Cruise passengers can soar over the ocean on new North Star

Dubai has the Burj Khalifa, London the Shard and Seattle the Space Needle. Soon, the cruise industry will have North Star, the world’s first aerial attraction at sea.

Hot on the heels of glass showers cantilevered over the side of a ship, simulated “surf” on a man-made wave, top-deck lawns and a waterslide featuring a vertical drop from the ship’s funnel comes a London Eye-style capsule that will “fly” cruise-ship passengers 300 feet above a 16-deck ship.

Attached to a crane-like arm on Royal Caribbean’s Quantum of the Seas and resembling a cherry picker (or distant cousin of ET, depending on how you view it), North Star will afford out-of-cruise-ship experiences to guests who will be elevated above the ocean as the pod turns 360-degrees on each 15-minute journey. Pleasingly, it’s free, unless you want to book a package (think sunset or sunrise proposals and family celebrations).

Next year’s four other cruise-ship launches promise more innovations including, on Tui’s Mein Schiff 3, its own acoustically engineered concert auditorium designed in co-operation with some of the worlds revered opera houses. Earlier this year Princess Cruises was the first to launch a ship with a cantilevered walkway extending over the sea so that passengers can see the ocean beneath their feet.

Back on Quantum, adrenalin-seekers will also find their fix in Ripcord, a simulated skydiving attraction that keeps passengers floating and spinning above a wind tunnel over one of the ship’s top decks and younger passengers will be able to ride the first bumper cars at sea in the SeaPlex facility, which also features a full-size basketball court and a flying trapeze.

Part of Royal Caribbean’s Quantum class of cruising, this ship is also the first ship to offer guests virtual balconies – every stateroom on board will have a wall-length “real-time” view.

Quantum of the Seas will sail out of the New York Harbour from its home port of Cape Liberty on 7- to 12-night itineraries during the winter 2014/15 season. An eight-night westbound transatlantic cruise, departing from Southampton on November 2 2014 and arriving in Cape Liberty on November 10, costs from £785 per person including accommodation, most meals and some beverages and most onboard entertainment.