2018 saw a return to grandeur for one of our favorite Halloween events, full of increased quality to match the opulence of its legendary setting: a notoriously haunted century old luxury cruise liner.
The Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor is a separately ticketed event that runs twenty-three select nights between September 27, 2018 and November 2, 2018, every Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Halloween night itself. In its 27th year, Dark Harbor features a fully updated and revitalized six different haunted houses, including three located on-board the ship herself, as well as a park-wide scare zone, rotating live bands and entertainment shows, a 4D theater show and one carnival ride with a very interesting history – Sinister Swings, formerly the Wave Swinger from Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch.
Haunts which return unchanged from the previous year will be duplicated from our 2017 review.
FEAST
Chop-chop! It’s time to report for duty as the new line cook on board the world famous Queen Mary. However, all is not what it seems as the kitchens have gone dark and the smell of rank, rotting meat fills the air. From dinner service to the kitchens, the angry spirit of an evil Chef washes back from a watery grave to serve the high-class Queen Mary passengers of 1948. Face the souls of poisoned travelers, gruesome ship staff and of course, the horrific Chef now serving the living to the dead. Let The Feast begin.
In its debut year, Feast was something we were genuinely excited to see, but we were left a bit cold. 2018’s Feast is an all new multi-course meal, starting strong and just getting better and better around every corner.
Now, the story of the demented Chef comes terrifyingly to life, following the story of his torment – and now showcasing the many horrific ways he takes his pain out on others. Before servicing them as a tasty treat.
Different – and more importantly significantly improved from start to finish, Feast finds itself one of the main courses of The Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor. Beginning in the back of house kitchen area, passengers are left to avoid an array of razor-sharp cooking utensils.
A meat cage offers the perfect trap – for those frozen carcasses or currently still-warm bodies. And speaking of warm, a trip through a smoking oven via a well disguised crawl tunnel creates a significant show improvement over prior years. Not only is the tunnel much longer, but it also offers a window on the oven’s door that allows a macabre look back at guests behind you as they quite literally cook alive.
A vastly improved layout sends terrified passengers up and down flights of narrow stairs, back and forth around the ship herself. What results is a highly effective sense of disorientation throughout what now feels like a very long haunt.
The kitchen staff, and Chef himself are as engaged and interactive as ever – and truly do put their highest effort into creating a memorable experience for Dark Harbor’s guests. Benefiting from their newly enhanced environment, their contributions bring Feast to a whole other level.
Feast is The Queen Mary doing what they do best – completely reimagining a returning haunt in such a way that it’s fresh, new, and entirely compelling for guests who visit year after year. Without a doubt in 2018, Feast deserves the “most improved” honors.
B340
A series of inhuman crimes tormented the Queen Mary passengers during a routine cross-Atlantic voyage in October of 1948. Follow the lead detective on the scene as he uncovers the evil truth behind one of the most notorious criminals to ever invade the luxury liner: Samuel the Savage. The investigation follows a sinister journey filled with terrifying twists and turns that point to the most infamous stateroom on the ship: B340.
B340 dives in to what might happen if someone had a psychotic breakdown on one of The Queen Mary’s trans-Atlantic crossings. Trapped at sea for days on end with no where to run can do number on the mind – not to mention the innocent victims in his path. Each step of your journey through Samuel’s world becomes more twisted, more demented and more bloody.
B340 returns again for the 2018 season, but this time with vast improvements that make it virtually a brand new haunt.
Some epic scenic moments await in B340 – due to a mix of brand new scenes seamlessly blended into the actual physical layout of the aging ship. As with Lullaby, B340 includes many narrow passageways and steep staircases, a whole lot of dark hallways and an infinite number of hiding places for Samuel the Savage and the sinister figments of his imagination.
Your journey begins in the mind in the guest hallways of the ship, lined with staterooms of, perhaps, more civilized passengers. Naturally, things quickly unravel.
Samuel descends into madness, becoming more unstable and considerably more violent, leading to his cabin on the ship, full of the blood (and severed limbs and intestines) of all those who crossed his path. Everything culminates with a surprising finale on an actual catwalk high about be ship’s hull that might just take your breath away.
The cast throughout B340 proved as always to be completely engaged in their roles and dedicated to bringing their characters to life. They were aggressive, angry and disturbed – which in this case are all good things.
