Yesterday, my beautiful wife and I went to see the Titanic artifacts exhibit at the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California. I can’t recall having ever boarded the ship before.
From newspaper reports over the last few years, it sounds like the operation is in trouble, and I can understand after having been there first-hand. For a Friday afternoon heading into a holiday weekend, it wasn’t busy at all. The exhibit was fascinating, but the operation knowledge and demeanor of the employees left a lot to be desired. Exactly where visitors were supposed to get from one place to the other was not clear, and there was what Disney people would call a lot of "bad show."
I can’t help but think about the period of time during which the operation was under the control of The Walt Disney Company, through the same deal in which the Disneyland Hotel officially came into the corporation. There was a time when Disney announced a project initially called "Port Disney". A version of the project was eventually built as DisneySea in Japan.
Some people assert that Disney never really planned to do anything in Long Beach, and that the whole Port Disney concept was just a bargaining chip to get Anaheim where Disney wanted them as far as buidling a second theme park in Anaheim. I, however, believe that if financial conditions were better, if things had gone better in France, and if there hadn’t been as much opposition and regulation along the coast in Long Beach, Disney would have gone ahead with both the Disneyland Resort expansion and the Long Beach project.
Instead, Disney got out of Long Beach.
It’s all water under the bridge (and out into the ocean) now, but I can’t help but think what could have been for both Disney and Long Beach.
If not Disney, then someone needs to take care of that area. Long Beach is working hard to restore their downtown yet one of their biggest draws goes neglected- not to mention the filthy water it floats on.
Hi there, I’m a fan of the Queen Mary but more for Historical reasons than anything else. I was on the ship when Disney occupied it in the 1980’s and went on a tour of the ship with “Disney” magic added. Unfortunately it was horribly erected and didn’t feel like “typical” Disney at all. They added some slamming and shaking doors in the nursery to make one think that the spirits of children were haunting it. Then they’d fill up the swimming pool with fog and added cheap lights to try and convince the spectator that it was the the ghost of a little girl who drowned in the pool in the ships hey days. The sad thing is, that never really happened. I’m a Psychic-Medium and have been featured on numerous T.V. shows on the Queen Mary and know that several adults drowned in the salt water pool in different years. There are millions of people throughout the world who Love this ship and its accurate history. Had Disney done a little more research and told the correct story, perhaps their cheap tricks wouldn’t have seemed so stupid and we all could have laughed it off…
You’re also right that the employees and the current staff who operate the ship don’t really seem to care about it. I was actually offered a job there to research and act as their paranormal expert, however when I drove down there on a Friday in horriffic traffic to meet the CEO of the project, I found that he wasn’t even there, although he set up the date and time himself.
Through the years, this same company has nickle and dimed the ship for whatever they could get only pocketing the funds for themselves rather than repair it as they’d intended through the city of Long Beach and that’s why the ship seems so sad and dreary today in the 21st century.
I understand that the leasing of the ship was recently won by another company through an auction and it will be interesting to see if they can bring her back to life as she once was one of the largest and greatest ocean liners of them all.
Did you know that the Queen Mary is twice the size of Titanic???
It’s True.
Do you believe in Ghosts? The Queen Mary is one of the most Truly Haunted Ships in the world. How do I know? Because I’m able to see spirits and always encounter them when I’m on that ship.
I actually offer Private Psychic Tours of the Queen Mary throughout the year as well as tours of historic cities(Hollywood, Pasadena, Orange County)throughout Southern California and Abroad(Gettysburg, Valley Forge, etc). If you’re interested in learning about the real spirits rather than the fake ones people have tried to create using cheap special effects, visit my website at http://www.icghosts.com
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