I know that’s a lousy title for a posting, but these are important letters for OASIS. All ships are inspected by independent inspectors who certify that the ships meet certain safety and other standards. These inspectors were originally established to help insurance companies classify the insurability of different ships and are known as “Classification Societies”.
In some earlier postings, I’ve talked about some of the new systems and processes our people have been developing to improve the OASIS experience. In this posting, I thought I’d describe another one.
While onboard CELEBRITY EQUINOX for the delivery, I am able to spend more time with Harri Kulovaara and his team. It reminded me yet again what great group of people they are. I am in awe of their innovativeness and passion. EQUINOX is just stunning.
Harri reported that this week there were 1,800 workers onboard OASIS. That may not seem surprising since that is only slightly below recent averages. But this is July in Finland and it seems that usually the entire country takes vacation during July. In fact, the yard usually closes down for the month. Finns take their vacation VERY seriously.
So Harri has worked hard to keep work progressing during this normally quiet time and he was very happy to have such a large compliment working even during this vacation period.
I’m onboard Celebrity Equinox. We just took delivery of this ship this morning and have now finished the flag changing ceremony. The ship is magnificent. She is the second in the Solstice series and they have done us proud. The decor, the art, the range of activities are all simply stunning. Most importantly, the crew have demonstrated once again what makes them so special. The level of service and the enthusiasm with which it is given are excellent.
We take on our first inaugural guests in the morning and the naming is in 2 weeks.
I’ve gotten a lot of requests for pictures from the construction. Here is a sampling of some of my favorites along with my description.
NOTE: To get my comments on the pictures, click “options”.
