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The World’s Largest Cruise Ship

RNCollins

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The World’s Largest Cruise Ship

https://www.caribjournal.com/2018/03/25/worlds-largest-cruise-ship/
The Caribbean Journal staff / March 25, 2018

“Royal Caribbean has officially taken delivery of what is now the world’s largest cruise ship: Symphony of the Seas.

The 25th ship in Royal Caribbean’s fleet, the ship measures 238 feet tall, 1,188 feet long and 228,081 gross tons, with capacity for 5,518 guests at double occupancy in a total of 2,759 staterooms (along with another 28 balcony rooms).

Symphony of the Seas is the latest example of how our people work to push the envelope of innovation with each new ship,” said Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. Chairman and CEO Richard D. Fain....”

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Talent312

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Some find that attractive, but I find these behemouths grotesque.
To me a ship should not be larger than a small city that I've lived in.
With these, you're just one cow in a super-size herd of cattle.
.
 

LisaH

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We were on board a mid-sized ship this Jan with about 1000 passengers, and had issues getting off the ship in some tender ports. Not sure how they would handle a ship with over 5500 people. I guess tender is out of question.
 

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I just wonder what the attraction of this would be. What facilities and activities does this ship have that a ship half- tothree-quarter the size doesn't have.

The only thing that might be positive for me is that if there are more passengers, there are more passengers to share the cost and hence, bring the cost down. But that's just speculation on my part.
 

mdurette

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We were on board a mid-sized ship this Jan with about 1000 passengers, and had issues getting off the ship in some tender ports. Not sure how they would handle a ship with over 5500 people. I guess tender is out of question.

I was on the Anthem of the Seas last week - capacity is 4900 and it was a full cruise. Royal Caribbean private island (coco cay) does not have a dock yet so we have to tender in. If you booked an excursion, then you received an automatic early tender ticket. If not, the day before that port you had to go pick up a tender ticket. We received tender #4 and was off the ship early. Others had tender tickets that were of #40 and had to wait about 2 hours to get off. The big issue with that is all prime seating on the island was taken by the time they got there.

RC is building a dock there.....so shouldn't be an issue once done.
 

pedro47

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We were also on the Anthem of the Seas last year on a New England cruise. We never felt liked that were 4000 passengers on the ship. It was full to capacity. We tendered to Bar Harbour, Maine and Royal Caribbean had chartered tender ships from Bar Harbour that ran something every 10 to 15 minutes all day and it was not a bad experience.

I feel that this new ship is to large for us to sail on for just a seven (7) day’s cruise .
We enjoy longer cruises liked between 10 to 15 nights or Trans Atlantic cruises.
What we did liked about Anthem of the Seas was how their cabin were designed.

I feel this new cruise ship is for families with young children’s and cruisers who enjoy short cruises vacation, fun & action on a cruise ship.
 

dioxide45

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We were on board a mid-sized ship this Jan with about 1000 passengers, and had issues getting off the ship in some tender ports. Not sure how they would handle a ship with over 5500 people. I guess tender is out of question.

I was on the Anthem of the Seas last week - capacity is 4900 and it was a full cruise. Royal Caribbean private island (coco cay) does not have a dock yet so we have to tender in. If you booked an excursion, then you received an automatic early tender ticket. If not, the day before that port you had to go pick up a tender ticket. We received tender #4 and was off the ship early. Others had tender tickets that were of #40 and had to wait about 2 hours to get off. The big issue with that is all prime seating on the island was taken by the time they got there.

RC is building a dock there.....so shouldn't be an issue once done.

We were also on the Anthem of the Seas last year on a New England cruise. We never felt liked that were 4000 passengers on the ship. It was full to capacity. We tendered to Bar Harbour, Maine and Royal Caribbean had chartered tender ships from Bar Harbour that ran something every 10 to 15 minutes all day and it was not a bad experience.

I feel that this new ship is to large for us to sail on for just a seven (7) day’s cruise .
We enjoy longer cruises liked between 10 to 15 nights or Trans Atlantic cruises.
What we did liked about Anthem of the Seas was how their cabin were designed.

I feel this new cruise ship is for families with young children’s and cruisers who enjoy short cruises vacation, fun & action on a cruise ship.

I am pretty sure that they don't tender the Oasis Class Ships (Oasis, Allure, Harmony and Symphony). Harmony is a Freedom Class. They can empty and turn over these ships pretty quickly when docked. The limitation of no tenders for Oasis Class means that there are a limited number of ports that they can go to. We are booked on Allure for this November and were on Oasis several years ago.
 

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I just wonder what the attraction of this would be. What facilities and activities does this ship have that a ship half- tothree-quarter the size doesn't have.

