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As ship and work of art, the QM still an original
BY DALE K. DuPONT
ddupont@herald.com
Posted on Sun, Jan. 25, 2004
The original Queen Mary is hosting cruise passengers again -- if only fleetingly.
The Art Deco ship, permanently docked in Long Beach, Calif., since 1967, is adjacent to a new $40 million terminal that Carnival Corp. opened in April.
Passengers on the Ecstasy and the Pride who arrive early can check in for their cruise in a lounge on the Queen Mary and take a look at the ship that's now a hotel and tourist attraction.
The new terminal is expected to bring between 300,000 and 500,000 people to the area. And tourism promoters hope the early arrivals and others will decide to stay and visit a cruise ship whose maiden voyage was in 1936.
''The Queen Mary has been a great icon for the city,'' said Steve Goodling, president of the Long Beach Area Convention & Visitors Bureau. ``It has separated us from other destinations in Southern California.''
The ship and the Aquarium of the Pacific are major attractions. Goodling says he doesn't know of many cities ``that have a floating, historic cruise line you can have a party on.''
And parties are part of the Queen Mary's current business. The ship gets about 1.2 million visitors a year, said Joseph Prevratil, president and chief executive officer of Queen's Seaport Development, which runs the ship.
His company took over the operation in 1993, when it signed a 66-year lease with the city of Long Beach. Cunard sold the Queen Mary to the city for $3.45 million.
Approximately 300,000 stay at the 365-room hotel, 500,000 visit the ship just as an attraction, and the rest come for such special events as weddings and high school proms.
Room rates range from $109 for an inside stateroom to $500 for the Royalty Suite. The hotel averages 65 percent occupancy year round. Prevratil says it's full every Friday and Saturday night.
The ship also does about $32 million a year in revenue and either makes some money or breaks even every year. Prevratil estimates that his firm has invested $17 million to $18 million in capital improvements.
Not long after the ship tied up in California for good, Evelyn Kischefsky went to visit this vessel that held sweet memories for her. In 1959, the Miami resident sailed on the Queen Mary from New York to Southampton with her four children, ages 5 to 13. Her folks were in England, and they had yet to see the kids.
''I thought it was fabulous,'' she said of the trip. ``We were in awe of everything.''
Now she hopes to get a glimpse of the new Queen Mary when it arrives at Port Everglades on Monday.
Prevratil, meanwhile, just hopes that, after ``all the whoop-de-do is over, the QM2 will be able to come out this way once.''
That would require a trip around Cape Horn, since the ship can't fit through the Panama Canal.
ddupont@herald.com
Posted on Sun, Jan. 25, 2004
The original Queen Mary is hosting cruise passengers again -- if only fleetingly.
The Art Deco ship, permanently docked in Long Beach, Calif., since 1967, is adjacent to a new $40 million terminal that Carnival Corp. opened in April.
Passengers on the Ecstasy and the Pride who arrive early can check in for their cruise in a lounge on the Queen Mary and take a look at the ship that's now a hotel and tourist attraction.
The new terminal is expected to bring between 300,000 and 500,000 people to the area. And tourism promoters hope the early arrivals and others will decide to stay and visit a cruise ship whose maiden voyage was in 1936.
''The Queen Mary has been a great icon for the city,'' said Steve Goodling, president of the Long Beach Area Convention & Visitors Bureau. ``It has separated us from other destinations in Southern California.''
The ship and the Aquarium of the Pacific are major attractions. Goodling says he doesn't know of many cities ``that have a floating, historic cruise line you can have a party on.''
And parties are part of the Queen Mary's current business. The ship gets about 1.2 million visitors a year, said Joseph Prevratil, president and chief executive officer of Queen's Seaport Development, which runs the ship.
His company took over the operation in 1993, when it signed a 66-year lease with the city of Long Beach. Cunard sold the Queen Mary to the city for $3.45 million.
Approximately 300,000 stay at the 365-room hotel, 500,000 visit the ship just as an attraction, and the rest come for such special events as weddings and high school proms.
Room rates range from $109 for an inside stateroom to $500 for the Royalty Suite. The hotel averages 65 percent occupancy year round. Prevratil says it's full every Friday and Saturday night.
The ship also does about $32 million a year in revenue and either makes some money or breaks even every year. Prevratil estimates that his firm has invested $17 million to $18 million in capital improvements.
Not long after the ship tied up in California for good, Evelyn Kischefsky went to visit this vessel that held sweet memories for her. In 1959, the Miami resident sailed on the Queen Mary from New York to Southampton with her four children, ages 5 to 13. Her folks were in England, and they had yet to see the kids.
''I thought it was fabulous,'' she said of the trip. ``We were in awe of everything.''
Now she hopes to get a glimpse of the new Queen Mary when it arrives at Port Everglades on Monday.
Prevratil, meanwhile, just hopes that, after ``all the whoop-de-do is over, the QM2 will be able to come out this way once.''
That would require a trip around Cape Horn, since the ship can't fit through the Panama Canal.