How Arvia is the ‘latest evolution’ for P&O Cruises

How Arvia is the ‘latest evolution’ for P&O Cruises 

LNG-fuelled Arvia has been handed over by shipyard Meyer Werft to the UK’s P&O Cruises.  

P&O Cruises president, Paul Ludlow, explains the sister ship of Iona, built in 2020, has taken the latter vessel’s general arrangement but has additional features. 

He says, “Arvia is the latest evolution in the P&O Cruises experience, embodying the newest trends in travel, dining and entertainment, and is the epitome of a sunshine resort sailing year-round to the warmest climates. It takes its sister ship Iona’s design aesthetic and general arrangement but provides new and exciting outside and inside spaces which make the most of Arvia’s deployment to the Caribbean.”

Explaining the energy-efficient features, he points out Arvia is P&O Cruises’ second ship to be powered by LNG. Mr Ludlow adds, “As an Excel-class ship, Arvia has an optimised hull design to minimise drag and is installed with the latest energy-efficient technology on board.” 

LNG tanks in the bowels of the ship.

The ship concept is based on the platform Meyer Werft has created for several brands of Carnival Corp. “Technically, the ship has been designed with tailor-made, optimised hydrodynamics and is equipped with the latest technology to minimise energy consumption while offering spacious public areas and cabins for passengers,” explains Meyer Werft communications manager Florian Feimann.  

He points out that when the shipyard designed the class, there were no regulations by IMO or classifications for LNG use on passenger vessels. “Next to the development of the LNG propulsion system, the clarification and development of regulations were the major milestones. Meyer Werft was also involved in designing the regulations.” 

Commenting on the use of LNG, Mr Feimann says, “In addition to reducing CO2 emissions, emissions of nitrogen oxides and particulate matter can be almost completely eliminated, and sulphur oxides completely avoided. All cruise ships in Meyer Werft’s current orderbook feature this low-emissions propulsion system. 

According to SOLAS and SRtP regulations, there are two separate engine rooms with two engines each. These engines power generators, which power the electric engines in the Azipods. 

While the technical aspects of Arvia are almost the same as Iona, there have been updates and changes carried out to the interiors of the ships.  

The design features and venues were developed to create a ship that makes the “destination and sea the star”. 

“The clear direction was to design and create spaces and ‘wow’ moments that celebrate the sea and bring the outside in, for example, SkyDome with its retractable roof and the Grand Atrium with widescreen ocean views which will be the focus of entertainment for the ship,” Mr Ludlow says, adding the interior also had to feature cues inspired by P&O Cruises’ “rich and proud nautical heritage”.

There is a broader choice of cuisine with new restaurants created exclusively for Arvia. Green & Co featuring Mizuhana offers guests, fish and plant-based dishes. Guests will be able to dine at the sushi bar and watch expert chefs at work or be seated at tables to enjoy the views out to sea.

6th Street Diner is an all-American diner serving breakfast, brunch, dinner and sweet treats, accompanied by great music and ice-cold cocktails.

Mr Ludlow says there are more experiential retail areas on board including an area showcasing the latest in tech at sea, a ‘design your own’ fine jewellery bar; and the first-at-sea Swarovski ‘Wonder Lab’ concept store featuring the latest crystal collections from Swarovski’s new creative director, Giovanna Engelbert.

New entertainment options include Altitude, Arvia’s outdoor adventure zone which features Altitude Skywalk, P&O Cruises’ first-ever high-rope experience, Altitude Minigolf and the new aqua zone at Splash Valley. 

“Mission Control is also exclusive to Arvia and is a uniquely immersive experience combining an escape game with multimedia simulation and a live-action story to create a thrilling underwater challenge,” says Mr Ludlow.

Guests on Arvia will be able to watch the stage musical, Greatest Days - The Official Take That Musical which is an adaptation of the West End musical The Band, which features the songs of Take That and is by Olivier Award-winning writer Tim Firth. Arvia will also feature WaveLength, a new interactive gameshow, virtually starring presenter and game show host Ben Shephard.

And Infinity, P&O Cruises’ first swim-up bar, will give guests the opportunity to enjoy their favourite drinks. 

