A Titanic Adventure! : Titanic Museum Pigeon Forge

Justin and Kim slipped away for a quick trip to Gatlinburg, TN, in August 2012, choosing the location primarily to mark the 100th anniversary of the Titanic sailing with a trip to the Titanic Museum.  If you've driven in Pigeon Forge in the past few years, you know the building: the one that is a giant ship, of course.  It's quite the impressive display.  Our vote is that it is well worth your time:  two big thumbs up.

The experience is immersive, the atmosphere grand.  The exhibits capture the Titanic from its beginnings in drafting rooms to its contemporary rediscovery under water, contextualizing it nicely.  If you're paying attention, you'll garner a lot of information from rare artifacts on display, including menu cards and trip planning brochures for various "classes" of passengers.  Several artifacts are one-of-a-kind items that humanize the idea of the Titanic.  The overall experience is touching without being melodramatic; your understanding of life through the eyes of the great ship grows through truly understanding the cultural role of the voyage. 

You'll find a better selection of related academic books at amazon.com, but there was great selection of Christmas ornaments in the gift shop for Kim.   The Titanic Museum's an obvious stop for those who enjoy seeing history interpreted for a broad audience, and the contemporary museum design is interesting from a museum studies perspective.  Kim's been reading about the concept of memorialization in America, and if you read in related sociology/cultural studies, you should definitely go as well. 

We recommend you eat at nearby Partridge and Pear--The Christmas Place's own restaurant.  It's close to fun holiday shopping, of course, but it also represents an excellent lunch value:  yummy, homestyle food with a creative twist at a very fair price.  We were stuffed, but we hear great things about dessert.