It seems like it was just yesterday that we were at the Aker yard in Turku (Finland) and Freedom of the Seas was floating out of the drydock. Today, the float out process began for the last of the three-ship order of Freedom-class vessels, indicating that the work on the hull is
completed.
The intense work inside now begins as we move toward the May delivery date.
When completed, Independence of the Seas will be homeported at Southampton for the summer season, making it the largest cruise ship, at 160,000 tons, ever to be homeported in Europe.
There's a photo on the front page of the CND website of the executives pressing the button that flooded the drydock with 87 million gallons of water. That process will take until tomorrow to complete when the ship can be towed out.
This may be the last of the class to be built, but it will be followed by the even-larger Genesis-class in the fall of 2009.
