“The Oasis of the Seas will have such a dramatic impact that she will help more people understand all that cruising has to offer,” said Richard Fain, CEO and chairman of Royal Caribbean Cruises, parent company to Royal Caribbean International. “We are seeing a halo effect on the rest of our fleet,” he added. “We saw it when the Freedom entered service, too.”

The 225,282-ton, 5,400-passenger ship is expected to generate one of the highest returns on investment of any cruise ship when she enters service, according to Fain. “She is so attractive that people will pay more,” he explained, “and she is so efficient that our operating costs will be lower.

“The passenger experience aboard the Oasis of the Seas will be unprecedented, extraordinary and amazing,” said Adam Goldstein, president and CEO of Royal Caribbean International.

“I have high expectations for what the new ships will do for our brand,” Goldstein said. “They are our best expression of what our brand is.

“The strength of the brand has been growing over time,” he added. “The success of our big ships go back to the Voyager class, which helped position the brand more powerfully in consumers’ minds.

In 2010, the Oasis will represent about 10 percent of Royal Caribbean’s capacity, and in 2011 both ships will account for some 20 percent of the brand’s passenger capacity.

Harri Kulovaara, executive vice president of maritime, said the size is a result of responding to guest expectations, and that more “real estate” allows broader product offerings, more energy efficiencies and less environmental impact, and more safety by scale (more space enables more redundancies and better engine rooms, including double hull protection).

The customer base is anyone who takes a land vacation – between the ages of six months and 103, commented Vicki Freed, senior vice president of sales, who also said that the Oasis will have more suites than any other ship, including all-suite luxury ships.

Lisa Bauer, senior vice president of hotel operations, said that the Oasis will have a crew of 2,160 of which 95 percent will come from the line’s other ships. The other 5 percent, she said, are for jobs that did not exist on the other ships, such as landscaper and horticulturist.

Royal Caribbean has grown from its first generation, the 18,000-ton Song of Norway, introduced in 1970, to the 37,600-ton Song of America in 1982; the 73,000-ton Sovereign of the Seas in 1987; the 74,000-ton Grandeur of the Seas in 1996; the 142,000-ton Voyager of the Seas in 1999; the 154,000-ton Freedom of the Seas in 2006; and now the 225,282-ton Oasis of the Seas.

Excerpt from the Cruise Industry News Quarterly Magazine: Fall 2009