Project Discovery

[springaussie]

At the Captain’s Corner this morning passengers on Ovation of the Seas  were told that Royal Caribbean is looking at building new ships around the Voyager size. 

Project Discovery is the name of the project. 

[monorail81]

That’s be nice. The big ships can only go to certain ports. Need nice ships that are smaller for the rest of the ports. Can’t wait to see what the are.  

[BND]

8 hours ago, monorail81 said:

That’s be nice. The big ships can only go to certain ports. Need nice ships that are smaller for the rest of the ports. Can’t wait to see what the are.  

And, Voyager size is too large for some ports  Baltimore and Tampa for example can't take Voyager size.   That's why only Vision and Radiance class are there. 

 

Voyager class isn't that old.  What we really need is newer smaller ships.

Edited December 5, 2022 by BND

[Biker19]

22 minutes ago, BND said:

Voyager class isn't that old. 

Pre-COVID RCI was looking to unload their ships which were 25+ years old - Voyager is 23+, so getting there. Figure any new class of ship is at least 3 years away.

[ONECRUISER]

1 hour ago, BND said:

And, Voyager size is too large for some ports  Baltimore and Tampa for example can't take Voyager size.   That's why only Vision and Radiance class are there. 

 

Voyager class isn't that old.  What we really need is newer smaller ships.

Agree, Radiance Size good enough for me. Last time I was on Voyager was late 90's

[Ourusualbeach]

Since the Captain only said "around the Voyager size" my guess is that the new class will be modelled somewhat off the Edge class ships.  Voyager 137,000 GRT; Edge 141,000 GRT

[superduper123]

4 hours ago, BND said:

 What we really need is newer smaller ships.

YES!! I have been thinking this exact same thing for a while now. I cruise frequently from Baltimore and Tampa. I do enjoy Enchantment & Serenade, but it would be nice to have something new. 

[Ourusualbeach]

15 minutes ago, superduper123 said:

YES!! I have been thinking this exact same thing for a while now. I cruise frequently from Baltimore and Tampa. I do enjoy Enchantment & Serenade, but it would be nice to have something new. 

Not sure that they will ever build fomenting dmsll enough to sail from Baltimore after Vision class is gone. 

[Biker19]

I'd venture to guess @Nathan Graveson might know something about this?

[Another_Critic]

4 hours ago, ONECRUISER said:

Agree, Radiance Size good enough for me. Last time I was on Voyager was late 90's

I need to try Radiance class again ... was on the very first [revenue] voyage on Radiance, but haven't sailed the class since.  The last time I was on Voyager was 3 months ago.  🙂

[mo&fran]

Having some nice new ship sized for smaller ports, or for longer cruises would be nice.  We had some nice 11 day cruises on Serenade before the shutdown. Would be nice if the had a royal promenade though. Don't know if that can be done with a Panamax width ship.

[Chiliburn]

I was told (by the same captain) the new class will be somewhere between Radiance and Voyager. 
And  Capable to go through the Panama Canal .

[Nathan Graveson]

2 hours ago, Biker19 said:

I'd venture to guess @Nathan Graveson might know something about this?

I have said before on the Icon page that Royal will do smaller ships in the future quite a while back.

 

Nothing Further To Say, Yet.

Edited December 5, 2022 by Nathan Graveson

[shof515]

I think the trend of this big massive mega ships is somewhat over. Mid size ships is now the trend. a good example is the new Norwegian Prima

[Nunagoras]

With the current shipyard orderbook being delayed for such an year in average and pretty much good to finish its delivery cycle by 2026-27, I don't believe anything really that new on the whole cruise industry to come really solidly booked before late 2024, early 2025. That will give cruise lines the needed time to factor how the post pandemic and hopefully post Ukraine war market conditions will be.

 

Surely RCCL will need to replace all the vision, Radiance and Voyager classes one or the other way in the next 10 years from now. I believe most of those ships will be either way Quantum/Oasis/Icon classes plus the ever possible surprisingly even bigger behemoths they can make elsewhere. Smaller ports in Europe and elsewhere will end up given to the X market niche. There could be 1 or 2 exceptions though for those markets where a medium sized ship makes good sense to feed that local demand. Baltimore and Tampa on the US might to be those ports. I believe those words from said Captain to be accurate. RCI may have a new Radiance+ class of some sort to serve those markets at modern mainstream service levels. I believe they'll to have a small "sub-fleet" of some 3 ships for that.

[ONECRUISER]

2 hours ago, Nunagoras said:

RCI may have a new Radiance+ class of some sort to serve those markets at modern mainstream service levels. 

I could live with that...

[ONECRUISER]

2 hours ago, shof515 said:

I think the trend of this big massive mega ships is somewhat over. Mid size ships is now the trend. a good example is the new Norwegian Prima

Personally I'd still consider Norwegian Prima at 143000GT a Massive Mega Ship. At 73000GT Sovereign of the Seas is considered the Worlds first Mega Cruise Ship... Will enjoy the Radiance & Vision Class size Ships long as their around...

[RobInMN]

11 hours ago, ONECRUISER said:

Agree, Radiance Size good enough for me. Last time I was on Voyager was late 90's

One of the first sailings? or maybe late '00's maybe? 

Voyager entered service 21-NOV-1999, with the sister ships following in the fall of 2000-2003

 

 

[Merion_Mom]

They can build them that size, but then they need to be wider and/or longer, so they can be SHORTER, and thus be homeported in Baltimore & Tampa.  (where the restriction is height)

[ONECRUISER]

6 hours ago, RobInMN said:

One of the first sailings? or maybe late '00's maybe? 

Voyager entered service 21-NOV-1999, with the sister ships following in the fall of 2000-2003

 

 

Yup, one the first! Was on sailing #004. Also did Explorer #008 and #064, back when the numbers were well known on each sailing. Before these Cruises made Diamond on Sovereign and Vision Class. Since Radiance Class came out been hooked, haven't done any others(on Royal) but them since 2002...

Edited December 6, 2022 by ONECRUISER

[Ethanol95]

I really hope that they design a platform from scratch for this new class. If they have to just take some influence from Edge class, but predominantly be a new clean slate design. They can do so much with a smaller class of ships as a blank canvas.

[Nunagoras]

3 hours ago, Ethanol95 said:

I really hope that they design a platform from scratch for this new class. If they have to just take some influence from Edge class, but predominantly be a new clean slate design. They can do so much with a smaller class of ships as a blank canvas.

That would to be the ideal scenario in RCI's case, but that will only go on if the market conditions do turn something more favorable till end 2024, early 2025 when the decisions will be made. Otherwise they'll just to pick whatever else the shipyards have "regularly" on offer. Something similar to the X Edge class with less decks, LNG/Green Fuel Cell powered would be perfect...

[Ethanol95]

2 hours ago, Nunagoras said:

That would to be the ideal scenario in RCI's case, but that will only go on if the market conditions do turn something more favorable till end 2024, early 2025 when the decisions will be made. Otherwise they'll just to pick whatever else the shipyards have "regularly" on offer. Something similar to the X Edge class with less decks, LNG/Green Fuel Cell powered would be perfect...

Or could it follow an enlarged version of Silver Nova instead of edge class?

[Nunagoras]

3 hours ago, Ethanol95 said:

Or could it follow an enlarged version of Silver Nova instead of edge class?

Maybe; considering the obvious differences, of course...

[John&LaLa]

Will look for any questions on Discovery this weekend

 

Typical of a President Cruise Q&A I'd guess