RMS QUEEN MARY
RMS Queen Mary is a retired British ocean liner that sailed during the “TITANIC” days. The City of Long Beach, CA bought the ship to serve as a tourist attraction. It is permanently moored and resides there today. It features restaurants, wedding venue, a museum, and a hotel.
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RMS QUEEN MARY
HOW TO GET TO THE FLOATING HOTEL
Life is passing us by as we live a fast paced lifestyle trying to achieve. We tend to forget what matters most sometimes, like our soul deep peace and enjoyment of this life we are all leading. Do you take time to slow down and just breathe (TRAVEL DESTINATION TRANQUILITY)? History has a way of grabbing us to remind us of the bigger picture in life. Studying cycles of behavior patterns can reveal many truths of a civilization. This can be observed if one studies any culture or history of a group over a time period.
Self perspective can be gained and a look at our lives through a new lens opens our eyes to this historical reality. God is so great big and omnipotent. He was, he is and he will be present for all time! He is present everywhere if we only but look around. We forget that sometimes in our frantic overscheduled daily life. Taking a step back in time on the Queen Mary opened my eyes to these truths! The rich history present here is shockingly eye opening!
For this adventure, we flew UNITED from Traverse City, Michigan’s airport via Chicago, IL to John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, Orange County, CA. It was about a 30 minute journey through LA traffic to the Port of Long Beach, CA to arrive at the Queen Mary. We used a very efficient private car service Elife Limo for our transportation service. I recommend! Our flights had weather delay, rescheduling issues (SNOW STORMS), arrival airport changes, etc. and this service and their drivers were extremely accommodating!
Notice the CARNIVAL PANORAMA docked right behind the Queen Mary? We strategically booked theses accommodations to compliment one another!
“An epiphany enables you to sense creation not as something completed, but as constantly becoming, evolving, ascending. This transports you from a place where there is nothing new to a place where there is nothing old, where everything renews itself, where heaven and earth rejoice as at the moment of creation.”
~Abraham Isaac Kook
RMS QUEEN MARY
ACCOMMODATIONS
We arrived very late at night (midnight-ish PT) exhausted from a long day of ever changing travel from ET to this amazing place in PT. Quickly, through the excitement of being here we gained a second wind and went exploring! As you approach the ship, you talk to the Porter/Bellhop to gain entrance up an elevator to the main desk for check in. Our QUEEN MARY Port Hole Deluxe Room, 1 King Bed, Harbor View room was adequately spacious! The whole time we were so curious as to each passenger that may have slept in that same room as us.
We dropped the luggage in the room and immediately went exploring! WOW! We were so overwhelmed with how much cool history was EVERYWHERE! The intricately carved over-the-top ornamental woodworking, chandeliers, along with the decor from the 30’s, 40’s, 50’s when extreme luxury on a Transatlantic Cruise ship was the height of fashion.
Among facilities available on board Queen Mary during her reign, the liner featured two indoor swimming pools, beauty salons, libraries and children’s nurseries for all three classes, a music studio and lecture hall, telephone connectivity to anywhere in the world, outdoor paddle tennis courts and dog kennels. The largest room on board was the first cabin class main dining room (grand salon), spanning three stories in height and anchored by wide columns. The ship had many air-conditioned public rooms on board. The cabin-class swimming pool facility spanned over two decks in height. Woods from different regions of England were used in her public rooms and staterooms. Accommodation ranged from fully equipped, luxurious cabin (first) class staterooms to modest and cramped third-class cabins.
“Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
~George Santayana
RMS QUEEN MARY
RICH HISTORY
Here are her stats: Tonnage: 81,277 GRT; 12 Decks; Length: 1019 feet; Beam: 118 feet; Height: 181 feet; Draught: 38 feet, 9 inches; 27 Boilers; capacity: 2140 passengers & 1100 Crew; 4 manganese bronze propellers (weighing 35 tons, measures 18 feet tip to tip); 2-16 ton anchors attached to 990 feet of chain (each link weighs 224 pounds and was tested to a load of 290 tons.)
Queen Mary was fitted with 24 Yarrow boilers in four boiler rooms and four Parsons turbines in two engine rooms. The boilers delivered 400 pounds per square inch (28 bar) steam at 700 °F (371 °C) which provided a maximum of 212,000 shp (158,000 kW) to four propellers, each turning at 200 RPM.
HISTORICAL TIMELINE
1936-1938-RMS Queen Mary sailed on her maiden voyage on May 27, 1936. RMS Queen Mary, along with RMS Queen Elizabeth, were built as part of Cunard’s (builder) planned two-ship weekly express service between Southampton, Cherbourg, and New York. RMS Queen Mary was a very fast ship with a cruising service speed of 28.5 knots. The ship could complete a 5 day transatlantic crossing, but in reality most crossings were 7 days. After delivering war brides to Canada, Queen Mary made her fastest ever crossing, returning to Southampton in only three days, 22 hours and 42 minutes at an average speed of just under 32 knots (59 km/h).
