BELFAST WELCOMES ONE OF THE WORLDS LARGEST CRUISE SHIPS MS Royal Princess, the flagship of Princess Cruises, arrives today. At 142,714-tons, and with an overall length of 1,083 feet, the 15 month old cruise ship is the largest vessel to call at Belfast this season. Construction on this giant of the seas began in March 2011 at the famous Fincantieri shipyard in Monfalcone, Italy when the first plate for Yard No. 6,223 was cut. The next milestone in construction came on 20 October 2011 when the vessels keel was laid. She was floated out of her building berth in August 2012 and delivered to her owners in Spring 2013 - from first plate to naming ceremony by The Duchess of Cambridge, taking just 26 months. In the constant evolution of the cruise ship Royal Princess incorporates many new features one of which is a SeaWalk extending almost 15 feet from each side of the vessel with glass floors and views 128 feet straight down! More conventional features include private balconies with every staterooms, an enormous top deck swimming pool, outside cinema with a screen 30% larger than any other and an even larger and expanded atrium with additional entertainment and casual dining options. The changing patterns of dining in these new classes of vessel reflect the way cruising has become less formal. Whilst some of Royal Princesss 3,600 passengers will always demand fine dining, families, particularly with younger children find formal settings difficult to use and for many passengers children in the dining room are still a problem. Princess, part of Carnival plc, recognised this and this new generation of ships offer a far greater dining experience. Many people view these vessels as a another step in the evolutionary process towards the floating resort destination. That may very well be the case when one considerers the new Royal Caribbean International ships belonging to the Quantum class - 167,800-ton and 1,142 feet in length - and where will it end? Probably restricted destinations and the inability to land large numbers of passengers within a reasonable time will be the deciding factor in future. The projected schedule for next year will see Royal Princess making up to nine calls at Belfast. She will be in today between 8am and 6pm and for those wishing to see her the best viewing points will be at Titanic Belfast. For tickets and event information please visit titanicbelfast Captions (main) Royal Princess arriving at Southampton for the first time in 2013 (left) The atrium, the centre piece of Princess Cruises new flagship (right) Her slipper stern design and tiered accommodation do little to disguise the massive proportions of this vessel
Posted on: Thu, 18 Sep 2014 03:00:00 +0000
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