Photos: Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd
The headline of last year’s New
York Times’ Cruise Issue declared:
On the World’s Largest Cruise Ship,
the Sea Is an Afterthought. The
writer Toni Schlesinger goes on to
pop the question: When did ships
become less about the water on
which they sail and more about the
land they have left behind? The
reason for wondering is the sheer
size of the Oasis twins in general,
and the size of Allure of the Seas in
particular (because that is the ship
she happens to be on).
S
chlesinger comments that she “entirely forgot” she was at sea during a sev-
en-day cruise of the western Caribbean.
The world’s largest cruise ship, with a price
tag of almost billion euros each, can do
that to you.
Oasis-class allows you to get lost in
a “strange, wondrous, digital world of
lights and colors that is not unlike the highpitched energy of Manhattan or any world
city”. It’s the most recent, boldest move in
a long serious of industry can-you-top-this
signature ships – and we haven’t even begun to understand its true significance yet.
REDEFINING THE INDUSTRY
Not that the beginnings were that meager or modest either. After all, the original name of the Oasis class was Genesis
– signifying a kick-off of Biblical propor-
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