The Queen Mary partially reopened to the public — for the first time since its March 2020 closure — for one-hour guided tours through select areas of the legendary ship on Thursday, Dec. 15.
The limited tours will run throughout December and January, though the available slots filled up almost immediately after Long Beach opened the online reservation queue on Monday. Long Beach doesn’t plan to add any new tour slots for the remainder of the year, said city spokesperson Kevin Lee, but the Queen Mary will have a broader reopening in early 2023.
“We’re so excited to be here today to welcome our first group of guests that will be finally back on the Queen Mary after our closures during the pandemic,” outgoing Mayor and Rep.-elect Robert Garcia said during a Thursday morning press conference in front of the ship. “There is nothing more important than the historical preservation of the ship — and I think finally the city has been able now to uplift that as its key goal in reopening the Queen Mary.”
Thursday’s tours, hosted by a historical docent, featured a walk through selected areas of the Queen Mary Promenade Deck, including the Promenade Shops, Observation Bar, Queen Salon, and Royal Salon. The Queen Mary Hotel, on-board bars and restaurants, along with retail shops will stay closed until next year.
“We’re doing it in phases. We’re beginning with the public tours, so the public can be back on the ship,” Garcia said. “Then we’re reopening some of the restaurants and coffee shops and the gift shops, along with the hotel, all happening in early 2023 — so we are excited in every way to get those back on board.”
The Queen Mary initially closed to the public in early 2020 as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
The ship, though, remained completely off limits to the general public for nearly three years as Long Beach undertook an effort to remedy critical issues with its stability and safety — which occurred as a result of decades of deferred maintenance by its previous operators.
The most recent operator, Urban Commons, declared bankruptcy and gave up its 66-year lease in 2021, bringing the Queen Mary back under city control for the first time in 40 years. A few years prior, the city gave Urban Commons $23 million to fund major ship repairs — but a city audit last year found that those repairs were never completed.
With the ship back under city control, Long Beach embarked on the process of finally completing the most urgent repairs needed. In April, the city removed 20 deteriorated lifeboats from the ship; before their removal, the ships added about 100 tons of extra weight to the ship and seriously weakened its overall structural stability.
“That is the weight of a 757 Boeing aircraft — think about how much of an impact that type of weight would have after years, decades, on the ship,” Public Works Department Director Eric Lopez said Thursday. “That alleviated significant stress from both sides of the ship and allowed our crews to move in and continue our work, so we’ve addressed that issue and we’re going to be able to ensure that the ship structure and integrity remain strong for decades to come.”
Shortly after that major repair milestone was completed, the City Council approved a new short-term contract with Evolution Hospitality, LLC, to take over the Queen Mary’s operations. Under that agreement, Evolution is responsible for the ship’s overall maintenance and Queen Mary-related events for the next five years.
Long Beach will continue overseeing major capital improvements necessary for the ship’s overall restoration and preservation.
Long Beach and Evolution initially estimated that the $2,870,500 worth of repairs would be completed by October — allowing for the ship’s reopening around the same time. That timeline was eventually pushed back, and the city allocated an additional $1 million from its Tidelands Area Fund to pay for more repairs.
That extra $1 million cost, though, will be covered by revenue generated through city-issued permits that allow filming and special events on the ship even while closed.
With that contract in place, Long Beach completed additional critical repairs over the summer, including:
- Reinforcing and extending the ship’s bulkheads, which prevent water from entering the vessel and largely improve the Queen Mary’s overall structural stability.
- Initial work on installing an automated bilge pump system, which is a critical safety mechanism necessary to discharge water from the ship in the event it gets inside.
“This additional layer of protection has strengthened the Queen Mary’s ability to withstand many years and decades more of public enjoyment,” Lopez said. “The lifeboat removals and the bulkhead modifications have allowed our team to upgrade the ship’s mechanical plumbing and electrical systems.
“And over the next few months,” he added, “you will continue to see improvements as we address a lot of the repair needs that are here.”
The city still needs to install an emergency generator, two boilers to allow for hot water onboard and other safety equipment. A series of aesthetic upgrades, including interior and exterior painting, flooring and railing, will also be completed over the course of the next few months.
“We know that our work is not over,” Garcia said. “We’ve invested millions in critical repairs, and (when) you get on board the ship, you’ll see an enormous amount of instruction that is beginning to happen all across the Queen Mary.”
Long Beach also announced a first-of-its-kind Queen Mary annual membership — in collaboration with Long Beach Heritage, Evolution and the Queen Mary Heritage Foundation — during Thursday’s press conference. Revenue from the annual membership will go toward the ship’s continued preservation, Garcia said, with some nautical perks for the purchasers.
“The Queen Mary annual membership includes ways to not only visit the ship, but to be involved with the ship and preserve its history,” Garcia said. “I actually am very proud to have been the first person to have bought a Queen Mary membership just this morning.”
There is currently only one tier of the membership program available — the “Tourist Class Membership,” which costs $150 annually. Additional tiers will be implemented in the spring.
The benefits for that membership, which will be activated in the spring, once the ship undergoes a full reopening, will include general ship admission with limited black out dates, two general admission day passes per year, hotel guest pricing for exhibits and attractions, presale tickets for Queen Mary events, and discounted pricing for the ship’s signature events, according to the LB Heritage website.
Source: Orange County Register
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