New Princess Sphere class ships?

[EDVM96]

4 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

Maybe they should go with small nuclear plants? 

That would explain the name 'Radia Princess'. From 'radiation'. ☢️ 😁

[chengkp75]

12 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

Maybe they should go with small nuclear plants?  IDK cost, etc, so maybe only for the military realm.

Can you imagine the liability, where everyone who develops cancer decades after cruising on a nuclear cruise ship sues for damages?  The Navy does not have to turn a profit, so the nuclear option is attractive to them.

[Steelers36]

12 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

Can you imagine the liability, where everyone who develops cancer decades after cruising on a nuclear cruise ship sues for damages?  The Navy does not have to turn a profit, so the nuclear option is attractive to them.

I hear that.

[VibeGuy]

1 hour ago, Steelers36 said:

Maybe they should go with small nuclear plants?  IDK cost, etc, so maybe only for the military realm.

How’d that work for the Savannah?

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/NS_Savannah

 

Better and more realistic plans would train whales to pull the ships in exchange for krill. 

[eroller]

5 hours ago, Fairsky84 said:

I've also feared the Sphere-class would be some version of Carnival Corp's other LNG ships, and while concept art isn't always reliable, even from this small image it's clear the Sphere is NOT a modified version of Iona.

 

First, the bow and forward superstructure are completely different shapes. And, most shockingly, the Sphere-class actually appears to have a very large glass dome/sphere on the top deck forward of the radar mast. This is a completely different shape from the Dome on Iona and Aida ships which is located midship. 

 

Finally, Sphere is listed at 175,000 grt and 4300 passengers. That's quite different from the Costa/Aida/P&O/Carnival LNG ships which are all 183,900 grt and around 5200 passengers. All of this, plus the image, make me think the new Princess ships will be a completely different hull and design.

 

 

I'm not so convinced it will be a completely new design.  Keep in mind Carnival Corp's XL class has been modified for 4 different brands (P&O, Carnival, Aida, and Costa).  Princess may be a 5th and possibly the most heavily modified.  There are already two different versions of the XL Class bow, so maybe a 3rd for Princess?  Regarding the dome, well that is purely cosmetic and can be placed for forward or aft depending on brand desires. 

 

The Princess ship is smaller with less cabins, so that might be the key factor that it's a completely new design, but it could also just be the XL Class less one deck.  Time will tell. 

 

I'm also hoping for a new design but history tells me Carnival Corp. rarely designs anything for a single brand.  They like to milk every penny out of a design and use it across multiple brands just making cosmetic changes as needed. 

[voljeep]

we will book the inaugural out of FTL/PE ... if that happens - hopefully a little 3-4-5 day 'shakedown' to PC and other? - of course it will be about the ship as the destination...

[Astro Flyer]

11 hours ago, Cuedon said:

Sphera, probably from Latin's sphaera/spera, literally refers to spheres, but it has the connotation of celestial bodies; Globe or Earth Princess', so to speak.

 

Radia has a somewhat more murky etymology (I doubt they're using the Arabic name, because Happy Princess sounds a bit silly...), but I'd bet on some loose interpretation of 'radiant', in the sense of Bright or Shining Princess.

 

Thanks…I did find such things but don’t understand why Princess is using names that have probable or possible meanings.
 

To ignore traditional names such as Pacific & Ocean to have cryptic names seems to reflect the current management’s desire to move in a different direction from the one many have enjoyed. They would never use such names on HAL with all of their dam ships. These ships have been in development for many years however the names as recently as last August were in question.

 

Merely my opinions but I am definitely not a fan of the current Princess management.

 

[stevenr597]

LNG?  We have the Mardi Gras at Port Canaveral.  There are plans to be a LNG station, but in the meantime it is filled for each cruise by barge carrying the LNG from Georgia. 

Rather nice to see a ship sail out to sea without any smoke. 

[chengkp75]

4 minutes ago, stevenr597 said:

There are plans to be a LNG station, but in the meantime it is filled for each cruise by barge carrying the LNG from Georgia. 

I believe that the Port Canaveral terminal will only be a storage facility, not a liquifaction plant that would take the natural gas from the pipeline and liquify it for the ships.  I think there will be more tankers shuttling from Savannah to PC to fill the storage tanks, and then fuel the ships from the facility.

