Building a cruise ship is like assembling 2 billion Legos and two years of work

• The process of building a cruise ship is laborious, but ultimately involves ‘gluing’ modules together.

• It’s a job that requires huge shipyards, spectacular cranes and up to 30 months

Horizontal ocean skyscrapers or floating cities. It doesn’t matter how we refer to the giant cruise ships that ply the seas and oceans: they are true marvels of engineering. The times when the Titanic was king are long gone, as we now have superlatives like the Icon of the Seas (with its rooms at 170,000 euros) or the Wonder of the Seas, but also RoRo ships like the monstrous MV Tønsberg. And the big question that may arise is… how are they manufactured?

And the answer is simple: little by little and based on modules. And of course, with lots of money.

helmet, Although there are impressive non-passenger ships, we are going to focus on the construction of cruise ships. This is because they are not only huge (the Sea Icon is 365 meters long), but they are also filled with cabins, restaurants and everything else we can imagine. There is a lot of ‘free’ space to keep cars on a RoRo ship, but this is not the case on a cruise ship.

Building one of these boats is difficult. It can take about two years for the work to be “inaugurated” and we have seen projects worth Rs 2,000 million. An example of this is Utopia of the Seas, the new Royal Caribbean flagship announced in April 2022 with a 30-month construction schedule for a summer 2024 premiere. But the example you have will be the video on these lines, AIDAnova built by the German shipyard Meyer Werft.

It is a 337-meter cruise ship that can accommodate 6,600 passengers and the first thing we see is the work on the huge V16 engines, as well as the segmental assembly of the lower part of the hull. Gradually they build the ‘base’ of the boat made up of the keel and hull, connecting each section with welding.

Deposit, One of the central areas has space for huge cylinders which are fuel tanks. Both engines and tanks are lifted into place, using impressive cranes similar to those used to unload giant container ships. And, when they are in place, another upper piece is placed that completely covers them and on which the cabins and rooms of the boat will begin to be assembled.

Before painting, the welds are polished to remove imperfections and the bottom of the hull is treated with a special paint that makes it difficult for marine organisms to adhere to it. This first step is done at the shipyard and then the hull is transported to the shipyard where the rest of the pieces will be placed. It’s even more ridiculous because a ‘normal’ boat is towing what looks like a huge, completely flat platform.

module installation, When the platform containing the tanks and all the ship’s interiors arrives at the new shipyard, cranes begin to lower all visible parts of the ship bit by bit and put them in place. They are pre-built and welded modules that are connected and placed on the hull. This is when operators perform welding work in a process that is extremely interesting to watch, as it appears as if they are cutting sections of a skyscraper and joining them into a horizontal structure.

When that work is done, there are still some parts to be added, but since they are such long boats, it has to be done in batches. In this shipyard you have to remove the already built section (which corresponds to the back part) to make room for the second large platform that is coming from the first shipyard with the section corresponding to the front part. They repeat the process and when it is ready, the first section and the second are ready to be joined together. They both have to be flattened and welded together.

At that time the bow and stern of the hull are assembled and some modules are completed that are mounted on both the front and rear of the ship. The last step is to paint it with a proper name and description and that’s it, but the two most important steps remain.

Launching is important, Visually, the boat is now ready, but the basic steps remain. Apart from the basic tests of machinery, speed and checking that the part of the hull that has been submerged is well treated, now it is time to launch. This process can be done in three ways: sliding the finished ship from the shipyard to the sea, “throwing” it sideways into the water or, as is common in this case and with cruise ships, filling in a dry dock. In this type of launching, water is allowed to enter the area where the boat was being assembled.

They then check whether it floats, whether there is any water flow and, if everything went as it should, the grand opening takes place, which in the case of these marine colossi usually involves both. To celebrate means to have a public party. The year’s process has been completed.

Images | MK Timelapse Video, Carlos Texior Cadenas

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