Two new ‘classes’ of big very ship, currently under construction in Europe, have captured the media spotlight over the past months. These are the Royal Caribbean International (RCI) Genesis project twins: ‘Oasis of the Seas’ and ‘Allure of the seas’, and Norwegian Cruise Line’s F3 project ‘Norwegian Epic’.
Now if you view these ships as part of the ‘battle for the Caribbean’ between the number two (RCI) and number three (NCL) cruise lines, many observers have concluded that that Royal Caribbean has already won. This is largely due to the fact that over the past decade, RCI has established itself as the clear market leader in terms of building innovative ships. However, ‘Norwegian Epic’ may prove to be a more significant challenge to RCI and the market leader Carnival than originally thought.
.
RCI’s ‘Genesis’ project will not only construct the world’s two biggest ships, but the two of the most innovative, in terms of design and facilities. Their gross tonnage will be 220,000 tons will dwarfs the largest cruise ships of today, RCI’s Freedom-class vessels, at 154,000 tons. These massive new vessels take the idea of a cruise ship as a floating resort to a whole new level.
.
NCL was established 41 years ago and currently operates a fleet of 11 ships, many of which a relatively new and mid-sized by modern standards. Until the announcement of the F3-class (‘Norwegian Epic’), many observers felt NCL would be happy to continue targeting the “freestyle” market with their relatively moderately sized fleet.
.
The F3 (a mnemonic for ‘third generation freestyle’) changed all that. Who would have guessed that NCL would soon be challenging the big two cruise lines, by building a Queen Mary 2 sized (150,000 gross tons) ultra-ship. ‘Epic’ will be larger than any of the Carnival Cruises or Princess Cruises vessels currently in service.
.
NCL have established a reputation in recent years for ‘thinking outside the box’. They are probably best known for their ‘Freestyle dining’ concept which allows passengers to eat at a variety of dining venues at the time of their choosing. Their existing fleet features a choice of as many as thirteen dining options, many offering completely different menus. Freestyle Dining makes RCI’s and Carnival’s traditional dining system, consisting of one large main dining room, with two evening sittings, look very old fashioned by comparison.
.
The F3’s will obviously attempt to capitalize on the ‘Freestyle’ innovation. For example, NCL has said that the F3’s will do away with the traditional large main theatre as the cornerstone for nightly entertainment and instead feature multiple venues for people to choose from, so I suppose that’s ‘Freestyle’ Entertainment too.
.
Back to RCI: While the artists renderings of Oasis’s ‘Central Park’ area, portray the space as a vast area of shops restaurants and gardens, the recent construction pictures show a much smaller space that is unlikely to be able to live up to the hype of the artistic representations. Likewise I expect ‘The Boardwalk’ and the ‘Aquatheatre’ will take on more modest proportions when viewed in real life than by the artist generous perspective. The F3’s will feature a real Ice Bar, which although authentic, will only accommodate 25 people. Their Spice H2O area is not unlike RCI’s aqua-theatre.
.
The ‘Genesis’ twins will carry 5,400 passengers (lower berths) giving a very reasonable space ratio of 41. The ‘F3’ will have a more modest space ratio of 35. (The similar sized Queen Mary 2 scores 57, but she offers a high class of experience).
RCI may also win the battle in term of external ship aesthetics. The external renderings of ‘Oasis’ are really quite attractive. Her lines look like a larger version of RCI’s existing ships, and are relatively sleek for her size.
.
While we have not seen an official rendering of the F3’s as yet, an unofficial one did appear on the Internet. In the unofficial rendering, the bow and hull appears to be relatively conventional. The ship has twin parallel funnels not unlike some ferries. However, above the bridge sat a rectangular structure several decks high, looking like a couple of packs of playing cards lying down on top of the front superstructure. Words cannot fully describe the total disregard for aesthetics. In fact if the rendering is accurate she will be one of the uglyiest ships ever to float-out. On the other hand, the reality is that the external appearance of a ship has no impact on the internal cruise experience, but it still matters to me.
.
In the ship building war RCI are clearly undisputed leaders, only Princess’s ‘Grand Princess’ , Carival’s ‘Destiny’ and Cunard’s ‘QM2′ have stolen their ‘biggest ship’ crown in recent years, be it temporarily each time.
.
However, NCL’s F3′ IS very significant in terms of newbuilding and although it will not be the largest ships afloat, RCI will need to keep a close eye on their innovations, and the variety of dining and entertainment venues offered. They may appear to be cheesy gimmicks to some but these gimmicks do sell cruises. Carnival will need to play catch-up as their fleet begins to look stagnant by comparison.
.
The golden age of passenger ship building is not some historic period of the dim and dark past, it is now. We are living in the times of amazing ships. Keep them coming!
Malcolm Oliver
(See my ‘Norwegian Jade’ review, menu, right)
