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Mega-ship to outsize seas’ reigning Queen

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Special to The Times

COMING soon to an ocean near you: a cruise ship larger than the Queen Mary 2.

The heaviest, widest, largest cruise ship ever built was recently launched in Finland, moving from dry dock to the water so it could be completed.

The 158,000-ton Freedom of the Seas, to be operated by Royal Caribbean International, is 1,100 feet long, almost the equivalent of four football fields. It is capable of carrying more than 4,000 passengers, although the publicity for it has wisely chosen to refer to an expected average of 3,600 per sailing.

That 4,000-passenger figure may be too scary for would-be cruise passengers to contemplate. But in summer vacation periods, sailing out of Miami into the western Caribbean -- its first regular weekly departure is scheduled for June 4, 2006 -- the ship conceivably could fill enough staterooms with parents and their children to reach the 4,000 figure.

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The ship will have more of everything: shopping, pools, restaurants and entertainment. Pricing seems to be similar to that of other ships in the Royal Caribbean fleet, with rates starting at $699 per person, double occupancy, for off-season cruises.

Why should anyone build such a large ship? Although many Americans prefer smaller vessels -- those carrying only 700 or 800 passengers -- it is obvious that the small-ship crowd (of which I am a member) is out of step with Americans. Year after year, the bigger the ship, the greater its popularity.

Much has to do with the facilities aboard. Larger ships have such things as rock-climbing walls, mini golf courses and ice-skating rinks.

In a carefully calibrated campaign to whet the public’s appetite, Royal Caribbean has been doling out small announcements of the enhancements that Freedom of the Seas will have.

The excitement began with the announcement that the ship would build two outdoor whirlpool baths jutting out from the edge of the vessel and over the sea for a scary view. (Recently released drawings of the high-altitude basins show that the 16 bathers inside each will be surrounded by glass walls intended to keep them from falling out into the water 110 feet below.)

Less dramatic is the news that Freedom of the Seas’ shopping arcade will have a full-size bookstore. It also will offer a club for karaoke contests, in which participants, standing before a “green screen,” get a boost from fanciful filmed images relating to the subject matter of their songs. There will be “hot spots” for wireless laptop computers capable of transmitting e-mail and an “H2O Zone” spurting water at passersby (although that is mainly designed for children’s amusement).

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Shipboard surfing

EARLIER this month came another announcement: Freedom of the Seas’ top deck will contain a “surfing pool,” a 32-foot-wide water bowl with a strong current producing a continuous wave on which surfers can do their thing.

Is such excess confined to the cruise lines? And is the public partly to blame for such antics? You might recall my having written about the current battle among deluxe hotel chains: a competition of who can provide better pillows, silkier sheets and the most extraordinary mattresses and box springs.

Apparently, the quality of such items has improved so greatly that travelers all over the world are asking to buy them. So, Hilton Hotels has created a website called www.hilton-hotelsathome.com to sell pillows, bathrobes and clock radios. Striking back, the Mandarin Oriental chain is offering bath salts for sale. Westin Hotels is also selling its special beds.

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