Port Everglades Expands to handle Largest Cruise Ship in the World

[Lunican]

Dames Point Bridge blocks large cruise ships.




Park St bridge cuts off the Jax Terminal.

[Ocklawaha]

First I've heard Ock about Titanic II.  I knew there was a movie out on it, but never thought there'd be an actual ship with that name.  Fill me in on more if you will.

Heights Unknown

Heights here are a couple of articles on it, but I don't expect anything until a major economic turn around.

Monday, September 14, 2009 | Home

Titanic News

The world's most famous ship is to take to the high seas agin.

A Belfast man is behind the plan to build Titanic 2, named after the luxury liner which sank on its maiden voyage in 1912. Titanic Shipping Holdings Ltd plans to offer the contract for building the 96,000 tonne ship to the ailing Harland and Wolff Shipyard.

Ulster Titanic Society chairman Mark Blackburne has teamed up with South African entrepreneur Sarel Gous to raise the 360 million pounds needed to recreate the liner. The pair plan to sell shares in the new liner on the Stock Exchange, and if they can raise 10 million pounds they hope several banks will lend them up to half of the building costs.

"The Company has spent more than 10,000 thousand pounds on marketing and research and we think this is a very viable business propostion. Titanic"s name alone is worth its weight in gold," says Blackburne.

If the money can be raised, building work could start as soon as the autumn.

The new liner will be bigger and heavier than its namesake, but the company plans to reproduce its splendour and luxury. It will feature a permanent museum of items from the original ship and the grand staircase will be a replica of the original.

A Swiss-U.S. partnership plans to build a $500 million, full-size replica of the Titanic - packing it full of celebrities and retracing it's maiden voyage on the tragedy's 90th anniversary, April 15th, 2002.

This time, the Titanic will make it to New York, the developers promise - already replicating the first owners' boasts of the original "unsinkable" ship. And in any case, this Titanic will have enough lifeboats, the developers add. "It cannot sink," said Walter Navratil, president of the project's Swiss-based development company, White Star Line Ltd., named after the original Titanic's long-defunct ownership company.

Navratil insisted his new, oil-fueled steamer will safely complete a Southampton, England-to-New York round-trip maiden voyage, then continue life as a pleasure cruiser. "It will look the same, buy it will be adapted to modern regulations," he said by phone yesterday from his home in Austria.

The plan was fueled by "Titanic" movie mania both here and abroad. "We thought now would be the right moment, because the whole world is keen on "Titanic," said Annette Voelcker, spokeswoman for G&E Business Consulting and Trust, the Swiss-based hotel developer that is the project's chief shareholder. "We will have all the period decor. It will be like a voyage back in time," Voelcker said. "Everyone has now watched the movie and read the books. People are now ready to touch the Titanic.

"It will have modern equipment to detect icebergs," she added. The replica Titanic would cost $400 million to $500 million, the developers said. That's a far cry from the original's $10 million cost in 1912 - although it's a much closer cry to the Titanic's movie-replica price tag of more then $100 million. Funding will be no problem, boasts Navratil. "All investors want two things: They want to have an exciting project, and they want to have a profit at the end of the day," he said. "I know we can provide them both."

A spokeswoman for the project's U.S. partner, "Titanic Development Corporation", based in Las Vegas, says some investors are already lined up, but many more will be needed. The partners are hoping to meet in the next few weeks with the Titanic's original Irish shipbuilding firm - in an attempt to hire it as shipbuilder for the 882-foot craft. A spokeswoman for the Belfast based shipbuilders, Harland and Wolff Shipbuilders, could not say yesterday whether talks are ongoing. He did say his company still holds the original design plans for the Titanic. The plans are publicly available, including on the internet - at $20 and up per document - to everyone from hobbyists to movie makers.

Although the company's shipbuilding is limited to oil rigs and drill ships, Harland and Wolff Shipbuilders is currently helping another Northern Ireland company design a one-sixth scale Titanic for use as a floating conference center, said spokesman Peter Harbinson. Only the rich and famous will be able to afford even the cheapest maiden-voyage berth on the new Titanic.

