QUEEN MARY TERROR FEST
QUEEN MARY SHIPWRECK
1126 Queens Highway
Long Beach, CA 90802
562-435-3511
Website: www.queenmaryshipwreck.com
Is the Queen Mary Shipwreck your favorite Halloween Haunt? Vote for it in our online poll. Also, check out our review of the 2007 Terror Fest.
2007 DATES: October 5-7 (preview nights), 12-13, 19-21, 26-28, 30-31
HOURS: 7:00pm until midnight (later on some nights)
TICKETS: $35 for regular nights, $20 for preview nights (October 5-7). You can purchase tickets at Tickemaster or at the door.
BARGAINS: Keep your eyes open. There is a "Discounts" page on the Shipwreck website, but it often remains blank most of the season and does not list every available offer. 2007 discounts include $5-off coupons at participating Der Wienerschnitzels and $5-off with a can of Pepsi (Be careful: the ticket sellers are sometimes reluctant to accept the cans, insisting that the discount applies only to regular Queen Mary admission, not the Terror Fest.) Late in the month, the discounts page announced that you could get $10 by presenting a receipt for a $2-minimum donation to your favorite charity.
PARKING: 2007 rate is $15 cash when you enter the lot. (We miss the old days, when you paid while exiting -- which allowed you the opportunity to get off scott free if you could get one of the restaurants or bars on board ship to validate you.)
R.I.P HOTEL PACKAGES: The Queen Mary is not only a tourist attraction; it is also a hotel. You can take advantage of these special packages so that you and your significant other can spend the night on board, attend the terror fest, get a souvenier t-shirt, and have bruch or dinner or see some of the regular shows.
FEATURES: The Queen Mary itself is a big feature, with its long spooky corridors, many of them allegedly haunted. When you get tired of being scared, you can walk over to the hotel section of the ship for dinner and/or a drink at the on-board pubs and restaurants. (Be careful: many of them close early.)
DRAWBACKS: You have to drive to Long Beach. The Dance Party music has nothing to do with Halloween. Although the settings aboard ship are excellent, on off-nights the staging of the scares does not always take full advantage of this. There are no shows or rides (like you get at Knott's Scary Farm, Universal's Halloween Horror Nights, and Six Flag's Magic Mountain Fright Fest). There are no scare zones, per se, although there are some free roaming-ghouls who will attack you in the park on the way to the ship.
HISTORY: Back when the Spruce Goose was still nestled in the dome next to the ship, the Queen Mary tried a Halloween Party night. Approaching the old-fashioned, faux fishing village through the artificial fog was an eerie experience, but the party itself was mostly just disco dance nonsense, along with a mild-mannered guided tour below decks. Having learned from that long-ago mistake, in 1995 Shipwreck productions tried its hand at turning the venerable sailing vessel-cum-hotel-and-tourist-attraction into a Knott's Scary Farm-type Halloween event. Since the bowels of the ship are spooky in their own right, and since there are one or two allegedly authentic ghost stories associated with the vessel, the setting was perfect, and it's been going strong every since.
A skeleton stops to purchase a souvenir.
MAZES: The Queen Mary Terror Fest has more mazes than any other Southern California haunted attraction, except for Knott's Scary Farm. Shipwreck Productions claims their mazes are the longest, and it's easy to believe them, considering the space they have to work with. NOTE: some mazes are on the ship; some are on the land around the ship. The land-bound ones are constructed mostly of painted flats; therefore, they are not as impressive as those at Halloween Horror Nights or the Knott's Scary Farm. The ones onboard the Queen Mary provide a truly unique experience, thanks to their dark, lengthy corridors - the perfect place for spooks to roam.
Other Attractions
- THE FRIGHT MISTRESS: each year, a campy, sexy hostess for the festivities is selected; she hides in her lair or lurks on the grounds.
- THE BOILDER ROOM: this 45,000-square foot room offers an all-night dance party.
- THE COFFIN CLUB: for 2007, the Terror Fest expands the dance party into the largest original room on the queen Mary.
- LIVE BANDS: playing in either the Boiler Room or in Purgatory Park.
OTHER INFORMATION: During the month of September, Shipwreck Productions, the people behind the Queen Mary Terror Fest, used to present Scare at the Fair - a single walk-through maze at the L.A. County Fairgrounds. In October 2004 and 2005, this expanded into a full-blown haunt called Scareplex. Although they no longer haunt the L.A. County Fairgournds (having been replaced by other attractions), you can read about both Scare at the Fair and Scareplex and view a video of "Scare at the Fair" in our listing on our Halloween Haunts 2 page, which covers professional Halloween attractions.
Ship lights dimly visible in the background, a ghoul haunts the path to the Queen Mary.
NOTE: Shipwreck Productions promises to enforce a strict dress code for the 2007 Terror Fest. Headbands, bandanas, spiked wristbands, belts, and many other items are prohibited, including "Old English style writing on hats, shirts, or pants." (???)
REVIEW: The 2004 Shipwreck launched with a preview night on October 8; We were there to give you a rundown on all the ghoulish details. Also check out our review of the 2007 Terror Fest.
