I spent my twenty-first birthday at the Titanic Museum in Pigeon Forge, and I decided it was time to check out the one here on International Drive, Titanic: the Artifact Exhibition. They’re owned by two different companies, but both contain real artifacts and prohibit pictures being taken inside as flash photography can damage the artifacts. So I made sure to get a couple shots of Duffy in the lobby, despite the strange looks I got from the employees. When you check in they give you a boarding pass of a person who was actually on the ship so you can see at the end if you survived. You can choose to wait for one of the scheduled tours or browse on your own. We decided to go at our own pace.
The first room is about the construction of the Titanic with replicas and actual print outs of advertisements of the ship with sound effects of the sea. There are little displays about the main people involved with the building of the ship. (I got stuck on the one of Thomas Andrews because the actor who played him in the movie is now part of Firestorm on the CW.) As you move along you come to displays of things salvaged from the wreckage. Everything from pots and cooking supplies to make up and cuff links. Each artifact is in a glass case with a thermometer and a humidity indicator. There are descriptions of the guest rooms and a replica of one of the first class staterooms. They have full sets of almost all the dishes the different classes used on display from other liners because apparently the dishware wasn’t made to be ship specific, rather for the whole White Star Line. After that there’s a placard for Captain Smith followed by spotlights on random passengers with a narration playing from a survivor. Then you make your way to third class before visiting the underbelly of the ship with the spotlight on the boilers and storage areas. We spent a long time in this area because I had two steam boat operators from Magic Kingdom’s Riverboat with me and they were thoroughly reading the technical blue prints.
You go through a narrow hallway at the end of the boilers and find yourself at the steering deck of the ship. I’m pretty certain that’s not how the blueprints went, but it was a very impressive transition. I had a bit of a Doctor Who moment spinning the wheel and yelling, “Allons-y!”. They actually have the real lever that controls the speed from the wreckage on display in a glass box right beside it. From there you make your way out onto the deck and the air is kept at the same temperature as it was that night. The next room has a big chunk of ice you can touch to really experience the chill, next to a slightly depressing poster about hypothermia.
The second to last part of the exhibit lists the passengers and divides them into saved and lost. The person on Robert’s card didn’t make it. Jay and I had actually gotten a married couple, and he survived while I didn’t. (The jerk.) The very last room is dedicated to explaining the mission of preserving the wreckage for future generations and about what it takes to dive so deep. There’s an incredibly impressive display where you can actually touch a real piece of the Titanic’s hull before you head into the gift shop.
Cost: Gate Price and online price are $21.95 per person.
Duration: 1.5-2 hours.
Value: Cool to do once. Hope to go back for the dinner show.
Add On Options: There’s a dinner show on Fridays and Saturdays that includes admission for $69 per person. It’s a three course meal with a reenactment of the fateful night of the sinking as you’re invited to Captain Smith’s retirement party.
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