Tickets will cost from $10,000 to $100,000, Voelcker said. "It will be for people who are rich and crazy about the Titanic," she said. On it's maiden voyage, the new Titanic will pause in the North Atlantic 560 miles off Newfoundland - the wrecksite where 1,523 passengers died in the first ship's sinking on April 15th, 1912.

"I think we will take a few minutes to think of the original disaster," Voelcker said. The developers said they copyrighted the name "R.M.S. Titanic" with the Institute for Intellectual Property in Switzerland last week.

OCKLAWAHA

[tufsu1]

Jacksonville has no vision..........rail not even considered for Dames Point shipping in or out, they want to use 9A and lots of trucks! Idiots!

Not true....right now they are trying to identify how to get a multi-user rail link into the Port area!

[mtraininjax]

CSX and NS control access to many of the major ports up and down the East Coast. My uncle is President of the Wheeling and Lake Erie and told me lately, that CSX and NS are not about to give up the access to the ports without big political fights and lots of $$$, now who can argue with that?

Jax is fine with its "nice" cruise business. We make more $$$ with containers and cargo than with passengers. We all know that cargo is the butter on our bread, so focus on containers, increase the depth of the river to 50 and build terminals that can handle the new Panamerican ships that are due to cross in 2014-2015. Our local economy will thrive more with cargo than it will with passengers.

[Ocklawaha]

Jacksonville has no vision..........rail not even considered for Dames Point shipping in or out, they want to use 9A and lots of trucks! Idiots!

Not true....right now they are trying to identify how to get a multi-user rail link into the Port area!

I agree with you TUFSU1, the ONLY way is for the Port, Airport and JTA to own the trackage. We could then vend out the lines to a shortline JACKSONVILLE TERMINAL operator. JT would offer direct access to both Talleyrand and Dames Point, for all carriers.

Just PLEASE talk to the railroad about any plans for a medium to large size yard. Let THEM tell us what they need. As a rule, yards are a place rail cars go to to sit and not earn they're keep. There is a difference between a classic major yard and a simple 5 to 10 track facility to make up trains for the various railroads. NOTE: the Talleyrand Terminal Railroad and the tiny yard just west of the Talleyrand docks.  THIS is what we need at JAXPORT. Besides Springfield yard, with new ballast, tie replacement, tamping, and stadium floodlights, etc. Could become the hotest property on the Jax Rail map.


OCKLAWAHA

[CS Foltz]

Once again kids.........after the fact rather than planning before construction! Rail was not considered in the initial planning stages because there wasn't any!! Plan was to use 9A and lots and lots of trucks! Expand 9A and resurface every 2 to 3 years............this is not the smartest thing nor the most cost effective way to handle large volumes of cargo. Glad to see they are now getting the picture together but it will cost more now then it would have planned for from the beginning! Mr Ferrin is not as good as he thinks he is or for what he is payed to do the job! Better late then never at all............we just get to pick the tab up again!

[buckethead]

Are decisions being made by people owning asphault companies?

[CS Foltz]

No............but Gate (Herb Payton) does have a concrete division...........most of the bridges being done is handled by them!

[Captain Zissou]

That ship is crazy. 7,000 passengers...? That would overrun most of its destination towns with tourists, more so than cruise ships already do.  I am amazed by the technology, but I don't see any practical reason to go any bigger than this.

[buckethead]

Head count could certainly benefit any port/city the ship entered.

Someone is going to drop some money somewhere.

[Captain Zissou]

I agree that the money would help, but I went on a cruise last year and our boat swamped the ports we docked in, and we had 2,500 people.

[CS Foltz]

Sounds like a case for a "Rail" system to me kids..........gotta get all the tourist's to the tourist hangouts!

[Lunican]

The ship is now crossing the Atlantic heading for Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale. Here is a video that shows off the telescoping funnels so they can add clearance.

http://www.youtube.com/v/XjvUnila4Wg&hl=en&fs=1&hd=1

[Captain Zissou]

That thing was flying! 

[Lunican]

They must have been really confident in their calculations.