Port Everglades Expands to handle Largest Cruise Ship in the World

[Lunican]

You can forget about getting this ship into the Port of Jacksonville.

1,181 feet long, 154 feet wide, 213 feet above the waterline with a 30ft draft, 18 decks, max 7300 passengers.

The Port

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/KEalXuh_e50&amp;hd=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/KEalXuh_e50&amp;hd=1</a>



The Ship during Sea Trials

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/UxlB-CRjgQg&amp;hd=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/UxlB-CRjgQg&amp;hd=1</a>



The ship is now 95% complete

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/MXm8YFfuvPU&amp;hd=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/MXm8YFfuvPU&amp;hd=1</a>

[heights unknown]

All I can say is Wow!  As an ex-Navy man I know firsthand that ship is huge.  I've served on the biggest warships in the world, that is, the U.S. Navy Aircraft Carriers.

That Cruise Ship is longer, more wider at the beam, and probably weighs more (bigger) than the U.S. Navy's biggest Aircraft Carriers, the Nimitz Class.  In comparison the Nimitz Class Aircraft Carrier's statistics are:

1,090 feet long from stem to stern; 252 feet wide on the flight deck; 135 feet wide at the beam; Draft 38 feet; Ships crew about 7,000; displacement about 98,000 tons fully loaded; from keel to mast is as tall as a 24 story building.

The Cruise Ship's statistics are:  1,181 feet long, 154 feet wide, 213 feet above the waterline with a 30ft draft, 18 decks, max 7300 passengers.

Photos of a Nimitz Class Aircraft Carrier
http://www.military-today.com/navy/nimitz_class.jpg
http://www.military-today.com/navy/nimitz_class_l1.jpg

Photo of Oasis of the Sea Cruise Ship
http://www.cruisecritic.com/images/Oasis-of-the-seas-sea-trial-1.jpg

So this huge cruise ship is bigger than an aircraft carrier.

Heights Unknown

[Lunican]

This ships displacement is 220,000 tons.

[heights unknown]

Wow; it is the largest overall commercial liner in the world.  I think there is an oil tanker, the Knock Nevis, that is over 1,500 feet long and weighs in at a whopping 565,000 tons.  This has got to be the largest ship in the world. It is no longer a supertanker and is now just a floating storage container ship, but is still the world's largest.

Photo of Knock Nevis:
http://www.neatorama.com/images/2006-12/knock-nevis.jpg
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ship/images/jahre-viking-4.jpg

Though the Nimitz Class Aircraft Carriers are large, they are not the Navy's largest warship.  The U.S. Navy's largest warship is the USS Enterprise which is over 1,120 feet long but weighs less (89,000 tons) than the Nimitz Class.

So the world's largest ships are:
Oasis of the Seas (Commericial Liner)
USS Enterprise (U.S. Navy Aircraft Carrier)
Knock Nevis (Supertanker)

Allure of the Seas, a Sister ship of "Oasis of the Seas" is also under construction and will mirror the size of her Sister.

Heights Unknown

[reednavy]

Why, just why?

[heights unknown]

Why what?  And no, we won't, in the foreseeable future be able to get a ship that size in our port.

Heights Unknown

[reednavy]

That is such a waste, imo.

Of course we won't, not until JAXPORT has it's way with Mayport.

[tufsu1]

But this could be a good thing for Jax....every time a new, larger ship sets up in Miami or Ft. lauderdale, an older, smaller ship is sent to secondary ports like Tampa....and then their ships are sent to third-tier ports like ours.....and with Tampa limited by the height of the Sunshine Skyway, we could actually move up...if we could just get our cruise terminal east of the Dames Point bridge

[reednavy]

When the cruise terminal is moved to Mayport, height will no longer be an issue, draft will. This ship has a 30ft draft, but after the channel is deepend to 40ft, it will not be a problem either.

So in other words, once it is moved, the possibilities are endless. We are in a prime position to steal from ports further south as it will require less time to get here, especially by vehicle.

[Ocklawaha]

Titanic sunk by collision with Ice, Britannic sunk by German mine, Olympic (in this photo) the only one of the three to live to a ripe old age. None of the three would answer their helm, making them VERY hard to handle. This is equal to your automobile with only a piece of a stick for steering.


Heights, Hey have you or anyone else heard ANYTHING of Titanic II?  About 2 years ago it was supposed to be "in construction ," but I don't remember where or when. According to my fellow sailors, it will sink! Bad luck to name a ship after a wreck!

I have seen the plans and they call for a ship with the lines of the Titanic above the main deck but EVERYTHING below the main deck is ultra modern. I was wondering if they'll stay true to the vertical bow line, rather then a defined angle? Seems like they could do that and still pull off the "look alike" everyone wants to see.

Perhaps their future would be better if they stayed with the name game, and gave it it's own name, Britannic, Olympic, Titanic (all three sister ships), and ... hum? Ameritannic?

It's supposed to sail from Florida to the Caribe or the Gulf...

OCKLAWAHA

[Ocklawaha]

Titanic or Titanic 2? When this project gets back on track, could we be the home port?


By the way folks, that 40 foot depth in Jacksonville is going to change quickly. Look for a project to take it to 45 or 50 feet, followed by a 60 foot channel from about Trout River to the Ocean. We can hope the spoil from this project is enough to fill the island under the Dame point Bridge so we can create even more terminals for various steamship lines.

