Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Climb aboard the Titanic Museum in Branson, MO and experience the ship's fateful journey

In 1987, John Joslyn led the historic deep-sea expedition to the Titanic's final resting place on the ocean floor. Having long been fascinated by the history of the doomed ship, Joslyn wanted to share its tragic story with the world. In 2006 he opened the Titanic Museum in Branson, Missouri. The two-story museum is in many ways a "living" history museum, inasmuch as it's built as a replica of the ship and features actors depicting the captain, chambermaids and deckhands.

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd">

The replica ship is a half-scale of the front half of the ship. It's even anchored in water, with a stucco iceberg, which serves as the entrance to the ship museum. There are even two jets of water that continuously splash against the nose of the ship, which make it appear as if the ship has set sail. 

titanic-museum-branson-17[9]
The Titanic Museum
titanic-museum-branson-18[2]
The Titanic Museum

There is a 90-minute, self-guided tour, which features massive replicas of the ship's decadent Grand Staircase, Dining Hall, First Class and Third Class cabins. There are 400 pre-discovery artifacts spread throughout 20 galleries. There are also interactive exhibits, that are hands-on, such as the Captain's Bridge, where you can steer the ship, 

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd">
titanic-museum-branson-8[2]
The Titanic Museum
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd">

When you board the RMS Titanic you're given a passenger boarding ticket, which has the name of an actual person who was aboard the Titanic. You don't know if you lived or died until the end of the tour. The final exhibit is the Memorial Wall, which has the names of all the 2,208 passengers. You can read about the story of each person.

titanic-museum-branson-21[2]
The Titanic Museum
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd">

Throughout the self-guided tour you'll meet plenty of actors, including the Captain of the ship. The museum is also decked out with hidden speakers that play audio recordings of everything from bells, to people speaking to foghorns, all of which to simulate what it may have been like aboard the ship.

titanic-museum-branson-4[5]
The Titanic Museum
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd">

The Grand Staircase was built in meticulous detail and cost over $1 million. This is a full-scale replica of the staircase that was on the Titanic itself, and was even construced using the original blueprints.

titanic-museum-branson-9[6]
The Titanic Museum
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd">

After walking up the staircase you can explore the First Class cabins.

titanic-museum-branson-6[2]
The Titanic Museum
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd">

Then you can go downstairs to the cramped Third Class cabins, as well as the engine room boiler.

titanic-museum-branson-23[8]
The Titanic Museum
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd">

When you're in the engine room you can shovel coal into the replica boiler.

titanic-museum-branson-2[5]
The Titanic Museum
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd">

One of the most haunting exhibits is The Sinking Room, in which you stand upon sloping decks that simulate the sinking of the ship. There's also a lifeboat that you can sit in and a bowl of salt water that you can dip a finger in to feel what it was like in 28 degree freezing water. 

titanic-museum-branson-13[2]
The Titanic Museum
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd">

And of course, there's also a gift shop. Joslyn actually created two Titanic-themed museums. The other Titanic Museum is located in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.

titanic-museum-branson-7[6]
The Titanic Museum
titanic-museum-pigeonforge[2]
The Titanic Museum
titanic-museum-branson-3[6]
The Titanic Museum

 

Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)