A Luxury Travel Company Will Offer Titanic Tours in 2018

Starting in May 2018, adventurers with cash to spare will be able to descend more than two miles below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean to see the RMS Titanic with their very own eyes. As CNN reports, Blue Marble Private, a London-based luxury travel company, will offer tourists an eight-day undersea voyage to the famous vessel, which sank around 400 miles south of Newfoundland, Canada on April 15, 1912.

Blue Marble Private’s first Titanic voyage costs more than $105,000—around the price of a first class ticket for Titanic’s inaugural voyage, after adjusting for inflation, the company claims. But instead of enjoying elaborate feasts and balls, Blue Marble’s high-rolling customers will board an underwater vessel designed by OceanGate Inc., a Washington-based submersibles company. The craft will carry passengers from Newfoundland to the ocean liner; along the way, these travelers—dubbed “Mission Specialists”—will learn how to assist the expedition team, and get the chance to go diving and observe marine life. The highlight, of course, will be seeing the Titanic and exploring its debris field, containing countless historic artifacts from the wreckage, strewn across the ocean's bottom. While searching the wreck, the submersible’s crew may conduct sonar scans or look for the ship’s boilers, propellers, and other large mechanical items.

Even if you can afford the underwater expedition, you won't be able to score a seat on Blue Marble’s first Titanic trip: It’s entirely booked up, and it looks like additional missions aren’t scheduled until 2019. That said, Bluefish, a Los Angeles-based luxury concierge firm, is also planning their own trips to the shipwreck for 2018-19, although they haven’t finalized dates or prices. Considering that bacteria might destroy the vessel's remains in the next two decades, we’re sure that the recent wave of Titanic tourism is just the beginning.

[h/t CNN]