OASIS OF THE SEA

Oasis, which embarked on its maiden voyage on December 5 2009, is the biggest cruise ship ever built:
– So big that if stood on end it would be taller than either the highest skyscraper at Canary Wharf in London or the Chrysler Building in New York.
– So big that it can carry 6,296 passengers at a time.
– So big that it needs at least 312,000 passengers a year – It has to fill up every week because it only makes seven-night cruises.
– So big that British travel agents are worried they may not find enough aircraft seats between Britain and Florida to supply it. Four out of 10 British holidaymakers booking a West Indies cruise with the ship's owners, Royal Caribbean, are choosing to go on Oasis.
– And so big that $75 million has been spent on tripling the size of the Port Everglades terminal at Fort Lauderdale from where it sails, and new docks have been built around the Caribbean to berth it.

There are 21 pools on board including whirlpools, two of which stick out from the side of the ship like an epaulette high above the ocean. The AquaTheatre pool is almost 18ft deep. It's used for swimming and scuba diving lessons by day and for a water show at night – part Peterhof Palace in Russia, with fountains spurting 65ft in the air, and part Olympics, with synchronised diving and gymnasts bouncing off a trampoline.

The spa is the largest at sea, the fitness centre the biggest and the jogging track the longest. And for children, Oasis is a huge adventure playground where there's a children's theatre and science lab.
At night, as well as the jazz and the dancing, the karaoke and the guys doing stand-up in the comedy club, there is a Broadway musical in the Opal Theatre.

Size matters
Length: 360m (or just over 3.5 football pitches) - a "superjumbo" Airbus A380 is 73m long; the RMS Titanic was 269m long.
Height: 72m above the waterline - the same height as a 23-storey building
Displacement: 100,000 tonnes - equal to a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier
Speed: 22.6 knots
Cost: $1.4 billion