The Gray Ghost is celebrating 13 years of hosting Dark Harbor, and just across the port at the Long Beach Convention Center, the people of the coincidentally named 13th Floor Entertainment detailed everything going on this year.
One thing is certain: the Queen Mary hasn’t been idle. Even during the off-season, 13th Floor has introduced a year-round escape room aboard the ship and held smaller haunt events in the spring, all aimed at expanding the lore of the Queen Mary and its numerous curses.
To catch people up on this year’s event so far, the Dark Masquerade focused on a Valentine’s Day date gone wrong. The Chef went missing, and a small group had to track him down and choose to keep the cannibalistic secret to themselves, or rat him out to the captain. Ultimately, the chef was locked away in cell 13, right alongside another Dark Harbor icon, Sam the Savage.
Sam’s new Breakout: Maximum Security maze last year was a surprise hit, so that was definitely going to return.
Regarding the other mazes, there are changes all around.
Graceful Gale’s story with the twisted Dr. Edwin Masters continues in Infirmary this year with a whole new finale. And if you dare, you can have an upgraded experience with Gale entitled Gale’s Requiem, if you so dare.
Lullaby has an all-new pool effect that has been built and is now subtitled Teddy’s Revenge. Her teddy is twisted and possessed with demonic thoughts that he’s been injecting into Mary. This will lead into a new path on the ship, right into a new finale. There will also be an optional séance that will lead right into the Lullaby maze if you want the full story.
Big Top Terror is also back, darker than ever before, and now with a lot of new rides in the area, like an old-school Gravitron and neon bumper cars. There will also be a “Little Big Top Band” playing music.
Voodoo has been redone to be more integrated into the story of its emergence in Long Beach. They did a lot of work to avoid it looking like a stereotypical purple-and-gold Mardi Gras.
Replacing Feast, this year’s maze is Shipwrecked, focused on the ship’s purpose of shuttling WWII soldiers across the sea and the night it chose to ram a submarine instead of changing course. Those lives have come back for revenge. Expect a lot of new tech inside this maze with never-before-seen effects. It also introduces a new character, the Commander.
In terms of shows, all the big winners have returned; the foam party, fire dancers, and slider shows are all back. And the final voyage dance party will, of course, be there with the resident LVCRFT DJ Killtrina.
All in all, the event is constantly evolving, and they’re putting a lot of love into it. They could easily just iterate slowly on this, but they’re choosing to indulge the guests who want more lore and more interactivity. That needs to be celebrated.
There was one final twist they announced, though. That at the conclusion of this year, one of the thirteen icons will be sacrificed. Will it be the Ringmaster? The Captain? Sam the Savage? The Chef? Scary Mary? The Voodoo Priestess? There’s only one way to find out.
The event runs on select nights from September 18th through November 1st. Tickets will be on sale soon at darkharborhalloween.com.
