Gotta ‘sea’ it to believe it
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The world’s biggest cruise ship is on its maiden voyage from a Finnish shipyard to its Florida home, where its shakedown cruise will be an invitation-only pre-Thanksgiving overnight voyage featuring pop singer Rihanna.
The Oasis of the Seas weighs an astounding 225,282 tons — dwarfing famous ships such as the Titanic, which was 46,000 tons, and the Queen Mary 2, which weighs in at 150,000 tons.
It is so big that it would only make it under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge at low tide, with its funnels retracted.
The ship’s 1,187-foot length — about 140 feet longer than the Chrysler Building is tall — required some of its berths in Caribbean ports to be dredged and rebuilt.
After a naming ceremony on Nov. 30, Oasis embarks on her first official cruise, a four-day trip from Port Everglades to Labadee, Haiti, on Dec. 1.
Per-person prices for Oasis cruises run between $729 and $1,800 a week, although rates can be much higher over holiday periods.
Ultra Luxury Liner
* Room for 6,296 guests and 2,165 crew
* 2,706 staterooms
* 16 passenger decks
* 24 passenger elevators
* Opus Dining Room seats 3,056
* More than two dozen restaurants and bars, including Rising Tide bar, which moves up and down three decks of the ship like an elevator
* Opal Theater seats 2,161 people and will feature performances of “Hairsprayâ€
* Sports facilities include 0.43-mile jogging track, basketball/volleyball court, nine-hole mini-golf course and four swimming pools
*Ice-skating rink seats 780 spectators
admin @ November 1, 2009