R.M.S. Queen Mary Hotel P.O. Box 8, Long Beach, California Hotel Room Key #A135

Description: R.M.S. Queen Mary Hotel Cunard Line P.O. Box 8 Long Beach, California Hotel Room Key #A135 1.5” x 2 7/8” Key Post-retirement Queen Mary is permanently moored in Long Beach as a tourist attraction, hotel, museum and event facility. Conversion Queen Mary, bought by Long Beach in 1967, was converted from a seafaring vessel to a floating hotel. The plan included clearing almost every area of the ship below "C" deck (called "R" deck after 1950, to lessen passenger confusion, as the restaurants were located on "R" deck) to make way for Jacques Cousteau's new Living Sea Museum. This increased museum space to 400,000 square feet (37,000 m2). It required the removal of all the boiler rooms, the forward engine room, both turbo generator rooms, the ship stabilisers and the water softening plant. The ship's empty fuel tanks were filled with local mud to keep the ship's centre of gravity and draft at the correct levels, as these critical factors had been affected by the removal of the various components and structure. Only the aft engine room and "shaft alley", at the stern of the ship, was spared. The remaining space was used for storage or office space. One problem that arose during the conversion was a dispute between land-based and maritime unions over conversion jobs. The United States Coast Guard had the final say. Queen Mary was deemed a building, since most of her propellers had been removed and her machinery gutted. The ship was also repainted with its red water level paint at a slightly higher level than during her service years. During the conversion, the funnels were removed, as this area was needed to lift out the scrap materials from the engine and boiler rooms. Workers found that the funnels were significantly degraded, and they were replaced with replicas. Passageway in first-class accommodation, now part of the onboard hotel, as of January 2024. With all of the lower decks nearly gutted from R deck and down, Diners Club, the initial lessee of the ship, converted the remainder of the vessel into a hotel. In 1969, it was reported that the hotel would be operated by Sky Chefs, the catering and hospitality division of American Airlines. Diners Club Queen Mary dissolved and vacated the ship in 1970 after their parent company, Diners Club International, was sold, and a change in corporate direction was mandated during the conversion process. Specialty Restaurants, a Los Angeles-based company that focused on theme-based restaurants, took over as master lessee the following year. This second plan was based on converting most of her first- and second-class cabins on A and B decks into hotel rooms, and converting the main lounges and dining rooms into banquet spaces. On Promenade Deck, the starboard promenade was enclosed to feature an upscale restaurant and café named Lord Nelson's and Lady Hamilton's; it was themed in the fashion of early-19th century sailing ships. The famed and elegant Observation Bar was redecorated as a western-themed bar. The smaller first-class public rooms, such as the Drawing Room, Library, Lecture Room and the Music Studio, was stripped of most of their fittings and converted to commercial use. This markedly expanded retail space on the ship. Two more shopping malls were built on the Sun Deck in separate spaces previously used for first-class cabins and engineers' quarters. A post-war feature of the ship, the first-class cinema, was removed for kitchen space for the new Promenade Deck dining venues. The first-class lounge and smoking room were reconfigured and converted into banquet space. The second-class smoking room was subdivided into a wedding chapel and office space. On the Sun Deck, the elegant Verandah Grill was gutted and converted into a fast-food eatery, while a new upscale dining venue was created directly above it on Sports Deck, in space once used for crew quarters. The second-class lounges were expanded to the sides of the ship and used for banqueting. On R deck, the first-class dining room was reconfigured and subdivided into two banquet venues, the Royal Salon and the Windsor Room. The second-class dining room was subdivided into kitchen storage and a crew mess hall, while the third-class dining room was initially used as storage and crew space. Also on R deck, the first-class Victorian Turkish bath complex, the 1930s equivalent to a spa, was removed. The second-class pool was removed and its space initially used for office space, while the first-class swimming pool was open for viewing by hotel guests and visitors. Because of modern safety codes and the compromised structural soundness of the area directly below, the swimming pool could not be used for swimming after the conversion, although it