Dark Harbor 2025 Review: Queen Mary needs a course correction
The Queen Mary’s annual Dark Harbor Halloween event offers its fair share of thrills, but it seems to be cruising on auto-pilot, falling short of its full potential.
Spoiler: The highlight of Dark Harbor 2025 – for us, anyway – is the undead bartender in the Feast Speakeasy.
This opinion tells you one of two things:
- We’re grumpy old nitpickers so jaded by years of reviewing Halloween events that we’re desperate to sample any little unexpected morsel of ghoulish entertainment.
- We really want to love Dark Harbor: Summoned by the Seas (as it is known this year), but this year’s cruise simply did not live up to the high expectations we have for one of our longtime favorite events.
Or maybe it’s a little bit of both. To find out, read on…if you dare…
Summoned by the Seas Review: General Impressions
Our overall impression of Dark Harbor 2025 is that it feels scaled down, compressed. There are still plenty of attractions, but we traversed all of the walkthroughs, lounged in bars and speakeasies, and attended a live immersive show – and still managed to finish an hour before midnight. On one hand, this may have been because crowds were light on Sunday night; on the other hand a third of the park did not get going until 8:30pm – 90 minutes after the front gate opened. Whatever the reason, we left plenty of time leftover to revisit any highlights, but all we wanted more of was another round with the Feast’s macabre bartender. Sure, the mazes were fun, but once was enough for any of them.
Another general impression is that the advances in animatronic effects have had a downside for Halloween haunts like Dark Harbor. Too often, mechanical monsters are used in place of live actors instead of supplementing live actors. Giant sized ogres and sea monsters towering overhead can be awesome, but they cannot replace the personalized scares delivered by an enthusiastic cast of ghouls.
The Queen Mary continues to be schizophrenic when it comes to theming its Halloween events. Despite this year’s subtitle, “Summoned by the Seas,” much of it has little to do with the ocean. As usual, the ship exploits its allegedly haunted history to lend an aura of credibility to characters like Scary Mary; however, in an effort to broaden its appeal, many of the attractions feature typical Halloween haunt themes: carnivals, prisons, medical malpractice, and cannibalism. This has always been true of the land-based attractions, but it is more so since the park’s old Fishing Village fell off the map – the venue used to provide at least one good walkthrough with a seaside feel to it.
We also noted an overall lack of themed areas with seating (unless you upgrade to VIP access for places like the Observation Deck and the Captain’s Cabin). There are numerous food and drink options, including several bars, but most of them are stands where you order and then walk away, looking for somewhere to sit and enjoy your meal.
Our last impression ends on a positive note: Regarding the live cast, costuming, makeup, and performance ticked all the right boxes. Obviously, the darkness of the walkthrough attractions can obscure some flaws in the physical presentation, but we liked the look of everyone we could see clearly. The old days of the Queen Mary TerrorFest (with its pullover masks) are long gone. Nowadays we see effectively applied makeup, including prosthetics and contact lenses, creating creatures that stand up to close scrutiny. Inside the mazes, the actors are largely restricted to jump scares, but many do whatever they can to milk a few more screams from their victims. The number of free-roaming ghouls outside the mazes seemed rather small, but the few we encountered were eager to attack again and again with comically deranged enthusiasm.
All that said, let’s get into specifics, including more words of well deserved praise…
Summoned by the Seas 2025 Review: New & Improved
Dark Harbor 2025 features one new walkthrough and two that have been “reimagined”: Voodoo: The Queen’s Curse, Breakout: Maximum Security, and Feast: The Final Cut.
Voodoo: The Queen’s Curse & Voodoo Bayou
New this year is Voodoo: The Queen’s Curse, which features a welcome return to a theme that has not had its own maze since 2015. The Caribbean setting is perfect for the Queen Mary – through not specifically tied to the ship, this land-based walkthrough could be a destination on a cruise. Surrounded by decorations that immerse you in the atmosphere before you step inside, including a monstrous mechanical skeleton, the impressive facade raises expectations that the interior largely fulfills. The sets lend an authentic feel, and the dark corridors seem haunted by more live actors per square foot than the other mazes (except Big Top).
There are a few jump scares, but for the most part the actors evoke shivers instead of screams, chanting and performing rituals that seem to evoke dark powers. A giant mechanic insect and some overhead “electrical” sparks enhance the impact, but the theatrics are the real show here – a great combo of setting a live performance. Only problem: the cast seemed to thin out near the end of the walkthrough. Even so, this is the best walkthrough Queen Mary has to offer this year.