Beginning early on with one of Samuel’s childhood teachers, a nun who is weeping about where she went wrong. Don’t be surprised if she forces passengers to their knees to pray for forgiveness (a clever and unexpected way to introduce a new crawlspace tunnel!)
We were genuinely surprised to find one scareactor quite literally standing on the handrails of a hallway, effectively towering above us, resulting in a supremely effective scare moment that saw us ducking UNDER his legs to proceed.
Again, the layout of the ship and the inherently supernatural feeling of your surroundings only serves to significantly amplify the sense of intimidation this maze creates, making B340 always one of the more memorable experiences at Dark Harbor.
LULLABY
It has been long rumored that Mary, the little girl who drowned in the Queen Mary First Class Swimming Pool in 1952, has haunted the dark corners of the luxury liner since her untimely demise. Many experts theorize the haunting derives from Mary’s spirit attaching itself to the little girl’s stuffed toy bear. Perhaps the bear holds the gloomy secrets behind the wicked ghost of Scary Mary and why she still sings her eternal Lullaby.
I think it’s probably a scientific fact that when you add cute children and toys to something scary, it just transforms it into the purest form of nightmares. Lullaby embraces this fact and uses it to its advantage to create the most frightening maze of Dark Harbor.
This is the story of Scary Mary, the little girl ghost who drowned aboard the Queen Mary decades ago – yet who never left. She just wants a friend. To keep. Forever.
Tucked away in the bowels of 80 year old notoriously haunted ship, Lullaby would intimidate the bravest souls of your group – even without any scenic decor added. The near pitch black, claustrophobic passages, and natural creaking and moaning of the ship itself are disturbing enough, but when you factor in some of the best scenic dressing at the event with a great – albeit minimal by design lighting package, you really end up with a special kind of haunt.
Lullaby takes place over several floors aboard the actual Queen Mary herself, leaving passengers required to climb and descend several steep staircases throughout their journey. There’s just something about that which is so unnatural in a haunt – so non-traditional that it really makes Lullaby stand out as something truly unique.
Although 2018 sadly did not see the full return of the notoriously haunted indoor swimming pool, it did feature significantly enhanced lighting and sound effects that bring Scary Mary’s world to life like never before. Little Mary’s toy collection has also expanded – beginning the journey into her warped world of nightmares full of demented dolls that each seem to be staring directly into your soul.
Unique to The Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor, Lullaby also features an actual bar (yes, one that serves actual alcohol) midway through the experience. We’re told that on some nights, this bar is “hidden” – although during our visit, all guests were routed through it.
Lullaby’s scares continue to benefit from its narrow passageways, which are so dark that it’s easy for scareactors to hide in plain site right in front of you. The authentic setting will unnerve you on its own, and some great scenic and atmospheric effects truly immerse you into the storyworld.
Dark Harbor’s cast has long proven they understand how to truly interact with guests in their haunts – and Lullaby is always one of the best examples of that. The cast also does a phenomenal job of embodying their characters. Each portrays their role with a darkly sinister childlike whimsy. They’re all dead kids, and they just want to play with you. At least to start. It creates an incredibly creepy mood that just cannot be matched.
Whether you believe in ghosts in real life or not, there’s something unquestionably unsettling about the mood inside The Queen Mary, and perhaps more so than any other section of it, within the passages Lullaby maze.
DEADRISE
The Grey Ghost rises once again, set out on its annual ghastly voyage damned to its eternal battle on the living. With the fearless captain at the helm, guests will walk among the rusted carcass of the Grey Ghost as its full steam ahead into the flames of war. Those unfortunate enough to be caught in the ships warpath may either salute the captain or like an anchor, sink to the depths of the watery tombs.
In 2017, we proclaimed Deadrise to be “Most Improved Returning Maze.” Unfortunately, nearly all of the changes and improvements that finally made this haunt work well were seemingly reversed in 2018, creating an unwelcome return to form to the nearly identity-less Deadrise we’ve known from several prior seasons.
Despite resurfacing in 2017 with a much more story-driven approach, new scenic and decor and greatly improved sets, Deadrise has seemingly eliminated those needed improvements, putting it back to its prior position of being our consistently least favorite Dark Harbor haunt year after year since its debut.
Beyond the somewhat cool returning entry statement with the sunken warship facade, the remainder of Deadrise is once again back to being not much more than a series of large, empty metal shipping containers.
