World's largest cruise ship to get sister in 2007

Jason · August 5, 2006

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The world's largest cruise ship, Royal Caribbean International's Freedom of the Seas, is to get a twin, Liberty of the Seas, within the next year -- but the sisters won't hold the No. 1 slot for long.

A spokeswoman for Royal Caribbean International said the hull on Liberty of the Seas is complete and the ship, which is being built in Turku, Finland, was moved from dry to wet dock on Friday for the finishing work before her May 2007 debut.

Freedom of the Seas and Liberty of the Seas will hold the dual title of largest cruise ships at sea, weighing in at 160,000 tonnes -- which is more than 32,000 adult elephants -- and with room for over 3,600 guests.

Freedom of the Seas knocked Carnival Corp's Cunard Line 151,000 tonne Queen Mary 2 from the top of the list of the world's biggest cruise ships in terms of volume when she made her debut in May this year.

Amenities on Freedom of the Seas and Liberty of the Seas include a surf simulator, water park, an ice-skating rink, boxing ring, a nine-hole miniature golf course, and a 14-person family suite.

But the two ships won't keep the title as world's largest cruise ship for long. Royal Caribbean has already unveiled plans to build an even bigger one, codenamed Project Genesis, which will appear in 2009 and weigh 220,000 tonnes.

Shares in Miami-based Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., the world's No. 2 cruise group, closed at $34.83 on Friday, up 2.62 percent, after hitting a year low of $33.28 on the Big Board earlier this week with quarterly profits down 21 percent. The cruise industry has been hit by high fuel costs, slackening demand in the Caribbean due to hurricane worries, and a slower U.S. economy.

JoeyandDavid · August 5, 2006

:undecided:

cruiseduo · August 6, 2006

Big ships, better or worse? I think that I would prefer medium size ships. Of course with these 'mamouths' being made how do you define 'medium'.

To follow up on Jason's message, here is the 6,400 passenger Genesis

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How long will it take to get on and off of that in every port of call?

To compare that with others I present this chart.

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We have recently cruised on the MSC Lirica (1,560 passengers),

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and the NCL Dream with 1,748 passengers. Our first cruise, in 1982, was on the SS Norway which had a 2,032 passenger capacity.

Our next cruise will be on the Mariner of the seas the biggest ship we have cruised on . . . . . 3,114 passengers.

In April 2007 you will find us on the Costa Magica (2,672 passengers) We feel that this may be the biggest ship we would be comfortable with.

Time will tell but from our most recent cruise experiences, our comfort zone may be 2,000 passengers or less.

lilrosie · August 6, 2006

imo that is way tooo many people...the amenities would be really fun though

boba · August 6, 2006

:undecided: We are going on Freedom in a year and I'm honestly afraid 7 days is not long enough to get to experiance it all. I'd like to try just about everything, but I don't want to be rushing around my whole vacation. :undecided:

schatje · August 7, 2006

Booking one of these bigger ships is not on my list of to do's unless we get a deal with a large group traveling together.

Longboysfan · August 7, 2006

Those are some big ships.

We may try one of them somewhere in the future.

For the water rides.

I'm just a big kid on vacation.

SCIROCCO · August 8, 2006

Just like Schatje stated thats way above my comfort Zone, Bigger is not always Better! :wink: I might try it once! :huh: Who knows, but i like the smaller ships that are easy to navigate around on and get off and on at Ports! :wink: I would have to take 7 or 8 cruises to learn the whole ship! :shocked: HMMMM! Not a bad Idea! :grin: They are running out of Ports and Waters to handle these big Ships! They are trying to outdo the Jones'es looks like! :wink: The Mighty Dollar,forgetting about the main thing "US" The Passengers and Cruisers! :tongue: :wink: "IMO"