Royal Caribbean’s Got The Horn!

Well I have heard it all now! And no this isn’t a late April Fools.

You may or may not have heard that the chimes of Big Ben are to be silenced over the next 4 years whilst work is carried out on the clock tower for some restoration that needs to be completed. Well it turns out today, and I kid you not, that Royal Caribbean have heard about this and have offered a replacement to the iconic bell chimes in the form of one of their own horns. Yep that’s right, if Royal Caribbean get their way you could be having feelings of being back on your last cruise as you hear the wail of a cruise horn sounding over London on your next visit.

Apparently, they have sent a letter to the speaker of the House of Commons with the below:

“Rather than leave the capital in silence, the Royal Caribbean team have put in a word with our CEO, Ben Bouldin (the other Big Ben), and he would be more than happy to lend you one of our ship’s horns until 2021 to play from Parliament Square. To keep as close as possible to our great traditions, we could specially adapt our horn to strike every hour to the note of E – accompanied by four quarter blasts every 15 minutes.’’

Now I know that Royal Caribbean like to stay ahead of the game and innovate beyond their competitors but I do think that this could be bit far. I am sorry, but the last think that I want to hear is the dulcet tones of a cruise horn sounding (in the note of E – obviously) every 15 minutes. This would not make me happy.
I suppose my saving grace is that I am all the way up in Sunderland and rarely visit our capital (proud northerner that’s been twice) so it won’t really affect me.

What are your thoughts on Royal Caribbean giving Parliament the horn. Would you want to hear the below sounding on your next visit to London?