Enter SkyDome

He explains there are more inside and outside spaces to enjoy, for example, the SkyDome will feature a retractable glass roof, creating a relaxed poolside environment with dining and drinking options for guests. “In the evening, the space will seamlessly transition into an entertainment venue, showcasing superb production shows, live music, guest act tributes and aerialist performances. Guests will also be able to enjoy blockbuster movies under the stars on the huge SeaScreen,” Mr Ludlow says.

Marine glazing specialist Brombach + Gess developed and delivered the retractable glass roof which consists of two sliding elements and a fore and an aft non-movable part. With an overall length of 43 m, a width of 34 m and a height above the baseline of 62 m, the roof adorning Arvia is an impressive highlight. 

The roof structure is a grid construction with arches from starboard to portside and longitudinal beams made of welded rectangular hollow profiles. The roof structure is made of steel and weighs about 156 tonnes. 

To keep the temperatures under the roof at a moderate level, the roof is equipped with durable solar control laminated safety glass. The glasses are glued on the steel structure, with sealing between the glass panes leaving the surface of the roof flat with no upstands that could accumulate residue, making it easy to clean the roof. 

The roof is opened and closed using motorised worm gears and chains with a running speed of 1 m/min, allowing the roof to be converted within 10 minutes.

Brombach + Gess says, “Sliding roofs are a great solution to use on areas on a ship efficiently at any time – sudden changes in weather will not be a problem and the endless view is a great experience.”

Iona and Arvia: design differences

London and Prague-based international architecture and interior design practice Jestico + Whiles scooped interior designer contracts for P&O Cruises’ Iona and Arvia.

Jestico + Whiles associate director Jennifer de Vere-Hopkins tells PST’s sister publication Passenger Ship Interior & Refurbishment Review, “We were recommended to P&O Cruises, and they came to us because we are outsiders [to the cruise industry]. They wanted to work with a hospitality designer that could give fresh ideas and a new perspective.”

Within the hospitality sector, the firm’s designs range from the interiors of large hotels to one-off restaurants and bars. Projects include the Mandarin Oriental Palace, Lucerne and W Hotel Edinburgh.

Jestico + Whiles was one of three firms employed to design the interiors of the two ships. The company designed the Grand Atrium and many of the food and beverage areas.

Jestico + Whiles was tasked with making areas in Arvia look different to the first ship. Explaining one of the main differences, Ms de Vere-Hopkins says, “P&O Cruise’s brief was to accommodate the pop-up entertainment right in the centre of the atrium, rather than starboard like Iona. The lighting and sound are focused on the centre space with the redesigned staircase as a backdrop and a chandelier above.

“We want people to dance in the centre and we had an interesting design driver as you can’t dance on stone [which is in the Iona’s Grand Atrium]. We also set out to bring in a more natural feel to Arvia with wood, which is a perfect surface for dancing and one of the new design features is a ripple of wood across the floor.” 

Carnival Horizon to Drydock, Liberty and Sunshine to Take Her Place

The Carnival Horizon will be out of service longer than anticipated to fix a propulsion problem with the ship now set for a drydocking in Palermo for repairs.

This means sailings on the Horizon are cancelled until January 22 and Carnival is responding quickly, with the Liberty and Sunshine re-entering service to pick up the Horizon’s guests and itineraries from Miami.

Both those ships will sail from Miami in place of the Horizon for the Dec. 19, Dec. 26 and Dec. 31 departures. The Sunshine will then move north to Charleston for a Jan. 13 restart, while the Liberty will pick up the Horizon’s Miami-based Caribbean itineraries that sail on Jan. 8 and Jan. 22.

Fincantieri places US$150M propulsion order for newbuilds

Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri has placed an order with ABB worth US$150M to supply Azipod propulsion systems for five cruise ship newbuilds

Each cruise ship will be powered by twin Azipod units, bringing the total ordered propulsion power for the five newbuilds to 178 MW. Part of the order includes the largest and most powerful Azipod propulsion units ever to be installed at Fincantieri, rating at 20 MW each. The vessels will enter service between 2023 and 2026.

More than 100 cruise ships have been equipped with Azipods since their introduction three decades ago, with the first units installed at Fincantieri in the late 1990s. With the ability to rotate 360 degrees, the podded drives significantly increasing manoeuvrability and operating efficiency of a vessel and cutting fuel consumption by up to 20% compared to conventional shaftline systems, according to ABB.

