Making lemonade out of lemons…. In a titanic way! COMPLETED 5/13 About This Page:

[chezp]

Originally Posted by disney_duke

This is fascinating stuff. They've done an excellent job with all of these displays. I'm not even there and can sort of "feel" it with all your photos. I can't imagine how exciting it was back in the day when this ship set off!

No I bet the atmosphere was really something!

[chezp]

Originally Posted by cubfancolleen

So well done so far. Yes, you don't think about previous stops the ship made prior to its fateful end. Imagine how those passengers disembarking at Cherbourg or Queenstown felt afterward. Dodged quite a bullet.

Oh my goodness, did they ever!

[chezp]

Originally Posted by Alaskan Mom

I got to go to the Titanic Museum in Pigeon forge TN and it was fascinating like the Belfast one looks to be. The coolest thing was when I went, the violin of one of band members was on display (loaned to them by owner) and worth 1 million.

Oh wow! I can't believe it was worth that much!

Very interesting experience. It sounds like you are enjoying your tour as much as I did mine.

The museum was excellent.

[chezp]

Sunday 16 April – part nine: the survivors’ stories….

Then it was the tough section of Titanic Belfast. I didn’t take any photos in here quite deliberately, as it just didn’t feel appropriate, given what we were going to learn. This is the last one I took for a while to give you an idea…



You’re then in a very dark area, listening to the survivors’ stories, with two great screens, showing how the Titanic sank, and information detailing the messages between her and the other ships. What amazed me, and frankly it shouldn’t, as everyone does know the story, is how quickly she went down from first hitting the iceberg. It was literally about an hour start to finish if I remember right. No-one stood a chance, and frankly when you read those messages and see how far away other ships were that night, it’s almost a miracle that anyone survived.

From here, you then go into a section about not just the survivors, but also highlighting some of those who died. I liked the way they concentrated on a good cross-section of people, from millionaires, to the ship’s senior officers, to those involved in creating the ship, to those in third class. The last ones had the most moving stories to me, particularly the difficulties identifying them, and there was a poignant note to one woman from third class, who was wearing a ring and a watch. Her body was found with the watch, but not the ring. It makes you think…

We also learnt that a number of people who were saved by other boats died of their injuries over the next few hours. I think there were only about five or so, but they were all buried at sea.

Then you descend to the lower level for something I’d never thought about, but something that always happens these days after any great disaster, and often through the media – an inquest into what happened. I had no idea that there were a number, at least one each in the UK and in America, both of which came back with a variety of findings, some the same and some different, but some of those still hold true today. For example, the number of lifeboats is decided by the number of people on board, not the ship’s tonnage as was the case before Titanic. I guess some good came out of it…



We also learnt that, perhaps a little more unsurprising, changes were made to the design of Titanic’s sister ships almost immediately after the disaster to ensure the basic design flaws could never lead to another such disaster. One of the sister ships was actually sunk in one of the World Wars (I don’t remember which ) when it hit a mine, so that also came to a sad end.

The next section is then about the homage that’s been paid to the story of Titanic in terms of movies, music, and poetry, and of course you get the famous Celine Dion song, and one or two favourite scenes from that movie…

Of course, the story doesn’t end here, as there’s more to tell about the wreck itself. We’re lucky that it’s still there, as the son of one of the millionaires on board wanted to find the wreck and blow it sky high on the grounds of he then thought it would also blow his father’s body to the surface, and he’d then be able to give him a proper burial.

You head into a huge auditorium, where you get to see a movie about the wreck, with the camera literally manoeuvring over it, and pointing out various bits of interest, such as the captain’s bath! It was just unbelievable to sit there and listen to them explain what you were seeing, and after all these years under the sea, you could still make out some of the features of this beautiful ship. I’m personally glad she’s still lying down there. Somehow it seems right. Maybe one day someone will bring her to the surface the way they did with the Mary Rose (Henry VIII’s great warship), but for me, it feels much more appropriate to let her rest down there.

Once we’d seen enough of this, we headed down another set of stairs, and you’re at the bottom of the auditorium, with the movie still showing, but what you can’t see until you get down there is that you appear to be above the wreck, as it shimmers past underneath you. It’s very eerie.



Now, although I got these photos, I wasn’t using flash, whereas the couple behind us were (and you weren’t supposed to! ), and they were actually posing for photos too. It felt a bit uncomfortable to me, as at the end of the day, this section is about all the people who died. It just wasn’t appropriate, and I know the member of staff there said the same thing. What is it with people?