The crew-inspired details we raved about being added in 2017 are all but a forgotten memory – and Deadrise returns to being just an outdoor haunt with little substance. Oil drums, netting and the aforementioned shipping containers make up the entirety of its decor.
An odd steeply inclined ramp up, only to U-turn and head right back down adds a slight bit of variety, although given that it doesn’t actually take us anywhere, it feels a bit more like an inconvenience than an enhancement. We did, however, enjoy an improved generator room, full of exposed wires and popping spark effects. It’s always a fun sense of danger when a haunt successfully mixes water and electricity!
There’s nothing ground-breaking in the way of scares in Deadrise. It has a fairly decent sized cast, but each interaction essentially equates to simple boo scares. Again, this is by no fault of the scareactors; there’s simply not much for the cast to utilize beyond jumping out and screaming in your face.
Being a fully outdoor haunt. Deadrise also makes use of a fireball and water cannon effect – the latter of which has been amp’ed up to to blast out an utterly offensive amount of water that will leave you completely drenched from head to toe. Worse over, this splash is manually triggered, meaning there’s no “count the seconds between” that can save you. Basically, your only hope of disembarking dry is to find yourself a human shield – or an unsuspecting scapegoat to take the fall for you.
Regardless of the strategy you choose, there’s just no need for that on a cool fall evening after the sun has long since set. We’ll continue to not endorse a haunt that willingly drenches its guests.
CIRCUS
It’s the night before a dust-covered, rickety old circus opens to the public. Sneak beyond the curtains to unveil the horrors lurking within the shadows of the big top. Hosting a menagerie of monsters and sinister creatures, the one and only Ringmaster returns with unadulterated and unbelievable horrors for all who step inside Circus!
Circus is home to former icon character, The Ringmaster – because, you know, luxury cruise liner. Disjointedness not withstanding, Circus remains an excellent haunt when allowed to stand on its own. Perhaps most interesting of all, we’ve lost track of just how many times this “returning maze” has come back with a completely new layout, new scenes and new scares!
Circus, as a haunt, has ping-ponged back and forth through the years, with its quality varying wildly. Early on, it was an awesome take on a world of Big Top terror – but in recent years it felt lacking. 2018 saw yet another completely reinvented Circus haunt – and we’re giggling with joy to say it was a return to form of its stronger years. Circus is once again a maze full of compelling, twisted sets, disorienting scares and surprises lurking around every corner.
In addition to an entirely new layout inside the Big Top, Circus starts fresh right out of the gate. Guests find themselves outside the tent, in a sort of scrap yard full of ticket booths. Entering appropriately through the mouth of a large demon, The Ringmaster gives things a whole new spin – literally – with rotating tunnel that’s sure to evoke that topsy-turvy feeling.
Moving floors, hanging punching bags, a mirror maze and even a slide blend the Circus world with that of a warped fun house. And for those of you who have visited before, we have five words that are likely all you want to hear: The. Ball. Pit. Is. Back!
Circus offers a strong outing – at least until its finale, where the pacing fizzles just a bit. A stark white passage through a shipping container full of fog offers an interesting approach that we can only assume is meant to imply the proverbial “walking into the light” that supposedly accompanies death. It was so bright and so full of fog that it was actually unnerving to continue moving forward through it. A cool gimmick that definitely added something unique, but unfortunately we fail to see how this connects in any way to a circus tent.
As with all mazes at Dark Harbor – one unquestionable constant is that you can always count on an energetic, engaged cast of scareactors. The sinister clowns in Circus bring their wacky characters to life, playing psychological games with guests trying to find their way out. What results is a delightful balance of fear and comic relief that feels entirely appropriate given the thematic setting.
There’s also a few notable moments straight out of a carnival fun house like the aforementioned moving slider plates on the floor – something not commonly found in a haunt, adding a physical layer of apprehension to the warped world that surrounds you. For those seeking a bit of liquid courage to get you through the haunt, another hidden bar can be accessed by interacting in a very specific way with one particular character along your journey!
INTREPID
All Aboard! The Ghost Train Waits…A phantom coach forces the Queen Mary’s original ship builder to relive his wicked wrongdoings to shipyard mates, Scottish brethren and plagued family that led to the Iron Hell his soul rots away in. Follow the spine-chilling path to an evil sea witch where a deadly pact was made spawning the horrific half-metal, half-creature known as the Iron Master.
