Our Aims
We are receiving a huge amount of support for our plans to get a waterfront experience in Southampton devoted to the liner's of the past, present and future.
One of our group visited an attraction called ‘Escal Atlantic’ in France which is a fantastic museum recreating some of the interiors of famous French liners ‘SS Normandie’, ‘SS France’ and others including an exhibition on Cunard Line’s RMS Queen Mary 2 – which was built in the neighbouring yard.
 Escal Atlantic has to be visited to fully appreciate what it has to offer but in a nutshell you ‘Embark’ once you arrive and once you have paid you proceed through to the lobby before then touring the museum and experiencing the magnificent interiors of the famous Liners that have been so well recreated in the museum. You also get to experience the promenade deck, the wheelhouse, staterooms and lots more.
It is the only museum of its kind in Europe and is so much more than a simple museum.
Our goal is to build the ‘Ocean Liner Experience’ along similar lines to Escal Atlantic but base it on the great British Liners with the main focus being on RMS Queen Mary, RMS Queen Elizabeth, QE2 plus a special and comprehensive area dedicated to the Titanic which would be the most in-depth exhibition and attraction of its kind in the UK
We would recreate many of the areas onboard the famous Queen’s and visitors would be able to relive the thrill of an Atlantic voyage and lunch in the grand dinning halls, walk the promenade deck, see the contrast between the First class, second class and other classes of accommodation and public areas onboard the liners as well as visit a mock up bridge / wheelhouse where you will also be able to look over Southampton Water and perhaps see a modern day cruise ship sail past.
There will also be interactive areas with state of the art features and more.
Not just a museum on ocean liners!
The ‘ Ocean Liner Experience’ will focus on British passenger shipping from the 1830s right through to the present day cruising boom and a peek at what the future holds.
There is so much history and so many highlights of British passenger shipping with Southampton being involved in such a huge way in that history that it is only right that the city should have an attraction to showcase it.
Portsmouth has made the most of its Royal Navy history and is an interesting and exciting place to visit. We feel that once the ‘Ocean Liner Experience’ is open, in the Spring of 2010, visitors will flock to the city to experience this new and exciting attraction. Passengers from the cruise ships are sure to visit before or after their cruise and local people would get a residence discount to enter.
It is early days yet but one idea we have for the building of the ‘Experience’ is to recreate some of the original Ocean Terminal building to house the ‘SOLE’ in. To incorporate some of the striking features of it into our new attraction. We have a special Titanic exhibit already planned which will form part of our display area.
There will also be a cruise centre incorporated in the ‘SOLE’ which would involve a cafe, restaurant and viewing deck to watch the cruise ships and modern ocean liners sailing in and out of Southampton and be able to view the ports soon to be four dedicated cruise terminals.
 The cruise centre will be available to visitors paying the full entrance fee but also to those visitors who would like to just look around the cruise centre and enjoy the viewing deck and cafe.
We will incorporate a recreation of a ships bridge, perhaps have one half in the old ocean liner wheelhouse style and the other half in a state of the art modern cruise ships bridge.
The ‘Experience’ could have an audio tour with hand held units to visitors can take their own time and walk around the attraction and listen in at different areas around the ‘Experience’.
There would be a recreation of a ships promenade deck where visitors can stroll along and see other liners in the distance and meet some of the ships Officers. There would be a night scene with clouds and stars in the dark sky and deck chairs to sit on.
Visitors would be able to see the dining halls and on the tables there would be plates that have small screens on them showing old liners moving across the sea and showing life onboard the liners.
Visitors would really feel as if they were onboard the Queen Mary and other liners and would leave the ‘Experience’ feeling like they have been on a voyage.
The cruise centre would tell the story of the modern day cruise boom and have a feature on the future of cruise ship design and what lays ahead for the industry.
Carnival UK including Cunard line and P&O Cruises
Southampton Solent University
Ocean Liner Society
Business Southampton
Commodore Ron Warwick
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