This past Saturday, Thirteenth Floor Entertainment Group shared its plans for the 2025 Halloween season in California. However, one attraction was notably absent from the presentation: Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor. That’s because on Sunday, Thirteenth Floor took the stage for a second time to do a deep dive on all things Dark Harbor 2025. The presentation featured Thirteenth Floor Entertainment Group CEO Chris Stafford, Director of Special Projects Brett Bertolino, Senior Regional Manager Amy Hollaman, General Manager at The Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor Star Romero, and Production Manager Doug Bailey.
Returning Mazes
During the presentation, the group shared which mazes would be returning for the 2025 season. This year, guests can look forward to again experiencing Feast, Lullaby, Breakout, Infirmary, and Big Top Terror. However, there were some significant announcements made about a couple of these fan-favorite haunts.
Feast
Feast has had an interesting run. The legacy maze was a feature of The Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor before Thirteenth Floor Entertainment Group’s 2024 reboot of the event. In fact, during last year’s Dark Harbor panel at Midsummer Scream, we learned that the Thirteenth Floor crew found the entire maze intact within the ship once they started planning for the event’s return.
The maze was resurrected as a prequel, which told the story of an ambitious butcher and the lengths he would go to rise in ranks and ultimately become the Chef character from Dark Harbor’s past.
The maze was then featured as part of The Queen Mary’s first-ever Friday the 13th haunt earlier this year, with Feast: Butcher’s Blackout. During the event, guests were given the opportunity to experience the maze like never before—entirely in the dark, armed with only a glow stick. The first-ever event quickly sold out, forcing The Queen Mary to offer a second night, which sold out just as fast.
Despite its success, this will be Feast’s last year at Dark Harbor, and the maze is being updated to finish the storyline the team set out to create last Halloween season with Feast: The Final Cut. “We’re going to continue to tell the next chapter of the Feast story this year,” said Bertolino. “So you’re gonna see the evolution of The Butcher as he grows older and grows bigger and ultimately assumes that position of head chef.”
Even though it’s in its final year, Dark Harbor promises more gore, cannibal chaos, and updates to the Feast experience. Some of the updates were present as part of Feast: Butcher’s Blackout, but due to the “blackout” aspect of the haunt, guests were unable to get the full experience. So, during this year’s Dark Harbor, guests will have the opportunity to fully experience something new in the dining hall scene with Bailey mentioning during the panel that the scare is “…very ‘Beetlejuice’ inspired, and it is actually something that we can scare an entire room with and not just one person.”
Breakout
Another maze, Breakout, is seeing some significant updates for 2025 and is now being called Breakout: Maximum Security. Like Feast, Breakout built upon the mazes of Dark Harbor’s past, specifically the maze B340, which centered around the murderer Samuel the Savage and ultimately his demise after being captured and confined to Room B340.
With the return of Dark Harbor, Breakout, retconned Savage’s untimely demise, and instead found the killer apprehended and imprisoned for his crimes at a nearby seaport. This next iteration of the maze will tell the next chapter in Samuel’s story and takes place entirely within the prison-industrial complex.
“One of the ways that we keep the story going with Sam is that Sam’s a nut case,” explains Hollaman. “He has a voice that’s going on inside his head all the time, telling him what to do. So you will have the same experience.”
To achieve this, Dark Harbor has partnered with Halloween hitmakers LVCRFT and a voice actor to create a unique soundscape for various parts of the maze, where the voices will guide you on how to make your escape. The maze will take you through a sewer and a prison chapel, among other locations, before exiting you through a fog-filled container similar to the past Dark Harbor maze, Deadrise.
New Maze
One of the biggest announcements out of the presentation was that of a sixth maze coming to Dark Harbor for 2025: Voodoo The Queen’s Curse. Expanding upon Voodoo Bayou, introduced at Dark Harbor in 2024, the new maze tells the story of a Voodoo Priestess who, upon seeing the Queen Mary, became obsessed and sought to make it her own. Now, with the ship in her possession, she looks to resurrect dead sailors from their watery graves to make a Navy that will allow the Queen Mary to set sail once more.
New Footprint
In addition to a new maze, Dark Harbor will have an all-new footprint for 2025 with a notable element missing: the old English village. The village, which had been condemned by the city of Long Beach long before the pandemic, has been removed. As a result, Dark Harbor 2025 will be the largest Dark Harbor event ever to exist. With the village’s removal, The Shipyard, which was the main stage for Dark Harbor in 2024, will occupy the space as an expanded experience featuring programmed shows throughout the night.
More Lady Mabel
Dark Harbor 2024 introduced a new character to the event called Lady Mabel. The psychic character was one of the ways to find your way into the event’s speakeasies (which will be back for 2025, both on the ship and in the harbor). This year, the character will have an even bigger role for 2025, helping to expand the narrative around some of the realms of Dark Harbor and its mazes. As you traverse the event, you may hear Lady Mabel telling you what to look out for or what to be cautious about while navigating the area.
Themed Nights
Dark Harbor also announced this year’s themed nights. In addition to the return of Pride Night and Dia de Los Muertos, the event will feature Maze Appreciation Nights, with each Sunday during the event dedicated to a different maze. On Maze Appreciation Nights, fans will have the opportunity to take photos with the icon character from that night’s maze.
Dark Harbor also announced Admiral Appreciation Week, which will mark the return of The Admiral for a whole week at Dark Harbor. Long-time Dark Harbor fans will recognize The Admiral as Dark Harbor’s legacy Captain character, who was promoted to Admiral last year to make way for a new Captain.
Other themed nights include Undead Slumber Party, Black Tide: Goth Night, Pyro Spectacular Night, and “Haunt Couture”- Dapper Day.
New R.I.P Tour & Season Passes
For 2025, Dark Harbor is introducing an R.I.P. tour. Each night, there will be two time slots for the event, an early tour and a late tour. The early tour leaves early, and then you can explore Dark Harbor on your own afterward. The late tour allows you to explore on your own before, and then the tour will start toward the end of the night.
The experience is a guided tour for approximately 12 people that shares details on how the event comes together and Easter eggs within the mazes, and provides you with front-of-line access to every maze. The tour will also give you access to some exclusive spaces and incorporate you into some of the scenes within the mazes, providing you with some very special and unique experiences.
Additionally, for the first time, Dark Harbor is offering season passes for the upcoming season.
More details on the R.I.P. tour will be announced soon.
The Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor will return on select nights September 19 through November 2, 2025. Pre-sale tickets are being made available in phases. Those interested can sign up to be notified about the next phase at https://darkharborhalloween.com/.
