Where did you see pics of the new celebrity ship? Is there a link?

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Originally posted by bulbousbow:
I'm waiting for Malcolm's response!

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Hmm, it looks like a Science Fiction version of Voyager/Freedom. I can see that this ship will be both loved and hated.

Love: RCI are the market leaders in ship design as far as I’m concerned. They build the most amazing ‘floating resorts’. They are NOT ‘ships’ in a traditional sense and they are certainly not aimed at salty old sea dogs!

But lets not forget that RCI ships have attractive 'traditional' style dining and dining rooms and nprmally a wrap around teak prom deck.

I see no reason why the Genesis design should not continue RCI’s success.

As for the ‘too big’ argument, I will not even go there. It’s so subjective. A few years ago, many people though 90.000 gt was too big, until 120,000 gt vessels arrived, but that was OK when 140,000 gt vessels arrived.

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Originally posted by Stevie2020:
Looks like Carnival is being left behind the competition. .

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In term of cruise ship design, I think RCI have been ahead of Carnival for a number of years now. However, Carnival lead the way in terms of profits and number of brands.

MIAMI

Excerpts:

Royal Caribbean International on Monday ordered the world's largest and most expensive cruise ship, a $1.24 billion vessel that will hold up to 6,400 passengers. It's the latest step in the industry trend of supersizing ships, which delight many passengers but are too crowded for other guests.

The ship, dubbed Project Genesis, will be 220,000 gross registered tons when it is delivered to the world's second-largest cruise operator in fall 2009 by Oslo, Norway-based shipbuilder Aker Yards. Gross registered tons is a standard way to measure a ship's size and is a unit of volume equal to about 100 cubic feet.

The ship will weigh about 100,000 tons based on displacement _ a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier comes in at about 97,000 tons.

Aker said its contract price of 900 million euros _ about $1 billion _ would be "the most valuable ship ever ordered in the history of commercial shipbuilding." The $1.24 billion figure includes all expenses for the ship, "from forks and knives and sheets to artwork and everything else," said Harri Kulovaara, the Miami-based cruise line's executive vice president of maritime operations.

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The announcement also steals some of the spotlight from rival Carnival Corp., the world's largest cruise operator. Carnival has studied building a ship about the same size, but its Pinnacle project is "on the back burner" because of its prohibitively high price, spokesman Tim Gallagher said.

Kulovaara said in a phone interview that the new ship will be more fuel efficient than current vessels, but he declined to give a specific figure. He said plans for the types of onboard amenities were being finalized. Royal Caribbean has been an innovator in featuring ice skating rinks, rock climbing walls and surfing pools.

Royal Caribbean's ships are typically more upscale than the bargain Carnival Cruise Lines' vessels, but they aren't as traditional as those of luxury carriers such as Cunard.

there is a large drawing (spanning a whole double page) of the new Celebrity class in a book about its builder, Meyer Werft, which was published here in Germany, last month.

The book is called "Meyer Werft - Innovativer Schiffbau aus Papenburg". Author: Hans Jürgen Witthöft. Publisher: Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft mbh, Hamburg. ISBN 3-7822-0924-9.

Best,

Still i like the design so much elegant thene the Carnival (corperation), Celebrity designs.

Now waiting fore the next step.

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Originally posted by Atlcruiser:
I hate to tell the Princess folks but give Carnival Corporation time and they will have their own mega MEGA Princess ship.

Gordon

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Originally posted by Atlcruiser:
I'm getting the best laughs off of some of the other cruise boards. Those Holland America, Princess and Celebrity folks are having heart attacks. They don't even want the ship in the same port with them. I hate to tell the Princess folks but give Carnival Corporation time and they will have their own mega MEGA Princess ship.

Gordon

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I see many more decks of balconies but the topside area remains too small for the amount of passengers. As these ships get bigger and bigger, the proportion of cabins far outpaces the amount of additional deck space. I think this is a major problem. There can only be so much space on top of the ship, no matter how many decks are below it.

Genesis also appears to have no wrap-around promenade deck. Too bad. I guess they feel they don't need it since most cabins will have their own balcony. Maybe RCI doesn't realize you can't "stroll" on a private balcony??

Is anyone else curious about what those six cylinders are on the topdeck just forward of midship? Could they be a future RCI innovation?

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Originally posted by Maasdam:
Big verry big. The one ultimate question how manny ports are able to receve here?

Greetings Ben.

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Stevie is right in saying RCI won't have any competition in building and operating “big” ships. It isn't simply that RCI will have five Voyagers, three Ultra Voyagers, and two Jabba Class Voyagers. Even if Carnival started building right now, they are not going to easily prove able to match RCI ship-for-ship. Plus dividing their new builds across several brands won't help either. Their product will lag in size, cost efficiencies, and basic marketing value. Assuming RCI keeps building, they'll close some of the gap in berths over time. The risk is that if a ship like that has a problem, the impact on your bottom line is vastly larger than it is today.

I think this new monster will actually give RCI leverage in finding ports. The ship carries two or three times the load of some ships out there. Its size might well help block a ship from some ports where you might otherwise have three on a normal day. I'm thinking St. Thomas for example.

In terms of image and marketing, Malcolm is very much right in saying RCI ships are floating resorts. This new ship is so truly staggering in size, it puts the the debate about the ports or ship being the attraction to rest.

Yet I have to think what may prove the most revolutionary about this ship isn't in the design. I don't see the ship hosting standard dinning options for the entire ship. I think alternative dinning will be a much bigger focus than it has been for RCI. In truth, that will be a welcome thing. I don't want them to try to cram 5,400 people through two seatings. I suspect there will be other aspects to this ship that differ from her younger siblings.