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Lengthening a cruise ship...is some ships worth it?


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Should some ships be considered for lengthening? What ships would you like to see lengthen & by how much?

Several ships has been extremely refurbished in such a manner. One of the most well known ship many here would be familiar with is Enchantment of the Seas. At $55-60 million, in January of 2005, Enchantment OTS grew 73 feet longer & added 2500 tons, while only losing 0.2 nautical miles in speed. Bet Boleros and Ben & Jerry's was ecstatic about that. ?

For more information on the whole process, here the link & an interesting read I must say, for those interested to learn more.

https://www.vacationstogo.com/articles/cruise_articles_Stretching_Ship.cfm

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In 2005, the Enchantment of the Seas was overhauled. Part of overhaul included stretching the vessel by cutting it in two amidships and adding a 73-foot (22 m) long section. Enchantment of the Seas entered dry dock at Keppel Verolme shipyards in Rotterdam on 15 May 2005. The mid-body extension section was built at Aker Finnyards ahead of time, allowing the construction to be done in just over a month.

The ship resumed service on July 7, 2005, less than two months after entering dry dock. The new section included 151 new staterooms, outdoor trampoline bungees, suspension bridges, an expanded pool area, a 64-jet interactive fountain area for kids, and floor windows allowing an unobstructed view of the ocean below. During its time out of service, Enchantment of the Seas also received an overall renovation, which included paintings by Paul Critchley for the Windjammer cafe.

When the extension project was approved, an extension of Enchantment of the Seas 's sister ship, Grandeur of the Seas was also planned, with tentative plans to extend other ships in the Vision class (and possibly throughout the fleet). However, while the Enchantment of the Seas project was successful it proved to be prohibitively expensive, and all future extension projects have been cancelled. Instead, the Voyager class was extended on paper, and the Freedom class was created, using the shipyard capacity previously booked for the Vision class extensions.

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2 hours ago, princevaliantus said:

When the extension project was approved, an extension of Enchantment of the Seas 's sister ship, Grandeur of the Seas was also planned, with tentative plans to extend other ships in the Vision class (and possibly throughout the fleet). However, while the Enchantment of the Seas project was successful it proved to be prohibitively expensive, and all future extension projects have been cancelled. Instead, the Voyager class was extended on paper, and the Freedom class was created, using the shipyard capacity previously booked for the Vision class extensions.

From what I understand, they drop plans to extend the others, in the Vision Class because of the future contract order for the 1st Oasis Class which started to be built two years later in Nov 2007. Couple that with 3 Freedom Class ships(Freedom OTS being less than a year from completion) & Liberty OTS set to start being built, and a contract signed for Indy. Royal pull back it's ambitious plans for extension of Vision Class ship, which Enchantment OTS was deemed a success & was not Royal 1st attempt at extending a ship length. They have done it before & Enchantment was the fourth ship Royal have extended.

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5 minutes ago, Zambia-Zaire said:

From what I understand, they drop plans to extend the others, in the Vision Class because of the future contract order for the 1st Oasis Class which started to be built two years later in Nov 2007. Couple that with 3 Freedom Class ships(Freedom OTS being less than a year from completion) & Liberty OTS set to start being built, and a contract signed for Indy. Royal pull back it's ambitious plans for extension of Vision Class ship, which Enchantment OTS was deemed a success & was not Royal 1st attempt at extending a ship length. They have done it before & Enchantment was the fourth ship Royal have extended.

Right.  The "bang for the buck" wasn't there when Enchantments costs soared above initial estimates when they first started thinking about it.  They found it wiser to put the money into new ship builds.

The bigger the ship is, the more complex a task it is to stretch it.  With the earlier (smaller) ships it was easier.  

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@twangster, where are you getting this notion of cost overruns...from everything I gather, they finish the extension ahead of schedule and on budget? Apparently, the only reason royal didn't proceed further with the remaining Vision Class Ships, because of budgetary reasons involving the orders for Oasis class ship & Freedom Class ships that was currently, at the time, being built. If orders for the Oasis class ships would have come later, Grandeur OTS was next in line to be extended to a similar retrofit.  

