Titanic enthusiasts, historians and people with a close connection to the modern world's most famous shipping disaster will have a chance to mark its 100th anniversary with a Titanic commemorative cruise scheduled for April 2012.
Highlight of the cruise, aboard the Balmoral Cruise Liner, will be a memorial service above the spot in the North Atlantic where the Titanic went down, between 11:30 p.m. April 14 and 2:20 a.m. April 15, exactly 100 years to the minute after the event.
Tickets are now on sale for the cruise, being run by specialist travel firm Miles Morgan Travel. The company has chartered the Balmoral from operator, Fred Olsen Lines, whose parent company, the Belfast shipbuilder Harland and Wolff , actually built the Titanic.
Plans are for the cruise to follow the route of the Titanic to the moment of the disaster. It will leave from Southampton, sailing past Cherbourg before docking at Cobh (formerly Queenstown) in Ireland, where the Titanic made its final port of call on April 11, 1912.
According to the organizers, “The whole voyage will be steeped in Titanic history." Food served will match the sumptuous menus on the original voyage; entertainment will include music and dancing in the style of the times and historians who studied the Titanic story will be on board to share their knowledge.
Ironically, the Balmoral will have to leave Southampton earlier than the Titanic in order to reach the historic spot of the sinking in time - the modern cruise liner is not as fast the Titanic which was, in its day, the fastest and most luxurious ship afloat.
After the memorial, the ship, carrying 1,039 passengers - exactly the same number as carried by the Titanic - will stop in Halifax, Nova Scotia to visit the cemeteries where Titanic victims are buried. It will then continue on to New York, the Titanic's ultimate destination.
The 12-night cruise costs between £2,595 and £7,995 per person, depending upon the cabin. More information, including how to book, can be found on the Titanic Memorial Cruise official website.
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