Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
ROCK THE BOAT
lorida cruise ships get all the coolest new toys. That’s certainly the case as two of the world’s newest ships with unique thrill offerings began sailing from South Florida ports.
Royal Caribbean Harmony of the Seas, which holds the title for world’s largest cruise ship, arrived to Port Everglades last November, followed in December by Carnival Cruise Line’s largest cruise ship, Carnival Vista, to PortMiami in December.
Both ships, which debuted in spring 2016 before making their way to the Sunshine State, tout industry firsts when it comes to top-deck adventure while also offering up a bevy of mainstays to keep cruisers’ adrenaline pumping.
First up is the 226,963-ton, 5,479-passenger Harmony of the Seas. Its signature thrill ride is the Ultimate Abyss, a 10-deck twisting dry slide that takes riders on a mat down a dark vortex 236 feet in about 15 seconds in a tight tube with only a 3-foot diameter at about 9 mph. The twin, tortuous purple tubes are excellent sound conductors so the yelps and screams of its riders can entertain other cruisers listening from the ship’s crowded Boardwalk below.
“You’re going to have to be a little bit brave to go on the Abyss,” said Nick Weir, vice president for entertainment for Royal Caribbean International. “I’m not sure all our guests
have the courage to jump down a tube 10 flights above the landing area.”
The key to making this slide even better is the anticipation factor, as riders climb up a small stairway into the mouth of the giant, menacing angler fish entrance way. You know, the kind of fish that tries to eat Nemo and Dory in the dark reaches of the ocean. Once up the stairs, you get to see what you’re about to get into, looking down 10 decks below through a clear platform that is also 150 feet above sea level. It’s intimidating to be sure.
“It’s a total blast,” said Colleen McDaniel, senior executive editor of CruiseCritic.com. “It’s just the right amount of scary, with a heavy dose of fun. It’s even better — for you and the people waiting at the bottom — if you scream along the way.”
The ship also is the first Royal Caribbean ship with a full-blown water park including three slides of 170 feet, 315 feet and 328 feet in length. Bunched together as The Perfect Storm. All three have some serious speed, two of them sending you down at more than 20 mph through twists and turns and one sending you rocketing into a bowl-shaped basin that you circle around in before dropping into a final slide to the end. The launch platform for them is on Deck 18, high above the Central Park section of the ship on Deck 6 more than 100 feet below.
When you take these two features and add them to Royal Caribbean hallmarks of twin FlowRider surf simulators, a 43-foot-tall rock climbing wall and an 82-foot-long zip line that runs nine decks above the ship’s Boardwalk section, the ship has more than enough thrill features to keep your heart pumping.
Down the coast at Miami, the 133,500-ton, 3,954-passenger Carnival Vista has become the flagship of Carnival Cruise Line, and it has its own signature ride for thrill seekers.
The SkyRide is part roller coaster, part bicycle and a unique offering among cruise ships. Riders climb aboard a suspended carriage and pedal their way at their own speed along an 800-foot-long track that wraps around half of the top deck of the ship.
The views are amazing with the track 150 feet above sea level, and you can go full bore and get your ride up to about 20 mph. The way the dual tracks work is one side gets an initial speed boost with a slight drop as it rounds the aft of the ship first, pushing you ahead of your competitor. But be wary on the backstretch, as you have to push your way to the finish, the second rider gets their own speed push and will come up fast. It makes the competitive factor of the ride memorable. It’s really difficult to set aside one’s desire to win and just enjoy the view, although that is an option for those who want to take it slow.
The ride is not without its growing pains. Because it’s actually one continuous track that wraps around the ship twice, if there’s an issue with the ride, it can take a long time to remedy. The humid salt air of the Caribbean has caused a lot of buildup on the track, which uses Rollerblade-like wheels for a smoother ride. That can cause riders to get stuck, and when that happens, it takes about 10 minutes before people can race again. And since each trip takes about two or three minutes anyway, the lines can become long.
Still, when you do get on and it’s running smoothly, it’s the most memorable feature of the new ship. For thrills combined with a view, there’s nothing better in the cruise industry.
The top deck on Vista also features its own water park, and it’s pretty intense. There’s a trippy raft-riding slide called the Kaleid-OSlide that sends riders down a 455-foot twisted, visually stimulating tube. But that’s tame compared to the ship’s 300-foot-long, don’t-blink-because-it’sreally-fast Twister water slide. Be sure to keep rigid on that slide because you’ll get knocked around. Try riding your heels and shoulder blades for maximum speed and soak the unwitwill ting attendant at the end, or at least get a thumbs up.
Other top deck features that are worth noting on Vista are the SportSquare play tables including a double-length Foosball table and four-square-style ping-pong table. For those who don’t want to wait for the SkyRide, but still enjoy great views while strapped into a harness, there is the ropes course with zigzagging elements that will test your constitution 150 feet above the water.
These are just the latest salvos in the game of oneupsmanship cruise lines play with one another when it comes to keeping thrillseeking fans happy. Disney Cruise Line, for instance, made waves with its AquaDuck water coasters that take raft riders on a 765-foot ride around the top decks in a clear acrylic tube at 20 mph. Several ships including Norwegian Escape, MSC Divina and Disney Magic introduced bombbay door drop slides that shoot riders down and in some cases out over the side of the ship. Royal Caribbean’s Quantum-class ships have skydiving simulators as well as the North Star, which is like a London Eye at sea, sending riders aboard a glass capsule attached to a rotating, pivoting crane-arm that can rise to more than 300 feet above the ocean as well as jut out over the side of the ship while offering 360-degree views. While that ride is not exactly fear-inducing, it does give you quite the view.
Both Norwegian Escape and Getaway have one of the most harrowing features on a cruise ship on their ropes courses — the Plank, in which cruisers can walk out over the side of the ship looking down 180 feet. Brave souls can let go and walk along the wobbly 6-inch wide beam while connected to a jutted out arm. Serious ... it wobbles.
Whether it’s a ropes course, water slides or something unique like Harmony’s Abyss and Vista’s SkyRide, cruise lines are doing their best to keep their customers heart rates beating at full throttle.