World's Largest Ship

Titanic - Courtesy Google Images

In 1912, the RMS Titanic was a state of the art passenger liner. She was 882 feet long and carried 3,547 passengers and crew. In case you missed it, on April 15, 1912, she hit an iceberg and sank, killing more than 1,500 people.

In the years since that 1912 disaster, ships have gotten bigger. The Disney cruise liner, the Dream, is 1,115 feet long and can carry 5,450 crew and passengers. But she’s not the largest liner in the world; that honor belongs to Royal Caribbean’s sister ships, the Oasis of the Seas and the Allure of the Seas. Both ships are 1,187 feet long and can carry 6,296 people.

Wow! 6,296 people is larger than the crew aboard a United States Navy Nimitz class aircraft carrier.

Dream - Courtesy Google Images

Oasis - Courtesy Google Images

There seems to be no maximum of ship size. Freedom Ship International has announced plans to build a ship, Freedom Ship, that would be 4,500 feet long, and twenty five stories high. There would be over 200 acres of recreation space, hospitals, restaurants and a runway at the very top of the ship that would be capable of accommodating forty passenger turboprop airplanes. According to Freedom Ship International, the ship would accept up to
40,000 full time residents, 30,000 daily visitors, 10,000 nightly hotel guests and 20,000 full time crew. Freedom Ship International calls it The First Mobile City at Sea.

The ship would be so massive that no port in the world could accommodate it. It would complete an around-the-world cruise every two years.

The concept for the Freedom Ship originated in the 1990s. According to Business Insider, at an estimated cost nearing a staggering $10 billion, project investors were scarce. The project was scrapped after the financial crisis in 2008.

Freedom - Courtesy Google Images

Business Insider reports that Roger Gooch, a member of the original team, has revived the idea because he believes the financial climate is changing.

I’ve seen the Oasis of the Seas up close and I’ve been on the Disney Dream. Both ships are huge; the Dream is so big that it is easy to get lost and turned around once aboard.

I find it difficult to fathom that something that’s more than ¾ of a mile long and 750 feet wide can float. If built, the Freedom Ship would make the Oasis of the Seas look like a tugboat. And, based on what happened to the Titanic, I wonder how many lifeboats it would take to evacuate 100,000 people.

What do you think; would you take a cruise aboard the Freedom Ship?

Living the Disney Dream

Last week, my wife and I took our first ever cruise.  It was a four-day jaunt aboard the Disney Dream with a stop in Nassau, Bahamas and Castaway Cay, the Disney island.

Our first stop was Nassau, with an excursion to the aquarium at the Atlantis Resort.  The aquarium had been designed to resemble an archeological dig, chock full of artifacts from the lost city of Atlantis.  It was cheesy.  Our guide was very knowledgeable regarding fish.  She had the fictional details of the Atlantian history committed to memory, but her delivery was very wooden and unconvincing as if she were just reading from a script.

Our second stop was Castaway Cay.  There was a ton to do there.  You could parasail, windsurf, ride a jet ski, ride in a glass-bottom boat, snorkel, swim with the manta rays, bike or just lay on the beach.  They even had an adult beach which excluded anyone under 18 to provide a break for people like me whose children were already grown.

Don’t get me wrong, I knew going in that a Disney cruise would have kids so I’m not complaining about children being around.  But, it was nice to have the option to hang out in an area that was … quieter.

The Dream was a huge ship, though I really don’t have anything to compare it to.  The last time I was aboard any type of seagoing vessel was in the early 70s.  My older brother was stationed aboard the USS Dewey DLG-14 and they did a one-day family cruise out of Newport, RI.  I thought the Dewey was big but the Dream dwarfed the destroyer.

Of course, all things are relative.  In Nassau, we were docked next to the Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas.  That’s a big ship.  It’s the largest cruise ship in the world – two inches (or so) longer then her sister ship, Oasis of the Seas.  The Allure looked to be at least 25% bigger than the Dream.

There was plenty to do aboard the Dream.  Live shows, swimming, eating and the piece de resistance, the AquaDuck water slide.  The AquaDuckwas 765 feet of water ridin’ twists and turns.  It was awesome.

For the money, I think a cruise is a great deal.  Lots of food, lots of things to do; if you walk away bored or hungry you’ve only yourself to blame.  Any dissenting opinions?