February 2010

Latest Sat Nav Technology for Oasis of the Seas

The world’s largest passenger cruise ship, Royal Caribbean International’s Oasis of the Seas has completed her maiden voyage sailing from the STX shipyard in Turku Finland to Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale Florida, for a series of winter cruises in the Caribbean.

At Port Everglades a new terminal has been constructed specifically for the Oasis-class ships which incorporates parallel areas for embarkation and debarkation to speed up immigration and emigration processing and reduce passenger waiting time with a processing time goal of 15 minutes ‘curb to ship’. Berthing facilities are also being improved and extended in other destinations such as Falmouth, Jamaica.

To assist with berthing Oasis is fitted with high performance satellite aided navigation technology: the MarineSTAR® manoeuvring system from Fugro Seastar AS. The system is based on composite positioning using both the American GPS navigation satellite constellation and the Russian GLONASS constellation in order to provide improved availability, integrity and reliability. In addition to providing speed and heading information to a higher level of accuracy than conventional navigation aids such as the gyro compass, the MarineSTAR® system provides distance and approach speed to the quay. On Oasis MarineSTAR® is embedded within the latest Sperry Marine Vision Master integrated bridge system.

Further information on Oasis of the Seas can be found on the ship’s dedicated website www.oasisoftheseas.com.