Day 10: The Queen Mary Room B-340
The Queen Mary is a retired British Ocean liner. The liner is now a hotel and is located in Long Beach, California. It is famous in it's own right but it's particularly famous for it's room B-340. It has been featured on Ghost Hunters, Most Haunted and was dubbed one of the 'Top 10 Most Haunted Places on Earth' by Time magazine. It is popular with paranormal investigators both professional and amateur and is available to the public if they wish to book and stay in it.
Within the room itself there have been things added to add to it's intrigue and story. In the en-suite the instructions on how to play 'Bloody Mary' are written on the wall. There is a column in the room and printed on the column are stories of other guests' experiences of being haunted in the room. On the table in the seating area is a crystal ball, crystal and a chest containing a ouija board and tarot cards. Whilst the ship as a whole has several ghost stories connected to it and is said to be haunted in other locations too, Room B-340 is the most haunted spot on the ship and many people swear that they have had paranormal experiences in that room.
Sceptics have many theories to explain people having apparently paranormal experiences in certain locations. Fevered imagination is one, sometimes when people expect to be haunted they convince themselves of paranormal activity which hasn't actually happened. When people experience physical discomfort it is sometimes explained by where exactly they are, such as how far above sea level they are and what the air pressure is like. Another theory is that at locations said to be haunted, there are things done by staff to ensure people have some sort of apparently paranormal experience. Strange noises, changes in temperature, voices, even apparitions are sometimes attributed to staff and special effects rather than genuine paranormal experiences.
Of course any haunted room needs a legend to explain why it is haunted. In this case, the story is that
"a family as brutally murdered in the room and their restless spirits are so active that they make the room unusable as a hotel room. The family was killed late in the evening and there are tales of ghostly moans coming out of thin air in the middle of the night, doors opening and closing of their own accord, taps in the bathroom turning on and off at will, one of the most enduring tales is about the covers on the bed moving after the bed is made and being pulled down to uncover wary guests when they sleep.
This last tale was the catalyst for the controversy involving the crew members of Ghost Hunters and an employee of the ship, all of whom accused the other of fraud when the show caught hat it thought was the covers moving, There was a slight problem with all of these ghost happenings and horribly active hotel room however, one of it ever happened. Room B-340 has never been a hotel room while the ship has been in the city Long Beach, has never had anyone murdered inside of it's doors and has always been used as storage until Disney decided to create the ghost legends tour. By the time the hotel opened in 1972, only 150 rooms had been completed and it was later found that the demand was not as high as expected so many of the rooms slated for conversion were left empty and used for storage. Room B-340 was one of those.
Once Disney began operating the ship, it looked for ways to draw more visitors and decided that playing on a very paranormal aspect of the ship was a good way to draw attention. Having heard the story of the father who murdered his family back in 1959, Disney decided to create a room here the ghosts related to this tale would reappear. however, since the room where the actual murders took place, B-74, has been converted into an unusable guest room, it was decided to use room B-340 instead and create a whole new storyline to frighten it's guests.
Over the years the tales of B-340 have taken on a life of their own and at will, people will even begin to imagine all sorts of things taking place. With each retelling the tale has grown until the truth about the alleged haunted room has been lost in time, that is not to say that there is no activity in the room, as every room on the Queen Mary can and will have spirit activity it is just that you will find no more and no less than in any other guest room."
-Ghosts of the Queen Mary, Bob Davis and Brian Clune*
There is also a tale of a man who murdered somebody and was placed into what the room was before and was kept there until the next morning when they would dock. During the night, they heard the man screaming that there was someone in there with him that this person was going to kill him . Thinking that the man was mad nobody went to investigate. Next morning when they opened the door all of the man's limbs had been ripped off.
Nobody knows if any of the stories are true or why the room is so haunted but some of the employees of the ship have said that guests struggle to spend the whole night in room B-340. Guests will literally run out of the room and not go back in, even to get their things. The employees have to retrieve them for the guests.
In October 2019, as part of her 31 Days of Halloween video series (yes that is where I got the idea) Hailey Reese booked room B-340 on the Queen Mary and went with her mother and friend planning to do some research and possibly a spirit box session. While in the room, the friend got a bad cut on her leg while sitting on the bed. There was nothing sharp anyway near her and the cut seemed to come out of nowhere. The three only realised when they noticed blood on the bedsheets. A spirit box session later in the night led Hailey to believe the room was haunted by a demon rather than a ghost.
Now you may believe, you may not. You may think paranormal things go on in certain places you may not. I invite you to go to the Queen Mary and stay in that room to decide for yourself. However, at $499 a night, it may be a while before any of us find out for sure. Until then stay safe, do not mess with things you do not understand and I beg you, don't play Bloody Mary!
*This quote may not be 100% accurate as it is written as it was read by Youtuber Hailey Reese during one of several videos she made documenting her experiences on the Queen Mary. View the video here
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