Most Cruise Lines have a one word or one sentence theme they boast as a mantra. Here are some:

Fun Ships- Of course these are the Carnival Ships. You may, or may not know, Carnival operates several brand names such as Costa Cruise Line in Europe, Aida Cruises in Europe, Holland American and Princess lines worldwide. Speaking just of the Carnival brand in the USA, they certainly live by the “FUN” factor. On board you can always find a contest, pool party, mixology class or a dance contest. Party lovers enjoy the feeling of fun all over the ship. Food is often accompanied by more fun as the dining staff try to provide entertainment on most evenings in the main dining rooms. Bars are known for competing with fun drinks. As you step out onto the pool deck from the elevators, you are immediately aware of the fun factor, no matter what the time of day. They have a 5,000 passenger ship, multiple ships over 2,000 passengers, but they mostly leave the intimate class of ships to brothers and sisters at Holland and princess.

WOW! If you have not seen the WOW word in ads or on television, you don’t watch tv, or read. So why WOW? Royal Caribbean has some of the most innovative ships at sea, and maybe the largest ships at sea. With the over 4,000 passenger category, I believe Royal Caribbean has more ships than any other line. The WOW is what you may find on board a Royal Caribbean ship.

Robot Bartenders. Mine was very polite but quite inept as customizing was not his specialty.

Wave Runner. Perhaps the “funnest” thing you will ever do at sea. I cannot stand up for more than 10 seconds, but I can “Boogie” like a champion.

Zip Line. I have zipped many times. I am embarrassed to say Barbara has zipped many more times than me. The on-board Zip experience is breathtaking, albeit brief.

Theater at Sea. Innovative hardly describes this theater. It is on the stern of the ship, usually on deck 8. They put on daytime and nighttime water shows such as ballet and diving, but what is really earth shaking is when you watch a ballet troupe perform a water ballet in front of your eyes, while standing in water that may be only 4 feet deep, then in the next act you watch a tower diver dive from 50 feet into the very same pool. I’m not going to tell you how, you have to watch it in person.

Next week we’ll discuss more WOW innovations.