The Cunard Queen Elizabeth is nearly as long as three football fields and can carry just under 2,100 passengers. The world’s latest cruise ship docked at Port Rashid on the 31st March and left again the next day after picking up another 900 passengers. The ship is currently on a 103-day world cruise.

Valerie Judd is from Australia. It is her first world cruise and she is very excited about this mode of transport. “We would never have seen all the places that we’ve visited particularly in the Middle East. The best thing is that you don’t have to pack and get weighed down with suitcases at every halt.”

To make the atmosphere on board more homely, the Queen Elizabeth has its own entertainment television channel that celebrates anniversaries and birthdays. Mrs. Judd says her husband is looking forward to enjoying his 79th birthday in Petra, Jordan during April.

There are also young people on board though, among them a couple from Holland cruising with their parents and their 17-month old son. Their biggest worry? How to adjust back to normal life after getting used to being entertained every day and being treated with such delicious cuisine.

Laurens Tappel, a 41-year-old trader who took a two-month holiday to enjoy the cruise with his wife and son, said that the journey so far had been simply spectacular and a totally different way of seeing the world.