The Queen Mary Hotel: Former Luxury Liner

1126 Queens Highway

Long Beach, California 90802

At one time the world record holder for sailing from England to New York City, the Queen Mary is now tied up in Long Beach, California for tourists and a floating hotel. Queen Mary was sailed to Long Beach in 1967 and restored as a luxury hotel. During the restoration, it was discovered that the smoke funnels were only held together with years of paint. Removed from the Queen Mary, they promptly collapsed under their own weight. Today, tourists can take walking tours of the ship viewing original art work, visit the Observation Bar once visited by Winston Churchill or dine and dance the night away at Sir Winston's. To stay the night, select one of 365 rooms on board the Queen Mary and wake up to a champagne brunch Sunday morning.

Ruling the Waves

For 34 years, the Queen Mary ruled the north Atlantic sea routes, ferrying the rich and famous to New York or England in luxury and splendor. Cunard created the Queen Mary after many of its first line ships were lost in World War I. In 1934, the Queen Mary was launched, by Queen Mary herself, and made its maiden voyage to America. Queen Mary is an 81,000-ton ocean liner built with every amenity. Queen Mary is 1,019 feet long, has 12 decks, 10 million rivets, 2,000 portholes and her whistles weigh in at a ton a piece. The two bow anchors are 18-feet long and weigh 16 tons. Queen Mary was capable of a blistering 29 knots across the north Atlantic Ocean.

Queen Mary's World War II Service

The Queen Mary was pressed into service at the beginning of World War II. Her beautiful art work and furnishings were taken out and replaced with troop carrying spaces. Queen Mary was too fast to be sunk by Nazi U-boats and could carry 5,000 Allied troops at a time. On return trips to the States, Queen Mary brought back German and Italian prisoners or wounded Allied soldiers and sailors. During the war, Queen Mary carried more than 760,000 troops and hosted Prime Minister Winston Churchill on three occasions.

Hours of Operation and Location

The Queen Mary is located in Long Beach, tied up on the water front at the south end of Long Beach Freeway. It's open each day from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.. During the summer months, Queen Mary is open until 9 p.m. for a fireworks display.