oyal Caribbean International's Oasis of the Seas, the largest cruise ship in the world, has set sail from Turku,Finland for South Florida.

The ship is due to make its debut at Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale on Nov. 11.

Royal Carribbean took delivery of its newest cruise ship Wednesday and it departed Turku today with Capt. William S. Wright at the helm.

The Transatlantic crossing will be chronicled on OasisoftheSeas.com and via Twitter by following @OasisandAllure.

The Web site at 1 p.m. EDT showed the cruise ship near the southern Finnish coast.

The ship features various "neighborhoods" -- parks, squares and arenas with special themes. One of them will be a tropical environment, including palm trees and vines among the total 12,000 plants on board. They will be planted after the ship arrives in Fort Lauderdale.

In the stern, a 750-seat outdoor theater -- modeled on an ancient Greek amphitheater -- doubles as a swimming pool by day and an ocean front theater by night. The pool has a diving tower with spring boards and two 33-feet (10-meter) high dive platforms. An indoor theater seats 1,300 guests.

Accommodation includes loft cabins measuring 545 sq. feet (51 sq. meters) with floor-to-ceiling windows. There are also 1,600 sq. feet (150 sq. meter) luxury suites with balconies overlooking the sea or promenades.

One of the "neighborhoods," named Central Park, features a square with boutiques, restaurants and bars, including the "Rising Tide" bar, which the shipping line describes as "the first moving bar at sea."

It moves up and down three decks, allowing customers to get on and off at different level promenades.

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. CEO Richard D. Fain, who took delivery of the vessel on Oct. 28 in Turku, described the features as "revolutionary."

"Building such a large vessel allowed us to add even more of the choices and amenities that our guests value and Central Park is a dramatic addition to our already extensive array of excitingfeatures," Fain said.


Engineers at shipbuilder STX Finland said environmental considerations played an important part when planning the vessel,which dumps no sewage into the sea, reuses its waste water and consumes 25 percent less power than similar, but smaller, cruise liners.

"I would say this is the most environmentally friendly cruise ship to date," said Mikko Ilus, project engineer at the Turku yard. "it is much more efficient than other similar ships."

It will embark on its first cruise -- a four-day trip to the port of Labadee in Haiti -- on Dec. 1.

The Oasis of the Seas was due to call in at the English port of Southampton before continuing its voyage across the Atlantic.

STX Finland is building a sister ship -- Allure of the Seas -- for Royal Caribbean which is due to be launched in 2011.

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