With its course set across the icy seas, this is a trip to chill the heart in more than one sense.
Intrepid passengers will next year mark the 100th anniversary of the Titanic’s sinking by retracing the doomed liner’s maiden - and only - voyage.
And if you think that sounds a little too macabre to prove popular, you would be wrong. All 1,309 places on this memorial cruise across the Atlantic were snapped up more than a year ago, even with tickets costing up to £5,995 (about R70 800)
The most poignant moment for those on board - the same number of passengers who sailed on the original voyage - will come seven days into the trip.
That will be April 14, the very day in 1912 when, at 11.40pm and around 400 miles off Newfoundland, lookouts on the Titanic shouted the warning: “Iceberg, right ahead!”
Despite desperate attempts to steer around it, the iceberg scraped the liner’s starboard side and she sank at 2.20am on April 15. Of the 2,224 passengers and crew aboard, 1,514 died. At the time, she had been the largest passenger steamship in the world.
Next year’s 12-night cruise will be aboard the Fred Olsen liner Balmoral, chartered by British company Titanic Memorial Cruises. It insists modern engineering means icebergs no longer pose a danger.
Although the cruise will broadly follow Titanic’s itinerary, it will leave Southampton on April 8, two days earlier than the 1912 voyage, because the 20-knot, 617ft Balmoral is slower than the 23-knot, 882ft Titanic.
It also deviates from the original route to New York by stopping at Halifax, on the Canadian east coast, from where many of the rescue attempts were launched. Passengers will take part in a memorial service at the site and on the day of the sinking, and will also eat the same 11-course meal served to the Titanic’s first-class diners, including oysters, roast pigeon and sauteed chicken Lyonnaise.
Miles Morgan, of Titanic Memorial Cruises, denies suggestions of “disaster voyeurism” and points out the passenger list includes relatives of victims and survivors.
“We’ve heard stories from guests who are having dresses created by top designers especially for the event and requests from musicians who want to audition to be part of the famous string quartet [which played on as it sank],” he said.
For the more adventurous, another company is offering 80 tourists the opportunity to travel two-and-a-half miles under the Atlantic to visit the wreckage in a Russian-built submarine. The four trips, in July and August next year, cost £39,000 per person. - Daily Mail