Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas, has become the world's biggest cruise ship after it measured 5 millimetres more than its sister ship, Oasis of the Seas.The $1.48 billion ship is 360 metres long, weighs 225,000 gross tonnes and can carry 8565 passengers and crew on 16 decks totalling 25 hectares.It also includes 21 swimming pools, 24 restaurants, a floating park with 12,000 plants and a 1300-seat theatre."That's enough for me," The Sydney Morning Herald quoted Argentinean captain of Allure, Hernan Zini, during a tour at shipbuilder STX Europe's shipyard in Turku, Finland, as saying. "I'm happy to claim it. It gives us a point of difference," he stated about the size.Royal Caribbean is optimistic about finding the 300,000 passengers a year needed to fill Allure's 2700 staterooms. The ship's most expensive accommodation, the Royal Loft Suite, costs $11,296 a person for a seven-night cruise and is already booked out until 2012. An inside room costs from $907 a person for the cruise.Allure's deck space has been divided into seven entertainment zones, known as "neighbourhoods". Passengers can surf on two wave-riding machines 65 metres above sea level in the water park, ride the carousel and eat hot dogs along the Coney Island-themed boardwalk, or escape to the adults-only deck. The nightclub, jazz and comedy clubs have all been replicated on Allure, as has the ice rink, shopping promenade and theatre, which has the multimillion-dollar Broadway production of Chicago.

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