Titanic Exhibit: My Experience

In Spring of 2009 the Titanic Exhibit came to Minnesota. My mom and I had already planned to go to Chanhassen Theatre to see “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” (my favorite musical FYI) so we figured we’d just make a weekend out of it! It just so happened to be the opening weekend and I can say that Mom and I were accidentally the seventh and eighth people in on the first day! We were greeted with mimosas (for Mom) and faux mimosas (orange juice – for me). So Friday night Mom and I went to the dinner theater and had a blast then on Saturday morning we went to the Titanic Exhibit.

It was amazing! I only have the one picture (above) as you aren’t allowed to take photographs inside. When you walk in you’re given a boarding pass (we were both first class passengers) and you are greeted by Titanic staff (in custome!) and are treated like the class indicated on your boarding pass (which is why we got the mimosas). They even had a Captain Smith giving tours!

The coolest parts of the exhibit (I thought) were some of the artifacts that had been brought up. For instance, they had plates from the Titanic that were brought up off the ocean floor that were still intact! The other cool thing I remember was the perfume bottles. I think the story goes like this: There was a perfume maker making his way across the Atlantic and he had 24 tiny bottles of perfume (think SUPER small – like sample size). Unfortunately the perfume maker and his perfume went down the ship but the bottles were retrieved. Only one of the 24 was broken and another was opened by scientists to see if the perfume/scent was still there (and it was)! I just found that amazing!

Then there were shoes and glasses and dolls – all the items that make you want to cry. There was a large piece of the hull that brought me to tears. There was also a big piece of “ice” that you could touch; so many people had touched one part of the ice that you could see a hand print. That was sort of cool – but really, I’m from Minnesota – I’m no stranger to ice.

At the very end of the exhibit they had this huge list of names of survivors – if your name (according to your bording pass) wasn’t on the list, you didn’t survive. It wasn’t explained well (when the ending of the exhibit was) so I accidentally went into the gift shop and then they wouldn’t let me back in to see if I had survived. After putting up a big fuss, one of the gift store workers went back into the exhibit to find out (Mom survived – I didn’t).

It was, overall, a great experience and I’m so thankful and blessed that my mom would accompany me and indulge in all of my fandom (I love you Mom!). Anyway, it was an amazing experience that (if the opportunity ever presents itself) I recommend to everyone.