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Would You Ride In A Cruise Ship's Baby Blimp?

June 10, 2009 at 9:02 AM | by | Comments (2)

The annals of shipboard entertainment are a study in the growing ADD-ness of travelers; there once was a day when week-long ocean crossings were happily passed with games of shuffleboard and skeet shooting, and then we graduated to learning napkin-folding and wine pairings during Caribbean cruises. These days however, it seems as though even 4-night trips require access to D-list celebrities, rock climbing walls and mini-golf greens.

Would you believe that we've done all of the above—well, we watched the skeet shooting and never touched the celeb—and yet we remain flabbergasted by the amenity that Royal Caribbean is trying to bring onboard their new Oasis of the Seas. It's a freaking blimp-on-a-string!

Technically, the baby dirigible you see above is something called an "aerostat," a possible future entertainment option aboard the 5,400-passenger Oasis if she passes her sea trials and they surmount some practicality issues. If it gets a green light, the airship will raise from its stern docking station to rise 165 feet above the ship, giving some brave passengers postcard-perfect views down onto their vessel.

What do you think? Should a ship be towing a floaty thing full of paying passengers while in the middle of open water? Would you go up in it? Perhaps the probable failure of this idea will mark an end to the installation of massive "wow" features onboard ships, and maybe then we can just get back to cruising.

Related Stories:
· Oasis of the Seas Balloon Mystery Solved! [CruiseCritic]
· Cruise Travel Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: CruiseCritic]

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Baby Blimp

Good idea. A panoramic view of the ship would be awesome. I would ride anything attached to a cruise ship.
catawba57 on June 10, 2009 at 10:15 AM #Permalink

I Don't Think So Tim...

Ya, this has to be a no. Too much potential for being lost at sea. I'll stick to the shuffleboard.
kjb on June 10, 2009 at 1:52 PM #Permalink

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