The famous liner Queen Mary, initially closed to the public because of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, reopened on 1 April 2023.
A 2021 city audit found that Urban Commons had not completed $23 million dollars worth of repairs, which the city had funded.
Urban Commons forfeited its 66-year lease on the ship that year, bringing the Queen Mary back under city control for the first time in nearly 40 years.
After the City Council approved the new management contract with Evolution last year, both found that several critical repairs needed to be completed before the Queen Mary could safely reopen to the public.
Those included replacing the ship’s boilers, elevators and restrooms, repairing the plumbing, and upgrading parking. Those fixes have been underway since last year.
Long Beach and Evolution initially anticipated the ship would reopen fully in October, but that date was pushed back until the end of the year — and then again to this spring.
But Queen Mary reopened for public tours on 1 April for the first time in about three years, with hotel stays to follow in May.