[eroller]

6 minutes ago, stevenr597 said:

LNG?  We have the Mardi Gras at Port Canaveral.  There are plans to be a LNG station, but in the meantime it is filled for each cruise by barge carrying the LNG from Georgia. 

Rather nice to see a ship sail out to sea without any smoke. 

 

This ship is supposed to be a hybrid.  It can run on LNG or traditional fuel.  
 

LNG is coming to PortMiami as well, to support the new CARNIVAL CELEBRATION. Sister ship to MARDI GRAS, and another in the XL Class series. 
 

 

[chengkp75]

1 minute ago, eroller said:

 

This ship is supposed to be a hybrid.  It can run on LNG or traditional fuel.  
 

LNG is coming to PortMiami as well, to support the new CARNIVAL CELEBRATION. Sister ship to MARDI GRAS, and another in the XL Class series. 
 

 

All marine diesel engines set up for LNG fuel are "dual fuel" engines that can run on a blend from 100% liquid fuel (residual or diesel, or even crude oil) to 95% LNG.  The engines cannot run on LNG alone, as the auto-ignition temperature is too high for a compression ignition engine (LNG trucks and buses have a spark plug), so injecting a small amount of diesel along with the LNG gets the ignition going.

[eroller]

1 hour ago, chengkp75 said:

All marine diesel engines set up for LNG fuel are "dual fuel" engines that can run on a blend from 100% liquid fuel (residual or diesel, or even crude oil) to 95% LNG.  The engines cannot run on LNG alone, as the auto-ignition temperature is too high for a compression ignition engine (LNG trucks and buses have a spark plug), so injecting a small amount of diesel along with the LNG gets the ignition going.

 

Well for this ship they have touted a hybrid capable of “duel fuel” which I certainly don’t see mentioned for other LNG powered cruise ships.  Something seems different about it.  

Edited April 30, 2022 by eroller

[chengkp75]

5 minutes ago, eroller said:

 

Well for this ship they have touted a hybrid capable of “duel fuel” which I certainly don’t see mentioned for other LNG powered cruise ships.  Something seems different about it.  

They are just adjusting PR expectations for when they switch from LNG to residual fuel when outside the North American ECA, and someone questions why.  Since you have to have tankage, piping, and handling equipment for at least diesel for all LNG ships, it is no big deal to vary fuel mixture to whatever your fuel supply requires.  LNG ships are also all required to have sufficient alternative fuel (diesel or residual) to get to port should they have to vent all the LNG due to failure of the cryogenic equipment.

[Avid Travel Geek]

Radiant Princess? Solar Princess?

[eroller]

11 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

They are just adjusting PR expectations for when they switch from LNG to residual fuel when outside the North American ECA, and someone questions why.  Since you have to have tankage, piping, and handling equipment for at least diesel for all LNG ships, it is no big deal to vary fuel mixture to whatever your fuel supply requires.  LNG ships are also all required to have sufficient alternative fuel (diesel or residual) to get to port should they have to vent all the LNG due to failure of the cryogenic equipment.

 

Good to know. It’s just interesting you don’t see other LNG powered ships mention this. The only other one I recall off hand is SILVER NOVA, where they mention duel-fuel capability plus battery and fuel cells.  
 

So essentially the Sphere Class could be the same power plant as Carnival’s other XL Class ships, which leads me to believe she may just be a modified version of one.  That advertised “duel-fuel” capability when she was first introduced made me think she was something different.  Turns out they all are! 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 30, 2022 by eroller

[Fairsky84]

3 hours ago, eroller said:

I'm also hoping for a new design but history tells me Carnival Corp. rarely designs anything for a single brand.  They like to milk every penny out of a design and use it across multiple brands just making cosmetic changes as needed. 

 

I completely agree and was also expecting Sphere to be a loosely modified version of the Excel-class Carnival Corp ships. They did make some modest changes between the Aida/Costa and the P&O/Carnival versions. I still have hope the Princess ships will be significantly different being the only ones built by Fincantieri. Still, I wouldn't be surprised if a future Sphere-class was built for P&O, as Princess has a long history of sharing ships and designs with P&O even predating their ownership by CCL. 

[Fairsky84]

30 minutes ago, Avid Travel Geek said:

Radiant Princess? Solar Princess?