was filled with water until the late 1980s. Today the pool can only be seen on guided tours and from the first class entrance on R deck. No second-class, third-class or crew cabins remain intact aboard the ship today. Opening as a tourist destination Ship as a hotel, with permanent boarding gangways in 2009 On 8 May 1971, Queen Mary opened her doors to tourists. Initially, only portions of the ship were open to the public as Specialty Restaurants had yet to open its dining venues and PSA had not completed work converting the ship's original First Class staterooms into the hotel. As a result, the ship was open only on weekends. On 11 December 1971, Jacques Cousteau's Museum of the Sea opened, with a quarter of the planned exhibits completed. Within the decade, Cousteau's museum closed due to low ticket sales and the deaths of many of the fish that were housed in the museum. On 2 November 1972, the PSA Hotel Queen Mary opened its initial 150 guest rooms. Two years later, with all 400 rooms finished, PSA brought in Hyatt Hotels to manage the hotel, which operated from 1974 to 1980 as the Queen Mary Hyatt Hotel. By 1980, it had become apparent that the existing system was not working. The ship was losing millions each year for the city because the hotel, restaurants and museum were run by three separate concessionaires, while the city owned the vessel and operated guided tours. It was decided that a single operator with more experience in attractions was needed. Jack Wrather, a local millionaire, had fallen in love with the ship because he and his wife, Bonita Granville, had fond memories of sailing on it numerous times. Wrather signed a 66-year lease with the city of Long Beach to operate the entire property. He oversaw the display of the H-4 Hercules, nicknamed the Spruce Goose, on long-term loan. The immense plane, which had been sitting in a hangar in Long Beach for decades unseen by the public, was installed in a huge geodesic dome adjacent to the liner in 1983, attracting increased attendance. Wrather Port Properties operated the entire attraction after his death in 1984 until 1988, when his holdings were bought by the Walt Disney Company. Wrather had built the Disneyland Hotel in 1955, when Walt Disney had insufficient funds to construct the hotel himself. Disney had been trying to buy the hotel for 30 years. When they finally succeeded, they also acquired Queen Mary. This was never marketed as a Disney property. Through the late 1980s and early 1990s, Queen Mary struggled financially. Disney pinned their hopes for turning the attraction around on Port Disney, a huge planned resort on the adjacent docks. It was to include an attraction known as DisneySea, a theme park celebrating the world's oceans. The plans eventually fell through; in 1992 Disney gave up the lease on the ship to focus on building what would become Disney California Adventure Park. The DisneySea concept was recycled a decade later in Japan as Tokyo DisneySea, with a recreated ocean liner resembling Queen Mary named the SS Columbia as the centrepiece of the American Waterfront area. 1992 closure and reopening With Disney gone, the Hotel Queen Mary closed on 30 September 1992. The owners of the Spruce Goose, the Aero Club of Southern California, sold the plane to the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum in Oregon. The plane departed on barges on 2 October 1992. The Queen Mary remained open until 31 December 1992 when it closed. During this period, the ship was nominated and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993. Also the Port of Long Beach turned over control over the vessel to the city in 1993. On 5 February 1993, RMS Foundation, Inc signed a five-year lease with the city of Long Beach to act as the operators of the property. The foundation was run by President and C.E.O. Joseph F. Prevratil, who had managed the attraction for Wrather. On 26 February 1993 the tourist attraction reopened completely, while the hotel reopened partially on 5 March with 125 rooms and the banquet facilities, with the remainder of the rooms coming online on 30 April. In 1995, RMS Foundation's lease was extended to twenty years, while the scope of the lease was reduced to operation of the ship. A new company, Queen's Seaport Development, Inc. (QSDI), was established in 1995 to control the real estate adjacent to the vessel. The dome was used extensively as a soundstage for film and television by taking advantage of the adaptable interior space that was larger than any sound stage in the Los Angeles area. In 1998, the city of Long Beach extended the QSDI lease to 66 years. Carnival Cruises repurposed a portion of the dome as a passenger terminal in 2001. The California State Lands Commission also issued a report in response to citizens' concerns about