Being in Los Angeles for work, I could not miss the opportunity to head down to Long Beach and visit the famous “Queen Mary” which is berthed there and operates as a part hotel and part museum.

I did visit years ago, but with my new found passion and interest in cruise liners and Cunard. I really wanted to visit the ship again.  

And I am glad I did. It was even more interesting having read more and seen videos about the Queen Mary history.

The ship is large. Although it felt not as large as I remembered the ship – until I was on and inside it! The thing that struck me reading the history of the ship since it arrived at Long Beach was the very patchy history of ownership and success of the ship as a museum and hotel. It sounded like it has not really been that successful and came close to being scrapped…although as it has been declared a heritage site or something now it is protected.

But you do get the feeling it is a kind of maintained neglect. With new initiatives like the “ghosts” tour being used to drive new interest.

The day I visited (Monday) it was very quiet and great as I had the ship more or less to myself… but was also quite spooky wandering around a large part of the ship and corridors with no-one around. I can see why so many “ghost stories” have emerged!!

You get to go around the top part of the ship and see the bridge, the Captain and his immediate senior officers’ cabins with all the furniture and clothing. But even more interesting was to see where and how the ship was adapted for service in WW2. One of the best sections is the “Treasures of Queen Mary” section which recreates all the cabins.