Royal Caribbean's record-setting Oasis of the Seas even bigger than expected

mercedes · October 28, 2009

On Wednesday Royal Caribbean officially takes delivery of the 5,400-passenger Oasis of the Seas, the world's largest cruise ship, at a shipyard in Turku, Finland. But now comes word the 225,000-ton vessel has actually grown, kind of.

On his blog, Royal Caribbean Chairman Richard Fain says the STX shipyard actually delivered and installed four more passenger cabins than expected on the ship. The contract with the yard apparently called for 2,700 cabins and a bonus if there were any extras. Extras were found (the cabins are built prefab).

A spokeswoman said the official numbers for the ship would remain the same, but the extra cabins will be put into use as needed – for instance, if another cabin needs to go out of service due to a technical issue. Otherwise, she said the extra cabins would likely be used for storage.

"I guess we lucked out," she said, while also expressing surprise at the addition.

Meanwhile, the mammoth and highly anticipated ship welcomed its first guests yesterday – 1,000 shipyard workers and their families.

Fain, who has been in Turku, Finland since Sunday, has been downright giddy on his blog, having fun with the fact those at the shipyard are scurrying to get everything on the ship ready. On arrival at the shipyard he joked, "It will never be ready in time for delivery (just kidding)." Announcing the first guests yesterday, he used the headline "It Lives."

On another blog post he reports, "The crew are all smiling. It is clear that they knew they are going to see something special but that even they were impressed." And he adds, "the hype was justified."

Fain mentions one little "disappointment." The designers had hoped to use the original logo of the Sovereign of the Seas above the pool in the Oasis's AquaTheater (where divers will perform). But the old logo was too big and too worn, so a smaller version was replicated.

He waxes poetic about the children's program on the ship, and says it will not only be the best at sea, but "as good as or better than anything you will find on land."

And he details a cool new way the crew will let passengers know which deck the gangway is on (since this varies by port). There will be a button on the Oasis's elevators marked "Gangway" that will be set to the appropriate deck. Fain says it's so simple he wonders why no one has thought of that before.

The spokeswoman said changes at the shipyard today were happening "by the hour," as the scramble to finish by tomorrow continues. "It's quite a zoo," she added.