BAYONNE, N.J. --
Passengers on Royal Caribbean Internationals upcoming Freedom of
the Seas will be able to surf on a giant surfing and
boogie-boarding machine installed on the ship.
Called a FlowRider,
the apparatus shoots a sheet of water up a blue wave-like incline
that allows people to take a flowboard (a shorter version of a
surfboard) or a boogie board and surf down and around the
water.
The line, which is
as well-known within the trade for its onboard devices like its
ice-skating rinks and self-leveling pool tables as it is for its
rock-climbing walls, had left passenger and agents guessing on what
its big reveal would be for the latest gadget on the upcoming
Freedom, which will debut in May.
Do we innovate for
innovations sake? said Richard Fain, the CEO of Royal Caribbean
Cruises, during an event here to unveil the Flowrider. Of course we
do.
But, he added, the
innovations help breed new [cruise] experiences.
The Flowrider will
be housed on one of the Freedoms aft decks.
To contact the
reporter who wrote this article, send e-mail to Rebecca Tobin at [email protected].