For videos of Ultimate Abyss, scroll to the end of this story
The world’s biggest cruise ship, Harmony of the Seas, is still under construction in France – and, hard as it is to believe, this huge floating building site will be ready to make its first public appearance in May.
On a hard-hat tour of the STX shipyard in St Nazaire today, I stepped over metal plates, ducked under cables and climbed plastic-wrapped stairs to explore this latest and biggest addition to the Royal Caribbean fleet.
Still to be added is the most exciting new feature – Ultimate Abyss, a ten-storey slide using mats. It will be constructed in late April. But even now, you can see the dizzying drop that riders will face.
Harmony of the Seas will be 33cm – just over a foot – longer than its sister ship Allure, slightly wider, and measure around 227,000 GRT. In theory, it could accommodate 2,185 crew and 6,700 guests, though the number of passengers is more likely to be around 5,600.
Below are some pictures to illustrate just how much work has been done – and remains to do – to create the largest pleasure park afloat. British cruise lovers will get a chance to see the completed ship when it sails into Southampton in May.
A video of Ultimate Abyss as seen through virtual reality glasses
A video of the Ultimate Abyss shown at its construction point
Dave Monk (Shipmonk) has been nominated as best blogger in the British Cruise Awards 2018. To vote, please click here
So Dave, do you think you would ride the Ultimate Abyss? Looks kinda scary to me. Great pics and puns. Thanks.
Hi Flavia, I think I would – unless I’m too chunky to go down it! Thanks for your ‘likes’ and comments yesterday – sadly, I had to cut short the Periscope feed because I needed to conserve battery and data. Plus use the phone for other things! I did try to tweet you back but I then lost signal for hours around the shipyard. I appreciate your continued interest and input. Best, Dave.