story and photos by Kayte Deioma
You can’t go wrong on a rainy day in Long Beach taking the kids out for a day at the Aquarium of the Pacific. A real deluge might keep the Lorikeet forest closed, but it won’t bother the sharks and rays in the outdoor touch pools. It will just scare away a bit of the competition for a good position to two-finger touch these creatures of the sea.
Most of the Pacific Ocean animals on display in the Aquarium can be viewed without your umbrella. The Weird, Wild and Wonderful Passport Book that you receive at the entrance helps identify the various underwater residents as you go. It includes a fun quiz at the back for school-age children or anyone who wants to test their memory. Weekdays the schools of fish are visited by schools of little people identified with matching bandanas, hats or T-shirts.
In the main hall you are greeted by a life-size sculpture of a blue whale and 
her calf suspended from the ceiling. The Aquarium is divided into geographic regions which reproduce the local habitat for the undersea inhabitants of that area. At the end of the hall, the Blue Cavern exhibit, extending two stories high, represents the habitat of the Southern California Coast and Islands. At feeding time, you can see exotic Homo sapiens in scuba gear swimming among the California barracudas, shovelnose guitarfish and leopard sharks. Volunteer divers give underwater presentations several times a day. The two-legged scuba-fish also make appearances in the Tropical Reef Exhibit.
It is easy to become transfixed for long periods of times watching the translucent jellies floating through the blue water of the Open Ocean or waiting to see if the balloonfish are going to balloon in the Sea of Cortez. If it’s too wet to have the Seals and Sea Lion presentation outside, you can still view these sea mammals from inside the Southern California and Baja Gallery. You can also watch the sea otters cavort and play in and out of water in the Northern Pacific Gallery.
In the outdoor section of the Southern California and Baja Exhibit, you can give the two-finger touch to a giant green anemone, purple sea urchin or bat star in the sheltered Rocky Intertidal exhibit or to the nearby stingrays and whiptail rays competing for your attention in the Ray Touchpool. Downstairs you can pet the white-spotted bamboo sharks, zebra sharks and many other small shark varieties in the Shark Lagoon.
Films and presentations are scheduled throughout the day in the Honda Theater near the entrance and in the outdoor Marine Life Theater, weather permitting. Guided hour-long “Behind the Scenes” Tours for visitors seven years old or above are available daily for an additional fee. On weekends, you can make a reservation for Animal Encounters, which will allow you to get up close and personal while you feed the animals with the Aquarium staff. Children have to be at least ten years old to feed the seals and sea lions and 13 to feed the sharks.
The Aquarium of the Pacific has a wonderfully informative web site at www.aquariumofpacific.org including a fun Animal Database. Price and schedule information on the web site may be out of date. For current information call (562) 437-3474.
If you only have a couple hours, skip the guide and start with the self-guided walking tour of the ship. The walking tour takes you through exhibit areas not visited by any of the guided tours. These exhibits include original furnishings from the ship’s dual lives as a cruise ship and a military transport. General Admission includes the self-guided tour map and the Ghosts and Legends of the Queen Mary special effects show. If it’s raining, bring your umbrella. You’ll want to step outside for a few minutes on the upper decks.
Up on the Sports Deck, the self-guided tour continues to the ship’s Communications Center and the Wireless Room, where you might catch members of a local amateur radio station on the air. Toward the bow of the ship you can visit an exhibit of the original officers’ quarters, and the Bridge and Wheelhouse. Alas, you can’t stand at the helm or any of the dozen roped-off controls. But you can get closer to the charts and maybe a ghost or two next door in the Chart Room.
Down one level, soldiers sleeping, playing, sick and at-arms populate the WWII exhibit along the port side. Along starboard is a historic exhibit of the cruise ship hospital, barber shop, and gymnasium – all looking more torturous than you might expect on a luxury cruise. There is also a charming nursery, where the sound of children playing could be your imagination or a paranormal encounter.
gleaming wood-paneled walls curve around a newsstand, oriental gifts and souvenir shops. Several eating establishments including the Starboard Bakery (featuring Starbucks coffee if you’re dying for a caffeine fix), the Promenade Café, Chelsea Restaurant (dinner only) and California Shakes are also on Promenade Deck. The Promenade Gallery with original artwork from the Queen Mary is also on this level
Retrace your steps and take the escalator or elevator down and out to street level and turn right where a stairway leads up to the entrance of the Ghosts and Legends of the Queen Mary special effects show. Beware! Loud noises and flashing lights may scare small children. Shows take 30 minutes and start every hour at quarter past.
On the day of my visit, a half dozen eight to ten-year-old boys are along on the tour. They had been scared off the previous hour at the point where the big scary door opens and you can see light and smoke behind the door. That is to say, the entrance itself scared them off. But they are back. They huddle together, arms over each others’ shoulders as our guide leads the way through the sinister door.
the nearest exit. One of the boys who has apparently experienced the show before is encouraging the others. “It’s not scary. It’s not real. It’s like Universal Studios.” And in fact, once inside, they seem to take the exploding boiler, haunted swimming pool and leaking hull in stride. Just the right amount of scary to thrill a nine-year-old.
Deck and gives an introduction. He tells us about the ship’s construction and launch and its maiden voyage in May 1936 from South Hampton, England to New York, with a stop in Cherbourg, France. From 1940 to 1944, the ship was drafted into service as a troop ship. After the war she was refurbished and set back into use as a luxury ocean liner in 1947. She was retired in 1967 and sold to the City of Long Beach, where she arrived in December after crossing the Atlantic 1001 times. After being remodeled as a hotel and exhibit, the ship opened up to the public in her current location in 1971 .
painting,Madonna of the Atlantic, which used to hang in the first class sitting room. The small Gallery exhibits a diverse collection of artwork, custom furnishings, fabrics, Art Deco ornamentation, silver service, down to the Stuart Crystal stemware used in the first class dining room.
Bar and Cocktail Lounge which gives a view out to the bow of the ship. According to Joe, the Observation Bar was closed during rough weather “because the bow of the ship was known to plunge below the water line.” In the Observation Bar, the bar itself is along the bulkhead. Alfred R. Thomson’s mural, The Royal Jubilee Week is on the wall above. A highly sculpted ornamental balustrade by Austen Compton Roberts runs throughout the entire bar. The Observation Bar is a popular movie location, recently seen in The Aviator with Leonardo DiCaprio.
passengers would listen to music and socialize. Three decks high, sunlight comes into the Salon from the Sports Deck above, reflecting off the three different kinds of “beautiful woods” that panel the ceiling, walls and pillars. The artwork has a musical theme to reflect the room’s intended purpose, with etchings around the mirrors and Maurice Lambert’s reliefs entitledSymphony over the doorway and main stage. On the forward wall, a carved gesso panel tinted silver and gold by Alfred J. Oakley and Gilbert Bayes entitled Unicorns in Battle, is the second largest piece of artwork on the ship. In the evenings, the rug would be rolled up exposing the oak parquet floors and the First Class Lounge became a ballroom.
Next Joe takes us down into the passenger accommodations to visit a first class premier suite with a bedroom, two bathrooms, a large sitting area, maid’s quarters and luggage storage. In the bathroom, in addition to four knobs on the tub faucet, two for salt water and two for fresh water, red and green call buttons on the tub could call a men’s or lady’s bath steward to scrub your back or hand you your towel from the heated towel rack.
which had separate pool hours for men and women. While first class passengers enjoyed their afternoon tea, third class passengers had one hour to use the pool. “Afterwards the pool was drained, scrubbed down and refilled with warm saltwater,” Joe tells us. The second class passengers had their own pool which is no longer on the ship.