Titanic Anniversary Cruise

A cruise line based in the United Kingdom, which is Norwegian owned, is getting ready to set sail in a little over two years on a Memorial Cruise to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the sailing and ultimately the sinking of the Titanic that occurred in 1912.

The new ship, titled, Balmoral, will set sail on April 8th, 2012, from South Hampton, England, and make its way to the location of the spot where the Titanic sank in the North Atlantic by April 15th.

This would be a chance of a lifetime.  I've always been so in awe by the ship, the people who were on the ship that fateful night, and their stories.  Even before the movie came out, my daughter brought a book home she had gotten from her school library about the Titanic and I could not put it down.  It was full of facts about the people aboard the ship.  Then, of course, when the movie came out, it put a huge romantic spin on the whole incident, which made it that much more intriguing.  Just as Carolyn Spencer Brown, editor of CruiseCritic.com, phrased it, the irony of the Titanic is "the boost that the tragedy has given to contemporary cruising.  The fact that a ship sank and lots of passengers lost their lives has paled in the face of the romantic image that it portrays."

There must be an amazing amount of people as fascinated as I am about this, due to the tourist attraction in Branson, and now a memorial cruise in 2012. It speaks volumes.

The cruise ship, Balmoral, which is owned by Fred Olsen Cruise Lines, holds 1,350 passengers and will have a crew of 510 people with 710 cabins.  The prices for the 12-night trip start at $3,900 for an inside cabin, including taxes.  However, all the lower grade inside cabins and some suites are already sold out.  It's hard to believe a ship that is set to sail a little over two years from now is almost sold out.  It just shows what a fascination people have with this story.

The article also stated that an actual memorial service will be held onboard the ship exactly 100 years to the minute the Titanic hit the iceberg and run until the time the ship sank.  They will start the service at 11:40 p.m. on April 14, 2012 and finish at 2:20 a.m. on April 15th.  The cruise is going to serve food that was originally on the menu from the Titanic. They will also have music and dancing from that era, and historians will present lectures.

During the cruise, the passengers will be taken to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where they are going to visit three cemeteries, in which some of the Titanic victims are buried.  For the final destination, the ship will arrive in New York, which was the original destination for the Titanic.

Another ironic twist to the story is Fred Olsen's parent company, Harland and Wolfe, actually built the Titanic ship.

Americans wanting to travel from the U.S. are in luck; a Minneapolis-based company named, Borton Overseas, is handling reservations for U.S. residents wealthy enough and lucky enough to go on this voyage.  

Hope this time it really is an unsinkable ship!