Thursday, October 4, 2018

The Queen Mary's Dark Harbor 2018


Last week was the opening of 2018's Dark Harbor at The Queen Mary. Ever since I had a blast last year I was looking forward to attending again this year! This year promised to be the best yet, with revamped mazes and what they said would be the darkest and most immersive Dark Harbor yet. I attended their media night and received complimentary front-of-line VIP access to do all the mazes and enjoy the ambiance of their spooktacular midway from their VIP cabanas.

The Ringmaster and The Captain about to open the gates to release the monsters!

Hello fiend!

The night started with the opening ceremonies, presided over by The Captain and Ringmaster. They opened the gates for their nightly monster run, where guests funnel through the doors only to be met by menacing monsters (I absolutely LOVE this part of the night, I adore all the monsters!). SO FUN! After that, we headed off to the mazes...

The Bayou section of Dark Harbor

Hanging down in The Bayou section of Dark Harbor

The Neverland Ranch Sinister Swings!

First, we did the Feast maze, which returned from last year. It was on the ship again, and lots of fun, full of twists and turns! I loved being aboard the ship going through the maze! Sometimes it was a little too dark to see where you were going (I think we ended up going the wrong way a few times) and we did have to get on our hands and knees to crawl through a few sections (kinda hard with a purse), but overall I loved this maze and it was a great way to kick off the night.

Circus entrance

Next, we headed over to the Circus maze, where we made our way through a rickety traveling circus and had numerous run-ins with the circus freaks. Thank goodness they made the mirror maze shorter this year! There was kinda a choose-your-own adventure element to this maze (at least it kinda seemed that way).

One of the amazing scare actors roaming the event

We headed back on the ship for B340 maze, which was my favorite of the night! It was so scary and I absolutely loved all the scare actors in this maze! They revamped this maze from last year, but still kept the best parts! Of course, like the other mazes actually on the ship, it was cool to see all the different parts of the ship.

One of the bars at Dark Harbor, The Ice Cave!

Love all the creepy photo ops throughout Dark Harbor

The last maze we did on the ship was Lullaby, where we visited Scary Mary and all her friends. I always love this maze, and there are lots of awesomely creepy set pieces and plenty of sinister little girls hiding within it. And don't forget about Teddy! A fun fact about this maze is that it is based on an actual ghost of a little girl that drowned in The Queen Mary's pool that is said to haunt the ship.

Love this photo of some monsters taking a break to enjoy a marionette show

Dark Harbor is TO DIE FOR!

We took a break to chill out in the VIP cabanas and enjoy the spectacle of the midway. There are numerous food stands, lounges, cabanas, and entertainment on the midway to enjoy so that you can rest your weary bones between mazes. There are also many new bars this year, both secret ones you can only get to through select mazes, as well as others on the midway and other areas. I am not a drinker, so I didn't grab any drinks, but if you need to steady your nerves there are plenty of opportunities throughout Dark Harbor.

Creepy Scottish graveyards are sooooooo my aesthetic!! This was in the
Intrepid maze, one of my favorite set-pieces of the night!

Our next maze was Intrepid, based on the Iron Master and the myths and legends of the Scottish Highlands. I was happy to see this maze was revamped as well, with a gorgeous set-piece of the Edinburgh Cemetery and Roselyn Chapel ruins that stopped me in my tracks! They had mourners set up all around the graves, and you were never quite sure if they would suddenly jump out at you - so eerie and gorgeous! I also love the bog monsters in the fog they brought back.

Deadrise, rising from the depths to haunt Dark Harbor yet again!

The very last maze we did was Deadrise - this one was really fun but really confusing, as monsters and creatures blocked your way and made you go the wrong way constantly! They certainly liked toying with us, but it kinda caused a lot of confusion and backed up the maze a bit. I also heard there was an alternative path you could take where you had to America Ninja Warrior your way over obstacles and climb ropes.

 One of the food stands, El Diablo! I didn't investigate vegan options here, but
it seemed they had some veggie options.

Fun fact: I absolutely adore carousels! So I obviously loved these carousel 
horses near the Carousel Bar!

Overall, Dark Harbor was a lot of fun this year! I liked how they revamped the mazes, and while some might need a little work directing guests the correct way to go, I had a good time! I also loved being able to traipse through the ship and appreciated how long some of the mazes were!

 They're dying to "meat" you at Dark Harbor!

Dark Harbor is such fun - I hope you get to check it out this season!

I highly recommend checking out The Queen Mary's Dark Harbor for Halloween this year. It not only offers a cool location for a haunt, but also has some killer mazes!

For more info and to buy tickets, visit Dark Harbor's website!

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