Royal Caribbean Adds New 73-Foot Midsection to Flagship Vessel

Shipbuilding technology has come a long way since Royal Caribbean International lengthened its last ship 25 years ago. Royal Caribbean´s third ship to be extended, Enchantment of the Seas, lies in dry dock this month, where workmen are laboring round-the-clock to add a 22.2-meter (73-foot) midsection and other major innovations..

Royal Caribbean teamed with two European shipyards to stretch the eight-year-old Enchantment of the Seas. Aker Finnyards of Finland, which built the original ship, was given overall responsibility for designing, building and installing the mid-body section.

“This partnership has been outstanding,” said Royal Caribbean Chairman and CEO Richard Fain. “The final product exemplifies not only the very best in shipbuilding, but the very best in what cruisers have come to expect of a Royal Caribbean cruise vacation.”

Twenty-five years ago, when Royal Caribbean stretched Nordic Prince, the yard had to fill the dry dock with water; float the aft section of the ship out of the bay, the midsection into the dock, and the aft section back into the bay; and then drain the dry dock and reconnect the ship.

Today, workmen are welding Enchantment of the Seas back together, a painstaking, two-week job that also involves reattaching nearly 1,300 individual cables, pipes and ducts to each end of the new mid-body.

The lengthened ship will have 151 new staterooms and a number of new venues and amenities, including soaring suspension bridges on Deck 10, a vitality course with four fitness stops, an interactive water fountain playground and the first bungee trampolines at sea.

Enchantment of the Seas will sail a series of New England/Canada sailings from Cape Liberty Cruise Port in Bayonne, N.J., Philadelphia and Boston when she reenters service in July. She returns to Fort Lauderdale in October to resume four- and five-night Caribbean itineraries.