Oasis' size limits its itinerary. It will stop initially at the Caribbean ports of St. Maarten and St. Thomas and the Bahamian capital of Nassau, a week-long voyage that will later alternate with western Caribbean sailings.
Those ports dredged and deepened their approaches and built new docks to accommodate Oasis, while Port Everglades built a whole new terminal to handle the crowd of passengers who will leave the ship as a new horde embarks.
The mega-ship has its detractors. Travel writer Arthur Frommer wrote in his Budget Travel column that it exists to "cater to more of those people who are unable to entertain themselves, those arrested personalities who rely on constant, massive, outside distractions to ward off depression."
Other lines are cheering the Oasis, figuring the publicity bonanza will lift all cruise ships. Boutique lines are pitching their smaller more intimate vessels as the anti-Oasis.
|
At a tenth the size of the Oasis, Silver Spirit offers a private butler in every stateroom and carries 540 passengers.
Fain, meanwhile, is "looking at the forward bookings and smiling" while fending off the inevitable question of whether Royal Caribbean will build a ship even bigger than Oasis.
"I'm not saying it couldn't happen but one would need a reason," he said. "If somebody comes up with an idea that we think would be appealing to our guests, we would certainly look at it."