TURKU, Finland -- On a brisk October morning amid the clink of champagne glasses, Richard D. Fain took ownership of the $1.4-billion Oasis of the Seas on the southwest coast of this nation where shipbuilding is a proud tradition.

Hours later, onboard the gargantuan vessel docked at the sprawling STX Europe shipyard, an exuberant Fain, who is chairman and chief executive of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., led a Miami Herald reporter on a walk through one of seven themed ``neighborhoods.''

After a quick ride on a handcrafted carousel on the Boardwalk, Fain, dressed in pinstripes, showed off AquaTheater, a kidney-shaped pool in an amphitheater that will feature dazzling water ballet and high dive acts against an ocean backdrop.

``Up there is the 10-meter board,'' said the tall and imposing executive, who has been intimately involved in the design and construction of Oasis, the world's largest cruise ship. ``And that's the 17-meter board up there. We haven't said anyone would dive off of it -- but somebody already has.''

Miami-based Royal Caribbean is taking its own leap of faith with Oasis.

Imagine launching the world's largest, most expensive and most extravagant cruise ship ever during the cruise industry's worst-ever slump. Imagine borrowing heavily to pay for the ambitious project and lining up extraordinary assistance from the government of Finland to finance the deal in the midst of an historic credit crunch.

Then imagine a sister ship, Allure of the Seas -- now taking shape at the hands of thousands of STX designers, engineers and construction workers in the same Finnish yard -- scheduled to join Oasis in Port Everglades in just a year.

Allure will double Royal Caribbean's high-stakes bet that a dizzying array of activities and entertainment will sway first-time cruisers and cruise fans to pay a premium price for something truly over the top.

Fain and his crew at Royal Caribbean, the No. 2 cruise operator after Carnival Corp., dreamed up the groundbreaking project, code named Genesis, six years ago when the economy was full steam ahead. But for the first nine months of 2009, each berth at Royal Caribbean generated 16 percent less money per day than a year earlier. Its profits plunged 72 percent.

``We didn't anticipate she would be born in the down cycle, but we knew that she would operate in downturns,'' said Adam M. Goldstein, president and chief executive of Royal Caribbean International and Fain's top lieutenant.

He estimates the useful life of the ship at 30 to 40 years.

Oasis, by any measure, is a jaw-dropper. The gross tonnage (which measures not weight, but the volume of enclosed space) is 44-percent larger than the next biggest ships -- Royal's Freedom of the Seas and sister vessels. With 2,160 crew members, Oasis will carry 5,400 passengers at double occupancy, up to 6,300 passengers when extra beds are filled.

Even in Turku, a history-laden city on the Baltic Sea that traces its shipbuilding roots to the early 18th century, the Oasis invokes awe.

``It's not only the biggest but also the most modern and the most green,'' said Teppo Raitis, STX Europe's senior vice president and director of the shipyard, which has carved a niche in creating giant, complex vessels. ``The ship represents 1.7 million design hours. That's 1,000 man-years.''

TAKING A BOW

Oasis, known as NB-1363, is so tall she needs a retractable funnel, or smokestack, to duck under bridges such as the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in New York or the Great Belt Bridge in Denmark. She cleared it by a few feet on her trip to Fort Lauderdale.

The ship mingles the glitter of Las Vegas with the vivid fantasy of Disney.

The assortment of entertainment and activities is aimed at vanquishing the notion of cruising as a sedentary holiday. A zipline will carry thrill-seekers on a ride across a wire nine stories above Boardwalk, a family-oriented zone reminiscent of Coney Island. The ship offers scuba-diving lessons, two rock-climbing walls, two surfing simulation wave makers, a basketball court and four pools among a host of active options.

The Royal Promenade, an elegant piazza with shopping and restaurants, features the Rising Tide, a bar that rises three floors to Central Park. On the day Royal Caribbean took delivery, workers raised and lowered the splashy bar repeatedly and tested the rainbow-colored fountain beneath it, practicing for the arrival of guests.

A spa hosts yoga and Pilates, even Botox treatments and teeth whitening for those who hope to go home looking refreshed. ``You're going to smile for three months after you've left here,'' quipped Raimond H. Gschaider, the ship's hotel director. He worked in Turku for months before departure, overseeing a thousand details large and small as the ship took shape.

