In 2012 and also this year, Carnival Cruises docked two of its globally operating fleet of luxury liners – “Queen Victoria” and “AIDAbella” – at Lloyd Werft Bremerhaven AG. Now the traditional Bremerhaven facility has landed yet another attractive repair and conversion contract from the same group. The 82,505 GT English luxury liner “Arcadia” will dock in Bremerhaven between November 26th and December 12th.
The 285.30 m long and 32.25 m wide ship was completed in 2005 at Fincantieri’s Marghera yard in Venice for P & O Cruises, which is also part of the big Carnival family. Extensive conversion work on the ship has been carried out once before by Lloyd Werft, in the winter of 2008. This time she will stay in the yard’s big Kaiserdock II and get a new superstructure on her upper deck with 23 new cabins and one suite, all with balconies, as well as a sun deck.
The conversion and repair of “Arcadia” continues an association which Lloyd Werft Bremerhaven AG and P & O Cruises have enjoyed for many years, as well as an activity which the yard is justly famous for throughout the world – the high-quality handling of complex jobs in the shortest possible time. Lloyd Werft board member Rüdiger Pallentin said “it is good to know, at a time when things are not always easy for German shipbuilding, not only that our performance is valued by clients placing small repair orders, but also that we can hold our own on the market with bigger conversion projects. This second contract from the Carnival group inside just six months makes that impressively clear”, he added.
Lloyd Werft will build a new deck house on Deck 10 weighing 75 tons. It will also build the 23 passenger cabins and a suite, all with balconies, in the new deck house structure. The new deck house will not only increase passenger capacity from 1,952 to 2,000 and the number of passenger cabins from 976 to 1,000, but will add holiday comfort to the “Arcadia”. That’s because the ship will also get a new 550 square m outside sun-bathing area. Also being installed are additional catering and air-conditioning facilities.
Lloyd Werft carried out similar work for P & O in 2008. At that time a 340 ton deck house was installed on “Arcadia” with the help of a floating crane, increasing both the ship’s passenger capacity and comfort. The same extension principle is being followed this time also by her owners, once again to make their luxury liner more attractive on the cruise shipping market and to expand her yet again.
Along with the conversions, the shipyard will also carry out extensive docking and repair work on the eight-year-old ship. The work will include blasting and conservation of her underwater hull, the repair and conservation of the hull above the water-line, the overhaul of bow thrusters and stabilisers, overhaul of the ship’s two pod drives and also the overhaul of all seacocks. In addition, all life-saving equipment, boats and davits will be checked. There will also be a lot of work for Lloyd Werft’s pipe workshop because various pipe systems in both the engine and passenger areas are to be renewed.