ABB estimates that Azipod propulsion has saved a total of over 900,000 tonnes of fuel in the passenger cruise segment alone.

Each cruise ship newbuild at Fincantieri will also feature ABB’s integrated electric power plant setup, encompassing generators, drives, switchboards, propulsion transformers and a remote-control system to manoeuvre the Azipod units from the bridge. Combining Azipod propulsion with the electric power plant allows configuring all relevant equipment for optimised performance, resulting in increased efficiency and sustainability of operations.

These vessels will have the capability to integrate the ABB Ability Collaborative Operations infrastructure and centres for remote equipment monitoring and data analytics to enable predictive maintenance, planned interventions and remote technical support.

Alaska Marine Pilots Concerned About Royal Princess' Maneuverability in Alaska

PHOTO: Royal Princess. (Photo courtesy of Princess Cruises)

The Southeast Alaska Pilots Association (SEAPA) is concerned with how well one mega-cruise ship will be able to manoeuvre the state this season.

Marine pilots from the association tested the limits of four mega-ships – the Norwegian Bliss and its sister ship, Royal Caribbean’s Ovation of the Seas and Princess Cruises’ Royal Princess – that will be visiting southeast Alaska through virtual reality.

While the Ovation of the Seas will be the largest ship to ever visit Alaska, the marine pilots were far more concerned with Royal Princess.

“Overall the simulations (for the Royal Princess) produced serious challenges in the wind and current conditions common to Southeast Alaska,” the pilots wrote in a report.

Apparently, the Royal Princess doesn’t do well at low speeds especially with its standard propulsion system which uses propellers and rudders. Azipod propulsion is used in the three other ships.

Keir Moorhead, an engineer who teaches at California State University Maritime Academy explained, “With Azipod-style propulsion, the propeller is actually on a pod below the ship, and what you can do is rotate that pod.”

“At any given moment, you can rotate a propeller 360 degrees to give you thrust in any direction,” Moorhead said, indicating that it allows big ships to manoeuvre in tight spots at lower speeds.

The SEAPA suggests that Royal Princess doesn’t attempt to pass through the Tongass Narrow, which is only 220-meters-wide, at more than 15 knots of wind (though there is a 7-knot speed limit for this area). With little room to manoeuvre through this pass to get to Ketchikan port, the cruise ship could have some trouble.

In response, Princess Cruises' vice president of fleet operations, Keith Taylor said, “While we appreciate SEAPA’s (Southeast Alaska Pilots Association) efforts to date, we believe the model they used to assess this ship requires further refinement. There are three Royal Class ships operating safely around the globe, in many challenging navigational areas.”

While it doesn’t appear that Princess Cruises is too concerned, hopefully, all goes well on Royal Princess' first visit to southeast Alaska on May 13.

The Cruise Ship Engine

The Cruise Ship Engine

Without a source of power, these huge cruise vessels would be nothing more than drifting aimlessly hotels. A large number of older ships use diesel reciprocating engines for generating power for propulsion. Cruise ship engine power is supplied through transmission to the propeller shafts. These transmissions determine the revolutions of propellers. Modern ships use either diesel electric engines or gas turbines as a source of power for propulsion, and for ship's systems. Some of the larger ships depend on two power sources - one for electrical power and one for propulsion.

Gas turbine engines, as being aeroderivative, generate heat which is transformed from mechanical energy in electrical power. Compressed air is fired in combustion chamber, to achieve this. Hot exhaust is made over a turbine which spins to drive mechanically a shaft. The power can be used to spin the electrical generators. The same way do diesel-electric engines work, yet they use not a turbine. The output shafts, to produce electrical power, are connected to the electrical generators.

Both engine types need a lot of fuel. Cunard QE2, for example, consumes daily 380 tons of fuel when she's traveling at 28.5 knots speed and carries fuel enough to sail for 12 days. Usually ships fill up at various ports, and use fueling barges as floating gas stations. Vessels use lower-grade diesel which tends not to burn as purely as diesel-powered road-going vehicles.

All ships rely on the propellers to be pushed through water. These, referred to commonly as screws, provide forward and reverse motion. Airplanes, for example, require tremendous speeds of propellers to provide forward motion for flight, but ship propellers don't need to turn so fast and rely on torque power. Therefore, they travel slowly, and rarely top 30 knots (for more info follow our speed-link above).

