Page 26: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (July 2000)

Cruise Shipping Annual

Celebrity Links Its Past To Its Future With Millennium

Measuring 965 ft. (294 m), Celebrity's Millennium is the first cruise ves- sel to house gas turbines.

Millennium s Mermaid podded propellers were developed jointly by Alstom and Kamewa.

Celebrity Cruise Lines experienced its own "Night

At The Oscars" by literally rolling out the red car- pet this past June for its inaugural christening cer- emony of its new "Millennium" while docked in

Southampton, U.K. MR/EN was invited to

Southampton to spend a few days onboard this technologically driven vessel before it departed for

Amsterdam to begin its maiden voyage - a 14-day journey around Russia and the Baltics. — By Regina P. Ciardiello, associate editor

Incorporating old-world style and classic ambiance with its Olympic Restaurant, which houses the original paneling from the R.M.S. Olympic — and delving into new technology by implementing a premiere gas tur- bine system in its engine room — Celebrity's newest vessel truly exemplifies a "bridge between two cen- turies," as stated by Royal Caribbean's (RCCL) chair- man and CEO, Richard Fain at Millennium's chris- tening on June 26.

Fain, who oversees RCCL, which is Celebrity's par- ent company, along with the latter's president, Rick

Sasso, made history in the cruise industry with their decision to install the gas turbine system on the 965-ft. (294 m), 91,000-ton Millennium. Comprised of 11 guest decks, the vessel can move at 24 knots holding 1.950 passengers and 999 crew.

In an industry that has relied on diesel engines for power, many executives were not receptive at first to this new innovation. Diesel engines always have, and continue to, capably perform the job of moving these large floating cities, so why would Celebrity want to fix something that wasn't broken? Eventually the gas turbine concept was seen as a new breed of power for cruise ships by none other than Demetrios P. Kaparis,

Celebrity's senior executive vice president, newbuild- ings. Kaparis, who is a firm believer in this new form of vessel power, had designed, administered and super- vised work at Meyer Werft's Papenburg shipyard dur- ing the construction of all of the company's existing vessels — as well as the current Millennium that was constructed at French-based Chantiers de l'Atlantique.

Kaparis, who virtually developed and oversaw

Millennium's entire design concept from start to finish, saw a promising technological future in the gas turbine idea.

And who better than Kaparis himself to be the com- pany's firmest believer in its new vision; Kaparis has an impressive technical background that began in 1961 when he joined London-based Chandris Lines as a naval architect and marine superintendent engineer. An added plus is his experience with both turbine and diesel engine operations with noted companies as

Vickers Armstrong Shipyards, Austin and Pickersgill and George Sulzer Diesel Works in England.

In fact, since Kaparis has such a broad-based back- ground in naval architecture and has also been described as one of the industry's top experts in spe- cialized safety implementation, he designed and super- vised construction of Millennium to expertly meet all the IMO Regulations and SOLAS Requirements with- out any obstacles. His own innovations on the vessel include a special sprinkler system called HI-Fog, which in case of fire is activated by a light mist rather than the conventional shower spray. Kaparis explained

The Royal Viking Sun Photo Courtesy of Wartsila Marine.

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Millennium Main Particulars

Builder Chantiers de I1 Atlantique (Alstom)

Vessel name Millennium

Owner/operator Celebrity Cruise Lines

Flag Liberia

Classification Lloyd's Register of Shipping

Number of sisterships on order 3

Length, (o.a.) 965 ft. (294 m)

Breadth 106 ft. (32.2 m)

Draft 29.5 ft. (9 m)

GT 91,000

Speed 24 knots

Passengers 2,449 (1,019 cabins)

Crew 997 (533 cabins)

Total developed area 62,000 sq. m

Fuel consumption 6,055 kg/h

Fuel marine distilled gas oil

Main enginesGE LM2500+ aeroderivative gas tur- bines § 25 MW each

Podded propulsionMermaid (developed by Alstom and Kamewa)

Propulsion mode Gas turbine/steam turbine (COGES)

Propeller type2 19,500 kW electric pods, 3 2,350 kW lateral propellants

Thrusters Brunvoll

Fin stablizers Thyssen

Coatings Jotun

VHF radio Debeg

Radar STN Atlas

Compass C-Plath

Lifeboats Verhoef Aluminum 26 Maritime Reporter/Engineering News

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