Meanwhile, on the Oasis of the Seas…. Photos in dry-dock.

[B-52]

The keel blocks are prepositioned according to the "docking plan" of the ship. The blocks are typically made of concrete and are thus on the order of several thousand pounds each. The blocks would be placed using the cranes and when the ship comes into the drydock she is precisely placed in the dock using GPS or some other way.

 

 

I worked around the yards while in the Navy...the blocks are set long before the ship arrives, then when the ship enters the docks, it is centered using tansits that surveyors use....

That was 40+ years ago...I sure they moved onto lasers, then GPS, etc...but the ship has to be held perfectly in center as the water is moved out....

 

There are no divers that I ever saw...don't know where they do that...

[chengkp75]

I worked around the yards while in the Navy...the blocks are set long before the ship arrives, then when the ship enters the docks, it is centered using tansits that surveyors use....

That was 40+ years ago...I sure they moved onto lasers, then GPS, etc...but the ship has to be held perfectly in center as the water is moved out....

 

There are no divers that I ever saw...don't know where they do that...

 

Virtually every commercial dry dock in the world will use a diver to ensure that nothing managed to get caught between the ship and the blocks during positioning, to ensure that major things like sea chests are not covered, and that the blocks are generally where they need to be. One docking I did, they managed to get a mooring line looped under the bow, and as the worked to free it, they ripped the pine capping off several blocks. The divers were used to replace this wood.

 

As I said in a previous post, while laser range finders are quite common, GPS is not accurate enough, and I've even seen them use a folding metal ruler if the ship fills the dock sufficiently (that one, we had about 10' between the ship and the dock side).

 

I would be surprised that the Navy does not require a diver for dockings, since there are serious and costly items like sonar domes hanging off the bottom of those ships, and even a couple of inches wrong in spotting the ship could cause serious issues.

[steamboats]

Yes, in a kiosk on the Boardwalk.

 

Bob, no confirmation of that so far. I asked my DH this morning but he hasn´t seen any donuts yet. The Doghouse only got new signage but no redecoration beyond this. Maybe the do offer the donuts at the Ice Cream Parlor... But I´ve told him to check on the donuts.

 

steamboats

[Clarea]

Bob, no confirmation of that so far. I asked my DH this morning but he hasn´t seen any donuts yet. The Doghouse only got new signage but no redecoration beyond this. Maybe the do offer the donuts at the Ice Cream Parlor... But I´ve told him to check on the donuts.

 

steamboats

 

Thanks for the update.:)

[Ocean Boy]

With the Boardwalk Donuts now the Boardwalk Hot dog House, do they still have donuts somewhere?

 

It is a cruise ship. Of course there are donuts somewhere.

[Paulette3028]

Anyone know the webcam address for Southampton, England port?

[m*u*g*]

It is a cruise ship. Of course there are donuts somewhere.

 

It should be set-up like Allure, Donut shop just across the way set-up as a self serve area. But they only have them during certain times of the day (on Allure), mainly in the morning hours. Tip Ziploc bags---if you really want that particular donut later in the day.

Edited October 15, 2014 by m*u*g*

[steamboats]

I will keep track of the donuts ;):D!

 

steamboats

[cruisebirdie]

Nice video on Oasis of the Seas arrival in Southampton.

 

[Quilting Queen]

cruisebirdie thanks for the little video clip.

 

After watching all of this and reading MisterMom's posting and the pictures we changed our cabin for May 9 and 16 next year. We were on deck 11 hopping to use the secret balcony, but that is gone. So we changed (spent a lot of money) to the Grand Suite 11330. Now we still have our secret balcony that our friends can use to watch the aqua shows.

 

Norine

[Sky616]

Nice video on Oasis of the Seas arrival in Southampton.

 

 

Nice video, thank you. Is there a webcam in Southampton to watch Oasis depart?

[cruisebirdie]

Nice video, thank you. Is there a webcam in Southampton to watch Oasis depart?

 

I have not been able to find a webcam at Southampton cruise port.

