Queen Mary’s Operators Jump at Chance to Add Bungee Tower

During the Queen Mary’s heyday, guests would retire to the upper deck for a polite game of shuffleboard. This fall, visitors to the Long Beach attraction may have the chance to try something more extreme: bungee jumping.

The Board of Harbor Commissioners and the city Planning Commission have given the operator of a bungee jumping business approval to construct a 210-foot jumping tower next to the luxury liner’s bow.

Ronald Voorhees, who ran a bungee site in San Diego County, said he has applied for permits and hopes to open in mid-September. The Queen Mary will receive about 10% of the operator’s sales, said Joseph F. Prevratil, president of the nonprofit group that runs the ship.

Barbara Barnes, president of the Long Beach Historical Society, said bungee jumping “doesn’t fit the image of the beautiful, historic ship.”

Prevratil said the structure would not detract from the ship’s beauty. “There are activities surrounding the Eiffel Tower in Paris that are not of the same quality as the Eiffel Tower, but they do not take away from its grace and majesty,” he said.