Queen Mary Today

The Conversion

The last voyage of the Queen Mary was her longest in peacetime, where she steamed to Long Beach, California. Here, she is permanently moored as a tourist attraction, hotel, museum, and event facility.

Once arriving in Long Beach work begun to clear almost every area of the ship below C deck (called R deck after 1950; to lessen passenger confusion as all the restaurants were on R deck) to make way for the museum. This would allow museum space of 400,000 square feet. It required the removal of all the boiler rooms, the forward engine room, both turbo generator rooms, the ship's stabilisers and the water softening plant. The ship's empty fuel tanks were then filled with mud which kept the ship's centre of gravity and draft at the correct levels, these critical factors having been affected by the removal of the engines & boilers. Only the aft engine room and shaft alley (at the stern of the ship) would be spared. Excess space created by this conversion is used for storage or office space.

Queen Mary was also repainted with her red water level paint at a slightly higher level than during her ocean liner career. During the conversion, the funnels were removed (as it was the only practical way to lift out the scrap materials from the engine and boiler rooms). It was subsequently found that the funnels were very delicate, being held together only by over thirty coats of paint. For safety reasons, they had to be replaced with replicas made out of Aluminium.

With all of the lower decks now cleared, Diners Club (the initial operator of the ship) converted the remainder of the vessel into a hotel. During this conversion, most of her first and second class cabins on A and B decks were turned into hotel rooms, as well as converting the main lounges and dining rooms into banquet spaces. The starboard promenade deck was enclosed to feature an upscale restaurant and cafe called "Lord Nelson's" and was intended to carry a theme evoking 19th century sailing ships. The famed Observation Bar was redecorated as a western themed bar.

The smaller first class public rooms such as the Drawing Room, Library, Lecture Room and the Music studio were stripped of most of their fittings and converted over to retail space, heavily expanding the retail presence on the ship. Two more shopping malls were built on the Sun Deck in separate spaces previously used for first class cabins and engineer's quarters.

The first class cinema (a post-war addition to Queen Mary) was removed and used for extra kitchen space to service the new dining venues. The First Class Lounge and First Class Smoking Room were reconfigured, while the Second Class Smoking Room was subdivided into a wedding chapel and office space. On Sun Deck, the elegant Verandah Grill was converted into a fast food eatery, while a new upscale dining venue was created directly above it on Sports Deck (in space once used for crew quarters). The second class Lounge was expanded to the sides of the ship and used for banqueting. On R deck, the First Class Dining Room was reconfigured and subdivided into two banquet venues and renamed The Royal Salon and The Windsor Room. The Second Class Dining Room was subdivided into kitchen space, storage and a staff mess hall, while the Tourist Class Dining Room was initially used for storage space. The First Class Turkish Bath complex, (the 1930s equivalent to a spa) was removed, as was the second class pool and initially these areas were used for further office space. The First Class Swimming Pool was used for hotel guests, however modern safety codes and the structural soundness of the area directly below has since resulted in the swimming pool being closed (although you can view it). Sadly, due to the conversion, no crew cabins remain intact aboard the ship today.

Troubled Hotel

On 8 May 1971, Queen Mary opened to tourists. Initially, only portions of the ship were open to the public while work continued on the dining venues and the hotel. In December 1971, Jacques Cousteau's Museum of the Sea opened aboard, with only a quarter of the planned exhibits built. Within the decade, Cousteau's museum closed due to low ticket sales and the deaths of many of the fish that were housed in the museum. In November 1972, the hotel opened its initial 150 guest rooms. Hyatt operated the hotel from 1974 to 1980, when the Jack Wrather Corporation signed a 66-year lease with the city of Long Beach to operate the entire property. Wrather was taken over by the Walt Disney Company in 1988 (Wrather owned the Disneyland Hotel, which Disney had been trying to buy for 30 years). Queen Mary was never marketed as a Disney property.

Through the late eighties and early nineties, Hotel Queen Mary continued to struggle financially. During the Disney years, Disney planned to develop a theme park on the remaining land near the ship however rather opted to build a Theme Park in Japan called DisneySea, with a recreated ocean liner resembling Queen Mary as its centrepiece.

Hotel Queen Mary closed in 1992 when Disney gave up the lease on the ship to focus on what would become Disney's California Adventure. The tourist attraction remained open for another two months, but by the end of 1992, Queen Mary completely closed to tourists and visitors.

In February 1993, the RMS Foundation Inc, began a five-year lease of Queen Mary to act as the operators of the property. Later that month, the tourist attraction re-opened completely, while Hotel Queen Mary re-opened in March. In 1995, RMS Foundation Inc's lease was extended to twenty years.

During 1995, Queen's Seaport Development Inc. (QSDI) acquired a controlling interest in the real estate adjacent to the vessel.

A decade later, QSDI sought Chapter 11 protection (due to a rent credit dispute with the City). In 2006, the Bankruptcy Court requested bids from parties interested in taking over the lease of Queen Mary from QSDI. The minimum required opening bid was US$41,000,000.

On 23 February 2006, RMS Queen Mary 2 saluted her predecessor as she made her port of call in Los Angeles Harbor, while on a cruise to Mexico. The event was covered heavily by local and international media.

New Lease of Life

In Summer 2007, Queen Mary's lease was sold to a group named "Save the Queen" managed by Hostmark Hospitality Group, who planned to develop the land adjacent to Queen Mary, and upgrade, renovate, and restore the ship.

During the time of their management, staterooms were updated with Ipod docking stations and flat-screen TV's. Outside, the ships three funnels were repainted their original Cunard-Red colour. The portside Promenade Deck's planking was re-stored and re-finished, many lifeboats were repaired and patched and the ship's kitchens were renovated with new equipment.

In late September 2009, management of Queen Mary was taken over by Delaware North Companies, who plan to continue the restoration and renovation of the ship and its property, and work to revitalize and enhance the ship.

To view current projects being undertaken on Queen Mary click here.