The glorious, ghoulish return of The Queen Mary's Dark Harbor in Long Beach

The Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor returns after a nearly five-year hiatus. And it is a giddily ghoulish, masterfully macabre celebration of why the Queen is such a perfect icon for all things dark. With four new mazes dedicated to many of the horror characters of previous Dark Harbor events, this year’s Dark Harbor proves to be one of its best. (And yes, it honors the ship’s touted haunts far better than that horror flick aboard The Queen Mary released last year.)

Why Dark Harbor 2024 marks a wonderful return to a Long Beach staple

The real answer? The stellar production of the project, now under the helm of the much-respected-in-the-haunt-world Thirteenth Floor Entertainment Group. The production company—with offices in Austin, Denver, and Los Angeles—are behind some of the nation’s biggest haunt attractions. The Haunted Hayride in L.A. The New Orleans Nightmare—largely considered one of the best haunted houses in the country—and its Nashville sister. There’s the jealousy-inducing-because-it’s-not-here Old Joliet Haunted Prison in Chicago, which takes place in an abandoned, actual prison. They even have an interactive horror theatre company, Delusion, the only one of its kind in the nation.

And their stellar work in interactive horror experiences is reflected here. There’s four new mazes: Lullaby, which uses the ship’s infamously scary pool as its theme. Infirmary, playing on the horrors of early psychiatric wards. Breakout, featuring Samuel the Savage attempting to escape prison and reek havoc on a small town. And The Big Top, where the Ringmaster invites you into his world of clowns’n’chilling carnage. This is on top of the return of Feast, the butcher-gone-wild walk-through that takes up nearly the entirety of the front of the ship’s hull.

It’s wildly themed, from both inside the walk-throughs to exterior hangouts. There’s an entire bayou-themed area where a wood chip-floor acts as the base for voodoo happenings, a sunken ship speakeasy, hookah lounge, and an overall dedication to decoration that makes it one of the event’s most drawing areas.

And then actors: With several hundred performers—all entirely decked out in makeup and character development—this Dark Harbor is back with a vengeance.