Marina Bay Cruise Centre

[ddes]

In my opinion, they NEED to get this done as soon as possible.

Then with the construction of Cruise Terminal 2, I can start to see a list of complaints; lack of public transport infrastructure, then cue NSL extension, no hotels or F&B outlets nearby, cue development of this part of downtown...

Can see 2 waves of development heading towards each other, one coming from ORQ to The Sail, to MBFC, the other from Cruise Terminal towards Marina Bay MRT...

[JediAlf]

Originally Posted by ddarkdom

In my opinion, they NEED to get this done as soon as possible.

Then with the construction of Cruise Terminal 2, I can start to see a list of complaints; lack of public transport infrastructure, then cue NSL extension, no hotels or F&B outlets nearby, cue development of this part of downtown...

Can see 2 waves of development heading towards each other, one coming from ORQ to The Sail, to MBFC, the other from Cruise Terminal towards Marina Bay MRT...

LTA has already planned extension from Marina Bay to the site next to proposed cruise centre. So LTA is waiting for approval from Ministry of Finance to begin construction. STB is also waiting for approval from MOF to kick in the construction of cruise terminal.

Royal Caribbean is world no 2 largest cruise operator. It is a leading operator in innovative ships. Some of its ships have rock climbing, mini golf, surfing board area that u can stand on the surfboard with powerful jet of water against your board...dancing.. This only happened on one of the ships...

This wakes up Government officers.

[ddes]

Actually those facilities you mentioned are on 3 of the ships; Independence of The Seas, Liberty of The Seas and Freedom of The Seas, aka, the Freedom Class vessels which Singapore is totally unable to handle....

Coming in 2009, will be the arrival of the Genesis Class, 65m high, 360m long...

All this according to Wiki...

Just to give you an imagination, Rhapsody of The Seas is the 2nd smallest class of vessels in RCI's fleet...

[JediAlf]

Originally Posted by ddarkdom

Actually those facilities you mentioned are on 3 of the ships; Independence of The Seas, Liberty of The Seas and Freedom of The Seas, aka, the Freedom Class vessels which Singapore is totally unable to handle....

Coming in 2009, will be the arrival of the Genesis Class, 65m high, 360m long...

All this according to Wiki...

Just to give you an imagination, Rhapsody of The Seas is the 2nd smallest class of vessels in RCI's fleet...

Singapore ports already have capabilities to handle any types of ships even biggest container ships that exceed the lengths of any RCI largest ships except that the berths are not designed for cruise ships. Already 25 times, cruise ships went to PSA ports.

Changi Naval Base can handle US aircraft carrier. Why not?

So new 2nd Cruise Terminal should be able to handle super large cruise ships. I won't be surprised if any of super large ship RCI sends to Singapore. I cannot imagine a super large vessel approaching Singapore with fireworks lit up the night sky with glowing city lights.

Passengers on board would be able to see giant towers in distance.


In the port of Miami.

New York terminals...






So the second cruise terminal should have connecting bridges from terminal building to the ships and longer berth to handle few ships.

It is extremely challenging...

[JediAlf]

RCI Genesis class ship - 360 m

RCI Freedom class ship - 337m - 4,370 passengers

RCI Vision class ship


- Rhapsody of the Seas - 279m - Vision class


- Legend of the Seas - 264m - Vision Class



World no 3: Star Cruises
Superstar Virgo - 268m


World no 1: Carnival Corporation & PLC
RMS Queen Mary - 345m

[Charging Bull]

Reason being:-

Wake up call, getting the heat from Hong Kong that will have a new Cruise terminal ready by 2012.

Originally Posted by JediAlf

Arrival of major player - Royal Caribbean has kicked STB officers out of their beds. Then STB scrambled and said "Cruise Centre will be ready in 2 - 3 years". If 2 years, this is confirmed 24/7 working. The whole Marina South and Marina Bay are now a GIANT construction site!

In the beginning of 2007, STB said cruise centre would be ready in 6 years.

Suddenly STB changed the tunes quickly the moment one of largest cruise ships arrived in Singapore...I guess they underestimate the power of cruise industry.

2008 - year of construction and thousands of workers all over the site...


2009 - Marina Bay Sands open, new buildings would be ready to be occupied. CCL trains would start rolling into Marina Bay and city. Cruise terminal at Marina South would welcome first super large ship.

Fireworks lit up over Marina South and Marina Bay....

2009 - Cool year

[Charging Bull]

Best solution:- Like IR projects, ask private investors to bid and pay for the land and construction cost.

"No more Delay, No more Delay".

Originally Posted by ddarkdom

In my opinion, they NEED to get this done as soon as possible.

Then with the construction of Cruise Terminal 2, I can start to see a list of complaints; lack of public transport infrastructure, then cue NSL extension, no hotels or F&B outlets nearby, cue development of this part of downtown...

Can see 2 waves of development heading towards each other, one coming from ORQ to The Sail, to MBFC, the other from Cruise Terminal towards Marina Bay MRT...

[Maverick713]

Originally Posted by Charging Bull

Quote: "STB's Mr Lim said: 'We are working at double time to get the (new) cruise terminal up as soon as possible.'"

Correction on Grammar mistake : should be "soonest as possible."

Poor STB.... kena hammered left and right for being so late to market. Anyway, when Dayne Lim was promoted to the STB directorship for cruise cluster development at end of 2006, I see a lot of positive directions from STB to speed up the development of the cruise industry in Singapore. It takes time but we are getting there.

