Having recovered from COVID-era losses, the cruise industry is a $25 billion-a-year business. However, cruise lines are always looking for ways to make more money. More passengers = more money, but new ships can cost well over a billion dollars. They also take years to build and require crew training.
Enter the "stretch cruise ship." Constructed like stretch limos, these ships are cut in half and have a new prefab segment added in the middle.
For an average of around $80 million, and just a couple of months out of service, operators can chop an existing ship down the middle, slide in a new slice that's designed to fit perfectly, weld it together, and come away with enough extra premium cabins to pay off the whole operation within a few years.
That's not to mention the opportunity for a new paint job, bigger deck pools or engine upgrades while the ship's up on blocks – and HR only needs to train a small percentage of extra staff to add to an existing crew. The result: with a much smaller outlay and a negligible gap in service, operators can make an existing boat much more profitable.
This time-lapse video of the process is fascinating to watch, even if the end result is just a vessel capable of producing even more norovirus patients.
The precision required in the cutting process alone is staggering, never mind lining everything up precisely during reassembly.