Please, no! I actually hope they copy what Carnival did with Mardi Gras and name the first Sphere-class ship "Pacific Princess" to honor their heritage. It could be a marketing win as well. "Just as the original Pacific Princess changed the cruise industry, the new Pacific Princess (with clean LNG power and amazing new features) will change it again." Or maybe, "The new Pacific Princess will make you fall in love with cruising all over again." Or some similar PR nonsense.

[eroller]

16 minutes ago, Fairsky84 said:

 

I completely agree and was also expecting Sphere to be a loosely modified version of the Excel-class Carnival Corp ships. They did make some modest changes between the Aida/Costa and the P&O/Carnival versions. I still have hope the Princess ships will be significantly different being the only ones built by Fincantieri. Still, I wouldn't be surprised if a future Sphere-class was built for P&O, as Princess has a long history of sharing ships and designs with P&O even predating their ownership by CCL. 

 

Great points and the fact it’s a different shipyard may mean a new design, or just modifications.  Such was the case with the Spirit/Vista design. 
 

It does seem odd Princess would get it’s own design when the XL Class was good enough for P&O, Costa, Carnival, and Costa. That is what I’m having a hard time digesting.  Like you mention P&O/Princess often share a design, so why not a modified version of IONA for Princess?   Anyway more questions than answers right now but we will find out soon enough.  

[eroller]

16 minutes ago, Fairsky84 said:

Please, no! I actually hope they copy what Carnival did with Mardi Gras and name the first Sphere-class ship "Pacific Princess" to honor their heritage. It could be a marketing win as well. "Just as the original Pacific Princess changed the cruise industry, the new Pacific Princess (with clean LNG power and amazing new features) will change it again." Or maybe, "The new Pacific Princess will make you fall in love with cruising all over again." Or some similar PR nonsense.

 

It very well could be PACIFIC PRINCESS.  The name given to a class of new ships does not always translate to the ship names within that class.  Often they do but not always.  
 

 

[Astro Flyer]

30 minutes ago, eroller said:

 

It very well could be PACIFIC PRINCESS.  The name given to a class of new ships does not always translate to the ship names within that class.  Often they do but not always.  

 

That would be a great traditional Princess ship name but it appears the current management is going in another direction.

 

The August survey indicated that Sphera & Radia would be the names & since then they have been called Sphere-class ships. Previously their class of ships have taken the name of the first ship…Grand, Coral & Royal. While I’m hopeful that you’re correct, I think it’s hopeless that it will happen because Princess appears to have chosen Sphera & Radia.

 

Eventually we’ll know the ship’s design & names.

 

Edited April 30, 2022 by Astro Flyer

[eroller]

9 minutes ago, Astro Flyer said:

While I’m hopeful that you’re correct, I think it’s hopeless that it will happen because Princess appears to have chosen Sphera & Radia.

 

Eventually we’ll know the ship’s design & names.

 

 

I can’t say I’m a fan of either name, but on the plus side no other cruise line will be using them.
 

We don’t need any additional Explorer’s, Voyager’s, Mariner’s, Navigator’s, Grandeur’s, or Splendor’s.  

[Cuedon]

I rather like them myself, but not in this context... short, easy to pronounce, practical, translatable names are vital especially since I have the sneaking suspicion that these ships maaaay travel internationally...

 

I'm looking forward to seeing the future journeys of the Radio Princess.

[brisalta]

Just change the class name to Pacific class and make the first of the marque the Pacific Princess.

 

[brisalta]

16 minutes ago, brisalta said:

Just change the class name to Pacific class and make the first of the marque the Pacific Princess.

 

 

But it must have a true promenade!

[Fairsky84]

14 minutes ago, brisalta said:

Just change the class name to Pacific class and make the first of the marque the Pacific Princess.

 

It's happened before. In the late 90s, Royal Caribbean was developing two new classes simultaneously. The "Eagle-class" would be the largest ships ever built with a multi-deck promenade through the center. The "Voyager-class" were designed as fast, Panamax-sized ships for global deployment. 

When Royal Caribbean decided to name the first Eagle-class ship Voyager of the Seas, they knew it would cause confusion with the smaller Voyager-class ships still in development. So, they changed the name to "Vantage-class." The first ship in the Vantage-class became Radiance of the Seas. 

 

Today, neither class of ships is known as Eagle or Vantage-class, but simply Voyager-class and Radiance-class.