Why "turnaround day" is the largest weekly challenge for the Crew of the Oasis of the Seas

Jason · July 2, 2012

A new Discovery Channel segment details the innermost workings of the Oasis of the Seas, the largest cruise ship in the world, and provides a behind-the-scenes look into the incredible logistics involved in ending one cruise and beginning the next....all in one day. Here are some interesting highlights:

The Crew's greatest challenge every week is "turnaround day," when the ship returns to Fort Lauderdale to debark the prior week's passengers and embark the next week's - All within 12 hours. Here are the deadlines on "turnaround day:"

5 am - The ship docks and must be ready to sail again within just 12 hours

6 am - Luggage unloaded

10 am - All passengers off

11 am - Boarding of new passengers

1 pm - All staterooms clean

4 pm - Last call for passengers and the terminal doors are locked

Getting all those passengers onboard through a single entrance is like coordinating the check-in process for an Inernational airline flight of ten 747 airliners all leaving at the same time.

At the beginning of each cruise, hundreds of new passengers will arrive at the Port Everglades embarkation terminal in Fort Lauderdale, Florida without the proper documents required for boarding.

Some passengers accidentally pack their required embarkation documents (passports, photo id's) into their luggage. When this happens, employees must track down the luggage and return to the terminal.

The Embarkation staff makes every attempt to help resolve all documentation issues, with the goal of having every passenger depart as scheduled. However by 4pm if unresolved, the passengers are denied boarding.

An example of required documentation often overlooked, is written parental / guardian approval for children to leave the country if they are sailing with anyone other than parents or legal guardians.

Before the ship leaves port at it's scheduled departure time of 4pm, the APIS (Advanced Passenger Information System) which contains a list of all passengers, must be submitted to Customs and Immigration. If the APIS is not submitted by the 4pm deadline, the ship misses it's time slot and will be delayed in departing.

Bet you didn't know all of this, did you??

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hazelson · July 3, 2012

Makes me tired just reading about it!

WeCruiseToo · July 3, 2012

We haven’t sailed Oasis yet but we did cruise aboard Allure of the Seas and it was one of the smoothest, easiest embarkations we’ve ever had!

bloom9 · July 3, 2012

Having sailed on Allure twice I can say they have it down to a science, smoothest embarkation ever! Mariner out of Port Canaveral was the worst. Did the all access tour on Allure in January its a well run operation especially with the number of people they deal with every week.