I am with my family on the Freedom of the Sea, Royal Caribbean’s newest addition to its fleet which is now the largest cruise boat in the world. It has multiple pools, a wave machine for surfing, minature golf course & simulator, an ice skating rink, a climbing wall and a sports court. The most mind-boggling part of the boat is its four story “promenade” open shopping mall with stores, boutiques and restaurants surrounding both sides of this walkway. On New Year’s Day, they had a full blown parade with trapeze performers, costume processions and confetti down the middle of the Promenade.
Given the scale, it is amazing that it floats. Over 3,600 passengers and 1,600 staff reside on the boat. More than 130 chefs prepare over 15,000 meals a day to sittings of 1,800 people across three levels. Staff vacuum over 1 mile of carpeting a day and computer generator conveyor belt systems wash the thousands of a towels a day. Six generators crank out enough power to light up all of Aruba across 164,000 miles of wiring.
Another interesting part of the trip is that 80% of the passengers are from Mexico and South America (we left from Miami, heading into the Caribbean). Everywhere we go, everyone is speaking Spanish. The crew of the boat come from over 40 countries. Given how homogenous living in the North Shore of Chicago can be, this (along with our ports of call) is a great reminder of how diverse the world is outside of our narrow daily experiences. We are definitely the minorities here.
There is no Blackberry coverage nor cell coverage here and my internet connection (WiFi across the boat) is a modem speed satellite connection. As a result, I am pretty liberated from my normal electronic shackles. It’s not such a bad feeling once you get used to it…
One ironic side note. Tonight, as I went to get dinner at the buffet, I heard some music coming from a performer playing his guitar. Listening more closely, I realized he was playing the theme song from the movie, Titanic. The passenger ahead of me in line commented “probably not the best choice of music on a cruise ship…”