Supersized Cruise Ships Will Contain Malls and Movie Theatres
There are already cruise ships big enough to carry over 3,000 people but that's just not big enough for the cruise industry. An AFP article says new town-sized cruise liners will be so big they will hold over 6,000 people. They will contain shopping malls, casinos, wave pools and giant movie theatres with 1,700 seats. Like today's vessels it is a safe bet that these enormous cruise ships will offer non-stop gourmet meals as well. The picture on the right is a drawing of one of the cruise ships that will be designed by Aker Yards. It will be sea ready in two or three years.
The cruise line business is riding high and the luxury liner of tomorrow will be more like a floating town the length of four football pitches and capable of carrying 6,000 passengers.
The next generation of liner will contain 1,700-seat theatres, shopping malls and even wave pools for surfing and be up to about 410 metres long.
By comparison, the ill-fated Titanic, still substantial by recent standards, carried 2,500 passengers and was 883 feet (268 metres) long.
This quantum leap in the dimension of the luxury liner was apparant at the sixth "Top Cruise" show grouping cruise operators, travel agents and port managers here last week.
The article says these giant new ships will have wave pools but wave pools are already found on some cruise ships. You can see Santa surfing here on a FlowRider aboard Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas cruise ship. Royal Caribbean is transforming its fleet into floating "Winter Wonderlands" so people on a holiday cruise this December won't miss out on eggnog and Santa Claus.
The downside to these massive cruise ships of the near future is that many people go on a cruise because it is a great way to see a lot of different places as the cruise ship makes stops along the route. These giant ships seem designed to make you never want to leave. Carnival representative Cedric Rivoire-Perrochat agrees. Rivoire-Perrochat told the AFP: "There has been talk of giant islands, afloat and filled with entertainment, which would not have the shape of a ship. But part of the pleasure of a cruise is the arrival in harbour and a visit ashore."
