We’ll admit it: We have been highly dubious about the likelihood of Australian tycoon Clive Palmer’s plans to build a re-creation of Titanic, which he’s dubbed ever so creatively Titanic II. But it seems he’s making progress on the project. At a press conference ths week in Brisbane, he unveiled some sketchy deck plans that were designed for him by Finland-based Deltamarin, an international ship design and engineering concern.

You may recall that Palmer’s pledge in building the ship, expected to debut in 2016, is to add some key newfangled features to Titanic II (such as a new “safety deck”, air conditioning, and new fire zones) while hewing to some of the traditional aspects of the ill-fated ship. These would include incorporating the original separation plan that kept its first-, second-, and third-class passengers segregated, and recapturing the glamorous décor of the liner’s public rooms.

Oh, yes, and there is one other tradition Palmer intends to maintain: the hoi polloi won't get to mingle with the upper classes. The grandiose Palmer told The Brisbane Times that third-class passengers may not be allowed in the casino he plans to build—and that he was also considering banning pensioners, first class or otherwise, altogether.

Palmer protested that restricting casino access for seniors was an act of civic duty. "I love pensioners. My closest relations are pensioners," he said in The Brisbane Times. “I was just trying to say that we need to protect and respect people who have given a lot service to this country and make sure that we don't act positively to impoverish them later—that's all it boils down to."

On Cruise Critic, where traveler buzz is frantic, the prevailing opinion was captured by Cheryl Davis Lehmuth Lesage, of Mainz, Germany, who writes, “We won’t need an iceberg to sink this Titanic with an owner’s attitude like that.”

Still, most cruise-industry experts aren’t getting too hot and bothered about the controversial remarks because they feel the ship’s completion doesn’t stand a chance in the first place. Teijo Niemela, editor of Cruise Business Review, who chronicles the cruise industry, questioned how closely it would be possible to stick to Titanic’s original design: "It's quite an interesting problem that they're going to have with the design. The closer they keep the design to the original, the less the ship will be modern. After a few years when all who are interested have seen the product, how many will want to go back to a ship whose design in 100 years old?”

“On the other hand,” he adds, “if they incorporate too many modern features, such as the gadgets Queen Mary 2 has, then the problem is it wouldn't be Titanic II."

The board of directors of Blue Star Line, Palmer’s shipping company, has not approved the design.