Holland America Floats out Koningsdam
Holland America Line's new ms Koningsdam is set to be delivered March 31, 2016. This week the ship was transferred from its dry dock to its outfitting dock at Fincantieri’s Marghera shipyard in Italy, where the final construction and interior furnishings will take place.
The initial stages of a cruise ship's construction take place in a dry dock facility. Once exterior outfitting is completed, the dry dock is flooded and the ship is floated to a wet dock where construction continues.
“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 Holland America Line.
“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,” he said.
At 99,500 gross tons and carrying 2,650 guests and 1,025 crew members, the vessel is first ship in a new Pinnacle Class.
Onboard dining options on Koningsdam will include Sel de Mer, a new French seafood brasserie; a new farm-to-table dinner experience in the Culinary Arts Center presented by Food & Wine magazine; and a re-designed casual Lido Market with themed serving stations.
Koningsdam is the first of a new class of vessel at Holland America that will be larger than previous ships and have a more contemporary design. The line tapped noted resort and restaurant designer Adam Tihany to create interior spaces in partnership with Bjørn Storbraaten, who worked on two earlier Holland America vessels. Tihany also has created spaces for Celebrity and Seabourn ships.
