This past Thursday was the opening night for The Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor 2017. For opening night, I was invited to attend a special media preview before the event opened to the general public.  It was my first time to Dark Harbor, so the experience was totally new to me. I have however visited The Queen Mary for a paranormal tour, which added a bit of a legitimate spooky factor to the mazes on board the ship beyond the staged scares that were part of Dark Harbor itself.
After walking the black carpet, we were lead into a staging area where we waited for the event to start. While waiting, we explored some of the spooky decor that lined the back wall. One of the props was this terrifying specimen, whose eyes were so realistic the prop actually startled me on second glance because I suddenly thought she was real.
While waiting we were also treated to a live performance by the group Voodoo Stomp, who will be performing nightly at various times on the Main Stage during The Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor.
After a bit of entertainment, the real fun began as the master of ceremonies, The Captain of the Grey Ghost, appeared above the event entrance to kick off the evening and welcome guests to The Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor 2017. While hyping the crowd, The Captain was also joined by The Ringmaster and the newest monster to join the crew of The Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor, the Chef. While The Ringmaster encouraged guests to join her at Dark Harbor’s Circus, The Chef was a man of very few words.
Before opening the gates The Captain wanted to make sure we were ready and he tested out our enthusiasm by making us scream out, he then challenged his monsters to scream back and it was then that it was very obvious we were outnumbered. The monsters roared from behind the gate and then moments later when the gates opened an array of monsters flooded into the crowd looking to make their presence very known. Below is just a handful of the monsters we encountered while making our way in to the event.
The Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor features 7 uniquely themed mazes, four of which are housed aboard The Queen Mary. Since the sun was still setting when the event opened to the media we opted for the mazes aboard the ship first figuring it was still too light for some of the outdoor mazes. Our first stop aboard the ship was B340.
In B340 you journey through the terrifying mind of Samuel the Savage, a third-class passenger who was locked away in stateroom B340 after violently killing several other passengers during an Atlantic voyage in 1938. Legend has it that when the crew finally opened the door to B340, they found Samuel had been violently ripped apart, though it’s uncertain whether he was murdered or was somehow responsible for his own demise. It is believed his tortured soul is now trapped in the room and he’s looking for a way out.
It was the first maze of the night, and we quickly learned a few things about Dark Harbord mazes:
- The on-ship mazes can be very dark at times
- At times you will start to feel a bit lost and uncertain where it is you are supposed to go, usually a monster will put you on the right course, but not always
- Since these mazes are built upon internal ship walkways, they will be long and they will be narrow
- Dark Harbor mazes are much longer than some of the other SoCal haunted attractions you may be used to
In B340 you really are diving into the mind of a madman. Insane characters warn that Samuel is going to get you, in some parts of the maze the walls came alive, in another part you find yourself in a gnarled forest where the monsters are nearly impossible to see as they move back and forth around the room waiting to scare you around every turn. The maze also features a really neat view of the bowels of the ship as you make your way across a catwalk high above, but be warned, this catwalk may not be as stable as it seems. One item of note about this maze was the temperature. At the time we went the inside of this maze was still pretty hot and since it’s inside the ship there is very little airflow. This might not be as much of an issue since public events don’t start until 7 PM, but it might be something to be mindful of if you attend on a warmer evening and you are sensitive to the heat.
NOTE: When we went through this maze, it was a little after 6 PM and the sun was still out and we noticed that it was still pretty warm inside the ship. The maze takes you deep within the ship where there is very little airflow. This may not be as much of an issue during regular hours since public events don’t start until 7 PM, but it might be something to be mindful of if you attend on a warmer evening and you are sensitive to the heat.
After B340 we hit Lullaby, which is right next door to B340. Lullaby is another on-ship maze and it takes you deep inside The Queen Mary into the playground of Scary Mary, Dark Harbor’s youngest spirit. Legend has it that since 1952, Mary has haunted the ship following her horrible drowning in the poolroom. Now Mary wanders the halls in search of playmates in the form of living souls who can join her in death.
