Queen Mary Hotel - Halloween Stay

[gumballz]

We (myself and my two daughters) stayed at the Queen Mary for our pre-cruise stay on October 30th. Although there is a lot of negative about the Queen Mary on the boards, we had a good time. It probably helped that we were trying to scare each other all night and we had the noise from Shipwreck outside our window until midnight. We requested a room facing Shipwreck because we wanted to hear the screams, chainsaws, ghostly noises, bands, etc. I believe we were the only people (or one of the very few) that were staying on that side of the ship that night. We never saw anyone in the hallway on our side. **They did warn us that it would be loud and they even handed us a paper warning us of that fact. Had we wanted a quiet night, they would have accommodated us.

 

The room on the Queen Mary was quite large. We had a room with two twin beds and they brought in a rollaway bed to make it three. Even with the three beds, there was a lot of room left over. There was an ipod docking station, tv, refrigerator and the room had working A/C. The bathroom was reminiscent of the original bathroom but with modern faucets in the shower and sink. The bathtub was very tall and had a rounded bottom and in order to flush the toilet you had to push a lever on the wall. The walls in the room were wood and there were two closets and several drawers. Our room had two portholes that opened. We kept them open all night and enjoyed the fresh air. There was a vanity area that was well lit with a mirror. The only thing we couldn’t figure out was the locked door that was towards the portholes. The room appeared to be large enough to be another room, or a large bathroom. We could see that it was bolted shut from the inside. Naturally we took advantage of this during our scaring tactics. ;)

 

We were able to wander around the Queen Mary freely until about 6:00 P.M.. They close the QM to visitors at that time. After 6 we were able to walk around the Promenade Deck, the Sun Deck and the deck that we were staying on (A Deck). Security saw us looking for ghosts on B Deck and, after scaring us, informed us about the rules. He was extremely nice about it and we all had a good laugh about him scaring us.

 

The staff on the Queen Mary was very nice and seemed happy to answer any questions we had. We had costumes on when we checked out and everyone came over to see us and talk about our upcoming cruise. We turned in our keys (yes, keys…..not cards) and they thanked us. A very easy check in and very easy check out.

 

Like people have mentioned here on the boards, the Queen Mary is no 5 Star Resort. It is, however, a very nice experience. You can see wear in the ship but everything seemed clean considering the age. It probably could have been cleaner, but it wasn’t bad enough to complain about.

 

A couple things to note: The Queen Mary horn blasts at 10:00, 12:00, 3:00 & 6:00. It’s one single blast and it’s loud. I was able to get it on video, here’s a link if you’re interested in hearing it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqX09114j10

 

Another thing: There are ice & vending machines in the hallways. They had soda and water for $2.25 each and they also had a vending machine with chips/cookies/candy/etc. Most everything in that machine was $1.00 each. I believe the donuts and the licorice were $1.25. I only glanced though, so don’t hold me to those prices. :) The refrigerator in the room kept our drinks very cold, so if you want to bring your own that’s a good option.

 

Overall we had a great experience at the Queen Mary Hotel. All three of us are glad that we chose to stay there. If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask.

 

I'll post a few photos from our stay below.

[gumballz]

Here are a few photos we took during our stay onboard the Queen Mary:

 

Hallway to our room:

 

Part of our room:

 

Portholes:

 

Bathroom:

[Cruisin' Chick]

I'm guessing you met up with Reggie, Selena, Debbie (Ziggy7), etc.

[gumballz]

I'm not sure who those people are, sorry. Are they ghosts on the Queen Mary? ;)

[Petert]

Hi Gumbalz,

 

We have visited the QM several times, and have enjoyed the atmosphere. Never have stayed there overnight, but your Halloween stay sounds like a great experience. We found it very interesting to compare the 1930s Liner with the modern cruise ships. Thanks for the interesting review.

 

petert

[JJ2sail]

Thanks for the review! Glad you had a good time. That cabin looks really big.

[gumballz]

It really was...I was surprised. There's an area in front of the port holes that you can't see in the picture that has two chairs, a table and some vanity mirrors with drawers. That's also where the other room was that was locked from the inside. The rollaway bed went in that area. :)

 

One thing I just loved about the ship was all the wood. It was so pretty! No neon, just class. (I'm not saying there's anything wrong with neon.....because that can be fun too!)

[kenish]

Another striking thing is how small the QM looks next to a Carnival ship.

[Jsme]

Hey I am Selena. We had a group of 37 going out on the Pride and a lot of us stayed one to two nights on the Queen.

 

I too, felt like the QM has been given a bad rap. We truly loved the old world charm of the ship.

 

We had an amazingly large room for a Deluxe room. I can post pictures when I am at home. I think out of our group we had the largest room.

 

We also had 2 ghost experiences. Yeah 2!!! It was way cool.

 

Did the emergency alarm wake you at 12:51? That is what time it woke us up but a lot of our group did not even hear the alarm. I chalk it up to jetlag. lol

 

Our TA gave us a pre-sailaway party in his room and we had security come by very nicely asking us to be a bit quieter. We had no issue with it but thought it a bit strange since the entire ship was rocking due to the Halloween parties going on.

[gumballz]

No alarm went off for us.....however......I probably shouldn't even mention this, but I will......

 

We were walking on B deck and it was quiet, aside from our soft talking. All three of us heard a child laughing (sounded female). We stopped, looked at each other and turned around to see if there was a child in the hallway. Nobody in the hallway....so we turned back around and started walking again and we heard a door open behind us. We turned around and didn't see anyone (nor any light from a room shining into the hallway) and we heard a child talking softly. Then it went quiet. We went back to our room and talked about it, admitting that all of us got a shiver down our spine when we heard the laughter. Maybe there was a child in a room near where we were....but I'm not sure.

 

One other incident happened.....but I'm chalking it up to us all just being scared by each other. *shrug*

 

Selena, we stayed there Oct. 30th and sailed out on the Paradise on the 31st. There was a group checking in when we checked out. I believe it was around 10:00-10:30? Were you possibly in that group? The three of us were in costume to check out.

 

kenish, we had seen the QM next to the Pride earlier in the year and noticed how small the QM seemed. We were surprised to see that she looked just as small next to the Paradise! It's crazy to think of all the passengers the QM carried on her during the war.