Royal Caribbean’s Oasis Class cruise ship Allure of the Seas is finally due in dry docks to commence what was supposed to be a $165 million enhancement at the Navantia Cádiz shipyard in Spain.
The enhancement is part of Royal Caribbean’s revolutionary Royal Amplified fleet upgrade program, which was to have seen an overhaul of 10 cruise ships at a cost of over a billion dollars.
What will remain of the planned $165 million budget?
However, three months on from when the ship was supposed to have arrived in port, given the uncertainty in the industry it is not clear just how much of the upgrade of the Allure of the Seas will be carried out, and for that matter how much of the ambitious Royal Amplified program will see the light of day.
According to local newspaper Diaro de Cadiz, the Allure of the Seas will arrive this weekend at the Navantia shipyard in Cadiz, the only shipyard in the port – which sits on the cusp of the Atlantic Ocean and the Meditteranean Sea – that has the capacity to dock the ship, which at 362 meters long and 47 meters wide is one of the largest cruise liners in the world.
According to Diario de Cadiz, the Allure will remain at the shipyard for 30 days but the ship’s cabins will not be upgraded and the renovations will focus on “propulsion elements and the hull.”
The ship had originally been planned to spend 58 days in dry dock
The remodeling of the ‘hotel’ will not go-ahead
The shipyard’s CEO José Gallardo was quoted as saying that “the remodeling of the ‘hotel’ will not go ahead, which is logical given the situation of the cruise ship business. ”
In addition to the cabins, the enhancement was to have included features such as the 10-story Ultimate Abyss, the tallest slide at sea; as well as a huge new pool deck with a bar over two locations, new whirlpools on the top deck, and a reinvigorated, adults-only Solarium,
The Allure of the Seas was supposed to have set sail on May 10 on a seven-night Mediterranean cruise departing from Barcelona and docking at Palma de Mallorca, Provence, Florence / Pisa, Rome, Naples / Capri, and back to Barcelona, before sailing to Miami In November for the winter season and seven-night cruises to the Eastern and Western Caribbean Islands.
Whether the winter season goes ahead and just what of the enhancement the Allure of the Sea goes ahead remains to be seen.
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