Billion dollar baby takes shape

//Billion dollar baby takes shape

Royal Caribbean chairman Richard Fain has been back to the Finnish shipyard which is building his new billion dollar baby, Oasis of the Seas, and returned with some impressive pictures of the work going on to complete the biggest cruise ship in the world.
The ship, which will carry 5,400 passengers and more, is scheduled to make her debut in Fort Lauderdale at the end of November, and will be sailing regular voyages to the Caribbean, where new piers and terminals are being built to accommodate the giant.
So huge is the vessel that without special measures, Richard explains it would be too tall to squeeze under bridges like the Golden Gate. That in itself is not much of a problem, because as far as I know, Oasis is not scheduled to sail into San Francisco . . . but she will have to negotiate the Great Belt bridge between the Danish islands of Zealand and Funen in order to travel from Finland to Florida, so her twin funnels are designed to retract – as in this picture (below).
oasisfunnels.jpgLike her smaller sisters in the Freedom and Voyager classes, Oasis has a three-deck high promenade lined with shops and bars inside the ship. What makes Oasis different is the fact that the street has giant glass skylights open to the Central Park above, clearly visible above the construction work in this picture.
oasisprom.jpgFinally for now, a view of the ship’s theatre, which like everything else about the ship, will be massive. Even more impressive in my view will be the giant open-air aqua theatre at the stern. Perhaps it was too cold in Turku for Richard to grab pictures of that on this visit.
oasistheatre.jpgFor more of Richard’s pictures, take a look at his Chairman’s blog.

By | 2017-06-15T16:00:39+00:00 24 August 2009|Cruise Ships|1 Comment

About the Author:

John Honeywell is a travel writer specialising in cruise ships and cruise travel. Winner of CLIA UK's Contribution to Cruise award 2017.

One Comment

  1. Patrick Teeling 25 August 2009 at 3:34 pm - Reply

    There has been a lot of marketing for this ship in Texas, and from what I gather from my tour agent, the demand will far exceed the ship’s capacity. I can hardly wait to sail Oasis next year! Cap’n Greybeard, you forgot the “neighborhoods”, the carousel, the parks and trees, and the extensive number of restaurants! As noted, I can hardly wait….

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