Spending a week or a month at length on an expansive Cruise ship is on many people’s wish list. The Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas, having a maximum capacity of 7,600 passengers, is right up there. It is currently the largest cruise you can book for a very long time, if you’ve got money to spare, of course. If you cannot fathom the size of that cruise ship, wait till you hear what this upcoming cruise ship is capable of.
Dubbed the Floating City, the ambitious project by Freedom Ship is destined to haul 80,000 people in total. It’ll be home to 50,000 permanent passengers, 10,000 day visitors, and 20,000 crew members taking care of everything on board. It’ll be powered by nuclear energy and given the colossal size, it will remain in international waters. For now, the Floating City is proposed to circumnavigate the globe every couple of years at a cruise speed of seven knots.
Designer:
The seed for this nuclear-powered vessel came from American engineer Norman Nixon in 1990. Still, unfortunately, after his demise in 2012, the project was paused for a long period, until it again propped up under the new leadership led by Roger M. Gooch. Measuring almost a mile wide and tall enough to have 30 decks, the cruise ship will be one of the biggest vessels on the open waters by a long stretch. Apart from the living spaces, the ship will have a 15,000-capacity sports stadium, a water park, and two museums. To prevent residents from getting seasick, the vessel will have all the basic amenities, including shops, restaurants, a convention centre, and a symphony hall.
Out of those 30 decks, four will be used for financial branches, retail, banks, and commercial services. Two decks will be designated for a food hall, a shopping mall, a casino, a nightclub, and even a large aquarium. After all, this ship has to feel like a city on its own, which is why it has a 15-mile-long walkway, along with three acres of parks for all onboard to explore. Everything on the decks and the neighbourhoods will be connected in a web of trams and pathways. For emergencies, the city will have eight helipads for quick transfer to land. Basic amenities, including hospital and educational hubs, will facilitate residents in seeing their children pass high school and then opt for further studies in the Floating City bounds.
Given the magnanimity of this larger-than-life project, Gooch has commissioned a 12-person leadership team of designers, architects, and project managers to bring the Floating City to life. Once the required funds are amassed, the vessel is slated to take shape in Indonesia over a period of three to four years. According to Gooch, permanent residents can start living on board mid-way through construction, once the basics are in place. Visionaries can even lease or buy the real estate space on board for a cohesive, self-sustaining economy. As per Kevin Schopfer, the project’s lead, the massive stadium can be used for one-of-a-kind events or concerts. He jokingly said, Taylor Swift was a part of passing discussions, but he wasn’t sure if we could handle that yet!
No matter the scale of the ship, residents are bound to get bored at some point in time. That’s why Floating City will give residents and long-term guests the option to explore various onshore destinations via ferry services, every week or so. Floating City is estimated to be constructed for a total cost of $16 Billion, and construction will commence once the funds are ready at the disposal of the leadership. Till that time, this will remain a visionary concept that’ll have a lot at stake.
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