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2 hours ago, Zambia-Zaire said:

@twangster, where are you getting this notion of cost overruns...from everything I gather, they finish the extension ahead of schedule and on budget? Apparently, the only reason royal didn't proceed further with the remaining Vision Class Ships, because of budgetary reasons involving the orders for Oasis class ship & Freedom Class ships that was currently, at the time, being built. If orders for the Oasis class ships would have come later, Grandeur OTS was next in line to be extended to a similar retrofit.  

From a documentary about Royal Caribbean and it's history I saw while sailing on Symphony.  They deemed the final price too high to continue with Grandeur.  

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10 hours ago, Zambia-Zaire said:

Should some ships be considered for lengthening? What ships would you like to see lengthen & by how much?

Several ships has been extremely refurbished in such a manner. One of the most well known ship many here would be familiar with is Enchantment of the Seas. At $55-60 million, in January of 2005, Enchantment OTS grew 73 feet longer & added 2500 tons, while only losing 0.2 nautical miles in speed. Bet Boleros and Ben & Jerry's was ecstatic about that. ?

For more information on the whole process, here the link & an interesting read I must say, for those interested to learn more.

https://www.vacationstogo.com/articles/cruise_articles_Stretching_Ship.cfm

NCL extended two ships in the 1990s.  I don't think they were all that thrilled with the outcome.  Don't know if it was the cost or the result, but ship extensions seem to have dried up as an option.  Think of the cost overruns on the Empress and that didn't involve cutting the ship into two pieces to add a third.

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Lengthening of Enchantment or any previous ship, that was done, was part of the refurbishment, for that ship, regardless of cruiseline... which has been several. Royal has done it a few times, Enchantment was the last they've done.

I don't think anyone suggesting it should or should not be done. I've simply asked what ship would anyone like to see extended. The extension proved to add not only more cabin, but a few additional venues as well...which add to the overall enjoyment of the ship, versus the original. More is always better, in this case.

The post got hi-Jack from just a fun little thought, to how it not cost effective, when it apparently was...enough to be considered a success.

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11 hours ago, Zambia-Zaire said:

@RCVoyager, you readily admit you don't know if any of that is true...that's all conjecture on your part. I'm going off what is actually stated, from what I read. That's a difference vs anyone's feeling/think what is the case.

Actually everything I stated is factually correct.  NCL did extend two ships in the 1990s.  There were massive overruns on the Empress refurb, and the refurb did not involve an extension.  And yes, extensions seem to have dried up.

I only tried to add to the conversation by pointing out that NCL did it 20 years ago.  Not sure why you say I 'readily admit I don't know if any of it is true'.  I do know it's true.

Peace.

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3 hours ago, Zambia-Zaire said:

Lengthening of Enchantment or any previous ship, that was done, was part of the refurbishment, for that ship, regardless of cruiseline... which has been several. Royal has done it a few times, Enchantment was the last they've done.

I don't think anyone suggesting it should or should not be done. I've simply asked what ship would anyone like to see extended. The extension proved to add not only more cabin, but a few additional venues as well...which add to the overall enjoyment of the ship, versus the original. More is always better, in this case.

The post got hi-Jack from just a fun little thought, to how it not cost effective, when it apparently was...enough to be considered a success.

It was you who introduced the cost into the conversation in your original post.  

There was no hi-jacking of this topic.  Just experienced posters with material information to add.

 

 

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  • 4 months later...

Apparently, Windstar cruises are planning to stretch a number of ships this month, starting with the Star Breeze, than proceeding on to the Star Legend and Star Pride.

These are smaller more intimate ships...cost expect to be around $250 millions dollars in refurbishments.

 

https://www.cruisecritic.com/news/3509/

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I don't pretend to know anything about running a cruise line, especially finances ... but ... just from what has been posted here ....

 

It took 60 million to stretch the ship and added 151 state rooms. That is almost 400 thousand per state room.

Just to make it easy, lets say the state rooms rent for 1,000 per week. It would take 400 weeks or almost 8 years to for them to pay for themselves.

My very basic understanding of business is if something does not pay for itself in 5 years, its not worth it.

Of course this does not take all kinds of things into consideration like cost of extra food, fuel costs or what passengers spend on all kinds of things like drinks to name a few.

 

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I will keep money aside also. RCCL stretched 2 ships in the 80's, the Song of Norway and the Viking Serenade. The Sun Viking was not as a new build came out named Song of America. It looked like at the time that RC noticed that "bigger was better" as the cruise industry grew. Not to very long after that the mighty Sovereign of the Seas came out.

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