Royal Caribbean Returns to Cruising from New York City Metro Area

After sitting idle for more than 500 days, Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas cast off on her first revenue cruise on Sunday.

The 5,400-passenger vessel — the largest cruise ship in the world at the time of her 2009 launch — sailed the first of a series of seven-night Bahamas cruises, from Cape Liberty in Bayonne, New Jersey.

The New York-area deployment, which was originally scheduled to begin in May 2020, is a first for the ship. These sailings visit Nassau, Perfect Day at CocoCay — Royal Caribbean’s private island destination, and Port Canaveral, Florida.

In November, Oasis will relocate to Miami for the winter 2021-2022 season, offering seven night Eastern and Western Caribbean voyages that visit St. Thomas, St. Maarten, Cozumel, Roatan, and Perfect Day at CocoCay.

Oasis of the Seas, the first of a soon-to-be six-vessel Oasis-class fleet, was a game-changer when she debuted 12 years ago, offering multiple neighborhoods, including reproductions of New York’s Central Park and a seaside Boardwalk. At the rear of the Boardwalk, the AquaTheater offered dancing fountains and water-based acrobatic shows, the first for a cruise ship.

In 2019, Oasis underwent a $165-million dry dock refurbishment, known as a Royal Amplification, that added popular features such as the robot-controlled Bionic Bar, Spotlight Karaoke, and Ultimate Abyss — the tallest slide at sea.

Oasis of the Seas is the 14th of Royal Caribbean’s 25 vessel fleet to begin sailing worldwide, and the tenth U.S.-based ship to return to service for the line since the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the global cruise industry in March 2020.

Royal Caribbean sails the world’s largest cruise ship fleet, including four of the largest cruise vessels in the world.