Are you wowed by mega-cruise liners like Oasis of the Seas?

Over the weekend, the biggest cruise ship to set sail arrived in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. to prepare for its inaugural cruise next month. Royal Caribbean’s massive, 16-deck Oasis of the Seas is capable of carrying 6,300 passengers and a 2,100 crew on voyages through the Eastern and Western Caribbean.

When it docked, hundreds of onlookers gathered to see what a $1.5 billion passenger ship looks like – jamming traffic in the area of Fort Lauderdale’s Port Everglades.

In photos, the ship appears much like a floating city block (photo here). If you’re old school and measure cruise ship sizes by the Titanic standard (about 46,000 gross tons), then think of the Oasis as about five Titanics. If you have passenger ship expectations that are a bit more modern, the 225,282-gross ton vessel still dwarfs its closest competition. The next largest cruise liner, another Royal Caribbean, comes in at a mere gross tonnage of 154,407.

This is not your typical Love Boat, where you could sip Isaac’s signature drinks by the Lido Deck pool one minute and then be gazing out at the water from the Promenade Deck moments later. The Oasis of the Seas is so large it is broken down into seven neighborhoods (in addition to its sixteen different decks). With sidewalk cafés, parks, squares, themed arenas, rock-climbing walls, an ice rink, a mall and a large outdoor amphitheatre, I would think the only thing you won’t find on deck is a bored passenger.

The ship’s official inaugural voyage sets sail for St. Thomas, St. Maarten and the Bahamas on December 5, but its maiden cruise will be a short four-day trek to Labadee, Haiti on December 1. Passengers hoping to take part in the seven-night inaugural cruise will have to pay at least $1299 per person for the ship’s smallest interior cabin.  Prices start at $1549 for outside rooms, $1699 for balconies and more than $4800 for deluxe suites. Costs go down for regular voyages in 2010 – with interior cabins ranging from $729-$889 on average.

You can find a less expensive cruise and a wide range of cruising options and amenities when you depart from the southeastern ports, but I have to admit the novelty of sailing aboard a self-contained city in the Caribbean does pique my interest.

Are you wowed by these enormous cruise ships? Have you considered checking out the new Oasis? From a passenger’s perspective, what are the pros and cons of setting sail on the mega-cruise liners versus the smaller ships? What cruise ship amenities are must-haves these days? Is it possible for the ships to be too big or the amount of activities/amenities too overwhelming? Are these newer, larger ships worth the extra price you pay?