The food was average catering food...but the show was terrific. A lot of laughs. We had fun.

If you're in search of a fun night out this could be it, but a few things you have to know before going. First off the food is absolutely horrible. The portions are small, the taste is bland and the quality is poor. It reminded me of elementary school cafeteria food. Ok, now that the bad is out of the way let's get to the good. The performers are finna as hell, they really do a good job and it's interactive. Is it worth the price, no it's not, I'd rather spend $73 a person on a decent meal somewhere else. This could be a great time but the food absolutely ruined it. read more

I went with my fiance for our anniversary. It was a blast! Go if you can! The actors are so funny.

Okay so here's the thing, I don't want to rate this place too low because the people that put it on were absolutely AMAZING. The food also exceeded my personal expectations. Those are the main pros. The Cons... The actual show itself left something to be desired in my opinion. The storyline seems like it could have been developed a lot better and the ending definitely felt Random.... Overall we still had a good time which is why I'm giving it 4 out of 5 stars.. read more

My first ever dinner detective and it definitely fell short. I had a preconceived idea of what I was getting into, yet open to a fun night of solving clues. I chose this event on the Queen Mary as a haunted ship seemed so perfect and could only enhance the experience, right? Starting with check in they were behind but at least it was a smooth easy process. We were told what table we were at and to choose a seat there. Sadly, the next 30 mins we sat there mostly talking among ourselves and eating our salads that had already been served. Salad was good, rolls were super dry, one bite and just couldn't do it. Around 6:30 everyone was seated and the host came out to set the ground rules and introduce the show. I thought we would be entertained the whole evening (thinking 2 of the 3 hour event being the show), slowly enjoying our food in between. Actually it was the opposite. There was a scene played out with clues, then the actors took a break, we were served food, given those same clues they acted out on paper to read through and study, then back to the show. The same thing repeated a few times throughout the night. The rest of the food was better than I expected considering prior reviews I read here. The acting was good and they each fit their character nicely. My biggest issues were two fold. First of all the down time was significantly more compared to the entertainment time of the show. I definitely didn't expect that, esp based on ticket price. Secondly, the Ballroom (as beautiful as it is) was way to big to hear the show. The actors don't wear mics and it was really hard to hear what was going on half the time. We had to pretty much reply of the clues brought to the table to solve the game. Sadly, it didn't live up to my exceptions. However, I am open to trying another one of these at a more intimate venue. read more

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The first thing I noticed was way too much noise in there too many people talking over each other and second the food took a long time to come out and third the Food I give it a three out of 10 it wasn't that great at all and on top of that, the performance was good, but like I said before, the noise is too much I can't hear what's going on and the Wi-Fi sucked... read more

(Pre-Covid Review) Who doesn't want to be part in solving a mystery? I was excited to see a show while eating dinner but I was wrong on how this is carried out. The event takes place in the Queen Mary which is a good setting because of its history and mystery. My show was going to start at 7am and the ticket states to arrive early to check in. However, they leave you standing outside and open the doors at 7am. So not sure why we need to check in early if they aren't going to open the doors early. Once you check-in you create your alias name and can get your picture taken with a few weapons. They serve appetizers at the entrance not at the table so it's sad that you can't get more. The first course is already served when you arrive which is a mixed green salad and there are rolls with butter. Throughout the night the show happens in the room but the actors do not have mics so it can be hard to hear the clues. The acting is okay and there was only one actor that stood out to me. He was really funny and stole the show with his jokes. He played the part of the detective. There is a moment where you must get up to interact with others to ask questions. If you are shy then this is something that you don't want to do. The food is served late and it's mediocre food. You get a small chicken breast with one scoop of mashed potatoes and a few veggies. I didn't like that the food is not served right away and you have sit there waiting for it. Overall, the show is okay, the food is bland, and the experience is not memorable. read more

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Took my girlfriend to recent performance to celebrate our anniversary. We loved it. For the price it was not too bad. Cheesy 'bad' acting with hilarious characters, plot & 'effects' all worked into a terrific night of entertainment. Food was decent, we really liked the vegetarian quinoa stuffed poblano pepper, with mashed potatoes & patty pan squash. Good sized serving. Highly recommend this. Kudos to the actors. Kept us guessing until the end. read more

