The Titanic has always intrigued me, so visiting this museum was truly an amazing voyage. From the moment you enter the museum, the staff, dressed in costumes will make you feel and experience what it would have been like to board the Titanic.  We were handed boarding passes with a passenger’s name.  Throughout the museum you will learn about the passengers, crew and eventually learn the fate of the name on your boarding pass. You will actually feel the adventure as you step into the various rooms and cabins recreated in the museum.

Visitors are given phones and in each room you will find a mediallion with a number.  Dial that number into the phone to hear stories and facts about that fateful day.  They also offer a kids version of each medialion.  During our visit the museum was dedicating its tours to the stories of  the 133 children aboard the Titanic.  It is the first and only world tribute to Titanic’s Littlest Heroes and their stories are amazing.  This tribute is very powerful and an emotional experience I will never forget.

Your journey begins by walking up the Grand Stair Case, I could feel what it must have felt like to be aboard that glorious ship. The various galleries tell the stories of so many and let you glimpse into their lives on that fateful day.  The story that touched my heart was the cabin of one of the co-owners of Macy’s, Isidor Straus and his wife, Ida.   Traveling back from a winter in Europe, Isidor and his wife were passengers when, on the night of April 14, 1912, it hit an iceberg. Once it was clear Titanic was sinking, Ida refused to leave Isidor and would not get into a lifeboat without him. Although Isidor was offered a seat in a lifeboat to accompany Ida, he refused seating while there were still women and children aboard and refused to be made an exception. According to friend and Titanic survivor Colonel Archibald Gracie IV, upon seeing that Ida was refusing to leave her husband, offered to ask a deck officer if Isidor and Ida could both enter a lifeboat together. Isidor was reported to have told Colonel Gracie in a firm tone: “I will not go before the other men”. Ida insisted her newly hired English maid, Ellen Bird, get into lifeboat #8. She gave Ellen her fur coat stating she would not be needing it where she was going. Ida is reported to have said, “I will not be separated from my husband. As we have lived, so will we die, together.” Isidor and Ida were last seen on deck arm in arm. Eyewitnesses described the scene as a “most remarkable exhibition of love and devotion.” Both died on April 15 when the ship sank at 2:20 am.

There is so much to see and experience at this museum, this experience is definitely worth the trip you absolutely must experience it… it truly touched my heart.  Located in Pigeon Forge… www.titanicpigeonforge.com