Royal Caribbean Line's Oasis of the Seas will set sail this weekend for a 2-day out of Ft. Lauderdale on a cruise for the folks in the travel industry. My travel agent will be aboard I'll let you in on all the gory details when she gets back.
Leaving the yard in Finland
Inside Oasis
Word is, her maiden voyage is not yet sold out, rare for the cruise industry (and there is a sister on the way). I guess it's something to experience but you won't catch me dead on that big thing. As I wrote at Worlds:
I can't see it ...
But if it's your thing, have at it. Far be it for me to pee on anybody's sunshine, but sharing a ship with 5,400 other passengers ain't for me:
...
Cunard Line's Queen Mary 2 (150,000 dwt)is about the biggest I'll go and she carries about half the passengers Oasis does. It's one of the reasons we love Holland America Line's Prinsendam (38,000 dwt) so much. She's like a big yacht and carries less than a thousand vacationers aboard. To me, the less passengers I have to deal with, the better.
Don't get me wrong, she's a fine piece of engineering, but it reminds me too much of Las Vegas. If I want Vegas, I'll go to Vegas. With all that crap on the ship, why would you want to go ashore?
Part of the reason we go cruising is to be aboard ships that convey the tradition and romance of the heyday of ship travel, when the only way to cross the oceans was aboard a liner. There's something to be said about walking through the Gallery aboard Queen Mary 2 and seeing those who've contributed to Cunard's storied history, and to feel a part of it.
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