Much-awaited cruise ship set for final work

China's second domestically-made large cruise ship, Adora Flora City, reached a crucial point in its construction work on Monday, moving closer to its scheduled delivery in 2026.

China State Shipbuilding Corp, the world's largest shipbuilder, said in a news release that water started to be pumped into the vessel's dry dock early Monday morning, soon floating the ship.

A floating ceremony was held after the process at Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding, a CSSC subsidiary and the vessel's construction contractor.

According to rules in the shipbuilding industry, floating is one of the most important stages in any large cruise ship's construction work because it allows for the examination and testing of the vessel's hull and hardware already mounted. Completion of this stage means the ship is ready for outfitting procedures and the following mooring tests.

As the second to emerge from China's relentless struggle to independently build large cruise ships, which have been recognized as the most difficult and sophisticated among all types of civilian ships to design and construct, Adora Flora City's construction started in August 2022 at Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding, with a planned delivery time around the end of 2026.

Compared with the first domestically-built large cruise ship, Adora Magic City, the second vessel boasts optimized designs and a larger size.

The 141,900-metric-ton Adora Flora City is 341 meters long, 17.4 meters longer than the first ship. In addition, the vessel has 19 more guest rooms, taking the total number to 2,130 rooms that can accommodate a maximum of 5,232 passengers. Its public areas will also be larger than those on the first ship.

Thanks to technical innovations, the new ship's building process has been faster than that of the Adora Magic City, according to engineers.

Pan Lei, a senior engineer at Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding, said that through the building of Adora Magic City, Chinese engineers had accumulated a great deal of experience and know-how that have helped a lot in the new vessel's construction.

Once put to service, the cruise vessel will take Guangzhou of Guangdong province as its home port.

The Adora Magic City started construction at Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding in October 2019. It was basically completed in July 2023 and began to carry out sea trials. In November 2023, the gigantic ship was commissioned for formal operations and is based in Shanghai.

Since its maiden voyage in January 2024, the cruise vessel has completed more than 100 voyages, servicing more than 350,000 guests, according to CSSC.

Li Junfeng in Shanghai contributed to this story.