There we were yesterday morning, watching CNN over the foam of a morning cappuccino, when on comes a story about a cruise going to where the Titanic sank in 1912. As the day wore on, the story gathered momentum in virtually all media outlets, and so did the inevitable good-or-bad-idea debate.
Now we’re not in the business of “breaking news” but we did find it curious that this should, if you’ll excuse the verb, surface on the 22nd day of September. Where’s everybody been? In June, we wrote a blog about a Titanic cruise for the 100th anniversary. Where was Wolf Blitzer when we need him?
So in case you, like CNN, missed Bob’s report with OUR breaking news the first time, here it is again…
It is the cruise ship of all cruise ships, and always will be. Ahead of its time, they said. Opulence personified. It became an adjective. An encyclopedia. A memory.
The Titanic.
Like all celebrities, it became greater in death than in life. 
The year 2012 will mark the 100th anniversary of its death, in the north Atlantic where it collided with an iceberg. To remember its passing, passengers on the Titanic Memorial Cruise will be part of a memorial service at 2:30 a.m. on April 15, the approximate time the Titanic sank, in approximately the same spot (but without the iceberg, thanks).
Want to go?
“That’s kinda creepy,” said my bride.
I took that as a no. Many prospective passengers are taking it as a no, too, and they haven’t even spoken to my bride. They have considered the option of being aboard the Balmoral (below), operated by Fred.Olsen Cruise Lines, on a voyage that stops in Nova Scotia (where many of its dead were buried) before going on to New York, the Titanic’s destination. Passage has been available for a year and the ship is only 70% sold. There’s room for 1,350…about 900 fewer than the Titanic. Today many cruise ships are three times its size.
Maybe people find the price tag ($5,185) too steep. Maybe they think 2:30 in the morning
in the north Atlantic is just too cold, and cruises are supposed to go where it’s warm. Maybe they heard that the Balmoral’s history includes being attacked by pirates in the Gulf of Aden, by 50-foot waves near Spain and by passengers with upset stomachs more than once.
Or maybe they find it kinda creepy, too.
Me?
I’m only a winning lottery ticket away from being there.