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CRUISE LOG
Royal Caribbean International

First look: Inside Royal Caribbean's hot new mega-ship

Gene Sloan
USA TODAY
The top deck of Anthem of the Seas features a large main pool area open to the sky.

SOUTHAMPTON, England — Eager for a glimpse of the latest megaship from cruise giant Royal Caribbean? USA TODAY is among a handful of U.S. media outlets today getting early access to the soon-to-debut Anthem of the Seas, and we're posting photos of the vessel in the carousel above and at our Twitter page and Facebook page.

We're also shooting videos on board, which should begin appearing soon here and at USA TODAY's Cruise Hub (check back throughout the day).

Click HERE to see the photos above in larger format.

The 168,667-ton Anthem of the Seas is a sister ship to Royal Caribbean's much-ballyhooed Quantum of the Seas, which debuted in October with a number of first-for-the-industry features including a deck-top ride into the sky and a bar with robot bartenders. Both concepts also appear on Anthem.

The ships are being billed as the most technologically advanced cruise vessels ever. They boast super speedy Internet (a first for the cruise industry) and an all-digital check-in process that is cutting sidewalk-to-ship boarding times to under 10 minutes. Other gee-whiz features include the first skydiving simulators at sea and the first bumper cars at sea.

Anthem and Quantum are the third and fourth largest cruise vessels ever built, smaller in size only to two other Royal Caribbean ships: Four-year-old Allure of the Seas and five-year-old Oasis of the Seas. Watch the videos below to see all the amazing views/activities inside both Quantum class ships.

With the addition of Anthem, Royal Caribbean now has 23 vessels.

Anthem will be christened on April 20 in front of more than 1,000 invited guests. The ship will home port in Southampton through October for sailings to the Mediterranean and Canary Islands before permanently moving to the New York area. It'll sail out of New Jersey's Cape Liberty Cruise Port to Bermuda, the Caribbean, and Canada and New England.

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