When I discovered the Titanic Exhibition was coming to London I was very keen to visit. Discovering it was an exhibition that relied on an audio feed made me hesitant to visit. Ethan is very sensory and he isn’t a big fan of headphones. We are working on him using some that he got at Christmas but it’s slow progress. I was unsure if he would get bored without the audio and if we would be able to enjoy the exhibition. When we were given invitations to visit Van Gogh The Immersive Experience and Titanic The Exhibition in London in exchange for reviews I didn’t want to pass up the opportunity.
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I was a big fan of the James Cameron Titanic film*, I might have visited the cinema numerous times to watch it. I also enjoyed reading the book Voices from the Titanic*. Visiting the Titanic museum in Belfast is also on my bucket list. To our surprise, Ethan embraced the audio tour wearing his headphones all the way through.
What To Expect When Visiting Titanic The Exhibition London?
The Audio Tour
This is an audio tour so you will need to use headphones when visiting. If you purchase a standard ticket the audio headsets cost £3 per adult. VIP tickets include the hire of the headsets. You can download the tour content to your phone and use this and your own headphones if you prefer. At first, we didn’t collect any headphones for Ethan. They did offer him a written script of the tour. This is a great option if headphones aren’t an option for you. Ethan was happy to try on the headphones when we walked into the first room. Perhaps seeing everyone wearing them helped. He listened to the whole audio tour at the correct corresponding photos and items. An amazing achievement for him on his journey with autism.
The Photos
The Exhibition is built around a display of photos. Photos of key moments of the ships build history. Photos of people who wanted to build the Titanic. There are photos of the crew and also photos of the passengers. Passengers who survived and those who were less fortunate. The audio brings every photo to life. It brings the stories of the Titanic to life. Tells you the sad stories of people who lost loved ones and of the people who stayed together until the end.
The Artifacts
There are also items on display in the exhibition. Some of the items are personal belongings of the passengers and some are items that you would have seen on the Titanic. Some of these items have come from her sister ship Olympic.
Models and Interior Recreations
The exhibition is also home to models and interior recreations of the Titanic. You can view a scale model of the titanic as well first and third-class accommodations.
You can also walk through a first-class interior corridor.
Experiencing The Ice
You can even experience how cold the ice and the water would have been on that fateful night. The exhibition is home to a real block of ice. The audio tour prompts you to see how long you can touch the block of ice with your hand.
The below video shows you the items we saw during our visit to the exhibition.
Our Experience of Visiting Titanic The Exhibition London
It took us about two hours to complete the audio tour. The supplied audio handset gives you the option to pause and stop the audio. Giving you full control of the tour. So you can spend as much time there as you need to. I loved listening to the personal stories that come from the Titanic. Listening to accounts from real people and their experiences brought the exhibition to life. Of course, there were sad stories. Stories of last moments with loved ones, stories of people spending their last hours together and stories of people getting unwillingly separated.
Of course, you can’t hide the fact that the different classes had different experiences on the Titanic. Not only did they experience travelling on the Titanic in a different way. They had a different experience in death. What I didn’t realise was that you still had to have money to be a third-class passenger on the Titanic. I always had the impression that it would be an everyday working-class person’s ticket. The photos of the third-class passengers told a different story. They were all just as well dressed as any first or second class passenger.
Did The Children Enjoy Visiting Titanic The Exhibition London?
We were both taken aback at how Ethan took to the audio tour. This was something we weren’t expecting and we can only assume he listened to all of the stories. This also gave us the time to really enjoy the exhibition.
Little E really embraced this exhibition. I asked her before our visit if she had heard of the Titanic and she referenced something about a ship sinking and hitting an iceberg. She loves cruising and I didn’t want this to put her off sailing. But as we walked around she kept mentioning our Disney cruises and how she would love to return. She loved walking through the first-class interior corridor informing me that we would have stayed in this part of the ship!
We all really enjoyed this Titanic exhibition, I’m so glad we got the chance to visit it as a family.
DISCLOSURE – We received tickets to Titanic The Exhibition London as a gift. This was for the purposes of this post and to create our YouTube video. We always share our honest opinions, findings, beliefs, and experiences.
