Dispatches from Home – The New Orleans Titanic Immersive Experience.

Greetings!

Spring is my favorite time of the year to visit New Orleans. The city’s massive oaks are crowned with spring-green leaves as magenta azaleas gather at their feet. The cacophony of city sounds, bustling people, and the delicious aroma of equally delicious food wafting through the air are a visitor’s dream.

But today, there was a dream of another kind waiting behind the soaring Ionic columns of the city’s Scottish Rites Temple: A Ship of Dreams, the RMS Titanic. The immersive voyage aboard the famous liner was staged where the thrilling Van Gogh and Monet Exhibitions had been staged in the past. The Fab Four—Rhonda, James, Wayne, and I—motored to the city to see this exhibition, and we entered the building with a palpable sense of anticipation.

At the desk, we were given White Star Line Boarding passes, each bearing the name of one of the ship’s passengers. Rhonda was a Third Class passenger, Rhoda Abbott, the only female who, after going down with the ship, was saved by a passing lifeboat. Her two sons, 13 and 16, were lost.

James was a 2nd Class passenger, Anna Abelson, a dressmaker who lost her husband in the sinking. Wayne, much to his delight, was a 1st Class passenger Rosalie Bidois. However, his elation was short-lived when he learned that she was, indeed, traveling 1st Class, but as a lady’s maid to Mrs. John Jacob Astor, Madeleine.

I was the famous Violet Jessop. This dear lady, a stewardess and nurse, not only survived the sinking of the Titanic but also that of her sister ship, the Britannic, when it struck a German mine in the Aegean Sea during the First World War. The Britannic was the third and largest Olympic-class ocean liner of the White Star Line when it was launched in 1914.

Dear Violet also survived the Olympic’s 1911 collision with the British warship HMS Hawke. The Olympic was the first of the Olympic-class ships. It is said that after the Britannic’s sinking, if a ship’s crew discovered that Violet was also a crew member, many of them jumped ship, claiming she was jinxed.

Touring the exhibition, we were delighted to discover many period artifacts, including a gold pocket watch that a crew member found on the slanting deck of the sinking Titanic. In the chaotic last minutes of the sinking, he didn’t attempt to find out who the watch belonged to and kept it as a bittersweet memory.

The exhibition was filled with massive pictures of the Titanic’s public rooms. In front of the picture of the 1st Class Dining Room, a display of the room’s period china, silver, and crystal was displayed. Another display case held a dining chair from the 1st Class A la carte dining room. It looked period; if it was, it came from the Olympic.

If you, like me, came to see the other exhibitions at the Scottish Rites Temple, you know that the last part of any exhibition is the large room where you are immersed in recreations of famous artworks floating around the room as if by magic. The Titanic Exhibition was no exception. However, for me, this one was lackluster. The visuals moved around the room, but many of them were jarringly and disappointingly historically incorrect.

One scene shows 1st Class Passengers dancing. That was not done during that time. The male passengers were wearing bowler hats inside the public rooms. No Edwardian gentleman would have worn his hat in the house, as it were. And then came the maudlin theatrics. There is a young crew member who sees a beautiful young lady in a diaphanous gown walking through the passageways.

He eventually finds her near the 1st Class Staircase, and they dance, which would not have happened. Then the scene changes, and they dance atop the frigid waters surrounding the ship. And then float beneath the sea. The characters were poor imitations of Jack and Rose. Some visuals were entertaining, but the Jack and Rose sequence was out of place.

I saw the over-the-top Titanic exhibition in Memphis in the late 90s. It left me breathless. Then, I was privileged to see the Luxor Casino’s Titanic exhibition in Las Vegas. Again, I was left breathless. Today, I left the New Orleans exhibition breathless, as well, because I was out of breath trying to find the nearest exit. If you’ve not seen a Titanic exhibition, this one will entertain you. It is colorful, with exciting parts that are well put together. It may not be a Titanic aficionado’s dream, but it’s certainly not a nightmare.

A big Thank You to Rhonda and James for their evocative snaps, and Alex Brooks and William Mann for the tickets!

Big hug, y’all!