Long Beach, CA — Queen Mary Dark Harbor returns for its 2026 Halloween season on select nights from Friday, September 18 through Saturday, November 1. The full 2026 lineup is now published: six haunted mazes, two of them reimagined, plus two new rides, a new nighttime entertainment run and four new speakeasies. A discount presale is open and Dark Harbor says tickets are almost sold out. At its Midsummer Scream panel, Dark Harbor added a new World War II maze, Shipwrecked, and revealed that one of the event’s 13 icons will be murdered live during the run. See our full report on the Dark Harbor panel for the details.
What is confirmed for 2026
- Dates: September 18 through November 1, 2026, on select nights.
- Location: The Queen Mary, 1126 Queens Highway, Long Beach, CA 90802.
- Producer: Thirteenth Floor Entertainment Group, which returned to Dark Harbor for the 2024 revival and produced the 2025 season.
- The panel: Dark Harbor detailed its 2026 lineup at its Midsummer Scream panel, including the new Shipwrecked maze and a live icon murder. See our full report.
Watch the 2024 Dark Harbor event
Here is HAN’s walkthrough of the 2024 Dark Harbor event, the first season after the event’s revival:
What Dark Harbor is
Dark Harbor is a Halloween haunt event staged aboard the Queen Mary, the retired ocean liner that has served as a Long Beach floating hotel and attraction since 1971. The event uses the ship itself as its haunted setting, running mazes through its interior spaces and staging entertainment across the ShipYard adjacent to the ship.
The event has a long-standing mythology built around a rotating cast of original icons tied to the ship’s reputation. Scary Mary, the ghost of a young girl associated with one of the Queen Mary’s historically reported hauntings, is Dark Harbor’s most recognizable character. Other legacy icons include the Ringmaster, the Iron Master, and Gale, all developed during the event’s earlier runs by Thirteenth Floor Entertainment.
The Queen Mary’s reputation as a “haunted ship” predates Dark Harbor. The ocean liner has been the subject of decades of paranormal claims tied to reported deaths onboard during its 1936-to-1967 service life. Dark Harbor treats the ship itself as the event’s most durable set piece.
The 2026 mazes
Dark Harbor is running six haunted mazes in 2026. One is brand new, Feast has retired, and the returning mazes carry new chapters detailed at the event’s Midsummer Scream panel.
- Shipwrecked (new). A World War II maze built on the Queen Mary’s real troop-transport service, when the gray-painted liner earned the nickname “the Gray Ghost.” A new icon, The Commander, orders the ship to brace for impact as it slices through an enemy submarine, and the drowned sailors rise aboard for revenge.
- Lullaby. Scary Mary’s maze in the first-class swimming pool adds a possessed teddy bear that drowned with her and crossed the vortex, whispering demonic thoughts, with an all-new path and finale.
- Infirmary: The Siren’s Song. The surgeon Dr. Edwin Masters and Graceful Gale, who takes control of the story this year with a new finale that ties to the Gale’s Requiem add-on.
- Voodoo: The Queen’s Curse. The Voodoo Priestess, who hexed a crew of sailors, commandeered a ship, and crashed it in Long Beach to raise the Queen Mary’s dead. Returning after debuting in 2025.
- Big Top Terror: Carnival of Chaos. The Ringmaster’s carnival, darker this year with a new faction of punk anarchy clowns.
- Breakout: Maximum Security. The seaside-prison maze built around Samuel the Savage, the killer from stateroom B340. New this year, the Chef from the retired Feast maze is locked up here in Cell Block 13.
Feast has retired. The cannibal-chef maze ran for the last time in 2025, though the Chef survives inside Breakout’s Cell Block 13.
New for 2026
Three things carry a “new for 2026” flag from the event itself.
- Alien Abduction, a ride that pins you to the wall of a spinning spacecraft chamber. Riders must be over 48 inches. Moderate intensity.
- Blacklight Bumper Cars, a neon arena with cars themed to Dark Harbor’s legends. Over 48 inches, or 42 with an adult. Moderate intensity.
- The Harbor Awakens, a nighttime run in which Dark Harbor’s icon characters lead stiltwalkers, sliders, dancers and monsters through the event.
The event has also added four new speakeasies to Lady Mabel’s hidden bar program. The speakeasies carry no signage and do not appear on the Dark Harbor map, and access requires one of Lady Mabel’s mystic tokens or a VIP badge. A minimum of four are open each night.
Upgrades and add-ons
Dark Harbor sells several experiences a la carte on top of admission.
- Gale’s Requiem — in the belly of the ship, designed to follow Infirmary, ending in what the event calls “a shocking act of vengeance.”
- Lady Mabel Presents: Scary Mary’s Dark Seance — an intimate seance inside Spirits of Dark Harbor.
- Lady Mabel’s Foresight Four Pack — a group astrology reading plus four speakeasy tokens, sold online only.
- 5 Minute Escape Games — aboard the ship, inside Spirits of Dark Harbor.
- RIP Guided Tours — early entry, a personal guide, one-time immediate entry to each maze, Evil Express at all six, speakeasy access, Gale’s Requiem and The Summoning of Scary Mary, and 13 percent off merchandise. The event describes nightly inventory as extremely limited.
