Horrible new scrubber funnels on Freedom class

Earlier this year, RCI started adding scrubbers to their Freedom and Oasis-class ships in order to meet new emissions regulations. Unfortunately, these new systems are rather larger and could not fit within the existing funnels. At first, large gray cylinders (looking like huge trash cans) were added to the sides of the funnels. Later, the funnel casings were expanded to cover the scrubbers.

However, the aesthetic harmony of the ships' designs have been totally ruined. The elegant funnel of the Freedom-class ships has been turned into a bloated, odd, awkward mess on the top of the ship. This is a real shame because Royal Caribbean's funnels have always been a distinctive design element of their ships going all the way back to Song of Norway.

I wonder why they couldn't have found a more pleasing way to integrate the scrubbers? Why not locate them behind the existing funnel where the climbing wall is? It would require moving the climbing walls, but that couldn't bee too difficult. What a mess.

Before the funnel casing was expanded, you could see the scrubber. It almost would have been better if they'd just painted the scrubber white and left the funnel alone.

Some folks think the new water slides on Liberty are just as much an eye sore.

"totally ruined" is an exaggeration to me. Much ado about nothing.

It's called more Government restrictions....

Doesn't bother me at all.

Some folks think the new water slides on Liberty are just as much an eye sore.

The new funnel was incorporated the best it could be, but yes, those slides... totally ruined that ship. Now they need to finish her off with a ropes course contraption that spans the entire top deck like NCL and Carnival are so infatuated with :eek:

Never noticed them. Guess it didn't ruin anything for me.

Thanks, but I'll trade cleaner air for a little "loss" of aesthetics...on a cruise ship that I don't own or have any stake in. Maybe it would concern me if it was my house...

I guess that different people are concerned about different things. For me the look of the funnel is much less important since I am not affected by it. It does not take away any space that anyone can use, nor does it affect anything that I can see unless I look straight up.

So for me, it is not bothersome.

"totally ruined" is an exaggeration to me. Much ado about nothing.

Indeed. I can't imagine getting worked up about something so trivial and irrelevant.

Thanks, but I'll trade cleaner air for a little "loss" of aesthetics...on a cruise ship that I don't own or have any stake in. Maybe it would concern me if it was my house...

+1. Especially if modifications on other ships means that they can continue to sail into environmentally sensitive areas.

(thankfully, your house doesn't use the really nasty bunker fuel for heat)

It's called more Government restrictions....

It's called citizens wanting decent air quality around the port and coast areas.

I probably would have never noticed.... :eek:

It's called citizens wanting decent air quality around the port and coast areas.

I would agree with you if all Countries played on the same playing field, but they do not.... and with the added regulations on just few, does little to help the air quality as long as other large countries continue to pollute.

Then those countries need not pay for the burden of Regulations and the cost of their produced products is less than what we can produce them for.

Puts us at a distinct disadvantage.....

I would agree with you if all Countries played on the same playing field, but they do not.... and with the added regulations on just few, does little to help the air quality as long as other large countries continue to pollute.

 

Then those countries need not pay for the burden of Regulations and the cost of their produced products is less than what we can produce them for.

 

Puts us at a distinct disadvantage.....

Given that air quality pollution is local, the changes (which extend out 150 miles from our shores), do help coastal air quality.

Ships spend a lot of time in our waters, given how much shipping is done withe US- so there is a big impact.

Not sure how that is a disadvantage.

And it's not as if other countries are not doing anything- many are scrambling to find solutions to their own air quality. Most people think China isn't doing anything, when they are actually accelerating the pace of regulatory changes to match the EU- which is not far behind the US.

Plus, many of the shipping air quality rules were first in the Med- just different.

Another vote here for cleaner air! Can't complain about that :)

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Earlier this year, RCI started adding scrubbers to their Freedom and Oasis-class ships in order to meet new emissions regulations. Unfortunately, these new systems are rather larger and could not fit within the existing funnels. At first, large gray cylinders (looking like huge trash cans) were added to the sides of the funnels. Later, the funnel casings were expanded to cover the scrubbers.

 

However, the aesthetic harmony of the ships' designs have been totally ruined. The elegant funnel of the Freedom-class ships has been turned into a bloated, odd, awkward mess on the top of the ship. This is a real shame because Royal Caribbean's funnels have always been a distinctive design element of their ships going all the way back to Song of Norway.

 

I wonder why they couldn't have found a more pleasing way to integrate the scrubbers? Why not locate them behind the existing funnel where the climbing wall is? It would require moving the climbing walls, but that couldn't bee too difficult. What a mess.

 

 

 

Before the funnel casing was expanded, you could see the scrubber. It almost would have been better if they'd just painted the scrubber white and left the funnel alone.

Well they haven't kept us off the ship, been on Freedom twice since they got the new scrubbers. Also I didn't even look at them...............

Given that air quality pollution is local, the changes (which extend out 150 miles from our shores), do help coastal air quality.

