Big Boat

Toni Schlesinger describes life On the World’s Largest Cruise Ship.

Royal Caribbean International’s Allure of the Seas, the world’s largest cruise ship, launched in December at a cost of about $1.4 billion, has taken the concept of land to a point where, on a seven-day western Caribbean voyage, from Dec. 19 to 26, with stops in Labadee, Haiti, and Costa Maya and Cozumel, Mexico, my Aunt Dorothy and I entirely forgot we were at sea.

Stepping off the zigzagging gangplank into the enclosed Royal Promenade, we were hit with blinking lights, video screens and shop windows stuffed with jewels and muffins. Where had we come? On smaller ships there is a small area where a social hostess greets you with a little beverage and everyone hugs one another. This place looked like the inside of a shopping mall in Singapore or Dubai.
After a quick salad at the Park Café, one of the Allure’s 22 restaurants, where a song played about how wonderful life is, we looked at the ship’s map — nightclubs and casino on Deck 4; specialty restaurants mainly on 8, around the park; child and baby areas on 14; sunlight and sports on l6; staterooms from decks 6 to 14.

It's basically a floating city, and it even has a park. From the ship's Web site, we learn that it has seven "distinctly designed neighborhoods." And, of course, a Starbucks.