For those of you that love the pool experience while at sea, Royal Caribbean has the ULTIMATE in store for you on their new Oasis of the Seas Cruise Ship.

Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas will have its very own beach pool that recreates the vibe of a shoreside resort, very similar to the likes of what you could find at resorts like Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.

oasis of the seas beach pool

Be sure to check out the Oasis Of the Seas Criuse offer on the Westside International Travel group pages to book one of the first sailings on this incredible ship!

This new outdoor area will include colorful beach chairs and a pool with a sloped entry where cruisers will be able to wade into rolling water (as seen in the illustration above).

The beach pool will be part of what Royal Caribbean is calling the Pool and Sports Zone with more than half a dozen whirlpools, private cabanas and two state-of-the-art FlowRider surfing simulators.

The Pool and Sports Zone is just one of two distinct neighborhoods that Royal Caribbean is announcing tonight for the 220,000-ton vessel — the largest cruise ship ever built.  Check out last week’s post to see an informational post & video about the Oasis of the seas. The other neighborhood, dubbed the Vitality at Sea Spa and Fitness Center, will offer a wide range of pampering spa treatments and fitness activities (see the illustration of the area’s entrance at right).

Royal Caribbean already has also announced a few other neighborhoods for the Oasis of the Seas, which will likely be debuting in December of 2009. The otherneighborhoods are the Central Park which is an open-air atrium with live trees and outdoor restaurants. Another is the Boardwalk neighborhood, a family-friendly amusement area with a merry-go-round and outdoor water theater. And another is the Royal Promenade which is an indoor mall-like zone with bars, eateries and shops. Royal Caribbean says the ship will have seven neighborhoods in all.

More About the beach pool…

The Oasis of the Seas Beach Pool will be atop the ship on one side of Central Park (people on the pool deck will be able to look down into the massive park-like area). Another pool area, called the Oasis of the Seas Main Pool will be on the other side of Central Park. The Pool and Sports Zone also will have a Sports Pool and one of Royal Caribbean’s signature H2O Zone pool play areas. Check out the pool image below which is a predicted aerial shot of some of these exclusive pool areas.

oasis pool sports zone

The Oasis of the Seas spa will offer new spa treatments not before found on Royal Caribbean ships and other new-for-Royal Carribbean options such as Kinesis group classes. The spa area also will have a Thermal Suite at sea with heated tile loungers, saunas and steam rooms; three couples massage suites and seven individual treatment rooms – the largest collection at sea. Kids and teen passengers will also be able to find their own dedicated spa on the ship, an exclusive feature of the Oasis of the Seas.

Royal also says the Oasis of the Seas will have an adults only Solarium that will have another pool and six whirlpools.

Westside International Travel is in the middle of putting together a brand new group rate for the Oasis of the Seas. Since production is still in action, now is the time to reserve your spot on one of the first sailings of this magnificent ship. The Westside International Travel group page for the cruise from March 6-13 has a great video on it and they will likely be putting together a few more groups soon.

Here are some impressive images of the Royal Caribbean Oasis of the Seas in production:

Oasis of the Seas In Production

Central Park on the Oasis of the Seas

AquaTheater on Oasis of the Seas - The First Amphitheater at Sea

Boardwalk retail stores and the Carousel on Oasis of the Seas

Be sure to check out the rest of the Oasis of the Seas photos on Royal Caribbean’s site Here.

Royal Caribbean couldn’t wait three years for their new ships to be built to fill the demand for cruises, so they expanded instead. What a green friendly way of doing it! The ship named Enchantment of the Seas was cut into two pieces and pulled apart. Check out the pictures to prove it:

royal ship 1

royal ship 2

royal ship put together

The ship now has the capacity for 300 additional vacationers. Here are the details for how the work went down…….

Initially, the construction crew used circular saws and torches to cut the ship at the middle. They cut through everything – the outer hull that was made from steel, the watertight inner hull, cables, pipes, even ventilation system. The swimming pool on the ship’s top deck was also cut. The whole cutting process took 2 days, and after it was finished, a narrow line of light could be seen traveling from the top of the ship all the way to the bottom.

After that, the construction crew moved the two halves of the ship away from each other, and positioned a huge 73 foot, 2,500 ton section (which contained 151 furnished rooms) between them. Then came the final part – reattaching cables, pipes and everything else – a process that took two weeks.

The enlargement of the cruise ship took about one month, during which the ship grew from 916 feet to 990 feet. This process, which took place on a shipyard called Keppel Verlome in Rotterdam, Netherlands, cost about $60 million, just a fraction of the cost it takes to build a new ship. Now the ship – Enchantment of the Seas – is able to enchant 300 more vacationers on each of its trips.

Source: neatorama.com, wtfurls.com

Royal Caribbean International is a Norwegian / American cruise line company based in Miami, Florida. It is a brand of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., with 21 ships in service and two under construction. All the ships have names ending in “of the Seas.” Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. also operates Celebrity Cruises, Pullmantur Cruises, Azamara Cruises and has a stake in Island Cruises.

