Early delivery for Oasis – shake on it

Work on building the world’s biggest cruise ship is racing ahead. Back in December the Finnish shipyard’s 2,300 workers pulled a week ahead of the schedule, despite having to work in temperatures as low as 20 below.
On a visit to Turku this week, Royal Caribbean’s chairman Richard Fain agreed with Martin Landtman, boss of the STX Europe yard, to gain another week on the timetable for Oasis of the Seas.
“Martin and I didn’t think twice about it – no paperwork. We shook hands on it and no legal document is as ironclad,” Richard wrote in his blog.
But none of this apparently makes an Oasis visit to the UK any more likely, and the extra time will be used to bed operations down and carry out crew training.
Come November, the 220,000-ton vessel will sail direct from Finland to Florida, and Thanksgiving weekend will be the first time US travel agents and media will be welcomed aboard the completed ship.
December 1 marks the first scheduled sailing, with 6,300 paying passengers on board. And Independence of the Seas, at a mere 154,000 tons and carrying only 4,000 passengers, will continue to hold the record for the biggest cruise ship to sail from Southampton.