One of the things that always amazes me about cruise ships is their size! The loop in our neighborhood that I walk around some mornings takes 5 laps to make a mile. The walking/jogging track on Allure of the Seas takes only 2.5 laps to make a mile!
Marella Discovery is what cruise ships used to look like. She was placed in service in March 1996 as Splendour of the Seas. With a capacity of 1,830 passengers, she was considered state of the art at that time.
Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas, by comparison, holds 5,402 passengers. When she was introduced in 2010 she was the largest cruise ship in the world. That title now belongs to Wonder of the Seas at 5,734. That’s a lot of peoples! 😉
I just posted a gallery of photos from this cruise and our recent swing through Florida at my Adobe Portfolio site.
Good grief! That is a lot of people. There are a lot of towns in this country that do not have that large a population. Well, in many ways these ships are a floating city. We build too many things too big!
This is an example of how bigger is not necessarily better. Although a big ship has plenty of options – something for just about anyone – it’s a darn big ship with lots of people! We do prefer something a bit more intimate.
From a technical standpoint it is very fascinating. The captain always claims that driving one is not much different than driving a small one. But that’s what he gets paid to say! 😉