Cue the Celine Dion sing-a-longs, because dreams really do come true: a replica of the original Titanic, with some beneficial structural and technological improvements, is currently being built to take passengers on a cruise across the Atlantic Ocean.
Titanic II, as it will be known, is scheduled to welcome passengers aboard sometime in 2022, and will sail to ports around the world. This includes a commemorative voyage from England to New York, in honor of the original ship’s legacy. To recreate the splendour of the Titanic, this new Titanic II will also feature the same interiors and cabin layouts as the original ship, serving early 1900’s nautical glamour realness.
According to a statement from Blue Star Line, the Australian shipping company that is developing this fancy new vessel, the plan for Titanic II is to leave the shipbuilding dock in China, and travel to Southampton, England, which is the same port where the original Titanic first set sail in 1912. From there, “the ship will follow the original journey” to New York City as the original Titanic sailed—or more accurately, the original journey that was planned, because as we all know, the first Titanic had its original journey cut short.
Fortunately, global warming is taking care of those pesky icebergs that cluttered up the Atlantic Ocean during the original Titanic’s tragic journey, but if Titanic II does cross paths with any insurmountable obstacles, the ship will handle everything just fine, thanks to lots of state-of-the-art location and safety technology on board. That will be a big improvement over the original Titanic’s system of having a guy up on a pole, looking around for stuff in the water. And of course Titanic II will also have lots and lots of lifeboats, which is also good.
There will undoubtedly be a crew member assigned to guard the bow of the ship, to stop guests from climbing up onto the railing in an attempt to recreate the Kate Winslet “I’m flying!” scene, or shout “I’m king of the world!” like Leonardo DiCaprio, and thereby risk falling overboard. Because of course guests will want to take a selfie while doing that.
Movie references aside, cruising on the Titanic II should be a lovely experience, with all of that spectacular detailed opulence of the original ship. Titanic was a huge ship for its time, but it would have been much smaller than the mega-ships that are the standard for cruises today. This means Titanic II will be able to access some interesting ports, which would otherwise be off-limits for vessels with larger hulls.
Construction of this ship has been in the works for years, since the heads of Blue Star Line announced their plans to start construction in 2012, but various disputes between this millionaire and that millionaire had paused the process for a few years. Now things are officially underway, and people actually building this ship, so it really is happening. Who will be first to do a gay charter, Atlantis or VACAYA? Whoever gets it, the next step will be to hire Graham Norton as Cruise Director.
