Billionaire Clive Palmer pulled back the curtain Tuesday on the design of the Titanic II, a new cruise ship modelled after the original, which will be built in China and is to set sail in 2016, USA Today reports.
The Australian businessman says the ship “will be a financial bonanza” after receiving an overwhelming response from prospective passengers that prompted him to design the ship.
However, the plan has been met with some criticism as cruise-ship experts believe it offends the memory of those who died on the Titanic, which sank in April 1912 and took the lives of 1,500 passengers.
The second model is designed to be 883 feet long – 3 inches longer than the original Titanic– and weigh 55,800 gross tons, according to Palmer. It will carry a maximum of 2,435 passengers and 900 crew members. The ship will include a gymnasium, Turkish baths, a squash court, a swimming pool, a theater, a casino and the grand staircase as made popular in the flick of the same name.
The first voyage is scheduled to be from Shanghai to Southampton, England, and then on to New York.
An investment banker in the US said of the new ship; “cruises are meant to be enjoyed, but the memory of what happened on the first Titanic will deprive me of the enjoyment…it will kind of haunt me as if I was there, though I only saw the movie. Therefoer, it’s a No for me. I’d never get on that ship,” Ron Baker said.
Would you go on a cruise in that ship? [VN]
