story and photos by Kayte Deioma
We meet our guide, Yolanda Muńoz, near the entrance to the Engine Room. Along on the tour are Deborah and Joey Lane of Arizona Paranormal Investigations and their 14-year-old son Jordan. They have their Queen Mary Passports handy, ready to participate in the Ghost Sighting Scavenger Hunt. They have already seen an unusual orb appearing in their digital images shot near the engine room.
The tour starts with a film introduction in a small theatre that used to be the second class swimming pool. We get our first introduction to the ghost of a little girl who seems to have the run of the ship and beyond. She has been heard and seen in this area. As we leave the theatre, Yolanda tells us it’s best to stay silent to experience the atmosphere of each location.
We head down a stairway to an area known as Shaft Alley. Yolanda tells us 
of a young sailor who was found crushed by one of the water-tight doors after a fog alarm prompted all doors to the boilers and engine rooms to be closed. “Rumor has it…” she says “that the sailor was playing chicken to see how many times he could jump through the door before it closed. He made it six and a half times
” she concludes, with a ghoulish lilt to her voice. The specter of a bearded young man in coveralls has been seen in various parts of the ship and heard whistling through the boiler rooms.
We are led through an exhibit hall that used to be a boiler room. Apparently when the ship was purchased, part of the agreement was that it had to be dismantled so that it could no longer travel under its own power. The boilers where taken apart and removed through the smoke stacks. Now there’s a dance floor where there used to be a boiler. An apparition of a little blond girl in a bonnet has appeared to various workers here.
The little girl has also appeared in boiler rooms 1 and 2, which are used for the Ghosts and Legends Show. Joey Lane of Arizona Paranormal Investigations, who normally has no fear of heights, experiences a sudden inability to look down crossing the wide platform over the boiler rooms.
We are back in the first class swimming pool. The pool is a popular hang-out for spirits. The little girl, a young woman in a tennis skirt and a woman in a bridal gown have all been spotted here as well as miscellaneous other paranormal phenomena. I finally learn why the pool is not in use. Even without resident ghosts, the 12 foot depth of the pool is too deep for California State Code.
Yolanda leads us in groups of four to the changing room area adjacent to the pool. There is reported to be a vortex here, “a whirlpool of energy circulating in a spiral motion, which allows the spirit to enter and leave this dimension.” We extend our hands over the spot to see if we can feel it
an electric tingle, a breeze from nowhere.
Next stop is Room B340, one of the staterooms that became part of the hotel. 
It is no longer used as a hotel room because too many visitors and cleaning crew complained of disturbances in the room. Lights and water faucets go on by themselves. Bedding flies around on its own. Knocking is heard in the middle of the night. Although this room is no longer available to hotel guests, other haunted rooms and suites can still be reserved by the paranormally curious.
After the tour, three of the visitors discuss whether the child they heard laughing in the hall on R Deck was real or not. The rest of us didn’t hear anything. Yolanda doesn’t think anyone would have been in the area besides us.
“In certain areas I felt electricity going through my skin,” reports Deborah Lane, one of our paranormal investigators from Arizona. “Other areas felt very thick,” she adds. “It’s definitely haunted.”
Theoretically, our Haunted Encounters ticket also entitles us to a visit to the Paranormal Research Center located on A Deck in the bow (front) of the ship near the exit from the Ghosts and Legends Show. We follow a maze of signs to a pair of plain brown doors which are firmly locked.
Climbing down into the cramped quarters of the sub, you might get the impression of crawling through a children’s maze at Discovery Zone except for the posted warnings: “Submarine is still in operational condition. Please do not operate any equipment.” Since there’s no room for a tour guide, a voice recording tells you the function of each compartment. Seventy-eight crew members were packed together like sardines for up to three months at a time in this 300-foot nickel steel tube. They shared two showers and three toilets and slept in shifts.
Six giant torpedo tubes greet you as you climb down the ladder. Doubling over to climb through a hatch into the next compartment, you just about bump into the periscope. You have to bend over or crouch down to look through, but the awesome optics give you a great up-close view of the Shoreline Marina across the bay.
of dials and wheels available to my curious hands and wonder at what they might do. While the controls are exposed, the radio equipment and bunks in the next compartment are protected by glass partitions. We get a glimpse in the kitchen and a look at some submarine guts through glass panels before we pass some more exposed bunks and an escape suit. We make our own escape up the aft ladder and back out to daylight.
nail salon and periodic therapeutic massage from physical therapists and acupuncturists in clinical settings. So, for the sake of research, I have to try out these treatments that managed to stay on the spa menu for 70 years. Both of these historical services are incorporated into the Queen’s Royal Secret, a luxurious hour-long facial followed by a half hour general body massage.
The smiling Jennifer greets me from behind her art deco glass counter in the gleaming wood-paneled reception area. Potted plants in the curtained portholes add a homey touch. A pitcher of water with strawberries and orange and cucumber slices stands invitingly on the counter. After filling out the requisite paperwork, Jennifer introduces me to Joseph Garcia, my “esthetician.” I wonder when they dropped the aesthetic a.
cleansers, a gentle rice-based exfoliant
discovered by women working rice fields in Asia
and why do I need to remember this again? Oh yeah, research. A gentle massage of my face
hands
arms
shoulders with stress relief and toxin relief oil. All the stress is gone. In between layers I glean from Joseph that he has also done make-up for Pamela Anderson, LA Fashion Week, photographers and filmmakers, as well as visitors to the Queen’s Spa.
Hot towel. Painted on masks – two flavors at once. Eyes covered. Now comes the traditional infra-red lamp. Joseph brings something warm and heavy, smelling of oatmeal and places it over my already-covered eyes.
a few more moments and the weight is lifted. The darkness is peeled away. Another hot towel, then a spray of cool mist toner, hydrating booster, moisturizer, sunscreen, protective sealer to keep the pollutants at bay
As the last layer is smoothed over my skin, I am thinking
this is the best hour of work I have ever accomplished. And there’s more to come