![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Did you know there’s a Titanic Museum in Pigeon Forge, TN?
Neither did I. But there is. It’s even shaped like the Titanic.
See?


My sister’s family had been there and she wanted to take us. And – having been interested in the Titanic long before James Cameron invented it – I was game.
I have to say, it’s put together pretty well. Not many artifacts from the actual wreck, and most of it was old territory for me, but they put together the narrative well, with minimal reference to the movie (which also meant no Celine Dion, for which I was grateful). They even hand you a card with the name of a passenger on it, and you find out at the end whether or not yr “character” survived ot not. (I was Harvey Collyer, and I drowneded.)
The other interesting bit is the part where you can go out onto a deck mock-up and dip yr hand in water that’s 28ºF – the temperature of the water in the North Atlantic where the ship went down. Hold yr hand in that for 10 seconds, then imagine doing that for the four hours it took for the Carpathia to arrive to rescue survivors. You can also experience the slope of the ship as it sank to get an idea of how long you’d be able to hold on for yr life before you dropped into that 28º water.
On the downside, the whole experience all falls apart when you enter the gift shop at the end, where any emotional impact of the tragedy is drowned in cheap, gaudy commercialism.
Much like the rest of Pigeon Forge.
The upcoming ice-carving content is also in questionable taste.
Next: The end of an era!
Going down,
This is dF
Neither did I. But there is. It’s even shaped like the Titanic.
See?


My sister’s family had been there and she wanted to take us. And – having been interested in the Titanic long before James Cameron invented it – I was game.
I have to say, it’s put together pretty well. Not many artifacts from the actual wreck, and most of it was old territory for me, but they put together the narrative well, with minimal reference to the movie (which also meant no Celine Dion, for which I was grateful). They even hand you a card with the name of a passenger on it, and you find out at the end whether or not yr “character” survived ot not. (I was Harvey Collyer, and I drowneded.)
The other interesting bit is the part where you can go out onto a deck mock-up and dip yr hand in water that’s 28ºF – the temperature of the water in the North Atlantic where the ship went down. Hold yr hand in that for 10 seconds, then imagine doing that for the four hours it took for the Carpathia to arrive to rescue survivors. You can also experience the slope of the ship as it sank to get an idea of how long you’d be able to hold on for yr life before you dropped into that 28º water.
On the downside, the whole experience all falls apart when you enter the gift shop at the end, where any emotional impact of the tragedy is drowned in cheap, gaudy commercialism.
Much like the rest of Pigeon Forge.
The upcoming ice-carving content is also in questionable taste.
Next: The end of an era!
Going down,
This is dF