Dec 17 2010
Worlds Biggest Cruise Ship Makes A Splash… For Now
December is here, marking the maiden voyage of Royal Caribbeans latest cruise ship and Guinness world record post-it the MS Allure of the Seas. The numbers are all very impressive. 225,282 gross tons and 1,188 feet long. With sixteen passenger decks and 6,400 people on board, American definitions would probably quite comfortably call this a city on the waves. Rather conveniently, it was announced that an engineering anomaly had rendered this blue-print identical ship five centimetres longer than its twin, the Oasis of the Seas. Heaven forbid that the latest wouldnt also be the largest ever constructed. Surely a feat of human engineering, but weve seen it all before. And how many more months will it be until we see it again?.
Cruise ships have long been engaged in a pointless arms race. Theres something hilariously two-faced about their attempts to broaden their market. On the one hand, theres Cruise deals that present a less exclusive face to the cruise industry, something which is always welcome. But then theyre making these floating cities, seemingly in order to keep the real experience to an exclusive clientele theyre not keen to let go of. You only have to go to the Allures Wikipedia article to see the lengths that companies will go to claim a first. The Allure has the worlds first seaborne Starbucks Coffee stand (which seems improbably late considering Starbucks high street saturation).
In a 1912 poem called The Convergence of the Twain, Thomas Hardy exclaimed of the wreck of the Titanic What does this vaingloriousness down here? Upon seeing the Allure of the Seas, his brains would melt and leak out of his ears. The slogan of The Nation of Why Not represents an uncounterable position. You dont need to pay out for the Allure to get the exact same experience. Try Silverseas cruises for a whole lot less sticker shock. Or try something different altogether, like Luxury nile cruises with something worthwhile on the horizon and plenty of chances to get out of the stuffy air of a floating megamall. By the time your tickets come through the door, the Allure will probably not even be the biggest cruise ship in the world. So what will be the main appeal then?
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