gCaptain.com

This weeks big story in the world of cruise ship is Holland America’s unveiling of it’s newest and largest ship, Eurodam. The Eurodam will be the 80th ship in HAL fleet and the first to use dynamic positioning abilities to hold the ship in a precise position. This technology was unthinkable 134 years ago when Holland America launched its first ship the Rotterdam. MS Eurodam is set to sail its inaugural season in Europe followed by cruises in Canada and New England in the fall and the Caribbean in the winter.

This week Gene Sloan of USA TODAYS’s Cruise Log Blog will be blogging live from Europe at the unveiling of The Eurodam. Here is what he had to say about the new ship earlier this week.

The historic line will be showing off the vessel in Europe starting this weekend in a series of events from Southampton, England to Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

The 86,700-ton Eurodam, which has one more deck than the ships in the company’s last series, the Vista Class, will be christened on July 1 in Rotterdam by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands. Its maiden voyage, a 10-night cruise from Copenhagen, Denmark, is set for July 5.

We have been closley following the build progress on the ship’s blog and have written more than a few aritlces on her thoughout the process. You can read these posts HERE.
News and Links

Official Eurodam Blog

USA TODAY Cruise Log Blog with Gene Sloan

Wikipedia: MS Eurodam

Photo by Crusair

Eurodam News, a blog following the construction of the brand new Holland America Lines’ cruise ship M/V Eurodam, recently featured a very interesting post by the company’s director of budgets and planning Tim Murphy. The subject: How To Buy A Cruise Ship. Murphy writes:

“First, you make an economic decision about whether you need a new ship,” Murphy said. “Then you negotiate a price with the shipyard. Generally, you then make a down payment, usually in the range of 5 percent. Then there is a series of staged payments while the ship is being built, with a final big payoff at the time the ship is delivered.”

Murphy said that Eurodam is being financed by Holland America Line through Carnival Corporation’s ownership of the company. “We are in the enviable position that we can self-finance a new cruise ship due to our parent company’s strong balance sheet and solid cash flow,” he said.

Another of Murphy’s areas of responsibility is warranties. A cruise ship is a very large, complex machine made up of lots of smaller systems and moving parts, and just like with a new car, the owner is going to want warranties for a set time period in the event that there are problems with any parts or systems.

“Pretty much everything on board that’s not a consumable, like light bulbs and that kind of thing, is under warranty for a year,” said Murphy. “Larger, more complex and more critical systems like the engines or water treatment plant would have an extended warranty.”

Before the line takes possession of the ship from the shipyard, any outstanding warranty issues are negotiated and a pre-delivery list of things that still need to be done such as painting, laying carpet or other cosmetic finishes is made and the shipyard is obligated to finish those tasks as soon as possible.

You can read the entire article HERE.

Pieter Rijkaart, Holland America Line’s director of newbuilds, just provided this image of Eurodam’s recently installed Azipods.

Eurodam News, the official Holland America blog documenting the building of the cruise ship M/V Eurodam, gives us a sneak peak at the latest in propeller and bulbous bow design.