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Genesis
By Dave | January 4, 2008
We got this month’s copy of Cruise Travel in the mail today. In it was a list of upcoming cruise ships debuting in the coming years. There are the new Disney ships, the Carnival Dream class ships (Dream and Magic), and of course, among many others, RCI’s Genesis I and Genesis II. If there were ever a dream ship of mine, this is going to be it. From what I’ve gathered, there will be a bowling alley, billiards, and more. The bowling and billiards are what I’d be most interested in.
What kind of cruise ship can house these types of amenities? A big cruise ship. I mean, a reallybig cruise ship. Weighing in at a tonnage of 220,000, these “Genesis” ships, which are currently unnamed (and most likely will not go by the name Genesis of the Seas), will be the biggest cruise ships afloat today. Bigger cruise ships also means more passengers. These monsters will be home to over 5,000 passengers on any given cruise! That’s insane. I thought the RCI Freedom class ships were huge, with a passenger capacity of over 4,000. Over 5,000 is just crazy. I hope they design the buffets really well, or else those lines will be unbearable. That’s not even to mention the wait times for embarkation and especially disembarkation. I mean, waiting a long time to get on the boat is one thing, but having to wait for 5,000 people to get off the boat will be intolerable, in my opinion. I hate waiting in lines on ships half the size. I can’t imagine what it will be like.
To get an idea of the size of this mammoth, I found an interesting comparative picture from cruisemates.com:
Comparing the size to the Voyager class really puts it in perspective for me. I was on the Explorer of the Seas, which is a Voyager class ship. That ship was the largest I’ve ever been on. And the Genesis dwarfs the Voyager. It’s like comparing the Conquest to the Holiday at Carnival. (Okay, maybe the Conquest to the Fantasy.) The only problem there is, Genesis dwarfs them too!
It seems to me that RCI always comes out with the largest ships first. I remember when Voyager of the Seas debuted, it was then the largest cruise ship in the world. Then Freedom of the Seas took the title. Now Genesis. The other cruise lines usually take several years to follow. I don’t know if Carnival still has any plans matching the Voyager class. I know their Dream class is to be 130,000 tons, but Voyager is still 140,000.
I guess the bottom line is, while I’d love the new amenities on board the Genesis, I think I might just have to pass until 200,000+ ton ships become the norm, mainly due to the long lines everywhere I’ll go onboard and off. Not to mention prices to buy cruises on these ships, especially in the beginning.
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Topics: Opinions | 2 Comments »