Titanic Pigeon Forge: All aboard!
We’ve all seen the movie and documentaries recounting the history of the famed Titanic ship. But there’s nothing like seeing real artifacts up close and seeing actual replicas of rooms of the boat. Titanic Pigeon Forge allows guests to relive the last hours of the ship and remember the lives of the crewmembers and passengers aboard.
The attraction, a 30,000 square-foot ship-shaped structure situated on 5.69 acres, opened to the public April 8, 2010. The new $25 million permanent museum is a half-scale, three-deck reproduction of the Titanic. The museum houses 20 galleries that display hundreds of authentic Titanic artifacts that were carried from the ship and into lifeboats by passengers and crew and those found afloat soon after the ship sunk.
Inside the interactive attraction, visitors find full-size reproductions, built to actual Titanic blueprints, of a first class suite, first class hallways, third class accommodations and an exact reproduction of the grand staircase, the museum’s centerpiece.
The section of the First Class staircase between A-Deck and B-Deck has been re-created using original plans from Harland and Wolff, the Titanic builders. It is centered under a wrought iron and glass dome that duplicates what was installed on Titanic. Additionally, there is an accurate re-creation of both a First Class suite and Third Class cabin.
The interactive areas of Titanic Pigeon Forge provide many hands-on experiences that are designed to give children and adults alike a sense of what it might have been like to actually be on board the Titanic. Families will be able to learn how to send a wireless SOS signal and see how difficult communication was in 1912; they’ll feel what it was like to stand in the icy night air while touching a soaring wall of ice that simulates the iceberg that sliced through the ship. Guests will be able to experience water chilled to 28 degrees which delivers a stark reminder of what two-thirds of the Titanic’s passengers and crew had to endure.
Advance tickets are $20.58 for adults, $9.84 for children ages 5 to 12 (kids 4 years old and younger enter for free) and a family pass is $57.27.
Posted by Leah M. Caudle
