The Queen Mary in Long Beach
After her retirement in 1967, she steamed to Long Beach, California on the west coast of the United States, where she is now permanently moored as a tourist attraction. From 1980 to 1993, the Queen Mary was accompanied by Howard Hughes' Spruce Goose, which was located in a large dome nearby (the dome is used by Carnival Cruise Lines as a ship terminal as well as a soundstage).
Long Beach however did not buy the Queen Mary to preserve her as an ocean liner - they needed her for another reason. Since they started drilling for oil in Long Beach Harbor, some of the money raised from it had been set aside in a fund called the "Tidelands Oil Fund". Some of this money was allocated in 1958 to buy a maritime museum for Long Beach at some time in the future. The Queen Mary was purchased to act as the iconic host for this museum. It was purchased as a conveniently sized building with a name attached to it.
The Queen Mary as a tourist attraction
On May 8, 1971, the Queen Mary finally opened its doors to tourists. Initially, only portions of the ship were open to the public as Specialty Restaurants had yet to open its dining venues or the hotel. As a result, the ship was only open on weekends. In December of that year, Jacques Cousteau's Museum of the Sea opened, with only a quarter of the planned exhibits built. Within the decade, Cousteau's museum closed due to low ticket sales. In November of the following year, the hotel opened its initial 150 guest rooms. Hyatt operated the hotel from 1974 to 1980, when the Wrather Corporation signed a 66-year lease with the city of Long Beach to operate the entire property. Wrather was taken over by the Walt Disney Company in 1988, Wrather owned the Disneyland Hotel, which Disney had been trying to buy for 30 years; the Queen Mary was thus an afterthought and was never marketed as a Disney property. Through the late eighties and early ninties, the Queen Mary continued to struggle financially. During the Disney years, Disney planned to develop a theme park on the remaining land. This theme park eventually opened a decade later in Japan as DisneySea, with a recreated oceanliner resembling the Queen Mary as its centerpiece. Hotel Queen Mary closed in 1992 when Disney gave up the lease on the ship to focus its attention on what would eventually become Disney's California Adventure. The tourist attraction remained open for another two months, but by the end of 1992, the Queen Mary completely closed its doors to tourists and visitors.
In February of 1993, under the direction of President and C.E.O. Joseph F. Prevratil, RMS Foundation, Inc began a five-year lease with the city of Long Beach to act as the operators of the property. Later that month, the tourist attraction reopened completely, while the hotel reopened in March. In 1995, RMS's lease was extended to twenty years while the extent of the lease was reduced to simply operation of the ship itself. A new company, Queen's Seaport Development, Inc. (QSDI)came into existence in 1995 controlling the real estate adjacent to the vessel. In 1998, the City of Long Beach extended the QSDI lease to 66 years. 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 interesting in taking over the lease from QSDI. The minimum required opening bid was $41M. The operation of the ship,by RMS, remained independent of the bankruptcy. O&S Holdings of Santa Monica Ca was the only group to qualify as of July 2007.(update)At the auction for the ships lease and development rights, A group called Save the Queen, won the lease and plans to refurbish the ship, and develop a Universal Citywalk type Theme resort, shared with Carnival Cruise Lines, and the ships previous operators, The RMS Fondation, which will include, a marina, hotels, retail, and restaurants.
|
Back to Search Results
) 
Handcrafted Model Ships
Print
Report item
and your