Worth noting: Voodoo: The Queen’s Curse benefits from being located inside the Voodoo Village area of Dark Harbor, creating a little self-contained world, with decorations, food, and cocktails themed to match. It’s the best place to hang out for an extended period, one of the few in Dark Harbor where you can grab a seat feel immersed in the sinister vibes.
If more of Summoned by the Seas felt like this, it would be a huge improvement. We’re guessing the Queen Mary management has decided that general admission ticket buyers are not interested in this kind of experience, which is mostly limited to VIP access areas.
Breakout: Maximum Security
Breakout: Maximum Security squeezes a prison-themed walkthrough into Dark Harbor. The justification is that the prison houses Samuel the Savage, a recurring character alleged to have mass murdered numerous passengers aboard the Queen Mary, but if you miss his poster on the way in (which you are likely to do since it is more clearly visible from the exit), you will miss the connection.
That said, the experience delivers enough chills to justify its existence. There’s a fun bit at the beginning with a judge proclaiming you guilty as you enter the prison. After that the twists and turns of ominous prison corridors provide hiding places for a decent number of live characters. There are nice visual touches like the silhouetted prisoner apparently trying to escape over the wall.
Things get weird later on. Apparently working on the theory that prisons have chapels, Breakout uses that as an excuse to include religious imagery, including The Nun, which makes the maze feel a little bit like a movie whose script was reworked to change i.p. franchise at the last minute, shoe-horning Samuel the Savage into a Conjuring spinoff.
As good as some of Breakout looks (like the guard tower), other portions make one wonder whether there was a deliberate effort to hide the sets: there are not one but two area that almost totally blind visitors. The first, filled with thick green fog, goes on for nearly a minute with only intermittent visibility. The last sequence is a long corridor with blinding strobe lights that force you to find your way by feeling along the corrugated metal walls for about thirty seconds (essentially, it’s the old White Ghost “Freak Show” mini-maze from Dark Harbor 2013). Its effective for a few moments but soon wears out its welcome, creating a disappointing finale.
Feast: The Final Cut
We have criticized past iterations of Feast for utilizing a generic cannibalism theme, but to give the devil its due, it for the most part does a good job of fitting the theme into the Queen Mary. After a short walk down a a corridor, an early scene takes place in the “Chelsea Chowder House,” which appears to be a lavish dining compartment. The sick jokes is that we then proceed through dank corridors, going behind the scenes to see the work that went into creating the feast. In this case, extensive use of mannequins is appropriate, used to portray bodies that served as the food source.
As always, the corridors of the Queen Mary provide the sort of authentic atmosphere that no sets can duplicate. However, some of the touches are a bit weird, such as an old piano labeled “Feast” near the end. What’s that for – after dinner music? If so, why don’t we hear any?
There is also a brief crawl-through section that sends you on your hands a knees over plexiglass with grinding gears beneath. (There is a bypass for those who prefer to remain on their feet). Unfortunately, the gears were not turning when we walked through, ruining the effect.
Nevertheless, Feast: The Final Cut is worth visiting, not the least because its exit leads to the secret speakeasy where you can sit down and join the feast – well, at least have a cocktail if not take a bite of the main course. Definitely stop in at this one, which we will discuss at greater length below…
Summoned by the Seas Review: Returning Attractions
Returning attractions include Lullaby, Infirmary, Big Top, and The Summoning of Samuel. Going from best to worst, we start with…
The Summoning of Samuel
This brief immersive theatrical experience was a highlight of last year’s Dark Harbor. Except for the actress playing Lady Mabel, there is nothing new, but it is worth revisiting. In a nutshell, the medium summons Samuel the Savage, leading to a blackout during which stereo sound allows Samuel to seemingly surround the audience, picking off victims in the dark, accompanied by grizzly sound effects and a splash of mist to suggest blood spray. There are also brief, frightening glimpses as Samuel sneaks up on you from behind, or in front, or the side – lights flashing on just long enough for him to deliver a sinister jibe at your vulnerability. Great fun!
