All aboard! Welcome aboard Titanic in Pigeon Forge TN.

Welcome aboard Titanic at the White Star Terminal in Pigeon Forge TN

Aboard Titanic Pigeon Forge TN

Welcome Aboard Titanic

The Titanic attraction in Pigeon Forge is a full size replica of the front half of the actual world famous luxury liner. When we arrived at the White Star terminal Steve and I were each handed a Boarding Pass. In addition to allowing us to board the ship, our boarding passes gave us an identity. We instantly became an actual passenger on that fated cruise. But we would not find out our fate until the very end of the tour in the Titanic Memorial Room!

A celebration of Titanic

The World’s Largest Cruise Ship

Our tour was a celebration of the ship, its passengers and crew. “It is said that the best way to respect and honor those who gave their lives is to simple tell their stories.”

With the movie Titanic replayed on television repeatedly, the whole world knows about, and remembers, the world’s most famous luxury liner. At the Titanic Museum in Pigeon Forge TN we get to open the door to the past in a very special way. This attraction lets “passengers”, like Steve and I, experience what it was like to walk the hallways, parlors, cabins and Grand Staircase of the Titanic while surrounded by more than 400 artifacts directly from the ship and its passengers.  As visitors touch a real iceberg, walk the Grand Staircase and third class hallways, reach their hands into 28-degree water, and try to stand on the sloping decks, we learn what it was like on the RMS Titanic by experiencing it first-hand.

As I mentioned, each guest entering the ship receives a boarding pass of an actual Titanic passenger or crew. You feel their spirit presence in the galleries where over 400 personal and private artifacts are on display. Many are on display for the first time. This collection is valued at over four and a half million dollars.

Titanic’s regal Grand Staircase is an exact replica of the original!
Photo Credit: Website

The heart of the ship is the Grand Staircase, constructed from the original Harland and Wolff plans with its oak carvings and cherub statue. Here, a magnificent glass dome reflects light off oak wall paneling and elaborate railings and iron scrollwork. Wide, sweeping steps and landings provide a spectacular area where the original guests of the RMS Titanic made their appearances. I was quite surprised to learn what the floor was made of linoleum – something considered most expensive for 1912.

Dive to Titanic

The owner of the Titanic Museum Attraction in Pigeon Forge, TN, John Joslyn, embarked on the adventure of a lifetime in 1987. Two years earlier, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute had discovered Titanic. John Joslyn co-led a 6 million dollar dive expedition to the site of the sinking.

Their team’s mission was to explore the wreckage, retrieve artifacts and film the broken remains. Standing on the slippery deck of their salvage ship, he found it thrilling to hover more than 2.5 miles above the legendary Titanic.

Their team spent 44 days at sea and the expedition dove to the site 32 times in an amazing 20 million dollar submersible. They returned with hundreds of hours of haunting ghost-like images. They formed the framework of “Return to Titanic…Live!” a two-hour television special that Joclyn co-produced with his partner Doug Lewelyn. This special became the second highest rated live TV documentary ever.

Says Joclyn: “After 30 years Titanic remains my magnificent obsession. I’ve dedicated my career to her and the 2,208 passengers and crew aboard its tragic maiden voyage. It started with TV shows and became these permanent Titanic Museum Attractions in Branson, MO and Pigeon Forge, TN.”

He wanted to share as closely as possible with guests what Titanic’s actual passengers and crew experienced aboard ship. We were able to touch finely carved wooden inlays, grasp the wheel on the captain’s bridge, tap out messages on the ship’s wireless, feel an iceberg’s chill, stroll decks and galleries and listen to stories told by real survivors.

Elegant artifacts from the Titanic Dining Salon
Photo Credit: Website

This beautiful teakwood deck chair is one of only a handful that survived that fateful cruise!
Photo Credit: Website

John Joslyn assures us that the more than 400 genuine Titanic artifacts the galleries display are valued above $4 million and hold documented evidence of provenance. Not one thing has been altered, forged, stolen or looted, and not one of those artifacts was retrieved from the wreck site on the floor of the North Atlantic. Every item on display, including those on loan from private collectors, either was carried off the ship and into a lifeboat or was recovered from the floating debris field after the sinking.

Neshan Krekorian

Neshan Krekorian

Now I’d like to tell you about who Steve and I are aboard Titanic. I’ll start with Steve, or should I say Neshan Krekorian. Neshan was a 25 year old, 3rd Class Passenger bound for Ontario, Canada.

To quote his boarding pass info; If you were me you’d be glad to be boarding Titanic in Cherbourg, France in 1912. You see, life was not so good in Turkish-occupied Armenia, where I came from. When things got worse, I decided to join 4 friends and go to Canada.

As eager as I was to go, I didn’t much like the idea of traveling on a new ship, all “cooped up like a chicken” in steerage – or third class as they called it on Titanic. Once settled on board, however things were good for me.

The fate of the Titanic is evident in this replica

They weren’t so good on the 4th night out! I had just crawled into my bunk with my clothes on when I felt a draught – the porthole was open. When I got up to close it I could see ice floes in the water. “Even though it was the first time in my life I had seen icebergs, I didn’t think much of it.”

Just before midnight, I felt the ship “scud back and tilt to one side.” In minutes there was chaos and confusion

I knew I was doomed, so when I saw a half filled lifeboat being jerked down the Port side, I ran down the deck and jumped.

Did he miss the mark and plunge to the freezing water below?

Blanche Greenfield

Titanic Museum Honors Jewish Passengers and Crew

I was thrilled to learn that I was Blanche Greenfield and part of the Titanic Jewish Experience! When we toured in early October they were celebrating the Jewish experience on board Titanic. This meant they highlighted the Jewish passengers on that fateful sailing. As a Jew, it was very emotional seeing the artifacts of the Jewish passengers. I also learned that Titanic had a separate Kosher kitchen as well as a Kosher chef! So cool.

Hello. I’m Blanche Greenfield

So now I’d like to introduce myself while I was aboard Titanic. I’m Blanche Greenfield, a 45 year old 1st Class Passenger headed to New York City. I’m a Jewish mother from Manhattan who was finding it hard to let her only son go. William was 23 and still living with me, but when he became vice president of his father’s fur garment manufacturing firm, he often traveled overseas to buy prime pelts for the company. This time, I went with him.

An example of a 1st Class suite aboard Titanic
Photo Credit: Website

Sinai Kantor Hebrew Watch Photo Credit: Website

Violins from Aboard Titanic Pigeon Forge TN
Photo Credit: Website

We were excited to return on the Titanic. William and I had adjoining cabins and the opportunity to spend the days together. After dinner, however, he would gather with other men in the Smoking Room to kibitz and play cards.

Artifacts of the Kosher Kitchen Aboard Titanic
Photo Credit: Website

Bill of Fare from the Kosher Kitchen and Kosher Chef
Photo Credit: Website

That’s what he was doing when Titanic hit the iceberg. I was in bed when William alerted me and escorted me to the lifeboats. Because women and children were being boarded first, I knew I had a chance, but wasn’t sure about William. Would I finally be forced to let him go?

Neshan, Blanche’s and William’s dramatic stories all had happy endings which we didn’t discover until the end of the tour. We were able to discover our passenger or crew’s fate in the Titanic Memorial Room where 2,208 names and photographs line this historic wall.

The Port side of Titanic in Pigeon Forge TN

Lookout Titanic you just hit an iceberg!!!

Visiting Titanic in Pigeon Forge TN was an emotional and informative experience that I highly recommend if you are in the area!!!