Royal Caribbean to homeport Oasis of the Seas in New York for 2020

Royal Caribbean has announced plans to homeport one of the largest cruise ships in the world, Oasis of the Seas, in New York from May to August, 2020.

Oasis of the Seas, which is actually the third-largest cruise ship in the world (by a margin of just a few hundred gross tons) will cruise roundtrip out of New York City following her multimillion-dollar “Royal Amplified” refurbishment.

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The refurbishment will see several new recreational, dining and entertainment features debut aboard the ship as part of the cruise line’s US $900-million update to 10 vessels in the fleet.

The refresh to the almost 10-year-old ship will see her brought up to par with the newer Symphony of the Seas.

Oasis of the Seas will be joined sailing roundtrip from Cape Liberty Terminal by Adventure of the Seas in summer 2020, while Vision of the Seas will continue to offer cruises in the fall.

The cruise itineraries for Oasis of the Seas will be 7-night voyages to the Bahamas and shorter cruises to Canada and New England.

Adventure of the Seas, which previously homeported in Cape Liberty, will operate five- and nine-night itineraries to Bermuda, Canada and New England, the Bahamas and Caribbean, between summer and fall 2020.

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The redeployments come as Royal Caribbean plans to pull Anthem of the Seas out of New York and homeport her in Southampton instead.

Oasis of the Seas will be the largest cruise ship cruising roundtrip out of New York, closely followed by Norwegian Encore, which Norwegian Cruise Line said earlier this year would reposition to the city for its 2019/2020 winter season.

Carnival Cruise Line is also homeporting in New York in 2020 with Carnival Sunrise (currently operating as Carnival Triumph) and Carnival Radiance (currently operating as Carnival Victory).

Cape Liberty is one of three passenger ship terminals in New York. The Brooklyn Cruise Terminal and Manhatten Cruise Terminal are both in New York itself, while Cape Liberty is on the New Jersey side of Upper Bay.

Oasis of the Seas, like her sister ships Allure of the Seas and Symphony of the Seas, is 72-metres high from the waterline, while the height beneath the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge at high tide is 69.5-metres.

She’ll therefore only be able to enter and exit port in New York during low tide.

This is fairly common in ports such as Vancouver, New York and Sydney, where ever-larger cruise ships are required to sail under bridges built decades ago, when the largest cruise ships were much smaller than they are now.