MS Carnival Miracle handed over to Carnival

[Jason]

Carnival Miracle is the sixth cruise ship in the Spirit class series of new Panamax-size cruise ships for Carnival Cruise Lines (four ships) and Costa Crociere (two ships).

The first ship in the series, Costa Atlantica, was delivered in year 2000. Carnival Spirit and Carnival Pride were delivered in 2001, Carnival Legend in 2002 and Costa Mediterranea followed in 2003.

Carnival Miracle is scheduled to enter service in the end of February, with varying cruises from Jacksonville, Florida, visiting ports such as Freeport and Nassau, Bahamas, Key West in Florida and Cozumel and Costa Maya in Mexico.

Carnival Miracle was built by the yard together with a large number of turn-key and other suppliers. The ship was floated out from the covered newbuilding dock in June 2003 and the successful sea trials took place in November. At the completion party held onboard Carnival Miracle at the Helsinki yard already on January 17th, Mr. Micky Arison, Chairman and CEO of Carnival Corporation noted that the ship was completed three weeks before the date agreed on.

"You have done a fantastic job," he said.

Carnival Miracle is one of the most spacious ships of the contemporary cruise sector Carnival Miracle carries a total of 2,680 passengers (lower beds: 2,124 passengers) in a total of 1,062 staterooms. The maximum crew capacity is 961. Main dimensions are; length overall 292.5 m, maximum breadth 38.8 m (over the bridge wings), breadth at dwl 32.2 m and draught at dwl 7.8 m.

Carnival Miracle and her sister ships set a new standard for balconied accommodations. Balconied staterooms have become a much sought after amenity with today's passengers and the task was to meet that demand in the design. In designing a more narrow superstructure, one more deck with passenger staterooms could be added. In the superstructure most of the staterooms face the sea, and the technical spaces, including the air conditioning machinery, are placed in the center of the ship, behind the passenger corridors.

The relative number of outside passenger staterooms and staterooms with balcony is very high; 80% of all the staterooms are outside staterooms and 70% of all the staterooms have a balcony. All the prefabricated staterooms have been manufactured by Piikkio Works Oy.

In all, Carnival Miracle features twelve passenger decks plus four decks below for machinery and crew spaces. The Metropolis Atrium stretches over ten decks. The Phantom main lounge, which is three decks high, seats some 1,160 guests. The location of the show lounge/night club, Mad Hatter's Ball, is underneath the main lounge. The main restaurant, Bacchus Restaurant, is two decks high and seats altogether some 1,300 guests. In order to achieve this, the galley was positioned below the restaurant using escalators for service. The Nick & Nora's is a supper club located at the top of a soaring ten-deck-high atrium and housed under a red-tinted glass dome that forms the forward portion of the Carnival Miracle's massive winged funnel.

The Horatio's Restaurant behind the main pool area is a casual Lido-area has a variety of special dining areas for breakfast, lunch and dinner buffets, and 24-hour pizza and ice cream.

There is the two-level health and fitness center, the Adonis Spa, four swimming pools, one featuring a retractable dome, five whirlpools, a large casino (Mr. Lucky's) and more than ten themed bars, lounges and public areas for activities and entertainment, including the Dr. Frankenstein's Lab dance club, the Frankie & Johnnie's jazz club and the Maguire's sports bar. In addition there is a big shopping area, a wedding chapel,. There is also an internet library, a conference center and large facilities for children and youngsters, including a cascading water slide.

The central idea of "Famous Fictional Icons" has inspired Joe Farcus, Carnival's ship architect, in the design of the public rooms aboard Carnival Miracle. The dramatic interiors exist in the architecture and décor throughout Carnival Miracle.

DESIGNING THE MIRACLE

The joint development work of the "Spirit-class" series started in fact as early as in the first half of the 1990's.

At that time Kvaerner Masa-Yards' Helsinki shipyard was busy building the (later to be) eight-ship Fantasy class series of cruise ships for Carnival Cruise Lines – the last two of which, Elation and Paradise, were the first cruise ships in the world equipped with azimuthing electric propulsion.

The aim with the new series was to create a new generation of cruise ships of Panamax-size, meaning that the main dimensions should allow the new ships to go through the Panama Canal. The yard presented it's first concepts for this new series, called "Project 8000", to Carnival in 1994. Joe Farcus, Carnival's well known architect, presented layout sketches of the new design, and the yard worked on fitting them on the lower part of the existing Fantasy-class design, as a common basis for a new Panamax design. The idea of common platform ships for three different Carnival brands was born. The brands included Carnival Cruise Lines, Holland America Line, and later also the Costa Crociere. For these brands, concepts were developed with similar hull structure, similar machinery arrangement and similar technical spaces, to mention the most important. A common technical platform design gives several benefits, such as that of serial production and ease of maintenance. In summer and fall 1997 the layout principles were agreed upon for all three brands.

In early 1998 it was decided that the first ship, Costa Atlantica, should be built for Costa Crociere, for delivery in year 2000, to be followed by Carnival Spirit in spring 2001.

HIGH TECHNOLOGY DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION

Carnival Miracle has a diesel-electric machinery, consisting of six Wartsila 9L46D diesel engines, with a total power of 62,370 kW, each connected to an alternator producing electricity to the ship's main electric network. The propulsion consists of two azimuthing electric Azipod propulsion units, with a power of 17.6 MW each. Carnival Miracle has three 1.91 MW tunnel thrusters in the bow. The service speed is 22 knots.

CARNIVAL MIRACLE - A GREEN STAR

The classification society of Carnival Miracle is the Italian R.I.N.A., and she sails under Panama flag. Carnival Miracle fulfils R.I.N.A.'s new Green Star environmental standard, consisting of two voluntary RINA class notations, CLEAN SEA and CLEAN AIR, setting strict requirements on the ship's design and operation, in order to protect the environment and keep the sea and air clean.

MAIN PARTICULARS

Gross tonnage 85,900 (including balconies, approx. 88,500)

Passenger capacity, lower bed 2,124

Passenger capacity, max. 2,680

Passenger staterooms, total 1,062

Passenger staterooms, outside 849 (80%) - with balconies 750 (70%)

Crew capacity 961

Length o.a. 292.5 m

Breadth, max. 38.8 m

Breadth, dwl 32.2 m

Draught, dwl 7.8 m

Speed, service 22 knots

Machinery output 62,370 kW

Propulsion 2 x 17.6 MW Azimuthing rudder propellers

Classification Society RINa

[scraven]

Thanks for the info! I am booked for the April 3 cruise out of Jacksonville. I can hardly wait to see this beautiful new ship!