From Uche Usim, Barcelona, Spain
About 4,000 journalists and top cruise sales agents from Nigeria, South Africa, Greece, Spain, Italy and other countries around the world arrived Barcelona, Spain at the weekend for the pre-inaugural sail on the world’s biggest cruise ship-Harmony of the Seas, owned by Royal Caribbean International.
However, out of 16 persons from Nigeria who ought to attend the event, only about eight persons made it as most journalists were denied visas by the Spanish embassy in Lagos.
Journalists from Vanguard, Channels Television, TV Continental, Ebony Live TV among others were among those who missed the event due to visa issues.
The pre-inaugural sail was put together by Royal Caribbean to fete journalists and its top sales agents around the globe.
Its latest ship, Harmony of the Seas is dubbed the “floating city” and costs USD 1.5 billion ship.
The mega vessel is 362 meters (1,187 feet) long and boasts of a 6,360 passenger capacity. It also features a 1,400-seat theatre, a park with 12,000 plant species and a 10-storey water slide,
Built by STX France at the Chantiers de l’Atlantique shipyard in Saint-Nazaire, France for Royal Caribbean International, it has a gross tonnage of 227,700 GT and comes in a 16-deck ship configuration. That makes it bigger that the Eiffel Tower and holds the record for being the widest cruise ship ever built.
Harmony of Seas comes with more than 2,500 staterooms, 20 dining venues, 23 swimming pools and a park with more than 10,000 plants and 50 trees.
The ship also boasts of entertainment venues and a skating rink on board, which will open to the public when there aren’t shows on the ice. The ship’s captain, Gus Andersen, claimed golf will even be an option on board.
Harmony will also feature all the technology used on the Quantum Class ships, such as RFID wrist bands, iPad check in and high-speed Voom internet.
The The Harmony of the Seas is expected in Southampton on Tuesday, before its inaugural voyage on May 22 to Barcelona.
Harmony of the Seas, the third in Royal Caribbean’s popular Oasis class of ships, launched on May 20, 2016 in Southampton, U.K and will operate two short cruises to Northern Europe, before redeploying to Barcelona for the summer and then heading to Port Everglades in the fall — its permanent homeport. A fourth Oasis-class ship also is under construction, and due for launch in 2018.
However, criticisms trailed her launch as furious cruise fans who left on £800million Harmony of the Seas’ ‘maiden voyage’ from Southampton to Rotterdam and a subsequent trip to Cherbourg complained contractors were still carrying out vital work on board.
Harmony of the Seas features a mixture of first-introduced-on-Quantum- and Oasis-class experiences, such as The Puzzle Room, Wonderland Restaurant, The Bionic Bar and Jamie’s Italian; as well as brand new additions, including the line’s first ever waterslides and the tallest (and quite possibly scariest) slide at sea: The Ultimate Abyss.
Harmony also sees the world premiere of Grease, which is part Olivia Newton-John/Travolta movie, part original play.