(Photos courtesy of Executive Producer John Zaller)
Written by Colleen Bement, Editor
Did you ever wonder what it would be like to stroll the decks on the Titanic? Stand at the bottom of the grand staircase? Shout that you’re the king of the world? Come on board and walk through life-sized recreations of parts of the ship. With the help of advanced theatrical techniques and technology, Titanic: An Immersive Voyage brings all the grandeur, romance, and horror of Titanic’s fateful night to life. This year happens to be the anniversary of the Titanic wreck discovery. It has been 40 years since Navy officer Robert Ballard discovered the wreckage of the ship, and 28 years since James Cameron made us fall in love with the story. Both reignited public fascination with the “unsinkable” ship: Its people. Its stories. Its glamor.
Denverites, now is your chance to relive the ship’s final dramatic moments from a lifeboat and from the crow’s nest, and even from the boiler room in an immersive format. Discover an impressive collection of artifacts related to the Titanic’s short life. Dive into the depths of the ocean aboard a virtual submersible and discover the RMS Titanic’s wreck site (exclusive VR experience is included in VIP tickets!). Learn about the story of the Titanic—from its creation to the crash and aftermath.
Executive Producer John Zaller described the exhibit with passion, and I absolutely cannot wait to see it in person! Zaller is the EP of Exhibition Hub, a curator and distributor of world-renowned immersive exhibitions. Known for immersive experiential environments such as Jurassic World: The Exhibition, Bodies the Exhibition, Star Trek: The Exhibition, and the Themed Entertainment Association’s Thea award-winning experience at the St. Louis Aquarium at Union Station, and the Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience, he is a master at creating joy. With his immersive design firm, KRE8 360, he specializes in story-driven, traveling immersion experiences. This Titanic event will be a can’t-miss experience. Dive into the details with our exclusive interview.
Colleen Bement: I have been fascinated by Titanic’s story since James Cameron released his film in 1997. I saw it 3 times! I stayed up late that first night researching everything I could. NOW, the Denver area will get to step onto the ship in this incredible immersive experience! Walk me through the first part of the experience.
John Zaller: When you enter the exhibit, we actually reference all of that popular culture fascination with Titanic. That includes Cameron’s film, which was obviously a seminal moment in the entire history of Titanic’s storytelling. We actually have the props from the film. We have a replica of the Heart of the Ocean from Fox Studios. We have some other props that were used in the making of the film. We have multiple movie posters from the other movies. We have numerous books on display. There’s also a prop of the bow of the ship so you can do your own “King of the World” photo op.
We’re actually talking about the general public fascination with Titanic: The hundreds of books, the dozens of movies, the scores of documentaries about the ship, to kind of set the context for how big the discussion of Titanic has become. We’re also doing it to say you’re here because Titanic means something to you. What is it that you’re here for, we ask you at the beginning, so as you go through, you can reflect on that and come away with your own answers as to why Titanic is so important to you individually.
CB: I feel that the Titanic story will always be a part of our pop culture. Why do you think the Titanic means so much to us?
JZ: There’s a saying, “we are all passengers on the Titanic.” What that saying means to me is that every class, every strata of society, every type of person was in some way represented in some way on the Titanic. We’re all in this ship, in the ocean, at the same time traveling towards this iceberg, and somewhere in this story we find ourselves. And depending on where we are in our lives, we may find ourselves in a different position on that ship. The fascination really is a reflection of what would I have done? What would my fate have been? What would I have done in those final moments of the ship’s final hours? It’s a question that we continue to ask ourselves throughout our lives, and it’s a story that continues to reveal more and more of itself because of the ongoing research from enthusiasts like yourself who are always coming up with these extra bits of information, these new theories, there’s new science that’s discovered around the ship, so there’s always something to learn. It also gives us an opportunity to learn more about ourselves.
CB: That sounds absolutely amazing. In what ways does the exhibition use advanced theatrical techniques and technology to bring Robert Ballard’s discovery and the Titanic’s history to life for visitors?
JZ: Following that first room where we talk about the popular culture, we do take you back in time. We take you back to the creation of the ship, where we have numerous artifacts on display, but we also have digital touch screens where you can explore the ship through thousands of drawings and photographs. We use the latest research on the iceberg’s path to talk about how that iceberg was formed and where it traveled from. It turns out the iceberg was actually formed the same year the Titanic’s construction began, so three years before that impact of that ship, that iceberg was already making its way towards that spot in the North Atlantic. Talk about fate!
CB: No Way!
JZ: Yeah, we also take you through life on board the ship. You get to see the side of the ship. You get to board the ship. You get to walk down the first-class hallways, you see the first-class dining room, and the grand staircase. And then we create these immersive moments, using technology that place you on the bridge as the ice warnings are coming in. We place you in the crow’s nest where you’re trying to spot the iceberg before it’s too late. We place you in the boiler room as the iceberg breeches the hull and the water starts pouring in, and we place you in a lifeboat in our immersive gallery where you’re watching Titanic’s final hours as though you’re one of the passengers onboard the ship in a lifeboat watching Titanic’s final messages from wireless coming out, unable to do anything to stop it. That is a really powerful moment because it combines the story of what happens with the technology that places you there where you have this immediate empathetic connection like never before, to the ship’s final moments.
