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When is Keel Laying for Project Sunshine?


will773

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I know that Oasis and Allure are significantly larger, but looking at their schedule and comparing it to the timeline of the Freedom-class construction, shouldn't the keel-laying for the new ship be sometime soon?

 

Does anyone have any info or updates about the ship?

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I know that Oasis and Allure are significantly larger, but looking at their schedule and comparing it to the timeline of the Freedom-class construction, shouldn't the keel-laying for the new ship be sometime soon?

 

Does anyone have any info or updates about the ship?

Royal is keeping Sunshine class details under wraps. All they have said is that it will be slightly larger than Freedom class, and be suitable for colder climates. I agree, that construction should be starting fairly soon if they intend to deliver the first ship in less than 2 years.

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My guess is this month !!

Not likely. The second NCL ship is under construction, so the building dock is full until the first NCL ship floats out next spring. Because of the size of the NCL ships, there is no room to lay a third keel.

There may be a "first steel cutting" ceremony before then, but MW's build schedule is about 14 months from keel laying to float out,which would put the keel laying somewhere around mid-April to mid-May

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Not likely. The second NCL ship is under construction, so the building dock is full until the first NCL ship floats out next spring. Because of the size of the NCL ships, there is no room to lay a third keel.

There may be a "first steel cutting" ceremony before then, but MW's build schedule is about 14 months from keel laying to float out,which would put the keel laying somewhere around mid-April to mid-May

 

What's the other ship currently being built? The other NCL ship? Does MW do something similar to STX where they build the ship and then to a float out for outfitting, or do they do everything inside the warehouse?

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What's the other ship currently being built? The other NCL ship? Does MW do something similar to STX where they build the ship and then to a float out for outfitting, or do they do everything inside the warehouse?

 

The two ships currently in their building dock are the Breakaway (Keel was laid in May, float out is scheduled for "spring 2013") and her sister ship the Getaway (Keel was laid at the beginning of November, delivery is scheduled for "mid January 2014"). Once they float out a ship from their covered building docks, it usually takes ~two months of fit out/sea trials before the ship is delivered to the owner. They've been averaging six months between keel layings for their last 5-6 newbuilds, and about 14 months from keel laying to delivery. They also average about two months from float out of one ship to the keel laying of the next newbuild in the queue. So if the breakaway floats out in February or March (if they stay on schedule), teh keel for Sunshine should be laid mid april - mid May 2013, to make a fall 2014 delivery to RCL

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Seems like not much time! I guess they know what they're doing though!

 

I think they can build them so much more quickly, because the cabins are all modular. They just get stacked up in the superstructure like a bunch of lego blocks. There was some interesting video showing how quickly the Oasis was put together that way.

 

I too am hoping to see more details soon.

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Not likely. The second NCL ship is under construction, so the building dock is full until the first NCL ship floats out next spring. Because of the size of the NCL ships, there is no room to lay a third keel.

There may be a "first steel cutting" ceremony before then, but MW's build schedule is about 14 months from keel laying to float out,which would put the keel laying somewhere around mid-April to mid-May

I concur with your assessment. I do believe the first steel cutting is very close at hand. Meyer-Werft does seem to be very efficient on their new build schedule. You can bet as soon as the first NCL ship (Breakaway) can be slid out of the production building room will be made to lay the keel for the first Project Sunshine ship.

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Just off of Adventure, and our loyalty ambassador said that the staterooms and balconies will be larger. Not sure if that was a joke though. He then went on to say that the only way they could make the staterooms larger was to borrow some room from the shower ;)

That'll be steal, not borrow! It won't be given back, LOL.

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Just off of Adventure, and our loyalty ambassador said that the staterooms and balconies will be larger. Not sure if that was a joke though. He then went on to say that the only way they could make the staterooms larger was to borrow some room from the shower ;)

 

They may be going back to the size of the rooms on the Mariner, which are about 16 sq feet bigger than the Oasis.

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Not likely. The second NCL ship is under construction, so the building dock is full until the first NCL ship floats out next spring. Because of the size of the NCL ships, there is no room to lay a third keel.

There may be a "first steel cutting" ceremony before then, but MW's build schedule is about 14 months from keel laying to float out,which would put the keel laying somewhere around mid-April to mid-May

 

Not sure what you mean about no room for a third keel to lay:confused:

 

They are building at least four ships at a time, with four keels being layed at a time.

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They can only assemble one and a half ships at a time in the assembly shed. The other building shed where the Aida ships were built are not large enough to build the new NCL or RCI ships. They can in fact assemble part of the keel in other locations in the yard and float the keel in when ready to start the block assembly. They did this with a few of the Solstice class ships.

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Not sure what you mean about no room for a third keel to lay:confused:

 

They are building at least four ships at a time, with four keels being layed at a time.

 

 

While technically true, it is also entirely irrelevant to the discussion, since they have two completeley separate building halls, and they can only do two per hall. The other hall (hall 5) is currently only capable of building ships like Aida. Sunshine class ships are physically too large to be constructed in that hall. Hall 6, where sunshine will ultimately be built is not physically long enough to hold more than 1 1/2 hulls the size of the Celebrity Reflection, and Sunshine will in all liklihood be lightly longer.

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They can only assemble one and a half ships at a time in the assembly shed. The other building shed where the Aida ships were built are not large enough to build the new NCL or RCI ships. They can in fact assemble part of the keel in other locations in the yard and float the keel in when ready to start the block assembly. They did this with a few of the Solstice class ships.

 

Actually, the block assembly has to be at least half done before they can do this as they can only float in from one end of the hall (the other end is landlocked), so they can only do this after they float out the first ship. i.e, they could float in the second half of getaway when they float out breakaway, but they couldn't float any of sunshine in unless they also floated out a half finished getaway to do it. They also did this float out/float in scheme with the Disney Fantasy, and will probably do the same with the second NCL ship. I would also expect they will ultimately do this with the second sunshine class ship as well.

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