Holland America Line celebrates as newbuild floats out of building dock at Fincantieri yard
By
Rebecca Gibson |
Holland America Line’s (HAL) newbuild has been floated out of the building dock to the outfitting dock at Fincantieri’s Marghera shipyard in Italy.
Koningsdam, which is the first of HAL’s Pinnacle Class, will remain in the dock while engineers complete the final construction and interior outfitting stages. The ship is due to be delivered on 31 March 2016.
“A ship’s construction has many key milestones and floating it out and moving it to the outfitting dock is especially symbolic,” said Orlando Ashford, president of HAL. “The float out represents that we are getting closer to welcoming Koningsdam to our fleet and seeing the ship in the water adds to the excitement among our loyal guests, travel agent partners and employees in anticipation of its arrival.”
The float-out ceremony follows a coin ceremony, which was held on 26 February. According to maritime tradition, two coins were welded to the ship’s forward mast by the ship’s madrina Tineke Schroder, wife of the founder of Dutch airline Martinair and a member of HAL’s Mariner Society. Bearing the image of His Majesty King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, the coins are expected to bring the ship good luck throughout her service life.
Koningsdam, which is the largest ever built for HAL, will accommodate 2,650 guests and 1,025 crew members and feature the line’s first purpose-built family and single-traveller staterooms.
In addition, the ship will offer a range of new innovative features and reimagined interiors created by hospitality designer Adam Tihany and designer and architect Bjorn Storbraaten.
Meanwhile, guests will be able to enjoy new dining concepts and venues, including restaurants such as the French seafood restaurant Sel de Mer; a new immersive farm-to-table dinner experience in the Culinary Arts Center presented by Food & Wine magazine; a casual Lido Market with themed serving stations and more.
The ship will also offer popular HAL dining venues such as the Pinnacle Grill, Canaletto Italian restaurant and the pan-Asian Tamarind.
Koningsdam will sail a series of Northern European, Baltic and Mediterranean cruises after her debut.