Titanic the Experience - Orlando, FL

 

 

Recently I haven't had as much time to blog or travel as I would like so when someone told me that they had recently visited the Titanic experience on International drive and thought it was wonderful I figured I had to go.

Before you start the exhibit you receive a boarding pass with the name of a person that was aboard the ship.  At the end you get to see if your person was saved or died at sea. (PS I lived but my husband didnt make it)

The exhibit was redesigned in January 2012 by the RMS Titanic inc.  They have guided tours and prerecorded tours available.  I suggest the guided tour as the guides are in character as one of the individuals who were upon the ship that fateful day.

Upon entering you become a passenger and travel back in time to 100 years ago, where authentic artifacts and interactive storytellers in period costume allow you to visit the unforgettable sights, sounds, and emotions aboard the ship that night. The tour includes full scale room re-creations where you visit Titanic's Grand Staircase, First Class Parlor Suite, Boilers, Captain's Bridge and Promenade Deck and the infamous glacier that caused the wreck.

the middle - steering - propeller for the ship the other 2 are twice as big

only 3 of the 4 steam pipes are real - the 4th is fake and is a storage closet

firt class accomodations - everything was Tiffany glass and first rate

the captains wheel- and the conditions that were out that night -no moon = really dark

the glacier represents the size that the crew saw above the water - however it is 4 times larger underneath - it is also 28 degrees and very chilly to the touch

You can view more than 400 unique pieces of memorabilia and 100 artifacts recovered from the wreck site of Titanic- some of which have recently completed conservation and are on display for the  very first time. Some of the pieces include a portion of the Ship's hull, the Captain's wheel and personal belongings from Titanic's passengers and crew.

Trained actors in period costume portray famous Titanic notables, sharing stories of her passengers and crew during an hour-long guided journey. Upon the end of the exhibit there is an extensive Underwater Room, displaying an 8-foot replica of Titanic as she appears on the bottom of the Atlantic today, including the second largest piece of Titanic ever recovered a 3 ton portion of the ship's hull.

Between 1987 and 2004 the RMS Titanic Inc has recovered over 5,500 artifacts. 

We received the Florida resident special and our adventure for the day came to a little less than $40 - you can check online for coupons -

I was completely impressed with the exhibit.  I wasn't sure what to expect and I learned so much and it was so interesting to see the items made then and how they survived the wreck, and the ocean floor for so long.  It is a truly heart-wrenching story to find out all of the errors that occurred that prevented those poor people from being rescued that night.  Thank goodness the issues that arose have been since changed so that it won't happen again.  For instance freighters and passenger shipped used different types of distress signals so no one knew they had an issue even though 2 ships were less than 2 miles away and could have easily made it to help.  Or that flares used to be silver and white and the freight ships thought they were fireworks and not flares for help. 

If you have ever watched the movie or are interested in the Titanic I would suggest visiting the exhibit.  The tour takes about an hour and then you are allowed to go back the beginning and take your time going back through.

I didn't want to take tooo many pictures of the exhibit as I wanted to leave something to the imagination and let you explore the place for yourself. 

Love pictures - you can have your picture as the King or Queen of the world with the green screen of the ocean and bow as well as on the grand staircase.

Want to do something more? They also have dinner experiences where you can have either a 3 or 4 course meal and celebrate the way the passengers would have on the Titanic. 

Check it out today - http://www.titanictheexperience.com/orlando/special-events.html

Salvador Dali Museum - St. Petersburg, FL

My fiancee Duane and I have been wanting to go to the Salvador Dali museum in St Pete for awhile now, but with work and the kids we just never had time.  In the past year the museum underwent a huge facelift and expanded from their previous 11,000 sq ft property to one that is almost 22,000 sq ft.  The building and the grounds themselves are beautiful before you even enter in the exhibit. 

side of building from theatre

interesting sculpture at front of entrance

there was a fountain with fish



this is a replica of when Salvador Dalie showed up at an event dressed in a scuba outfit



spiral staircase that runs up to the exhibits

view from out of the glass windows that run along the backside of the building

behind the museum

    

  

As cameras are not allowed in the exhibit I have added some shots of the items that are on display. The price was $21/each for adults with children being cheaper depending on their age. check out the times, prices and directions for yourself with this link - http://thedali.org/visit/overview.html.

The Persistence of Memory

Hallucinogenic Toreador

Telephone in a Dish with Three Grilled Sardines at the End of September

Slave Market with the Disappearing Bust of Voltaire

Crucifixion ('Hypercubic Body')

Below is my personal favorite painted by Salvador Dali.  Unfortunately I will never get to see it up close at is lives with a private collector.

   

Swans reflecting elephants

Key West historical areas - Key West, FL

Duane and I decided to spend this years Thanksgiving in Key West with the kids.  Neither the kids or I had ever been and it is some place I have always dreamed about visiting.  We booked our hotel on Key West, rented a car and were off.  We left around 10am on Thursday morning and arrived at our destination around 7pm.  We unloaded the car and decided we wanted to check out the island, so we jumped in the rental and were on our way.  The first thing that struck me was the amount of money to park.  Basically if you want to park cheap you will walk 12 blocks, if you want to be close you will pay anywhere from $12 - $20.  We sucked it up and parked the car and decided to walk Duval Street.  The atmosphere was electric and there were people everywhere having a good time.  There were two things that really struck me and that was the t-shirts being displayed in the windows (some extremely obscene) and the prices for the small things.  A milk shake cost us $7.00 and a bottle of Coke was like $3.00.  We hung out for awhile and decided to call it a day and headed back to the hotel.

