The Aviation industry just recently witnessed the latest king of the sky the 787 super-efficient Dreamliner prowling the skies and I am itching to sit my royal black behind in one of it's ultra tech seats, preferably in Business Class.
Waoh! Aint that just a beauty? This baby just makes me wanna rent the sky (apologies M.I!)
Imagine becoming a member of the mile high club in one of them reclined biz class seats. A man can dream can't he? After all men have gone 'galacticos' now with the space tourism explosion in the offing! (I will tell you all about that tomorrow so stay locked).
Anyway my dream shouldn't be far off, year-end 2012 should better see my royal? (ok cos I am way too modest, I'll settle for loyal) butt comfy in one of them plush seats.)
Anyway my dream shouldn't be far off, year-end 2012 should better see my royal? (ok cos I am way too modest, I'll settle for loyal) butt comfy in one of them plush seats.)
Well in between my Dreamliner fantasies, I went searching for the sea variant of the Dreamliner. Don't sneer just yet.The industry has moved past the days of steamships and sailboats you know?
The oceans are dotted with all kinds of ships these days. From the container ships driving global trade to the passenger cruise ships which is also a global player in the tourism sector. We aint gonna do the global trade thing today. What I am on about here is different. I am talking cruise ships here. Not Container ships. There are various categories of cruise ships and even sub categories. You could get a crash course on them starting here.
We will just look at one recent one. But before we do lets do a quick tutorial on cruise ships.
Well I am sure you all know that ships have a name. Cruise ships aint any different. They are called quite some pleasant names. (there we go again with names! Remember the unfortunate sailor from our last post named Coffin?) Secondly they do have owners. Obvious right? Not so obvious though is their ownership share structure, but that is a gist for another day. They have operators as well. However even before they are named, they get ordered and they are built. So they do have a builder.
They do get laid down. (Now I know what you are thinking but that is not what it means!) A ship gets 'laid down' when the first parts of the keel are placed on the slipway (or drydock) where the ship is to be built. This is usually the first step in the construction of a ship. The ship gets launched. (this is done by allowing it to slide ad float on the water for the first time).
It gets Christened (what you would call a naming ceremony). Then it takes its maiden voyage and lives a life of happiness, achievement, victory or defeat, sorrow etc. While alive it is in service and has a status as well as identification numbers given by many groups. The identification numbers serve varying purposes but the chief purpose is that it is like a branded mark on the ship and it survives varying incidents like a change of name, ownership or flag (nationality). So ships are very much like human beings in that way! They can even be sued in their name! Of course Maritime and Admiralty Lawyers know of the action in rem, which within the parameters of academic discourse, is an action against the ship itself.
End of Tutorials.
Now meet the Costa Favolosa.
It cost a whopping 510 million British Pounds Sterling to build. (I never told you they come cheap did I? Besides there are cruise ships that even cost more to build as we will see in future posts.). It's maiden voyage was on the 4th of July, 2011 even though it was launched on the 6th of August 2010. It was built by what I would call the equivalent of Boeing in the cruise ship industry, the Italian company Fincantieri.
Now let's go see this elegant beauty of the sea.
Aint it a sight for sore eyes?
Perhaps you have had a long day and you feel like chilling right?
This is what a suite inside looks like. (look below)
Awesome innit?
If you wanna quench your thirst, you can take a deserved splurge at the bar
Don't you just wanna get drunk right now?
Here it is in all it's glory!
Hmnn If I work hard enough or get lucky enough or dream hard enough or all of the afore, I should be able to put a call through to Fincantieri in 5-6 years time to build me a revised standard version of this? Or am I hallucinating?
Ok let me rephrase the statement 'If I work hard enough or get lucky enough or dream hard enogh or all of the afore, I should be able to place an order for a fleet of those!'
Now even me I am almost tempted to agree that I am hallucinating!
But I happen to know a lot of hallucinating people who are parting with huge sums to go to space. I think I prefer such company.
Ciao!
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