And then after all of that, we put you in a VR headset and allow you to dive to the wreck of the Titanic and you see that wreck that Robert Ballard discovered 40 years ago as real and more lifelike even if you had dove to the wreck itself, because if you dive to the wreck in a submersible, you’re looking through a 12 inch diameter window. But here, given the magic of virtual reality, you’re standing on an open ocean platform, and you can scan the entire bow section of the wreck as you’re coasting along past it. Those elements of technology, along with the really powerful Titanic story that already exists, create a new way of experiencing the Titanic story that no one’s ever seen before.
CB: I can picture it, and I can’t wait to see it!
JZ: It really is a breathtaking experience, and it’s so emotive. It really connects you to the story. We give everybody a boarding pass with an actual passenger’s name on it. You carry that along with you throughout the who exhibit, and at the end you can look at a memorial wall to find your passenger’s name there and your passenger may have survived or may have been lost. In that moment, you discover what happened to your passenger, and it’s a very powerful and humble moment where you can appreciate the fragility of life in a very real way.
CB: For those of us romantics and big fans of James Cameron’s movie, that grand staircase still gives us goosebumps. How does the Titanic: An Immersive Voyage recreate the grand staircase, rusting hull, and other iconic elements of the Titanic?
JZ: We studied the original builder’s plan to create these elements of the ship. For example, the ship’s wall of massive steel plates, you see that in front of you in the boarding area, and you actually board the ship through the D Deck door, which was where all the first-class passengers boarded. It’s a one-to-one recreation of that section of the ship. We recreate the first-class dining room with a one-to-one technique, and it feels like it goes on forever when you’re in that set. And the grand staircase is the way. We used the builder’s original drawings to recreate the section of the grand staircase to place you right in front of that grand staircase in a way that you feel like you’re there. We also do that with the bridge, the crow’s nest, and the boiler room, and the lifeboats. The lifeboats are full-sized replicas of Titanic’s actual lifeboats.
CB: Amazing!
JZ: People really enjoy the show. A few folks I know who have been to a lot of Titanic exhibits say not only is this the best Titanic exhibit they’ve ever seen, it’s the best exhibit they’ve ever seen. I actually had a reporter recently tell me, this is better than the movie, which is huge praise for one of the highest-grossing films of all time.
CB: The venue is just ideal.
JZ: It’s well located, with plenty of free parking. There’s a great little restaurant in the lobby, and tons to do right around there. You can really make a day of it.
CB: Denver has a unique connection with the Titanic disaster–Molly Brown. I know a little about her history, but what can you share more about this?
JZ: Molly Brown in a lot of ways IS the Titanic story. The Unsinkable Molly Brown was a charismatic, effervescent figure who was married to JJ Brown whom she met in Leadville, Colorado. JJ Brown took a gamble that there was gold in decommissioned silver mines, and he was right. They were able to enjoy the luxuries of that new found wealth. Molly used it to promote causes that were of great interest to her. Women’s rights. Helping the disadvantaged, and she did that throughout her life even prior to her time on the Titanic. She had been traveling around Europe and boarded the Titanic at Cherbourg, where a lot of the wealthier passengers boarded because they had been doing traveling on the continent. Molly Brown was able to get into a lifeboat, and her energy and her spirit kept everybody’s spirits up and kept their hope alive in those four hours in between when the Titanic sunk and the Carpathia arrived. She was making sure everybody kept rowing, switching off shifts, and directing people to keep rowing to stay warm.
When her lifeboat was raised onto the Carpathia, she immediately started a fund to assist those less fortunate than herself who had lost everything in the Titanic tragedy, to create a relief fund so that they had something when they got to America to help get their life started again. Many women lost their husbands, and many families lost their sons and fathers. We had a lot of widows and a lot of orphans who were coming to America with nothing, so she wanted to make sure those people had a chance. Within the time that Carpathia landed in New York, she’d already raised $10,000 for this relief fund, and it continued to grow from there. She was also instrumental in recognizing the heroism of Carpathia’s captain Arthur Rostron. She created a loving cup for him that she awarded to him later.
She was part of memorializing his important role in the Titanic, and she went on to use that Titanic fame–she was known as the Unsinkable Molly Brown–to promote her other causes like a women’s right to vote, the importance of the arts in society. She became a regular fixture in Denver and actually the Molly Brown House is about 15 minutes away from where the exhibit is. We’re working with the Molly Brown House to add some elements to our exhibit that come from their collection, so we can feature the first daughter of Denver in the exhibit, and also at the Molly Brown House at the same time.
CB: That really gives the Denver exhibit something special.
JZ: She really is an amazing figure. She actually was a big part of getting the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception built as well.
Denver can’t wait to get to experience Titanic: An Immersive Voyage Denver. Opens May 7, 2025. Tickets are on sale and going fast. Click here for more information, ticket prices, and times. All ages are welcome, and children under 4 enter for free. This really is going to be incredible, so be sure to grab those tickets.
Ticket Prices:
- Adult (+18): Starting at 29.90 USD
- Senior (+65) / Student (18-25) / Junior (13-17) / Military: starting at 25.90 USD
- Child (4-12): Starting at 22.90 USD
- VIP Adult (+18): Starting at 41.90 USD
- VIP Senior (+65) / Student (18-25) / Junior (13-17) / Military: Starting at 37.90 USD
- VIP Child (4-12): Starting at 34.90 USD
- Group Bundle (min. 8 tickets): Starting at 26.90 USD
- Children under the age of 4 enter for free
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