Island Girl
Start your engines Safari Drivers!
The Oasis of the Seas is coming, and brother, your cab better be in working condition that day.
Today, as I was glancing at our stats I noticed an increase in people searching for ‘oasis of the seas’, ‘largest cruise ship’. Last June we tossed up a quick post about this monster ship with a few pictures. I have more info to share, now, as this ship is on the water, with scheduled trip dates and tickets for sale.
More importantly we know when this giant vessel will be parking at St. Thomas, it’s first Eastern Caribbean port-of-call. Tuesday, December 8. Prices for this trip start at $1299.00 (interior), or $4829.00 (to travel in style) and according to this page that doesn’t include airfare, any excursions…etc. It does, however, get you a place in history. You know, until someone builds a bigger boat (and you know someone will).
A few stats, courtesy of the fabulous Wikipedia:
Price tag: $1.4BILLION. Completed on 10/28/09. Maiden voyage: 12/1/09 (details). Length: 1,181ft. Height: 236ft. Sixteen passenger decks. Speed: 22.6 knots. Crew: 2,165. Capacity: 6,296 possible passengers. There are seven ‘neighbors’, which include countless bars/restaurants, a science lab, tatoo parlor, a spa for teens, a freshwater pool, an outside amphitheater, rock-climbing walls, boutiques and the first living park at sea complete with 56 trees and over 1200 plants. There are 7,000 works of commissioned art, over 3,000 miles of electrical cable, over 5 million pounds of water in 21 swimming pools and jacuzzis and over 110,000 pounds of ice cubes are made each day. Room counts: 496 interior, 254 outside and 1,956 balcony.
I’ve been on one cruise my entire life, around 2005, on a ship that took it’s maiden voyage back in 1986; the Carnival Jubilee. After learning the stats of the Oasis the Jubilee stats make me laugh: Passenger capacity: 1,486. Deck count: 10. Length: 733 feet. Crew count: 670. Total cabins: 743.
A stat they don’t measure? FUN! Which was limitless. 
According to this article in the St. Thomas Source the Oasis will (unfortunately) be docking in Crown Bay on December 8. I say unfortunately, not because of Crown Bay, but because more people would have a chance to view it in Havensight at the WICO dock. That area has to be dredged to accomodate a ship of Oasis’ size, and the goal is for WICO to be ready for the Oasis in the cruise year 2010-2011.
So, safari cab drivers, like I said, make sure your cab is in working order for this momentous day. I figure with a possible passenger capacity of over 6,000, and with most cabs holding roughly 22 people, we’ll need about 270 cabs rides to get everyone out of Crown Bay and over to Magens Beach.
On a related note: Magens Bay bartenders, make sure your blenders are ready. I’m serious.
Unless I’m working on 12/8, I plan to be parked at Tickles restaurant, which overlooks the Crown Bay dock. I’ll have my camera in one hand (and most likely a bloody mary in the other…) to catch this vessel as it slides on in. I wonder how loud the horn is on this sucker.
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November 4, 2009 @ 1:16 pm
Simon Said,
Iseen it on the net…Wow! That thing is huge! Thanks Nicci….