Project Genesis Crashes the Ventura Party

Update! Project Genesis has now been named the Oasis Class. Read about the Oasis of the Seas announcement.

This Just In! P&O Artemis will sail her Mediterranean Farewell Voyage in April 2011. Iglucruise.com have the Artemis Farewell cruise at decent prices.

If it wasn’t enough that P&O’s Ventura launch was constantly being overshadowed by the forthcoming Independence of the Seas, Royal Caribbean have decided to rub the dirt in a little bit more. Flaunting their big ship madness more than ever, the cruise line crash landed yesterday’s Ventura launch party with the announcement of their new, highly anticipated Project Genesis.

The new Genesis ship is due in late 2009 and will be, by some margin, the largest cruise ship in the world. This isn’t just an addition to a current class, as Independence of the Seas was, this is a new fully-fledged class that aims to place Royal Caribbean up and beyond the competition and surpassing their own Freedom class. The big talking point of the new ship is their ‘Central Park’, an indoor park featuring all the trees, flowers and benches you’d expect, giving the interior the appearance of an exterior. This allows for a whole new set of cabin balconies over-looking the greenery.

Central Park is going to be the length of a football field and amazingly will feature a town square that leads off to various restaurants and bars, including the Rising Tide Bar which is set to be the first moving bar at sea, moving up and down over three decks. Yet this is just one of several ‘neighbourhoods’ throughout the ship, the others of which are yet to be announced, perhaps suggesting that their are many more exciting things to discover onboard. Carrying some 5,400 passengers, it really will be huge. It does seem like Royal Caribbean are aiming for not just bigger, but better with Project Genesis.

Said to be costing around $1.2 billion, it will make it not just the world’s largest cruise ship, but also the world’s most expensive cruise ship. A sister ship for Project Genesis is also in the making and expected in 2010. While neither have yet been named, the official naming ceremonies of the ships is due to take place in May 2008.