the use of public trust lands and mismanagement of public trust funds. The report determined that the uses were not barred by the granting statutes or the public trust doctrine, but may be considered necessarily incidental to the enjoyment of public tidelands. They found no evidence of mismanagement, a conclusion that was reviewed and affirmed by the State Attorney General. In 2004, Queen Mary and Stargazer Productions added Tibbies Great American Cabaret to the space previously occupied by the ship's bank and wireless telegraph room. Stargazer Productions and Queen Mary transformed the space into a working dinner theatre complete with stage, lights, sound and scullery. In 2005, QSDI sought Chapter 11 protection due to a rent credit dispute with the city. In 2006, the bankruptcy court requested bids from parties interested in taking over the lease from QSDI. The minimum required opening bid was $41M. The operation of the ship, by RMS Foundation, remained independent of the bankruptcy. In summer 2007, Queen Mary's lease was sold to a group named "Save the Queen", managed by Hostmark Hospitality Group. They planned to develop the land adjacent to Queen Mary, and upgrade, renovate and restore the ship. During their management, staterooms were updated with iPod docking stations, flatscreen TVs. The ship's three funnels and waterline area were also repainted to their original Cunard red colour. The portside Promenade Deck's planking was restored and refinished. Many lifeboats were repaired and patched, and the ship's kitchens were renovated with new equipment. In late September 2009, management of Queen Mary was taken over by Delaware North Companies, who planned to continue the restoration and renovation of the ship and its property. They were determined to revitalise and enhance the ship as an attraction. But in April 2011, the city of Long Beach was informed that Delaware North was no longer managing Queen Mary. Garrison Investment Group said this decision was purely business. Delaware North continued to manage Scorpion, a Soviet submarine that has been a separate attraction next to Queen Mary since 1998. Evolution Hospitality, LLC. assumed operational control of Queen Mary on 23 September 2011, with Garrison Investments leasing Queen Mary. The dome was used as a venue for the Long Beach Derby Gals roller derby team and as an event venue. 2006 meeting of the two Queen Marys RMS Queen Mary 2 approaching the Queen Mary at her berth, 23 February 2006, under a salute of "HAIL TO THE QUEENS" in skywriting. On 23 February 2006, RMS Queen Mary 2 saluted her predecessor as she made a port of call in Los Angeles Harbor, while on a cruise from South Africa to Mexico. In March 2011, Queen Mary was saluted by MS Queen Victoria and fireworks, and on 12 March 2013, MS Queen Elizabeth made a similar fireworks accompanied salute. The salute was carried out with Queen Mary replying with her one working air horn in response to Queen Mary 2 sounding her combination of two brand new horns and an original 1934 Queen Mary horn, which is on loan from the City of Long Beach. Queen Mary originally had three whistles tuned to 55 Hz, a frequency chosen because it was low enough that the extremely loud sound of it would not be painful to human ears. Modern IMO regulations specify ships' horn frequencies to be in the range 70–200 Hz for vessels that are over 200 metres (660 ft) in length.[81] Traditionally, the lower the frequency, the larger the ship. Queen Mary 2, being 1,132 feet (345 m) long, was given the lowest possible frequency (70 Hz) for her regulation whistles, in addition to the refurbished 55 Hz whistle on permanent loan. 55 Hz is the "A" note an octave above the lowest note of a standard piano keyboard. The air-driven Tyfon whistle can be heard at least 10 miles (16 km) away. 2016 lease to Urban Commons In 2016, Urban Commons, a real estate company, bought the lease, which extended to 2082, out of default. The lease obligated them to perform the ship's daily upkeep and long-term projects. Carnival Cruises took over the entire dome and made efficiency improvements under their management. The operator generated funds through its events, the hotel bookings, and passenger fees from the nearby Carnival cruise terminal, which was the largest source. Taxpayer funds were not being used to maintain the ship under the lease agreement. Urban Commons had plans to extensively renovate the liner and to redevelop the adjacent 45 acres (18 ha) of parking with a boutique hotel, restaurants, a marina, an amphitheater, jogging trails, bike paths and possibly a huge Ferris wheel, all at a cost of up to $250 million.