{"id":394677,"date":"2026-04-16T04:57:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T04:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/394677\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T04:57:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T04:57:09","slug":"immersive-vr-experience-opening-soon-in-chicago-lets-you-explore-the-titanic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/394677\/","title":{"rendered":"Immersive VR experience opening soon in Chicago lets you explore the Titanic"},"content":{"rendered":"

The man in the deep-sea diving gear invited me on board the submersible and, for a split-second, I thought: Is this safe? Should I really be doing this?<\/p>\n

After all, the contraption was mostly glass, and we would be descending into a suffocating darkness before reaching the world\u2019s most famous shipwreck.<\/p>\n

But then I remembered, I\u2019d been advised a little earlier to simply relax and fully embrace the experience.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"TITANICVR_260409<\/p>\n

Participants have the sensation of being in a three-dimensional world, even though you\u2019re actually wandering around a giant warehouse wearing a virtual reality headset<\/p>\n

Anthony Vazquez\/Sun-Times<\/p>\n

I climbed aboard. The actual Titanic sank 141 years ago on April 15.<\/p>\n

Yes, \u201cTitanic: A Voyage Through Time\u201d is realistic \u2014 no, that\u2019s not quite the right word.<\/p>\n

But you do have the sensation of being in a three-dimensional world, even though you\u2019re actually on dry land, wearing a virtual reality headset as you traipse through a giant gallery space in the Old Town neighborhood.<\/p>\n

When the ocean rolls, you may instinctively flinch and reach for a handrail that isn\u2019t there. Or when you are transported to Southampton, England on April 10, 1912, where thousands of well-wishers line the docks, you may hesitate, nervously eyeing the gangplank leading to the doomed passenger ship and wonder, Is that sturdy enough to support my weight?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"TITANICVR_260409<\/p>\n

Chicago Sun-Times reporter Stefano Esposito shovels coal into a furnace while exploring the virtual Titantic. <\/p>\n

Anthony Vazquez\/Sun-Times<\/p>\n

\u201cThe stairs are always the weird one for people \u2014 when you\u2019re going up or down the staircase in the ballroom, it can be a little challenging if you\u2019re not used to virtual reality,\u201d said Parker Lee, the assistant site manager for the Titanic experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cTitanic\u201d is expected to open later this month at 108 W. Germania Place. A ticket for the 45-minute adventure starts at $24.99 for adults and $19.99 for students, seniors and children 10 and up (the VR headsets aren\u2019t designed for little kids). For more information, go to titanicexperiencevr.com\/chicago<\/a>. The experience is presented in English and Spanish.<\/p>\n

Guests start out exploring the wreck, and then they are led \u2014 by members of the crew \u2014 to different parts of the ship, both above and below deck, as it makes its way toward disaster.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"TITANICVR_260409<\/p>\n

Chicago Sun-Times reporter Stefano Esposito climbs a ladder on the virtual Titanic. <\/p>\n

Anthony Vazquez\/Sun-Times<\/p>\n

\u201cTitanic\u201d offers a \u201cpowerful and deeply human journey through one of history\u2019s most compelling maritime stories,\u201d according to the promotional material.<\/p>\n

Deeply moving? For those people whose hearts raced and eyes misted over during James Cameron\u2019s 1997 epic, you may find yourself yearning for Leonardo DiCaprio\u2019s cocky hero Jack Dawson leaning into the wind on the ship\u2019s prow and yelling, \u201cI\u2019m the king of the world!\u201d<\/p>\n

And when you\u2019re escorted into your VR first-class cabin, you won\u2019t find a disrobed Rose (Kate Winslet\u2019s character in the movie), reclining so that you can sketch her likeness.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because this Titanic\u2019s experience puts the focus on the historical characters, including the ship\u2019s captain and architect. But rather than listening to them boast about the ship\u2019s innumerable safety features, I found myself staring at their oddly glowing faces and creepily cold eyes \u2014 none of which detracts from the experience because I know how this story ends.<\/p>\n

The experience took about 15 months to put together, said Emma Shaffer, a project manager with Fever, the entertainment company behind Titanic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is specifically something we wanted to get pretty historically accurate. So we worked from the original plans of the Titanic,\u201d said Shaffer, who is based in New York.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"TITANICVR_260409<\/p>\n

Chicago Sun-Times reporter Stefano Esposito is surrounded by VR id panels in the room as he tries out the experience called \u201cTitanic : A Voyage Through Time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anthony Vazquez\/Sun-Times<\/p>\n

Fever pulled in animators, screenwriters, programers, sound designers, among others, in a team of 30 people.<\/p>\n

The experience works best when you\u2019re transported, virtually speaking, to the Belfast shipyard and you stare up at the ship\u2019s colossal hull as it\u2019s transformed \u2014 like a time-lapse movie from a skeletal frame to a steel-clad behemoth. Or when you\u2019re dockside preparing to board the ship and you\u2019re given a stern-to-bow view of the White Star Line\u2019s pride and joy.<\/p>\n

The show falls a bit flat when you\u2019re in the oddly sterile dining room. It was at that point that I wished one of the helpful real-life staff members would approach and gently poke a caviar-topped cracker in my mouth.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s also missing, in my experience, was something to tickle the nostrils, like the scent of sea air perhaps. They\u2019re working on that, Shaffer said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"TITANICVR_260409<\/p>\n

The experience allows for a maximum group size of six. The venue can accommodate up to 25 people navigating the VR ship at a time. <\/p>\n

Anthony Vazquez\/Sun-Times<\/p>\n

Participants are encouraged to wander around the deck, the boiler room and other parts of the ship. And while I never ran into any walls or other people, I took mostly timid steps \u2014 just in case. A VR grid appears to warn you of an approaching wall.<\/p>\n

I was basically roaming alone, except when Chicago Sun-Times photographer Anthony Vasquez joined me exploring the wreck of the Titanic. So there was little danger of bumping into other people, who appear as blue avatars when they\u2019re participating. The experience allows for a maximum group size of six, and the venue can accommodate up to 25 people navigating the VR ship at one time.<\/p>\n

The experience concludes with, you guessed it, the ship plowing into an iceberg and all of the overly confident ship\u2019s officers running around in a panic.<\/p>\n

I was relieved to find myself \u2014 all but alone, as it turns out \u2014 in a lifeboat, which only seems fair given that I needed to get back to shore to write this story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The man in the deep-sea diving gear invited me on board the submersible and, for a split-second, I…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394678,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[85,46,125,340,341,342],"class_list":{"0":"post-394677","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-virtual-reality","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-technology","11":"tag-virtual-reality","12":"tag-virtualreality","13":"tag-vr"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}