Wealthy Romanian pays to join 100-year Titanic Memorial Cruise

A Romanian has paid to be among the the 1,309 passengers on the board the Balmoral cruise ship, that will sail on the same route as the Titanic, that sunk 100 years ago. Romanian Cornel Tăbăcaru and his wife Alina bought tickets to join the Titanic Memorial Cruise, that left the Southampton dock yesterday (April 8 ), the same day that the original Titanic began its trip, according to Romanian TV station ProTV. The price of tickets varied between USD 4,400 and USD 12,655, and most tickets were sold by the end of 2011.

Tăbăcaru , who lives in Costa Rica and Florida, booked the biggest apartment on the boat and paid for the most expensive tickets, as he has been passionate about the Titanic since being a kid. He said he paid some EUR 50,000 for the tickets. Tăbăcaru, now 60, started doing business in the early 90s, when he brought the TEC juice dispensers in Romania, immediately after the fall of the communism. He soon left for Canada, but continued his business in Romania: he sold gift bags, lamps for miners, and also went on to real estate in Florida, a car factory in Uzbekistan and hotels in Tbilisi. People from 28 different countries booked to travel on the MS Balmoral will retrace the doomed liner’s entire original route, also passing the site where the Titanic sank. There will be the same number of passengers that sailed on the Titanic, part of an effort to recreate the voyage of arguably the most famous ship of all time - from the food on board to a live band playing music from the era, according to the organizers. The MS Balmoral is operated by Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines, whose parent company Harland and Wolff built the Titanic in Belfast. It has been chartered for the event by ABTA-bonded Miles Morgan Travel. A second memorial cruise will leave New York on April 10, before going to Halifax. There will then be a special memorial service on April 14, when the ship hit the iceberg 100 years ago, and on April 15, when the ship sank at the location of the most famous nautical disaster of all time. editor@romania-insider.com