Regional Ports Spend Millions to Welcome Oasis

Chatting happily with new friends around the bar at Boleros, the Latin music and dance spot on the Oasis of the Seas, Bonnie Simpson is having a good time. The ship is hours outside of the port of Philipsburg, St Maarten, but the party continues on the decks well into the night. On board Royal Caribbean International’s Oasis of the Seas for its inaugural voyage with some 4,000 other passengers, Simpson and husband Gary are making the most of their 39th cruise.

The retired Florida couple has been to The Bahamas 12 times, but still anticipate their arrival in Nassau when the world’s largest cruise ship docks at the port for the first time on Friday.

“I like the local people,” said Simpson, who is impressed with what the Oasis has to offer. “I love the Oasis. What I like about this is there’s so many areas that you can relax or party,” she said.

Her sentiments are ones that keep Royal Caribbean International executives searching for new ways to enhance the cruise line’s offerings to its guests, some of whom have sailed with them over 100 times.

“When you’re part of a company for 20-plus years, you sort of internalize the never ending quest to create new products and services that haven’t been seen before, create more options and choices for the guest,” said Adam Goldstein, president and CEO of Royal Caribbean International in an interview with the press this week.

The motivation, which the executive said had propelled the company throughout the six-year planning stage for the new Genesis Class ships, has been contagious for the ports of call on this maiden voyage to the Eastern Caribbean.

The Bahamas government has spent $44 million thus far to prepare the harbor for the world’s newest and largest class of vessel. St Maarten officials reported that $100 million was spent on building a new pier and making onshore upgrades to receive the Oasis. Dredging to accommodate the Oasis at Charlotte Amalie in St Thomas cost that government over half a million dollars, according to officials.

Goldstein said that the governments of all three ports expressed early interest in making preparations to receive the ship. The executive expressed the company’s partnerships with its destinations to ensure a quality experience for its guests.

“Everybody knows that we are very committed to progress in a variety of areas that are crucial for our guests,” he said. “That includes safety ... and medical and public health so those are ... areas where we have to be really state-of-the-art and where we expect, through our partnerships with the destination, that our guests will be always very well looked after.”

The expectations are ones that the Bahamas Government has demonstrated a multimillion dollar commitment to meeting, in its aim to retain the billion-dollar cruise ship industry.

“It’s important to continue to do those things that will keep us as the number one cruise destination of the region,” said Vernice Walkine, Director General of the Ministry of Tourism.

“Clearly the government has invested a lot of money to dredge that harbor and the government would not have done that had it not been important for us to be able to accommodate this new class of vessel - the Genesis Class - which is the largest class of vessels in the world.

“We intend to have that investment pay for itself,” said Walkine of accommodating a class of vessel that has the capacity to inject millions into the economy with each month of weekly arrivals.

The Oasis of the Seas carries up to 5,400 passengers, more than twice the capacity capability of the cruise line’s other ships.

While the average cruise ship passenger to the Caribbean is expected to spend $88 in port, passengers spend an average of $100 when docked in Nassau. Average passenger expenditure in St Maarten increases to $148. St Thomas holds the record for the highest amount of dollars spent on average by passengers in port at $149 per passenger.

Said Walkine, “The cruise passenger business is very important to certain stakeholder groups in The Bahamas - the downtown merchants, taxi drivers, straw vendors, hair braiders, surrey drivers, ferry boat operators - these people depend on cruise passengers primarily, and so it’s very important for us to continue to ensure that we grow that business.”