Largest Cruiseship in the World

[Schumi]

It's a type of diesel fuel injection.

[Danny_Ocean]

Originally Posted by legion

What is a "common rail"?

Wikipedia is your/my friend: Common rail - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Danny_Ocean]

Looks like one big, fat & slow Somali pirate's dream...

Originally Posted by juan ruiz

[450knotOffice]

Impressive, but that's it. I can't imagine being stuck on that floating super-hotel for a week with thousands of other people. No thanks.

Out of the way places that are hard to get to that the average American or European tourist wouldn't dream of going to are my idea of the perfect vacation destinations. Give me a tiny place with maybe one other couple (if that), run by a nice couple who treat you like family. Heaven. Giant Cruise ship: NOT heaven.

The ship is impressive in it's own right though.

[Danny_Ocean]

Had to lower its' stacks to clear the Great Belt:

KORSOER, Denmark (AP) — The world's largest cruise ship cleared a crucial obstacle Sunday, lowering its smokestacks to squeeze under a bridge in Denmark.

The Oasis of the Seas — which rises about 20 stories high — passed below the Great Belt Fixed Link with a slim margin as it left the Baltic Sea on its maiden voyage to Florida.

Bridge operators said that even after lowering its telescopic smokestacks the giant ship had less than a 2-foot (half-meter) gap.

Hundreds of people gathered on beaches at both ends of the bridge, waiting for hours to watch the brightly lit behemoth sail by shortly after midnight (2300GMT; 7 p.m. EDT).

"It was fantastic to see it glide under the bridge. Boy, it was big," said Kurt Hal, 56.

Company officials are banking that its novelty will help guarantee its success. Five times larger than the Titanic, the $1.5 billion ship has seven neighborhoods, an ice rink, a small golf course and a 750-seat outdoor amphitheater. It has 2,700 cabins and can accommodate 6,300 passengers and 2,100 crew members.

Accommodations include loft cabins, with floor-to-ceiling windows, and 1,600-square-foot (487-meter) luxury suites with balconies overlooking the sea or promenades.

The liner also has four swimming pools, volleyball and basketball courts, and a youth zone with theme parks and nurseries for children.

Oasis of the Sea, nearly 40 percent larger than the industry's next-biggest ship, was conceived years before the economic downturn caused desperate cruise lines to slash prices to fill vacant berths.

It was built by STX Finland for Royal Caribbean International and left the shipyard in Finland on Friday. Officials hadn't expected any problems in passing the Great Belt bridge, but traffic was stopped for about 15 minutes as a precaution when the ship approached, Danish navy spokesman Joergen Brand said.

Aboard the Oasis of the Seas, project manager Toivo Ilvonen of STX Finland confirmed that the ship had passed under the bridge without any incidents.

"Nothing fell off," he said.

The enormous ship features various "neighborhoods" — parks, squares and arenas with special themes. One of them will be a tropical environment, including palm trees and vines among the total 12,000 plants on board. They will be planted after the ship arrives in Fort Lauderdale.

In the stern, a 750-seat outdoor theater — modeled on an ancient Greek amphitheater — doubles as a swimming pool by day and an ocean front theater by night. The pool has a diving tower with spring boards and two 33-foot (10-meter) high-dive platforms. An indoor theater seats 1,300 guests.

One of the "neighborhoods," named Central Park, features a square with boutiques, restaurants and bars, including a bar that moves up and down three decks, allowing customers to get on and off at different levels.

Once home, the $1.5 billion floating extravaganza will have more, if less visible, obstacles to duck: a sagging U.S. economy, questions about the consumer appetite for luxury cruises and criticism that such sailing behemoths are damaging to the environment and diminish the experience of traveling.

It is due to make its U.S. debut on Nov. 20 at its home port, Port Everglades in Florida.

[vash]

i'll do cruises when i get old. i have been on two, and i was bored silly. gambling, eating, working out..eating, eating...i was wierd. i did smoke a bunch of cigars.

i tried to work out a TOUR of the the inner workings of the ship. diesel electrics...the sewer system..stuff like that, and i was denied. i went back to smoking.

[Heel n Toe]

Saw this in the paper yesterday. Reminded me of the Titanic.

I wonder how they'd get all those people in lifeboats fast enough if it started to go under.

Looks like something a nice large rogue wave would love to slap silly.

Not for me.

[URY914]

Women and children first.......which should take about 11 hours.

[stomachmonkey]

I like cruises.

I spend my days dealing with problems, making decisions so a vacation should not involve yet more decision making.

I like the captive vibe. Got a day at full day at sea, forced to sit by the pool and read a book or take a nap. No decisions on where to go for dinner. Kids go to "camp" while shipboard. Send em off in the morning and don't have to deal with them till dinner.

And those boats are huge so even with thousands of people on them I've never been on one that felt crowded.

They're not for everyone but they work for me.

[campbellcj]

We went on a cruise (RCI Freedom of the Seas) when it was new and the biggest ship out there. We had a blast!

Maybe some of you guys are missing part of the point. The trip isn't all about hanging on the ship - you're supposed to get OFF the ship and go do stuff

[Rick Lee]

Originally Posted by campbellcj

you're supposed to get OFF the ship and go do stuff

I couldn't get off the ship fast enough when it got into port. But there were a lot of hours between ports and thousands of disgusting ghetto fat bodies gorging themselves at the 24 hr. troughs of food.

[Schumi]

Something pretty ridiculous would have to happen to sink that think quickly.

Hell in some parts of the Caribbean it wouldn't go under- it would just sink until it sat on the bottom with 1/3 of it still exposed.

[VINMAN]

Originally Posted by 450knotOffice

Impressive, but that's it. I can't imagine being stuck on that floating super-hotel for a week with thousands of other people. No thanks.

Out of the way places that are hard to get to that the average American or European tourist wouldn't dream of going to are my idea of the perfect vacation destinations. Give me a tiny place with maybe one other couple (if that), run by a nice couple who treat you like family. Heaven. Giant Cruise ship: NOT heaven.

The ship is impressive in it's own right though.

+1!!

Nobody loves the ocean more than me. But to be stuck on that thing with all those people for a week... No thanks!! I go on vacation to get away from the crowds.

The one cruise I do want to take, although the wife would never go for it, is one of those "cargo cruises" where you are a passenger on a commercial vessel with a few other people, that makes deliveries from island to island. Something about that seems pretty cool. I know a few friends that have done that and they loved it.

[juan ruiz]

[legion]

Okay, so "common rail" didn't mean what I thought it did.

Do these engines directly drive the props?

[JavaBrewer]

I just saw a documentary on TV about that container ship. Amazing stuff...some scary duties like checking the bilge area and crawling between/under large containers. No thanks.

Originally Posted by juan ruiz

[legion]

It's crazy how far up that boat rides when it is unloaded...

[911pcars]

When I first saw this ship and its amenities, I thought of this scene in the movie, "Wall-E":



Sherwood

[daepp]

Engines turn generators AFAIK.

Cruising isn't so bad - so long as they let you off for decent periods of times. Have done the Caribbean twice - once for 4 nights and once with my family for 7 nights. Not my very first choice of vacations, but still a lot of fun. Lots of $$ too!

[beepbeep]

Is ship driven by pods, electrically propelled "ordinary" propellers or or are engines connected directly to propellers?