Central Park

By now, most people have heard about the Central Park concept coming to the Genesis class ships of Royal Caribbean.  As someone who has traveled on both the Voyager and Freedom class vessels, this news cuts both ways with me, good and bad.  First and foremost, you gotta give Royal Caribbean credit for being ever-forward thinking.  After all, this is the same line that brought us wall climbing and ice skating to the high seas and made both work perfectly.  However, one has to wonder at what point are these latest innovations too much of a good thing and let’s be frank, too large.  Most – if not all – cruise travelers go cruising to get away from the daily traffic that is our everyday life.  I fear that the Genesis class ships are past the point of being too large for its own good and the Central Park concept is an excellent example.  While the Promenade aspect found on Voyager and Freedom class ships sought to be similar to a main street concept found in every town in America, there is no mistaking that the Promenade is simply a wistful path down the center of a very large cruise ship.  With Central Park, perhaps RC is bring home too close to the ship and hence might have travelers asking ‘what happened to the ship.”

Of course, we’ll all have to travel on the Genesis to see the concept(s) for ourselves, which is the point, of course.

Cruising is innovating, liking it our not.

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Tags: genesis