It is only when you are on board the Oasis of the Seas that you start to get a sense of the scale of this enormous liner, which can cater for more than 6,000 passengers.Everything about the Oasis is vast: it is taller than Nelson's column, it has more than 3000 miles of electrical cabling - that is about the distance from London to New York - and it weighs more than 225000 tones.
One of the corridors is a quarter of a mile long. You can see the other end, but it never seems to get any closer.
There is a 750-seat Greek style amphitheatre, a shopping mall, an ice rink, a 1300-seat indoor theatre and an open-air park with real trees and plants.
It feels like Las Vegas on water - of course, there is a casino too - and it is completely awesome at first.
Bored you will not be, but it certainly will not be everyone's cup of tea.
The big test will be on a scorching hot day when everyone decides to go on deck.
With such a high profile ship, there is a lot of pressure on the man at the helm.
The bridge is tucked behind a big steel door. Not surprisingly, security here is tight.
Once you are through, the view out to sea is incredible.
Perhaps it is the idea of sharing a ship with thousands of other people.
Oasis of Seas is actually pretty straightforward.
A tiny steering wheel is used for mooring the ship. Everything else is done via computers.
"This is the most stylish bridge of any ship in the world, that's for sure," he says.
"With all that technology, it makes Oasis of the Seas one of the easiest, safest ships to plan in the world."
Steering this vessel through difficult economic waters is a much harder task.
This boat has cost Royal Caribbean more than £800m to build.
When it was on the drawing board six years ago, the cruise industry was enjoying a boom.
Although sales have been relatively resilient during the recession, these past 18 months have been the worst this business has ever seen.
Prices have been slashed to fill ships.
The stakes are high for the world's second largest cruise operator.
With so much money invested, and with another ship just like this one scheduled to come on stream next year, the Oasis of the Seas needs to be an instant hit when it opens for business next month.
Royal Caribbean's chief executive, Richard Fain, likes to call it a considered risk, but he is confident the Oasis will succeed.
"Whilst all of our ships are suffering, it's nothing like that with the Oasis," he says.
"It's proving to be the exception to the rule. We're getting more advanced bookings... than we've ever experienced with a new ship, in our history."
