Carnival Vista

The new flagship of the American Carnival Cruise is the largest and most innovative ever. It weights 133,500 tons, and its numbers are impressive: a capacity of 3,936 passengers, 1,968 cabins, 15 bridges, Carnival Vista is the largest ship ever built by the Carnival Cruise Line.

There is a lot to see on board, from the enthralling water park WaterWorks, the largest fleet with slides and Water fountains, the SkyRide, the most incredible 244-meter long open-air bicycle path and 45 meters high on the sea. So much adrenaline, but also special attention to wellness and relaxation: on deck 12, the Cloud9Spa made by Stenal welcomes guests with breathtaking views. The quality of the materials and the technological solution, result of a long work of research and development, blend into prestigious equipments: spaces dedicated to self care, such as the aroma steam, the Hammam / rasoul and laconium, the traditional and modern saunas, and the many places for deeper relaxation such as the lounge area with heated loungers and the experience showers from the Ray line make the Cloud9Spa trip unforgettable.

The SPA on board the Carnival Vista, Carnival Cruise Line’s new flagship. Interview with our Project Manager Marco Librizzi.

What are the implications of creating a wellness centre such as Cloud9Spa on a ship like this? We asked our Project Manager, Marco Librizzi.
When and how did Stenal get involved with the general contractor to create the Spa?
We were awarded the contract approximately a year before the end of the work on the ship, which was to be completed on 30 April 2016. The first four months where necessary to develop the project; in September, we stepped on board and started building the spa, which took us 8 months of uninterrupted work.
The contract required us to provide a “turn-key” product; starting from the bare iron structure, our area of competence was just a box of metal completely empty, which had to be delivered fully finished and equipped.

What type of consulting services did Stenal provide in the initial stages of the project?
Once we received the preliminary projects, with the architectural details, our work started with the feasibility study of the designer’s requirements. A SPA is not a static environment, made of just walls and furnishings, it is a complex living organism in which every element must have specific characteristics. Stenal’s greatest challenge and its main duty is to create a perfectly functional machine in harmony with the space’s architectural elements; and it did so thanks to its detailed knowledge of all the ship’s characteristics, acquired working on projects on a number of ships such as Breeze (Carnival Group) and NeoRomantica (Costa Crociere Group).

What were the greatest challenges and the issues you had to overcome?
Certainly meeting the tight delivery time line and all the intermediate deadlines. 30 April was a mandatory delivery date; in fact the ship left Trieste for its maiden voyage on 1 May. Additionally, the complexity of the project was increased by the presence on the construction site of other teams with whom we had to share working spaces and schedule working shifts. Eight months to start a project from scratch is not much time. As it usually happens in the ship construction sector, everything comes into shape and is completed in the last two/three months. Great organisation skills and shrewdness when it comes to dealing with unforeseen issues are essential.
A shipyard is a unique environment, difficult to imagine by someone who has never experienced it; the constrictions on a cruising ship are much greater than those you would experience on a building site. Mainly they have to do with safety, especially fire prevention, both during the construction stages and during navigation; all materials and construction processes must be tested and certified for naval use and previously authorised by the shipyard.

Months after the launch of a perfectly functional wellness centre of this entity, what would you consider as the main success factors?
To deliver a project like this requires long, complex and detailed planning, nothing can be left to chance. Each construction detail, material used and every process must be carried out after careful and specific planning.
The organisation and coordination of all workforces involved in each step of the process is essential; as are resourceful management, careful planning and great knowledge and competence.