Oasis of the Seas: the Titanic times five
In many ways, a cruise is the ultimate vacation. You get to travel, relax in the sun, watch live shows, dance and drink, all within a few steps of your own room. It’s like Vegas on the high seas. And if cruise ships are like hotel-casinos with rudders, then the MS Oasis of the Seas is like the Bellagio, MGM Grand and Luxor all rolled into one. Weighing over 225,000 tons (it displaces as much water as an aircraft carrier), her majesty is the world’s largest passenger vessel. She has 16 decks, a capacity of 6,300 and cost over $1 billion to forge. She is Finland’s largest export, ever.
As the crown jewel of Royal Caribbean International, her name was the result of a competition held last year. The lucky winner (who received quite the complimentary cruise package) successfully caught on to the cruising industry’s penchant for naming its boats after the royally superlative. The fleet for Carnival Cruises, for example, includes Liberty, Conquest, Freedom, Glory, Miracle and Splendor—names with high aspirations.
And it makes sense when you consider the vacations they’re offering. Nowhere else can you find an escape from the real world without ever actually leaving the better comforts of the real world behind. Cruise ships are designed to resemble floating palaces — grand ballrooms, swimming pools, hundreds of waiting attendants — and we are the kings and queens. More often than not, nowadays, the ship is the destination. And the tours don’t exactly encourage otherwise. Boats travel by day, dock at night and more-or-less have surprisingly little contact with nature.
In short, these ships are meant to be self-contained and designed to have passengers spending most of their time and money on board. That’s why Oasis of the Seas is the perfect name. It suggests not only the paradise on ship, but also the dangerous world of discomfort outside. Why would anyone want to venture into a port full of crimps, pimps and chimps when prepackaged adventure awaits them within wobbly walking distance of their cabin door?
After Titanic, suggestions of size, power and straight-up indestructibility didn’t float so well — there’s an all-too-obvious irony in something that claims to be so powerful being felled by a sharp ice cube. The Oasis, however, eschews godliness for exoticism. Of course, the list of names for cruise ships is not without a few oddballs. Some of the more peculiar ones include Celebrity Xpedition, Marco Polo, Sally Albatross and Black Watch, which sounds like a cruise for mercenaries.
So if you’re looking for a vacation on an expensive floating city, hop aboard the Oasis of the Seas for the ultimate super-sized cruise. Just remember: drinking the water that surrounds this Oasis will only get you as far as the sick bay.