You then pass through this section, which is all about how they work today to survey the sea bad, obviously with a focus on Northern Ireland. It really brings everything full circle, and back up to date again. You then exit, and amazingly not into a shop – they’re missing a trick there. We did visit the shop, and I got a fridge magnet, and a Christmas ornament. I could’ve bought more here, but unfortunately that wasn’t an option without checked luggage. Oh well, I guess it saves money.



We headed down to the car park, and I got in line to pay for the parking. It was a real pain, as credit card payments took forever, and guess what everyone in front of me was doing? It wasn’t that it was hideously expensive, it was just there were quite a few foreign visitors, who all preferred to pay by credit card, rather than cash.

Then we were on our way, and I managed to get a shot of the complex before we left. It’s a stunning building, which I think they put to very good use. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this to anyone visiting Belfast, that’s how much we both enjoyed it.



We drove back to the airport, dropped the car off, and then caught the shuttle back to the airport. It’s literally only about a two minute drive, which is very easy and very convenient. We headed inside, and upstairs to departures. Mark asked me whether we were going to check-in first, and I told him we didn’t need to, we had the boarding passes already.

We scanned them, and headed straight through security with no issues. I figured we could take it easy, as we’d seen the departures board on our way, and it had said that a flight to Gatwick was delayed to 9:45pm. I figured it was ours, which was a pain, given we were due to depart at 7:55pm. Oh well, I’m sure we’ll cope…

As soon as we cleared security, we were into the food court area. We decided to get some food, as we had only had some of our Easter egg for lunch, and that was it since breakfast. We went for Burger King, after I saw they did a Fish King..



However, this wasn’t very good. It was literally just fish fingers inside a burger, and nowhere near as nice as McDonald’s Fillet O Fish. Thankfully, the Belgian waffle with chocolate sauce and ice cream was much better.



Next: the nightmare children…

[Tara O'Hara]

That exhibit sounds amazing!! I must make a note to get to one around here. I'm sorry your flight is delayed.

[cubfancolleen]

Hope your flight doesn't end up too delayed!

[Colexis Mom]

What a fascinating museum! Thanks for sharing it with us! Sorry to hear that your flight is delayed!

[pamcarey]

The Titanic Museum looks great! I'm so impressed it even has a ride! I remember in your first Northern Ireland TR, you weren't interested in the Titanic Museum since a friend of yours or Mark's had gone and said it wasn't very good. That surprised me since I've heard good things about it. I'm fascinated by the Titanic and have been to several museums. The Maritime Museum in Halifax, NS has a Titanic exhibit, because much of the rescue efforts took place from that area, and many people are buried in Halifax. I also visited a small Titanic museum in Cobh, Ireland, formerly known as Queenstown, which was the very last stop. Fascinating stuff!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[chezp]

Originally Posted by pamcarey

The Titanic Museum looks great! I'm so impressed it even has a ride!

I know... even if it was a bit short.

I remember in your first Northern Ireland TR, you weren't interested in the Titanic Museum since a friend of yours or Mark's had gone and said it wasn't very good. That surprised me since I've heard good things about it.

I honestly don't remember where that came from, but I do know it came from a number of different sources. That's why I was so amazed at how good it did turn out to be.

I'm fascinated by the Titanic and have been to several museums. The Maritime Museum in Halifax, NS has a Titanic exhibit, because much of the rescue efforts took place from that area, and many people are buried in Halifax. I also visited a small Titanic museum in Cobh, Ireland, formerly known as Queenstown, which was the very last stop. Fascinating stuff!

Oh wow, fascinating indeed. Isn't it amazing how many museums there are dedicated to Titanic?

[disney_duke]

They really tug at the heartstrings at the end, don't they. Still putting out that feeling of you actually being in the moment, in that time, and feeling everything that happened. Very well done for a museum!

Burger King, I can't even remember the last time I ate there! I'm guessing you won't eat there much anymore either, if you can help it!

[Cam22]

The Titanic museum is incredibly well done, definitely a place I'd enjoy visiting.

[chezp]

Originally Posted by disney_duke

They really tug at the heartstrings at the end, don't they.

I think if they didn't, they'd have done something wrong, if you know what I mean? I mean, the whole human loss from the voyage has to move you somehow.

Still putting out that feeling of you actually being in the moment, in that time, and feeling everything that happened. Very well done for a museum!

Oh it was.

Burger King, I can't even remember the last time I ate there! I'm guessing you won't eat there much anymore either, if you can help it!

We tend not to eat much fast food. Maybe once every two or three months? Well, I say we... when I'm out for dinner with friends, someone else may visit KFC, let's just leave it at that, shall we?

