Titanic picks up
steam again
By Gregg Zoroya, USA
TODAY
The Titanic took just hours to
sink. Not so Titanic mania.
Almost two years after the
blockbuster movie re-ignited
interest in the famous ship, a
company that specializes in
rock concerts is unveiling
what's billed as the first
permanent Titanic exhibit -- a
$7 million attraction called
Titanic: Ship of Dreams.
As much live theater as
museum, the attraction,
opening Saturday in
theme-park mecca Orlando, offers re-creations of the famously doomed
ship's interiors (including the Grand Staircase), with actor-guides in period
costumes. It also has a smattering of actual Titanic artifacts and movie
memorabilia.
Located in Orlando's Mercado tourist zone, it's just the latest -- and
splashiest -- of several new or ongoing diversions focusing on the 1912
disaster, which took place exactly 87 years ago Thursday .
Other Titanic attractions:
Titanic, the Exhibition, a traveling tour of artifacts recovered from the
wreckage, is now on display in St. Paul, Minn. (through April 30). The
collection, which includes a 20-ton piece of the hull, will resurface in
Atlantic City in May. Information: 800-848-2642 or
www.titanic-online.com.
Yet another permanent exhibit dedicated to the ship, the
3,500-square-foot Manitoba Museum of the Titanic, opens Thursday in
Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, Canada . Organizers boast of 150
Titanic-related artifacts, including a deck chair and woodwork found as
floating debris. Information: 204-857-7447 or www.titanicconcepts.com.
Over the past year, the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax, Nova
Scotia, which was a base for recovery vessels in 1912, has expanded its
Titanic exhibit of artifacts recovered when the ship went down.
Information: 902-424-7490 or titanic.gov.ns.ca.
Thanks to a recent U.S. Court of Appeals ruling that opens up access to
the Titanic wreck, adventure travel company Zegrahm DeepSea Voyages
will resume trips to the ship this summer. For $35,000, tourists can see
what's left of the boat while diving in a state-of-the-art minisubmarine.
Information: 888-772-2366 or www.deepseavoyages.com.
For the second year in a row, the Seelbach Hilton's Oakroom restaurant in
Louisville is marking the anniversary of the sinking with a re-creation of the
last dinner aboard the ship. The $150 meal will be offered Monday,
Tuesday and Wednesday. Information: 502-585-9211.
Developers are seeking permission to build a full-scale replica of the
Titanic in Las Vegas and turn it into a 1,000-room hotel and casino.
At the Orlando exhibition, designed by SFX Entertainment, each visitor
receives a ticket with the name of a passenger. At the end of the tour, they
learn whether the passenger survived and can look up other biographical
details. There are several rooms re-created to look like parts of the ship: a
first-class parlor, a cafe, the cargo hold, the promenade (where the
temperature is kept to a chilly 50 degrees to evoke the feel of that North
Atlantic night).
Artifacts on display include a Titanic deck chair, life preserver and letters
written either on the ship or by a survivor afterward, including one in which
passenger Nellie Walcroft describes how panicked passengers were shot
by a crewman trying to prevent a lifeboat from being swamped. Visitors
can also see movie gewgaws such as Leonardo DiCaprio's costume in the
blockbuster Titanic. And one room will have an ice block designed to
look like part of an iceberg, which children can touch.
Information: Titanic: Ship of Dreams is open 10 a.m.-10 p.m. daily;
tickets: adults, $15.85; children 6-11, $10.55; 5 and under are free;
407-248-1166. |
