I’ve never found the idea of a cruise ship vacation appealing. Whether its norovirus or COVID-19, there’s probably some kind of virus on board, and it just doesn’t seem like a way I’d like to travel.1 Obviously, however, millions of other people in the world feel differently. With that in mind, Royal Caribbean is assembling the biggest cruise ship ever built, the “Icon of the Seas”. Look upon their works, and despair:
Yuck.
Gazing at this grotesquerie, I can’t help but be horrified, but it holds a certain fascination too. How on earth does one even design something like that? Slate spoke to Royal Caribbean’s chief product innovation officer Jay Schneider to learn more, and the interview is a very interesting read.
Footnotes:
That CDC link for “Facts About Noroviruses on Cruise Ships” starts with this text:
People often associate cruise ships with acute gastrointestinal illnesses such as norovirus, but acute gastrointestinal illness is relatively infrequent on cruise ships.
“Relatively infrequent” is quite a phrase! ↩︎