 

Ships spend a lot of time in our waters, given how much shipping is done withe US- so there is a big impact.

 

Not sure how that is a disadvantage.

 

And it's not as if other countries are not doing anything- many are scrambling to find solutions to their own air quality. Most people think China isn't doing anything, when they are actually accelerating the pace of regulatory changes to match the EU- which is not far behind the US.

 

Plus, many of the shipping air quality rules were first in the Med- just different.

Are you serious.... China has good air quailty? They are one of the worst countries as are most of Asia and the Middle East.

Where is so much of our goods produced? Asia countries..... Don't understand the difference in producing something in a country with little regulation, especially pollution control. It is simple economics, burden business with added expenses and regulations, the cost of their product goes up, thus is it much cheaper to buy from those countries without regulation who are doing 90% of the damage. China is ranked as the 9th worst polluting country. US is ranked 90th.

Where do we get our fuel from?? Lots of it anyway, the Mid East and look at their pollution.

Stop ALL pollution in the US and it will have little improvement of our climate and pollution.

Here is world rankings... China pollution, and most of its air, is listed as Hazardous.

Search:

Rank

Country

Pollution Index

Exp Pollution Index

1 Afghanistan 101.27 187.20

2 Ghana 97.85 177.40

3 Lebanon 94.88 170.92

4 Bangladesh 93.06 168.43

5 Egypt 92.84 167.32

6 Mongolia 92.67 171.08

7 Myanmar 89.74 166.01

8 Vietnam 88.41 158.09

9 China 88.08 161.07

10 Peru 87.12 156.83

11 Bolivia 86.06 153.55

12 Monaco 85.60 155.72

13 Nigeria 85.03 152.94

14 Macedonia 85.00 155.66

15 Cambodia 83.85 150.24

16 Iran 83.65 152.89

17 Jordan 83.27 147.94

18 Azerbaijan 82.72 146.97

19 Nepal 81.73 144.79

20 Iraq 81.56 145.49

21 Ethiopia 80.36 141.97

22 Qatar 80.34 144.04

23 Dominican Republic 79.40 139.96

24 Pakistan 77.85 137.07

25 Trinidad And Tobago 77.75 137.33

26 Bahrain 76.71 141.64

27 India 76.65 134.89

28 Albania 76.42 134.18

29 Indonesia 76.25 134.07

30 Algeria 75.79 134.34

31 Venezuela 75.47 133.77

32 Thailand 72.84 127.23

33 Saudi Arabia 72.12 127.73

34 Armenia 72.03 132.11

35 Zimbabwe 71.95 128.71

36 Kazakhstan 71.83 131.03

37 Philippines 71.58 124.96

38 Kenya 70.51 123.74

39 Jamaica 70.07 122.27

40 Turkey 69.22 122.33

41 Malta 69.13 120.41

42 Georgia 68.72 122.78

43 Ukraine 68.58 120.15

44 Morocco 68.33 119.49

45 Malaysia 67.61 116.78

46 Hong Kong 67.53 121.68

47 Chile 66.81 122.13

48 Mexico 66.80 115.51

49 Tanzania 65.74 114.39

50 Colombia 64.62 115.93

51 South Africa 64.46 111.61

52 Russia 64.45 111.22

53 Taiwan 64.30 112.54

54 Sri Lanka 62.89 108.76

55 Israel 61.91 109.44

56 Bulgaria 61.69 110.56

57 Tunisia 61.41 106.02

58 Brazil 61.03 104.68

59 United Arab Emirates 59.62 102.71

60 Panama 59.23 106.55

61 Ecuador 58.88 100.53

62 Bosnia And Herzegovina 57.27 100.67

63 Argentina 56.11 97.02

64 Puerto Rico 55.92 96.30

65 Serbia 55.88 95.69

66 Bahamas 54.63 93.50

67 Italy 52.96 89.17

68 Costa Rica 51.76 91.04

69 Mauritius 51.10 89.42

70 Poland 50.79 87.41

71 Belgium 50.46 85.23

72 South Korea 50.28 90.01

73 Greece 49.10 83.45

74 Romania 48.72 80.50

75 Montenegro 48.44 82.63

76 Hungary 45.46 77.79

77 Libya 45.30 76.00

78 Uruguay 44.90 77.88

79 Slovakia 44.28 74.86

80 Oman 44.20 73.40

81 Cyprus 43.06 71.32

82 Czech Republic 42.17 70.95

83 France 42.04 71.39

84 Japan 40.90 66.70

85 Belarus 40.67 67.25

86 Spain 40.37 67.38

87 Singapore 37.69 64.94

88 United Kingdom 34.24 55.68

89 Lithuania 33.16 54.43

90 United States 32.73 56.80

91 Latvia 32.51 52.57

92 Croatia 30.69 50.53

93 Portugal 29.87 48.16

94 Netherlands 29.08 46.91

95 Canada 28.17 46.83

96 Germany 27.68 44.16

97 Ireland 27.47 47.47

98 Denmark 26.84 41.28

99 Slovenia 25.44 45.64

100 Austria 25.43 41.39

101 Australia 24.09 37.99

102 Switzerland 21.73 34.86

103 New Zealand 19.43 32.60

104 Norway 19.28 31.75

105 Estonia 19.19 33.60

106 Sweden 16.59 26.42

107 Finland 14.57 26.64

108 Iceland 10.44 19.00

Showing 1 to 108 of 108 entries

Indeed. I can't imagine getting worked up about something so trivial and irrelevant.

