The Queen Mary: The Most Haunted Hotel in America
Amid the Art Deco style and grand splendor of the Queen Mary lies another, more sinister force that begs to be found — if you dare, that is.
The Queen Mary, a ship that was converted into a hotel and permanently docked in Long Beach, California, is as stately as they come. But don't let its lush appearance fool you; it also happens to be one of the most haunted hotels in America.
The Queen Mary - The Most Haunted Hotel in America
The ship was first christened on September 26, 1934 by Queen Mary herself, and it was retired more than three decades later. It has since been converted into a hotel, where guests can sleep surrounded by the original wood paneling and portholes, imagining what it would have been like to cross the Atlantic in style.
You won’t be the only guests hanging out on board the historic ship. In fact, spirits are said to haunt several different places on board — and the hotel offers ghost tours to take full advantage of the spooky stories.
“Not only does the Queen Mary offer a transatlantic history, but it is known as one of the most haunted destinations in America,” Chris Wilmoth, the director of marketing at the Queen Mary, told Travel + Leisure in an email. "The unique history of the ship allows us to offer one-of-a-kind and authentic experiences that delve into the paranormal, from evening tours and ghost investigations to overnight stays in our most haunted Stateroom, B340.”
These are the most haunted spots for the spookiest shipboard experience you’re likely to ever have.
The Queen Mary's Most Haunted Rooms
Stateroom B340
This stateroom was a problem long before the Queen Mary opened as a hotel. In 1948, a British third-class passenger, Walter J. Adamson, passed away in the room, and the details of his death are unknown. Later, in 1966, a woman staying in the room reported that she was woken up when the bed covers were pulled off of her and she saw a man standing at the foot of her bed. She screamed and rang for the steward, but the man apparently vanished into thin air.
Years later, guests staying in the room have reported hearing someone knocking on the door in the middle of the night and seeing bathroom lights mysteriously turn on. Even the hotel’s maids started complaining that they would find the bathroom water running even when no one had stayed in the room for days, and one reported that the bed covers were pulled off right after she put them on.
The room was closed to guests for many years, but it has since reopened for anyone looking for an evening of creepy fun.
The Mauritania Room
In 1989, two women were sent to clean this lounge for a VIP reception. When they entered the room, they found a passenger sitting on a chair in the middle of the dance floor who didn’t say a word. When a third woman came in to help with the cleaning, she remarked that the passenger was staring and asked her to move.
As the employees started to call security, the passenger faded right in front of them — a feat all three women reported seeing at the same time.
The Mayfair Room
This room was once the ship’s beauty salon, but now it is used as offices for the hotel. In 2001, a member of the accounting staff came in early to work — at 5:30 a.m. to be exact — and simply felt like something was off. She went about her office tasks before sitting down at her desk and feeling unusually cold. Later, she felt someone brush up against the back of her chair, but no one was there. Just minutes after that, the woman saw a transparent figure in white walk across the room and pass through the door. Needless to say, the employee grabbed her keys and fled the room until her coworkers arrived.
The First Class Swimming Pool
This now-abandoned pool on board was once the epitome of luxury with an illuminated fountain, a mother of pearl ceiling, and elaborate mosaic tiles. The pool is no longer in use because of California code issues, but that doesn’t stop it from being one of the hotbeds of paranormal activity on the ship.
People have reported seeing a number of ghosts here, including: a young woman in a tennis skirt walking down stairs and disappearing behind a pillar, a woman in an old wedding gown next to the pool with a little boy in a suit, and a cloud of steam appear out of nowhere along with a little girl in a blue and white dress who disappears in an instant.
Boiler Room #4
Several people have reported seeing a little girl in this area, sometimes sucking her thumb and sometimes with a doll in hand. Whether or not the room is haunted by that little girl, we’ll probably just choose to stay away.
Hatch Door #13
This hatch door is known as Shaft Alley, and it was the site of a gruesome accident that saw a crewman crushed to death.
One night in 1966, the watertight doors in the engine and boiler rooms were ordered to be closed. About five minutes later, an 18-year-old crew member from Yorkshire was found crushed in the door of Hatch #13, trapped with his arms pinned to his side. While the man was freed and carried to the hospital ward, it was too late. He showed signs of crushing injury on his arms, chest and pelvis, and was bleeding from his nose. He was injected with morphine, but died shortly after.
His ghost is regularly seen around the area now, with people reporting the sound of someone running behind them and whistling. Others have noticed that spots of grease that looked like fingerprints appeared on their faces. Some have seen a figure of a bearded man in blue coveralls that looks just like the man who died out of the corner of their eyes. And several others have said they saw an engineer wandering the hallways asking if guests had seen his wrench, but when they went back to find him, he had disappeared.
