FORT LAUDERDALE -- Royal Caribbean International turned the
Harmony of the Seas naming ceremony into a technology demonstration, using its
robotic bartenders as part of the process.
The ship was christened at Port Everglades by Brittany
Affolter, a 23-year-old Teach for America educator in Miami who won a contest
for teachers that drew over 1,000 nominees.
Far from a typical christening, Royal Caribbean cooked up a
Rube Goldberg-style procedure that started with Affolter and Royal Caribbean chairman
Richard Fain on stage in the ship’s open-air Aqua Theater.
An aerialist descended from above on guide wires with a
button to activate the process. When Affolter pressed the button, it sent a
signal to the robot, which did a spin and punched a second button, which then
released a bottle of champagne rigged to the ship’s zipline.
A 3-foot bottle of champagne smashes into the Harmony of the Seas.
The bottle, a 3-foot tall sovereign custom-made for Royal
Caribbean by Veuve Clicquot, then whizzed down the zipline course and crashed
into a steel nameplate above the ship’s pool deck.
Back at the Aqua Theater, a blizzard of blue confetti was
unleashed and singer Jon Secada, who once performed on Royal Caribbean ships,
gave a concert.
A first look
Managing editor Rebecca Tobin previewed the Harmony in May. Read about the ship's features here.
Witnessing all of the festivities via a giant TV screen in
the ship’s Studio B ice skating arena were 500 travel agents from Travel
Weekly’s CruiseWorld conference, who were invited to participate in a launch
viewing party onboard.
The Harmony entered service last May and spent its first few months sailing in Europe. It arrived in Fort Lauderdale earlier this month, and will sail seven-night Caribbean voyages from the port.