MIAMI -- Voyager of the Seas, the world's largest and most
expensive cruise ship, was delivered to Royal Caribbean Cruises in
Turku, Finland, and is en route to Miami for arrival on Nov. 11, in
preparation for its maiden voyage on Nov. 21.
The 142,000-ton vessel, whose total cost is being put at $700
million, was completed at the Kvaerner Masa shipyard in Turku and
handed over Oct. 29 to Royal Caribbean chairman Richard Fain.
The vessel, with 3,114 lower berths and a total capacity of
3,838 guests, is 1,021 feet in length and 157.5 feet in the beam,
or more than 50 feet too wide to pass through the Panama Canal.
The vessel will be followed by two sister ships: the Explorer of
the Seas, due in September 2000, and the Adventure of the Seas, due
in the summer of 2002.
In preparation for the Voyager's entry into year-round seven-day
service from here to the Western Caribbean, Royal Caribbean and the
Port of Miami are nearing completion of the world's largest
terminal facility, a string of three terminal structures with a
total of 250,000 square feet.
Royal Caribbean said the $76 million facility, whose array of 10
soaring sails atop the roof makes up a new landmark on the Miami
skyline, will be inaugurated on Nov. 10.
The line is promising that the facility will provide fast and
streamlined check-in procedures in spite of the large number of
passengers who will board the ship.
In another preparation for its operations, Royal Caribbean late
this summer sent nine of the vessel's top officers, including Capt.
Svein Pettersen, to spend 10 days in a training facility in Dania,
Fla., with a $2 million simulator of the Voyager's bridge.
The facility, the RTM STAR Center, provides highly realistic
simulations of each of the ports the vessel will visit, starting
several miles out to sea and extending until port side.
The Voyager's state-of-the-art bridge is one of the first to
organize all of its systems in the format of an aircraft-like
cockpit, allowing the captain and a co-officer to operate the
vessel from chairs, according to Tor Stangeland, Royal Caribbean's
vice president and fleet captain. In contrast, officers stand at
the controls on conventional ships.
"As on a plane, everything is displayed in one area and within
easy reach," he explained, "and can be operated immediately."
Among other advanced features is a radar display of the ship's
predicted course up to six minutes in advance, he said. These and
other capabilities have already been retrofitted into four other
Royal Caribbean ships, Stangeland said, and plans call for their
inclusion on all other ships in the Royal Caribbean fleet by the
first quarter of 2001.
Another feature that will make the ship highly maneuverable, in
spite of its large size, is the use of an azipod system in place of
a conventional rudder and propellers, Stangeland said.
Among the most startling innovations in the Voyager's interior
design is the first horizontal atrium on a cruise ship, extending
for the length of two football fields and punctuated by two other
atria, each 11-decks high.
The boulevard features shops, restaurants and entertainment
areas along with the first inside cabins to front a cruise ship's
internal thoroughfare. Other innovations include the first
ice-skating rink and rock-climbing wall at sea.
Before beginning its maiden voyage on Nov. 21 to Labadee, Haiti;
Ocho Rios, Jamaica, and Cozumel, Mexico, the vessel will operate
three cruises for the trade-on Nov. 15, 16, and 18.
The vessel will be christened on Nov. 20 by two-time Olympic
figure-skating gold medalist Katerina Witt.