We really need to get on the project of pushing a NUTURAL railroad line from Jacksonville Terminal to Blount Island, to allow access to all three trunk lines serving Jacksonville.

For that don't understand Jacksonville has 3 major railroads, as many or more then ANY OTHER EAST COAST PORT. The major problem is "back in the day", we allowed the Seaboard and Atlantic Coast Line to have all of the access to the Port North of the Trout River. (Yes, there were once 2 railroad bridges, the current one and another located about 1/2 mile east). When those 2 companies merged, we had only what has now become CSX. The other two railroads, Florida East Coast and Norfolk Southern are effectively cut out of our port business. This harms our position as a WORLD PORT, because even though we can correctly say we are a City that offers 3 major railroads... We really DON'T! Since this same line, north of downtown past Busch, and on to Yulee and Kingsland, Georgia, has been identified as a future commuter rail line, the normal way to proceed would be for the city to purchase the railroad and lease back the freight train rights to the railroad(S). So in one move, we become a true 3 railroad port, and we now control the track which will carry commuters. We also get the benefit of triple access to the Talleyrand Terminals, and allow for MASSIVE industrial expansion on the Northside. Moreover, the COJ, JPA, JTA, would own the tracks which opens the door for our own commuter rail line, where WE CONTROL THE EXPENSES...

OCKLAWAHA

[CS Foltz]

They could deepen the channel to 60 ft and it would not matter Ock..........something that big still would not use St Johns because there are several places where there is less than a 1000 ft between turns. Mayport or a coastal port such as that makes more sense.  Jacksonville has no vision..........rail not even considered for Dames Point shipping in or out, they want to use 9A and lots of trucks! Idiots!

[Jason]

^ I agree Foltz.  I don't think that thing could turn around at all.  Unless they back it in!

Still, as someone else said, there may be the opportunity to take over other ships that may be displaced to make room for the giant.

[heights unknown]

Titanic sunk by collision with Ice, Britannic sunk by German mine, Olympic (in this photo) the only one of the three to live to a ripe old age. None of the three would answer their helm, making them VERY hard to handle. This is equal to your automobile with only a piece of a stick for steering.


Heights, Hey have you or anyone else heard ANYTHING of Titanic II?  About 2 years ago it was supposed to be "in construction ," but I don't remember where or when. According to my fellow sailors, it will sink! Bad luck to name a ship after a wreck!

I have seen the plans and they call for a ship with the lines of the Titanic above the main deck but EVERYTHING below the main deck is ultra modern. I was wondering if they'll stay true to the vertical bow line, rather then a defined angle? Seems like they could do that and still pull off the "look alike" everyone wants to see.

Perhaps their future would be better if they stayed with the name game, and gave it it's own name, Britannic, Olympic, Titanic (all three sister ships), and ... hum? Ameritannic?

It's supposed to sail from Florida to the Caribe or the Gulf...

OCKLAWAHA

First I've heard Ock about Titanic II.  I knew there was a movie out on it, but never thought there'd be an actual ship with that name.  Fill me in on more if you will.

Heights Unknown

[Ocklawaha]

We could manage the turns in the river. In the fuel crisis of the 1970's, the area between the Matthews Bridge and the Trout River, was full of super tankers with no place to go. So the bends shouldn't stop us, but the damn low Dame Point Bridge sure will! We seem to have a local history of half ass efforts on Bridges:


Dame Point Bridge - About 25 feet too low - large ships cannot pass it OR the JEA  electric lines. Though I would
think the electric lines would be WAY cheaper to raise the the center panel of this damn bridge. Note that when It was built, the maritime interests sued everybody and anybody trying to get it raised... As usual, no luck.

Shands Bridge - The ship yard in Palatka designed and was ready to build a series of new ships of roughly DD or DE size. The Navy had already agreed that this was the deal that would put Port Palatka back on the map. 1,000's of jobs hung in the balance, while PALATKA and the SHIPYARD offered to reconstruct the center span of the bridge. FDOT sent them a rather crude answer, "Go to hell..."

LEE STREET VIADUCT - "MY FAVORITE!" When the convention center was moved to Jacksonville Terminal, the old viaduct (which was beautiful, along the lines of the tiny Hogans Creek bridge just completed downtown) didn't reach ground level until Bay Street. The City wanted it gone, so all of the convention goers could look down Water Street (from downtown) and see those giant 14 sandstone columns. So down it came, and a new viaduct was built to replace the original, this one reaches ground level South of Water Street. Nice view! But this move was brain dead. Shortly after the bridge was "fixed" we hung Skyway track all over Bay, to the Acosta and Brooklyn car barns. Oops no more view. Worse still everyone KNEW that Amtrak was going to croak, so no effort was made to protect the access to the Terminal. Where the old viaduct cleared about 15 tracks and platforms, the new one clears (23.6' feet) only TWO TRACKS.

Now when Amtrak comes home to downtown, we have only three choices, none of them good. We can tear it down and rebuild it correctly. We could do as some at FDOT have suggested, put all of the boarding tracks and platforms at or BELOW river level in a giant walled off concrete tub (* See KATRINA, for how well this will work). Lastly, we could use the current two tracks for Amtrak and the FEC freights, and allow the government to build a new large station in SANFORD!

Dumb asses!

OCKLAWAHA