London - Britain's QE2 luxury liner, which is to be turned into a floating hotel in Dubai, was set to embark on its final voyage as a cruise ship Tuesday after it was successfully refloated after running into a sandbank off its home port of Southampton.

Tugs were employed to refloat the 70,000-ton vessel which was believed to have been blown off course by strong winds as it negotiated entry into the port in southern Britain in the early hours of Tuesday.

"She touched a sandbank called Brambles but with the tide rising she was able to get away," said a spokesman for Cunard, the shipping line.

"We are not aware at this stage of any damage to the vessel and everything is proceeding as planned," said the spokesman. "We don't know exactly what happened for the vessel to get stuck."

The 1,700 passengers on board, disembarking at Southampton, said they had hardly noticed the incident.

The 40-year-old liner is set to leave Southampton Tuesday evening to sail to Dubai where it is due to arrive on November 26.

It's final voyage to Dubai was sold out almost instantly, with the most luxurious berths going for more than 28,000 pounds (43,000 dollars).

The majestic vessel was scheduled to be seen off with a display of fireworks and by crowds expected to reach many thousands later Tuesday.

The QE2 will be handed over to the Nakheel company, part of Dubai World, which bought the vessel for 50 million pounds.

It will be refurbished as a luxury hotel before taking up a permanent docking on a berth in Palm Jumeirah, the largest man-made island in the world.

Before the QE2 was due to set sail on its last journey from Britain Tuesday, it was part of nationwide commemorations to remember the end of World War I 90 years ago.

Prince Philip, the husband of Queen Elizabeth II, was on board the ship to mark the occasion as 1 million paper poppy flowers - Britain's symbol for remembering the war dead - rained down from a Tiger Moth byplane flying overhead.

The liner, launched by Queen Elizabeth II in 1967, has sailed around the world 25 times, crossed the Atlantic more than 800 times and carried more than 2.5 million passengers.

It served as a troop carrier in the 1982 Falklands conflict.

Apart from royalty, the QE2 carried former South African president Nelson Mandela during a trip from Durban to Cape Town in 1998.

The ship also won fame in a special episode of the popular British TV series, Coronation Street, while in 1976, police foiled an attempt by the former Irish Republican Army
(IRA) terrorist group to blow it up in dry dock in Southampton.

As she disembarked from her last journey with the QE2 in Southampton Tuesday, British pensioner Shirley Newcombe said: "I'm a regular and I'm very sad to see her go. There's just something about her. She's just absolutely wonderful." (dpa)