My husband found this online and thought it would be cool for a date-night. We were both very excited and couldn't wait for the night to arrive. We also loved that it took place on the Queen Mary. Now here's my review, my experience: I did not enjoy this. I was scared practically the entire time. And not because of ghosts - that I would have loved actually. No, it's because of a little thing I have called Social Anxiety. Yup. Had I known that this was going to trigger my anxiety, I would have told my husband to forget the idea. Being in a room with around 100 or so strangers, with actors that would walk around and pick on you to stand, say your "code name" and answer silly questions - yeah it was terrifying for me. And unfortunately I couldn't really pay attention to the actual performance because of it. Then I was called. I stood up, said my name, and attempted to look normal, but I knew I looked nervous as hell, and was shaking like a leaf. I wanted to run out of there. And I hated every minute of it. You're probably wondering why I'm not giving this one star then - why 4/5 stars if I didn't enjoy myself? Well, not everyone has Social Anxiety. So for those of you that aren't scared of social situations, this would be a nice time for you. The actors were funny, the location (on an old ship) was great, and the food was tasty (not amazing but still good). If you like mingling with a room full of strangers, this is perfect. Knocked off one star because of the price. 80 dollars per ticket. 35 (or was it 30) for two photos. 25 dollars for parking. Aaaand on top of that they mentioned the whole tipping thing for the actors? Yeah, that's a bit much, in my opinion. read more

I've never laughed so hard in my life! I didn't know what to expect, but so happy I took a leap of faith and attended my first Murder Mystery dinner. The actors were outstanding and funny! All were respectful and ensured we were comfortable with what they were doing. All in all, fun, fun and funny! read more

Started at 6pm and didn't eat until after 8pm. Parking was 40.00!! Meal was tiny, chicken with mashed potatoes and 3 asparagus and one little carrot. overpriced. Bar was 10.00 for each drink and photo of your experience was 35.00.. read more

We has the best time Saturday January 25th. The show was super entertaining. Both detectives were great but the lady was super funny. Good luck to her in the future. Loved every minute of it. Food good and Queen Mary always lovely. I would recommend this to anyone. Very entertaining I would go again. read more

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Had a party of 14 for this show tonight. Everybody loved the show. The food was pretty good. We were surprised that nothing to drink came with the meal except of water. You could purchase for an x charge. Drinks at the bar inside the show were a couple of dollars more than the other bar inside the Queen Mary. Loved the fact that we could take pics and being able to purchase the suspect pkg was a lot of fun. I thought $35 for the souvenir pics was a little much. . The only complaint I had was the parking. The parking attendants didn't know where to direct us. It took forever to make it to the parking lot . Signage is soo confusing. Don't know if I would come back just because of this Thought it was really bad form to have a tip envelope for the cast. After all the tickets are $80 read more

This was my first time doing this and I will have to say it felt short. First let me start out by saying that the tickets, emails, confirmation, receipt, nothing shows what time the event actually starts. I attend the show on 4/27 and the week of I had to google it to see what time was the show. It said on the website that the 4/27 show was 7-10 pm. However the day of, I googled again and then it said 6, making our party of 4 late. I would appreciate if they were more clear as to what time the event actually was. We missed the appetizers section and also we just felt rushed. Some of our party didn't get to take a picture and it kind of bummed us out that we were late. I have never attended, just seen it on tv, and I must say it was entertaining. The first hour was kind of weird because we had to interrogate people, however the "crime" didn't occur yet, so I was confused as to what we were suppose to be interrogating about. The salad and main course were good. The dessert was meh, like a cake from a supermarket, that is what it felt like. I expected the dinner to be a little better, considering it was an $80 per person ticket. I didn't get to taste the appetizers since we were late, through no fault of our own. I enjoyed myself, some of the people in my party did not, and 2 people at our table left as soon as they finished their entree. Not everyone was into it, but like I said, I did enjoy it, but would have enjoyed it more if they were more clear as to what time it starts, like actually put it on the information and confirmation tickets and email or even the receipt. Heck put the correct time on the website, even that was a challenge. read more

