Around 3,000 agents and travel industry partners will be attending Harmony’s launch party on Friday (May 20) before the ship departs on its inaugural cruise on Sunday (May 22).
Royal Caribbean officially took delivery of the 5,479-capacity ship from the STX France shipyard in Saint-Nazaire last week.
Harmony is the line’s third Oasis-class vessel among its 25-strong fleet. It is the world’s largest cruise ship at 227,000 tonnes and has cost more than $1 billion to build.
Sister ships Oasis of the Seas and Allure of the Sea were launched in 2009 and 2010 respectively.
Richard Fain, chief executive of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd, attended the traditional delivery and flag-changing ceremony held in the ship’s Aqua Theatre.
“Harmony of the Seas is the product of our zealous spirit of continuous improvement, where we have combined revolutionary ship design with the technological strides that have defined the Royal Caribbean brand,” said Fain.
“Thank you to STX France for their ongoing partnership in building our ships, which continue to introduce unexpected industry innovations.”
Agents have been competing to win one of 500 places at Harmony’s launch party during the last few months, using the Twitter hashtag #GetmeonHarmony.
After the Southampton launch, Harmony will be home-porting in Barcelona from where it will run seven-night itineraries around the western Mediterranean.
The ship will then reposition to Port Everglades in Florida from November 2016 to operate seven-night trips to the eastern and western Caribbean.
Michael Bayley, chief executive of Royal Caribbean International, said: “The ship is the ‘best of the best’ of what our guests love most about Royal Caribbean, combined with new and thrilling experiences never before found in one place but it is the passion and dedication of our crew that will make everlasting memories for our guests.”
