A world-famous former Cunard Line flagship is ready to lower its gangplanks and welcome onboard its first guests almost a decade since it retired to Dubai to become a floating hotel.

Indications from the dockside in Port Rashid are that the 70,300-gt Queen Elizabeth 2 (built 1969) has been quietly refurbished over the past year or so and is now poised to take on the role that owner Dubai World had planned when it was bought for $100m in 2008.