Were James Cameron's 1997 blockbuster film Titanic and its 2012 rerelease in 3D not enough to satisfy your unsinkable curiosity about the ill-fated luxury passenger liner? Did the many documentaries from the History Channel, the Smithsonian Channel, and PBS merely make you wonder what it would be like to behold the rusting remnants of the maritime disaster in real life? Well, you may soon have your chance---as long as a $105,129 per-person price tag is within your budget.
There have been several plans for memorial trips that emulate Titanic's journey. A billionaire even worked on a Titanic II. But starting next summer, a tour company based in London called Blue Marble Private will give small groups of adventurous tourists the opportunity to get up close and personal with the real McCoy---the actual wreckage of the RMS Titanic itself. The tour company offers other fabulous trips to places like Easter Island and Seychelles, but the trip to Titanic sounds like the best.
Nine people at a time can sign up for an excursion to the doomed vessel that claimed the lives of 1,500 people after crashing into an iceberg in the North Atlantic Ocean on the morning of April 15, 1912. The brave ticket-holders will fly from St. John's, Newfoundland to a yacht in the ocean, above the spot where Titanic sank.
There, the tiny tour group will undergo a crash course of safety lectures and dive briefs by the crew of the expedition. They will hear talks from guest explorers and scientists as well. The lessons will include information about the inner workings of the craft that will take them down to the grounded ship. For example, the clients can learn about the sonar that helps the scientists locate Titanic far below the waves.
Next, a pilot and a deep ocean expert escort the customers---in groups of three---in a titanium-and-carbon-fiber submersible, which dives down 13,100 feet to the exact spot where Titanic met its final resting place on the ocean floor. From there the explorers cruise above and around the sunken ship. They even get to see the famous grand staircase.
According to Telegraph, the $105,129 price tag for the once-in-a-lifetime experience is the modern-day equivalent of the $4,350 cost that people paid in 1912 for a first-class ticket on the RMS Titanic. No wonder Rose's mom was such a snob before the ship hit the fan. That trip was expensive!
The trip marks the first time the public has been invited to see the real Titanic since 2005. More people have been to the top of Mount Everest than to the wreckage of the Titanic. In fact, more people have been to space!
Personally, we think the trip sounds fascinating but extremely eerie. As fun as cruising around a spooky sunken ghost ship sounds, our heart will go on. But what do you think? Should people leave the ship alone, or are you ready to go back to Titanic?