[Pengui]

Originally Posted by JediAlf

- Rhapsody of the Seas - 279m - Vision class

Haha! That's only one meter shorter than Singapore's tallests ;-)

[JediAlf]

Originally Posted by Pengui

Haha! That's only one meter shorter than Singapore's tallests ;-)

Easier - put 1 m statue on the stern - this would reach 280!

[JediAlf]

Originally Posted by Charging Bull

Reason being:-

Wake up call, getting the heat from Hong Kong that will have a new Cruise terminal ready by 2012.

HK Ocean Terminal can handle any size of ships already without any height restriction or width restriction. Like Singapore's Cruise Terminal, it has 2 berths. The capacity has been reached in HK. Like Singapore, many of cruise ships have to berth at Container ports in HK.

The powerful effect comes from major players coming into Asia. For the first time in history that second largest cruise operator has made its presence louder and louder in Asia. Mega large ships can carry more than 2000 passengers. This wakes up officers.

Because the capacity counts. If the new terminal has bigger and more berths - say 4 berths - meaning it can handle 8 super large ships equivalent to any RCI ships - say Freedom of the Seas class. So 8 ships * 2000 = 16, 000 passengers.

So the proposed Cruise Terminal at Kai Tak (former international airport) would have 2 berths of (800m). It means it can handle 8 ships of 200m long - almost equivalent to what NYC cruise terminal can handle in photos.

If Singapore proposes more berths, this would accelerate further the hub.

[Passion]

It is a real disappointment and shame that S'pore allowed the tourist from Rhapsody to arrive at the container port despite the earlier dismay signal from the shipping industries players.

Feel that these shipping tourist are accorded second class treatment compared to the richer air travellers.

The airport are constructed inanticipation from the projected figure, whereas the cruise centre can only be contructed basing on the overwhelming demands justification.

[JediAlf]

Originally Posted by Passion

It is a real disappointment and shame that S'pore allowed the tourist from Rhapsody to arrive at the container port despite the earlier dismay signal from the shipping industries players.

Feel that these shipping tourist are accorded second class treatment compared to the richer air travellers.

The airport are constructed inanticipation from the projected figure, whereas the cruise centre can only be contructed basing on the overwhelming demands justification.

Rhapsody of the Seas is so tall that it cannot reach Singapore Cruise Centre. Miscalculations by Government officers. They dun predict that besides aviation, cruise industry, coach industry and train industry can be much stronger than aviation due to vast accessibilities for masses of people!

Singapore officers neglected the basic infrastructure - expandable terminals for inter-city travel. They focus too much on airport. They forgot the masses of people who cannot afford to travel on planes.

They forgot that masses can help to sustain operations for long run. With good infrastructure, people would continue to come.

[ddes]

I think nobody could have predicted that RCI would send its ships here and so fast...

When Superstar Leo first came here and had open house, Star Cruises had grand plans for the region with the proposed Superstar Libra and Superstar something to sail Asia-Pacific. That was what the Captain said when I spoke to him for fun...

But Asian financial crisis, SARS, Tsunami forced Star Cruises to shift those 2 ships to NCL...

[JediAlf]

Originally Posted by ddarkdom

I think nobody could have predicted that RCI would send its ships here and so fast...

When Superstar Leo first came here and had open house, Star Cruises had grand plans for the region with the proposed Superstar Libra and Superstar something to sail Asia-Pacific. That was what the Captain said when I spoke to him for fun...

But Asian financial crisis, SARS, Tsunami forced Star Cruises to shift those 2 ships to NCL...

These are not reasons for Star Cruises to transfer ships to NCL. Many of NCL ships were aging. So new ships due to enter Star Cruises were sent to NCL instead - for purely commercial reasons - NCL in Europe/America has more profitable operations than in Asia.

Superstar Virgo is the only megaship left in Star Cruises fleet. Many of old NCL ships are transferred to Star Cruises fleet.

Royal Caribbean may set the game in Asia where Star Cruises has larger market share - almost 70%. Royal Caribbean is known for its innovation in ship designs. This is something that Star Cruises should learn from...

[ddes]

Really... So reading that Star Cruises selling 50% stake in NCL and perhaps may consider liquidating the NCL brand due to NCL's unprofitable operations is probably stuff of fiction...

[Excelsvr]

Originally Posted by JediAlf

These are not reasons for Star Cruises to transfer ships to NCL. Many of NCL ships were aging. So new ships due to enter Star Cruises were sent to NCL instead - for purely commercial reasons - NCL in Europe/America has more profitable operations than in Asia.

Superstar Virgo is the only megaship left in Star Cruises fleet. Many of old NCL ships are transferred to Star Cruises fleet.

Royal Caribbean may set the game in Asia where Star Cruises has larger market share - almost 70%. Royal Caribbean is known for its innovation in ship designs. This is something that Star Cruises should learn from...

Pardon my imcompetence, but what does NCL mean?

[ddes]

Norwegian Cruise Lines

[JediAlf]

Originally Posted by ddarkdom

Really... So reading that Star Cruises selling 50% stake in NCL and perhaps may consider liquidating the NCL brand due to NCL's unprofitable operations is probably stuff of fiction...

Star Cruises did not sell all. In Aug 2007, NCL already took on another new partner - Apollo Management - private equity group holding 50% of NCL and Star Cruises takes another 50%.

The losses in NCL pinpointed to Hawaii operations where the market is already saturated with many competitors in Hawaii market and the rising Euro dollars against US dollars.

So NCL has already taken one ship out of Hawaii operations and reposition it to Europe.

With new partner on board, they can expect to move into black soon. Apollo has financed 2 new ships under construction. NCL is now one of cruise lines with youngest fleet.

[Excelsvr]

Originally Posted by ddarkdom

Norwegian Cruise Lines

Thanks