When calling to make reservations for my boyfriend's birthday weekend, I spoke with a nice girl who spoke to me in confidence that the restaurants weren't very good. She told me that the hotel rooms were nice, and the "Shipwreck" was scary.
We arrived for check-in at 4 pm on Saturday night. We waited about half an hour in line, but still that was ok, no real complaints yet. I put on a formal evening dress and my boyfriend put on a dress shirt, jacket and jeans. We attempted to go to Sir Winston's, and were turned away because my boyfriend's jeans. But still, no real complaints yet, I understand dress codes.
So we went to Chelsea's. Bad luck. Their computers were down. With not many options on my boyfriend's birthday, we decided if we left the ship, some other restaurant might be more accommodating. We drove off the island in search of something to eat. We couldn't find parking anywhere (not the hotel's fault) so we decided to drive back.
Here's what really pissed us off. The traffic was so backed up getting back to the Queen Mary from all of the people going to Shipwreck. We hotel guests had no priority over anyone else.
We finally got through, and then there was no parking. So we drove around for another 20 minutes. We went inside to the front desk and begged them to see if we could dine at Chelsea's, because we were starving on his birthday night. They tried their best and after a half hour they got us in.
So now it's 10 pm. We sat and we sat for about another half hour (no kidding) until I finally stopped a waiter walking by and I asked him if he had seen our waiter, because we hadn't been introduced yet. He so happened to be our waiter and he was rather pleasant and took our order. Well, about a half hour later, our meals arrived and guess what?! The waiter brought my boyfriend the wrong dish. So then he took it back and ordered the filet mignon with mushrooms. By the time his dinner arrived my food was cold (tasted horrible), and to top things off the chef forgot to include the mushrooms.
Well, let me explain something. I have been to amazing haunted houses in my lifetime. Haunted trails located in the woods, Universal Studios haunted house, and various other haunted houses including an elementary school's. They were all great. Very rarely have I been to a bad haunted house. I think that is because the people behind them are very creative and spend a lot of time putting them together.
Ok, here's the horrific news: Shipwreck was without a doubt the worst haunted house I have ever attended. This is EXACTLY what it consists of: black painted plywood with "scary" creatures that looked like a toddler colored and a bunch of adolescent looking monsters that jump out at you around the corners. Yes, that's it. Don't expect to walk through a trail of well crafted illusions, expect a card board box effect crafted by less than talented people. The elementary school I mentioned before was WAY BETTER than this garbage.
One thing I should say is the employees were very nice and a couple told us that they understand what a terrible time we had and specifically told us "everyone hates staying here during Shipwreck." So if this is the case, the management and owners should be extremely ashamed of themselves. They are well aware of the problem, and yet they allow their guests to succumb to a terrible time just for a quick buck. There were several other guests that we witnessed complaining right alongside of us. Queen Mary must be rolling in her grave watching these circus clowns run the ship her name is attached to!
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