Oasis of the Seas takes to the water

Royal Caribbean Oasis of the Seas - Takes to the water

The Oasis of the Seas is being built for Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines. As the ultimate luxury leviathan is more than two-thirds complete and on schedule, she will be handed over in 12 months time.

The sight and size of Oasis of the Seas alone is breathtaking, but as RRCL’s Chairman Richard Fain put it “We are today witnessing a historical moment in maritime history.” Normally, the American tendency to use superlatives is hyperbole, but not this time as this cruise ship is a logbook of record breakers at sea too. For example, at 360 metres she is 40 metres longer than the Eiffel Tower and weighs 12 times more. She will also have the first carousel and transcending bar aboard.

Appropriately, her annual power output of nearly 100MW is equal to that of her birthplace, the city of Turku, which has a population of 175,000. Fully loaded, the ship can have 8,460 aboard with a maximum of 6,300 passengers having a choice of 27 cabin types ranging in size from 27 to a 156-square metre split-level loft stateroom complete with a grand piano. Once aboard, guests have a dazzling – some may say even kitschy – array of dining, entertainment, sports and shopping options to enjoy.

Design-wise Oasis of the Seas has broken new ground too with an open air area between two accommodation blocks down the aft two-thirds that allows “neighbourhood-themed” areas to be erected. This giantess has all the accoutrements of a small floating town with arcades and even an open-air park with trees tended by a full-time gardener.

Environmental awareness has led to a 15% to 25% cut in carbon and energy footprints compared to her predecessors, while to ensure passenger safety the world’s largest lifeboats, which are 17 metres long and capable of holding 370 people, are installed just in case.

“The world’s largest cruise vessels need carefully planned and researched solutions,” says Oasis-class Project Manager Toivo Ilvonen. “The examples of the architects’ imagination we see today are their answers to the challenges put to shipbuilders where safety is always the number one priority.”

And Finnish input is not just restricted to the ship’s creation: RRCL’s newbuild and fleet design executive vice president is Harri Kulovaara, a Finn who was recruited in 1995 from Silja Line. However, as Oasis took to the water there are plenty of ship blocks scattered around the yard. They are those of her sister-to-be, Allure of the Seas, which will begin construction once the dry-dock has been emptied.