Long Beach’s historic World War II-era ship, the Queen Mary, finally reopened for public tours on Saturday, April 1, after a three-year closure — marking the first event in what officials say will be a grand reopening slated to kick off in the coming weeks.
Groups of about 30 people each gathered on the ship’s Promenade Deck starting at about 11 a.m. on Saturday to partake in their choice of three different tours: The Glory Days Historical Tour, the Haunted Encounters Tour and the Steam & Steel Tour — each which take about an hour and are available until 6 p.m. daily.
For some, including Gail Hurst — a tourist from England — Saturday’s reopening offered a chance to experience the ship for the first time. Hurst and her husband decided to visit the Queen Mary on a whim, as their trip with Princess Cruise Line boarded just across the parking lot from the vessel.
“My mom and dad had their 40th wedding anniversary on it — so we got to see where they were for the first time,” Hurst said in an interview after disembarking from her tour of the ship. “It was fabulous. We plan (to visit again) if we ever come to America.”
The ship’s operators, Evolution Hospitality, initially announced that the ship would re-open to the public earlier this week.
Long Beach city officials and Evolution, which took over the ship’s day-to-day management last June, have been working to revitalize the vessel after it fell into massive disrepair under its previous operator, Urban Commons.
The Queen Mary initially closed to the public because of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 — but a 2021 city audit found that Urban Commons had not completed $23 million dollars worth of repairs, which the city had funded. Urban Commons forfeited its 66-year lease on the ship that same year, bringing the Queen Mary back under city control for the first time in nearly 40 years.
After the City Council approved the new management contract with Evolution last year, both found…
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