BoiiMcFly

That's what the kids' clubs are for. When it rains they hand all the kids bailing buckets and the game of the day is 'bail out the ship'!:D

LMAO I knew that's how they did it.

I'm assuming you are referencing Wiki, but mistyped the displacement, which should be 120,000 metric tons. That is how much the ship actually weighs. Many sources mistakenly cite Gross Tonnage as "weight", when it isn't.

 

In your other thread on Harmony, I explain the difference between Gross Tonnage and displacement.

Gracias again, I believe I understand now. So a fully loaded ship represents the Gross tonnage, whereas the displacement is the actual weight of the ship without any cargo?

Go to the top of the page to, "Find A Cruise" and go from there.

After you put in what you want there will be a banner at the top displaying

different TA's. ;)

Always READ the fine print.

Gracias :D

I believe you are using the ship's "gross tonnage" as a measure of how "heavy" it is? Gross tonnage is not a measure of weight, but "somewhat" a measure of volume. Gross tonnage is determined by taking the entire enclosed volume of the ship and applying certain factors to this, to come up with a "unitless" number. In other words, Harmony's Gross Tonnage is 226,963, period, not 226,963 tons.

 

How much a ship weighs is its "displacement", which is defined as how much water it "displaces" when placed into the water. Think of a glass of water filled to the brim. Now, you drop an ice cube into the glass, and some water spills out. If you measure the amount of water that spilled, that volume times the density of fresh water (1.0) gives you the weight of the ice cube.

 

Proportionally, Harmony and her sisters are not that different from most cruise ships, so there really isn't much difference.

 

Here's a post I did a couple weeks back regarding ship stability;

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=52007070&postcount=27

Informative as always, thanks. Question though, if I were to put the Harmony on a huge scale, would it weigh 226,000 tons or only 100,000? How much does the actual ship weigh on land?

Yes, there are many people that like those bigger ships. I will take a mid-sized ship any day of the week. I fear that eventually you'll be able to embark in NY and walk to the other end of the ship, disembarking in London, without ever leaving port.;)

Lmao who knows it could actually happen. Technology is advancing so fast these days.

Again, I will ask what your criteria is for "largest". While Harmony is the largest cruise ship, it doesn't really enter the top 10 of largest ships even in terms of Gross Tonnage. The largest ship in terms of Gross Tonnage is the Crane Vessel "Pioneering Spirit", which comes in at a whopping 403,000 Gross Tons.

 

Now, the largest ship in terms of "deadweight tonnage", or the amount of cargo weight it can carry, was the Seawise Giant (among other names) at 564,000 deadweight tons. Now, considering that the Harmony actually weighs about 100,000 tons (displacement), that means that if you put the Harmony and her two sisters into a "ship crusher", the Seawise Giant could load all three of them, along with a couple of the Quantum class ships.

 

The Seawise Giant also dwarfed the Harmony in terms of displacement (actual weight of the ship), coming in at a whopping 657,000 tons, compared to the 100,000 tons of Harmony and the largest aircraft carriers afloat today.

 

As to how large they can get? Theoretically anything is possible. The "Freedom Ship" project is much like what you describe as a floating city, but it has been a design dream for a couple of decades, and no one is willing to risk a vast amount of capital on an unproven hull concept. Remember, the horsepower required to move a given weight through the water, is in an exponential relationship to the weight. And the fuel required to move that weight through the water is also exponential to the speed. So, while there are economies of scale in larger cruise ships, at some point, the cost of energy to move it overcomes the economies.

 

We are currently pushing the boundaries of lifesaving equipment that is proven capable of evacuating large numbers of non-trained personnel from ships with the existing ships. I think the flag states and class societies will take a long look at any new lifesaving equipment introduced to increase passenger ship size beyond small increments to what is built today.

 

The final obstacle to larger cruise ships is port infrastructure. The larger the ship, the fewer ports capable of handling the ship.

Thanks, and my bad should have been more specific, I was referring strictly to cruise ships. Also, I am a little confused about the tonnage of a ship vs displacement. Do you mind explaining the difference? Which is the actual weight of the ship? Because it says the Harmony weighs 220,963 tons, with a displacement of approx 12,000. I am confused about the actual weight of the ship now lol.

The larger the ship, the more varied the activities and options - and the more you will be able to do everything which is possible at a land resort: so why bother making it float - ultimately, increasing the size of ships will reduce the point in building, and sailing on, them.

But I feel like that's not stopping people from cruising on them. Most of the things you can do on the Harmony can be done on land as well, but people still choose to sail on it.

