Fairsky84

Very nice investigative work, FreestyleNovice. I'm sure once the ship gets closer to launch it will look very different with hull art and a nest of colorful waterslides and ropes courses. surrounding the funnel.

With so many innovative designs coming from Royal Caribbean, MSC, NCL, Celebrity, and no doubt Virgin it seems that Carnival is long overdue for something groundbreaking. Honestly, when was the last time CCL launched an industry-changing ship? Carnival Destiny in 1996? Everything since then has been an upgrade of that basic hull design.

Are any of the new LNG ships going to Carnival? Know they've ordered them for Costa, Aida, and P&O. Hopefully Carnival is working on a new, and truly groundbreaking design of their own. However, as long as the cash keeps rolling in from 20+ year old hulls they may not be motivated to spend the capital necessary for a new design.

Well, if I were MSC I'd be ticked. The ship is almost an exact replica of the MSC Seaside/Seaview with only minor adjustments on the bow and stern. Even the funnels are virtually identical. Fincantieri must have really designed an economically fantastic hull and layout with the Mille concept for two cruise lines to order nearly identical ships, and/or NCL got a great deal purchasing 4 newbuilds based on a prototype paid for by their competition. (The first ship in a series is always the most expensive.) Of course, NCL has a long history of capitalizing on other cruise lines' investments. Norwegian Sky was an incomplete Costa newbuild acquired by NCL, and Pride of America was partially completed by American Cruise Line before NCL snapped it up in bankruptcy.

Check out NCL's Leonardo Project (MSC Seaside V.2)....

 

Edge bow with Seaside rear end :eek:

Wow. Didn't expect that from NCL. It makes sense why they are building at Fincantieri as that shipyard created the MSC Seaside concept. It looks almost identical to MSC Seaside- even the same funnel design, but with the en vogue vertical bow.

Princess got a huge blowback when they didnt include one in their most recent ship class.

 

I understand the engineering reasons, but I think MSC has it right when it comes to the new ship design.

We should remember that all ship design is a compromise. Adding space to one area takes it away from another. I think the logic of a promenade applied to ocean liners and early cruise ships without verandas. It gave passengers a space to enjoy the sea apart from the noise of the pool deck. (As well as serving the practical function of loading lifeboats in an emergency.) This made the public spaces on the promenade deck more narrow.

Today, cruise lines realize the private veranda has replaced the promenade, and the space necessary for a true promenade deck is better utilized with expanded revenue-producing spaces (bars, shops, casino, etc.) on the public entertainment decks. The new designs by MSC are interesting because the expanded promenade is not really taking space away from revenue-producing public areas of the ship. Instead they've removed open space from the top decks with a narrow superstructure and relocated it to a lower deck to form a promenade. Will it be popular? We'll see. I'm just grateful to see innovation in ship designs after decades of Destiny-class, Grand-class, and Vista-class variants.

Here's an exterior view of the veranda with the window lowered.

I really like this design and the flexibility if affords. My only concern is mechanical. Conventional verandas rely on a simple sliding door. The Edge's require a mechanical (I'm guessing electric) device to raise and lower the window. If the mechanism fails to would render the entire cabin unsuitable unless the french doors are robust enough to withstand bad weather while the window is lowered. I only hope they've created a very reliable and fail-proof mechanism for these windows otherwise maintaining these huge opening windows is going to be a nightmare for the crew.

I still think the orange Flying Carpet on the side looks like a construction rig--as if they didn't quite finish her at the shipyard. Not attractive.

The rest of the design is elegantly futuristic.

Regarding her external appearance...

Likes:

-Original and cleaver funnel design

-Glass balcony design creates a smooth exterior appearance

-The bow looks modern or even futuristic

Dislike:

-The orange Magic Carpet and lift tracks. It reminds me of the original M-class livery with blue/white/red/yellow. It gave the ships a cartoony look rather than a mature and elegant feel appropriate for a premium brand like Celebrity. Eventually they came to their sense and repainted the M-class ships blue and white. I hope they do the same with Edge. The Flying Carpet is already visually disrupting to the sleekness of the ship's design. Why make it even more gaudy with the bright orange paint?

Hmmm... Why not put the X logo on the side of the funnel as well. It seems perfectly suited for it:

Also, we know from the steel cutting ceremony that the bow of the ship will have a shape similar to AidaPrima and the new LNG ships for Costa/P&O/Aida.

Wow. Some folks REALLY didn't like my OP. Didn't mean to offend or start a political debate about government regulations. A few clarifications:

1. I absolutely support cleaner air and the new regulations.

2. I applaud RCI for adding scrubbers to their ships and doing all they can to making cruising more environmentally friendly.

3. I am a fan of naval architecture and design. These ships, beyond offering a great vacation experience, are amazing engineering marvels and incredible examples of industrial design.

