Cruise Company Saws Massive Ship in Half

June 4, 2005 — -- The cruise industry is booming, but meeting the immediate demand is a problem: The most common way to add space is to build new ships, which requires at least three years lead time and hundreds of millions of dollars.

Peter Fetten, a naval architect and vice president of Royal Caribbean Cruise Line, had a different idea -- add on, similar to the way a homeowner might bump out to add an extra bedroom, but on a much huger scale.

As he strolled past the line's massive Enchantment of the Seas at the Keppel Verlome Shipyard in Rotterdam, Netherlands, Fetten described plans to simply cut the ship in two and add a new middle section to create space for 300 additional passengers.

"It's far faster than building a new ship," said Fetten. "We can react to market demands or popularity of new ships much faster."

The idea appealed to Royal Caribbean because it would add capacity for $60 million, a fraction of the cost of a new ship. And Enchantment would be out of the water for just one month. While some ships have been expanded this way in the past, none has been done as quickly nor completely out of the water in a drydock.

"This is just an engineering question," said Fetten. "We can fly to the moon, so we can cut ships."

As the summer travel season begins, Americans are flocking aboard cruise ships at a rate the industry has not seen in years. Business is so good that cruise lines say passengers are booking earlier and they have all but ended last-minute discounts used to fill vacant space after 9/11.

In fact, unlike the airlines, cruise lines have been successfully increasing prices by 8 percent to 9 percent.

"Thirty million Americans have told us they intend to cruise in the next three years," said Terry Dale, president of the Cruise Line Industry Association, as he stood on the pool deck of the Radisson Seven Seas Navigator. "We are constantly seeing growth in demand exceed capacity."

The travel industry as a whole is seeing a sharp rebound from two years ago, boosted by a stronger economy and fading fears of terrorism and the war in Iraq. But cruise lines may be the brightest spot.

"I've always wanted to do it," said newlywed Melissa Cuccolo of New Jersey as she boarded a Carnival ship in New York recently.

Her husband, Jerry, added, "It's affordable and it's fun and everything's packed in together."

Other passengers also mentioned all-inclusive pricing and a sense of adventure. Added Ethel Clark, making her fifth cruise, what appeals is "most of all the food. I love the food."

Enchantment of the Seas was launched in 1997. It measured 315 feet long, 105 feet wide and 12 stories tall. Enchantment weighed 74,000 tons. Fetten's plan would add 73 feet to the ship's length.