[86] In May 2019, Urban Commons formed Eagle Hospitality Real Estate Trust with the goal of generating up to $566 million for the Queen Mary along with its portfolio of 12 other hotel properties that it owns or manages. In December 2019, it was announced that the city was reviewing the finances of Urban Commons to determine whether the City of Long Beach had "received all revenues owed.” 2017 condition In 2017, a report on the ship's condition was issued. The report observed that, not only the hull, but also the supports for a raised exhibition area within the ship were corroding and that the ship's deteriorating condition left areas such as the engine room vulnerable to flooding.[89] Repair costs were estimated at close to $300 million. In November 2016 the City of Long Beach had put $23 million toward addressing Queen Mary's most vital repairs. John Keisler, economic and property development director for Long Beach, said: "We have a timeline in which the engineers believe they can complete those immediate projects. These are major challenges we can only address over time; it can't all be done at once." Political leaders in Scotland, birthplace of Queen Mary, called for the then UK Prime Minister Theresa May to pressure the American government to fund a full repair of the liner in 2017. In August 2019, Edward Pribonic, the engineer responsible for inspecting Queen Mary on behalf of the City of Long Beach, issued a report stating that the ship was in the worst condition he had seen in his 25 years on the job. Pribonic stated that the neglect of Queen Mary had grown worse under the management of Urban Commons, and concluded that "without an immediate and very significant infusion of manpower and money, the condition of the ship will likely soon be unsalvageable." Incidents of recent neglect include the flooding of the Grand Ballroom with sewage after a pipe which was flimsily patched with duct tape burst, significant amounts of standing water in the ship's bilge, and recently applied paint on the ship's funnels already peeling because of the poor way in which it was applied. The pessimistic conclusion of Pribonic was disputed by city officials, who called the warnings "hyperbolic" and pointed to the "significant" work that has already been undertaken towards repairing Queen Mary. The $23 million apportioned for repairs ran out in 2018, with 19 out of the 27 urgent projects identified by a 2015 marine survey completed as of September 2019. There were significant cost overruns overall, with the cost of fire safety repairs increasing from the original estimate of $200,000 to $5.29 million. Two of the remaining eight issues identified in 2015 were considered "critical" – this includes the removal of the ship's lifeboats, which were rotted and in danger of collapsing. In October 2019, the City of Long Beach warned Urban Commons that the company was failing to uphold its commitment to maintain and repair Queen Mary and that it was accordingly in danger of defaulting on its 66-year lease agreement. Urban Commons responded with an updated plan for repairs, including the removal of the lifeboats at a cost of between $5 and $7 million, and new paint work. 2020 closure and reopening The Queen Mary ceased operations in May 2020, due to the pandemic. As overseer for several corporations that operated the Queen Mary, Eagle Hospitality Trust filed a motion in federal bankruptcy court on 9 March 2021 to auction off its lease. Court filings by the city claimed that Urban Commons' repair work was incomplete or not performed correctly and would likely have to be redone. Also, the current condition of the vessel was such that significant safety repairs needed to be performed before it could reopen to the public. In court filings, Eagle Hospitality Trust stated that the lease was their most valuable asset. There were no bidders on the lease after all of Eagle's other hotel properties were sold at a bankruptcy court auction. Eagle Hospitality Trust agreed to surrender its lease agreement back to the city, and Long Beach took back control in June 2021. To keep the ship running, the city approved a $2 million, six-month contract with Evolution Hospitality to cover monthly utility fees, security, landscaping and other costs. Simultaneously, the city contracted with Evolution Hospitality, a hotel management company that had been managing the daily operations of the ship since 2011, to act as caretaker. An architecture and marine engineering firm hired by the city found that $23 million was needed for urgent safety repairs to keep the ship viable over the next two years. The report by Elliott Bay Design Group reported that the vessel was vulnerable to flooding or possibly even capsizing. On 21 September 2021, the Long Beach City Council voted to explore turning the Queen Mary and surrounding property over to the Harbor Department. Transfer of the ship and the surrounding land from city control to the