4. My OP was expressing disappointment that RCI didn't do more to preserve the design integrity of these ships when adding the scrubbers. (And, yes, I also lament the amusement parks being added to the top decks of many ships, but I understand the need to have them.)

5. For those who think this is a silly topic and the design of the funnels is irrelevant to their cruise experience—you're probably right.

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.

Carnival Corp has developed this new class of 180,000grt ships powered by LNG to be used across multiple brands. Expect the ships to be virtually identical externally other than their funnels, but with different interior decor suited to each brand. Here's the breakdown of where these ships, and other upcoming newbuilds, will be going.

New LNG-class 180,000grt

Costa 2019 (Meyer Turku)

Aida 2019 (Meyer Werft)

Carnival 2020 (Meyer Turku)

P&O 2020 (Meyer Weft)

Costa 2021 (Meyer Turku)

Aida 2021 (Meyer Weft)

Carnival 2022 (Meyer Turku)

Vista-class 135,000grt

Carnival 2018 (Fincantieri)

Costa-China 2019 (Fincantieri)

P&O Australia 2020 (Fincantieri)

Costa-China 2020 (Fincantieri)

Royal-class 143,000grt

Princess 2017 (Fincantieri)

Princess 2019 (Fincantieri)

Princess 2020 (Fincantieri)

This question has been bothering me for years. When oasis first debuted with the blue hull, I wondered if the rest of the fleet would be repainted. It made sense to give this very large and very special class of ships their own look. But when the quantum class debuted with the blue hull I was confused.

It's no longer a special livery for just one class of ships. I still do not understand why they are not repainting the entire fleet with the same livery. Has anyone created photoshops of what the other classes would look like with the blue hulls?

I want to know why they decided to put the ship's funnel on backwards? Am I the only one who thinks it looks strange?

I'd love to see that survey from Princess with the other hull design options. Does anyone have a copy?

For some reason I get surveys from time to time from "Princess Consumer Insights" on various things, and I recall about 6 months ago being presented with a range of different "artwork" on ships hulls and to choose the one that appealed to me (any why). I selected something a little more subtle that what they seem to have eventually gone with.

 

Interesting to see how long these things are in the planning.

Does anyone have the survey sent by Princess showing the different hull design options? If what we see on Majestic really is the best design, I'd be curious to see what else they had in mind.

A few observations:

1. This new livery solidifies what we've all known for a long time...Princess is not a premium cruise line. It is the understated moderate cruise brand for Carnival Corp.

2. Hull art is here to stay. With so many cruise lines and ships in the market, more lines are looking for ways to differentiate and identify their brand. Back in the 70s/80s Royal Caribbean and Carnival pioneered the idea of using their funnel designs for branding and now it's hull art. Who knew Sitmar's short-lived swan livery and waves on the hull were to become an industry standard?

Does anyone know if RCI intends to paint the hulls of any of their existing ships light blue to match Oasis-class and Quantum-class ships?

I figured that would have been done by now as different ships were drydocked since the launch of Oasis. Still, I'd love to see some photoshop renderings of older RCI ships in the newer livery.

BTW were you on the "Fairsky" i.e Sitmar Cruises in 1984/

 

It was my first cruise in 1985.

Yes, I sailed Fairsky on her inaugural season to Alaska in 1984 from San Francisco and then a second time to Mexico in 1985 from Los Angeles.

I'm looking forward to this ship. It's rare for a truly original design like MSC Seaside to come along in an industry that is full of copycat ships. Yes, from time to time you see a new gimmick like a water coaster or "skydiving" at sea. But the real innovations are few.

I'd put RCI's Voyager-class and Oasis-class in the category of innovative ship designs, but I don't think CCL or any of its brands have done anything close to innovative in decades. Let's hope MSC and Virgin shake things up for an industry that's getting stale.

One thing I don't like about the new MSC ship is the name. Seaside? Really? It's very out of sync with the naming philosophy of the rest of the fleet. What will the other new ships be named? MSC Bayside, MSC Streetside, MSC Sunnyside, MSC Flipside?

Here's a prediction. Celebrity has historically used yacht designers to create the external profiles of their ships. Given the recent innovation in bow design currently seen on newer yachts, I predict the new EDGE-class ships from Celebrity will be the first cruise ships to have a forward sloping X-Bow. Here are some examples from others ships:

There have been a number for cruise ship concepts with this design, and leaked images of the new Virgin ships indicate they will use this innovative bow. Currently, the ships that come closest are the new Aida ships being built in Japan. Here's the Virgin design:

The new MSC ships from Fincantieri are actually based on this concept design from the shipyard shown in 2013.

It features a mid-ship engine/funnel placement. Very narrow forward and aft superstructure. A low, wrap around promenade with lifeboats below. Pool area behind the funnel with a dome covered pool ahead, and a large after pool low on the promenade. The MSC ships even have the exact same forward mast design as this model concept.

While not the prettiest design, it's nice to see something different.