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Home / Travel

Aboard the world's biggest cruise ship, Royal Caribbean's Symphony of the Seas

Stephanie Holmes
By Stephanie Holmes
Editor - Lifestyle Brands·NZ Herald·
5 Apr, 2018 11:23 PM2 mins to read

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Stephanie Holmes boards the biggest ship in the world for a sneak preview with Royal Caribbean

Have you packed your party pants? Because you're going to need them on board Royal Caribbean's new mega ship Symphony of the Seas. It's vibrant, it's loud, it's non-stop entertainment; all fun, all day and all night.

I've been sailing on the inaugural voyage of this massive cruiseliner — it's the biggest passenger ship the world has ever seen.

Bring the kids, bring your friends, bring your grandma- there's guaranteed to be something for everyone here, from water slides to laser tag, rock climbing to ice skating, jazz clubs to silent discos.

In the space of an hour, I ziplined across the 15th deck, screamed my way down the Ultimate Abyss — the tallest slide at sea — then calmed my nerves with a martini made by one of two robots at the Bionic Bar.

The stats are as impressive as the ship itself — 362m long, 2759 staterooms, capacity for 6680 guests, 12,000 trees and plants in the open air Central Park promenade ... but the only figure you'll care about once onboard is how much action you can actually handle.

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Make sure it's a lot; the bar has been set high for the most fun you can have at sea. Eighteen decks high, to be precise.

  • 362m long (nearly 40m longer than the height of Auckland's Sky Tower)
  • 228081 gross tonnage (10 times the size of the larges cook Strait ferry)
  • Carries 6680 passengers
  • 2200 permanent staff
  • Maiden voyage on April 7

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