Fincantieri New Ship Proposal Leaks

Background

Italy’s Fincantieri revealed a new concept ship at Cruise Shipping Miami 2013. Not too much information was made available. However since then, some information was able to leak out. Dubbed Project Mille, she encapsulates the wave of the future design of cruise ships.

The purpose of this project is to explore a more modern configuration to the traditional design of large passenger vessels. Since shaft and rudder based propulsion has quickly demised due to the increase in azipods, there’s no reason to have the diesel generators in the aft section anymore. This ship will position this heavy machinery amidships. By bringing then closer to the center of gravity, this helps with stability. You can note that the funnel has accordingly been brought amidships; right above the engines.

Weight Loss

They were also able to make the hull wider and the super structure narrower, allowing for additional decks in the superstructure. Also in another attempt to reduce the weight above the hull. We’ve seen this unique feature on the Norwegian’s Breakaway-class and Disney’s Fantasy-Class newbuilds out of Germany. Project Mille takes it to the extreme [The Oasis-class kind of have the opposite of this, but they also have two gaping holes in the superstructure Central Park and the Boardwalk]

There are also other initiatives to lower the center of gravity. There will be no large main swimming pool topside. It will be moved somewhere lower in the ship. The spa will also be moved down. By moving any other heavy-weight public area lower, architects are able to yield an entire additional deck of passenger cabins. As these cabins are located in the superstructure, they will be balcony cabins, which mean higher revenue yielding.

This shifting of weight is a trend we’ve seen since the mid-2000’s however it looks like designers really want to emphasize on that going forward.

Project Mille is advertised as offering 10% more cabins; 10% more open-deck space; 10% increase in efficiencies

photos via shippax and Fincantieri

As of 2021, there have been 2 ship classes currently sailing and one under construction that incorporate Project Mille’s design features.

MSC Seaside/Seaside EVO class [4 ships]:

MSC Seaside (2017)

Unnamed (2022)

MSC Seaview (2018)

MSC Seashore (2021)

MSC Cruises MSC Seaside
MSC Seaside in Trieste
MSC Newbuild from Fincantieri. The rumored Project Mille
MSC Newbuild from Fincantieri. The rumored Project Mille

Virgin Voyages Lady Class [3 ships]

Scarlet Lady (2020)

Valiant Lady (2021)

Resilient Lady (2022)

Scarlet Lady at Sea
Scarlet Lady at Sea

NCL’s Project Leonardo [5 ships]

NCL is currently constructing the first of 5 unnamed ships.(The first ship is rumored to be named Norwegian Prima) The 140,000gt ship will feature NCL’s signature go-kart track as well has NCL’s tallest water slide at sea. Later ships in the fleet will be enlarged to 156,300gt and increased from 3,300pax to 3,550pax.

Norwegian Cruise Line’s Project Leonardo

This article was originally published on August 15, 2013 and has been updated to reflect new information that has come out.