Spirits of Dark Harbor, the on-board bar and ship-history walkthrough, is included with all admission types.
Rides, games, and show times
Returning rides are the Sinister Swings, a Zierer wave swinger, and the Rampage Double Wheel, which Dark Harbor says is the only one of its kind in the western United States. Both require riders over 42 inches, with the Double Wheel dropping to 36 inches accompanied.
The Ringmaster’s Games of Chance carry an extra fee: $5 for a single game, $9.99 for a three-game combo, and $14.99 for Big Top Axe Alley plus three games. The four games are Big Top Axe Alley, Wheel of Misfortune, Head Hunter and Ring of Ruin.
Three show beats are fixed on the schedule. The Maiden Voyage Launch Party runs once a night at 8:08 p.m. in the ShipYard. Fire Shows hit the ShipYard stage at 10:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m., with pop-ups elsewhere. Final Voyage, a Latin music and reggaeton dance party, starts one hour before the festival closes. The ShipYard’s resident DJ is LVCRFT’s DJ KILLtrina.
Tickets
Dark Harbor’s 2026 discount presale is open, and the event is advertising savings of up to $86 while warning that tickets are almost sold out. Presale runs through the event’s Zentix signup.
Tickets are sold exclusively online. Dark Harbor states this on its own site, so treat any third-party or warehouse-club listing with care and check that it redeems against the official calendar before buying. There are no refunds under any circumstances, the event runs rain or shine, and Dark Harbor warns that dates can sell out and sales can end without notice.
How the 2025 season ran
The 2025 season is useful context for the special-event nights, which Dark Harbor has not yet detailed for 2026.
Mazes and scare zones: The 2025 event returned Dark Harbor’s core maze lineup, with each Sunday of the season designated as a Maze Appreciation Night honoring one of the signature mazes with giveaways and icon appearances. Named 2025 mazes included Lullaby, Big Top Terror, and Feast.
Special-event nights: The 2025 season introduced a broader program of themed evenings across the run.
- Pride Week (October 8 and 9, 2025) featured drag performances and identity-focused celebrations across the event’s scare zones.
- Sleepover Spectacular (October 12, 2025) extended operating hours to 1 a.m. with horror-film screenings in the 4D Theater and a midnight pillow fight in the ShipYard. Guests could book haunted staterooms with special package rates.
- Goth Night (October 15, 2025) featured absinthe frappés at a pop-up called the Nocturne Bar and encouraged goth-themed costume attendance.
- Día de los Muertos Weekend (November 1 and 2, 2025) closed the season with candle-lit altars, live Mexican music, sugar-skull face painting, and marigold decor throughout the ShipYard.
- Maze Appreciation Nights every Sunday featured giveaways, deep-dive lore, and appearances by fan-favorite icons.
Whether any or all of these return in 2026 has not been confirmed.
Dark Masquerade off-season events (2026 already delivered)
Dark Harbor’s producer expanded the property into off-season programming for the first time in 2026 with Dark Masquerade, a limited-run immersive event on the Queen Mary. Dark Masquerade debuted February 13 and 14, 2026, then returned in March following strong Valentine’s Day demand for two more nights on March 13 and 14.
Dark Masquerade is not a haunt in the traditional maze sense. The event is an after-hours story-driven immersive takeover of the Queen Mary built around Dark Harbor’s established icons. The core experiences were Gale’s Requiem (an atmospheric encounter set six fathoms below the waterline with live performance), The Search for Mary (a guided low-light experience through the ship’s corridors using a single red glow stick), and Sweethearts’ Slaughterhouse (an interactive storytelling experience with a curated tasting). VIP admission added a Pressure Test: Bound Below experience.
Whether Dark Masquerade or a similar off-season format returns in early 2027 has not been announced.
What is still unconfirmed
Dark Harbor detailed its 2026 mazes and entertainment at its Midsummer Scream panel, but it has not yet published 2026 ticket prices, a night-by-night calendar, or whether the 2025 special-event nights (Pride Week, Goth Night, the Sleepover Spectacular, Día de los Muertos Weekend, and the Sunday Maze Appreciation Nights) return.
Event details
- Event: Queen Mary Dark Harbor 2026
- Location: The Queen Mary, 1126 Queens Highway, Long Beach, CA 90802
- Dates: September 18 through November 1, 2026, select nights
- Producer: Thirteenth Floor Entertainment Group
- Tickets: Presale on sale now via the official presale signup, on a buy-now, pick-your-date-later basis. Vouchers are valid any open night September 18 through November 1 except October 10, 17, and 24, and premium ticket options are available at reduced presale rates.
- Official: The Queen Mary
HAN prior Dark Harbor coverage
- Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor will murder one of its 13 icons live (2026 panel)
- Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor 2025 Unveils Haunting Lineup of Special Events
- Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor Launches Dark Masquerade Valentine Event
- Dark Masquerade Returns to the Queen Mary in March Following Strong Valentine’s Debut
- The Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor 2019 Event Overview
This event is part of our Haunted Houses in California 2026 guide.
