Last month we teamed up with the Liverpool Empire to offer one lucky winner an incredible prize, in celebration of the production of Titanic The Musical, which recently came to Liverpool.
Derek Smith was chosen as the delighted winner and went on to enjoy a great weekend of theatre and history, which included an overnight stay at both the Titanic Liverpool and Titanic Belfast Hotels.
In Derek’s own words this is his summary of his Titanic experience:
“Having performed in Titanic the Musical in 2006 I was very excited to have won the competition and the chance to see the show and stay in the Titanic Hotels.
Our Titanic Liverpool Superior Dockside room was the biggest room I have ever stayed in with several curved ceilings to fit in the rum barrels that were stored there in its previous life. The brickwork is from the original Rum Warehouse and looked fantastic for being almost 200 years old. We didn’t have long to relax, as we needed to get ready to go to the Liverpool Empire to see Titanic the Musical. The show follows some of the real life people who boarded Titanic for the first and last time. The fact that everyone knows how the story ends makes the show even more emotional as when you hear them singing about their hopes and dreams of starting a new life in America we know it’s not going to happen.
After a wonderful breakfast and a few photo opportunities we were back in the car driving to Manchester for our flight to Belfast. Arriving in Belfast City Centre we decided to walk to the Titanic Quarter where our hotel was, as we weren’t going to have much of a chance to see it otherwise. Belfast was very busy as it was ‘Pride’ day but we found our way to Titanic Belfast, which was originally the building where Titanic and Olympic were designed. We checked in and Gary on reception walked us through the Titanic Hotel pointing out all of the rooms that were used by the Directors and important people of the time, and said we were able to explore them at our leisure. Up we went in the lift to the 3rd Floor to our Executive room. The room was nowhere near the size of the Liverpool Titanic but WOW what a view. The room had a protruding viewing gallery that overlooked the two Slipways where Titanic and Olympic were built and launched – AMAZING. A piece of history was there right in front of us and we could see it from our room. There was a nice little Welcome plate with 2 meringues – a nice touch.
Not only that but the Titanic Museum was right in front of us too as we looked out of our floor to ceiling windows. As we had tickets for the museum as part of our prize we needed to get over there straight away as it was nearly 6pm and it shut at 8pm. The museum was very interesting with a ride through a reconstruction of the slipway with stories and videos of the men building the ships. We also got to see a video of the dive to the Ocean floor where the Titanic Wreck rests. We had to rush through a lot of the exhibits as we were pushed for time but we will certainly be going back again.
At 8pm we decided it was time for something to eat and where better than in what was the Titanic Drawing Room. The food was delicious and the room very beautiful and relaxing so we stayed for a few drinks till it was dark. On returning to our room we were surprised to find that the ‘Turn down Service’ had been into the room and closed our curtains also. We were in for an even bigger surprise when we opened the curtains to find the Titanic slipway and the Titanic Museum were all lit up. Because it was ‘Pride’ day the museum was lit with different colours and changed all the time – it looked amazing. There were two very comfortable leather chairs, which sat in so we could take in the magnificent view with a glass of wine, or two.
The next morning we were up at 7am to make the most of our short time there, we both walked Titanic up and down and took a few more pictures. Breakfast at Titanic Belfast was lovely but we didn’t dwell too long as we wanted to explore as many of the historic artefacts, pictures and rooms as we could.
Sadly the time came to check out and we were back on the bus to the airport and homeward bound. An amazing experience which we will never forget. Thank you for picking me out as the prize winner”