Tour The RMS Queen Mary's Famously Haunted Halls, Now Reopened

LONG BEACH, CA — The famous Historic Queen Mary ghost tour is back and better than ever after three years of hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic and extensive ship repairs.

Tours finally reopened to the public on April 1 and have been sold out since tickets became available, and the homecoming of the Haunted Encounters tour had visitors chomping at the bit to return to the Queen Mary's haunted halls. Over the weekend, Patch got to tag along on one of the sold-out tours.

The tour includes many infamous ghost stories collected from various patrons and staff members over the years. Guests might be able to have a paranormal experience of their own as tour guides lead them through the ship's most haunted areas where people have reported seeing apparitions or hearing phantom noises during their time aboard.

One such story surrounds a grand piano that guests have reported hearing play on its own and sometimes seeing the "Lady in White," a woman said to be wearing a wedding dress that can be seen dancing or playing the piano.

A "ghost sighting" plaque hangs on a wall near the piano telling the story of a mother sitting in a chair in the lobby of the ship's hotel and her daughter sitting at the piano late one night. Suddenly, both of them heard a simple melody coming from the piano before it just as suddenly stopped.

"The woman asked if her daughter had taken up the piano recently, to which the daughter replied that she had never even removed her hands from her pockets. The piano played by itself," the plaque reads.

The story of the Lady in White is just one of the many stories featured on the famous Haunted Encounters tour, which includes tales of ghostly apparitions of Winston Churchill, the "most haunted" hotel room on the ship and a little ghost girl named Jackie.

These tales have been shared many times over the years by tour guides and ghost-hunting shows alike, but the best way to experience the stories is by booking a tour to hear them in person.

Tickets for the tour are $10 for a one-hour-long session to learn about the different ghost stories surrounding the Queen Mary. To book a ticket for any of the guided tours, visit the ship's website.