For most southern California residents, a chill in the air means the temperature has dipped below 70 degrees. A white Christmas is something children only know about from holiday songs. Mittens and scarves are hard to find in stores, but shorts and flip flops are sold year-round.
In this midst of this perennial warmth, it seems odd to see families putting on heavy winter coats and to hear talk of an ice slide. But this isn’t crazy talk. There is a new winter experience adjacent to the Queen Mary in Long Beach.
Chill Ice Kingdom at the Queen Mary is a winter wonderland created from more than two million pounds of ice. Dozens of specialized ice carvers spent the last month creating this unique playground. But southern California natives be warned. The former home of the Spruce Goose is kept at a frigid 13 degrees in order to keep the ice carvings from melting.
What You’ll Find Inside
Inside the Queen Mary Dome, you’ll find 13,000-square-feet of giant giant ice sculptures inspired by the ice festivals of Harbin, China. In one of the rooms, you can walk through an ice castle. In Santa’s toy land there are giant toy figures that are carved in colored ice.
The highlight of the experience is climbing up the 24-foot tall ice replica of the Queen Mary’s bow and taking a ride down one of the ice slides. Don’t let your children have all the fun. The ice slides are fun for adults to try as well. The ice carvings make a great backdrop for photos because of all the colors and the lighting.
For an added cost, there is a 100-foot ice tubing slide which gives a higher speed experience. Similar to a water park, you sit in an inner tube and ride down the slick track at a high speed. The pricing varies by day (more on that later), so you can expect to pay $9.95 Mon-Thurs or $12.95 Fri-Sun for a wristband that gives you five slides.
In the final room, there is a holiday village where your children can meet Santa, decorate a gingerbread house, and hear some carolers. Outside of the Queen Mary Dome (tell your children it is a giant igloo) there is an ice skating rink.
Ice skating prices are $9.95/hour (Mon-Thurs) for children and adults ($12.95 Fri-Sun). If you purchased tickets for the ice tubing slide, your skate rental is free. Otherwise, it is an added $2.95 per person.
Chill Tickets
There are a few ways to buy tickets to Chill, but if you plan ahead you can get in without breaking the bank. First, admission to the Chill experience is free when you buy the standard Queen Mary entry tickets ($24.95 for adults, $14.95 for children). Touring the ship is an interesting trip back to the 1900s. Walking down through the old engine room really gives you an appreciation for the engineering that went into the design.
If you just want to buy admission to the Chill experience, ticket prices vary by day. Mon-Thurs, adult tickets are $19.95 and children are $9.95. Fri-Sun, the price is on par with the standard Queen Mary tour prices ($24.95 for adults, $14.95 for children).
You can get half price tickets to the Chill ice kingdom if you buy through Goldstar.com. They currently have adult tickets for $10 offered through mid December. I have seen a few other offer codes floating around, but this seems to be the best deal.
Overall, the Chill is a lot of fun for families and one of the few ways you can get a winter experience in southern California. Chill is open daily through January 6, 2013. Parking is $15.
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Photos via Queen Mary
Wow, that’s really uh, cool. haha. The ice slides sound fun!