The only thing that might be positive for me is that if there are more passengers, there are more passengers to share the cost and hence, bring the cost down. But that's just speculation on my part.

I was booked on the Adventure but I couldn't get my family in the same cabin or even in cabins close to each other. So I took the $700 loss and canceled. But I already promised a cruise to the kids so I have to replace it. On the Oasis I can at least keep the three kids in our cabin with us, instead of down the hall. Yes, it will be "cozy" but I'd prefer it this way instead. And aside from my loss, the larger ship is costing us an extra $1000. We gained an extra two days, though.

So cheaper it is not.
 

dioxide45

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I was booked on the Adventure but I couldn't get my family in the same cabin or even in cabins close to each other. So I took the $700 loss and canceled. But I already promised a cruise to the kids so I have to replace it. On the Oasis I can at least keep the three kids in our cabin with us, instead of down the hall. Yes, it will be "cozy" but I'd prefer it this way instead. And aside from my loss, the larger ship is costing us an extra $1000. We gained an extra two days, though.

So cheaper it is not.
You must have booked a non refundable deposit? The change fee on that is $100 per person, so you should be able to apply any remaining balance toward your newly booked cruise on the Oasis?
 

VacationForever

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We like smaller cruise ships targeted at older adults, which cater to our demographic. We have yet to cruise on Royal Caribbean because each time we hear of this line, it conjures an image of screaming young children, water slides and large ships with 6000 passengers.

My travel agent tempted us to join him on a cruise by offering an owner's suite, almost 600 sq ft cabin space plus another 150 sq ft of balcony, and I was going to say no until I looked it up. It holds up to about 2,500 guests. I said yes. 16 nights transatlantic next April. We like a ship that is low-key. He is also going solo in an owner's suite. It is going to be fun.
 

dioxide45

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We like smaller cruise ships targeted at older adults, which cater to our demographic. We have yet to cruise on Royal Caribbean because each time we hear of this line, it conjures an image of screaming young children, water slides and large ships with 6000 passengers.
Actually, Harmony of the Seas, one of their newer ships is their first to have a water park on it. Royal has never been known to have a multitude of water slides on their ships. Not saying there are no screaming kids, but there is always the adults area where you can get away from kids.
 

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We like smaller cruise ships targeted at older adults, which cater to our demographic. We have yet to cruise on Royal Caribbean because each time we hear of this line, it conjures an image of screaming young children, water slides and large ships with 6000 passengers.

My travel agent tempted us to join him on a cruise by offering an owner's suite, almost 600 sq ft cabin space plus another 150 sq ft of balcony, and I was going to say no until I looked it up. It holds up to about 2,500 guests. I said yes. 16 nights transatlantic next April. We like a ship that is low-key. He is also going solo in an owner's suite. It is going to be fun.

Transatlantics are supposed to have very few kids on them, even on the kid heavy chains. We used to sail Celebrity with my father, but would have been fine on even Carnival for a transatlantic. I hope you have a wonderful time. We would love to do one but it will be years before we can take that much time at once. Next phase of life for sure.
 

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I am 70. We love our Oasis class cruises. Love all the options. Of course we love the options of a large metropolitan area rather than a small town. The secret of how great they are is out and that keeps the ships full and the prices high. That's why RC had more Oasis size under construction. So many advantages.....




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VacationForever

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Transatlantics are supposed to have very few kids on them, even on the kid heavy chains. We used to sail Celebrity with my father, but would have been fine on even Carnival for a transatlantic. I hope you have a wonderful time. We would love to do one but it will be years before we can take that much time at once. Next phase of life for sure.
We did a transatlantic with Celebrity last year and loved it. We were supposed to do a TA again with Celebrity this year but cancelled that leg, that was part of a B2B, and kept the Europe portion. I got quite sick last year from a cold that most likely came from my husband after he caught it from other passengers the 4th or 5th day into the cruise. We decided to minimize our cruising time this Spring because of that.
 

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From now on, I intend to use ships that have self-serve laundries (RCL does not).
$35/bag for "wash+fold specials" adds up, given my DW's clothes-horse travel style.
.
 
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We did a transatlantic with Celebrity last year and loved it. We were supposed to do a TA again with Celebrity this year but cancelled that leg, that was part of a B2B, and kept the Europe portion. I got quite sick last year from a cold that most likely came from my husband after he caught it from other passengers the 4th or 5th day into the cruise. We decided to minimize our cruising time this Spring because of that.
It dawned on me a year or so ago that we had come home sick from EVERY flying, or cruise vacation for some time. So we have taken to loading up on Airborne, homeopathic, high dose vitamins for a couple of weeks before and during the trip when we are around groups of people. Purely anecdotal experience: we have come home healthy from EVERY trip since doing this. Maybe just luck, or placebo effect, but I'm sticking with it.

