The World's First Floating City
- 8 hours ago
- 2 min read
The giant cruise ships of today face being reduced to mere minnows by plans for a floating city that will be nearly a mile long and carry 80,000 people around the globe.
At a mile-long, 800ft-wide and 30-decks-high, the nuclear-powered $16 billion Freedom Ship would house everything you would expect from a large town, including a research hospital, a 15,000-seat sports stadium, schools, a symphony hall, hotels, shops, restaurants, two water parks, 15 miles of walkways and three acres of parks. The floating behemoth is slated to have homes for 50,000 permanent residents and space for another 10,000 cruisers and day visitors, all served by 20,000 crew. It will take around two and a half years to circle the globe, travelling at a sedate speed of 7 knots.
As it would be way too big to dock in any port, the ship will stay in international waters, transferring passengers to and from land by a fleet of ferries - even other cruise vessels could moor alongside.
Renderings of some of the proposed facilities aboard Freedom Ship
The idea for such a vessel has been kicking around for decades. Most recently, in 2022, a terayacht called Pangeos - named after Pangea, a supercontinent that existed millions of years ago - was touted (and able to accommodate 60,000 people) but nothing came of it. So, will Freedom Ship be any different?
Roger Gooch, chief executive of Freedom Cruise Line International, has taken on a project manager, a designer and a naval architect among a 12-strong leadership team and insists the demand is strong, claiming: “We could almost justify building three ships!” Now it’s just the small matter of raising the start-up money. “We feel very confident that we can put this together, but the capitalisation is key,” he says from his Florida office.
Time will tell.
All images credit: Tangram 3DS