Queen Mary's Hotel Gets Closer To Reopening As Critical Repairs Begin

LONG BEACH, CA — The last round of critical repairs on the Historic Queen Mary required to reopen the hotel, restaurants, bars and other amenities are well underway as of the end of January, Long Beach officials announced Tuesday.

The city has begun preparation work for the installation of new boilers and heat exchangers, piping and electrical pneumatics. Once the repairs have been made, Evolution Hospitality staff can start to reopen the additional elements.

"The amount of critical work put into our icon, the Queen Mary, over the last year has been incredible to watch,” said Mayor Rex Richardson. “We are almost there for our targeted reopening later this spring. I look forward to welcoming more visitors back onboard this historic landmark soon.”

Currently, demolition work for the ship's existing boilers and heat exchangers is underway and is expected to be completed over the next few weeks, city officials said. The installation of the new boilers and heat exchangers will supply hot water for cooking, cleaning, sanitizing and other hospitality amenities.

Alongside the repairs, other concurrent projects are expected to be completed before the Queen Mary's reopening including:

• Upgrades to the ship's main boarding entrance
  • This includes repairs to the Wharf and Promenade Deck gangways, elevator repair and modernization and painting, lighting and other enhancements to the entire Wharf area.
• Restroom repairs
• Flooring replacements and ceiling paint and tile repair in the Promenade Deck's Main Hall
• HVAC repair and floor and window repairs in the Observation Bar
• Parking lot repairs
• Kitchen and restaurant improvements

“We’ve worked so hard to preserve and uphold this community treasure and we are so excited to share our progress with our community soon,” said First District Councilwoman Mary Zendejas.

The Queen Mary closed to the public in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and only became open to the public recently for tours throughout December and January, which have since concluded. Prior to the tours, the ship was available for filming and special events to help generate revenue to support ship operations.

The total projected cost for all of the repairs and improvements was $23 million according to an inspection report released in April of 2021.