Who is out there, right now, planning their garage or yard haunt for October 31? If you are, we do doth our cap to you (we're not really wearing a cap, but the potential is high that we will be come Halloween). We do admire a well-done home-based haunt.
But, on occasion, we want to see a huge spectacle set at a venue that's famous for actually maybe possibly housing phantoms. A venue that is regularly visited by television crews hoping to document strange nocturnal activity. A landmark that's on the cover of books celebrating local history, the golden era of ocean liners, and ghosts.
We mean. C'mon. Most venues aren't even famosu for one of those things.
Yep, we are talking about the Queen Mary. And the grand Long Beach venue is set to debut its 2011 Halloween attraction. It's called Dark Harbor -- you'll remember Shipwreck from a few years ago -- and it is as maze-y and monstery as all get-out, which is pretty maze-y and monstery. It opens on Friday, Oct. 7 and runs on 15 nights. The final evening? Halloween.
There are many colorful, creepy maze names, but "Submerged" and "Containment" jump out at us. Those aren't the only thing jumping out; the Queen Mary says some 160 monsters'll be on the grounds.
It's not part of the night -- you can catch it on tours of the ship on occasion -- but people in the haunt world say there's a vortex in the Queen Mary's First Class Swimming Pool. A vortex. Not just a ghost. That's pretty spooky stuff, and we add it here to set the mood. The pool is gorgeous and very much of its period, but, when we saw it, years back, there was, how shall we say? A bit of atmosphere to the area.
Happy October!
