Freedom of the Seas

[John DeLoache]

NBC's Today Show will be broadcasting live from the Freedom of the Seas tomorrow (May 12th) while she's in New York. There are some great pictures of her entering New York Harbor yesterday on the World Ship Society - NY website.

 

[Mark Baber]

Photos of her arrival in New York Harbor today appear here and here.

 

[John DeLoache]

As a cynic I'm taking bets as to how many times Katie Couric refers to Freedom as a "boat" and how many times NBC tries to plug the movie Poseidon.

 

[Joe Russo]

Fortunately Poseidon is a Warner Bros. release and not NBC Universal so there will probably be limited reference to that. RCCL's publicity machine also probably had an agreement about negative references and it will mostly be all fluff with tired jokes about having enough lifeboats and icebergs.

 

[Jerry Nuovo]

I just watched the whole 3 hours of the Today Show and there was no reference to the Poseidon Movie.Strange though that Warner Bros. did not buy commercial advertising time on the Today Show to advertise the Poseidon Movie.Maybe Warner Bros. attempted to buy commercial advertising time on the Today Show for the Poseidon Movie but NBC would not sell the commercial time to them because the network feared that a cruise ship disaster movie being advertised during the broadcast of the Today Show on the morning that the Today Show was showcasing Royal Caribbean's newest ship the Freedom of the Seas,would not please the Royal Caribbean officials because of the fear that advertising this cruise ship disaster movie would result in negative bookings for the cruise ship industry.There was a video graphic comparing the size of the Freedom of the Seas to the Queen Mary 2 and the Titanic.During the show they did show some video clips from Cameron's Titanic movie.

 

[Denise A. Hunyadi]

If you're right, Jerry, wouldn't it be ironic that a cruise company and/or television network would be sensitive about showing film clips from a movie about a fictional ship disaster ("Poseidon"), yet include in their broadcast scenes from a movie about a real one ("Titanic")?

Maybe they think the "Poseidon" looks a little too much like the "Freedom of the Seas"?

Denise

 

[Joe Russo]

I think that you guys are both right. I'm sure that there was quite a bit of concern from RCCL's publicists regarding the opening of this disaster movie the same day as the arrival of this new ship. It is no coincidence that the talking heads that host the Today Show made no reference to the movie as they just say what the control booth is telling them to say in their ear pieces. I'm sure that there was probably something corny like Al Roker or that other guy saying they were "king of the world." It also wouldn't be beneficial for NBC Universal to be giving free mention/publicity to a competitor. As for paid commercial advertising, that was probably blocked by RCCL not wanting to remind people what can happen and therefore hurting business, or even NBC or Warner Bros. not wishing to do this as it would be a juxtaposition in bad taste.
As for Titanic, were these scenes of the sinking of just shots of the ship and characters?

 

[John DeLoache]

Ok, my faith in NBC is restored a little. Overall I think they did a good job with the exception of the Titanic clips with Katie on the Bridge. There was one very good camera shot directly in front of the bow that showed her highth vs. width. I wish they had featured a little more of the ship's interior. They focused almost exclusively on the Royal Promanade, pool area and bridge.

 

[Joe Russo]

Isn't she actually shorter than the QM2, so most of her tonnage comes from her width?

 

[John DeLoache]

Freedom is 20 feet shorter (1112 vs. 1132) but nearly 50 wider (184 vs. 135).

 

[Joe Russo]

My God, she's a barge!

 

[Dave Gittins]

The 184 feet beam seems to be an error. The builders, Aker Yards, say the beam is 126.65 feet (38.6 metres). That's narrower than QM2, so her extra volume would come from the superstructure.

The 184 feet might be the width of the bridge wings, though it still seems excessive. QM2 is only 147.5 feet across the bridge.

I think there's something fishy about the measurements and I'll wait for next year's Lloyd's Register for something definite.

 

[Jerry Nuovo]

Joe, The video clips of Cameron's Titanic broadcast yesterday on the Today Show were of the Titanic as she struck the iceberg and of Titanic's stern rising higher into the air.As for the measurements of the Freedom of the Seas that ship is just an extended Voyager Class Ship that are known as a Ultra Voyager Class Ships.What Royal Caribbean did was take the blueprints of the Voyager Class Ships and stretch out the hull for about another 92 feet to make the overall length of the Ultra Voyager Class Ship 1,112 feet compared to the overall length of the Voyager Class Ship which is 1,020 feet.The beam or width of the Ultra Voyager Class Ship is the same as the Voyager Class Ship which is a little over 126 feet as Dave described in his above post.

 

[Michael lowe]

Cunard are supposed to be having a new "British ship" in 2007, she is to be called Queen Victoria, guess where she is being built?

at the Marghera shipyard of Fincantieri near Venice, Italy.


Disgraceful!! Really, she is an Italian ship then. What happened to Cunard ships being built at John Brown & CO, on the Clydebank?? Not a British ship at all!!

Bring back Harland and Wolff!!


With the addition of this new 90,000-ton vessel, the Cunard liner legacy will be upheld, as Queen Victoria will offer all the classic characteristics that have become associated with the company’s unique heritage. From the outside, her distinctive black and red livery and strengthened hull will hint at the experience that differentiates a Cunard liner from a modern-day cruise ship. This will be most evident in the ship’s adherence to liner traditions of the past, with elegant and classically-styled public rooms, many on a grand scale, luxuriously endowed with rich wood panelling, intricate mosaics, chandeliers, and cool marbles.


From:
http://www.cunard.com/AboutCunard/NewsReleases.asp?Cat=&View=ViewArticle&Mode=News&ContentID=5706&Active=News


Bring back Harland and Wolff!!

 

[John DeLoache]

The QV being built in Italy is no more disgraceful than the QM2 being built by in the same Country that built the original Queen Mary's competitor Normandie. There just isn't enough shipbuilding work to justify more yards than there are at the moment and Fincantieri is the yard where a lot of Carnival Corp ships are built. They've done a number of ships recently for Carnival, Princess and Holland America.