RMS Olympic Ismay had previously planned to build a ship named "Olympic" as a sister ship to . The senior Ismay died in 1899 and the order for the ship was cancelled. Construction of "Olympic" began three months before "Titanic" to ease pressures on the shipyard. Several years would pass before "Britannic" would be launched. In order to accommodate the construction of the class, Harland and Wolff upgraded their facility in Belfast; the most dramatic change was the combining of three slipways into two larger ones. "Olympic" and "Titanic" were constructed side by side. "Olympic"s keel was laid on 16 December 1908
Olympic-class ocean liner while First Class also featured a lavish Grand Staircase descending in seven levels through the ship, a Georgian-style smoking room, a Veranda Cafe decorated with palm trees, a swimming pool, Turkish bath, gymnasium, and several other places for meals and entertainment. The "Olympic"-class liners were the first British ships to contain separate restaurants independent of the dining saloons. These were in imitation of the precedent set on the German Hamburg-Amerika liner Amerika (1905), which had included a restaurant serving French "haute cuisine" run by the famous hotelier César Ritz. "Olympic" and "Titanic" had À la Carte Restaurants aft on B-Deck