1939- WW II commenced
At the start of WW II, the Royal Navy was the mightiest in the world. But the power and speed of the German submarines fleet menaced military and merchant vessels alike. The Queen Mary and its fellow luxury liners were in danger. German “wolfpacks” of submarines, known as U-boats, prowled the Atlantic.
As the most prestigious symbol of Britain’s maritime power, the Queen Mary was sure to be a prime target. When war broke out, the ship was in the mid-Atlantic bound for New York where it was ordered to stay put. But by 1940 it would be re-painted and refurbished as a troopship. Known as the “Grey Ghost” throughout the war effort, the Queen Mary ferried record-breaking numbers of international armed forces to and from historic battles. The Queen Mary was very fast and could strategically outrun the U-boats.
Because it was fast and vast and could hold thousands of troops, the Queen Mary was recruited to the war effort. Workmen labored day and night to paint the ship camouflage grey. Plush carpets were removed and fragile fittings packed away. Workers installed sonar to detect foe, and guns to protect from air strikes. The ship’s great speed was its best defense though.
The Queen Mary left in secret for Sydney, Australia. There, workers enlarged its kitchens and toilet areas. They installed thousands of bunks and hundreds of hammocks. They welded steel blast shutters over windows and reinforced the hull with sandbags.
1941-The Japanese attacked the U.S. Navy anchored at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The U.S. entered into WW II the next day.
1942-Churchill and Britain’s allies began planning counterattacks on Nazi occupied Europe. The Queen Mary received a retro fit that increased its troop capacity. The Queen Mary was hit by a freak 90-foot wave. This incident became the basis for the 1972 movie The Poseidon Adventure.
~From December 8-14th, 1942, Queen Mary carried 10,389 soldiers and 950 crew (total 11,339).
~During the war, Queen Mary carried British Prime Minister Winston Churchill across the Atlantic for meetings with fellow Allied forces officials on several occasions. It made 30 voyages carrying troops across the Indian Ocean and between New York and Great Britain.
~During this trip, while 700 miles (1,100 km) from Scotland during a gale, she was suddenly hit broadside by a rogue wave that might have reached a height of 28 metres (92 ft). An account of this crossing can be found in Carter’s book.[1][2] As quoted in the book, Carter’s father, Dr. Norval Carter, part of the 110th Station Hospital on board at the time, wrote in a letter that at one point Queen Mary “damned near capsized… One moment the top deck was at its usual height and then…! Down, over, and forward she would pitch.” It was calculated later that the ship rolled 52 degrees, and would have capsized had she rolled another three degrees.[1]
- Levi, Ran (3 March 2008). “The Wave That Changed Science”. The Future of Things. Archived from the original on 23 August 2013. Retrieved 11 June 2013.
- No Greater Sacrifice, No Greater Love, William Ford Carter, Smithsonian Books, Washington, 2004, p. 55
1943-The Queen Mary carried over 15,740 American soldiers and 943 crew members (16,683 TOTAL ) from New York to Scotland, a standing record for the most passengers ever transported on one vessel.
~The Queen Mary carried Winston Churchill and the War Cabinet to the Trident Conference in Washington, DC where planning for Operation Overlord – the invasion of Europe – took place.
~The Queen Mary made more than 30 trips carrying troops across the Atlantic, returning with wounded soldiers and prisoners of war.
~The Queen Mary transported Winston Churchill and the War Cabinet to the secret Quadrant Conference in Quebec. More invasion planning took place at the conference.
1944-D-Day, the culmination of Operation Overlord, began on June 6. Allied troops invaded the French coast. Queen Mary carried Winston Churchill and the War Cabinet to the Octagon Conference in Quebec, where plans were made for Postwar Europe. The Queen Mary made another 30 trips carrying troops across the Atlantic Ocean.
1945– Germany surrendered on May 8. In the 1st post-war British election, Churchill’s Conservative Party lost power. Churchill resigned as Prime Minister. The US dropped the atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August. Japan surrendered on September 2. The Queen Mary made its last military voyage, bringing troops back to the US.
1946-The Queen Mary carried British war brides and babies from Great Britain to New York. Churchill gave “Iron Curtain” speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri.
1947-1966 -The Queen Mary was refurbished to its peacetime splendor after its 79 month military career and returned to a North Atlantic passenger and mail service.
