When the biggest passenger ship in the world asks you to do comedy aboard its inaugural sailing, you don’t say no.
I mean, you could say no, but you’d be stupid.
For the past two weeks I was in Europe performing on Royal Caribbean’s brand-new Symphony of the Seas. The Symphony’s official maiden voyage was back in April of this year, but it has since been doing cruises around the Mediterranean Sea and being put through its paces, ahead of getting christened and beginning her regular Caribbean routes on November 9th.
Reserve a cabin right now for the historic inaugural sailing!
Officially the world’s largest passenger ship, the Symphony is actually 0.1 feet shorter (1.2 inches!) than its sister ship, the Harmony of the Seas. But Symphony is much larger in gross tonnage, at 228,081 GT. I’m not sure which is more important. Perhaps size queens can answer the age old question: length or girth?
Whatever, the ship is spectacular! It is, as Jack Jones once sang, all shiny and new. I’m loving the red bulbous bow… reminds me of the Yamato from the classic Star Blazers cartoon.
I had been on the ship for about a week, when I received a message from Royal Caribbean asking if I could switch around some dates on my schedule to do the Symphony’s inaugural sailing after her christening ceremony in Miami.
Apparently, the company is saving the big hoopla and smashing of champagne bottle against the hull for the Symphony’s arrival at her home port. So I’m excited and honored to be part of that voyage.
And I’m entirely grateful to Royal Caribbean for already snapping up most of my time next year and even into 2020 to perform aboard their ships around the world. (See image at the bottom of this post.) Fear not, I have still saved a bunch of time to do some of my favorite land gigs in Hong Kong, Las Vegas and more. I appreciate the generous offer and the vote of confidence and will try not to screw this up.
So, yes, when Royal Caribbean asks you to entertain aboard the world’s largest cruise ship, you say yes to maritime (and merry time) history.
FUN FACT: Hugenormous as it is, the Symphony is still only the second largest ship I’ve performed aboard.