There are a number of different "classes" of workers on ships. Ships' officers are well paid and have decent accommodations and conditions, seamen and engine room hands - not quite as good; hospitality and entertainment staff -

longer hours and less comfortable accommodations; housekeeping and food service people range from executive chefs and maitre d's to cabin stewards and assistant waiters -- long hours, low pay unless on a US flagged ship.

 

A lot of uninformed people who were weaned on "Love Boat" episodes have unrealistic views --- don't you think that, if pay and conditions were good, the lines would hire locally rather than East Asians and others with limited opportunities at home.

Great post, yes isn't that the reason why cruise ships are not based in the US so they can avoid all the strict regulations.

Working on a ship. In what capacity? Ship side or hotel side? Officer or crew? Bridge crew are going to work under very different conditions, and enjoy a very different pay scale, than the guys down in the laundry. The hotel director and his immediate staff will have a very different life than the guys scrubbing toilets and emptying your trash.

 

Which company treats its employees best? define "best".

I guess I'm curious to hear from all different departments. And best pretty much means highest pay, safest and most sanitary living and working conditions, overall fair treatment of the employees.

Back when we were studying hospitality management, a friend and I wanted to do an internship on a cruise ship, but unfortunately we never ended up doing it.

I would, however like to know what it is like working aboard the cruise ships. I have heard good things and terrible things.

Also, which cruise line treats its employees the best?

Anyone? :p

Though not bigger and not with streets, a cruise ship already exists with permanent residents. Its called The World.

Yes it made me think of The World. How does it work aboard that ship? Is it like timeshares?

Short answer, because they say so. Long answer is because they are part of the TripAdvisor group.

 

One thing to watch for when looking at TA sites is what the real fare will turn out to be. The cruise line divides the basic fare into "commissionable" and "non-commissionable" portions, telling the TA industry that they will pay commissions on only the "commissionable" portion of the fare. So, many TA's will use the "commissionable" portion of the fare as their "advertised fare", which will be much lower than the cruise line's advertised fare. However, when you book with this TA, you will find that a mysterious line item shows up; "port charges" (not to be confused with "port taxes and fees"), which is the way the TA hides the non-commissionable portion of the fare, and what happens is that when you add up the TA's "fare", "port charges", and "port taxes and fees", you get almost exactly the cruise line's "fare" plus "port taxes and fees".

Great post, and yes I figured most would have hidden fees that show up at the end. So my mission is to find some that are free of surcharges (except for tax and the usual fees of course.)

With Harmony of the Seas being the current largest vessel, many say that it's only a matter of 3-5 years before they surpass it. Do you think cruise ships will ever plateau at a certain size, or we will constantly find ways to make them bigger?

I believe we will always look for ways to make ships bigger, and eventually they will be floating cities with streets and possible permanent housing. I am thinking way in the future here :D

Not allowed to do that on this forum.:(

Oh ok, why don't they allow that?

To each his/her own, but we never book directly with the cruise line. We have a couple of online agencies that we have used for years. Their basic cruise price is the same as the cruise line, however, we always get a ton of on board credit plus other perks.

 

The choice is yours.:)

That sounds great, would you mind telling me their names?

Looking at photos and stats, the ship is extremely heavy and wide, so I would think it handles the seas very well. But when you look at it from behind, it seems very top heavy.

Does it handle the weather better than any other vessel?

Yes that makes sense :D

We can't name travel agency sites here however there are many which are famous or associated with a big box store or other credible business. But basically, unless you find a site that offers cheaper prices and onboard credit better than that offered by the cruise line, there is no reason not to book directly with the cruise line. If you book with a travel agent, then should you ever need to make changes to your reservation, you have to wait for the travel agent to help you. If you book the reservation yourself through the cruise line, then you will be in full control of your reservation.

Thanks!

sorry am not familiar with all the exact names. I guess I am referring to the Boardwalk and Central park. The new ships have lots of open spaces, so I was just wondering how they dealt with heavy rain?

Dear cruisers, should I book on the official cruise line site or what is the cheapest website to book cruises at? Have looked at several but which ones are legit?

TIA.

I see the new Mega ships such as the Harmony of the Seas having an open promenade. Is it able to close when it rains or how does it deal with the weather to prevent flooding?

PS. I love the central parks they have on the ships now.

Thanks guys, great to hear such positive feedback. I know this is the RC board, but even outside of here it seems that FOS is a pretty well liked ship.

Awesome feedback amigos, gracias! Glad to see many people love it, keep the responses coming!

To all of those who have been on the freedom of the seas, is it a nice ship and would you recommend it?