The next day we woke up early because we were going to ride the trolley around town.  I love the scenic trolley tours because they allow you to learn about the history of the place you are visiting as well as get off and on at any of the stops, so you can pick and choose what you want to do.  We picked up the Cityview Trolley (http://www.cityviewtrolleys.com/keywest/index.php) at Higgs Beach.  Higgs Beach is one of the areas that you can park for free and they will let you on the trolley and then take you to a ticket window for you to get a sticker for the rest of the day.  The drivers on the trolley were extremely knowledgable about the area and we learned a lot of really interesting facts.

One of the interesting facts we learned was that all of the sand that now lies on Key West was shipped in from the Bahamas.  Due to the reef that is 7 miles off shore there are no waves that hit the island, so therefore there is no sand deposited here.  They said they bring it shipments 3 or 4 times a year.

Higgs Beach is now the home to the Aids Memorial honoring those who have died at the hands of this vicious disease.  http://www.keywestaids.org/.  This spot also has an area that is a memorial to the african slaves that had died in Key West.  The cemetary was unearthed in 2002 and the bodies moved.  Each year Key West adds a little more to the memorial.

After this stop we rode around listening to the tour and determining what we would like to check out and what we could miss.

Another place that we made a stop was at the Truman Annex.  This area was residential but after you pass through it's gates there is another area that offers free parking.  The USCGC Mohawk Coast Guard Museum is stationed here as well.  We didn't go into the museum, but below is a picture of the ship itself.  http://www.uscg.mil/lantarea/cgcMohawk/

A new attraction they have in this same area is the Florida Keys Eco-Discovery Center.  This center is free to the public and explains about the native plants and animals of the Keys.  We didn't go in, but the website is pretty cool.  http://floridakeys.noaa.gov/eco_discovery.html

A famous area that everyone goes and wants to get their picture taken at is the Southernmost Point on the Island.  The bouy states that from that spot you are only 90 miles away from Cuba.  One of the drivers said that we were closer to Cuba then Walmart which was 141 miles away in Homestead.  This of course was funny to image in today's times. 

One of the intersections in Key West shows mile marker 0 as this is the end of US 1.  There were people lined up everywhere just to get a pic with this sign.

Another famous stop on the tour was that of the Key West Lighthouse and Hemingway House.  I took photos from outside because I was afraid to go in being allergic to cats.  Here are their websites if you would like to check them out for yourself.  Key West Lighthouse - http://www.kwahs.com/lighthouse.htm and Hemingway House - http://www.hemingwayhome.com/HTML/main_menu.html

My grandfather was a huge Harry S. Truman fan so I had to check out the Little White House that he built on Key West for his stay here.  It is an exact smaller replica of the house that was in Washington DC at the time.  We didn't do the guided tour, but the grounds and house were beautiful.

On Front Street near the Marina there is the Custom House, which is Key West's art and history museum.  Currently they have sculptures that surround the outside created by a Key West native.  A few of the pictures are shown below.  http://www.kwahs.com/customhouse.htm

This was a 25 ft sculpture that was inspired by Grant Woods "American Gothic"

This was inspired by Henri Matisse’s “The Dance 

he is a sculpture painting the sculpture

Down on Mallory Square they have a few sculptures and busts that memorialize a specific event or people that have been a major influence to Key West.  The first sculpture is the Shipwreck memorial statue.  This shows that in the past the citizens of Key West would flee to help stranded ships that were out on the reef.  There was a law that whatever you salvaged became yours and you could auction the items inland.  This was the main source of income for the island for many years, until the ships navigation systems became so advanced that ships quit wrecking on the reefs. 

The bust shown below is that of Sister Gabrielle.  She was a sister at the catholic church on the island many years ago.  Two vicious storms came in and ripped Key West a part, basically crippling the small island.  Sister Gabrielle and her fellow nuns decided to try to do something about it.  They built a 50 ft high grotto and placed the Mother Mary atop of it and Sister Gabrielle prayed that as long as this grotto stood that no other storm would devistate the island.  That was in 1919 and the grotto still stands to this day and the island has never been hit hard since then either.

One of the coolest things that happens on the island happens every single night at Sundown.  It is called the Sunset Celebration and all of the local artisans and performers flock to the marina area an hour before sunset.  They set up booths to sell their wares and perform different feets to earn money and inspire those there for the amazing sunsets that occur over the ocean each evening.  This was one of the highlights to our time here.

This guy stood perfectly still until someone would come up and put money in his bucket.  He would spring to life sounding only like a robot.

He said he was 68 years old and was juggling on a tightrope above concrete

We had an amazing time in Key West and check out the other blog posts to follow regarding the Key West Butterfly Conservatory, the Key West Aquarium and our parasailing and snorekling adventures.

There are some things you should be aware of if you decide to take your family with you to Key West.  Bring more money than you think you will need, with parking and incidentals so high you will quickly run out of cash.  Make sure you are aware that out of the 200 t-shirt shops that line the downtown area, most of them are definitely not kid friendly and they bring them right out to the street for all to read.  Make sure you wear comfortable shoes as there is a ton of walking to do and some of the streets are cobblestone.  Remember the bars here open at 8am, but we never really saw anyone getting out of control, because the cops are everywhere.  There is even a bar that is clothing optional.  It is on the rooftop of two other buildings and if you want to drink a beer naked, this is the place to go.

One of the funniest things we learned on our trolley ride was that the chickens are the biggest topic of conflict on the island.  He said "we don't care if you are democratic or republican here, we just care how you stand on the chicken issue!!"