Swimming pools, boiler rooms and laughing children, oh my!! Is the Queen Mary haunted?
In this new millennium the paranormal gets as much airtime as Elvis once did. Cable television is filled with programs about good ghosts, bad ghosts, young ghosts, old ghosts, famous ghosts and ghosts that just want to be left alone. Almost any town in America will have its own ghost. Heck, when I was growing up in the little town of Byars, Oklahoma, population 73, we had our own haunted graveyard complete with swirling mist and as an extra added bonus there was the old man on horseback who would stop to chat with unsuspecting young boys and girls then disappear. This sighting came from a very reliable source even though I didn't actually see him. So is it any wonder that eventually a ghost or two would make an appearance on one of the most famous ships ever to sail the oceans. The Queen Mary has been featured on many of the paranormal programs on both television and radio. George Noree, host of the "Coast To Coast" radio program broadcasted nightly across the nation has featured the QM a number of times. I've even taken the "ghost tour" aboard the Queen, but wasn't rewarded with an appearance of anything frightening, but that doesn't mean anything, I also toured the Winchester House in Sacramento and the only scary thing there was a surly tour guide. If you're one of the millions interested in the paranormal and find yourself in the Long Beach area you'd be doing yourself a great disservice if you didn't at the very least take the Ghost Tour aboard the QM. You can purchase a Haunted Encounter Passport, which will admit you to the Paranormal Research Center onboard. Also, you'll attend a special effects show that dramatizes actual paranormal events that have occurred aboard the ship.
If the tour alone isn't enough to satisfy your ghostly urges, take in the Dining With The Spirits every Saturday night beginning at seven thirty. The evening begins with a dinner at Sir Winston's restaurant. Following dinner you will be taken on a tour of some of the "Paranormal Hot Spots" of ship, not ordinarily accessible to the general public. Not only can you dine with the ghosts, you can bunk with them also, but don't expect to stay in room B340. A ships purser was murdered there and reports are that the room has so much unexplained activity that it's no longer rented out. The 2nd class passengers pool is another active area. Children's laughter can be heard and little wet footprints will appear without little feet or little children being present. The one haunting that is really spooky is that of the cook that was murdered by being stuffed in an oven simply because the sailors didn't like his cooking. Well, it was during WWII and it was a stressful time and one could place part of the blame on the Navy for not providing complaint boxes on the ship. Anyway, they say you can still hear his screams coming from the galley area.
Psychics say there are over 150 spirits aboard the ship, so it wouldn't be out of the question to bump into at least one of them. As you walk down the hallways or by the swimming pool, keep in mind what Hamlet once said...There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,Than are dreamt of in our philosophy. Happy Ghost Hunting.
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