The third Oasis class cruise ship of Royal Caribbean International (RCI), the contemporary market unit in the Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd (RCCL) group, could differ from the two first units of the class as there is such a big gap between the entry into service of the second and the third unit, said Adam Goldstein, president of RCI.
The Oasis class of 226,000 gross ton ships, two of which have been built at STX Finland and a third one is on order at STX France, has been the most successful type of cruise ships, Goldstein told Cruise Business Online. For this reason, the company is eager to ensure that the third unit will repeat the success of the two earlier vessels.
Meanwhile, Anthem of the Seas that will be the second unit of the 167,800 gross ton Quantum class, will not differ from Quantum of the Seas, the first ship, in any significant way as there is bot enough time between the delivery of the two ships to incorporate major design changes. A third vessel, still unnamed, is also on order at Joseph L. Meyer Werft in Germany.
The deployment of the units of the Oasis and Quantum class ships remains undecided at this point in time, Goldstein said.
Moving on to the British market that will employ Anthem of the Seas upon its delivery in April 2015, Goldstein said that the UK is the second largest source market for RCI after the US and therefore "very important" for the company that has three ships based in British ports in the late spring, summer and autumn of each year.
