I just came from a “hard hat tour” of the new Titanic museum that opens up the street here next month. I think you’ll definitely want to go, and take the whole family with you!
The front portion of the ship is nearing completion now, built at about 1/2 scale to the real ship. There’s an iceberg tearing into the prow on the other side of the ship, and soon there will be waves breaking across her bow. The museum will house around 400 artifacts valued at $4 million, some on display for the first time ever. Photographs and film footage comprising the only original images in existence will be on view as part of the interactive museum exhibit.
Our brief tour took us through the third class (steerage) deck, where you’ll experience flood waters rising through the ship (but stay dry, never fear); through first class, and into the only, and very grand, parlor on the ship. The grand wooden staircase you remember from photos and recreations will be installed next week. There is even a room depicting the sight of the wreckage on the ocean floor, with images that will place you right inside the explorer’s submarine. John Joslyn, museum owner, spent over 30 days at the site of the wreck and made several submarine trips to the ocean floor.
Our hostess for the tour, Mary Kellogg-Joslyn, explained that each visitor will be assigned the name of a person who was on the ship, and at the end of the tour you’ll learn whether your character (passenger or crew member) lived or died. Children will be involved in the experience by being assigned tasks to perform along the way, such as shoveling coal into the boilers. There is also a scaled-down, hands-on activity area for kids called Tot-tanic (I may not have the right spelling, but that’s the pronunciation). One of the activities is a game recreation of the crash in which the player has 37 seconds to try to avoid hitting the iceberg, as happened on that fateful night.
The crew will be well-trained to help complete your immersion experience by interacting with one another like a typical ship’s crew.
We’ve been watching the ship take shape over the past year, those enormous stovepipes rising in the sky ~ how neat to get a glimpse inside. I think it’s going to be a spectacular attraction, something you’ll want to tour more than once, and an experience that will linger with you afterwards.
~Janet @ The Christmas Place
