Tom Stieghorst
I've written before about all the free stuff that comes with the price of a cruise -- things like swimming pools and fine art that guests tend to take for granted
Here's another one to which I have to call your attention. It happens to be on Royal Caribbean International, and it isn't particularly new, but what is new is a video clip that will take your breath away.
The clip shows diver Cesilie Carlton plunging from the 17-meter platform on the Harmony of the Seas into the pool of the Aquatheater below. The astonishing part to me is the wake of the ship in the lower left hand corner of the clip, which gives the viewer the clear sense that not only is Carlton trying to hit a postage stamp target from 55 feet in the air, but she's doing it while the ship is moving.
The 11-second clip has been viewed more than one million times since it was posted on Instagram by one of Carlton's fellow divers earlier this month.
And you or your clients, as Royal Caribbean passengers, can watch feats like that for free.
The clip of Carlton isn't the only diving video making the social media rounds. If you have time check out Ten Meter Tower, a 2016 documentary made in Sweden of ordinary people contemplating the plunge off of an Olympics-height 10-meter platform. Most of them are terrified. And that platform is 7 meters shorter than the one Carlton leaps from.
Of course Royal Caribbean ships aren't the only places to watch diving. The upcoming USA Diving National Championships this April in Atlanta will offer the best of American amateur diving from 3- and 10-meters.
But it costs $15 a day to watch.
And then there's the annual cliff diving series held around the world since 2009. Carlton placed third last year in the series, which is sponsored by Red Bull energy drink. There was one event in the U.S. last year, in Texas, which was free -- if you could get there.
Red Bull's 2017 cliff diving schedule should be out any day now.