Adventure of the Seas

Adventure of the Seas is the third of Royal Caribbean International's five Voyager-class ships, built by Kvaerner Masa-Yards at Turku, Finland, and entering service in 2001 at a cost of around US$500 million. Like her sisters she is a roughly 138,000-gross-ton, 311-metre vessel carrying some 3,100 guests, built around the innovations that made the class famous: the soaring four-deck Royal Promenade running through the heart of the ship, a full ice-skating rink, and the rock-climbing wall on the aft funnel.

Over the years Adventure gained additional attractions that broadened her appeal to active and family travelers, among them a FlowRider surf simulator that lets guests bodyboard and stand-up surf on a wave of pumped water, water slides, and an outdoor movie screen overlooking the pool deck. These features reflected Royal Caribbean's steady effort to layer new experiences onto the proven Voyager platform.

The ship's christening carried unusual emotional weight. Adventure of the Seas was named in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, and representatives of the Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY) and the New York City Police Department (NYPD) served as her godmothers, honoring the first responders of that day. Registered at Nassau in the Bahamas with the call sign C6SA3, the ship carried that tribute into a long and busy career.

Adventure has spent much of her service running warm-weather itineraries, and in recent seasons she has operated Caribbean round-trips from Florida ports, including calls at Royal Caribbean's Perfect Day at CocoCay, the line's heavily developed private island in the Bahamas. Homeported at Port Canaveral, Florida, and sailing the Caribbean, Adventure of the Seas remains in active service, a well-traveled member of the class that transformed mass-market cruising.