Royal Caribbean Executives Get a Hardhat Sneak Preview of Port Everglades' New Cruise Terminal for Oasis-class Ships

Royal Caribbean's senior executives donned their personalized hardhats for a sneak preview of Cruise Terminal 18 at Port Everglades, which will be the home of the new 5,400-guest Oasis of the Seas this November and Allure of the Seas in November 2010. 

Port Everglades Director Phil Allen led the tour through the construction site along with Juan Trescastro, Vice President of Guest Port Services, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.  In attendance at Port Everglades for the hardhat tour were Royal Caribbean International's Vicki Freed, senior vice president of Sales, Trade Support and Services; Betsy O'Rourke, senior vice president of Marketing; Ken Muskat, vice president of Sales; Joanne Schimelman, associate vice president of Sales, National Accounts; along with Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.'s Diana Block, vice president of Deployment and Revenue Management; and Carlos Leyva, vice president of Trade Support and Services; and 22 Royal Caribbean International Sales directors from across the United States and Canada.

Cruise Terminal 18 is moving ahead on schedule and is expected to be fully operational by the end of October.  The terminal's expansion and renovation is the centerpiece of preparations underway at Port Everglades for the arrival of Royal Caribbean International's 5,400-passenger Oasis-class ships, which will be the largest cruise ships in the world.  When completed, Cruise Terminal 18 will be expanded from 67,500 square feet to a total of 240,000 square feet, which will make it the largest cruise terminal in the world built to serve a single ship.

Port Everglades is the cruise ship capital of the world with more than 3 million passengers annually and more homeported cruise ships than any cruise port worldwide.  The Port's ever-expanding fleet of cruise ships provides guests with an array of cruise vacation choices from the sunny Greater Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood, FL, area including everything from sampler-size day cruises to around-the-world cruises. Details on Cruise Terminal 18 and cruising from Port Everglades are available on the Internet at http://www.porteverglades.net/ and www.broward.org/port.

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Photo #1: Port Everglades Director Phil Allen begins the hardhat tour of Cruise Terminal 18 by showing Royal Caribbean executives renderings of how the 240,000-square-foot terminal will look when it is completed in November 2009 in time for the arrival of the first Oasis-class ship, Oasis of the Seas.

Photo #2: Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. executives in front of Cruise Terminal 18 at Port Everglades.  From left to right: Juan Trescastro, Vice President of Port Operations, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.; Ken Muskat, Vice President of Sales, Royal Caribbean International; Joanne Schimelman, Associate Vice President of Sales, National Accounts, Royal Caribbean International; Vicki Freed, Senior Vice President of Sales, Trade Support and Services, Royal Caribbean International; Betsy O'Rourke, Senior Vice President of Marketing, Royal Caribbean International; Diana Block, Vice President of Deployment and Revenue Management, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.; Carlos Leyva, Vice President of Trade Support and Services, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.; and Port Everglades Director Phil Allen.

06/2009