Cruise ship engine room

The basic detail about the cruise ship engine room is its location. Ships' heaviest weights have to be situated at the lowest possible place because of stability, and usually engines are mounted above the keel. Ship's lowest decks are almost entirely full of machinery. An area creating enough power for driving such an enormous vessel through water needs to be really big - very often engine rooms occupy at least three decks. But rather than long halls stretching length of hulls, machinery is almost always divided into smaller compartments - one might house main engines, and another might contain air-conditioning system. This compartmentalization is for safety reasons. If a penetration to the hull or fire happens, multiple compartments help contain the damage. See at the right the Allure of the Seas cruise ship engine room:

Rarely, engines are not placed at the bottom of ship - four main diesel engines on RMS Queen Mary 2, are placed above the keel, and two smaller gas turbines are on top, aft of funnel.

An interesting fact is that it was not unusual for older liners to feature two engine rooms. Gradually, technology allowed consolidation of engine spaces. However, legislation today requires vessels to have equipment duplication and two engine rooms.

Conventional diesel cruise ship engine

Today's direct-drive diesels feature one main advantage - the option to use shaft generator, which is a device using the circular motion of propeller shaft in order to generate electricity needed for hotel services, like cooking and lighting. Shaft generators can be used only while the ship is moving with fairly constant cruising speed. This is what the NCL Epic cruise ship engine looks like:

Diesel electric cruise ship engine

Almost all new ships feature a diesel-electric propulsion form. On these ships, main engines are not connected to propeller shafts, and instead of it they are directly connected to big generators in order to produce electricity, which is sent in turn to electric motors, that then power and help turn the propellers. Main advantage of the diesel-electric cruise ship engine systems is efficiency as they allow main engines to operate near the most efficient speed, no matter if the ship is moving at 5 or 25 knots.

Losing electrical power is devastating to ships. Main engines and generators require electricity and it's needed to keep them going. Pumps that are driven electrically take in cold water from ocean to cool the engines, and electrical pumps get fuel from fuel tanks and supply it to the engine. Electrical power is vital for many operational functions - without it, ships come to a halt.

Large equipment (propulsion motor, bow thrusters) requires electricity of high voltage. As for smaller machinery (cabin lights, galley equipment), the electricity goes through transformer and is thus stepped down into lower voltage. Large cables snake through all the ship to distribute electrical power. They carry power from generators to switchboards, through passageways, public rooms, crew and passenger cabins. Cabling can be the weak point in the distribution system. If the electrical cables aren't truly redundant, even ships that feature two engine rooms suffer power failure.

While ships are docked, generators and main engines produce more power than needed. They are turned off in port, and smaller generators supply "hotel" load (lights, air-conditioning, galley, etc.). Moving through water takes up vast majority of ship's power needs - about 85% of diesel-electric plant produced power goes to propeller, and the rest towards keeping lights on and crew and passengers comfortable. At the right is the Royal Caribbean's major rival's latest cruise ship power technology: the new Vista Carnival cruise ship engine room (engine type is "MAN 2 × 14V48/60CR", common-rail diesel injection system):

Ulysseas project - the new expedition cruise ship design

Ulysseas project - the new expedition cruise ship design

In March 2015, the major shipbuilder STX France unveiled a revolutionary new expedition ship design named "Ulysseas". It represents an innovative idea for a small cruise ship (passenger capacity 200, ice-class hull, length 476 ft / 145 m, cruising speed 17 kn / 20 mph / 31 kmh) aimed at the expedition cruising market.

The main reason for the Ulysseas project is that currently, the expedition cruise market uses mostly second-hand vessels. Unique for this new ship design is the excessive usage of glass (in all public areas) and the French balconies (false balconies) on all passenger cabins. Every passenger-use facility on the new vessel features floor-ceiling windows. There will be an unique forward-located observation lounge for 360-degree views.

The Ulysseas ship's aft-section is an STX-patented design for saving energy. This is a movable duck-tail, which position depends on cruising speeds and weather conditions. The vessel will be powered by two 2.5 MWT azipods (rotating at 360° Azimuth thrusters), with four diesel-electric generators and one scrubber. This cruise ship design also features a helipad (helicopter landing pad), a helicopter storage space (inside the ship), zodiac boats for ship-to-shore operations.