The Queen Mary.

A cousin from my mother's side was in town and my mom got a wild hair up her behind to ditch work to go to the Long Beach Aquarium. Which means she wanted me to ditch work also to act as navigator. Long Beach--pretty far to travel to look at fish. A friend of mine who had been before said of the Aquarium, "There's a shitload to look at." Really, the only way to put a good spin on it...

So of course being totally unfamiliar with Long Beach, we took a turn too early and wound up on the bridge leading to the Queen Mary instead. Flip a b or go ghost hunting? Well, we are already HERE so what the hey. The Queen Mary costs a little more per person for admission, no AAA discount, no student discount...We had better see some spooky stuff inside.

First time at the Queen Mary. It is pretty eerie especially on a weekday when there aren't many people aboard. We did the self-guided tour first. There were long walks below decks. Didn't see any ghosts but there was enough stray clanks and drips and other weird sounds to keep things interesting. Whenever I saw a sign marking a spot where paranormal activity has been experienced, I lingered. Waiting to see something. No one ever showed.



While waiting for the guided part of the tour to begin, I decide I should make a stop at the restroom. Couldn't remember where the closest ladies room was so I went back into the hotel area. Again, this is a weekday so the place was empty. How do they stay in business anyhow? I walked down a long deco hallway. Some of the portholes were opened and there was wind gusting about. Well that's a little scary. I hoped there were others already in the ladies room. There weren't. While in the stall I wished very deeply that no mysterious feet appear behind the door. I would scream. I really would. Then what? Maybe faint? No feet ever appeared but a very quiet European woman emerged just as I was leaving the facilities. That gave me a jolt. I'm assuming she was European, or a tourist from somewhere, she was dressed oddly. When recalling it to a friend, he asked if it was possible she was from the past. Let's just say she was foreign!

The part of the tour that's supposed to be the scariest was not. The Ghosts and Legends Tour is good for a brief history lesson but is as scary as any haunted house. There are some special effects added in and an actor who plays the part of the creepy host. The scariest part is that there were hundreds of deaths in the parts of the ship he takes you through. If a ghost did want to show itself, you'd never notice it with a bunch of other tourists clomping around and sound and light effects drowning them out.

Glad I finally checked it out though. I've lived in SoCal for nearly my entire life and have always wanted to. Some photos are on my Flickr.