1967-The Queen Mary retired and docked at Long Beach. The ship was transformed into an entertainment and education complex, the historic luxury liner became a Southern California icon.
Walking around this ship, absorbing the history oozing from its passageways, rooms, doorways, and decks one can easily imagine the volumes of soldiers, luxury passengers, crew members that once roamed these same places. The history is overwhelmingly amazing!
“A nation that forgets its past has no future.” – Winston Churchill
RMS QUEEN MARY
SHOPPING
Two levels up from the check in desk floor is the shopping level on the Promenade Deck. The Promenade Deck leads to the Observation Bar on one end and the wedding chapel on the other end. The Promenade Cafe and Chelsea Chowder House & Bar and the Midship Marketplace (Starbucks also located on this level in the Midship Marketplace).
“A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin, and culture is like a tree without roots.” – Marcus Garvey
RMS QUEEN MARY
SIGNIFICANT FORMER PASSENGERS
“History is for human self-knowledge … the only clue to what man can do is what man has done. The value of history, then, is that it teaches us what man has done and thus what man is.” ~R. G. Collingwood
RMS QUEEN MARY
WHY IS THIS DESTINATION SO POPULAR?
“We study history not to be clever in another time, but to be wise always.”
Marcus Tullius Cicero
History oozes from every room, nook and cranny. The venue for weddings seems very popular on the back deck with the extremely elegant ballroom on board the ship for the reception. So much history and elegance! The process of restoration of the ship is continual and sparks curiosity in all who visit this marvel!
Stories of grandeur and imagination of what once was…hold vast intrigue. Just imagine whose feet have walked on these same decks as you, whose eyes saw the same doorways, stairwells, and salons, for just one moment imagine if the walls could speak the stories they could tell…as you explore this amazing venue!
“History is the witness that testifies to the passing of time; it illumines reality, vitalizes memory, and provides guidance in daily life.” – Cicero
RMS QUEEN MARY
RESTAURANTS, BARS & CAFE
Several restaurant choices are available today on the Queen Mary! Whether you are looking for a coffee shop, lunch, or evening meal of elegance.
Midship Marketplace is open daily on the Promenade Deck, Portside, Midship
Promenade Cafe is open daily on the Promenade Deck, Starboard, Midship (BRUNCH IS FABULOUS!)
Chelsea Chowder House & Bar is open daily, Entrance Promenade Deck, Portside, Midship
Observation Bar is open daily, Promenade Deck, Forward
We really enjoyed the laid back easy going feel of this ship. It is a wonderful place to just sit and enjoy the ambiance of history that surrounds you.
“The only thing new in the world is the history you don’t know.” – Harry S. Truman
RMS QUEEN MARY
PROXIMITY TO THE CARNIVAL PANORAMA
The convenience of staying on-board the Queen Mary the night before our ship departed for a 7 day cruise was unparallelled. The adventure of exploring all the nooks and crannies on-board was an impossible feat!
We love an adventure! We love exploring! The mystique surrounding this venue was unparallelled. We truly enjoy and soak up as much of God’s creation and marvels as possible. The calming location here had a way of seeping into the cracks surrounding the stresses of our lives to create a soothing buffer between the stress and our need for peace! Achieving that balance keeps us centered and focused on the end goals, not the obstacles that lie in wait to derail your life journeys!
Embrace each moment that presents itself to you to truly enjoy this life! Celebrate each moment of peace and tranquility!
Discover what tranquility and peace mean to you. Research a favorite location and go! Adventure is calling, will you hear it?
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Inspirationally Yours,
Barbara
BIO: https://www.inspirationaltraveladventures.com/about-us/
About Me
A 1993 graduate of Michigan State University, Barbara earned a BS in Social Science Pre-Law. She is a Business Manager/HR Director. Her passion is travel, discovering new places, experiences, cuisine, cultures while enjoying temperate climates. Barbara is a newly transitioning empty-nester who became a travel blogger. She’s a great photographer, talented writer, and has a great family to highlight in her high school/college athlete football sons.
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TRAVEL BLOG🛩 * ADVENTURE🛶 * INSPIRATION🌞 Thanks for exploring our travel blog! We hope to assist you in your next adventure through learning from ours! We are transitioning empty-nesters perpetually seeking our next luxury snorkeling adventure! Daily God’s awe inspiring inspiration surrounds us with all of His natural beauty in every direction if we but slow down to observe. Take a moment each day to ENJOY!
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2 Comments
Joey
Great post! It seems like the Queen Mary and other ocean liners often stand in the Titanic’s shadow. Nice to learn about its role during WWII and all the celebrity passengers 😊
Barbara Robinson
Agreed! I was overwhelmed with her importance during WWII. Such amazing history and cool that so many had walked the same decks as I!