Posted on 03/10/2016 12:05:21 PM PST by Red Badger
A cruise liner longer than the Eiffel Tower and 100 metres longer than the Titanic will set sail from a French port for the first time on Thursday.
Harmony of the Seas will leave the western port of Saint Nazaire on Thursday afternoon and, if all goes well, not return until Sunday morning.
The purpose of the voyage is mainly to test the power on the boat and how well it manoeuvres, which, given it weighs some 227,000 tonnes and measures 362 metres in length, will be interesting to see.
There will be no passengers on board during the test voyage, just 500 staff.
If testing goes as planned, the boat will eventually head to British port of Southampton in May, from where it will set sail for Barcelona for its first cruise around the Mediterranean.
Harmony of the Seas makes the Titanic, which measured 269 metres, look like a little pleasure boat - and it is even 50 metres longer than the Eiffel Tower.
Harmony is also a metre wider than the current twin ocean-going monsters of the pleasure cruise world, which are also 362 metres long.
"Allure of the Seas" and "Oasis of the Seas", the world's biggest cruise ships in current service, are 65 metres wide and come in at 225,000 tonnes a piece. All three belong to Royal Caribbean International cruise lines.
The ship will have room for some 6,360 passengers and 2,100 staff members.
I’ve been on one of the other ones already at sea. Believe it or not, there are less crowds and less waits than I ever would have imagined. There are so many things going on that people seem to spread out.
the last thing I want to be on my vacation is stacked alongside 9000 other busybodies on a ship.. I’d much rather fly to a beautiful location and check in to a first class quiet resort where I walk out off my private patio everyday onto the beach
100 metres longer than the TitanicNot quite the comparison the passengers and owners might wish, eh?
The initial passenger voyage will begin on January 21, 2017, leaving the port of Houston bound for Panama.
It will be YUGE!
I think that’s essentially how they build those things. Each stateroom is its own container that they slide into place and weld to the others.
sounds like a question for Laz!
they are cheaper
Largest ever built:
http://www.wonderslist.com/top-10-biggest-ships/
http://jalopnik.com/the-ten-biggest-ships-in-the-world-1706164772
Longest:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_world%27s_longest_ships
http://jalopnik.com/the-ten-biggest-ships-in-the-world-1706164772
BTW, Titanic was 46,000 tons; by contrast, the largest vessel on the Great Lakes (size is generally limited by the Soo Locks) will*carry* 71,250 tons of coal (somewhat less for other cargo). I’m sure all remember that line from Gordon Lightfoot’s “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” — “with a load of iron ore, 26000 tons more than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty.”
Modern cruise ships generally *start* in the ballpark of the displacement of the Titanic, but the following list begins at 100K. Military vessels top out about 100K.
Largest cruise ships:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_world%27s_largest_cruise_ships
Juicy target.
Just wait until that one gets a good disease going through it.............
Will Gronk be aboard?
Your description sounds very appealing. In all honesty I haven’t been on a cruise ship. I just think I’d like something a bit more exclusive. Thanks for your insight.
Now that depresses me. I have seen some really bad nursing homes. I hate to think they are more expensive per week than a cruise but you are probably right.
I always wonder with ships like that and these huge container ships how they keep the center of gravity below the water line. Otherwise in a moderate to heavy sea it slips. In Alaska a new crab boat was lost with all hands for violating that principle. They would need a large amount of ballast on the keel even if the superstructure was aluminum. butlerweave, do you know how they accomplish the center of gravity issue.
-PJ
I don’t see beauty. I see crowds and lines full deck chairs and full pools and too much humanity to have any relaxing fun.
A Titanic-sized rip in the hull and I bet it would take two days to sink, if it sank at all.
No your question would require a Marine Engineer. There was a top heavy Japanese Battleship before or during WWII that rolled over.
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