Versions of Scary Mary, or perhaps souls of other children she has captured, wander throughout the maze and warn you of Mary’s wrath. The playful child theme is felt throughout the maze as toys and doll-like monsters line the halls. In one area of the maze, you’ll even encounter walls made entirely of gutted stuffed animals.
After making our way through Lullaby we hit the all-new for 2017, Feast. Feast tells the tale of Chef, a legendary spirit of the historic R.M.S. Queen Mary. As the tale goes, During WWII when the Queen Mary was in service as a troop transport ship, an enlisted military man serving in the ship’s kitchen quickly moved up the ranks to become a highly-decorated Chef.
Unbeknownst to the soldiers traveling aboard, Chef had a dark side. Quietly he would sedate soldiers in the middle of the night to prepare them as ingredients for his latest dishes. Eventually caught, the Chef was thrown into one of his own ovens and cooked alive.
Loyal to their leader Chef’s dutiful kitchen staff sacrificed their lives to become his evil henchmen, burning themselves in the same oven. The spirits of Chef and his evil crew went into hiding aboard the ship for many years. Now, these long-time stowaways have resurfaced to resume their deadly duties of collecting and preparing victims for Chef’s latest concoctions.
The theming of this maze was really well done and nearly every room you encountered fit the story perfectly. As you make your way through the maze you encounter room service as they make their way through the halls, wait staff, line cooks and other deranged followers of The Chef. You’ll also find yourself in kitchens filled with brains, freezers stocked with the deceased and a few near deceased, and this is also the first maze we found that had an actual bar! There is bar located in another maze at The Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor, but it’s hidden and you can only find it with the help of a character within the maze.
NOTE: This maze is a bit more physically demanding than the others in that in two instances you will need to crawl on your hands and knees to get through the maze.
After facing The Chef we decided to take on some of the mazes outside of the ship and after being taunted by some of the demented sailors from Deadrise we figured we’d pay them a visit.
In Deadrise you board the wreckage of a long lost warship previously buried beneath the waves. As you make your way through the ship you’ll face the playful spirits of the deceased sailors who went down with the ship. Some will bark orders at you, some will disorient you as you try to navigate the ship’s wreckage, and some will just do their best to give you a good scare. Deadrise also uses some intense pyrotechnics, and fire cannons blast above the maze, constantly illuminating the maze and everything around it. There is also a water element to Deadrise, so be warned, you will get wet.
After Deadrise we made our way to the final on-board maze, Soulmate. In Soulmate, you face Graceful Gale, the first class Mistress of Queen Mary in search of a soulmate. Legend had it Gale was last seen in 1939 when she mysteriously vanished during a passage across the Atlantic on The Queen Mary. In life, Gale was beautiful and known for her charm and her graceful way around the dance floor. Men lined up to dance with her and women envied her beauty and elegance. In death, she tears apart the living and reassembles her victims to create the perfect dance partner.
While all of the Dark Harbor mazes are built around stories from the early 1900’s, this is the only maze that really feels like it takes you back to the 30’s or 40’s. The various instances of Graceful Gale are in period dress and her flirtiness with male maze-goers feels like something you’d see in an old black and white noir film. In addition to Gale, you’ll also encounter a number of masked “monsters” who appear to be some of Gale’s victims from a masquerade ball upon The Queen Mary.
After escaping the clutches of Graceful Gale we made our way over to Circus a nightmarish maze that has all the twisted elements of a fun house along with a collection of circus freaks and clowns. Though not on the ship there are instances in this maze where you will likely get lost. In the first rooms of the maze there are multiple routes, including one through a ball pit, so you can easily get turned around and the monsters in the maze do their part to keep that confusion going. Another particularly confusing section is the mirror maze, here we wound up bumping into multiple groups and being lost for quite a bit of time before finally finding our way out. Overall this was a fun maze and I really liked the creativity with some of the characters you encounter.
