Original subtitles

Narrator: At 1,034 feet long and 213 feet tall,

Msc bellissima is one of the largest

Cruise ships on the planet.

This leviathan carries over 5,500 guests

To destinations all across europe.

How did engineers build a cruise ship this big?

And what innovations keep it sailing all year round?

We unlock the secrets that help this vessel

Deliver a super-smooth ride.

From ingenious stabilizers to keep the ship level

In the roughest seas,

To near-silent propellers

That thrust it fast through the water,

To reveal what it takes to build the ultimate mega cruise ship.

-- Captions by vitac -- www.Vitac.Com

Captions paid for by discovery communications

The mediterranean coast.

Tourists from around the world

Flock to these spectacular shores

To soak up the area's rich history, culture, and sunshine.

Each year, over 3 million of them choose to take it all in

From the comfort of a luxury mega cruise ship,

12 cruise operators

Running a total of 40 supersized vessels

Compete for a slice of the $60 billion

Mediterranean vacation industry.

Passengers looking for a once-in-a-lifetime experience

Expect five-star service,

Spacious outdoor areas with the finest amenities,

And an itinerary full of stops in spectacular locations.

To corner the market, operator msc cruises

Built this extraordinary cruise ship --

Msc bellissima.

At 1,034 feet long,

141 feet wide, and 19 decks high,

This is msc's biggest ship,

The innovative engineering hidden inside

Bellissima's mighty frame

Helps give passengers the ultimate cruise experience.

A unique hull design allows it to glide

Into shallow european ports.

Superfine membranes filter molecule-sized particles

To turn the salty sea into pure drinking water.

An ingenious scrubber system cleans noxious chemicals

From exhaust released above the deck.

All of these elements combine to make msc bellissima

The ultimate cruise ship.

♪

11:00 a.M. Barcelona, Spain.

Bellissima opens its gangways

And welcomes passengers onboard.

Immigration purser alfonso gargiulo

Has six hours to get all of them onto the ship.

Across the ship, the 1,500 person crew

Completes final preparations

Before the vessel departs for its seven-night voyage,

Which will include stops in six iconic mediterranean cities.

From the port of barcelona, bellissima will head northeast

Along the spanish and french coasts.

First stop, marseille.

The voyage continues into italian waters,

Stopping next in genoa to pick up vital supplies.

From here, the ship will head southeast,

Stopping at naples and messina.

The ship will then call into valletta, malta.

Before it makes the 747-mile trip back to barcelona.

Bellissima is double the size of a traditional liner

And carries three times as many passengers.

Building a ship this big with a draft shallow enough

To enter the most popular mediterranean ports

Is a huge engineering challenge.

The ship's draft is the distance

Between the bottom of its keel and the waterline.

The more load a ship carries, the deeper its draft becomes.

A large traditional liner

Carries 2,000 passengers throughout 12 decks,

And has a 28-foot draft,

Shallow enough to enter most harbors.

But today's mega cruise ships need extra decks

To entertain thousands more passengers

Than the largest classic liners.

Adding this extra weight to a standard liner design

Would make its draft so deep

That the ship could run aground in port.

♪

Shipbuilders chantiers de l'atlantique

Came up with a solution when they designed

And built bellissima in 2016.

The engineers at this facility in France

Weld over 1,100 tons of steel every week

To construct msc's fleet of mega cruise ships.

Design manager guillaume lagree

Has to balance every new vessel's size

With its need for a shallow draft.

Guillaume sculpted bellissima's hull

To make the supersized cruise ship float higher in the water.

A ship floats higher and reduces its draft

When it spreads its weight over a larger area.

Guillaume's team takes a traditional hull shape

And stretches it longer.

And pulls the beam wider to 141 feet,

Increasing the area of its hull in contact with water.

The team also flattens the keel

For extra clearance over marine obstacles.

This ingenious design means bellissima should glide

Into most ports with no danger of running aground.

But this innovative design is just one part of the solution.

Classic liners were constructed

From thick steel plates riveted together,

Which made them strong, but also very heavy.

Building bellissima's huge structure

Using these traditional techniques and materials

Would cancel out the benefits of the ship's hull redesign.

Any vessel still risks grounding if it weighs too much.

At the shipyard,

Engineers use an innovative construction method

To keep the frames of ships like bellissima as light as possible.

They build ships by welding together boxes

Made out of lightweight sheet steel.

Project manager elise guerin oversees the operation.

To make bellissima's deck, robots welded together

Large sheets of steel,

Each less than 10 millimeters thick.

Workers welded on metal plates

Called stiffeners to strengthen the decks.

Next, computer controlled plasma cutting machines

Sliced more steel to make the deck's walls.

A team of welders join these wall pieces to the decks

To make a giant reinforced hull section.

They joined together an average of 12 hull sections

To build a megablock.

This super-huge ship section is 141 feet wide

And 33 feet tall and weighs more than 1,100 tons.

Elise's team used

One of the most powerful gantry cranes in europe

To lift in place each of the 50 megablocks

That make up bellissima.

♪

It took elise's team around 18 months

To turn over 38,000 tons of steel

Into the finished bellissima.

Megablocks make it possible for engineers to build a vessel

That weighs almost the same as a traditional liner

But is double the size.

Constructing bellissima from thin but tough steel

Keeps the ship's 7,000 passengers and crew

High in the water

And prevents the ship from running aground in port.

In barcelona,

The dockside crew releases bellissima's mooring lines

And the ship's huge engines thrust it out of port.

The eight-day mediterranean voyage begins,

What ingenious technology makes the propellers

On this mighty ship near silent?

And how does it create over 3 million gallons

Of drinking water out of the salty sea?

