First of all the Queen Mary is best described as something that needs to be experienced at least once. I and my three adult children arrived at the Queen Mary on a whim, as we were traveling the coast of California between LA and Morro Bay.

We were fortunate enough to get a very nice room on the water side of the vessel before all of the rooms were sold out.

The ship is a tremendous amount of fun to explore. There are so many things to see on board. The rooms are historical with many of the original fixtures and nautical items intact. There is historical information located throughout the ship and interesting sights to behold that just cannot be experienced at a normal hotel. I will go back again when I return to California.

As noted by a previous reviewer there are some things that are somewhat annoying about a stay at the Queen Mary. While they do not disuade me from returning, they do seem petty and a bit trifling. I was somewhat disappointed that you must pay to park at the ship. The cost is $10 a day as of our visit in July 07. Do not lose your parking ticket or you will be charged $85. I also thought the utility fee added on to the price of the room was a bit ridiculous but everywhere you go and stay in a hotel, the local governments have discovered new and interesting ways to gouge the tourists to support their budgets.

If you go to the Queen Mary expecting to find a hotel that is new and shiny you probably should go somewhere else. The ship was built in 1934 and has seen and been through a lot. For my tastes I like the charm and character of this old girl and recommend her to people who can survive in a place that is on shiny and new. If you are the uptight and surly type that insists on perfection, you probably should stay somewhere else.

The Queen Mary was a lot of fun, I look forward to my return to California. I will spend some more time with her.

After reading the terrible reviews, we nearly cancelled our reservations for the Queen Mary. We are SO GLAD we didn't! The check in was smooth, the rooms were clean, and the ship's food was excellent. We are FREQUENT travellers and did not expect a 5 star Hyatt experience. The Queen Mary is truly a one of a kind living historical monument. To think that Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton sailed her several times! We loved the nostalgic touches, like the knobs for "Hot Salt" and "Cold Salt" water for the bathtub. The price was VERY reasonable for the level of hotel and the experience.

As a side note we loved seeing WICKED at the georgous Pantages Theater in Hollywood....the highlight of our trip, except of course for our cousin's wedding which took place on the Queen Mary! The wedding was beautifully done, outside on the AFT end of the ship, under a gazebo. The ship's captain, resplendent in white uniform, officiated. The reception was wonderful also...a luncheon of salmon and steak, preceded by a plethora of wonderful tapas.

At the last minute, my husband got our anniversary off of work. Since we had stayed at the Queen Mary two years before on our wedding night, I thought it would be romantic to stay there again. I looked on-line at the QM site and found a deluxe spa package for a reasonable rate. It included a deluxe stateroom, a $50 MEAL certificate, two one hour massages, and two Queen baths at the spa on board. I was concerned with the spa having availability on such short notice, so I decided to call the reservations desk directly instead of booking online. I asked her about the spa having openings, and she put me on hold. Then she told me that massages were only by appointments on Mondays, and I would be fine as long as I went in between 12 and 4. So, we arranged for an early check-in at 1 p.m., went to our room, and I called the spa to tell them we were on our way. They told me that they were booked for the rest of the day, and that they could provide our services the following afternoon. Unfortunately, my husband had to be at work at 8 a.m. the next day, and I told her that. She stated that this has happened many times before, where the reservation desk claims they have openings and they don't. To here credit, the spa did try to work with us. They said they would call someone in, and they could do our massages one after the other. I declined. I didn't want a massage from someone who got called in at the last minute, and I didn't want to wait around an hour for my husband to get a massage after me on our anniversary night. I was so disappointed by the whole experience that we decided to leave altogether. The woman at the front desk refunded out money, but did not seem apologetic about the ordeal. She wrote a note in the computer system to let her manager know why we refunded our money. They have our contact information, but we have not heard anything from the hotel. Unless this hotel comes under new management, my husband and I will not return, regardless of the sentimental attachment we have to this location.

So, to start off, when we made reservations, they asked if we wanted a land view or a ocean view. Of course I ordered a Ocean View for me, my mother and my sister. When we got there they said that they had NO MORE ocean side views and that it was first come first serve. EVEN THOUGH when we made reservations they asked us which we wanted. This upset me because I was really looking forward to a ocean side view and they totally changed it on us. Why ask what we want when they cant give it to us?

Second, we went to one of the casual dining restaurant for dinner and the food was horrible. Both my sister and mother got fish and chips and everything was soggy like it had been sitting around for a long time and the vegetables they got were gross frozen ones that weren't even hot. and the prices were pretty high for casual dining. Not to mention when we sat down, out table cloth had stains on it.

Once we got to our room to go to sleep the beds were hard and uncomfortable not to mention there was loud noise/music outside so I wasn't able to get a good nights sleep. Not to mention the heater/AC thing was weird, you cant turn it off so it ended up being either too cold or too hot in the room so it was quite uncomfortable.

Also in the bathroom the handle wasn't attached on one side and the towels we were supposed to dry ourselves with were on a rack in the shower, that makes no sense at all!

The convince store were the worst scalpers I've seen. For a tiny travel tooth paste they changed around $2.40! You could get a big one for that much. They also had Queen Mary shirts that were thin low quality fabric and were charging $30-$50 for it. It makes it seem the Queen didn't have enough treasure as it was.

And the worst thing of all- You had to PAY additional money to keep your car at the hotel! Thats insane, not to mention there was a utility charge. What? Last time I checked the Queen Mary wasn't a apartment complex. They have various stupid charges that makes me not want to go there- even to just visit.

The only thing I found fun on this was the Sci-Fi investigation trip. It was very exciting and came with our hotel reservations. But thats not a part of the sleeping quarters/hotel room.

Overall I am NEVER going here again. It was very unsatisfying as I thought this was going to be a really nice time but ended up horrible. It made me wish we stayed at the hotel we where at the previous two nights before the Queen Mary.

For anyone wanting to go to the Queen Mary- Don't! Its a waste of money and time!