Titanic Review from a Child's Perspective

Titanic - Branson

I am going to let MaKenna write this post too.  She absolutely adores Titanic and all it is.  She has watched the movie with me a few times (I forwarded through the naughty moments with Kate Winslet and Leo), and we have several picture books of the Titanic (I am a fan too), and I have had Polar the Titanic Bear book since before I even had kids.  So she has had a lot of exposure to it.  The boys on the other hand?  Yeah...its cool...but whatever, is their response.  :-)  So....without further ado...I give you...MAKENNA!

Hi!  My name is MaKenna and I LOVE the Titanic!  When mom said we were going to Titanic in Branson, I almost wet my pants!  I was so excited! I didn't care that I didn't feel good still!  Mom and I have watched the movie and documentary things and read books...I know a lot about Titanic!  Here we are.  Major was throwing a fit.  What's new?

 Here is the Titanic.  Isn't she pretty?

I was sad.  They wouldn't let us take pictures inside.  But I guess I understand.  Mom is letting me use some pictures she got on the website though.

When we first walked up to the Titanic a woman dressed in the Maid uniform of the Titanic met us.  She gave us each a listening device that looked like a big, long, phone and a card with our names and stories on it.  I was Annie Harper, a 2nd class passenger from Chicago.  I guess my dad was one of the Reverends on board!

Once you get your directions on how to use your "phones", you walk into a room with this big ceiling fan!  They tell you though that that was actually the size of one of Titanics propellers! It was massive!

In the next room there is a gigantic model of the Titanic which took them 2 years to build!

 Throughout the museum there were these flip up things to test your knowledge about the boat, or about the many dogs that were on the boat.  Yes. There were dogs.  I was surprised too!

 And there were REAL dogs at the museum too!  Well...not the day I was there of course...bummer...but mom said when she was there last month that there they were laying in their steamer chest.  This is what they look like!

 In the next room you can track the Titanic on a big board and push the buttons to light up the path.  I was picked by the Maid to push the buttons for the group that came in with us.  It was really neat.  She called me Annie the whole time!

 This is a picture of the third class cabin.  And also the belongings of a third class passenger.  Two of my brothers were in third class, Cam and Jake.  The rest of us were in 1st or 2nd class.  We also got to go through the Coal Room...and pick up a shovel that held the same weight in coal and pretend to put it in the burner.  It was SUPER heavy for me....but mom and dad didn't seem to have much trouble.  I guess I am just little.

The Grand Staircase was AMAZING!  It was JUST like the movie!!!  I know that the movie wasn't real...but mom says it is based on the real boat...and the Grand Staircase was JUST like that!

Then we got to go upstairs to the first class area.

 We got to see their plates and other things like glasses, jewelry, and even one of the deck chairs that they found floating in the water after the ship sunk.

  Next we went to the Marconi room...the place where the SOS went out.  It showed what it looked like.  The "phone" we had told us that it was like the first text messages of the time!  I get it...but it looked REALLY hard!

After that we went to the Bridge.

I got to "steer" the boat!  It was really neat!  It also showed what the outside looked like out of the windows.  When you went out the door to the outside it was SUPER cold....and there is a deck chair hanging as if it flew off the deck when it hit the iceberg or something.

 Then there is a room to watch a video.  Mom and dad were watching it, but we got bored.  It was in black and white.  Bleh.  So we moved on!

We went through a bunch of other neat rooms that had artifacts and stuff in it...but we came to the Children's room.  My brothers and I found this room really interesting because it showed all of the children that were on board.  I got to see what I looked like as Annie and my brothers got to see what they looked like.
 After that things got quiet and sad because we were in the Memorial Room.  It was here that we were going to learn the fate of many of the passengers...including our own fates!  Myself and 2 of my brothers lived, including my mom and dad.  My dad in Titanic life died though.  My oldest brother Cam and his whole family...they were third class....died.  One thing I found really neat was the life preservers.  They were displayed in a couple of different rooms.  Mom pointed out to me that they were just a bunch of corks wrapped up in cloth.  Not circular corks...but the material was just cork.  It was kinda weird to think that that is all they had to hold them up.  So many of them died though once they hit the water anyway because it was so cold.

After the Memorial Room is the Survivors Room.  So if you survived, you can read your story...what you did...where you lived...when you did die, stuff like that.  It was cool.Then we all got to see what it was like at each level of the Titanic sinking.  These pictures show you.  It looks easy, but the last two were really hard!

 Finally at the end....you got to put your hand in the freezing cold water and time how long you could keep it in there.  This is the exact temperature of the water when the Titanic went down.  I only put my finger in...and I couldn't stay in for more than 10 seconds.  I have a hard time imagining what people must have felt like with their whole bodies in it!  That is CRAZY!  My dad did his whole hand for 3 minutes....but his hand hurt afterward!

I had so much fun at Titanic...even though I didn't feel the best.  It was so neat.  Mom and I came home and read some more about Titanic and looked at more pictures.  Neither one of us are sure why the Titanic is so close to our hearts...but it is!  Thanks Titanic for letting us enjoy you for a day!

MaKenna was not feeling well that day.  In fact, after Titanic, we went to pick up our dinner boat tickets and went straight to the Cox Urgent Care after that to get her some medicine.  Poor baby.  But she did have a fantastic time.  Even though she didn't feel well, her eyes lit up at each step of the Titanic Museum.  And my boys really enjoyed it too...eveybody got into it and got into character beautifully.  I think most of all, they were all amazed by the temperature of the water at the end.  They talked about that and trying to walk on the decks at angles for awhile after ward!

Be sure when you are in Branson or Pigeon Forge where the other one is, that you get a chance to go.  It is worth the time and money.

Price
Advance Reservation - Adult	$24.26 + tax
Advance Reservation - Child (5-12)	$10.77 + tax
Advance Reservation - Family Pass (2 adults, 4 children)*	$62.84 + tax
Advance Reservation - Child (0-4)	Free