Project Sunshine will be the next generation of cruise ships for Royal

The next generation of cruise ships for Royal Caribbean have taken a step off the drawing board, and will soon be under construction. The first of the ships, code-named Project Sunshine, will be delivered by autumn 2014, and the company has an option for a second, to be completed in spring 2015.
The 4,100-passenger ships will be built at the family-owned Meyer Werft yard in Papenburg, Germany, which is also building ships for Disney, Norwegian Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean subsidiary Celebrity Cruises, and Carnival’s Aida Cruises. The cost is calculated to be £590 million per ship.
At 158,000 tons the ships will be about the same size as the 154,500-ton, 3,600-passenger Freedom class ships, which were built at the STX yard in Turku, Finland. Quite how they will accommodate an extra 500 passengers in a similar space (ship tonnage is a measure of volume rather than weight) remains to be seen.
Another issue will be how the ships reach the sea; the River Ems has to be flooded to enable newbuilds to make the 18-mile journey from Papenburg to Emden, and until now the 130,000-ton Disney Dream has been the largest vessel to achieve it.
An excited Richard Fain, Royal Caribbean’s chairman, said: ” Project Sunshine builds on the best ideas of our existing ships and adds exciting new activities and entertainment concepts. It will offer features for everyone: from grand, spectacular spaces to small intimate settings; from active, invigorating activities to the serenity of more personal space; and from a plethora of dining alternatives to a cornucopia of opportunities for families.”
He was giving away little about the design, however, promising to keep them under wraps during the early stages of construction, and only adding that Royal “has worked hard to earn a reputation of offering the most innovative ships in the cruise industry and this generation will not disappoint.”
Yard owner Bernard Meyer, who this week also watched as the keel was laid for Disney Fantasy, added: “Royal’s projects always present incredible opportunities for Meyer Werft to create the latest cutting edge hardware in the cruise industry.”