There were two stories this morning about ships setting sail on the new high seas. One of the ships commands reverence – the U.S.S. New York is built from steel from the World Trade Center, and this morning, she docked at New York Harbor. That’s an impressive and fitting feat, to say the least.

But don’t get your maritime stories confused this morning. The U.S.S. New York is a Navy assault ship, and she’s on the high seas to serve and defend the country. Comparing her to the other ship in the news is kind of like comparing Rosie the Riveter to Betty Boop.

The Oasis of the Seas, which just set sail from Denmark, is a cruise ship so lavish and grand that the entire Las Vegas strip seems like a suburban office park by comparison. The ship is five times larger than the Titanic and cost more than $1.5 billion to compete. That’s right, $1.5 billion, about a half billion dollars more than it costs to run the entire Cook County health care system, and more than the gross domestic product of at least seven countries in Africa. But the jet set must have their fun, and so the makers of the ship went all out.
At 20 stories high, the Oasis of the Seas is so tall, they had to take off the smokestacks to get under a bridge just to get out of Denmark. She has an ice rink, a golf course, rock climbing walls, a zip-line, and even an assortment of “neighborhoods” for the 6,000 people who board for each cruise. Among them are “Central Park,” which is described as featuring grass, trees and flowers, and the Boardwalk, which features the first ever carousel at sea (pictured), carnival games, a psychic and tattoo parlor, and an amphitheatre. Hop aboard and surely you won’t be missing Kiddieland anymore.

The Oasis of the Seas is scheduled to arrive in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, on Nov. 24, but I seriously doubt it will be making its way down the St. Lawrence Seaway and through the Great Lakes to come here. The closest we can come to the experience of the Oasis of the Seas right now is to go to Navy Pier and pretend it’s sailing away.