[Bigshipsp]

Hey chengkp75 ,

I have a question for you. They changed one of the engines of the ship. I am not an expert but as far as I know, it is not commom to change the engine block. They usually change the internal parts during the life of the engine. Do you know what happened to this engine?

[chengkp75]

Hey chengkp75 ,

I have a question for you. They changed one of the engines of the ship. I am not an expert but as far as I know, it is not commom to change the engine block. They usually change the internal parts during the life of the engine. Do you know what happened to this engine?

 

I've heard conflicting things about this engine. One was that it was an additional engine, but I'm skeptical about this, as her installed generating capacity was more than sufficient even to allow one engine down for maintenance. A possibility would be a smaller engine for in port use, however. Another reason I'm not buying this, is that the block of the double bottom they cut out to install the engine already had engine foundations on it.

 

I have also heard that this was a warranty item from Wartsila. Even then, unless there was a major issue, they wouldn't replace the entire engine. Perhaps there was a crankshaft QC problem, and since they would have had to cut the ship open to renew a crank, it was thought to be cheaper to renew the engine. It did require extra cost to have the dry dock blocks made high enough to skid the engine in underneath the ship.

 

It may have been a combination of a warranty issue and a desire to upgrade an engine from the 12 cylinder to the 16 cylinder, since they have 3 of each onboard. Perhaps they have found that they need 4 x 16 and 2 x 12 more often than the original configuration. Or even going the other way, from a 16 to a 12 for fuel conservation.

Edited October 16, 2014 by chengkp75

[John&LaLa]

Hey chengkp75 ,

I have a question for you. They changed one of the engines of the ship. I am not an expert but as far as I know, it is not commom to change the engine block. They usually change the internal parts during the life of the engine. Do you know what happened to this engine?

 

I'm no Chief, but I read that it was not a replacement but an addition. Needed more power for all the new cabins. :o

 

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Forums mobile app

[chengkp75]

I'm no Chief, but I read that it was not a replacement but an addition. Needed more power for all the new cabins. :o

 

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Forums mobile app

 

It could be, but I've explained my doubts.

 

As far as power (and I know you were being tongue in cheek), the ship's automation generally will start another generator when the load reaches 80% of online capacity, so the ship keeps the load as close to 75-79% as possible. The designers sized the engines so that one of the smaller engines (12 cyl, 13.8Mw) could provide hotel load at the dock at less than 80%, so I would estimate hotel load as 10.3Mw, maximum.

 

Now, going to the worst case scenario, where one of the larger engines (16 cyl, 18.5Mw) is out of service for maintenance, this leaves 3 small engines and two large engines available, for a total capacity of 78.4Mw, or 58.8Mw at 75%. Taking the 10.3Mw of hotel power out, you have 48Mw of capacity to power the 60Mw of propulsion, or 80% of full propulsion power.

 

This is kind of why I think it was an upgrade from a 12 to a 16 cylinder engine. This could be explained as an "additional" engine, as you are installing additional generating capacity. The combination of 4 larger engines would allow the same power on the pods with only 4 engines, rather than the 5 looked at above, and this would save fuel. The small engines would be used in port, or when an engine is out of service at sea.

 

It also isn't just a matter of plopping a new engine in place. There is quite a lot of support machinery for each engine, the piping required for fuel, oil, water, compressed air, and a new exhaust pipe up the funnel. There would also be the wiring to connect the generator to the switchboard, and the breakers and automation required. Unless they were seriously worried about generating capacity from the very beginning of the design of the ship, they would not have included this additional equipment. All of this takes space in the engine room, and this would have needed to be planned from the beginning.

[isnowman]

Sorry if this has been asked before, but does anyone know if Oasis will have an outdoor movie screen installed. It was the highlight of our one and only Princess cruise and was hoping to see it on Oasis.

Thanks....

[Clarea]

Sorry if this has been asked before, but does anyone know if Oasis will have an outdoor movie screen installed. It was the highlight of our one and only Princess cruise and was hoping to see it on Oasis.

Thanks....