Big Top
Long time readers are probably long tired of our repeated complaints about the overuse of the clown/circus/carnival theme – only for us to inevitably turn around and admit that the current iteration under review is actually pretty good. Well, Big Top continues this tradition; in fact, it stands out as one of the better attractions this year, thanks to the multitude of crazed clowns giggling and chortling with deranged glee at the discomfort they inflict upon their victims. It’s a longish walkthrough, partly inside the circus tent and partly outside in what feels like a malevolent corn maze. The mechanical effects that beefed up the exterior section in the past seem curtailed this year, but we are are more than happy to accept the profusion of live actors as a substitute.
There are one or two alternate routes you can take (avoiding a ball pit, for example), and there is also a secret speakeasy not far from the end, which shares the colorful design of the maze it inhabits. Fun stuff.
Worth noting: the Big Top walkthrough is located within the Halloween Carnival section of Dark Harbor, which also features rides, suitable decorations, and the Bizarre Bar. Like Voodoo Bayou, it feels like its own mini-theme park.
Infirmary
We waxed enthusiastically about last year’s debut of Infirmary, but this year it struck us as another example of Dark Harbor squeezing a generic theme into the Queen Mary; “Hey, let’s have a little medical madness below deck!” It’s still enjoyable, but using sets to simulate the stone walls of an isolation chamber on board an ocean liner is slightly absurd. Also, little going on inside suggest the sort of contagion that would require an isolation ward; what’s on view is more made up of sadistic surgeons and torturous psychology experiments.
Things perk up upon exiting the isolation ward and entering actual corridors of the Queen Mary. The suggestion seems to be that the inmates have escaped and are now infesting the ship’s lower deck, heading toward the stairs up to the first class section. It’s a creepy idea but falters from being portrayed mostly by mannequins, minimizing the notion that the horror below is creeping up on unsuspecting passengers above.
In any case, walking up stairs brings you to Graceful Gale, another long-running character, who performs a sultry song to lull listeners into a false sense of security before zapping them with a little jump-scare. Gale’s presence is always welcome (her ghostly beauty from an earlier era suggests madness hiding beneath former glory), but beyond that there is little in the upstairs section besides mannequins in fancy dress, suggesting a sophisticated party due for a deluge of madmen from below – which never happens.
Lullaby
This one really hurts. Scary Mary has been our favorite character since she made her debut in Dark Harbor 2012, and Lullaby has always been an excellent showcase for her faux-innocent creepiness. Unfortunately, something seems off this year. Mary’s backstory is barely setup, which makes much of what follows seem random. Even without exposition, newcomers to Dark Harbor can probably figure out that she is supposed to have drowned in the Queen Mary’s swimming pool, but you have to wonder who the other characters are. For example, near the beginning, there’s a distraught lifeguard – which would make sense if not for the fact that all the signs indicate there is no lifeguard (which is presumably why no one saved Mary).
Lullaby is one of three mazes that exploits the Queen Mary’s long, lonesome corridors for moody effect, but it may be the least effective of the three, perhaps due to whatever the equivalent of miscasting is when it comes to scenery. The set depicting the drowning pool – which places you beneath the surface – is very clever, but the paythway leading up to it is made of cheesy plywood flats. Elsewhere the walkthrough has a hard time fitting Scary Mary to the locations; she does add an extra dose of tension to the vertigo-inducing walkway above the ship’s dark lower hull, but she worked better in earlier versions of the maze that used available furniture to suggest a domestic setting where Mary might have lived before her death. Along the way, there are some nice projection effects to give Scary Mary a more ethereal presence within the long corridors; however, too much of the path is dark with very little happening (an example of the “we’re pretending to build suspense but really just saving money on props” approach to haunting).
Most disappointing, Scary Mary doesn’t make the impression she used to, perhaps because her appearances are fewer and far between. In the past, the supremely sinister strategy was to have her appearing almost constantly – you could barely walk out of one room before encountering her in the next – creating a sense of a spirit that could circumvent the physical limitations of time and space. She still does a bit of this, but mostly she pops up here and there to say, “Play with me” or “We’ll have fun” in a threatening manner. Maybe our memories are too kind to past iterations, but the Scary Mary of old felt a bit more desperately needy, which made her seem even creepier.
Comparing an attraction to its previous versions is always tricky, of course. Presumably, someone encountering Scary Mary for the first time will find her appearances here satisfyingly frightening, but we tend to think those empty corridors will negatively impact even undemanding newcomers.
Summoned by the Seas Review: Extra Attractions, Bars & Speakeasies.
