Queen Mary

The Queen Mary can hardly be mentioned
without the Titanic coming to mind, and
though the Titanic got the movie rights,
the Queen Mary reigns supreme, leaving
the Titanic buried at sea. The Queen Mary
launched in 1934 and completed her
maiden voyage in 1936, making a total of
1001 Transatlantic crossings before
retiring. The Titanic sunk on her first
attempt. The Queen Mary stretches an
impressive 1019.5 feet, while the 882 foot
Titanic would have fit snugly within the
Queen Mary's hull. Keel to stack they are

neck in neck with the Queen Mary only six feet taller, and
7.5 knots faster than the Titanic. With all her successes,
it's funny how the tragedy of the Titanic still takes
precedence in our minds. Not to say tragedy hasn't fallen
upon the Queen Mary. Many have met their fate here,
giving her a haunting reputation. I hesitated to come here
for that very reason. Ultimately, the Christmas holidays
superceded any notion of the supernatural from my mind,
and I booked a room for the family for the weekend. I'll
tell you what, this place left me very unsettled. Once we
got checked in, the kids were excited about looking for
ghosts. We entertained them, exploring the hallways of
the ship and startling them every now and then with a
"boo!" or an "ahh!". On our very floor we neared the
elevator in a darkened section that was closed and due to
be remodeled, when an area in the hall caught our
attention, smelling of a pleasant perfume. My husband
was the first to point it out, and we all reveled in it. He

moved on while we marveled at how it
lingered in a specific area and would
disappear as we moved in and out of it.
My husband rushed back, flustered to get
our attention and sternly scolded us to
"shut up" and follow him. As we neared
the dark narrow hallway that led to a
couple of deserted rooms, right off the
elevator, he quietly tip-toed towards the
door while we waited and watched at the
other end. Suddenly the door knob
frantically moved back and forth. This
troubled me, considering he hadn't
reached the door yet. It was unreal!

In disbelief he knocked on the door asking, "Hello! Who's in there?", the door
knob still wiggling as if to intimidate us. Our frantic tones attracted a
maintenance man as well as another couple passing by. We all excitedly
competed to tell what we had just seen. The maintenance man hoping to
reassure up, eventually opening the door, which kept an unoccupied room
secure. He tried to explain it away saying it was probably just air pressure
pushing the door in and out, but we all concurred, it wasn't the door it was the
door knob! We further explored the ship by flashlight, passing the indoor pool,

traveling to the very bottom and finally reaching the
utmost front of the ship. Sometime after 2:00 a.m.
my oldest son, my husband and I were awakened by
a startling wiggle of our door knob. Seemed an odd
thing to happen in the still of the night. If you're a
thrill seeker, you may find adventure here. If you're
not, erase everything I said from your mind, because
it really is a lovely place to stay. I made my
December reservations in July and got quite the deal
on our room. Our weekend rate for their Deluxe
Stateroom was $250 a night for the holidays, but with
our advance reservation we only paid $129 per night.
Rates start as low as $99 for an Inside Cabin and go
to $350 to $650 for a Royalty Suite. They have three
restaurants as well as a snack bar and room service.

Located at 1126 Queens Highway in Long Beach.

Telephone (562) 435-3511

Website: www.queenmary.com