This was a super fun experience with great friends. Food was average but the entertainment was over the top! I highly recommend going with a group of friends or your significant other. You won't be disappointed. read more

I loved this show! The dinner, delicious. The show, magnificent. The Queen Mary, well, it's the Queen Mary, it's glorious. I'm glad I bought tickets! My girlfriend and I had so much fun and were sucked into the mystery. At one point I thought she committed the crime haha Anyway, I highly recommend this show. You'll have a blast and there's some terrific acting! read more

Went to the Dinner Detective show at 7PM tonight at the Queen Mary. Overall, I would say it was a pleasant experience, however my family and I definitely agreed that a few changes should be made to ensure that guests really enjoy the experience. To begin with, the entire experience is a 3 hour duration. Honestly, they could have squeezed everything into a 2 hour show. The first 45 minutes to and hour was time spent mingling with others and "interrogating" them. It just felt like it was time wasted when we got majority of our clues once the actual show started. This was my least favorite part. It's called the DINNER Detective. Four course meal. I purposely ate a small meal earlier in the day because I was anticipating the large dinner at the event, but our entrees did not come out until 9PM, a whole 2 hours after the show started. We were so hungry it was hard to pay attention to the actual show at times. I wish there was an itinerary of some sort which let us know how the night would go. As for the actors and show itself, it was fun and comedic. The actors were very over the top so it made it extremely easy to guess who the killer was. I wish they would change this element of the show and make it a bit more challenging to solve the mystery. Aside from that, the show was very enjoyable. Lastly, aside from the late dinner, one do the most disappointing elements to the show was the service. The service was absolutely horrible. Unfortunately, we were placed at a table in the corner so the servers rarely, if ever, came to check on us. Our table of 10 people had to continuously wave the waiters down or get up and get them in order for them to help us. One person at our table didn't receive their entree until the rest of us were done eating. We also had to ask for coffee and tea twice because they kept forgetting about us. On a brighter note, the food was actually very good. I would like to visit another Dinner Detective location and see if it is any different in structure than the Long Beach show. The LB location was good, but should definitely work on bettering the experience. read more

Room was absolutely freezing, acting was mediocre, ambiance and lighting was totally non existent. Main course was fairly good but to be honest, that was the highlight of the night. The placement in the ship was terrible, the space felt like a brightly lit mental institution. Some classic jazz music, warm lights, uplighting and candles would of helped transform that room beautifully. I don't understand how they can throw a Murder mystery dinner on a legendary haunted boat but some how make it boring and lack luster? Walking into the experience it looked like we were entering bingo at an old age home. I think they've got a good idea but they need to work on their production big time. read more

The food was good, drinks for purchase at the bar. They accepted credit cards until we were at the front of the line after a 20 min wait and decided they could only take cash. It was fun and they do a good job overall. The clues were convoluted so I just had trouble really investing in them so I didn't get too into it. My husband had been to a few of these types of dinner shows and he said this one was way more interactive with the audience, which is fun to a point but if you're an introvert- beware!! Overall fun and different, but probably wouldn't do something like this again and we did end up leaving a little early. read more

Parking Charge This review is misleading......... The main reason I'm giving this 1 star review is after paying $80 per person for a dinner and entertainment when we were exiting the parking lot at the Queen Mary we were charged $18 for parking. No validation of the parking ticket offered. It was explained that it was considered a special event and since it was not in one of their on board restaurants validated parking was not offered. Somewhere in the print it would of been nice for this charge to be disclosed. I would of chosen one of the other sites to attend this dinner. After great appetizers, salad, dinner ( btw the fish was excellent!) desert and fun entertainment the parking charge ruined the entire evening. Disclose this charge in your information for the show. read more

Lots of fun and laughs. The food is really good however you don't get enough. The staff was pretty nice and the actors were funny. It was a great time but im not sure it was worth the price we paid. read more

