December 27, Monticello to Orlando

What a huge day today has been ... no photos at all, because I haven't had my camera out once!

We started off with a leisurely breakfast of Miss Pat's yummy blueberry pancakes. From there we headed off to Orlando. With the prerequisite argument with Chuck (the satnav) out of the way we did a uturn and began again in the correct direction.

Arrived in Orlando around 3.30pm and checked in to our hotel. We're about 40 minutes north of International Drive which is where all the main action is, and after experiencing the traffic today, I'm glad to be far away!

We decided to check a few things off our list tonight. First stop was the 'Titanic Experience'. I've always been fascinated with this story. Started off by watching 'The Raising of the Titanic' with Dad one afternoon on TV when I was about 7, and further aided and abetted by Kate & Leo when I was in late Primary School. More recently I enjoyed James Cameron's programs on the 100 year anniversary. So I was very excited to see actual artefacts from the ship.

The 'tour' or experience cost $21 plus tax. An actress took us through various stages of the ship, starting with embarkation, moving through the areas of the ship (First class state room, the grand staircase, Scotland Road, The Bridge) before coming to the sinking. She had a story as part of the ship and was dress and spoke the part very well. In each part of the experience more artefacts are displayed. I was moved to tears as she spoke about 'her' experience on the ship. Mother of 9 children, one of her daughters was separated from the family and she told us how she prayed never to see her daughter again. Unfortunately, despite getting into a life raft, the child could not locate her family and so gave her spot to someone else. The whole family then perished. As we were told this story we were standing on the 'deck' looking out at glassy waters and the sky of stars, hearing the lapping of the water against the ship, the shooting up of the flairs and feeling the intense cold of the night air.

After we finished the tour we went back around for another look and had the whole exhibit entirely to ourselves. Not another soul there. Some parts of it were quite eerie and it's amazing to see what they've recovered ... playing cards, money, pieces of jewellery. They have a huge ice berg too and touching it you can imagine how cold the water would have been that night.

At the end there was an interesting justification of the company that has the right of salvage. They claim that the rusticles on the ship will totally destroy it in 40-90 years and therefore salvage is necessary to preserve anything. I've always supported Bob Ballard (the guy who originally found the ship) who did not bring anything up with him after finding it (therefore not 'claiming' the ship) instead saying that it's a grave yard and should be preserved as is.

On leaving we looked at the Titanic Coal for sale ($25 for a tiny piece in a little box). Apparently raised from the sea floor, but I ended up buying an egg cup.

We left the Titanic Exhibit and drove back up International Drive to the Premium Outlets. It was terrible trying to find a park. Never seen so many people!!! We did a little shopping and then headed back to the hotel for a late dinner (9pm), followed by a wrestle with the worlds oldest computer to print etickets for our trip to Sea World tomorrow.