port would include Pier H. An urgent removal of the deteriorated lifeboats was completed as they were putting stress on the side shell of the ship which has created cracks in the support system. Of the 22 lifeboats then on the ship, 15 were original while the remaining 7 were from other ships. Although the city offered the lifeboats to various groups, none were able to meet the city's removal requirements. Consequently, the city saved 11 of the original lifeboats for restoration and scrapped the remaining 11 (4 originals and 7 non-originals). In June 2022, the city established a new agreement with Evolution Hospitality where company managed the ship for a portion of the revenues while the city controlled repair and restoration of the ship. By November, the city had spent $2.8 million for plumbing repairs, a new Wi-Fi connection, handrail restoration and energy-efficient lightbulbs. This also included beginning work on the ship's boilers and heat exchangers. The city approved $1 million to continue repairs to the ship's linoleum flooring and carpet, refrigerators, elevators, kitchen exhaust hoods, and guest room locks. After the ship opened for limited tours on 15 December 2022, a public opening was held on 1 April 2023. Later in the month, the city announced that the ship and Pier H would remain with the city with the port being a partner. The repairs, along with increased tourism, led the Queen Mary to earn over $3.5 million in operating profits from April - December 2023. RMS Queen Mary RMS Queen Mary is a retired British ocean liner that operated primarily on the North Atlantic Ocean from 1936 to 1967 for the Cunard Line. Built by John Brown & Company in Clydebank, Scotland, she was subsequently joined by RMS Queen Elizabeth in Cunard's two-ship weekly express service between Southampton, Cherbourg and New York. These "Queens" were the British response to the express superliners built by German, Italian, and French companies in the late 1920s and early 1930s. RMS Queen Mary Namesake Mary, Queen of the United Kingdom Owner 1936–49: Cunard-White Star Line 1949–67: Cunard Line 1967–present: City of Long Beach Port of registry Liverpool Route Southampton to New York via Cherbourg (eastbound and westbound) Ordered 3 April 1929 Builder John Brown & Company Clydebank, Scotland, United Kingdom Yard number 534 Laid down 1 December 1930 Launched 26 September 1934 Sponsored by Queen Mary Christened 26 September 1934 Maiden voyage 27 May 1936 In service 1936–1967 Out of service 9 December 1967 Radio Callsign: GBTT Status Laid up as a floating hotel and museum ship, Long Beach. General characteristics Type Ocean liner Tonnage 80,774 GRT (1936) 81,237 GRT (1947) Displacement 77,400 long tons (78,642 metric tons) Length 1,019.4 ft (310.7 m) LOA 1,004 ft (306.0 m) LWL 965 ft (294.1 m) LBP Beam 118 ft (36.0 m) Height 181 ft (55.2 m) Draught 38 ft 9 in (11.8 m) Decks 12 Installed power 24 × Yarrow boilers Propulsion 4 × Parsons single-reduction geared steam turbines 4 shafts, 200,000 shp (150,000 kW)[1] Speed 28.5 kn (52.8 km/h; 32.8 mph) (service) 32.84 kn (60.82 km/h; 37.79 mph) (sea trials) Capacity 2,140 passengers: 776 first (cabin) class, 785 cabin (tourist) class, 579 tourist (third) class Crew 1100 RMS Queen Mary U.S. National Register of Historic Places RMS Queen Mary is located in CaliforniaRMS Queen Mary Queen Mary sailed on her maiden voyage on 27 May 1936 and won the Blue Riband that August; she lost the title to SS Normandie in 1937 and recaptured it in 1938, holding it until 1952, when the new SS United States claimed it. With the outbreak of World War II, she was converted into a troopship and ferried Allied soldiers during the conflict. On one voyage in 1943, she carried over 16,600 people, still the record for the most people on one vessel at the same time. Following the war, Queen Mary returned to passenger service and, along with Queen Elizabeth, commenced the two-ship transatlantic passenger service for which the two ships were initially built. The pair dominated the transatlantic passenger transportation market until the dawn of the jet age in the late 1950s. By the mid-1960s, Queen Mary was ageing and operating at a loss. After several years of decreased profits, Cunard officially retired the Queen Mary from service in 1967. She left Southampton for the last time on 31 October 1967 and sailed to Long Beach, California, United States, where she was permanently moored. The City of Long Beach bought the ship to serve as a tourist attraction featuring restaurants, a museum, and a hotel. The city contracted out management of the ship to various third-party firms over the years, until it took back operational control in 2021.

Price: 75 USD

Location: New York, New York

End Time: 2024-11-30T15:53:13.000Z

Shipping Cost: N/A USD