{"id":352346,"date":"2026-06-09T00:18:45","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T00:18:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/352346\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T00:18:45","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T00:18:45","slug":"queen-mary-turns-90-promises-new-golden-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/352346\/","title":{"rendered":"Queen Mary turns 90, promises new \u201cgolden era\u201d –"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A<\/a>A beautiful shp (and her lesser companion) <\/p>\n

In the middle of May 27\u2019s day-long event to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the Queen Mary\u2019s maiden voyage, a crowd gathered on the foredeck.<\/p>\n

\u201cListen, we know that [rechristening] isn\u2019t a thing you do to a ship \u2014 we get it,\u201d said Dylan Matteson, director of experiences for the Queen Mary, while Captain James Sanders and Managing Director Steve Caloca prepared to smash a bottle of champagne against the hull. \u201cBut this is a symbolic rechristening [\u2026 to usher in] a new golden era.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTen years from now, we want this beautiful ship to look like it did in 1936,\u201d said Caloca. \u201cThat\u2019s the mission.\u201d<\/p>\n

Worth the price of admission?
As the Queen Mary has passed through various ownership and management teams, they\u2019ve experimented with how best to get people onboard. No fee for Long Beach residents. No fee after 6 p.m.<\/a> No fee if you spend such-and-such amount in a restaurant.<\/p>\n

At present, the general admission fee is around $45 (plus parking) \u2014 the amount Caloca says they need to charge to cover the ship\u2019s upkeep. But there are plenty of events<\/a> that are far cheaper \u2014 and even free \u2014 with online reservations. Then there\u2019s the Queen Mary Club, where $149 buys you unlimited access for a full year.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s a beauty
In addition to a host of displays throughout the ship, the Queen Mary is home to 23 museums and exhibits. The most recent addition, opened in December, is the Art Gallery (yeah, they didn\u2019t spend much time on the name), a round-up of pieces that over the years have been moved from place to place within the ship\u2019s confines (as opposed to pieces that have never been moved from their original locations). That\u2019s nice, but especially impressive is something I stumbled across toward the bowels of the ship: a low-ceilinged collection of numerous artifacts from the ship\u2019s seafaring days, all super finely crafted and sort of miniature (space is a premium at sea), giving the uncanny feeling that you\u2019ve been shrunk down to get a close look at dollhouse furniture. Various other exhibits and museums throughout the ship provide that same feeling..<\/p>\n

But as Caloca likes to point out, the ship herself is a museum. And even before the recent refurbishments, you had to be pretty jaded not to recognize what wonder it is. The art-deco aesthetics, the deep solidity of the wood and iron, the plushness of the salons \u2014 not to mention the irie vibe of looking down on the water (at least if you\u2019re not looking south). Walking the ship is a treat \u2014 it\u2019s a great way to get your steps in \u2014 and plenty of places to sit and relax. Whatever else you might come for \u2014 and the Queen Mary has plenty on offer, from movie nights, live music, and karaoke to fine dining, afternoon tea service, and a 4th of July fireworks spectacular (pretty bitchen) \u2014 the ship herself is the main attraction.\"CaptainCaptain James Sanders and Managing Director Steve Caloca prepare to \u201crechristen\u201d the Queen Mary.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s never gonna be like 1936 \u2014 for better or worse
Despite Caloca\u2019s comment at the rechristening, the goal isn\u2019t actually to make coming aboard the Queen Mary like going back to 1936. There\u2019s now a pickleball court, for example; and the relatively new \u201cgame room\u201d has three TVs despite being only around 400 sq. ft.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we reopened the ship in 2023 [after being closed for four years due to the COVID pandemic], we looked at all of the areas, and once we had our strategy \u2014 that in 10 years we want the ship to look like she did in 1936 \u2014 we went into the Observation Bar, and there were TVs in there,\u201d says Caloca. \u201c[\u2026] It was something like, \u2018We need to get rid of these, but we have customers [\u2026] who want to watch their sports.\u2019 [\u2026] There was a storage room nearby, so we were like, \u2018Let\u2019s put the TVs in there, [with] some nice furniture and games in there for the kids and adults.\u2019 [\u2026] We\u2019re operating as a 300-room hotel within a museum, so we need some of these amenities to make people want to stay here. Like the sports deck at the very top [of the ship], with a pickleball court [\u2026] and a putting green.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fortunately, if these (let\u2019s call them) modern conveniences aren\u2019t to your taste, the ship is plenty big enough so that you can easily avoid going anywhere near them.<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s that irresponsible hallmark of the present day
There are no drinking fountains on the Queen Mary, so here and there \u2014 at least during special events \u2014 you come across ad hoc water stations where you can help yourself, in addition to a couple of temporary bars. But if you don\u2019t have your own cup or canteen, your only option is disposable plastic. Bottled water. Stack after stack of plastic cups. It\u2019s an ugly reminder of the worst of the 21st century: that even though everyone is aware that plastic\/oil dependence is ruining our environment, many of us (businesses and individuals) will not make even the slightest effort to do our part to mitigate the damage.<\/p>\n

As someone who recently wrote an Earth Day piece titled \u2018My friends\u2019 plastic \u201cfuck you\u201d to their own children,\u2019<\/a> I couldn\u2019t help but ask Caloca about why, with cardboard and compostable cups so readily available, the Queen Mary is choosing to contribute so conspicuously and avoidably to the problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe reopened in 2023, and that is part of our plan: to be as sustainable as possible,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019re actually talking right now about putting water stations throughout the ship so people can bring their own and not have to rely on bottled water. [\u2026] If we can get rid of plastic in due time, that\u2019s a great thing for everybody. And we all feel pretty strongly about that. That\u2019s something we are planning to address for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because he didn\u2019t really answer my question, as diplomatically as possible I asked whether there is any concrete reason that they haven\u2019t already done this \u2014 or at least will simply start right now \u2014 since all it takes is for the decision-makers to choose to buy biodegradable cups in lieu of plastic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of really important low-hanging fruit that we can address \u2014 like the cups. [\u2026] It\u2019s definitely possible, it\u2019s definitely something we could do,\u201d he says. \u201c[\u2026] It\u2019s definitely something we plan to address. It\u2019s not like it\u2019s 10 years down the line; it\u2019s definitely something we plan to address. There\u2019s a lot of low-hanging fruit we\u2019re getting to as fast as we can \u2014 and sustainability is definitely one of those things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sigh. \u201cCan you give me a concrete reason this specific thing hasn\u2019t been addressed?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, it\u2019s probably just something that hasn\u2019t come up on our planning \u2014 because everything we do is in five-year plans,\u201d he says. Then, after a quick pause: \u201cTo be honest, that\u2019s probably wrong, what I just said, because the planning is for the big things, right? Painting here, putting new flooring down here, [etc.]. So something like [eliminating plastic cups] easily could easily be something\u2026It may be that\u2019s not too far off. But no, I can\u2019t give you a reason. The point you bring up is great. It\u2019s definitely something we will look at.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s to the Queen Mary\u2019s next 10 years being the golden era they promise \u2014 in all possible ways.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A beautiful shp (and her lesser companion) In the middle of May 27\u2019s day-long event to commemorate the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352347,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[23050,96450,131,133,132,9722],"class_list":["post-352346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-lbc","tag-queenmary","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-rln"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}