Odyssey of the Seas gets her Azipods as Meyer-Werft returns to work

Royal Caribbean’s new Quantum Ultra-class cruise ship, Odyssey of the Seas, had her multidirectional Azipods installed this week at the Meyer-Werft shipyard.

The pods will be the ship’s primary propulsion, with each producing 41 megawatts of power, giving the 169,300-gross ton cruise ship a top speed of 22-knots. They were installed after Meyer-Werft eased COVID-19 restrictions.

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The pods will be supplied with power by the ship’s main generators, producing 67,000 kilowatts for her more than 4,000 passengers, and several dozen restaurants, cafes, bars and attractions.

The Azipods were installed at Meyer-Werft’s shipyard in Papenburg, Germany, where the massive ship is being built. They can be rotated 360 degrees, providing the ship maximum maneuverability in smaller cruise ports where ships this size would otherwise struggle.

For this reason, they have become the standard form of propulsion for all of Royal Caribbean’s new cruise ships in recent years, as well as most new cruise ships generally.

Odyssey of the Seas will be Royal Caribbean’s second Quantum Ultra Class ship (a sister ship to Spectrum of the Seas), and is scheduled to debut in November 2020 when she sails out of Port Everglades, Florida.

Royal Caribbean have said Odyssey of the Seas will have the most action-packed top deck of any Quantum Ultra Class ship to date with the popular RipCord by iFLY skydiving simulator, the Sky Pad (new to the Quantum Ultra-class), the new-to-Odyssey glow-in-the-dark laser tag game Clash for the Crystal City, and more.

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There’ll also be a 40-foot rock wall up here, and the SkyPad bungee trampoline experience will transports travelers to another time, place or planet using a VR headset.

The ship will have a two-level pool deck with resort-style pools and four whirlpools, surrounded by plenty of shady casitas and hammocks. Nearby, The Lime & Coconut serves up two stories of prime pool-front views.

There’ll also be a collection of several dozen restaurants from steakhouses and New York-style pizzerias to Mexican and Italian cuisine for passengers to enjoy as she cruises the islands of the Caribbean and idyllic coasts of the eastern Mediterranean.

Entertainment across the ship will be punctuated by high-tech signature productions in the Royal Theater and Two70, where art and multimedia merge for immersive performances new to the line and exclusive to Odyssey of the Seas.

For more on Odyssey of the Seas and the experiences to be had on-board, check out our full preview here.