Royal Caribbean sending new Quantum Ultra ship to Florida
Florida finally gets to be home to one of Royal Caribbean’s Quantum-class ships. In fact, it will be getting the newest one when Odyssey of the Seas heads to Fort Lauderdale.
Beginning November 2020, the Quantum Ultraclass ship, slightly larger than the original class of ships, will make its way to Port Everglades for eightand six-night Caribbean cruises.
A sister ship to Spectrum of the Seas, which debuted this summer, these two ships are the next generation to the three Quantumclass ships already sailing: Quantum of the Seas, Anthem of the Seas and Ovation of the Seas.
Odyssey of the Seas is under construction at Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany, having had its first steel cut in February.
No Quantum-class ship has ever home ported in Florida, although the North American market can sail from New York on board Anthem of the Seas including stops at Port Canaveral. Both Ovation of the Seas and the original Quantum of the Seas served the Asian and Australian markets, but
service for the two inspection firms. Ovation made its way across the Pacific this summer to sail Alaska.
The Quantum Ultra class features the line’s first shipwithin-a-ship concept, something cruise lines like MSC and Norwegian Cruise Line have championed on their latest builds.
This slightly larger class of ships is more than 168,000 gross tons and can hold more than 4,200 passengers at double capacity.
“Travelers on board Odyssey can expect to find an unrivaled combination of new, soon-to-be-announced experiences, plus ‘Only on Royal’ features,” the cruise line said in a press release.
Like all Quantum-class ships, Odyssey of the Seas will once again feature the North Star, the capsule that takes riders 300 feet above the ocean.
Other features on board will be RipCord by iFly skydive simulator, Two70 entertainment venue and SeaPlex, an indoor sports and entertainment complex that will feature a trapeze school, full-size basketball court, roller-skating rink and bumper cars.
The ship will sail the winter months out of Port Everglades sailing the Western statements of fact through certifications that authorized 35 Brazilian plywood producers to export plywood into Florida” they either knew or should have known “did not meet” a voluntary industry standard. and Southern Caribbean including stops in Aruba and Curacao, and then spend summer in Europe in 2021.
The ship will also call on the cruise line’s upgrades private island in the Bahamas, Perfect Day at CocoCay.
from fast-growing plantations of loblolly and slash pine. These species are native to North America. But both species grow so fast in southern Brazil that the wood density is not sufficient to reliably produce structural grade plywood.
In the complaint, the U.S. producers allege that 30 companies operating 35 plywood plants in Brazil “are falsely stamping millions of square feet of structural plywood panels imported into the United States” as meeting American standards.
The American producers, who also allege in their complaint that Brazilian plywood is driving down the prices and quality of plywood on the U.S. market, said they had a nonprofit lab in Washington state start testing samples of the imported plywood in 2017.
The U.S. producers’ suit, which alleges false advertising and negligence on the part of the inspection services, is seeking $300 million in damages and wants the court to direct PFS-TECO and TPI to “immediately revoke” the Brazilians’ licenses to make structural plywood. The Florida-based cruise itineraries are now open for booking, while the Europe itineraries will open this November.
More details can be found on RoyalCaribbean.com.