This Hotel Is the Most Haunted in America

Amid the art deco grandeur of the Queen Mary lies another, more sinister force that begs to be found — if you dare, that is.

The Queen Mary, an ocean liner that was converted into a hotel and permanently docked in Long Beach, California, is as stately as they come. But don't let its luxe appearance fool you; it also happens to be the most haunted hotel in America (and the world's most haunted ship).

While you ponder a stay in one of the 200 elegant guest rooms or suites, here's everything you need to know about the vessel's dark past and the ghosts who haunt its halls.

The Haunted History of The Queen Mary

The Queen Mary began its life as a cruise ship on the Cunard-White Star Line. The vessel was christened on September 26, 1934, by Queen Mary herself, and it went on to log more than three decades ferrying both luxury and military passengers. (During World War II, the ship was pressed into service to transport soldiers between the fronts.) The liner was retired in 1967 and given over to the City of Long Beach. Just five years later, it reopened as a floating hotel, allowing guests to sleep among the original wood paneling and portholes and imagine what it would have been like to cross the Atlantic in style.

With such a storied past, though, not all memories made on this ship were happy ones. At least 49 deaths are said to have taken place on the Queen Mary since its maiden voyage, and accordingly, apparitions have been reported in several areas on board. These days, the hotel offers ghost tours by day and night to take full advantage of the spooky stories.

"Not only does the Queen Mary offer a transatlantic history, but it is known as one of the most haunted destinations in America," Chris Wilmoth, the director of marketing at the Queen Mary, told Travel + Leisure in an email. "The unique history of the ship allows us to offer one-of-a-kind and authentic experiences that delve into the paranormal, from evening tours and ghost investigations to overnight stays in our most haunted stateroom, B340."

If you want to visit the world's most haunted ship or spend the night at America's most haunted hotel, here are the spots where encounters of the Queen Mary kind are (allegedly) most likely.

The Queen Mary's Most Haunted Rooms

Stateroom B340

This stateroom was a problem long before the Queen Mary opened as a hotel. In 1948, a British third-class passenger, Walter J. Adamson, passed away in the room, under circumstances that have been lost to time. Later, in 1966, a woman staying in the room claimed that she was woken up when the bed covers were pulled off of her and she saw a man standing at the foot of her bed. She screamed and rang for the steward, but the man apparently vanished into thin air.

In the years since guests have reported hearing someone knocking on the door in the middle of the night and seeing bathroom lights mysteriously turn on. Even the hotel's maids have made reports — of bathroom water running when no one had stayed in the room for days, and, on one occasion, of bed covers being pulled off right after the bed had been made.

The room was closed to guests for many years, but it has since reopened for anyone looking for an evening of creepy fun.

The Mauretania Room

In 1989, two women were sent to clean this lounge for a VIP reception. When they entered the room, they found a guest sitting silently on a chair in the middle of the dance floor. When a third woman came in to help with the cleaning, she remarked that the guest was staring, and she asked him to move.

As the employees started to call security, the guest faded into thin air right in front of them — a feat all three women reported seeing at the same time.

The Mayfair Room

This room was once the ship's beauty salon, but now it's used as office space for hotel employees. In 2001, a member of the accounting staff came in early to work — at 5:30 a.m., to be exact — and simply felt like something was off. She went about her office tasks before sitting down at her desk and feeling unusually cold. Later, she felt someone brush up against the back of her chair, but no one was there. Just minutes after that, the woman saw a transparent figure in white walk across the room and pass through the door. Needless to say, the employee grabbed her keys and fled the room until her coworkers arrived.

The First Class Swimming Pool

This now-abandoned onboard pool was once the epitome of luxury with an illuminated fountain, a mother-of-pearl ceiling, and elaborate mosaic tiles. The pool is no longer in use because of California code issues, but that doesn't stop it from being one of the hotbeds of paranormal activity on the ship.

People have reported seeing a number of apparitions here: a young woman in a tennis skirt walking downstairs and disappearing behind a pillar, a woman in an old wedding gown next to the pool with a little boy in a suit, and a cloud of steam appearing out of nowhere along with a little girl in a blue and white dress who disappears in an instant.

Boiler Room #4

Several people have reported seeing a little girl in this area, sometimes sucking her thumb and sometimes with a doll in hand. Whether or not the room is haunted by that little girl, we'll probably just choose to stay away.

Hatch Door #13

This hatch door is known as Shaft Alley, and it was the site of a gruesome accident that saw a crewman crushed to death.

One night in 1966, the watertight doors in the engine and boiler rooms were ordered to be closed. About five minutes later, an 18-year-old crew member from Yorkshire was found crushed in the door of Hatch #13, trapped with his arms pinned to his side. Although the man was freed and carried to the hospital ward, it was too late. He showed signs of crushing injury on his arms, chest, and pelvis and was bleeding from his nose. He was injected with morphine but died shortly after.

His ghost is regularly seen around the area now, with people reporting the sound of someone running behind them and whistling. Others have possibly made contact with the doomed crewman, noticing spots of grease that look like fingerprints on their faces. Some have seen a figure of a bearded man in blue coveralls who looks just like the man who died out of the corner of their eye. Several others have said they saw an engineer wandering the hallways asking if guests had seen his wrench, but when they went back to find him, he had disappeared.