World's largest cruise ship finally parks in Miami home

[Jason]

The world’s largest cruise ship is now home in Miami.

Royal Caribbean Symphony of the Seas arrived to the cruise line’s brand new terminal at PortMiami overnight Friday.

The ship which debuted this spring and spent the summer sailing in Europe made its North American debut in Port Canaveral on Thursday to go through a full customs inspection.

With the details out of the way, the ship carrying more than 5,000 passengers arrived in the pre-dawn hours Friday to the shiny new Terminal A, showing off the electric glow of the ship and its new home in grand fashion.

Like the other three Oasis-class vessels, Symphony of the Seas offers seven distinct neighborhoods such as the Central Park, the open-air green space in the middle of the ship. It also has a lot of the features found on Harmony of the Seas such as the 10-story Ultimate Abyss dry slide, Perfect Storm water park, twin 40-foot-tall rock climbing walls, FlowRider surf simulators and zip line.

Some of the line’s newer features, though, debuted on Symphony of the Seas.

Those include what the cruise line has touted as the “world's largest laser tag arena,” a glow-in-the-dark venue themed around the fate of the last planets of the galaxy.

The ship also features the Ultimate Family Suite, a two-level suite that features a slide, a floor-to-ceiling Lego wall, air hockey, movie-theater-style TV room with popcorn machine as well as a 212-square-foot wraparound balcony with its own climbing wall feature, bumper pool table and whirlpool. It’s a two-bedroom suite that can accommodate up to eight guests.

The Boardwalk features the line’s new Playmakers sports bar and video game venue as well as the Sugar Beach candy and ice cream venue.

Other new spaces include the El Loco Fresh Mexican food venue and Hooked Seafood.

The ship also features many dining venues found on its sister ships including fusion food venue Wonderland, Jamie Oliver's Italian dining venue, Japanese cuisine at Izumi, the Chops Grill steakhouse and 150 Central Park, which serves seasonal American cuisine.

The main stage offering is the return of the Broadway show “Hairspray,” which was once the featured show on board Oasis of the Seas. Augmenting the marquee stage show is original production “Flight” that is a humorous look at the history for flight from the Wright Brothers all the way to the first tourist trip to Mars. On the ice is a skating show titled “1977” and in the AquaTheater is a show titled “HiRo.”

Caribbean sailings on Symphony of the Seas begin after a series of media sailings. The first seven-night cruise is on Nov. 17.

The 228,081-ton, 1,188-foot-long ship has a maximum capacity of 6,680 guests with 2,200 crew. At double capacity, though, the guest count is 5,518 from 2,759 staterooms.

The Oasis-class vessels have each held the title of World’s Largest Cruise Ship, certified each in turn by Guinness World Records. Each one has been slightly larger than the last, with Oasis of the Seas first inheriting the title almost a decade ago when it debuted in 2009, followed by Allure of the Seas in 2010 and Harmony of the Seas in 2016. Symphony of the Seas is the 25th in the Royal Caribbean fleet.

By Richard Tribou, Orlando Sentinel
Re-posted on CruiseCrazies.com - Cruise News, Articles, Forums, Packing List, Ship Tracker, and more
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[Shari2]

Wow!  These new ships have sure come a long way from when I started cruising in 1979.  So much more to do, and many places to eat, and so much larger.  Even a zip line...who would have thunk  it years back...thunk it my own spelling...LOL

[Jan115]

13 hours ago, Shari2 said:

Wow!  These new ships have sure come a long way from when I started cruising in 1979.  So much more to do, and many places to eat, and so much larger.  Even a zip line...who would have thunk  it years back...thunk it my own spelling...LOL

I agree, Shari - definitely a new style of cruising from the old days. Who would’ve THUNK!?