Testing the Waters : Queen Mary’s Merchants Remain Buoyant After Its Reopening

LONG BEACH â€”  Fernando Larrea waited patiently, as he has on many recent days, in his photo booth on the deck of the Queen Mary.

As some tourists approached, he perked up. “Hello. How about a nice souvenir picture?� he called.

The family of four from Bradford, Ark., donned sailor hats, smiled at the camera, paid $5 and walked away snapshot-in-hand to explore the historic ocean liner.

Larrea went back to waiting.

Three months have passed since the city-owned Queen Mary reopened under Joseph F. Prevratil, who heads a nonprofit foundation that leases the ship from Long Beach.

So far, business has been slow. About 12,000 to 15,000 people board the ship per week, a Queen Mary spokeswoman said.

But Prevratil and the ship’s merchants are optimistic.

After all, summer is when tourist attractions do more than half of their annual business for the year, he said. In addition, more shops are scheduled to open and children’s rides will be installed and running by June 23, the day of the Queen Mary’s official grand reopening.

“The summer months are coming, and it’s the peak of the business,� said Prevratil, who hopes to attract 25,000 to 30,000 visitors a week.

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For now, the ship is running in the red.

Prevratil said he has used up nearly half of his organization’s $2 million start-up fund. Long Beach philanthropist Robert Gumbiner donated the money to the RMS Foundation Inc., of which Prevratil is president.

“You can’t take an operation of this size and break even in 90 days, especially in the wintertime,� Prevratil said. But “revenues during this period have steadily been climbing, so we haven’t had to dig into (the $2 million) as deeply as I anticipated.�

The ship reopened Feb. 26. First, several restaurants opened and tours of the ship resumed. Shops offering goods--from toy clowns to fresh fudge--have opened since.

The Queen Mary Hotel, which reopened March 5, now has about 300 rooms for rent. The remaining 65 rooms are expected to be available by late June.

The hotel has an occupancy rate of about 40%, Prevratil said. Two or three weddings are held each week in the ship’s chapel. And several lunch and dinner banquets per week are held aboard, he said.

About 490 people work on board, a spokeswoman said. That number should climb to about 800 this summer.

Prevratil said business is good, considering that the ship was closed for two months.

The Walt Disney Company, the previous operator, decided not to continue running the ship after years of losses, reportedly as much as $10.8 million a year. Before the closure, as many as 1,200 employees worked on the ship and related attractions.

The fate of the ship was uncertain for months. City officials debated whether to keep the ship or sell it to a Hong Kong firm.

They also equivocated over the repairs the ship needs, finally settling on about $6.5 million worth of work within five years. The major portions of that work should start later this year, Prevratil said.

The success of the Queen Mary has become a sentimental mission, as well as an economic one, for Prevratil and some of the shop owners and employees.

City officials are committed to keeping the ship for up to five years. If it does well financially, they may decide to keep it longer.

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Mary Martin, 72, of Long Beach was one of the boosters who appeared before the City Council to argue that the Queen Mary be kept in the city.

Martin, who is a native of Scotland, said she was about 10 years old when she watched workers build the Queen Mary in a Scottish shipyard, and she wants to do her part to help save the ship.

So Martin and her daughter, Vera, opened a clothing boutique aboard the Queen Mary in March and said business was slow before people figured out that the ship had reopened. Now it’s beginning to pick up.

She said she hopes her business will contribute to the ship’s overall success. Prevratil has pledged to use profits to restore the ocean liner.

“I hoped I could do something for me and the ship,� said Martin, who wore a gold image of the Queen Mary around her neck. “We hope to be prosperous enough that there will be enough money for the restoration.