The Titanic Memorial Cruise – Titanic Trip Pt. 2
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As we exited the taxi, hoisted our luggage, and made our way towards the dock, I couldn’t believe we were actually there: The Titanic Memorial Cruise. We were standing where Titanic had docked, about to board our own ship, the Balmoral. With our luggage checked in, we went inside the massive building in front of us.
There were quite a few exhibits set up, and a small band was playing. We took our time looking at everything, snapped photos, and waited. When it was finally time to board, I was over the moon. After taking it in for a few minutes, we found our cabin and gave it a thorough once over. There were old-fashioned-looking boarding passes with our names on them and journals for each of us. These were the first of many surprises we found in our cabin.
Promptly, we found the most direct route to our lifeboat (one can never be too careful). Once all of the formalities and musters were seen to, we were finally on our way, albeit a few hours later than scheduled. There was much fanfare as we left Southampton. We waved to people on the docks, danced together on deck, and stared off into the sea as we began our voyage.
The adventure begins…
Our first day aboard the ship was mostly spent exploring, although I don’t remember it that way. I’m so thankful for the journals left in our room. We wrote in them every night so we have a rather detailed account of our time onboard. This has proven vital because, over time, my brain has combined the first two days into one. Looking back at what we wrote, Day 1 was very relaxed. I wrote 7 detailed pages about our first day onboard and how I felt about it all finally happening. Billy wrote 3, hitting the highlights of the day.
Our cabin was small but spacious and we took the time to unpack our bags. We dressed for dinner and headed to the Ballindalloch Restaurant. We’d be dining here at table 69 for the remainder of our time onboard and were eager to meet our dinner mates. We shared our dinners with a lovely couple from Australia and a pair of ladies who love to travel together, one from Florida and the other from Ireland. We all hit it off wonderfully.
Our evening was quiet. We dropped off some photos in our room and found a goodie bag for each of us on our pillows. We then strolled the decks until we couldn’t take the cold. Snuggled in our beds, we slept peacefully during our first night on the water.
9 April 2012 – Day 2
When we landed in London almost a week before, we had hit the ground running. Our time in England was limited and we didn’t want to miss anything. It was certainly catching up to us. We slept through breakfast and skipped lunch because we weren’t hungry enough to get up and go. However, we did make it to our first of many talks/lectures on the cruise. We listened as Susie Millar told her family story. As are many Titanic stories, it was emotional and moving. I bought her book, The Two Pennies, which I highly recommend.
As the ship sailed on, we had an announcement from our captain at some point during the day. Because of choppy waters overnight, we had been delayed even further. Instead of reaching Ireland at 2 PM, we would now be reaching the Emerald Isle at about 6 PM. While this was a major disappointment, we were lucky. Our excursion was still on. Others had been canceled due to the new time constraint. We took advantage of the extra time to catch up on sleep and napped the afternoon away.
Ireland
The Titanic Memorial Cruise meant something for many of us, but the anniversary was huge for Ireland. Titanic was built in Belfast and sailed to Cobh (then Queenstown) during her maiden voyage. It was her last port of call. Hundreds of people turned out to welcome the ship as we docked.
We woke from our nap because the ship was vibrating heavily and there was a loud noise accompanying the sensation. Not knowing what was wrong, we flung open the curtains to see if everything was alright. The site greeting us was a dockside full of people. Everyone was celebrating and we were sleeping through it! We hurriedly got dressed and rushed up on deck. There was music playing and people cheering and Irish flags waving by the hundreds. What a beautiful sight!
On Shore
Once we disembarked, we headed over to our excursion meeting point. We’d signed up for the harbor tour. We saw the original pier where over 100 people boarded the two tender boats (PS America and PS Ireland) that took them to Titanic. The original White Star Line office building is still there and we saw that, too. We then boated out to where Titanic was anchored before heading back in.
There was time to walk through the town briefly before boarding the ship again. In the bitter cold, we trekked up the hill to see St. Colman’s Cathedral, which was magnificent. The town was lovely and we so badly wanted to stay to see more. But alas, the ship waits for no one. We made it back on board, wet from the freshly falling rain, and then headed on to dinner. I wrote in my journal that we tried the Titanic dish of the day that night. Every night, there was one dish on the menu that was served aboard Titanic. It changed between first, second, and third-class dishes. That night was a second-class dish of Irish Stew with lamb, carrots, and cabbage. It was delicious.
