Royal Caribbean's New Cruise Ship Odyssey of the Seas Delivered

Royal Caribbean Group on Wednesday took delivery of its newest cruise ship Odyssey of the Seas, built at the Meyer Werft shipyard in Germany.

The 169,000 GT, 347.1-meter vessel is the last of five Quantum Ultra class cruise ships started in January 2013 with the launch of Quantum of the Seas.

"Royal Caribbean Group commissioned us in 2011 to build the first two units of the Quantum class, which have been very popular with passengers since day one. We have continuously improved and developed these ships, so that we have now built a total of five ships and delivered them since 2014," said Meyer Werft's Stephan Schmees, member of the executive board project management ships.

Meyer Werft said the Quantum class is one of the largest ship series it has built to date. The construction of the five sister ships comprises a total of 840,000 GT with, among other things, 11,000 kilometers of cable lines, 2,000 kilometers of piping from Meyer Werft's pipe center and 10,500 passenger cabins from EMS PreCab.

Odyssey of the Seas, like sister ships Quantum of the Seas, Anthem of the Seas, Ovation of the Seas and Spectrum of the Seas, features the glass, 90-meter-high observation gondola North Star, the surf simulator FlowRider as well as the skydiving simulator RipCord by iFly and the Sky Pad, a virtual reality, bungee trampoline experience. The ship has capacity for 4,210 passengers.

All five sister ships are equipped with exhaust gas purification systems such as so-called hybrid scrubbers and SCR catalytic converters. Very energy-efficient technical systems, optimized hydrodynamics, intelligent heat recovery and numerous other facilities lead to considerable energy savings, the shipbuilder said. Each vessel also features a diesel-electric pod drive, extensive alarm and security systems, interactive communication systems as well as state-of-the-art stage technology.

Odyssey of the Seas is scheduled to departs from Haifa, Israel on June 2 for cruises in the Mediterranean Sea.

Jan Meyer, Managing Director of Meyer Werft, said Odyssey of the Seas is the third cruise ship that the Papenburg shipyard has delivered during the pandemic. "This is an important sign of the strength of our shipyard and for the industry as a whole," he said. "However, given our stretched order book with the reduced workload, we still have major challenges ahead. If we can achieve a good future package for the years up to 2025, we have every opportunity to secure the company and many jobs in Papenburg with the existing orders."

Meyer Werft also announced Wednesday that it secured the industry's first newbuild cruise ship order since the start of the coronavirus outbreak. The 229-meter, 51,950 GT cruise ship is scheduled for delivery in 2025 to Asuka Cruise, a joint venture between Japanese firms NYK Group and Anchor Ship Partners.