Traveling Back to the Titanic, Aboard the Queen Mary
- Alan Campbell
- 7 minutes ago
- 8 min read
“I’ll never let go Jack. You jump, I jump.”
“I’m king of the world!”
“But this ship can’t sink!”
Sadly, the Titanic did sink, and is slowly but surely being claimed by the sea, never to be boarded again.
But wait, what if there was a ship that could transport you very nearly to that time? A ship on which you can still walk its decks, dine in its restaurants, view its grand halls and even spend a night or two in rooms reminiscent of the way they were when Rose and Jack fell in love.
It’s possible. In Long Beach, California.
It’s the Queen Mary.
The Queen is permanently docked just across the bay from the city of Long Beach and is open for guests.
Quick Comparison
Looking at side-by-side photos of the two ships, it's easy to imagine the Titanic as the Queen Mary’s little sister.
We all know the story. The Titanic struck that fateful iceberg on her maiden voyage in 1912. The Queen’s maiden voyage came 24 years later in 1936.
The Queen is 1,000 feet in length with 12 decks, compared to the Titanic’s 880 feet and nine decks.
With those extra decks comes extra weight. The Queen weighs in at 80,000 tons and is propelled by four propellers to the Titanic’s 46,000 tons and three propellers.
Despite being a little smaller, the Titanic held 2,453 passengers and 874 crew, 3,327 total, just slightly more than the Queen’s 2,140 passengers and 1,100 crew, 3,240 total.
However, the Queen holds the record for transporting the most passengers on a single voyage.
We’ll talk more about that in just a bit.
Her Majesty, Queen Mary
The Queen Mary was truly the Queen of the Seas. In addition to her beauty, she twice set the speed record for the trans-Atlantic crossing, holding it for 15 years overall.
Her top speed was measured at 32.84 knots or 37.8 mph. Her traditional voyages between England and the States lasted four days.
Walking its decks is walking in the footsteps of countless celebrities including Audrey Hepburn, Clark Gable, Elizabeth Taylor, Spencer Tracy, Gary Cooper, Judy Garland, Errol Flynn, Loretta Young, Frank Sinatra, Walt Disney, Bob Hope and Fred Astaire.
IMDB lists 49 movies filmed on the Queen Mary including:
The Aviator (2004)
Pearl Harbor (2001)
The Parent Trap (1998)
The Natural (1984)
The Godfather: Part II (1974)
The Poseidon Adventure (1972)
Some of the television shows filmed on board include Quantum Leap, Murder She Wrote, Columbo, Castle, Arrested Development, The X-Files, MacGyver, Beverly Hills, 90210 and Baywatch.
Today, guests are transported back through time from the minute they come aboard, and continue to be transported throughout their time on the ship.
That starts the moment they arrive, checking in at the ship’s historic Purser’s Office with its dark wood paneling and six hsitoric clocks displaying times around the world, from Long Beach to Tokyo.
The entire ship has been restored to its original elegance. Visitors do have the freedom to roam about and explore much of the ship, but there are a couple of larger rooms, like the Royal and Queen’s Salons you might not be able to see without taking a tour.
Definitely take at least the general tour. It’s worth it to have the opportunity to see more of the ship as well as learn about its history.
In the guest rooms, it is just so very easy to visualize what it was like for those first passengers sailing off on that maiden voyage, 90 years ago this coming May.
With the exception of a few modern conveniences such as a television, phone and coffee machine, the rooms look just like they did back in the day. That includes the bathroom where the shower’s water handles still read “Hot Fresh” and “Cold Salt”. (Don’t worry, another new addition is an additional, contemporary, handle and regular cold water.)
Upon checking in, the staff will let you know the walls are very thin, so depending on your neighbors you might have some noise. Also, the rooms have no temperature controls. After all, there was no individualized heating and cooling 90 years ago, and those port hole windows aren’t going to open.
Ear plugs are available, really, as well as blankets, for the asking. And for what it’s worth, I didn’t have a problem with either of those things during my two nights aboard.
Let’s Get a Drink!
I can’t begin to share with you everything there is to see and experience aboard the Queen Mary. I mean, come on, it’s a massive ship! I’ll post some extra photos below to help assist in painting the picture.
However, before moving on, let’s talk about a couple of the watering holes it has to offer. Though no one would hardly refer to them as simple watering holes.
The Observation Bar is an absolutely beautiful art deco lounge. But what would you expect from what was originally the ship’s first-class lounge?
The bar continues to look just like it did in 1936 and is open to both guests and the general public. Located at the front (bow) of the ship, it provides views directly out onto the deck with glass doors allowing people to move between both the bar and fresh air.