10 April 2012 – Day 3
The start of day 3 is really the ending of day 2. At just after midnight, we had officially left Ireland. Here is an excerpt from my journal. I wrote down the time as 12:05 AM.
“We sailed out at night, roughly 11:30 PM. There were a few people standing at the quayside and I thought, “At least some got to wave us off.” But as we slowly moved forward, more and more people came into view. We waved from our cabin window and they waved back. All up and down the hillside we could see porch lamps flicking on and off, car lights flashing, and many camera bulbs lighting up the night; all saying farewell.”
~Lydia
Angry Seas
10 April 2012 was a rough day. The sea was tossing us about on 20-foot waves as if the ship were a toy in a bathtub. Most of the day was spent lying in bed feeling seasick, interspersed with doing laundry and ironing formal wear for dinner. There were three formal dinner nights and the first was that evening. While it was an uneventful day for us, it was not uneventful for the ship. We’d had to turn back towards land because one of the BBC cameramen was having a medical emergency. When we were near enough, he was airlifted out by helicopter and taken to hospital.
It was an odd dinner. Everyone looked so beautiful, dressed to the nines, but we were all concerned for the ill man and most people weren’t feeling their best either. We ate dinner, bought a few items at the gift shop, and then went for a quick stroll on deck. The sea was finally starting to calm as we slipped into bed.
11 April 2012 – Day 4
We slept through breakfast, had lunch in the Avon Restaurant, and then relaxed in our cabin until it was time for David Haisman to speak. He told the story of his mother, Edith Brown, who was on board Titanic when she was 15. Again, another incredibly moving story. We bought his book as well (Titanic: The Edith Brown Story), and he was kind enough to sign it for us.
It was an easy day on board. We set up a spa appointment, bought some sweets at one of the shops, and went to Bingo, which became a nightly event for us alongside our dinner-mates. Dinner was pleasant, as always.
That evening, Grupetto was playing and I had been eagerly waiting to hear them. We arrived at the Observatory Lounge around 9:45 PM and found ourselves good seats. It was lovely. They were and still are incredibly talented musicians. Their tribute to Titanic’s orchestra was magnificent and beautiful to listen to.
12 April 2012 – Day 5
“The seas were very calm today. Just the slightest ripple on a sheet of glass. Sometimes the sun glinted off of it like mirror shattered into a million pieces, but for the best part of the day, it was shrouded in fog.”
~Lydia
The sea very much described our day as well; calm. Most of the morning was spent in our cabin. We had lunch and then stopped by the art gallery to shop, buying two sets of postcards with Titanic-related images on them. There was also replica china for sale, and while I wanted to buy it all, we didn’t have anywhere near enough money. We bought a few pieces we liked and then went to another talk. This one was by a woman in character as the Unsinkable Molly Brown. She worked at the Molly Brown House Museum and was a wealth of knowledge about the great woman who is so well tied to Titanic. It was an incredibly educational and interesting talk.
The evening passed as quietly as the morning had. Bingo, dinner, bed. Another day passed.
13 April 2012 – Day 6
This was one of the rare days that we actually woke up in time for breakfast. We were crossing time zones as we sailed and were gaining hours in the night, which was aiding us in catching up on sleep. After breakfast, we watched a live feed of a lecture on the television in our room while I curled my hair. It was a fascinating one about all of the myths linked with Titanic (was there a mummy in the hold, were steerage passengers locked below decks, etc.).
We ended up ordering room service and then going to the laundry room to iron our evening wear. Afterward, we were off to another lecture, this one by Senan Molony, about the mystery ship that approached Titanic but turned away instead of coming to the rescue. Funny enough, I had read his book a few months before the cruise without realizing he’d be a speaker on board. That evening, Bingo was a hit. Billy finally got lucky and won a whopping £26! We collected our winnings and got dressed for dinner.
An Evening of Recollection
It was the second of the formal dinners and we dressed for the occasion. Afterward, there was a big group picture in the Neptune Lounge for everyone who had dressed in period clothing. Personally, my interest in Titanic started with the clothing. When I was a little girl, I was fascinated with the style of the era and the tragedy of the ship. As I grew older, my interest grew to the people. Being on the ship, surrounded by others dressed in the style of my childhood wonders, made the people of the Titanic all the more real to me. It brought them to life in a way I’d never dreamed. As we went to bed that night, knowing that the next day would be 100 years to the day that Titanic hit the iceberg, my thoughts were with those that had sailed with her in 1912.
