After we were done at the aquarium,
we headed over to tour the Queen Mary.
Because we are cheapskates, we paid for the
cheapest tour we could get -$12/person for an hour tour.
It was impossible to get a picture of the entire ship with
my little point-and-shoot camera.
On a side note, we could have done a tour of a soviet submarine -
if we weren't cheap, and if we would have got there while
they were still doing tours.
Fail and fail!
Here's a little better picture of the sub taken while on
board the Queen Mary.
First line of business, take a picture of us on the ship,
while the wind is blowing 100 miles an hour.
I'll be honest, I don't remember too many specifics of the tour,
I was too busy being amazed at everything...it was so shiny!
I do remember that this is the picture of Queen Mary herself.
I think this was called the Promenade,
but don't quote me on that.
It had a couple little shops there,
and we later found out that D Day papers were
actually signed in a room on the left.
I believe this was the 1st class ballroom
(Yes they had different class everything on the ship).
The little squares you can see I believe held projectors
or something like that.
The wood and artwork was amazing!
So much detail.
This was our tour guide.
He was giving us a little history on the Queen Mary and other ships
fates around the time that the Queen Mary was built.
Apparently, she is the only one still "standing", ur umm "floating".
There was the RMS Queen Mary and RMS Queen Elizabeth,
the one on the far left was a French ship that was loaned to us
by France, and we (the United States) ended up catching it on
fire and sinking it.
Oopsy!
When World War II broke out,
the converted her to a troopship.
She would ferry servicemen back and forth,
and apparently at one point in time they had 16,600 men on board the ship.
It was so crowded that the were literally shoulder to shoulder,
and had to do rotations to sleep.
Men were even sleeping in the swimming pool
(that was drained, of course).
Here is a terrible photograph of the servicemen on the ship.
It is said that it was even more crowded on the opposite end of the ship.
After we got a little history,
the tour guide took us to a suite.
Keep in mind this ship had its maiden voyage in 1936.
and minus the flat screen TV and a couple of other
updates, the suite still looks pretty similar to the original.
As you walk in to the suite, you immediately see the sitting area above.
There is a door that leads to the bedroom with a little bathroom attached.
There were two bathrooms if I remember correctly,
one in the sitting area, and one in the bedroom,
but I could be mistaken.
Before you left the suite,
there was a servant/maids quarters (see above).
Pretty impressive and very expensive for the times.
This is the dining area, and the tour guide said
that it is still used today for special events.
I loved this.
It showed the passage of the ship, and had a star that was lit
on the bottom of it, as you can probably tell.
Most of the decorations and decor on the ship are art deco.
The ship had an indoor swimming pool,
that is supposedly haunted, but I didn't personally
meet any ghosts on my short little visit.
They had a display of workout equipment that I thought was funny.
I think I need to try that fat jiggler machine.
After the tour ended, we ate dinner on board
at one of their cafes, and then just wandered
around until about 9:30 PM.
I thought this was a pretty cool shot of the life boats.
It looked like they could hold at least 50 people.
And of course we had to get one superfluous shot to end the evening.
Doesn't Long Beach look amazing in the background.
That pretty much was the end of our trip,
but I did see one more thing on our way home.
Any guesses what?
(Clue: It's not super exciting)
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