First the actors did a good job, the show was decent but the room was warm at times. Here is for the ONE STAR... I had 11 people in my party, two were allergic to fish which the servers repeatedly tried to serve them which we told them several times we all ordered chicken. The "FISH" dinners came out at 8:10pm, but we still did not have our chicken? We had nothing at this point. I asked the servers what happened we all ordered chicken and they said the kitchen was out??????? REALLY??? I asked repeatedly to speak to a manager, but conveniently I was told they were in the kitchen. At 8:40 two people in my party left that were diabetic and had to eat and two more couples left because they were allergic to fish and were just hungry!!! The chicken (which they must have some how found) was clearly frozen chicken, watery and just not good!! Our chicken came out at 8:50pm, I would NEVER go to this again, waste of money! They should stick to a two hour show and not bother with dinner!!! Very disappointed for the terrible service, not being able to speak to a manager and for the Queen Mary serving frozen chicken. The wait staff clearly didn't care that people were sitting there since 5:30pm and at almost 9:00 no dinner served! Do yourself a favor and go to the laugh factory, or another venue in Long Beach, this isn't worth the price. read more

This show is awesome! I loved the performance and how interactive it was! It was funny and witty and story line was great! The food was good! I personally didn't care for the salad but I think that's just preference. The chicken was delicious! However, they should definitely add more signs for directions on the ship for where to go. We asked 3 staff members for directions and got completely different answers before we found someone who knew where it was at. But all in all that's my only complaint with the night! The actual dinner detective show was absolutely wonderful and so much fun! I would recommend it to anyone who has a good sense of humor and looking for an easy going fun night out! read more

I highly recommend you and your family get out the house and get down to the Dinner Detective !This had to be absolutely one of the most fun events me and my family have ever been to! The script was great, the cast amazing, and the food was fantastic! What a super creative way to bring people out of their comfort zone! read more

We had a great night! The event started on time and was very organized. This was quite an experience. The room was small which made it easy to hear and see all of the action (the show is not always held in the same room aboard the Queen Mary). The actors were hilarious and the 'murder' was spot on. The food was good and served hot. Sometimes, these type of shows end up serving not so hot food. Happily, the Queen came through. Be aware that dinner is served at 8 pm, so fill up on appetizers, although bread and salad was on the table as soon as we were seated. A Good time!!! read more

Had a great time. It was fun, got to mingle with other diners and solve a mystery too. The Queen Mary was a great venue, especially since it reportedly has ghosts on the ship too. Adds a little extra excitement. Food was good and services was topnotch. Open bar so we didn't have to wait for a server to get our order and bring it to us. I highly recommend it as a different evening out with friends. read more

Loved it, a fabulous, fun evening. The actors playing the detective were hilarious and excellent improv performers, so the whole evening was great fun. Food was good. Ours was a private party on the Queen Mary, so perhaps a better experience than with strangers, but all ages in our family loved it from age 17 to 80 and everyone in between. The murder mystery clues and puzzle solving were fun and interesting and well done too. Would highly recommend. read more

Attended 12-1-18 on the Queen Mary. We encountered multiple problems: the room was freezing cold and no one did anything to alleviate that; the staff were late in setting up but did not even show their faces or let us know what was going on until 25 minutes AFTER check-in time; it can be difficult to even find the room it is being held in because it apparently is not always held in the same room on the ship and there are no signs and many of the staff are unhelpful or have no idea where you should go; the food is TERRIBLE (do you want to pay $89 for instant mashed potatoes, half-rotten fruit and two-day-old stale, nasty baked goods from the local grocery store?); the service is poor as it is hard to get the attention of a server and so you may not get appetizers, coffee, etc.; the show is okay and the actors try hard, but it can be difficult to hear everything that is said, depending on where you are seated. We were towards the back edge of the grouping of tables and we caught about 70% of what was said, which definitely impacted how much fun we had with the show. After our experience, I had extensive communication with the main office about these and several other issues that we encountered and while they were responsive, they repeatedly refused even a partial refund and offered me a two-for-one ticket for another venue. No thanks, no point in throwing good money after bad! Avoid! read more

