15 September, 2014

By VIVA Team

Weighing in at a massive 225,000 tonnes, measuring 361 metres from stem to stern and carrying 6,360 passengers plus 2,394 crew, Málaga – where she stayed 12 hours – was the leviathan cruise ship’s first landfall after upping anchors in Miami six days earlier…


It’s estimated that between them, the nearly 9,000 people on board spent around €400,000 in the capital of the Costa del Sol – where the ship’s massive fridges, freezers, larders and wine cellars were also restocked for the onward journey to Barcelona. In Málaga itself, City Hall laid on a special programme of events and entertainment to welcome ‘Oasis of the Seas’ passengers of 40 different nationalities. The Picasso Museum, Cathedral and legendary tapas bar El Pimpi drew the most visitors, while side-trips to Marbella, Mijas, Ronda and Granada were also very popular.

Oasis of the Seas in the Port of Málaga

if you missed seeing 'Oasis of the Seas' in Málaga last week, she returns to the capital of the Costa del Sol on 25 September

Málaga is Spain’s second largest port handling cruise ships after Barcelona, and as Susana Gutiérrez, the director of Málaga’s cruise ship terminal explains, “only the day before the arrival of ‘Oasis of the Seas’, we had ‘Independence’ in port and Independence is just 30 metres smaller than ‘Oasis of the Seas’”.

Meanwhile, the CEO of Royal Caribbean Spain and France, Belén Wangüemert, said that “the arrival of the ‘Oasis of the Seas’ in Spain was a landmark event. The fact that the Port of Málaga is the first stop before arriving at Barcelona confirms our commitment to supporting Málaga as a cruise city”.

Towering above the city’s apartment blocks, such was the impact of the ‘Oasis of the Seas’ first visit, that thousands of Malagueños brought traffic to a halt as they made their way to the port to see her off, and what a send-off she was given.

If you missed her visit, she’s back in Málaga again on Thursday, 25 September, and in 2015, her sister ship ‘Allure of the Seas’ will be calling in regularly on the Costa del Sol.