Live Oasis Updates via USAToday!

Direct from USAToday:

12:28 PM EST:
Good afternoon, Cruise Loggers. I'm here at the Nokia Theatre at Times
Square in New York, where Royal Caribbean has laid out a (Royal
Caribbean) blue carpet, complete with rope line, to welcome guests to
what they're promising will be quite the extravaganza. Royal Caribbean
has invited hundreds of people for the big unveiling, including the
media, travel agents, investors, Wall Street analysts and foreign
dignitaries from the ports where the ship will dock. I'll be back in a
moment as the event begins (be sure to hit the refresh button on your
computer as you follow along to see the very latest).

Here's the link to follow along:
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/cruises/item.aspx?type=blog&ak=51507930.blog&csp=34

12:38 PM EST: It
looks like it'll be a few more minutes until the event begins, but I
already have a bit of news: The itineraries planned for Oasis.

12:38 PM EST: It
looks like it'll be a few more minutes until the event begins, but I
already have a bit of news: The itineraries planned for Oasis. A
brochure handed out in the press room here shows an Eastern Caribbean
itinerary from Fort Lauderdale to Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas;
Philipsburg, St. Maarten; and Nassau, the Bahamas. It will alternate
with a Western Caribbean itinerary to Labadee, Haiti; Falmouth, Jamaica
and Cozumel, Mexico.

12:44 PM EST:
An update on those itineraries: the ship will sail the Eastern
Caribbean exclusively until April, 2010. The Western Caribbean voyage
begins alternating in starting in May, 2010.

12:53 PM EST: They've
opened the doors and most of the crowd has taken their seats here at
Nokia Theatre. A hint of what may be coming: There are Merry-go-round
horses hanging from the ceiling.

12:57 PM EST: The
show has begun with . . . a Royal Caribbean dancer doing one of those
hanging-from-sheets-attached-to-the-ceiling performances. A sign of
something to be unveiled?

1:04 PM EST:
Royal Caribbean cruise director Ken Rush has appeared to MC the event,
introducing a video now playing showing illustrations of what's coming
and it includes . . . a new neighborhood called Boardwalk that will
have amusements. "It will feel a little like you are on the Boardwalk
at Altantic City," Royal Caribbean CEO says in the video.

1:06 PM EST:
Another big reveal just showed off in the video . . . an amphiteater on
the back of the ship for water-based shows. And now the video is
showing us double-decker loft apartments.

1:07 PM EST: And
yet more. The ship will have a Royal Promenade that is twice the width
of the ones on the line's Voyager and Freedom class ships. Another
innovation: A mezzanine level the overlooks the Royal Promenade.

1:10 PM EST:
That's it for the big reveals. The video has ended and a beaming Royal
Caribbean CEO Richard Fain has taken the stage. "We're beginning to
answer the question I have been asked for a long time: Why have you
decided to spend a billion or so dollars on something so large. And the
answer is . . . we're listening to our guests (who say) we love the
choices that you offer us."

1:14 PM EST: The
head of the Royal Caribbean brand, Adam Goldstein, has taken the stage
to talk about the ship's itineraries (which are as I mentioned
earlier). One key tidbit is that the Eastern Caribbean cruises will
begin Dec. 12, 2009, so that apparently is the date for the ship's
maiden voyage. Now he's introducing dignitaries from the various ports
on the schedule.

1:17 PM EST: Goldstein says the line will open bookings for the ship on Sept. 3.

1:19 PM EST: Apparently we're not going to get it all today.
Goldstein notes that, with today's announcement, the line only has
announced three of the seven "neighborhoods" planned for the ship
(Central Park, Boardwalk and the Aquatheater).

Thanks for the information.

1:22 PM EST: Goldstein
has opened the floor to questions, and CEO Richard Fain has joined him
on the stage. The first question? What's the total capacity of the ship
with third and fourth passengers included in cabins (until now the line
has only revealed the passenger capacity based on double occupancy,
which is 5,400). Goldstein says that with third and fourth people
included in cabins the ship will be able to hold up to 6,300 passengers.

vlscruiser wrote:

Thanks for the information.

My pleasure!

1:26 PM EST:
Will there ever be a ship larger than this one? Don't count it out,
says CEO Richard Fain. "Voyager of the Seas was so large that we were
convinced ships wouldn't get any larger," he notes. "But the response
to that was so overwhelmingly positive and everyone enjoyed it so much
that we found they want even more. At this point we don't envision
anything larger, but we have learned to say never say never."

1:29 PM EST:
In response to a question Goldstein notes that there will be 28 of the
two-deck-high loft suites. Illustrations put up on the screen show
soaring floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall windows with hip contemporary
furniture.

1:32 PM EST: What
will the fares be for the ship? Goldstein is coy on the question,
noting that the line has until Sept. 3, when the ship goes on sale, to
reveal such details. But don't expect a discount. "Customers are
prepared to pay a premium to go on the latest and greatest ships," he
notes.

1:36 PM EST:
How did Royal Caribbean pick the ports for the Oasis itineraries? With
a ship this big one key element was port facilities. "One of the things
that we were very interested in is that each of the ports has a dock
and we do not have to tender," notes Goldstein. To that point,
Goldstein has some additional news for Royal Caribbean fans: After 25
years of tendering its passengers to the shore at Labadee, the line's
private beach area in Haiti, the line will be building a dock.

1:40 PM EST: The
issue of getting on and off has come up. "Those kind of questions are
often asked, but actually it's just an issue of scale," says Fain. "We
will have more than a proportionally larger number of ways for getting
people and luggage off the ship (than current ships). We think this
will be as good or better than our norm."

Host Jackie wrote:

1:14 PM EST: One key tidbit is that the Eastern Caribbean cruises will
begin Dec. 12, 2009, so that apparently is the date for the ship's
maiden voyage.

Okay folks! The Oasis cruise does not conflict with the Cruise Freek's Mariner of the Seas cruise on 10/11/09. Time to book those cabins now!

https://secure05.servadmin.com/jsweb.net/sf/cruiseform.htm

1:43 PM EST: Surprise.
. . another gee-whiz reveal. The ship will have a zip line that let's
passengers zoom across the ship, starting (if I heard it correctly)
from the new Boardwalk area of the ship.

December 12, 2009 is a Saturday for the maiden voyage, that means our party will be on Friday, December 11th, a calendar link is below:

http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/?year=2009&country=1

1:48 PM EST: Goldstein
and Fain are wrapping up the question-and-answer session. Goldstein
reiterates that there still are four more neighborhoods on the ship to
be announced.

That's going to be a very long dock at Labadee

I would say something like Costa Maya's dock.

But it would be a better idea than tendering 5K + off the ship.

Now if they could do that at CoCo Cay

Host Jackie wrote:

1:32 PM EST: What
will the fares be for the ship? Goldstein is coy on the question,
noting that the line has until Sept. 3, when the ship goes on sale, to
reveal such details. But don't expect a discount. "Customers are
prepared to pay a premium to go on the latest and greatest ships," he
notes.

1:36 PM EST:
How did Royal Caribbean pick the ports for the Oasis itineraries? With
a ship this big one key element was port facilities. "One of the things
that we were very interested in is that each of the ports has a dock
and we do not have to tender," notes Goldstein. To that point,
Goldstein has some additional news for Royal Caribbean fans: After 25
years of tendering its passengers to the shore at Labadee, the line's
private beach area in Haiti, the line will be building a dock.