 | Titanic Tour.... |
This piece of text is exclusively brought to you by the Amazing James Cameron Page. It is written by Judy Prestininzi, who was an extra on the movie, she has also written another article for this site about working on the movie and working with James Cameron. So focus your eyes and start reading, because this is quite interesting. Judy takes us through the opening of the Titanic tour step by step, and when I read it I almost had what Roger Ebert would refer to as "an out of body experience".
| Well, I'm back on the ground after a pretty great weekend. Ellen (our frozen Irish mommy) and I almost missed the plane on Fri. morning. We were supposed to leave at 11:30 a.m. we arrived at 20 after. I got in line, Ell parked the truck. When I got to the counter they informed me that the plane was late and it was delayed 15 min.!! Ell came in and we had 10 min. to spare! Now seated, I do not want to be next to the window. Very nervous, I do not like what I am feeling. Ell, talks to me and shows me a magazine to calm me down. We taxi down the run way, turn around and zoom, we've off. The landing gear comes up and scars me. I feel queezy most all the way. I get up and go to the back of the plane looking for some tissues. I get brave and look out the windows at what is below. Wow! The coastline is clear all the way up. Now we are coming down and I don't like that either. We touch down, thank God!! A shuttle is waiting to take us to the rental car. Ell, remembers she forgot her shoes! After we get the car, we go to the mall and get another pair. At the motel, we put ourselves together and go. We arrive at the park and they have valet parking for us. Upon entering, we are served with champagne and all kinds of goodies. We check in and get some free pins (little Titanic on Tour ones) and some printed info that I haven't gotten to read yet. I find the man that invited us and introduce ourselves, we meet some of Paramount's execs and tell them who we are and what we did on the film. Everything is set up outside and it is a nice afternoon. We meet many people who are curious about us, my jacket stands out and makes them wonder where it came from. Here I am in a beautiful formal gown, hair up and everything. I did this at our premiere too. I wear my Titanic jacket, it looks cool. Finally, Gloria Stuart comes in and I make my way over to her before she is over come by everyone. She is a bit shorter then me (5 ft.) and she is wonderful, I just wanted to give her a big huge. Very stunning woman, her daughter is with her too. We tell her who we are and she wanted to know where we are in the film. So we are able to tell her briefly. She compliments us on our "acting". Muffy Brown, Molly Brown's Great Granddaughter is there. She is tall and a very pretty lady. Now, it is time to christen the exhibit. There are some speeches for the Paramount people and then they bring up Muffy and Gloria. Gloria, then is given a bottle and she brakes it on the "T" of the exhibit, I think the letters of Titanic are at least 9 ft. tall. The exhibit is now officially open for us to go through. Ell and I wait awhile to go, we stay outside visiting with people. There are a few local people from the Titanic Hist. Soc. there in costume adding to the feeling of the evening. Now I take the opportunity to get my video. When I came back to our table, Gloria was there, I guess taking a rest and I seize the moment and present her with one of my little life jackets. She loved it, he daughter said they have a teddy bear to put it on. I told her how I had sent Cameron and Russ Carpenter some for their Oscars and how I wish she had won one too. A moment later, I have Ell take a quick video of us together, it came out great. Then she is taken inside the exhibit for interviews in the stateroom section. We have dinner and mingle. There are 2 bands there. The first one that played was like 1st Class. Then the rest of the evening was the 3rd Class band. They are really good, they can play both. They have a camera group there and they are taking free photos of all the guests. They have a little section of gangway railing that we stand behind. We do a little interview for one of the local papers and they take our picture. Now we go into the exhibit. The center piece is the 44 ft. model that was used for some off the "at sea" shots. It is really neat to finally see this. They have some of the costumes, bits and pieces of the small props throughout, the moroon Renault used in the cargo hold, table settings from 1st Class, 3 sides of the suite set, where Rose posses for her drawing. They have a couple of videos running, the one from the 3rd Class dance (Ell and I can be seen!) and another one that has Cameron taking about the film, special effects shots, and the one where I'm standing in the water looking at Josh as he explains to us what to do. In one area, they have a huge see through type screen that has a mural of the 3rd Class scene and I am at the very top, but it is not very clear, I just know when that picture taken. As we come to the end, Muffy Brown is there with some of the Paramount people, we start to talk to her and tell her who we are. I told her that many people had said I resemble Molly, as she looked at me she thought I did too. As we talked, she commented again about my smile and expressions that they have in photos of her. She had someone take a couple of pictures of us together and said she would send me a copy. As the evening comes to an end I get to speak with Gloria once more. She thanks me again, but so many people had asked her for autograph we just didn't feel right about asking for ourselves, oh well. I have the video with her. Now, we do a TV interview with one on the camera people that are there. Don't know if they will use it, but we did it. I take one more video of the exhibit and we start to leave. They were giving the lg. 1/2 # of silver coin with Titanic and the Grand Staircase on it away as we left, what a party favor!! When we get back to the room I discover that I have lost my saphire ring that my husband had given me. We look everywhere and it is gone. I called the park the next morning and tell them that I lost it and they would have to call me at my home # because we had to leave. Now it is back to the airport. I sit next to the window and film our take off, some of the flight and landing. I do not feel sick this time and enjoy the ride. Now I'm home, the park called and had found my ring!! We had a really good time!! The only thing that I found wrong were the blankets that they clam were used on the set. They are NOT the same, but no one would know that except us, so it's no big deal. Judy Prestininzi |
