Trapped (Sort of) on the Titanic!!
Although the Titanic Museum attraction in Pigeon Forge has been open for about 6 months, tonight was my first visit. The walk through at your own pace tour was very informative and my wife Karen and I enjoyed it quite a bit. We had reservations for 4pm and there was a good crowd in attendance when we arrived at about 3:45pm. Our tour began right on time and we progressed past the exhibits, the ice water sample, and the video but just as we were approaching the portion of the tour where you see the passenger list to find out if your person survived or not everything changed suddenly.
I had just seen a demonstration of how the Titanic's lights flickered and than she sank only a couple of hours after striking the iceberg when the lights in the large room we were in actually did go out! This was not in any way a planned part of the exhibit. Only the emergency lighting was on and there was a good deal of confusion among the staff as to how we were going to be able/allowed to leave. To be fair, there was a safety issue as we were on the second floor of the museum and the grand stairway was not lit all that well by the available emergency lights. Our hosts explained that we had to remain in the room in which we were when the power failed. I assume they were trying to determine the cause of the power failure and a time when the power was expected to be back on. After a good 30 minutes we were finally escorted out and promised rain checks for another day.
When we got outside, we could see that in fact the entire town was dark except for the lights of automobiles and I'm not sure that the electricity is on yet in Pigeon Forge. The Titanic Museum Exhibit has been a huge hit for the Tennessee Smoky Mountain community and for Pigeon Forge in particular. Although the employees told us they had never had something like this happen, my advice is to bring your own flashlight - and maybe an emergency snack to enjoy in the event this were ever to occur again!
I had just seen a demonstration of how the Titanic's lights flickered and than she sank only a couple of hours after striking the iceberg when the lights in the large room we were in actually did go out! This was not in any way a planned part of the exhibit. Only the emergency lighting was on and there was a good deal of confusion among the staff as to how we were going to be able/allowed to leave. To be fair, there was a safety issue as we were on the second floor of the museum and the grand stairway was not lit all that well by the available emergency lights. Our hosts explained that we had to remain in the room in which we were when the power failed. I assume they were trying to determine the cause of the power failure and a time when the power was expected to be back on. After a good 30 minutes we were finally escorted out and promised rain checks for another day.
When we got outside, we could see that in fact the entire town was dark except for the lights of automobiles and I'm not sure that the electricity is on yet in Pigeon Forge. The Titanic Museum Exhibit has been a huge hit for the Tennessee Smoky Mountain community and for Pigeon Forge in particular. Although the employees told us they had never had something like this happen, my advice is to bring your own flashlight - and maybe an emergency snack to enjoy in the event this were ever to occur again!
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