Oasis has had two outdoor movie screens installed since day 1. On either side of the Aquatheater.

[chengkp75]

I'm no Chief, but I read that it was not a replacement but an addition. Needed more power for all the new cabins. :o

 

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Forums mobile app

 

Here's a link to a Dutch maritime trade journal article about the Oasis dry docking, and it states there that an engine was removed and a new one installed.

 

http://t.co/UWg81RJKt4

[3dog]

It could be, but I've explained my doubts.

 

I agree (not that my agreement really means anything).

 

Here's a link to a Dutch maritime trade journal article about the Oasis dry docking, and it states there that an engine was removed and a new one installed.

 

http://t.co/UWg81RJKt4

 

indeed the latter does state the replacement. I'm of the mind that this was either a replacement for a failing engine, or for a smaller and/or more efficient engine. The article mentions modifications to the azipods which could have made them more efficient and not require as much power, allowing for smaller more fuel-efficient engines.

[chengkp75]

I agree (not that my agreement really means anything).

 

 

 

indeed the latter does state the replacement. I'm of the mind that this was either a replacement for a failing engine, or for a smaller and/or more efficient engine. The article mentions modifications to the azipods which could have made them more efficient and not require as much power, allowing for smaller more fuel-efficient engines.

 

I believe the "modifications" to the pods were more in the line of thrust bearing upgrades. The Oasis and Allure have the older pods that require thrust bearing renewal in dry dock, and RCI and ABB have a 15 year service contract for these pods. I saw what looked like 3 brand new thrust bearing assemblies (yellow) in one pic of the dock, so my guess is that ABB is taking the opportunity every dry docking to renew these bearings, and upgrade them as they go. They can't upgrade them to the newest style which allows replacement in the water, but better design and metallurgy are always happening, especially since there are relatively few of these magnum sized pods in service, so ABB may well want to do forensic investigation of the bearings, especially in light of the Allure failure.

[3dog]

I believe the "modifications" to the pods were more in the line of thrust bearing upgrades. The Oasis and Allure have the older pods that require thrust bearing renewal in dry dock, and RCI and ABB have a 15 year service contract for these pods. I saw what looked like 3 brand new thrust bearing assemblies (yellow) in one pic of the dock, so my guess is that ABB is taking the opportunity every dry docking to renew these bearings, and upgrade them as they go. They can't upgrade them to the newest style which allows replacement in the water, but better design and metallurgy are always happening, especially since there are relatively few of these magnum sized pods in service, so ABB may well want to do forensic investigation of the bearings, especially in light of the Allure failure.

 

I expected them to replace the bearings (as suggested with the Allure failure). However "several modifications" to not only the azipods but the bow thrusters suggests more than just bearings.

[chengkp75]

I expected them to replace the bearings (as suggested with the Allure failure). However "several modifications" to not only the azipods but the bow thrusters suggests more than just bearings.

 

Could be, but I've seen "modifications" to bow thrusters that were just to replace a pitch feedback Teleflex cable with a solid rod linkage, due to failures on earlier units. Lots of "modifications" are more like manufacturer's recalls. Hard to tell from the short article whether there were major modifications or not. There isn't a whole lot that they can do to the pods to make them much more efficient (incremental changes over the years could add up to less than 10% improvement, and I think I'm stretching that). I did see reference, and I can't find it now, to RCI wanting to get the engine renewed during the warranty period, so I think it was a defect. They may not be able to get a 16 cylinder crankshaft out of the ship economically. I saw some photos of RCI taking a 12 cylinder crank out of a ship, and it was just barely small enough to do it without cutting a hole in the ship. The 16 cylinder crankshaft will be about 3 meters longer.

[twokids0204]

Oasis has had two outdoor movie screens installed since day 1. On either side of the Aquatheater.

 

Is there a schedule of what movies will play and when? I assume during the diving show the screens are used for that.

[Clarea]

Is there a schedule of what movies will play and when? I assume during the diving show the screens are used for that.

There is no published schedule you can see in advance. Consult the Cruise Compass (daily schedule) when you get onboard.