Here is where we finally get around to describing the highlight of Dark Harbor 2025…
Per long-standing custom, Dark Harbor offers many extras, some at added cost. Shipyard Shows run every half hour, alternating between Sliders, Fire Dancers, and Drag Queens. You can try your hand at axe-throwing or test your marksmanship at a pirate shootout. For an additional charge there is a “mixed-reality” interactive experience based on the movie Trick ‘r Treat and a mini-escape room.
VIP options include RIP Guided Tours, which includes personally guided tours through the mazes, plus access to such otherwise off-limits areas as the Observation Deck, the Captain’s Club, and a Creep Cabana for six (upgrade to twelve for a higher price). Lady Mabel’s Foresight Four Pack includes astrology readings, access to a digital photo album recording your Dark Harbor experiences, and tokens granting access to hidden speakeasies.
Speaking of speakeasies, mystic tokens supplied by Lady Mabel grant access to four of them hidden around Dark Harbor, most aboard the Queen Mary. Each features a specialized menu of horror cocktails (i.e., “Scream Queen” at the one hidden inside the Big Top). Drinks are good, and prices are reasonable. Drinks cost about half as much as at the popup bars spread around Dark Harbor’s exterior, and unlike most of those bars, the secret speakeasies provide immersive environments where you can relax at your leisure, imbibing delicious spirits and absorbing eerie atmosphere.
Best of the lot, at least for us, is the Feast: Final Cut Speakeasy. Set in a large room near the Queen Mary’s Stern, it suggests elegance with a gruesome touch. Garish red lighting illuminates a feast fit for cannibals on a large table near the entrance, while blood drips down a prominently displayed video screen. If that’s not enough to unsettle your stomach, head to the far end of the room, where you can order Organ Donor or Fairy Water cocktails. For ourselves, we chose Deadly Dessert.
The cocktails were great, but even better was the bartender’s baleful banter: Ted the Undead (Ted Peszynski) presented each libation with a grimly ghoulish jibe at his nervously giggling customers, warning of deadly accidents and supernatural visitations.
“Is it a Deadly Dessert or a Deadly Desert?” he asked us in a sardonic tone. “Nobody knows, but you will die the same, nonetheless.”
The extra level of engagement resulted in a long line while customers watched him slowly garnish their drinks with special ingredients such as “bones” or “shriveled lips” (“I didn’t say what kind of lips, but you will know by their taste”). Fortunately, the wait was more than worth it for the chance to see his performance, which was all the more amusing for remaining deadly deadpan.
Is it silly for us to say this was the highlight of Dark Harbor 2025? Maybe. But we find that kind of comically creepy interactivity more engaging than simple jump-scares, and one of the the things we long for at these Halloween events is an opportunity to relax and soak up the eerie vibes of a haunted environment, preferably with a character or two to bring everything to life. The Feast Speakeasy certainly provided that.
Summoned by the Seas Review: Conclusion
We had a good enough time at Dark Harbor: Summoned by the Seas, but we were hoping for a better time. We enjoyed most of what we saw, but improvements and additions were balanced by disappointment and familiarity. Newcomers will probably enjoy it, and long-time fans may wants to check out the new Voodoo Queen’s Curse walkthrough.
In the end, Dark Harbor: Summoned by the Seas is bit like a cruise you have taken too many times: it’s nice to revisit the old destination, but it leaves you wishing for a new and improved itinerary.
Dark Harbor: Summoned by the Seas
Rating Scale
0 – Awful
1 – Poor
2 – Mediocre
3 – Good
4 – Great
5 – Excellent
Rating Dark Harbor: Summoned by the Seas is tricky. The General Admission price tag gives decent value for the money, but it leaves out some of the best parts of this year’s presentation, making it hard to recommend. The VIP tickets may not be worth the extra expense if you don’t want all the bells and whistles. We think a good compromise is a GA (or possibly a Fast Fright pass), plus the “Lady Mabel Combo,” which includes the speakeasies and The Summoning of Samuel for an additional $23.
Dark Harbor: Summoned by the Seas continues at the Queen Mary on select nights from September 19 to November 2 (weekends in September & November, some weeknights in October). Hours are 8pm-12:30am except Fridays & Saturdays, 8pm-1am. Tickets start at $45.99 (including fees). The Queen Mary Hotel is located at 1126 Queens Highway in Long Beach. Get more information at darkharborhalloween.com.
Dark Harbor: Summoned by the Seas Photographs