Unless they enjoy stirring pots and getting people fired up. I did enjoy seeing the pictures though.

Given that air quality pollution is local, the changes (which extend out 150 miles from our shores), do help coastal air quality.

 

Ships spend a lot of time in our waters, given how much shipping is done withe US- so there is a big impact.

 

Not sure how that is a disadvantage.

 

And it's not as if other countries are not doing anything- many are scrambling to find solutions to their own air quality. Most people think China isn't doing anything, when they are actually accelerating the pace of regulatory changes to match the EU- which is not far behind the US.

 

Plus, many of the shipping air quality rules were first in the Med- just different.

Actually, the US ECA extends 200 miles from the entire North American coast. And it was the 3rd ECA enacted, after the North Sea and Baltic areas, and was followed by the ECA restrictions while in EU ports, and soon to be Med ECA. In fact, the IMO has made the regulations so that emissions worldwide by ships will tighten up in 2020, nearly to what the ECA's require, and then further study may tighten them even more worldwide.

As to RCI's stacks. There are two types of scrubbers, one where there is a scrubber tower for each engine, and one where several engines' exhaust enter a common scrubber tower. RCI chose the multiple engines to one scrubber version. The individual scrubbers can be retrofitted where the existing "silencer" is in the engine's exhaust, and the only space requirement is for the pumping skid and reclaiming machinery for closed systems. These scrubbers are designed to run "dry" (no scrubbing) when outside the ECA's. The multiple engine to one scrubber requires a larger scrubber tower, and dampers to divert the exhaust gas back to the original exhaust stack when outside the ECA, as well as the pumping skid and reclamation equipment. I can't say why RCI went this way, NCL went the other way, and I believe Carnival is also going with the individual scrubbers.

Unless they enjoy stirring pots and getting people fired up. I did enjoy seeing the pictures though.

Judging by the previous posts, appearances are very important to the OP. :D

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=50991888&postcount=27

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=50893733&postcount=16

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=46278925&postcount=15

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=46026662&postcount=174

Are you serious.... China has good air quailty? They are one of the worst countries as are most of Asia and the Middle East.

 

Where is so much of our goods produced? Asia countries..... Don't understand the difference in producing something in a country with little regulation, especially pollution control. It is simple economics, burden business with added expenses and regulations, the cost of their product goes up, thus is it much cheaper to buy from those countries without regulation who are doing 90% of the damage. China is ranked as the 9th worst polluting country. US is ranked 90th.

 

Where do we get our fuel from?? Lots of it anyway, the Mid East and look at their pollution.

 

Stop ALL pollution in the US and it will have little improvement of our climate and pollution.

 

Here is world rankings... China pollution, and most of its air, is listed as Hazardous.

 

Don't quite get your point. Whether or not China or the Middle East has health issues due to pollution has little effect on air quality in the US. Since we are talking about cruise ship fuel, and cruise ships that sail in US waters, what does industrial pollution in other countries have to do with the argument? Do you think that the cruise lines will import fuel oil from those other countries, pay to ship it all the way here, and then use it in their ships? And what does regulation of the air quality from cruise ships mean to driving the industry away? Do you really think that conforming to the US ECA will drive the cruise industry (or all shipping, since the ECA applies to every ship of whatever type that enters the ECA) from the US? Carnival tried that with Baltimore, and look what it got them, nothing, and they are back sailing from Baltimore with scrubbers.

First World Problems!

Gimme a break - worry about something real

 

Where do we get our fuel from?? Lots of it anyway, the Mid East and look at their pollution.

 

 

Sorry, not true. In 2015 only 24% of our oil was imported:

http://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=32&t=6

And if you dig further you'll find that 2/3 of the 24% that's imported comes from Canada and other non middle east countries. Things have changed a lot and we don't rely on the middle east for much of our energy any longer. Most of it is home grown:)

I'm cool with trying to make the world better no matter if I like how it looks.

And I'm another in agreement with the *bleah* factor of water slides on an otherwise elegant ship.

I would agree with you if all Countries played on the same playing field, but they do not.... and with the added regulations on just few, does little to help the air quality as long as other large countries continue to pollute.

I'm still cool with some doing their part. I don't need total compliance to be happy.

Are you serious.... China has good air quailty?

The person you're responding to said nothing of the sort. Reading again..."Most people think China isn't doing anything, when they are actually accelerating the pace of regulatory changes"...

THAT is what the poster said.