The wonder of the Seas, a highly-expected cruise ship that can carry up to 7,000 passengers and 2,300 crew members, has officially joined the fleet of Royal Caribbean. It is also the fifth ship in the line’s Oasis Class, and it gets down its sister ship, Symphony of the Seas, climbing up to the world’s largest ship. Weighing around 236,857 tons, the Wonder of the Seas is over 4% bigger as compared to the Symphony of the Seas.
The construction work of the huge ship involved overcoming pandemic-related challenges.
According to the President and CEO of Royal Caribbean International, Michael Bayley, “Receiving of Wonder of the Seas is the completion of 30 months of exility and partnership across over 2,000 committed crew members & workers who are among the best at what they do.” He also referred to the new ship as the “most innovative” fleet.
As per the general manager, Chantiers de l’Atlantique, Laurent Castaing, “Our teams have worked under challenging conditions but in a very unified way to finally make major updates that enhanced the ship performance. Wonder is really an outstanding new ship.”
The Wonder of the Seas will officially make its first appearance in Fort Lauderdale on March 4 and conduct a series of seven-night Caribbean cruises before relocating to the Mediterranean in May. In Europe, the ship will make its sail from Barcelona and Rome. The Wonder of the Seas returned to Florida in November for cruises from Port Canaveral.
Similarly to Royal Caribbean’s other four Oasis-class ships, Wonder of the Seas is a floating city with “neighbourhoods”- such as a broadwalk area with a carousel and high-diving show and the Central Park area with 20,000 natural plants. The new ship adds an eighth neighbourhood reserved for big-spending suite guests.
The Wonder of the Seas was earlier supposed to make its debut in Asia and sail from Shanghai. With cruise travel in China turned down due to the COVID-19, Royal Caribbean has updated the plans and announced the switch to the Caribbean and Mediterranean earlier this year.
