BREAKING: Oasis of the Seas to Sail Europe in 2014

Very clever move by Royal Caribbean here.

Traditionally vessels will drydock in the Grand Bahama Shipyard in Freeport. However there are very few drydocks that are capable of fitting vessels the size of Oasis and Allure. Most of them are in Asia, the Middle East or Europe. Royal Caribbean chose Europe as the drydock of choice. The  225,282grt ship will sail into the Keppel Verolme BV Shipyard in the Netherlands for her scheduled drydocking.

Royal has been toying with the idea of moving an Oasis size vessel to the Mediterranean. 6,000 berths are a lot to fill up for an entire season and failure would be quite costly.

Royal Caribbean has decided to take her drydocking location as an opportunity to test these waters.

In the fall, the vessel will sail a 2-nigh Bahamas Cruise August 30th 2014. Then embark on a 12-night Transatlantic voyage from Port Everglades to Barcelona. Then sail two 5-night western Mediterranean cruises round trip out of Barcelona. Then one final repositioning cruise from Barcelona to Rotterdam for her drydocking.

After the completion of her drydock, she embarks on a 13-night transatlantic, from Rotterdam (October 14) or Southampton (October 15th) to finally bring her back to Port Everglades.

UPDATE: In order to fit back into her weekend departure, upon arrival back in Florida on October 27th, she will sail a 5-night Western Caribbean cruise.