Long Beach, CA — The Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor has added two new dates for Dark Masquerade, the off-season immersive event held aboard the historic Queen Mary in Long Beach. The event, produced by Thirteenth Floor Entertainment Group, will return on Friday, March 13, and Saturday, March 14, 2026, following what the company described as a strong response to its Valentine’s Day weekend debut.
Dark Masquerade originally ran February 13 and 14 as a limited two-night engagement. According to Brett Bertolino, Director of Special Projects for Thirteenth Floor Entertainment Group, the response was strong enough to warrant additional dates.
“Dark Masquerade was extremely well received. We saw a strong mix of dedicated Dark Harbor fans eager to explore the expanded storylines in a more intimate format, along with a new audience looking for an unconventional way to celebrate Valentine’s Day.”
Bertolino noted that the event drew couples who said they don’t typically celebrate Valentine’s Day but found the format compelling enough to attend.
“What stood out most was how many couples told us they don’t typically celebrate Valentine’s Day, but this event gave them a reason to. That validated our belief that there’s real demand for immersive, story-driven off-season experiences that feel special rather than traditional.”
Bertolino also highlighted guest engagement with the event’s theatrical elements, noting that attendees arrived fully dressed for the occasion and actively engaged with the characters and narrative throughout the night.
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March Dates Feature Same Core Experiences
The March engagement will feature the same three main immersive experiences as the February run, along with the Ringmaster’s Masquerade dance party. All three are story-driven encounters set in the lower decks of the Queen Mary and are not traditional mazes.
- Gale’s Requiem (Returning) — An atmospheric encounter set six fathoms below the waterline, featuring live performance and direct character interaction tied to Dark Harbor lore.
- The Search for Mary (Returning) — A guided, low-light experience through the ship’s corridors using a single red glow stick.
- Sweethearts’ Slaughterhouse (Returning) — An interactive storytelling experience combining character interaction and a curated tasting woven into the narrative.
- The Ringmaster’s Dark Masquerade Dance Party (Returning) — A high-energy masquerade dance event led by the Ringmaster and henchies, with DJ Kiltrina (LVCFT), fog effects, and character interactions.
According to the event’s FAQ, while the core experiences remain the same, some live entertainment offerings may vary between the February and March dates. The FAQ also notes that “a few early Easter eggs tied to the upcoming regular season may surface throughout the night.”
Ticket Options and Pricing
Dark Masquerade offers three ticket tiers. General Admission starts at $59.99 plus an $8.00 fee, with entry between 9:00 and 9:45 PM. All General Admission tickets include access to the three main experiences: the dance party, themed bars, and roaming characters. Every ticket includes a complimentary masquerade mask.
VIP Admission is priced from $79.99 plus an $8.00 fee and includes early entry between 7:00 and 8:00 PM, access to all three main experiences, and an additional exclusive experience titled Pressure Test: Bound Below. In this experience, guests are cuffed together and subjected to darkness, noise, and proximity as part of a story-driven encounter led by the character Half Hatch Henry. VIP availability is limited nightly.
Captain’s Invitation, the top tier at $99.99 plus an $8.00 fee, includes priority entry at 6:45 PM, a champagne toast with the Captain, an exclusive intimate experience led by the Captain, and access to all main and VIP experiences. Capacity for Captain’s Invitation is strictly limited each evening. As of publication, Captain’s Invitation is sold out for both March dates.
Dark Masquerade is a 21+ event. Experiences may include complete darkness, fog, strobe lights, monsters, and startling effects. Dark Harbor’s in-season mazes and attractions will not be open.
For more information and tickets, visit darkharborhalloween.com/DarkMasquerade
What This Means for the Industry (Analysis)
When Dark Masquerade debuted on Valentine’s weekend, it was one of over 100 haunted attractions that opened across the country for the holiday. What set it apart was the format. There were no mazes. Instead, guests moved through a series of intimate character encounters, a glow stick search through the lower decks, a curated tasting woven into a narrative, and a masquerade dance party. Each element gave guests something to do and someone to interact with, and the spaces between those elements gave them room to decompress, talk, and connect.
That’s a structure built around a hypothesis we’ve been tracking: that the most effective off-season haunt events are those designed for social experiences around the scare, not just reskinning the Halloween product. Dark Hour in Plano tested it with a glow-stick mechanic that turned a blackout haunt into a choice-driven couples’ experience. Fright Nights WV tested it with a survival mechanic layered over a secret pub crawl. Dark Masquerade tested it by removing the mazes entirely and turning the event into a social evening of theatrical encounters and a dance party.
The results from the Valentine’s run suggest the hypothesis holds. Bertolino’s comments are telling; the event attracted existing Dark Harbor fans but also pulled in couples who wouldn’t have otherwise gone out for Valentine’s Day. That’s a new audience, not a returning one, and it showed up because the format felt like something worth doing, not because they were looking for a haunted house.
The ‘Captain’s Invitation’ being sold out on both new dates at $99.99 suggests the demand is tilted toward the premium tiers; that’s worth watching for operators thinking about how to price off-season events. When the premium ticket is a narrative upgrade rather than a line-skip, and it’s selling out before general admission, the value proposition is landing.
The mention of “early Easter eggs tied to the upcoming regular season” in the March FAQ is a small but interesting detail. It suggests Thirteenth Floor is using Dark Masquerade as a narrative bridge to the fall, seeding storylines months ahead of October. If that works, it turns an off-season revenue play into a year-round engagement strategy, keeping the Dark Harbor IP alive between seasons without requiring a full-scale production.
A 2024 University of Florida study found that sharing a frightening experience made participants feel closer to others in their group, and that the bonding happened after the scare, through talking, laughing, and reflecting together. Dark Masquerade is built around exactly that loop. The scare is still there, but the event is designed so that the moments between the scares are where the real experience lives.
