Guest post: 200 metric tonnes per day as a minimum
Originally a comment by Freeminder on 24% more energy efficient than required.
For a ship this big, I’d expect to see a fuel usage of 200 metric tonnes per day as a minimum. Constantly running generators, for propulsion and electricity needs, would take some serious usage. Wonder how much generating ‘reserve’ capacity the ship has, if maxed out with crew and passengers?
And when does the cruise ship market say “That’s big enough” and “We have enough”? One of these things arriving in a small harbour would feel like an invasion. My other concerns are safety (what if this one sinks or is ablaze, can they evacuate in time?) and security (potentially 9,950 people on board makes it a very tempting target). Despite all the modern navigation and safety aids, no ship is unsinkable. The wakes from these ships moving at speed can be incredible and are banned from approaching certain places unless at walking speed.
For most of the crew, the ship would be a floating hotel. For the bridge crew and engineers it is a mobile town.
There are two more of the same class being built. Will another company try upping the size record with their order? Instead of fastest, will tonnage/passenger capacity be the new Blue Riband? I am very glad not to be at sea any more. Bigger is not always better.
I’d be wary of being on a ship with so many passengers for a week because of COVID and other highly infectious viruses like norovirus.
Being on that ship would be my idea of HELL.
J.A, there have been many outbreaks of various diseases on large cruise/liner ships for decades. In these cases the passengers and crew are quarantined, and the ship is restricted in port entry (anchor off, or alongside but no disembarkation) or denied entry. The modern cruise ship has a fully equipped hospital, dentist and pharmacy. There are medical specialists from every field on call via video links, and in the worst cases, helicopter medivac. Medical wise, everyone aboard will be well cared for. Just would be upsetting to spend all that money to be stuck in a cabin ill. Some companies had a policy to stop crew pay if ill or deduct it from voyage pay before signing off, especially the agency recruited hotel staff.
Ophelia, I heartily agree! I sailed on two container ships that could carry up to twelve passengers (any more meant having a full medical sickbay and staff). Although most were charming and looking for a different experience, and some were there because they couldn’t fly, there were several who were just obnoxious and patronising. They had paid to be onboard, and they certainly wanted us to know it. Now, the idea of a ship with 7,000 plus passengers; no thank you! Just too many people!
For the crew, they are never really off duty, and expected to be visible, with the officers eating with the passengers and being on call. Not something I could tolerate for a four month or so voyage.
7,000 plus passengers in a small space with escape not an option except in an emergency. [shudder]
I was persuaded two go on two cruises. The first one was terrible, and I only went on the second one to verify that I hated it (and that was 20 years ago). Now that I’m older and less tolerant, it sounds even more hellish. My suggestion is if you’ve never been, don’t bother. All I could think of was how much crappy food (it was fkn obscene) was being consumed and where it was all going. What a waste of resources, not to mention the pollution of all kinds — lots of it. The little towns that thrive on the tourism would be better off without the behemoths full of tourists rolling in and destroying their culture and littering their environment. The whole scene is gross, and the people were, well, you know how people are. Yuck.
To me, the cruise ship industry is one that didn’t need to recover from COVID.
That thing isn’t just big, it’s also hideously ugly. It looks tacky and gauche. Frankly I’m surprised it doesn’t have the name TRUMP in 30 foot high letters on every hull surface.
I’ve been on one cruise. I found it a pleasant experience. I think I’d do it again. Some of my family members go on Disney cruises, and enjoy them very much. The ships are essentially floating amusement parks; lots of forms of entertainment and activities, a great deal (and great variety) of food. I think ship designers have done a good job of ensuring that there are places where people can find some amount of seclusion; most people want at least a little uncrowded down time. I hate crowds, but I didn’t find the environment oppressive on the one cruise I took (admittedly it was only half populated due to itinerary changes).
If you don’t like amusement parks, if you don’t like the idea of going to a place where there is a ton of provided entertainment but you rarely if ever leave the site, I doubt you’d like such a place stacked up and put out to sea. If you are going to spend your time thinking about resource usage and trash disposal and waste, I don’t think you’re going to enjoy a cruise.
I can’t think of much that would advantage a cruise over an amusement park or resort, except perhaps the all-inclusive aspect and the reduced amount of travel between venues. Well, maybe some people care that the ship goes to a location where you can disembark.
Well if you’re someone who dislikes unnecessary and destructive resource usage then you’re not going to go on a cruise in the first place.
I disagree. There are lots of things I think are unnecessary and destructive resource usage, such as various forms of farming or energy production or transportation, but I put that aside in my mind and buy food or obtain energy or transportation based on other criteria; perhaps I have qualms about it, but I don’t have control, and I have other priorities. Similarly, I dislike the resource usage of cruises, but if it gives me an opportunity to get together with family I haven’t seen in a long time, I’d put the resource usage aside in my mind and have a good time along with my family.
But, as I said, if you are a person who cannot put that aside, you are probably not going to have fun, and it’s perhaps better not to join your family members. There are any number of situations where I am sure I’d make (and have made) a similar decision to avoid going because of major qualms I cannot put aside temporarily. Little point in going to an event where you’re going to be miserable the whole time, regardless of the reason.
I do get the impression that, even if cruises used zero energy, there is no appeal for some people. Some people don’t enjoy amusement parks, floating or otherwise, and some prefer the stable ones on the ground to the floating ones. I can see that, too.
Mine, too.
My mother travelled from Sweden to the USA in 1957 on a cruise ship. Back then, the ships were small and elegant, without casinos and pools. Perhaps a few hundred passengers, max. People dressed up for dinner, and spent their days on the ship out on the deck, just enjoying the trip. Her fond memories of that journey caused her to suggest that we take a cruise and I had to say “mom, things have changed; cruises are not the way you remember them anymore”.
We’re all embedded in a civilization that seems to be predicated on unnecessary and destructive resource usage, which developed under the mistaken belief that Earth’s resources were infinite, as was its capacity to absorb our wastes and “byproducts,” if it thought of those things at all beyond mere supply and demand. This is all relatively recent, and made possible by a bonanza of fossil fuels that seemingly eased or lifted the restictions on our choices, power, and abilities. Now that limits to both resources and waste absorption are readily visible, our true power and impact on the biological, material and energetic cycles of the planet are impinging on our formerly heedless “full steam ahead, business as usual” ethos. Our choices and actions were once only limited to whether or not we could afford them financially, when we thought that the costs involved were solely monetary. Now there are questions around if there’s enough to go around, and what happens to the wastes generated. It’s no longer just a matter if whether we’re maxing out our credit cards, but if we’re maxing out the planet. “Cost” and “payment” have much deeper meanings than they used to, or rather we’re now becoming aware of the prices and consequences that have always been there, just hidden away.