4/26/13: The Queen Mary in Long Beach, CA - Absolutely Amazing!

We were extremely lucky to be able to tour and stay over aboard the Queen Mary.  My son has been reading every book he can find about the Titanic recently and loves watching the movie and learning about it so he was really looking forward to going aboard a real ship.

 There are several tours that you can take while aboard the ship.  We took the Glory Days Tour, The Ghosts and Legends tour, the Submarine Tour, a Self-Guided Tour, plus explored the Princess Diana exhibit.  All the tours are listed on their website and packages of tours are available.  Adding to the fact that we stayed over on the ship and ate dinner and breakfast there it was a wonderful experience for all of us.

 Even my husband was in awe of the ship and absolutely loved walking around it.  Did you know that The Queen Mary is much larger than the Titanic?  We learned this on the tour along with some very cool facts about how it used to be on the ship.

 It is so beautiful and you can pretty much walk wherever you want on the boat and check everything out.

Here are the kids taking control of the ship.  Luckily it doesn't move.

So cool!

Amazing!

 Here is a beautiful view of the city from the ship.

We were given a Family Suite to stay in and I must say it was the best hotel room we had out of our whole trip.  We had a King sized bed in one room.  More information is here on staying aboard.

 Plus the kids had a separate room with two twin beds with a door between.  Plus our own private bathroom with shower and tub, and another sink in the kids room.

 Also the view from the port hole was really beautiful.

First we headed to the Princess Diana exhibit.  I was lucky to have a Press Pass so I was allowed to take pictures and give you a sneak peek.  There were beautiful photos of the Princess plus a lot of memorabilia about her life.

We particularly enjoyed looking at all of her beautiful dresses.

Lauren and Evan checking out her vanity.

My favorite items were the personal Christmas cards from the family.  I loved seeing these.

So many beautiful items to look at.

 Dolls showing some of her fashions. 

 Lauren on the telephone listening to a message that was left for Princess Diana.

 Beautiful picture from her wedding.

Her Tiara. 

 Love this birth announcement!

Then we headed back on the ship to take the self guided tour and see as much as we could see before the guided tours.

 So beautiful.

You can go down to the engine room which Evan enjoyed. 

You can even see the propeller lit up.

Here are the beautiful decks. There is one main deck with shops and restaurants.

The hallways.

Here is the Banquet Hall. 

The original bell. 

A view of the Gazebo and deck at night.  You can also have your wedding on board the Queen Mary.  How cool is that? 

 A view of the city at night from the ship.

They have a lot of Ghost Tours on the ship that are cool to check out.  We went on one which the kids made it half way through but then got too scared.  We did get to see the pool at least, and with some special effects there was so fog in the pool after.

 

Here are the kids outside one of the stores with one of the big cute bears.

 This is one of the restaurants we ate at.  It is called the Promenade Cafe and the food was really good.  We ate there for dinner and for breakfast in the morning which was a buffet.

 Here is a view from the restaurant.

 We also took the self guided tour of the Russian Scorpion Submarine.  It takes about a half hour to walk through and there are recordings going on in each area.  I still can't believe 75 people lived on this submarine!

So cool. 

The kids thought this was really cool.

Here is a beautiful view of the submarine from the Queen Mary. 

 Lauren checking everything out.

 Tight squeeze to make it through the compartments.

Can you imagine living on here? 

Lauren checking out what is going on up on the land. 

What an amazing visit! 

 It is an absolutely amazing experience being on the ship and I know my family loved it and so will yours!

 

 Find them online here:  http://www.queenmary.com/
They have a Mother's Day Brunch coming up that you can check out: http://www.queenmary.com/dining/mothers-day-brunch.php

Like them on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/thequeen.mary

Follow them on Twitter:  @TheQueenMary

Disclosure:  I was provided free tours on the Queen Mary in addition to a media rate for our room.  No other compensation was received and all opinions are my own.