MIAMI (02/24/03) - Carnival Cruise Lines' newest "Fun Ship," Carnival Glory, takes colors as its central design theme, with each public room celebrating a different shade of the rainbow. The 110,000-ton, 2,974-passenger Conquest-class ship is slated to debut July 19, 2003, from Port Canaveral, Fla.

"The central idea of colors is fundamentally felt by people," explained Carnival's interior architect Joe Farcus. "All of the public rooms center around the idea of color, which is reflected in the name and the décor, and the overall effect will be spectacular in a quiet, unassuming way."

The kaleidoscope of colors begins in The Colors lobby, where one finds the Color Bar and the main atrium, named Old Glory, featuring interpretative paintings of U.S. flags.

Enhancing the ship's Kaleidoscope Boulevard promenade, as well as the atrium, are one-square-meter polished aluminum light fixtures faced with white glass. Each fixture is subdivided into geometric modules that are backlit with strips of red, blue and yellow LED lights. The result is thousands of different tones in slow-moving kaleidoscopic effects that offer a sense of motion as the lights modulate between colors.

The Colors Atrium alone houses some 70 of the lighting modules, but more spectacular is the way the kaleidoscope concept is presented on the towering atrium wall. The wall itself is silver with an array of light projectors mounted on the opposite wall that illuminate abstract shapes. With approximately 20 stage lights shining on the surface in constant motion, Farcus said the effect creates "a giant, constantly evolving abstract painting that never repeats a pattern."

Carnival Glory's main show lounge is the Amber Palace, named after Russia's famous Amber Room, a gift by Frederick the First of Prussia to Peter the Great in 1715. For Glory's Amber Palace, Farcus chose mosaics of amber for the walls along with design touches that include fancy rococo moldings, gold leaf columns with female figures, candelabra, cornices and a "double eagle" image of Russian lore, and paintings of famous Russian czars and czarinas.

The famed Silver Temple and Golden Temple in Kyoto, Japan, are the inspiration for the Platinum and Golden Dining Rooms. The restaurants employ a distinctive decagon-shaped window frame, while LED lights in V-shaped concave ceiling fixtures provide color-changing effects similar to those in the atrium and promenade. Wall coverings feature a pattern of traditional Japanese bonsai peony trees and flowers painted on silver- or gold-leafed backgrounds.

The Camel Club Casino features an Egyptian motif - not ancient Egypt, but the era of exploration when Napoleon Bonaparte invaded the country. Life-sized kneeling camels greet visitors at entrances, and sandstone-like friezes of camel heads are found on the ceiling and slot bases. Statues of the jackal-faced god Anubus, papyrus-like columns, and Middle Eastern tent-style ceilings add to the atmosphere.

The design of the White Heat Dance Club is "Liberace-like," according to Farcus, in the form of candles - gigantic white candles 12 to 18 inches in diameter in silver candelabra bases ranging from two to five feet tall. The candles' "flames" are clusters of fiber-optic lights, and scattered around the room are smaller candles on silver trays. Carnival's trademark "video wall" displaying live shots from the dance floor and special effects is also featured.

One deck below the disco is the Ivory Club, featuring an Indian theme set off with elephant tusk replicas, intricate wall coverings with spindles and ivory-like squares, windows inset with mosaics of faux semi-precious stones, and a wood-paneled ceiling with embossed brass beams. The bar front sports elephant faces in bas-relief, and the barstools and table bases replicate elephant feet.

Cinn-A-Bar, Carnival Glory's piano bar, offers a contemporary look in stylish reddish-brown hues. Panel-like columns - flat on the sides and concave on the face - curve up to a chrome band that extends from the top of the column in waves and connects the columns across the room. Walls are of curved aluminum with wavy streaks and anodized in cinnabar color.

Bar Blue is, appropriately, the ship's jazz bar. The main features of the walls are giant peacock feathers that extend from the floor almost to the ceiling. The "eye" of the feather is glazed with colored glass backlit with a soft incandescent light. The peacock feather motif is also found in the Tiffany-style glass ceiling and on the parquet dance floor.

The Ebony Cabaret has an African atmosphere, with dark ebony walls and ceilings, and hand-carved and painted authentic wooden African masks mounted in copper-like frames. Table bases and barstools are in the shape of carved wooden heads, and tabletops feature batik fabric laminated under a clear finish. There is also an elaborate mirrored geometric design over the dance floor.

The Black & White Library features three-foot checkerboard wood squares in alternating black and white patterns and medium-tone wood bookcases. Framed on the walls are the front pages of famous newspaper headlines. Black-and-white ceiling panels and light fixtures continue the theme. Wood-louvered shutters cover the windows.

The Red Sail Restaurant, a casual poolside eatery, offers a sailboat motif with highly varnished pine masts, sails, chrome hardware and light fixtures and a wood-beam ceiling. Teak railing, false portholes, stainless steel stanchions and large half-sailboat models carry on the theme, and vitrines located throughout the room contain small sailboat models under glass.

Carnival Glory's reservations-only supper club, the Emerald Room, features shiny, cobalt-blue walls and lighting fixtures resembling giant emeralds, which also are found in the ceiling and in a continuous cove molding around the room. A huge medallion on the wall is made up of hundreds of these light fixtures, creating a single massive emerald.

On the Green, the sports bar, celebrates the centuries-old game of golf, with vitrines containing clubs and other memorabilia from the sport's legends. Each vitrine is topped by a stained-glass golf hole flag, which also adorns the plush leather sofas surrounding the room. Walls feature murals of famous golf courses, and barstools and table bases are half-golf balls on tees. Fabrics are Tartan green plaid, paying homage to golf's Scottish origins.

Beginning July 19, 2003, Carnival Glory will operate year-round seven-day sailings from Port Canaveral, with alternating eastern and western Caribbean voyages departing every Saturday. Eastern Caribbean cruises will call at Nassau, St. Thomas/St. John, and St. Maarten, while western Caribbean voyages will include Key West, Fla.; Belize City, Belize; and Cozumel and Progreso/Merida, Mexico.

For additional information and reservations, contact any travel agent, call 1-800-CARNIVAL or visit www.carnival.com.

Dateline: February 24, 2003