Symphony of the Seas: Why we’ll love Royal Caribbean’s giant new …
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BARCELONA — What is it about giant cruise ships that makes them so appealing to so many vacationers?
Even the longtime cruise industry executive who is about to usher in the most giant cruise ship of them all isn’t entirely sure.
“I think I understand in a very ignorant way the psychology of it all, but it would be well worth a really detailed study by a very clever group of people,” says Royal Caribbean International president and CEO Michael Bayley.
Speaking with USA TODAY in advance of Saturday’s maiden voyage of Royal Caribbean’s Symphony of the Seas, the biggest cruise ship ever, Bayley says there’s something about the energy created on a giant vessel with thousands of people looking for fun that makes it irresistible.
RELATED: An even bigger sister to Symphony is on the way | Inside Symphony’s swankiest suites | Preview the hottest new ships of 2018
The enormous choice of activities on the new crop of mega-ships — from deck-top water parks to Broadway shows — also is key to the allure. Just ask frequent cruiser and big ship fan Jessalynn Strauss, 41, of Elon, N.C.
“We had eight sea days, and we never ran short of things to do,” says the college professor and part-time travel blogger of her first sailing on one of Royal Caribbean’s biggest ships. “It was almost like we’d moved to a new city.”
Like the mega-resorts of Las Vegas or Orlando, today’s mega-ships have become destinations unto themselves with more attractions, shows, restaurants and nightspots than you could possibly experience in a typical week-long getaway. Symphony’s outdoor decks feature three separate pool zones, a trio of water slides, two surf simulators, a miniature golf course, rock climbing walls and more. Inside there are nearly two dozen restaurants and snack outlets (everything from a Jamie Oliver eatery to a Starbucks), multiple bars, a comedy club, jazz club, 1,401-seat theater that houses a full-size production of Broadway’s Hairspray and even an ice rink.
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Symphony also boasts 2,759 cabins — the most ever ever put on a cruise ship. Broken up into more than 30 categories, they include everything from low-priced windowless “interior” rooms that measure just 149 square feet to a super-high-priced, two-deck-high suite that is more than 10 times that size.
Intimate, Symphony isn’t. Eighteen decks high and 1,188 feet long, the ship has room for 6,680 passengers at full capacity. Add in a crew of 2,200, and on busy weeks you could find nearly 9,000 people on board.
But it’s a something-for-everyone formula that is a proven winner. Measuring 228,081 gross register tons, Symphony is a slightly bigger version of the previous size leader in the cruise world, Harmony of the Seas, and two slightly smaller sister vessels that all have been huge hits. Harmony and its sisters routinely score near the top of guest satisfaction surveys. Demand for the ships is through the roof.
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christening event for Viking’s fourth ocean ship — a 930-passenger vessel that is a fifth the size of Symphony. “We say, no, it’s the destination that is the destination.”
The cruise world also is seeing rapid expansion by lines that operate super-tiny, “expedition style” vessels that hold just 100 to 200 passengers. Carrying motorized rafts for landings, they’re designed to explore the most off-the-beaten-path destinations from the Arctic to Papua New Guinea.
In short, even as cruise ships are getting bigger, they’re also getting smaller. And that’s just fine, says Bayley, who started at Royal Caribbean 37 years ago as an assistant purser on the Nordic Prince — a ship one-twelfth the size of Symphony.
“There is a lot of diversity in what people are looking for in relaxation and the vacation experience,” Bayley says.
RELATED: First look at Symphony’s Ultimate Family Suite
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First look at Symphony’s Boardwalk amusement area
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Behind the scenes of Symphony of the Seas’ construction
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