OPULENT CABINS

In keeping with the something-for-everyone theme, the ship has 37 different types of cabins, including a variety of two-story loft suites that travel agents say are booking up fast. For the first seven-night sailing, the Royal Loft suite, with a private wet bar and 843-square-foot balcony, was listed at $16,659 per passenger. Another huge cabin, the 1,724-square-foot Royal suite, includes a Baby Grand piano and indoor and outdoor dining rooms.

``The ship is designed to appeal to people who cruised before and want something better and to people who never cruised before and had doubts,'' said Fain. ``This pretty much eliminates the doubts.'' ``The only downside is where the ship can go,'' said Stewart Chiron, Cruiseguy.com CEO and a man who closely tracks the industry. ``Labadee, Nassau. Seasoned passengers have done these itineraries a thousand times.''

Some ports aren't able to accommodate the Oasis, but the ship actually is remarkably nimble. ``She can actually move sideways, like one of those old cartoons of a car parking,'' Fain said.

Royal Caribbean is adamant about choosing destinations where the ship can dockdirectly, rather than anchoring offshore and ferrying passengers in on tenders, an option Goldstein said carries ``too many variables'' that could sour passengers' experiences.

And many smaller islands also would be overwhelmed by the arrival of 5,400 visitors. ``We're proud of the destinations we will showcase -- St. Maarten, Labadee, eventually Falmouth,'' Goldstein said. The Falmouth, Jamaica, port isn't ready on time for the early sailings in the Western Caribbean, so between May 2010 and November 2010 the ship is slated to go to Costa Maya, Mexico, instead.

Other ports are expected to build facilities to accommodate the Oasis-class ships over time.

When Royal introduced the 138,000-ton Voyager the Seas in 1999 as the world's largest ship of its era, it faced the same stigma about the limited number of ports that could easily accommodate it. Now Voyager sails to many destinations, including European ports.

Tickets are pricey, and Royal hopes to keep them that way. A seven-night cruise starts at about $1,049, plus tax per passenger, for an inside cabin. It costs about $3,000 for a suite. By contrast, a seven-night Caribbean cruise on a Princess Cruises vessel with plenty of amenities starts at about $600 per passenger.

COST NOT A CONCERN

``There are people who just want to be on Oasis and will pay whatever price,'' said Miami cruise expert Chiron. ``The question is: Are there 5,400 of them every week?''

``Royal Caribbean's mentality or philosophy toward pricing is trying to generate the premium prices that their hardware warrants,'' said Jared Smith, general manager of Cruisedeals.com in Charlotte, N.C. ``My guess is they'll be able to maintain the prices. The product is really a special product.''

Cruise lines have taken turns at holding the bragging rights for the world's largest ship, although Royal Caribbean seems to most relish the role, often outdoing not only other cruise lines but itself.

``That's the thing: Once you deliver the `wow,' you have to move on and deliver the next `wow,''' said Goldstein.

A few years ago, No. 1 Carnival Corp. studied the idea of building a ship the size of Oasis but ultimately shelved it.

DIFFERENT APPROACH

Micky Arison, chairman and chief executive of Carnival Corp., said he has no intention of upstaging Royal Caribbean with a bigger ship. ``Some people want a holiday in the malls of America, and others want to be on a cruise,'' Arison said at a travel conference in the United Kingdom in October, according to Travel Weekly. ``With big ships, you have less flexibility in terms of the ports you can visit.''

In June 2010, Miami-based NCL Corp. will debut the Norwegian Epic, a 153,000-ton behemoth that will carry 4,200 passengers and boast the first ice bar at sea and Spice H20, a beach club where a daytime pool turns into a dance floor after dark. But NCL, which markets ``freestyle cruising'' aimed at giving passengers more flexibility, doesn't have anything larger on order.

``People all over the world are asking: `Will ships ever be bigger than this? Is it the end of the line?'' said Royal's Goldstein. ``No. Look at the history. Ships get bigger and more varied. I don't think this is the end. Having said that, this is the best we can do at this time.''