[chezp]

Sunday 16 April – part ten: the nightmare children…

We headed through the shops at the airport, browsing on the way, with me getting a fridge magnet and a tea towel from one of the souvenir shops. I was tempted to get one of these, given how many we’d seen on our trip, but I resisted!



We then settled down to wait for our flight to be called, and watched the board tick down the minutes until the gate was called. However, that’s not entirely true. We had to get up to see where the countdown was, as the screen was so small, you had to practically be on top of it to actually read it. I did get some photos of the activity outside:



When it did display, it was the gate next door, and I went through the doors, and thought we’d go downstairs to wait at the door out to the aircraft, so imagine my shock when we emerged into a full waiting area. Wow – I wasn’t expecting that.



We had about 20 minutes to wait in there, during which time we had to endure the most hideously behaved children who were frankly just running riot, with their mother constantly on the phone, ignoring what they were doing. They were taking down the safety barriers and putting them back up, and how they managed to not have an accident, I do not know. At one point, one of the metal posts looked like it was going to fall on one of the kids, but still the mother remained completely oblivious. Mark said that if they ended up anywhere near to us, and they continued to behave like that, he’d say something in no uncertain terms…

Thankfully, when we came to board, the mother and nightmare children headed to the back of the plane, while we headed to the front. Phew!

We had a bit of a scare when we actually got paged at the gate. Usually, it’s not a good sign when that happens, unless you’ve asked them something, and the airline is coming back to you. At first, we couldn’t hear the announcement – I’m sure you can guess why – the kids were screaming while it was being made, but then we worked out it was us, and made ourselves known. The staff wanted to check it was just the two of us, as four of us had booked. We confirmed that, but it was all a bit odd, as neither of the other boarding passes had been scanned at the airport. We were told that one had, and I showed them ours, and then they went away and realised we had used the right ones. It was all a bit odd…

Now here’s another really weird thing. While we were waiting at the gate, they made an announcement to say that anyone arriving in the waiting area would now have to check their carry-on luggage into the hold. We figured that meant it was a full flight, as that’s normally the only time that happens. Imagine our faces when they finished boarding, and the whole row in front of us was empty (six seats), Mark’s parents’ seats were (two seats), and when I looked behind us, I spotted another five or six empty seats, and that was just in the first few rows.

Even better (or worse depending on your view), the overhead bins were nowhere near full, as I could see some of them before they were closed. If I’d have had to hand my carry on in to go in the hold, I’d have been pretty annoyed, especially knowing how long you can wait for checked luggage at Gatwick.

We settled into our seats, and I got some photos of the sunset, not that there was much of one sadly….



We took off before the Ryanair flight that was scheduled to leave at the same time as us, which was good, and I got some photos as we did…



It is lovely to fly into a small airport, as there’s no waiting to get up in the air, you just head on to the runway, and off you go. If only every airport could be like this.

I also managed to get shots of the countryside below before we headed into the clouds…


There was a tiny bit of a sunset above the clouds, but not more, which was a shame.



Our hour long flight was very quickly over, as we immediately came into land, rather than circling, which was a pleasant change to what usually happens at London airports. Thank goodness we’d eaten before we set off, as they announced they were out of hot food on the flight, which I’m sure didn’t impress a few people…

We taxied up to the gate, and I was relieved to find we were still in the north terminal, as we’ve had a few instances of being supposed to return there, and found ourselves at the south terminal. We made our way out, and headed straight through baggage claim, and out into the main terminal, then crossed the road, headed into the car park, and took the elevator up to the fourth floor to get our car. We could both see why so many people here park on the ground floor, as it took us ages to get back down again, due to the torturous route we had to take to exit.

Once we were out, we had a clear run home, and were back in about half an hour. It had been a wonderful weekend, albeit definitely not what we planned at all.

The weather today was again a real mixture, with some sun, some cloud and showers, and temperatures in the low 50s.
The best thing today was the Titanic experience in Belfast.
The worst thing today was the weather.
Today we tried visiting the Titanic
And the result was we loved it, and thought it was superb.
The most magical moment today was enjoying the views at the Giant’s Causeway.

[Tara O'Hara]

What an awesome trip this turned out to be.!! Sorry about the screaming kids at the airport. I have never understood parents who do not take responsibility for their children and are oblivious to the rest of the world. While parenting is not easy, it really is necessary.

[chezp]

Originally Posted by Tara O'Hara

What an awesome trip this turned out to be.!! Sorry about the screaming kids at the airport. I have never understood parents who do not take responsibility for their children and are oblivious to the rest of the world. While parenting is not easy, it really is necessary.

Well said.