Freedom of the Seas

New York Harbor, New York - May 12, 2006 (1:49pm)  Shortly before landing at New York’s La Guardia airport, I happened to see this cruise ship from up in the air.  As I was taking this picture, I did not realize that this was a brand new cruise ship and the largest one ever built!  It turns out that it had just arrived at New York Harbor only a few hours before my plane flew right above it.  The Freedom of the Seas, Royal Caribbean’s much-anticipated, much-publicized, 158,000-ton, 3,634-passenger 18-deck ship is even bigger than Cunard’s Queen Mary 2 and all the other super-megaships in the cruise market. The Freedom of the Seas is as large as Royal Caribbean’s first four ships put together.  With a length of 1,112 feet, she is longer than the USS Ronald Reagan, the biggest aircraft carrier, which is 1,092 feet long.  She is longer than the Eiffel Tower is tall.  With a height of 208 feet, she is taller than the Statue of Liberty, which is 151 feet tall.  Obviously, in this case at least, size does matter! (Photo by SuperGeorge)