Florida Guide > Miscellaneous
The Titantic Exhibition
If you have a couple of hours to spare, the Titanic Exhibition at the Mercado on International Drive is well worth a visit. We usually combine this with a shopping trip to nearby outlets or with lunch or dinner at one of the many restaurants on International Drive.
The exhibition contains many real and reconstructed artefacts from the Titanic and creates a fabulous and believable atmosphere of what it was like to walk the decks of the ship itself.
As you enter the exhibition you are given a ticket with the name of an actual passenger on the ship’s fateful journey. You might find yourself to be a member of the upper classes or a passenger in steerage or just a member of the crew. Just as you leave the exhibition arena, there is a memorial plaque showing the name of every person on board and you get to find out whether “you” lived or died. You won’t be surprised to learn that the vast majority of those who perished were steerage passengers or members of the crew!
As you are taken around the exhibition you are accompanied by a guide dressed in period costume and they speak to you as if they were an actual member of the crew and stay in character throughout They will walk you through a dockside mock up of the famous ship, through into beautiful, life size room creations and past lots of very interesting memorabilia. You even get to see “that car” and that “handprint” from the famous film starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo di Caprio!
You will get a chance to touch a recreation of the iceberg itself, to get an understanding of how vast it was and believe me, although you try very hard, you can’t keep the contact for more than a few seconds as it is so cold!
You are then taken out to what appears to be the deck of the Titanic at night. You are surrounded by the wooden deck, steamer chairs and the dark sky with the bright star light. The area is extremely cold and it makes you shiver as you imagine yourself on that tragic journey. The cold temperature is apparently only a fraction of what the real temperature would have been.
There is even a recreation of a section of the Grand Staircase and you can have your picture taken as if you were standing before the grandeur of the real thing.
We have taken many of our friends and family, of all ages, around this exhibition – it is one of our favourite attractions, and everyone has found it interesting and extremely poignant.
You become fully immersed in the story of this world famous tragedy. You hear sound tracks of the radio operator’s calls for help, see short videos re-enacting various parts of the story and come away with a real sense of awe.
As you exit the exhibition there is a chance to buy some souvenirs of your visit, including copies of newspapers that were printed immediately after the event, which make very interesting reading. There are also several books of the story plus DVDs – in fact everything you would need to delve into this event in the greatest detail.
Do take the time to visit if you can – it will stay in your memory for a long time to come.
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