Royal Caribbean has ordered a new Oasis-class ship, which will be the sixth in the series, and the largest cruise ship in the world by gross tonnage when it is delivered in 2023.
“It is such a pleasure to announce the order of another Oasis-class ship,” said Richard D. Fain, Chairman and CEO, Royal Caribbean Cruises in a statement.
The Oasis class ships are the largest in the world and defined by their open-air central promenades with 7 distinct ‘neighbourhoods’
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While Airbus this week announced that it was ending production of the world’s largest passenger plane, the A380, Royal Caribbean said that it’s Oasis-class, the largest passenger ships ever built, were proving exceptionally successful.
“This order is a reflection of the exceptional performance of this vessel class and the extraordinary partnership between Chantiers de l’Atlantique and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd,” said Fain, referring to the parent company of Royal Caribbean International, which will operate the ship.
The as-yet-unnamed cruise ship will be the sixth in the Oasis series, and the largest in the world by gross tonnage. While the newest Oasis-class ship Symphony of the Seas is 228,081-gross tons, the new ship will be 231,000-gross tons.
She’ll also have more staterooms and carry more passengers, 5,714 at double occupancy compared to Symphony of the Seas’ capacity of 5,518 passengers. Her final capacity may be more depending on the number of third and fourth pullman berths added in staterooms.
The new ship, like Symphony of the Seas and the unnamed fifth Oasis-class ship due in 2021, will be built at the French shipyard Chantiers de l’Atlantique.
The new ship, the sixth in the Oasis class, will be even larger than Symphony of the Seas, currently the largest cruise ship ever built
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The first two Oasis-class ships Oasis of the Seas (2009) and Allure of the Seas (2010) were both built at STX Europe Turku Shipyard, while Harmony of the Seas (2016) was built by STX France.
“This is the twenty-third cruise ship that Royal Caribbean Cruises will be building at our shipyard, and we are especially proud of it,” said Laurent Castaing, General Manager, Chantiers de l’Atlantique.
“The order reflects the confidence our customer puts on us, based on the exceptional quality of our long-term co-operation between the two companies and on our capacity to bring innovative solutions to meet our customer’s expectations,” he added.
Royal Caribbean’s order for the sixth Oasis-class ship is contingent upon financing, which will likely be completed in the second half of 2019, the cruise line said in a release.
Each Oasis-class ship since Oasis of the Seas was launched back in 2009 has gotten incrementally larger. While this sixth ship will be 231,000-gross tons, Oasis of the Seas is 225,282-gross tons – which still makes her a full 40,000+ gross tons larger than the next largest cruise ship (AIDAnova).
To put that in perspective, the difference in size is around the same as the total gross tonnage of Royal Caribbean’s smallest cruise ship Empress of the Seas.
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