From here to where, eternity?

To begin with, something I consider to be the core issue of why Titanic II is a financially if not nautically doomed endeavour. I discarded several of my notes when rewatching Titanic for Academy Vs. Audience because I was comparing that ship and its experience to my own sea-bound vacations, and it turns out that’s not fair. Putting aside my muttering of “doesn’t look that big,” as yes, obviously, technology improved and cruise ships got bloody enormous in comparison, comparing the Titanic experience itself to modern cruises is largely nonsense. Cruise ships, as part of their core business model, go places… major cities, big tourist sites, private islands the cruise line owns filled with excursions the cruise line sells. The Titanic, on the other hand, went place.

The Titanic, you see, was an ocean liner, but not a “cruise ship” in modern thinking. In 1912, commercial air travel was 14 years away, and wouldn’t become the standard for over three decades. If you wanted to get from Europe to America, you got yourself onto a boat and hoped for the best.

Yes, Titanic had luxurious compartments and service for its first class passengers, and better than standard accommodations for second and third class, but Titanic was not a ship you boarded just for a wavy vacay, it was, when you get right down to it, a very large aquatic bus. It was not in competition with all-inclusive resorts or theme parks, it was competing with tramp steamers and glorified cargo ships. James Cameron had infamous company man and more infamous survivor J. Bruce Ismay demand that the captain speed up so they could shave a day off the journey, which makes sense for a transport, but if Royal Caribbean pulled that and cost us a day of cruise time, we’d riot.

Crossing large distances at a languid pace is simply not a big market at present, or I would be looking for jobs in Big Zeppelin by now. Rich people aren’t going to drop Titanic money (which we will come back to) on spending the better part of a week getting to somewhere a private jet could take them in five hours. And while there are definitely cruises that drop you in a different country than where you started, few drop you on a different continent. So now Titanic II has to conquer a new market, and boy howdy would it not be ready to do so.

Let’s examine.

Next page: wait it costs HOW much?