Giant Cruise Ship

[skuthorp]

Heard about this on the radio this morning. Think of the supply issues, it was said they'd need 35 tonnes of ice cubes a day! Think of the fuel, the water, the garbage!
Not too many ports could accomodate it either though it ws said it was designed for the US coastal market for those who want a holiday not too far from home in these times.
Their shares went up, and the cartoon affair will just confirm the decision.


Royal Caribbean Orders Large Cruise Ship
© 2006 The Associated Press

OSLO, Norway — Royal Caribbean International has ordered the world's largest and most expensive cruise ship, Europe's largest shipbuilder, Aker Yards ASA, said Monday


The contract price for the new ship, designated Project Genesis, is 900 million euros _ or about $1 billion _ making it "the most valuable ship ever ordered in the history of commercial shipbuilding," the Oslo-based group said in a statement.

The company said the 1,181-foot ship will have a capacity of 5,400 passengers. Its size will exceed by 43 percent Aker's "Freedom of the Seas," which is to be the world's largest cruise ship when it is delivered to Royal Caribbean in April.

The newly ordered ship is to be delivered in late 2009 after its construction at one of the group's Finnish yards, Aker Yards said.

The contract, which is contingent on final approval of financing, includes an option for a second ship.

Aker Yards said it has been building cruise ships for Miami-based Royal Caribbean for 35 years. The Royal Caribbean International brand is owned by Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.

Aker Yards employs about 13,000 people at 13 shipyards in Norway, Finland, Germany, Romania and Brazil.

___

On the Net:

http://www.akeryards.com
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HoustonChronicle.com -- http://www.HoustonChronicle.com*|*Section: Markets
This article is: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/3638997.html

[L.W. Baxter]

Hey, it'll be just long enough to get jammed sideways in the Suez Canal! :D

[JimD]

Originally posted by L.W. Baxter:
Hey, it'll be just long enough to get jammed sideways in the Suez Canal! :D Heaven forbid! The ice cubes might melt before the tugs got her loose.

[Meerkat]

Reminds me of that notion that some people had to build a floating city with a runway on top. Bigger than a nuclear carrier. It would never enter port. Instead people would either fly to it or be ferryed out to it by launch. People would buy residential and, optionally, commercial space.

[joejapan]

.
You're probably talking about the Freedom Ship.

It's suppose to have about 20,000 living spaces that run anywhere from a half a mill' up to 2.5 million US dollars, schools, shops, churches, all the amenities of a small city, and will make one complete circumnavigation of the world every three years.

That's a big cruise ship ! :eek:

[Meerkat]

Yup, I think that's the one.

[CarlZog]

What a silly looking thing. I swear cruise ships are getting uglier and uglier as they get bigger.

[Alan D. Hyde]

The QE2 can motor faster at full astern than many of these new tubs can do full ahead...

Alan

[Alan D. Hyde]

Incidentally, these monster cruise ships aren't vessels.

They're flotsam.

Alan

[mmd]

Although I am in awe of the technical aspects and level of outfit in vessels like this one, two things come to my mind when considering them:

1.) What an enormous stress they put on the infrastructure of the small Caribbean islands that they visit - five thousand tourists descending on a town whose population isn't much larger, all demanding taxis, tours, trinkets, and toilets. The cash injection is certainly welcome, but the onslaught of people is awfully disruptive to the normal lives of the locals.

2.) I can't imagine the logistics of trying to effect an evacuation at sea of sixty-five hundred people should the unthinkable happen.

[htom]

She appears to have 18 life-boats, which would probably have to be ~400 persons per life-boat ... is not going to work when they panic, I doubt it would work in practice. Life-boats large enough to need life-boats!

I wonder if those are actually ship-to-island craft that just happen to look like life-boats?