World’s largest cruise ship will have robot bartenders and an en-suite slide

It’s not enough to have the biggest boat – you have to win the laser-tag arms race, too.

When it hits the water in April 2018, the world’s largest cruise ship will be five times the size of the Titanic by volume and hold 2,774 staterooms on 16 guest decks. Royal Caribbean’s latest effort to awe cruisers – and, it seems, make shore excursions obsolete – Symphony of the Seas will offer robot bartenders, a 10-storey-high slide, and a duplex family suite with its own movie theatre and floor-to-ceiling Lego wall.

Oh, and a glow-in-the-dark laser tag arena that Royal Caribbean says is the largest at sea.

“We set out to create a new level of vacation adventure and deliver the ultimate escape for families of all shapes and sizes,” says Michael Bayley, president and chief executive officer of Royal Caribbean International.

The company also owns the runner-up ships in the size category: Harmony of the Seas, which was launched in 2016, is the same width and length. But it has a gross registered tonnage – which measures the volume of enclosed space on a ship – of 226,963 versus Symphony’s 230,000. In other words, Symphony has more stuff.

“This phenomenon of having these escapist on-board activities that nobody else has, has been going on for a few years,” says Maggie Rauch, director of research for travel and hospitality research firm Phocuswright. Cruise companies are trying to dazzle new guests as well as get repeat cruisers to open their wallets wider on board.

Some of the new ship’s most lavish features are aimed at its smallest guests. The 1,346-square-foot Ultimate Family Suite has a slide that runs from the kids’ room to the living room, a wall devoted to Lego play, a wraparound balcony with a kid-friendly pool table climbing feature, a full-size hot tub, and a theatre-style TV room, complete with popcorn machine and multiple gaming systems.