Let's hope you don't have an emergency prior to buying your tickets, not only are the tickets pricey but to attempt to reschedule will be another small deposit! I got my mom tickets for Christmas but she unfortunately broke her foot. I tried to contact The Dinner Detective several times through their 866 number but no one answered, emailed no response. Finally they EMAILED me back even after asked to speak to someone, they stated it would be more to reschedule and they would only change the date after I paid the money. The person who was emailing me, again I asked to speak to someone but no one called, states the Queen Mary was handicapped accessible. My mom decides to push through with all this hassle. Well!! We get there and there's no valet parking, even though they said there was. The people at the front had no clue where anything was, I asked for assistance and I was ignored. They lead us in the wrong direction then finally we find our way but of course it's up stairs then down stairs then down a corridor then through another door. My mom & I are frustrated as all ever by this point because again I'm asking for help that the emailing person stated was there and I got ignored. Nice right? So after what seemed like forever we finally make it in and I asked the lady, Alex, what can we do to help this experience with my mom since it's been very hectic so far. She passed the buck to Mark, which was the host, but he had no clue what to do and essentially I was ignored yet again! The whole purpose of the show is interact and to walk around which she couldn't since the place was tight and couldn't use her scooter to move around! Finally after the show a nice gentleman who didn't ignore us walked us through the outside of the ship so we didn't have to do all the trekking up and down stairs. Like really? This is absurd. I would love to see a show like this again BUT in now way do I recommend this company. Zero customer service and no organization at the facility. Spend your money elsewhere with a company that will actually help you rather than have you spend more money to be helped!! read more

I attended a Dinner Detective performance in March 2019 with my spouse and eight of our friends. Overall, it was a positive experience. The actors and actresses were hilarious and witty. The show was truly interactive and thus engaging throughout the night. To address the points raised by some other reviewers: - I was seated at a table at the end/corner of the room and didn't really have any issues with hearing the actors and actresses, even when they were on the opposite side of the room. They didn't have mics but made an effort to speak loudly. Hearing them only became a mite challenging when the people at tables near us (other attendees) kept chatting away despite the performance going on. So if you go to one of these shows, exercise common courtesy and shut up when it's happening! - The temperature of the room was normal/fine, not too hot or too cold. If you get chilly easily, bring a jacket. You're near the coast after all, so you should expect a slightly cooler climate. - It was a little hard to find the room because there was no signage. But the staff at the Queen Mary gave helpful directions, so you just have to listen to what they say and ask someone to point you in the right direction if you get lost. There are many attractions and events happening on the ship at any given time, so it makes sense that they don't put up a bunch of signage for everything. That visual clutter would probably be too much. - The food was surprisingly good. At our table we tried all the available entrees: fish, chicken and vegetarian. It's not going to blow your mind, but it was better than the food I've had at some hotel weddings. The dessert in particular was a pretty delicious cheesecake. The food and beverage service we experienced was courteous and attentive; I have no complaints on that front. - As to timing, yes, dinner came out quite late, around 8 p.m. during our show. But consider this: Dinner is served during a specific break in the show (can't have the servers moving around a room, making noise and obscuring lines of sight, in the middle of a performance segment). The show gets to that point based on whether it starts on time. The show doesn't/can't start until everyone has arrived, checked in and been seated. So, my observation/hypothesis is that dinner being served late is somewhat the fault of people not arriving on time, as opposed to poor pacing of the show. Yes, we did spend some time at the beginning mingling and interrogating other attendees, but I noticed that was because many seats were still empty; what others have called time "wasted" seems to be the hosts trying to wait for latecomers, who would be at a disadvantage and probably quite upset if they missed the beginning of the show, never mind that it's their own fault. So, do everyone else in the room a favor and show up on time (really, try arriving 15-20 minutes early so everyone can be seated by the official start time). And if dinner is late, well, the blame probably lies with the other guests, not so much the event timeline. All in all, this was a fun and unique entertainment experience. read more