Chart A Course To The Titanic Experience in Belfast, Northern Ireland 

The city of Belfast is intrinsically linked with the tragic story of the sinking of the Titanic ship on her maiden voyage, as the Titanic was made in the Belfast shipyards. Many citizens of Belfast worked in the shipyards, and watched the ship being built from afar as the cranes were visible all over the city. So, to visit the Titanic Experience and learn more about this terrible disaster in the birthplace of the Titanic is a great thing to do in Belfast. Here’s what to expect…

First, some homework!

You probably didn’t expect me to give you homework but there are a couple of things to do before heading to the Titanic Experience in Belfast which will enhance your visit:

• Film – watch James Cameron’s movie, Titanic, staring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio and if you’ve seen it before then watch it again to help you imagine what this grand ship was like when she sailed.
• Podcast – listen to the 6 episodes about the Titanic on the podcast, The Rest Is History.  The two hosts, Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook, do a fantastic job of bringing this moving story to life, setting the context and telling you all about the key characters involved in the Titanic’s story. Episodes 427 to 432.

The Titanic – an overview

RMS Titanic was a state-of-the-art ocean liner, owned by the White Star company and designed for luxury and (ironically) safety – it was believed to be unsinkable. Titanic was most luxurious ship ever built with no expense spared.

This ‘titanic’ ship was 11-stories high, a sixth of a mile long and 92 feet wide.

Having been constructed and fitted out in Belfast, Titanic set out in April 1912 on her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York, filled with a mix of the wealthy (many American millionaires from the Guilded Age wanting to experience the luxury and modernity of the ship) and those of a lower class, many of whom were immigrants making the journey in steerage.

Unfortunately, off the west coast of Greenland, Titanic hit an iceberg and became a ship in distress.  Due to a lack of lifeboats on board, only 713 people were saved, whilst 1.512 passengers and crew perished in the freezing waters – the visual of the prow of the ship up-ended and sinking straight into the water is spine chilling.

Where is the Titanic Experience, Belfast?

The Titanic Experience is close to the city centre in an area called the Titanic Quarter, one of Europe’s largest urban waterfront regeneration projects. The area around the Titanic Experience is filled with maritime exhibits such as the SS Nomadic moored nearby on Hamilton Dock. SS Nomadic was the Titanic’s tender vessel and the White Star’s last remaining vessel which has been restored.

Note – for eating opportunities I would recommend giving the restaurant at the Museum a miss and heading instead to The Dock Cafe a couple of minutes walk away, just past Hamilton Dry Dock where SS Nomadic sits. It’s less busy and better value.

You can walk from Belfast city centre along the trail called Mariner’s Mile, a wonderful walk to Titanic’s dry dock at the end of the trail. For details of everything you can see on Mariner’s Mile check out the Visit Belfast website.

Parking – there is a car park underneath the museum which has lots of spaces. If you’re arriving at George Best Airport, then it’s just a 10-minute cab ride to the Titanic Experience from there.

When to visit the Titanic Experience, Belfast?

I’m not sure if the museum is ever ‘quiet’ but to give yourselves the best chance of fewer crowds then avoid weekend and school holidays if you can.

We visited at 2.30pm on a Saturday afternoon in early March and whilst the museum was busy, it wasn’t unpleasantly busy. Belfast is a regular stop on cruise routes, and the museum is a popular excursion with those visiting, so better to accept that there will be crowds and take it as a bonus if it’s quiet.

Tickets and tours

The Titanic Experience – the main ticket to buy is for the self-guided tour around the exhibits of the Titanic Experience. If you can, prebook your tickets online in advance for the best deals. Check the website for current prices.

Audio headphones – choose whether to add an audio guide to your ticket, and additional £5.00. We used the audio guides and found them interesting and easy to listen to, with the information in short bite-size chunks, so you’re not left lingering too long in an area waiting for that section of the audio to finish. It was also good for giving you ‘the voices’ of the crew and passengers on the Titanic.

However we found it was difficult to read the information displays whilst listening to the audio, so I ended up mainly listening in favour of reading. Perhaps it’s best to choose your source of info – from the audio, or from the signs?

The Discovery Tour – you can book this one hour outdoor guided walk to hear stories from your guide about the people who were on the ship and what happened in its final hours. Booking ahead is essential.

