Possibility of new ships About This Page:

[dmpyron]

The possibilities are rapidly dimminishing for a new ship for a few years out. Fincanterini is booked through 2007 and has orders for delivery in 2008. There are currently 23 ships on firm order with all of the builders, totalling over 2 million GRT.

[Irene]

I don't understand can you explain in more detail.

[Dave Marx]

On the assumption that the ships will be built by the same shipyard that built the Magic and Wonder, it doesn't look very good for Disney to have a ship built in the next couple of years. There are a few other shipyards capable of building the kind of cruise ship Disney would want, but they, too, are heavily booked.

2,000,000 GRT (gross tons) is a measure of the approximate size of the ships under construction. 23 ships at 2 mil. GRT would be about 86,000 tons each. The Magic and Wonder weigh-in at about 83,000 tons. In short, the shipyards are building a lot of big ships. Undoubtedly, some will be super-sized (over 110,000 tons) and some will be more intimate (the super-deluxe lines and those interested in visiting smaller, less-frequently visited harbors), but the average figure clearly shows the tendency to build bigger ships.

However, I wouldn't lose all hope. The shipyards always seem to find a shoehorn when there's more business to be done (witness the way the Magic was built in two pieces at two different shipyards because the biggest drydocks weren't available).

[dmpyron]

Here's a URL with the ships listed.

Builders list

Some of them are plain huge. 158,000 tons is a lot of people, probably close to 4000 if my numbers add up.

One gross registered tonne (GRT) is the equivalent of 100 cubic feet of revenue space. This excludes things like the engine room and bridge,and crew quarters.

To get an idea of the spaciousness (or lack thereof), divide the tonnage by the passengers. The Magic and Wonder come in at 47 tonnes per passenger. Royal Caribbean Voyager class ships come in at 45 tonnes each and the Rhapsody of the Seas is 39 tonnes. The number itself is only slightly useful, but what it does tell you is that the Magic will feel slightly larger than the Voyager and much larger than the Rhapsody.

There, now you know more than you wanted to.

Thanks, Dave, for your clarification.