Serenade of the Seas for Royal Caribbean

Papenburg, 18th February 2002 - The first of 66 blocks of the new cruise vessel Serenade of the Seas (90,090 gt) for Royal Caribbean International was lifted into position in the covered building dock of the MEYER WERFT Shipyard in Papenburg/Germany. In the presence of the yard´s board member Bernard Meyer and project manager Jarmo Laakso Royal Caribbeans Senior Vice President marine operations Harri Kulovaara laid the "lucky coin" before the first block of the new ship was lowered down onto the keel blocks by the yard´s 600-ton crane. The block had a weight of almost 400 tons, a length of 20 metres, a breadth of 30 metres and an height of 8,5 metres. The Serenade of the Seas is the third of four luxury cruise ships to be built for Royal Caribbean International. The vessel will have a length overall of 293 metres, makes a speed of more than 24 knots and will be capable of carrying max. 2500 passengers in 1050 cabins. Like her sister vessels "Radiance and "Brilliance of the Seas" the new ship will be fitted with two podded drives. The propellers will be directly driven by electric motors installed in a pod under the ship´s hull. Two environmentally friendly and smokeless gas turbines will provide the vessel with electric power for the propulsion and hotel operation. Due to the special combustion process the nitrogen oxide content of the exhaust gases from the gas-oil operated turbines is very low. Delivery of the new passenger cruise vessel is scheduled to take place in autumn 2003. Serenade of the Seas - Main Particulars