Sunday's update for us is that we went to church this morning here (always a fun experience in a different town) then came back to eat lunch before our pre-selected Titanic Museum time. We had bought tickets in advance on-line and were looking forward to it. Pictures are generally not allowed inside except in two rooms (which have Cast Members in them to gently enforce the rule).
The Titanic Museum is on the main Parkway in PF right next to the Hatfield & McCoys Dinner Theater.
Waiting in the queue you receive a "Boarding Pass" with the name of an actual Titanic passenger. During the walk-through some passengers (1st Class, 2nd Class, 3rd Class) are mentioned by name with an artifact, photo, or reference.
My guy, however, never came up until the end (that I saw) and he was listed among those who did not survive.
One room photos are permitted in is a big
Lego replica of the Titanic.
The second room (first on the tour before the Legos) however was the room about the ship's 8 piece band members who are famous for continuing to play out on the deck as the ship was going down for as long as they could. The band leader was Wallace Hartley and he played the violin.
The owner of the museum made a dive down to the Titanic wreck and recovered artifacts for the museum. At first I was unsure about this but the museum takes a very serious and well-designed approach to telling the ship's story. With regards to the band and Mr. Hartley, they recovered his violin as well:
And the leather backpack case he carried his violin in:
With the long leather straps he would carry/wear it like a backpack which left his hands free to carry luggage, etc.
Honestly I was surprised at how well the museum is presented. It's not something you can find in another tourist town on the beach or in the mountains. Nor the Smithsonian Museums for that matter. So if you get the chance on Smokey Mountain vacation, make time to spend 90 minutes (as we did) doing this attraction. I won't give away too many details but it was well done.
Traffic on the Parkway into Sevierville, Pigeon Forge, and Gatlinburg was flowing this afternoon. The morning clouds and afternoon rain gave way to sunshine and some humidity this afternoon.
Everyone has arrived now. Himandher got in last night next to us, tigger92662 is across the road now, tripleb has posted, and 2goofycampers/born2fish got in and walked over to meet folks and discuss the day's activities. The interesting part is the group of us standing in the street talking. New members join in when they find us, present members beg off eventually, and this thing could keep going.
That's the cool part of a DISMeet. But we'll have to break off for dinner soon and then likely reconvene somewhere. Then we can hear about the day's events of those who aren't here at the moment but off having fun (BeintaN, tiggerdad, Southalabama5er to drop a few names
).
Bama Ed