So – the convoluted backstory centers around this spot being the location where the Queen Mary was originally constructed, beginning in 1930. Nothing about that is clear in its execution. Instead, this maze – albeit a significant improvement, redesigned from the ground up over last year’s original take feels bizarrely disjointed – and at no point has anything to do with the creation of the ship.
This year, Dark Harbor again made some significant changes to Intrepid, and not all were necessarily for the best. A hold over from prior years, the first act still takes place aboard a passenger train, but the 2018 version feels a bit watered down compared to the more grandiose facade entry statement just one year prior.
From there, we exit the train and find ourselves in a plague-ridden village at Edinburgh Square. The harsh winter’s falling snow adds a tactile enhancement that makes this moment feel distinctly different from other haunts. Seeking sanctuary inside the church won’t get you very far, with its pews lined with ghostly lost souls.
And then the journey takes us from an icy Scotland winter to an … Indiana Jones-esque temple set in a swamp? It is likely this section was probably left standing from the event’s prior Voodoo-themed haunt which went unused in 2017.
That’s not to say that some of the scenes don’t look good – because they surely do – but they also surely make absolutely no storyworld sense for where we’re supposed to be. What results is a bit of a disjointed mess, but if you’re able to detach from the intended storyworld, Intrepid does still offer some compelling scares.
As is always the case at Dark Harbor, the actors do their best to live their roles – a fact that does enhance the overall muddled feel of Intrepid. Most memorable for us were moments spent in Edinburgh Square, and avoiding ghostly spirits inside the church. A strong ending – including a personal encounter with The Iron Master himself, offers the climax Intrepid had previously been missing.
Unfortunately beyond these moments, it’s difficult to find a specific scare that stands out in Intrepid thanks not to its actors (who are excellent), but in full due to its completely disjointed lack of storyline.
Intrepid saw major improvements between its debut year in 2016 and the following season (bringing it from a 1 Key haunt to a 3 Keys haunt.) This left us hopeful that perhaps it was only step, with step two left to address the massive story flaws in 2018. Oddly, on that front it actually felt more disconnected in year three.
The Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor differs greatly from the big theme park events in that it doesn’t have Scare Zones, per say. Instead, the entirety of this event, from the moment you enter to the moment you exit its gates is in play. There’s no safe spot. Monsters can – and will – get you anywhere.
It creates a delightfully chaotic mood that truly stands on its own and remains memorable year after year. The street performers are highly energetic – running, diving, sliding and coming at you from all angles, completely out of no where. In short, expect “all hell breaks loose.”
It should be noted that there is no real theme or decor to the park-wide Scare Zone, beyond lighting and fog – but the energy of the cast still creates a scenario where it works better than most other venues could ever dream of.
We’ve been long-time fans of The Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor. Its stand-out for quality decor and over-engaged team of scareactors make Dark Harbor feel more like an intimate one on one experience than the mass-produced conga line theme park haunts found elsewhere in the Southern California market. But we do need to address the elephant in the room, and stress how happy we are with the outcome in 2018.
It’s no secret that we were left somewhat underwhelmed and disappointed by the quality of The Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor in 2017. We’re thrilled to the bone to see that our criticism was clearly heard. Vast improvements across the board – to nearly every haunt, as well as the midways and entry experience have the 2018 event not only feeling fresh and new again, but a standard-bearer that sits atop the list of its very best years.
The Queen Mary has partnered with our friends at Plague Productions – the horror geniuses behind some of our other favorite Southern California haunted attractions, as well as an epic escape game they briefly operated on their own. It’s clear that the team brought their multitude of experience to the table, while also showing love and respect to the things that have always made Dark Harbor unique. What results is a season that embraces everything that has made the event a must see for so many years, while simultaneously patching all of the leaks that held it back in 2017.
The Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor once again made us believers in its haunting legend – as well as excited to see what the future holds when this iconic ghost ship sets sail once again in 2019.
You can find an extended photo gallery from our night at The Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor in this exclusive album on the Escape Authority Facebook page! While there, why not give us a “LIKE” if you haven’t already? We’ll give you candy!
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Venue: The Queen Mary
Location: Long Beach, CA
Dates: Select Nights September 27th – November 2st
Hours: 7PM – 12AM or 1AM depending on the night.
Cost: General Admission prices vary, starting at $20 or $69 admission plus Fast Fright (Highly Recommended)