Evening entertainment is regularly scheduled. I was especially lucky to have been there on Veteran’s Day when they were having special all-day activities for veterans, with a 1940s band performing that night in the bar.
You might need to do a little sleuthing to find the other drinking establishment on board, No. 3. No. 3 is a prohibition-era speakeasy and yes, you do need to know the password for entry. (You might ask at the Pursers Office, nudge, nudge, wink, wink.)
The bar has the feel of a clandestine basement or maybe the ship’s boiler room (it’s neither.) It’s actually the ship’s former crew quarters.
The space has two bars with drinks that don’t have alcohol kinds of names. This is a speakeasy after all, and you don’t want to tip off the coppers.
A small and cozy place, it also offers entertainment on a regular basis.
World War II
In March 1940, the Queen Mary changed course, literally. Departing from New York, rather than heading back east to England, she set sail to the south, past Cape Town, South Africa, then west to Australia.
World War II had begun and the Queen would play a critically important role throughout. The ship was lent to the United States during by its English owner, Cunard, though it was still operated by the company’s crew.
Arriving in Sydney, she was retrofitted to become a troopship, painted naval grey to help hide her from the enemy and was later dubbed the Grey Ghost. Inside, beds, dressers and other furnishings previously meant for tourists were removed and replaced with triple-tiered bunks.
Two months later, May 4, 1940, the Queen made her first delivery of troops, sailing to Gourock, Scotland, with 5,500 Australian and New Zealand soldiers.
The Queen Mary along with its sister ship, Queen Elizabeth, were the largest and fastest troopships on the seas. She seldom traveled in a straight line, sailing in a zigzag pattern, making it almost impossible for German U-boats to catch them. German leader Adolf Hitler even offered a 1 million Reichsmarks reward to the U-boat that sank her.
Remember that mention above of the Queen Mary holding the record for most passengers? It came on a July 25 - 30, 1943, voyage when she carried 15,740 United States troops and 943 crew, 16,683 total passengers.
The idea was the brainchild of US Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall and became reality after meeting with English Prime Minister Winston Churchill. It was significant because a single army division numbers 15,000.
Churchill himself made three trips aboard the Queen. Perhaps her most significant place in history is that he signed the D-Day Declaration while on board.
If you visit the Queen Mary, make sure to visit the boiler room area where there is a museum detailing her history, along with a special section devoted to World War II. If you’d like to read more online, the Warfare History Network has a great page on its website.
Boo!
You know, with a ship this old and with this much history, there has to be some haunting shenanigans happening. There is a “Death List” of 58 people who died while on board, but the actual number is believed to potentially be in the hundreds.
The Queen Mary embraces its ghost stories with displays featuring some of the tales, providing ghost tours and there’s even a shop that will sell you the souvenirs. Just a few:
The Propellor Box - A photo of visitors peering down at the ship’s propeller includes a figure who was not really there when the photo was taken.
The Girl in the Pool - Jackie, a little girl of around seven, continues to “float” around the pool area. There’s no record of a girl drowning on the ship. It’s believed she may have been a passenger who died after being on the ship and now has returned to her favorite place.
The Busy Bear - In Jackie’s Spirit Shop, named after the little girl above, there’s a bear returned by a guest who claimed it would not stay put. Each morning it was found in a different location in their room.
Room B340 - Passenger Walter J. Adamson died in B340 back in 1948. Ever since, there have been reports of shadowy figures, doors opening and closing, lights flickering and guests waking to find covers pulled off them.
For more, check out this episode of Ghost Hunters:
Queen Mary’s Long Beach Past and Future
The Queen Mary made her last voyage in 1967, arriving in Long Beach on December 9. She was moved to her current location in 1971 and originally served as a museum, officially opened as a hotel on March 1, 1974.
Owned by the city of Long Beach, the Queen has gone through many ups and, sadly, some very harsh downs, through the years. The city leased the operation to private entities, even Disney held the lease for a while back in the late 80s and early 90s.
Then a variety of challenges came, with the final nail being Covid. The Queen was officially closed in May, 2020 after the lease holder at that time filed for bankruptcy. The city regained full ownership a year later, in June, 2021.
The city has invested heavily since then, both in cosmetic repairs as well as in significant rehabilitation work and her future looks much brighter. She reopened to tours in April, 2023, and began hosting guests in the hotel rooms in May of that year. In FY24, the ship reported a profit of nearly $2 million
Plans are now expanding to the area outside the ship. Work is already under way by construction crews on a nearby 10,000- to 12,000-seat amphitheater scheduled for completion for this summer’s music season. The hope is it will open up the area to even more entertainment and tourist attractions in the years to come.
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