Seascapes - Giant passenger ships-By BIMCO

Imagine a floating resort - an island of pleasure for 2,500 guests in which their every holiday hope might be accommodated; a cruise vessel of 120,000 tonnes, fifteen decks high and crammed with amazing attractions and considerable luxury; 280 metres in length and 75 metres wide. This is the new generation of giant cruise ship, a vast vessel in which nearly 5,000 souls - if a crew of more than 2,000 is included, can be taken to sea.
Scale economies drive the new generation of giant cruise ships. It makes good economic sense to operate one 2,500 passenger ship rather than two of half the size, and over the past five years, some three quarters of the new cruise ships built have been these superships, emerging from specialist yards in France, Italy and Finland.
Technically, there have been few problems in “scaling up” the smaller designs of cruise ship which were being commissioned in the 1990s, although operationally, ships of this size have required a great deal of innovation. There is little point in building ships of such a size that they are too big to get into attractive cruise destinations, so substantial breakthroughs have been needed in ship manoeuvrability. Podded propulsion units, in which the propellers have been able to turn on a vertical axis for 360 degrees and banks of side thrusters forward have given these giant ships the ability to turn inside their own lengths, without the use of shiphandling tugs. Speeds in general have been modest, as such ships do not require an ability to “sprint” and tend to move between adjacent ports in the cruising area overnight. Large and capacious tenders are able to carry passengers in and out of ports where the monster vessels cannot berth alongside.
Most of the problems which have required innovation have revolved around logistics and the need to service the needs of so many people. What sort of facilities ashore are needed at the base ports so that up to 5,000 people - half of this number on, half off - can be exchanged in a few hours? What sorts of shore excursions can be provided for up to 2,500 people in a single destination - are there sufficient luxury motor coaches ashore to accommodate them? Aboard ship, how do you feed such numbers, and cater for their entertainment?
Think of the storage problems, with the need to provide a luxurious lifestyle and lavish menus for this number of hungry cruise passengers, many of who never seem to stop eating! This is bulk buying with a difference, with whole supermarkets full of fresh fruit and vegetables, fine wines and the best produce being bought. Consider the waste that will be inevitably produced, and the need to shred, compress, treat and send it ashore in an environmentally friendly fashion. Even the ship’s sewage system has to be comparable to that of a sizeable shore settlement. Giant cruise ships bring their own challenges for marine technology!