Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas offers a lovely family vacation opportunity, and has some interesting anecdotes related to the ship's development and operation that we wanted to share.
This list is not a list of hidden secrets of things and ways to improve your Oasis of the Seas cruise experience. Rather, this is an opportunity to share fun tidbits and factoids about a very popular Royal Caribbean cruise ship that continues to capture the attention of the cruising public.
Oasis of the Seas has seven Godmothers
It is maritime tradition for a ship to have a Godmother, which is a ceremonial position that serves more of a marketing role than anything else these days. Royal Caribbean decided to change things up and have not one, but seven Godmothers. Why seven? The answer is one for each neighborhood on Oasis of the Seas.
Oasis of the Seas' Godmothers are Shawn Johnson, Daisy Fuentes, Jane Seymour, Michelle Kwan, Gloria Estefan, Darra Torres and Keisha Knight Pulliam.
Oasis of the Seas was known as Project Genesis
It's common in the cruise industry to begin working on a new class of ships under a project name and then announce a formal name later on. In the case of the Oasis-class, it was known as Project Genesis.
There is a small homage to the Project Genesis name on the Royal Promenade of Oasis of the Seas.
Name for crew area
The crew-only super highway that funnels food, services, and supplies to the 16 decks above stretches the entire length of the ship, and is called I-95. This is a reference to the major American highway that runs north and south on the eastern seaboard, from Maine to Florida.
A new terminal was created for Oasis of the Seas
When Royal Caribbean designed Oasis of the Seas, they realized she was so large and so different that they needed to also build a brand new cruise terminal to accommodate her.
The new terminal would need to be able to handle all the passengers, equipment, and supplies for the largest cruise ship in the world, so Royal Caribbean built the largest cruise ship terminal in the world at Terminal 18 in Port Everglades/Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
A 9,000 piece art collection
Oasis of the Seas is proud to blend spectacular art with its revolutionary architecture-over 9,000 art pieces have led it to be dubbed ’’a museum at sea.’’
The Boardwalk's inspiration
The Boardwalk neighborhood is a fun spot onboard for guests to catch a show, a bite to eat, or enjoy the ocean breeze any time of day or night. Royal Caribbean's ship designers were inspired by the seaside piers that dot the coast of England and the nostalgic boardwalks of the past, such as Coney Island.
The centerpiece of Boardwalk is a one-of-a-kind carousel. The Boardwalk Neighborhood on Oasis is designed to be a breathtaking space for families inspired by the nostalgic seaside boardwalks of yesteryear; so the carousel was created using inspiration from turn-of-the-century carousel designs down to the very last detail.
Solar panels help light up the ship
21,000 square feet of thin solar film that produce enough power to light the ship’s Royal Promenade and Central Park areas.
Oasis of the Seas received the solar panels, after Royal Caribbean tested solar panel use on two of its Celebrity Solstice class ships.
While the solar panels may not a rapid payoff on its solar panel investment, the installation of these solar panels is what sustainability architects call “future proofing.” In other words, utilizing imperfect existing technology will pave the way for easy adoption of more efficient solar panels in the future. Old panels can be ripped off and new ones installed.
Other Royal Caribbean efforts to include more energy-efficient lighting and air-conditioning systems that can turn off automatically when balcony doors are left open too long.
