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AIBU?

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Original poster

To think a 'Titanic Dining Experience' is grim AF?

93 replies

FettleOfKish · 26/04/2023 21:05

Being advertised locally on Facebook.

The Queen of the Ocean is a totally immersive theatre and dining experience based on the RMS Titanic. Serving up a 4 course recreation of the final meal on board, we take you back to a world of ocean class liners, opulence and extravagance as a heartfelt and poignant story is played out around your table

AIBU to think that this is a bit much, staging an 'immersive dining experience' based on an event in which 1000s of people died awfully shortly afterwards?

What next for the production company? A lavish Lunch in the last hours of Chernobyl? The real Pie & Peas Hillsborough experience? Maybe a final breakfast at the top of the World Trade Centre?

I know there has been films and documentaries and a tourist industry all based around Titanic but this just struck me as even more distasteful, turning it into a fun and frivolous night out.

OP posts:
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8
NeedToChangeName · 27/04/2023 15:36

WingingItSince1973 · 26/04/2023 21:50

I'm not sure where this is but someone I know went to some Titanic exhibition and they got given a card with their identity on which would have been one of the passengers and wether first or lower class. I can't remember much about it though as thought it was awful at the time but also an educational way to understand how the people were treated depending on status.

@WingingItSince1973 I think that's a really clever way to encourage people to pause and reflect on the randomness of who might be saved / considered worthy

NeedToChangeName · 27/04/2023 15:44

"a heartfelt and poignant story is played out around your table"

That sounds in very poor taste

updin · 27/04/2023 15:52

I've often thought this about the glamorising of previous tragedies, I hate London Dungeon and the ghoulish obsession with Jack the Ripper for the same reason, just because it was centuries ago doesn't mean we should be desensitised to it! They were people. Can you imagine if they did a 9/11 canteen menu reenactment?!

Deadpalm · 27/04/2023 15:53

Can you imagine if they did a 9/11 canteen menu reenactment?!

They well might in 80 years

REP22 · 27/04/2023 15:53

NeedToChangeName · 27/04/2023 15:36

@WingingItSince1973 I think that's a really clever way to encourage people to pause and reflect on the randomness of who might be saved / considered worthy

Show quote history

I went to a Titanic artefact exhibition at the Science Museum in London in 2003/04 where everyone was given a card on entry bearing the name of a passenger or crew member.

The exhibition was very well done, with displays, articles, a wall of ice which one could touch to see what it would have felt like, and with a 3D documentary film made by James Cameron (Ghosts of the Abyss). On the way out there was a full list of all passengers and crew and you could look up the name on your card to see if they survived or not (mine was a third class Scandinavian girl. She died). It was powerful and very thought-provoking.

I think there was a similar exhibition in 2021, but I didn't make it to that so I don't know if they continued the card idea (I think they had the wall of ice though).

EarlofShrewsbury · 27/04/2023 16:05

No one would go to a 9/11 breakfast as it is too recent in history.

The food and the clothes and the decor would be nothing more than dated at this stage.

But in 80-100 years there may well be a fascination with the time period, a mysterious wonderment that we don't yet have.

GasPanic · 27/04/2023 16:11

I'm a bit aghast at 4 courses being described as "opulent and extravagant".

I'd want at least 6.

updin · 27/04/2023 16:13

@Deadpalm @EarlofShrewsbury that's my point, utterly dreadful tragedies and how they feel raw now, and the thought they would be some kind of immersive entertainment down the line just feels gross. I suppose it's not unique though when you think of some other festivals and celebrations like Easter, guy Fawkes, Thanksgiving etc.

Qilin · 27/04/2023 16:14

MumUndone · 26/04/2023 21:15

I think it sounds quite fun. I mean, people do murder mystery weekends, is that also bad taste?

They are usually not based in a specific murder being recreated though. It’s more like Cluedo - a game based on pretend characters.

I’d be somewhat surprised if someone invited me to a Murder Mystery dinner based on a real life serial killer.

Qilin · 27/04/2023 16:16

PinkLemonadee · 26/04/2023 21:51

I think you need to separate the Titanic as a luxury liner and the titanic sinking tragedy. There's nothing distasteful about recreating anything from the first one.

But they are focusing on the sinking event - recreating the final dinner for example.
The organisers are deliberately choosing to link the boat and the sinking in this event.

BrieAndChilli · 27/04/2023 16:23

a friend of mine went to this and she said it was awful - there was a countdown clock or something telling you how many people had died i think. she didnt enjoy the experience.

MagicClawHasNoChildren · 27/04/2023 16:33

@REP22 I saw the same one in Manchester and I thought it was amazing - I was in my mid-teens at the time, so not exactly at the most empathetic point in my life, and found it really moving. The wall of ice was so sobering.

I had a ticket for a fatality, too. It was really sad.

CalpolDependant · 27/04/2023 16:50

My husband has been saying he can’t decide between a boat party or a black tie event for his 50th birthday party. He’ll be delighted when u suggest…

phoenixrosehere · 27/04/2023 17:04

REP22 · 27/04/2023 15:53

I went to a Titanic artefact exhibition at the Science Museum in London in 2003/04 where everyone was given a card on entry bearing the name of a passenger or crew member.

The exhibition was very well done, with displays, articles, a wall of ice which one could touch to see what it would have felt like, and with a 3D documentary film made by James Cameron (Ghosts of the Abyss). On the way out there was a full list of all passengers and crew and you could look up the name on your card to see if they survived or not (mine was a third class Scandinavian girl. She died). It was powerful and very thought-provoking.

I think there was a similar exhibition in 2021, but I didn't make it to that so I don't know if they continued the card idea (I think they had the wall of ice though).

Show quote history

I went to one when I was a kid in the States at a Science museum and it sounds exactly the same.

I know they do something similar at the Holocaust museum in Washington D.C. where you get a card of a person, go through the museum and in the end, you find out if they perished in a camp or if they made it to the U.S.

SherbetDips · 27/04/2023 17:05

I agree, that’s incredibly distasteful.

dailytalk · 27/04/2023 17:16

FettleOfKish · 26/04/2023 21:05

Being advertised locally on Facebook.

The Queen of the Ocean is a totally immersive theatre and dining experience based on the RMS Titanic. Serving up a 4 course recreation of the final meal on board, we take you back to a world of ocean class liners, opulence and extravagance as a heartfelt and poignant story is played out around your table

AIBU to think that this is a bit much, staging an 'immersive dining experience' based on an event in which 1000s of people died awfully shortly afterwards?

What next for the production company? A lavish Lunch in the last hours of Chernobyl? The real Pie & Peas Hillsborough experience? Maybe a final breakfast at the top of the World Trade Centre?

I know there has been films and documentaries and a tourist industry all based around Titanic but this just struck me as even more distasteful, turning it into a fun and frivolous night out.

Only 1500 died. Not thousands. 1.5 thousand.

dailytalk · 27/04/2023 17:16

Guineapigwoes · 26/04/2023 21:10

Yanbu don’t go to the titanic museum in Belfast, you go straight from the sad stories of the victims up the gift shop - titanic jam anyone?

And you have to pay to see concentration camps....

Mostar · 27/04/2023 17:33

This whole thing sounds like something out of Brass Eye.

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