Royal Caribbean Brand & History in Detail…

Royal Caribbean Cruise Line was founded in 1968 by Anders Wilhelmsen & Company, I.M. Skaugen & Company, and Gotaas Larsen, Norwegian shipping companies. The newly created line put its first ship, the Song of Norway, into service two years later. The next year, the line’s capacity was doubled with the addition of the Nordic Prince to the fleet. Continuing to expand, the line added the Sun Viking in 1972. After four years of successful operation, Royal Caribbean’s Song of Norway became their first passenger ship to be lengthened. This was accomplished via the insertion of an 85-foot (26 m) section to the vessel’s severed center. Following the success of this procedure, Nordic Prince was stretched in 1980. Royal Caribbean finally received widespread global recognition when in 1982 it launched the Song of America, over twice the size of Sun Viking and at the time the third largest passenger vessel afloat (after the Norway and the Queen Elizabeth 2)

Royal Caribbean innovated once again with its 1986 purchase of a coastal property in Haiti for use as a private destination for its guests. This destination is now called Labadee. After a corporate restructuring in 1988, the line launched Sovereign of the Seas, the largest passenger vessel afloat at the time. Two years later, Nordic Empress and Viking Serenade entered service for the line, continuing a rapid growth trend within the company. In the same year Royal Caribbean purchased its second private destination, Little Stirrup Cay, an island in the Bahamas, which they rechristened “Coco Cay”.

Monarch of the Seas, the second ship of the Sovereign class, entered service the next year. The third ship of the Sovereign class, Majesty of the Seas, was delivered one year later. With a large passenger capacity and a growing market share, Royal Caribbean finally went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 1993. Over the next two years the company experienced extreme growth. A new corporate headquarters in Miami, Florida was completed, and the Nordic Prince replaced by a new vessel, the Legend of the Seas.

The next year brought more growth. Two more Vision class vessels entered service, the Splendour of the Seas and Grandeur of the Seas. Also in 1996, the company finalized its contracts for 130,000 ton vessels with Aker Finnyards in Finland. The trend of growth and change continued into 1997. The line’s oldest ship, Song of Norway, was sold, and two new Vision-class ships entered service as Rhapsody of the Seas and Enchantment of the Seas. The company also merged with the Greek cruise line Celebrity Cruises and changed its name from “Royal Caribbean Cruise Line” to “Royal Caribbean International”. The next year marked a transition to a more “strictly modern line”, when the last of the company’s older vessels, Song of America and Sun Viking, were retired. In 1998, Vision of the Seas came into service, the last of the Vision Class Ships. In 2004, Royal Caribbean made history again with the massive refurbishment of Enchantment of the Seas, cutting the ship in half and adding a 74-foot (23 m) midsection. Grandeur of the Seas is rumored to be the next to have the massive refurbishment sometime in early 2008.

In 1999 the Voyager of the Seas, the line’s newest and world’s largest cruise ship entered service with much attention from the news media. The next two years saw the delivery of Voyager’s sister ship, Explorer of the Seas, and the first of a new class of more environmentally friendly cruise liners, Radiance of the Seas, as well as the introduction of Royal Caribbean’s “cruise tours Alaska”, featuring glass-domed train cars to scenic destinations within the state and Canada. The year 2000 saw the formation of a joint venture with British First Choice Holidays to form a joint venture for the informal British and Brazilian markets, Island Cruises. During Adventure of the Seas’s christening ceremony in November 2001, Royal Caribbean made a $50,000 contribution to the Twin Towers Relief fund.

2002 saw the debut of the Navigator of the Seas, as well as the Brilliance of the Seas, the second ship of the Radiance class. Serenade of the Seas and Mariner of the Seas were introduced the next year, and rock-climbing walls were made a feature of every Royal Caribbean ship. Jewel of the Seas followed in 2004, and the line’s ship Nordic Empress was refurbished and re-christened as Empress of the Seas. Construction commenced on Freedom of the Seas, the line’s newest ship, at Aker Finnyards in 2005 and the vessel launched the next year as the largest passenger vessel in the world. Freedom of the Seas’ sister ship, Liberty of the Seas, was launched in 2007, and Independence of the Seas was delivered in 2008. An even larger class, the Oasis Class, featuring the Oasis of the Seas and Allure of the Seas will be launched in 2009 and 2010, guaranteeing Royal Caribbean the ship size lead for years to come.

In November 2006, Royal Caribbean finalized the purchase of Pullmantur Cruises in Madrid, Spain. Onwards from that point the company expanded radically with the creation of new cruise lines. Azamara Cruises was created in May 2007 as a subsdiary of Celebrity Cruises. In September 2007 Royal Caribbean unveiled plans for a new cruise line, Croisières de France, aimed at French-language customers. The new company will start operations in Spring 2008, initially with one ship, the Bleu de France, which currently sails for Pullmantur Cruises as the Holiday Dream. Just two months later Royal Caribbean announced plans for yet another new cruise line, this time aimed at a German-speaking audience in collaboration with TUI AG. This brand will be called TUI Cruises and begins operations in 2009 with one ship transferred from an existing Royal Caribbean brand, with two newbuildings following in 2011 and 2012. TUI and Royal Caribbean already collaborate in the British market, as TUI AG acquired the majority of First Choice Holidays in 2007, hence gaining control of 50 % of the Island Cruises brand.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/