boat before it could do so. Because of their importance to the war effort, Adolf Hitler offered a bounty of 1 million Reichsmarks and Oak Leaves to the Knight's Cross , Germany's highest military honor, to any U-boat captain that sank either ship. On 2 October 1942, Queen Mary accidentally sank one of her escort ships, slicing through

4104-435: The stern of the ship, was spared. The remaining space was used for storage or office space. One problem that arose during the conversion was a dispute between land-based and maritime unions over conversion jobs. The United States Coast Guard had the final say. Queen Mary was deemed a building, since most of her propellers had been removed and her machinery gutted. The ship was also repainted with its red water level paint at

4176-502: The town centre. During a large trade fair such as Drupa or Medica in Düsseldorf, up to 40 ships can be moored to accommodate visitors. River cruisers are used as hotelships for a limited time and intermittently. Whereas a hotel has a fixed address and is used permanently, hotelships are only in any one location for a defined duration. Ship owners and shipping companies are particularly keen on this use of river cruisers as, unlike in

4248-573: The transatlantic route in 1969. Queen Mary is permanently moored in Long Beach as a tourist attraction , hotel, museum and event facility. Queen Mary , bought by Long Beach in 1967, was converted from a seafaring vessel to a floating hotel. The plan included clearing almost every area of the ship below "C" deck (called "R" deck after 1950, to lessen passenger confusion, as the restaurants were located on "R" deck) to make way for Jacques Cousteau 's new Living Sea Museum. This increased museum space to 400,000 square feet (37,000 m ). It required

4320-425: The ultramodern French liner. Nonetheless Queen Mary proved to be the more popular vessel than her rival, in terms of passengers carried. In August 1936, Queen Mary captured the Blue Riband from Normandie , with average speeds of 30.14 knots (55.82 km/h; 34.68 mph) westbound and 30.63 knots (56.73 km/h; 35.25 mph) eastbound. In 1937, Normandie received a new set of propellers and reclaimed

4392-592: The vessel's progress en route. As an alternative to the main dining room, Queen Mary featured a separate cabin class Verandah Grill on the Sun Deck at the upper aft of the ship. The Verandah Grill was an exclusive à la carte restaurant with a capacity of approximately eighty passengers and converted to the Starlight Club at night. Also on board was the Observation Bar, an Art Deco-styled lounge with wide ocean views. Woods from different regions of

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4464-608: The war, Queen Mary carried British Prime Minister Winston Churchill across the Atlantic three times for meetings with fellow Allied forces officials. He was listed on the passenger manifests as "Colonel Warden". On one crossing in 1943, Churchill and his staff planned the Normandy Invasion and he signed the D-Day Declaration aboard. Churchill later stated that the Queens, "challenged the fury of Hitlerism in

4536-523: The world sat idle for some time until the Allied commanders decided that all three ships could be used as troopships. Normandie was destroyed by fire during her conversion. Queen Mary left New York for Sydney , Australia, in March 1940, where she, along with several other liners, was converted into a troopship to carry Australian and New Zealand soldiers to the United Kingdom. In the conversion,

4608-711: The world's largest passenger ship. Her rival Normandie , was 1,029 ft (313.6 m) LOA, but only measured 79,280 GRT. However, CGT later modified the Normandie to increase her size to 83,243 GRT, reclaiming the title of world's largest passenger ship. Completion of Queen Mary ultimately took 3 + 1 ⁄ 2 years and cost 3.5 million pounds sterling , then equal to $ 17.5 million (equivalent to $ 310 million in 2023). Commanded by Sir Edgar Britten , Queen Mary sailed on her maiden voyage from Southampton on 27 May 1936. She sailed at high speed for most of her maiden voyage to New York until heavy fog forced

4680-588: The world's oceans. The plans eventually fell through; in 1992 Disney gave up the lease on the ship to focus on building what would become Disney California Adventure Park . The DisneySea concept was recycled a decade later in Japan as Tokyo DisneySea , with a recreated ocean liner resembling Queen Mary named the SS Columbia as the centrepiece of the American Waterfront area. With Disney gone,

4752-433: The world, outdoor paddle tennis courts, and dog kennels. The largest room on board was the cabin class main dining room (grand salon), spanning three stories in height and anchored by wide columns. The ship had many air-conditioned public rooms on board. The cabin-class swimming pool facility spanned over two decks in height. This was the first ocean liner to be equipped with her own Jewish prayer room – part of

4824-658: The worst affected city, Wuhan . The Viking is a converted sailing ship floated in Sweden. Former cruise ship Doulos Phos currently operates as a hotel in Bintan . The Former ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2 currently operates as a hotel in Dubai . RMS Queen Mary RMS Queen Mary is a retired British ocean liner that operated primarily on the North Atlantic Ocean from 1936 to 1967 for

4896-450: Was at its usual height and then, swoom! Down, over, and forward she would pitch." It was calculated later that the ship rolled 52 degrees, and would have capsized had she rolled another three degrees. From 25 to 30 July 1943, Queen Mary carried 15,740 soldiers and 943 crew (total 16,683), a standing record for the most passengers ever transported on one vessel. This was only possible in summer as passengers had to sleep on deck. During

4968-435: Was open for viewing by hotel guests and visitors. Because of modern safety codes and the compromised structural soundness of the area directly below, the swimming pool could not be used for swimming after the conversion, although it was filled with water until the late 1980s. Today the pool can only be seen on guided tours and from the first class entrance on R deck. No second-class, third-class or crew cabins remain intact aboard

5040-411: Was refitted for passenger service, adding air conditioning and upgrading her berth configuration to 711 first class (formerly called cabin class), 707 cabin class (formerly tourist class) and 577 tourist class (formerly third class) passengers. Following their refit, Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth dominated the transatlantic passenger trade as Cunard White Star's two-ship weekly express service through

5112-533: Was themed in the fashion of early-19th century sailing ships. The famed and elegant Observation Bar was redecorated as a western-themed bar. The smaller first-class public rooms, such as the Drawing Room, Library, Lecture Room and the Music Studio, were stripped of most of their fittings and converted to commercial use. This markedly expanded retail space on the ship. Two more shopping malls were built on

5184-542: Was used extensively as a soundstage for film and television by taking advantage of the adaptable interior space that was larger than any sound stage in the Los Angeles area. In 1998, the city of Long Beach extended the QSDI lease to 66 years. Carnival Cruises repurposed a portion of the dome as a passenger terminal in 2001. The California State Lands Commission also issued a report in response to citizens' concerns about

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