Titanic II Cruise Includes Morbid Costumes! Set Sail on the Weirdest Vacation Ever


We know you've been waiting for your chance to set sail on Titanic: the sequel, and now you finally have your chance. Curb your enthusiasm! On Tuesday Australian mining entrepreneur Clive Palmer announced his plans to create the Titanic II, a cruise ship that will mimic the “unsinkable” Titanic in every way—but comply to modern safety standards, of course.

The Titanic: Your Next Vacation Destination?

Nevermind that the arrogance of building the ultimate, luxurious ocean liner ever was what got the Titanic's creators in trouble in the first place! (Not to mention the many modern day cruise ship disasters.) And before you put this bit of news in the bonkers file, this is, unbelievably, not the first re-creation of the Titanic's voyage.

In addition to being surrounded by period architecture and customs, “passengers will find 1912-style clothing in their rooms should they wish to dress up and pretend they are living in an earlier era.” Wait, what? Really?

We have to admit that the fashions of 1912, if you were a first-class passenger, were pretty spectacular:


Kate Winslet looked fantastic in the period costumes from 1997’s Titanic.

Thanks to the popularity of Downton Abbey, which takes place in the same time period, the Edwardian look is a big trend for wedding dresses, like these gorgeous pieces from designer Jenny Packham.


Men can take advantage of the opportunity to indulge the bygone practice of dressing for dinner with these gorgeous three-piece suits and hats.


And here are the eager participants in costume for the memorial cruise on the MS Balmoral last year:



Lisa Cohen, a biographer of modernist women, remarked on the importance of fashion at that time. “The Titanic was this stage where people were performing certain versions of themselves, for all kinds of audiences,” she told The New York Times. “It was a transitional space in a transitional period, a time of self-invention right before the war.”

However, not everyone can be in first class, and the Titanic II will stick to societal boundaries. Third class passengers will not be allowed to mingle with first class, who are the only passengers permitted to visit the dining and smoking rooms which will be recreated in all their gilded glory.

The Chinese state-owned CSC Jinling Shipyard will handle construction of the new ship. In the news conference Palmer said he hopes Titanic II will set sail in 2016.

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