White Star Premium ticket – if you have time and want to access everything on offer, then the White Star Premium Pass allows you to visit the Titanic Experience, take the Discovery Tour, and visit SS Nomadic with a slight discount on the individual prices.

Consider booking tickets for The Titanic Experience with SS Nomadic Visit through Get Your Guide to combine these two elements.

At the front of the Titanic Experience

The first thing to mention is how stunning the building is – shaped like a liner covered in silver walls, almost like scales. In fact the building is the same height as the Titanic liner.

There is a lovely sculpture called The Titanica featuring a diving woman to represent hope and positivity by Rowan Gillespie (Irish sculptor), inspired by the traditional female figureheads from ships.

You will also see the wonderful sign made of metal letters spelling out TITANIC – if you’re lucky to catch it without other people then it makes a good photo!

Inside the Titanic Experience

There is a large atrium covered in large sheets of metal the same size as those used on the Titanic – the detail in making the building is rather incredible!

On the ground floor is the shop and two options for food – a sit down restaurant and a more casual coffee and sandwich outlet. Toilets are on the lower ground floor.

The museum is well structured, and you move through a series of 9 rooms, starting with Boomtown Belfast which sets the context of industrial Belfast at the time – how it was the linen making capital of the world (‘Linenopolis’), as well as having the world’s largest rope maker, Belfast Rope Worlds.

You then learn about the Harland and Wolff shipyards which employed more than 11,000 people. The Shipyard Ride, a gondola which glides through a mock shipyard, creates the noise and clamour of the workplace, giving you a sense of the scale of the building operation. Some poor chaps had to hammer 3 million rivets into steel to hold the ship together but many them lost their hearing as a result, it was so loud.

Once out of the shipyard, you enter The Launch, a room with floor to ceiling windows overlooking the slipways of the Titanic and sister ship Olympic. It is a lovely view over the water and this historic site.

Then the exhibits turns to The Fit Out of the Titanic which took place once the ship had been launched as an empty shell. It took 3000 people, 10 months to fit it all out!

There are mock ups of cabins for First Class, Second Class, and Third Class, as well as clothes and artefacts from the ship including a Menu and personal letters.

The next displays are about Titanic’s Maiden Voyage, before some rather emotional sections about the Sinking of the Titanic – one wall lists the names of everyone who perished.

The displays called Never Again look at what went wrong on that fateful night in April 1912 and what measures have since been taken to ensure that such a tragedy never happens again.

Ballard’s Quest covers the efforts made to find the Titanic in submersible vessels.

The final room, Ship of Dreams, provokes an emotional response as, from the upstairs, you can look down through the floor below to see the ghostly figure of the Titanic sailing below you. The visuals are ghostly and  chilling.

So, in conclusion, the museum flows very well and presents the story in a logical way. Sometimes we had to wait to get to display cabinets to have a look, but as long as you’re not in a hurry then you’ll be fine.

Note – it is not a very interactive or hands on museum if you are coming with younger children.

The slipways and plaza

At the back of the museum, you can admire the slipways where the Titanic ship was built and launched. The outlines of both the Titanic and sister ship the Olympic are painted on the main slipway so you can see how long and wide they were – it is the Titanic’s promenade deck which is represented.

To the right of the slipways the huge yellow cranes you can see are those of Harland & Wolff, the company which built the Titanic. These particular cranes were only installed in the 1970s and so were not used to help build the Titanic, but they are an iconic symbol of the city’s esteemed shipbuilding past.

Look out for the beautiful stained-glass piece on the slipway, one of six in the series Glass of Thrones celebrating 10 years of filming in Northern Ireland of the HBO series Game of Thrones.

Where to stay?

For the specific purposes of visiting the Titanic Experience, why not stay at The Titanic Hotel, right next door to the museum. It is steeped in related history having once hosted the Drawing Offices for the shipyards in the late 1880s, and displays artwork and artefacts from the Titanic.

Make sure you visit with lots of time, then you can visit the Museum, take the Discovery Tour, visit SS Nomadic and wander along Mariner’s Mile at your own pace, reflecting on an era of shipbuilding which no longer exists in the UK, and of course, of all those who perished when the Titanic entered those icy waters…

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