Giant, thy name is Harmony: World’s largest cruise ship christened in Florida
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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — In a sunset ceremony at Florida’s Port Everglades, the biggest cruise ship in the world Thursday was official named Harmony of the Seas by godmother Brittany Affolter.
The 5,497-passenger ship will sail year-round from the Fort Lauderdale port for Royal Caribbean International on seven-night Caribbean itineraries.
Affolter, a 23-year-old Teach for America educator in Miami, pushed a button that set in motion a Rube Goldberg –style procedure, eventually breaking an enormous bottle of champagne.
“We decided to use technology as an important part of the process,” Royal Caribbean chairman Richard Fain said before the ceremony began.
Fain and Affolter were stationed at the aft, in the ship’s Aqua Theater. One of the line’s aerial performer descended from above on guide wires to deliver the trigger button to them. That button, in turn, activated one of the robots in the Bionic Bar, which did a little spin move and then punched its own button. That released the bottle, a “Sovereign” size made specially by Veuve Cliquot for Royal, which whizzed down the ship’s zipline to smash into a steel name plate above the pool deck.
It was the first time the robot had been used in a christening, officials said.
Royal packed the ship with VIPs, media and travel agents from a conference at the nearby Broward County Convention Center, who viewed the festivities on giant TV screens in several areas of the vessel.
Latin recording artist Jon Secada, who once performed on Royal ships, sang the national anthem.
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Harmony is the third in a series of uniquely large ships that started with Oasis of the Seas in 2009, followed by Allure of the Seas in 2010. The latest version is 1,700 tons bigger than the predecessors and carries 100 more passengers. It has extra features, such as the nine-deck Ultimate Abyss slide. It also has water slides and adds some concepts from Royal Caribbean’s Quantum-class ships, such as the Wonderland restaurant.
Fain said the ship is 20% more energy efficient than its predecessors.
Tom Stieghorst is the senior cruise editor at Travel Weekly
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See what it’s like to slide down the Ultimate Abyss on the world’s largest cruise ship, Royal Caribbean’s Harmony of the Seas.
USA TODAY
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