Jim
 

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From now on, I intend to use ships that have self-serve laundries (RCL does not).
$35/bag for the "wash+fold specials" adds up, given my DW's clothes-horse travel style.
.
I have other things to do besides laundry on a cruise. Plus it's mostly comp'd for us on Celebrity.
 

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It dawned on me a year or so ago that we had come home sick from EVERY flying, or cruise vacation for some time. So we have taken to loading up on Airborne, homeopathic, high dose vitamins for a couple of weeks before and during the trip when we are around groups of people. Purely anecdotal experience: we have come home healthy from EVERY trip since doing this. Maybe just luck, or placebo effect, but I'm sticking with it.

Jim
I cannot take anything acidic, but started taking probiotics a couple of days before flying, through the travel period and then a couple of days after we return. I did that in Mar when I flew to Singapore, so far so good. Probiotics are supposed to not only work to improve immunity to norovirus but also cold viruses and such.
 

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You must have booked a non refundable deposit? The change fee on that is $100 per person, so you should be able to apply any remaining balance toward your newly booked cruise on the Oasis?

We booked with a TA so I have no idea what we had, except for a really bad TA. RCCL has been pretty nice about it, though. They gave us $250 OBC and a specialty dinner. which was another $250. I'm not quite even but at least I will always own my reservation. Lesson learned.
 

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Count me among the Grinches as far as ships this large. They are meant to be self contained playgrounds, so why not just load them up, sail a few miles out to sea, then return to the home port. The ship itself is suppose to be the experience.

Dumping that many people on any tourist location just overloads wherever they dock and spoils the experience for the rest of us. If they want, the ships can always sell Hard Rock Cafe tee shirts from across the world so that the passengers can pretend that they were somewhere.

"Roger" CG (Certified Grinch)
 

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What It's Like to Sail on the World's Biggest Cruise Ship, Symphony of the Seas?
By Dave Monk/ Former Deputy Editor of Metro/ Metro/ metro.co.uk

"Symphony of the Seas is the latest ship from the Royal Caribbean cruise line to claim the record as the largest in the world.

At 18 decks high and 1,188 ft long, it can carry up to 6,680 passengers and 2,200 crew.

It has its own park, shopping mall and boardwalk as well as a ten-storey slide, a trio of water chutes and an escape room based on a submarine that’s running out of oxygen.

But what is it actually like to be on board? I took an inaugural voyage from Malaga to Barcelona to find out.

Firstly, it is, of course, huge.

In port, Symphony towers over the dockside and even looks down on the roofs of high office buildings.

To be able to float, this 228,000-ton ship is basically hollow on the inside.

From deck 16, where you enter the Ultimate Abyss slide, you stare down to deck six, where it emerges.

Also on that level is a boardwalk with restaurants, a water theatre and even a carousel.

At the other end of the ship is a park with 12,000 plants and trees.

You can choose from 19 places to eat, ranging from hot dog kiosks to huge dining rooms.

I opted for Chops Grille, a favourite from my trips on two of Symphony’s sister ships, Oasis of the Seas and Harmony of the Seas.

Having started with a crispy goat cheese salad with green apple, candied walnuts, cranberries and balsamic vinegar, I went full-on carnivore with a fillet steak cooked to perfection – as good as anything you’d find on land.

Just a few feet away, past a bar that levitates between decks (if you fancy a cocktail on the go) is Jamie’s Italian and the excellent wine bar, Vintages...."

symphonyhighres.jpg

Symphony of the Seas


Richard
 

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I was on Harmony of the Seas last year for its first transatlantic. I like the ship, but thought it was too large. I had a cheap cabin on the Symphony transatlantic for this fall but changed to the Vision instead, since I prefer smaller ships. Of course, none of these compare well to Windstar that I was on just prior to the Harmony (from one of the smallest with just 43 passengers on that voyage to the largest).

Last fall I was on Ovation which is smaller than Oasis class, but still quite large. I really have no interest in those large ships again.


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Kindly include me out on those floating theme parks. I'm sure they'll get along fine without me.
 

dioxide45

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Count me among the Grinches as far as ships this large. They are meant to be self contained playgrounds, so why not just load them up, sail a few miles out to sea, then return to the home port. The ship itself is suppose to be the experience.

Dumping that many people on any tourist location just overloads wherever they dock and spoils the experience for the rest of us. If they want, the ships can always sell Hard Rock Cafe tee shirts from across the world so that the passengers can pretend that they were somewhere.

"Roger" CG (Certified Grinch)
They really can't do that with the foreign crews that they use on the ships. I suspect the ports they dock in actually prefer it when these ships come in to port.
 
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