Where are cruise ships built?

12.08.2024 - 20:33 / thepointsguy.com

It's easy to appreciate the enormity of a skyscraper as it's being built in plain sight, each floor constructed atop the one below — but what about a cruise ship? The newest megaships are just as massive lengthwise as skyscrapers are tall, and they're equally complex. But you never see cruise ships being built on-site at a cruise port.

Where, exactly, are cruise ships built? We're glad you asked.

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The cruise ships that millions of travelers sail on annually were all built in a cruise shipyard — where engineers, steelworkers, architects, electricians, designers and other tradespeople spend up to 18 months on a vessel's construction.

The process at the major cruise ship shipyards, all located in Europe, starts with the steel cutting, which can take place months before actual construction begins. That event is followed by the keel laying, the placing of the center structure, or spine, of the ship. It hits a milestone at the floatout when the hull is completed, the dry dock is flooded and the ship first touches water. The process culminates with sea trials, when a ship's stability, speed and maneuverability are tested.

Once the ship is deemed seaworthy, the cruise line takes possession of the ship ahead of its inaugural cruise — though the finishing touches are usually still being put on the ship.

The construction of a vessel at a cruise ship shipyard is actually the endgame in a process that typically begins six or seven years prior to its launch with the cruise line's ship development team. Before the keel has been laid on any vessel at the leading cruise ship shipyards, teams have already worked for years on engineering details and developed models of cabins, pool decks, theaters, restaurants and bars. It's up to the shipyard to turn the designers' and engineers' vision into reality.

The actual building process happens at one of the major shipyards in France, Italy, Germany or Finland. Here are the names to know.

Located in Saint-Nazaire on France's Atlantic coast, Chantiers de l'Atlantique operates on a site where ships have been built since 1835. Modern cruise ship construction was re-established in the 1980s.

Vessels built there include Celebrity Cruises' Edge Class ships, MSC Cruises' Meraviglia and World Class ships, and four Royal Caribbean vessels (Harmony of the Seas, Symphony of the Seas, Wonder of the Seas and Utopia of the Seas).

The shipyard has been known as Chantiers de l'Atlantique since 1955 but was called Aker Yards and then STX France before reclaiming the Chantiers name in 2018. It is now majority-owned by the French government.

Fincantieri is the world's largest builder of cruise ships, with ship-building roots