It has been a profoundly emotional parting: a wave of affection that has carried the QE2 around the UK on a year-long goodbye.

Last month, her Scottish birthplace bade her farewell. Tomorrow it is the turn of her home port, Southampton. When she slips anchor at 7.15pm, thousands will wave her off on the final leg of a journey that began more than 40 years ago from John Brown's slipway in Clydebank.

It will end in Dubai, where she will be welcomed into a semi-retirement that her new owners promise will be both fitting and grand.

But not before she performs one last poignant ceremony. At 11am, there will be a two-minute silence on board to mark the 90th anniversary of Armistice Day. A Tiger Moth biplane will drop one million poppies above the QE2, and the Duke of Edinburgh will meet the crew who sailed on her to help regain the Falkland Islands.

The ship's national status as an adored icon is cited by those who argued that a vessel still regarded as the finest ever built should be found a final berth in the UK.

Instead, she was sold by Cunard for £50m to the Dubai government-owned Nakheel group, and she will become a luxury floating hotel.

So does this week's departure involve a demeaning end to four decades of historic ocean-going?

Nakheel's reluctance to reveal exact details of its plans because of the terms of the deal with Cunard has fuelled speculation about the QE2's use. Last month, there were reports that her funnel would be removed and used as an entranceway to her new berth. But now, in the company's first in-depth interview about its plans for the Clydebuilt liner, it is evident that the future will celebrate the QE2's past, not deface it.

QE2 Enterprises, the Nakheel division set up to handle the transition, dismisses the funnel row as mere "mischief-making".

Sitting in her Dubai office, spokeswoman Lesley Wade told The Herald emphatically: "Yes, there will be work around the funnel. But it is not our intention to grab this ship, do all sorts of things to her and throw her out again after two years.

"Everything we do with her will be done carefully and with respect. Every inch of woodgrain, the panelling, and everything else that is still part of the vessel that can be refurbished, will be.

"What we want to achieve with the ship is to preserve all her style and grandeur and enhance the artefacts that are on board. When she arrives in Dubai, it will be the end of her life as a sea-going ship, but the start of the next phase."

No-one in her organisation is in doubt about the legacy they have acquired. Ms Wade said: "This is not just any old ship, this is a ship that is world famous, and still regarded as the world's finest. It has a history and a heritage and we want to reflect that and take it seriously.

"If it had been the case of just wanting a ship, we could have bought any other one, or indeed had one built, for much less than we are investing in the QE2."

What will that investment mean in practical terms? By 2011, the refurbished QE2 hotel and leisure complex will open at the man-made Palm Jumeirah island, one of the three huge structures where the wealth of Dubai has been poured into the Persian Gulf to reclaim land and create prestige sites for the emirate's biggest attractions.

A specially constructed walkway will link the QE2 to the shore. Nearby will be a new marina, apartments, and a maritime museum displaying memorabilia from the ship and her routes, and detailing her 806 transatlantic crossings and 25 world cruises, carrying a total of 2.5 million passengers.

Ms Wade explained the ethos further: "There is a new marina being built at the Palm Jumeirah, and there are going to be lovely gardens. Everything there is going to be very, very British to complement what we do on board the vessel itself."

Apart from drawing tourists from across the globe, the QE2 will also become a conference and events venue to enhance Dubai's reputation as a fast expanding international business base.

Jerad Bachar, director of Dubai's Convention Bureau, said: "This has been quite a coup for Nakheel. The amount of PR and general discussion which has been generated in the UK and throughout the world about the QE2 coming here has been tremendous.

"She is going to be a very important addition to the facilities in Dubai, and very different from what is already here.

"The existing hotels, particularly the Burj Al Arab, are all about extreme luxury. Yes, the QE2 will be luxurious, but she will also be an attraction in herself. People will be attracted here from the UK, Europe, America, all over the world, to see her.

"Everything here is brand new. But the QE2 has a magnificent history."

That point is best illustrated by the fact that the last great icon of the age of seagoing splendour is older than most of Dubai. The vessel's final days will be spent in a location that was little more than a pearl-fishing community of people gathered around a creek when she began her life at John Brown's shipyard in 1967.

Before she arrives in the Gulf, there is one last cruise to be completed, for which tickets sold out in les than an hour. From Southampton tomorrow, the QE2 will sail the Mediterranean via ports including Lisbon, Gibraltar, Naples, Malta and Alexandria, then through the Suez Canal. Shortly after 5pm on November 26, she will arrive in Dubai to a spectacular reception.

The ex-pat community is being encouraged to welcome her in a ceremony which its organisers promise will be majestic in both style and scale. The following day, her passengers will disembark and the Cunard crew will leave for the last time.

"We want to give her a huge Dubai-style welcome and celebration," said Ms Wade. "This will, after all, be her last welcome. It has to be special."

However, she is convinced that the new incarnation will prove popular. "We have many people who love the QE2, you could call them her fans, who have written to us asking about what is going to happen to her. We explain and they always come back and tell us they feel reassured that the ship is in good hands."