Our final maze of the night was Intrepid. In Intrepid you experience the legend of the Iron Master as you board the express to iron hell. Traverse the Scotish shipyard through Mary King’s Cross and into the highlands and encounter an array of interesting characters along the way. There were some fun parts to this maze, especially in the room where you feel like you’re walking through a moving rail car and the lights flash past the windows as though you’re actually on a train. There’s also a point in the maze where you enter a castle, and if you’re old enough to remember and appreciate He-Man, you’ll likely question if Castle Grayskull was a point of inspiration.The one thing I didn’t like about this maze was that there is a single room at one point in the maze that is filled with fog and surrounded by bright green lights. This room is near impossible to navigate and the monsters hide deep in the fog. So deep that I almost stepped on one had they not raised their hand above the fog beforehand. Because of the lighting and fog, we and the group behind us found ourselves feeling along the walls for a way out. There was an exit sign in the room, but the arrow on the sign was a bit misleading and it took us a bit to find a way out without the help of any of the monsters to guide us.
The one thing I didn’t like about this maze was that there is a single room at one point in the maze that is filled with fog and surrounded by bright green lights. This room is near impossible to navigate and the monsters hide deep in the fog. So deep that I almost stepped on one had they not raised their hand above the fog beforehand. Because of the lighting and fog, we and the group behind us found ourselves feeling along the walls for a way out. There was an exit sign in the room, but the arrow on the sign was a bit misleading and it took us a bit to find a way out without the help of any of the monsters to guide us.
Final Thoughts
The Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor is a lot of fun and they fill what seems like a fairly small area with a ton of experiences. In addition to the mazes listed above, there is the Main Stage, Big Top Stage, Aerial Stage, Close-Up tent, and Slider Alley all packed with entertainment throughout the night. There is also Panic 4-D an add-on scare that takes you on a 4-D virtual 8-minute maze in the Queen Mary’s State of the art 4-D onboard theater. Tickets for Panic 4-D are just $5 and can be purchased at the ticket booths.
What I also liked about The Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor is that the scares seem to be a bit more psychological than those experienced at say Knott’s Scary Farm. As you make your way through narrow, dark corridors in the ship and at times feel lost it starts to take a bit of a toll on you and seemed to up the scare factor a bit.
I also appreciated the types of scares the scare actors bring to the mazes and the atmosphere. Overall they feel more playful and fun, but in a way that still makes them extremely creepy. For instance, I watched this particular slider below mess with a number of attendees and legitimately terrify them despite mostly being silly and coming off completely psychotic. I also liked that it appeared monsters were able to leave their mazes and wander the areas outside of the mazes to interact with and scare guests. This likely helps break up the monotony of having to do the same scare over and over again as an actor but also creates an atmosphere of the diversity of the types of characters that make up this haunt.
Finally, I really liked that Dark Harbor pulses guests through the mazes. While this definitely can up the wait times a bit, it did ensure that scares weren’t spoiled by other groups ahead of you going through the maze. I think this is especially important since it didn’t feel like they had as many monsters in their mazes.
Overall we had a lot of fun and I would definitely come back, and would highly recommend it to others. The only thing I will stress again is that these mazes are definitely a little bit more physically demanding than what you might experience at a local theme park. In addition to being rather long and the crawling required in Feast, the mazes on the boat also require taking multiple flights of stairs. I don’t know the actual count, but my wife’s FitBit registered 12 flights of stairs after the event, so take that for what it’s worth.
The Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor takes place on select dates through November 1. General admission tickets start at just $24 online, and Fast Fright, VIP and the Ultimate Scream Experience are also available. Parking can get a little costly, so definitely plan accordingly. If you plan to park in the Queen Mary Parking lot, you are going to pay the $40 “Premium Parking” price. There are other offsite options that cost just $15 at both the Long Beach Courthouse as well as Shoreline Village. Details on offsite parking options can be found here.
