Freedom of the Seas v's The Garden

Another beautiful day waiting for me outside.. After the recent rain we have had I can almost see the warm weather encouraging the grass to grow whilst I am watching – hmmm -a major pile of lawn clippings in the making for the compost bin next weekend. .

Bit grumpy today. Now that we have finally a spell of good weather I’d prefer to be spending the weekend planting the garden out but today finds me preparing for a 4.00 am start tomorrow to leave dodge for a few days – destination Miami.

I have been invited to have a sneak preview, test drive and review the largest cruise ship in the world – Royal Caribbean’s ‘Freedom of the Seas’ before it goes into service – in 7 days, 4hrs, 22mins, 47secs – howszat for some trivial preciseness.

Having 160,000 tons supporting 3634 passengers – I could park all the permanent residents of our town in it and still have 31 berths free. It replaces Cunard’s Queen Mary 2 as the world’s largest cruise ship. Gets me thinking of cruises to Ireland. The Queen Mary doesn’t pull into Ireland so I doubt if the freedoms of the seas will – perhaps a good thing – what do you think?

Their promotional spin is:

Freedom of the Seas

Innovative-Extraordinary-Adventurous-Unexpected

Setting sail for the Caribbean in June 2006, our largest ship yet - Freedom of the Seas! Though we're not quite ready to reveal all of the spectacular features, rest assured this Royal Caribbean International masterpiece will come complete with a rock-climbing wall, Royal Promenade and ice-skating rink. We'll also be including extensive WiFi capabilities and connectivity for cell phones as well as flat-screen TVs in every stateroom. What else could we possibly put on a cruise ship? You'll be amazed. More astounding details coming soon!

Keep tuned in – I’ll be recounting an insiders view of the above on my return.