♪

♪

Narrator: As day one of its eight-day voyage comes to an end,

Cruise ship msc bellissima

Powers across the mediterranean sea

Towards the city of marseille on the french coast.

♪

Most of the 5,600 passengers onboard spend the evening

In one of the ship's 32 bars and restaurants.

Or in one of the vessel's two theaters

Watching live performances.

♪

At the end of the night,

Passengers retire to their cabins

To rest up for the second day of their trip.

Housekeeping manager supriyanto must ensure

Every passenger onboard gets a good night's sleep.

The ship will have to travel over night

At a speed of up to 20 knots, or 23 miles per hour,

To reach marseille by 8:00 a.M.

Belowdeck, four huge diesel electric engines

Produce 40 megawatts to power the vessel's pair

Of 20-foot-diameter propellers.

Insulation stops engine noise

From disturbing the sleeping passengers.

But it does very little to quiet the noise made

By the spinning propellers.

♪

The faster a propeller rotates, the more thrust it produces.

An area of low pressure forms in front of each propeller blade

As it slices through the water.

The pressure is so low, the water boils.

Creating thousands of tiny team-filled bubbles

On the surface of the blades.

These bubbles pop -- a phenomenon called cavitation.

One tiny bubble pop on its own doesn't matter.

But thousands popping simultaneously

Can send powerful, noisy vibrations

Throughout the entire ship.

To ensure bellissima's passengers

Get a good night's sleep,

Hydrodynamic engineer loic morand had to come up

With a way to eliminate cavitation noise.

Many traditional propellers have three blades.

Their fast rotation generates huge thrust

To push a ship forwards.

But the propellers' fast turning speed creates noisy cavitation.

One solution is to slow the propellers' rotation,

Which will generate fewer bubbles

And cut cavitation noise.

But slow propellers will reduce a ship's thrust.

To bring the ship back up to speed,

Loic's team adds two extra blades

To each of the ship's two propellers.

Having five blades increases the propeller's surface area

Pushing against the water.

This boosts thrust with little increase in cavitation.

These special propellers allow the ship's passengers and crew

To enjoy both a fast and quiet ride.

♪

In this giant foundry,

Engineers forge propeller blades from an aluminum bronze alloy.

Robots cut and polish the cooled metal

According to a precise computer design

To shape the five blades.

The individual blades fit into a central hub

To create a giant 20 foot diameter propeller

Weighing over 33 tons.

Bellissima's two propellers attach to a pair of mounts

On the ship's stern.

Thanks to loic and his team,

Bellissima's propellers are among the quietest installed

On any operational cruise ship.

The guests onboard sleep peacefully

As the ship sails towards marseille.

♪

At 8:00 a.M., bellissima pulls into marseilles

Right on schedule.

The passengers take in all the sights

And sounds of the famous french city

Before returning to the vessel eight hours later.

At 6:00 p.M., the ship set sail for genoa, Italy.

Ahead lies a huge challenge for the ship's crew.

They must keep over 5,600 passengers fed

While navigating through over 1,200 miles

Of turbulent seas.

What engineering secret helps this megaship

Stay stable in the roughest waters?

What technology

Allows it to produce fresh water on demand?

♪

♪

Narrator: It's day three of msc bellissima's eight-day voyage

Around the mediterranean.

At 8:00 a.M., the mighty cruise ship docks

At the italian port city of genoa.

Here, the crew loads 420 tons of provisions

Into the ship's 21 giant storerooms belowdeck.

The supplies include nine tons of flour,

15 tons of meat, and over 22 tons of fresh fruit,

Enough to keep the passengers and crew fed

For the remainder of the voyage.

But this ship's lifeblood is fresh water.

Together, the ship's passengers, crew, and all its processes

Consume over 3 million gallons of water

During a typical eight day voyage.

Supplying this much fresh water is a huge engineering challenge.

To make things even more complicated,

Room onboard the ship is at a premium.

Cabins and entertainment areas

Take up 74% of the space onboard.

The engineering department and guest service occupy

An additional 23%.

And the vessel's fuel, ballast, and waste tanks,

Another two%.

That leaves enough space to carry

Just over one million gallons of water.

Less than half of what bellissima needs to run systems

And supply its 7,000 passengers

And crew for their eight day voyage.

♪

At the shipyard,

Engineers deploy an innovative technology

To make sure bellissima and its sister ships

Never run out of fresh water.

Project manager antioine gondet oversees the operation.

Hidden deep inside bellissima is an ingenious system

That turns over 250,000 gallons of seawater

Into fresh water each day.

♪

Pumps suck seawater into the ship through pipes in its hull.

Layers of sand and special carbon

Filter out the largest pieces of debris.

Next, filters remove microscopic contaminants

50 times smaller than a human hair.

Then the water passes through columns,

Each containing a spiral of molecular membranes.

The superfine membrane weave separates salt chloride ions

From water molecules.

Once free of salt, this fresh water is ready to use onboard.

The process converts almost three gallons

Of water per second when the ship is at sea.

♪

At the end of day three of the cruise,

The megaship departs genoa and heads out into open sea.

This is when the water plant kicks into action.

Powerful pumps pressurize the fresh water...

...And push it through dozens of miles of plumbing

Woven throughout the ship.

20 giant tanks each hold up to 66,000 gallons

Of the desalinated water.

This liquid must pass through one last process

Before it's fit for passengers to drink.

Vice president of environmental operations

And compliance minas myrtidis

Must ensure the system works without a hitch.

Man: Yeah?

♪

Narrator: It's the morning of day four of bellissima's cruise,

The megaship docks at naples.

Passengers disembark to visit

The famous roman ruins of pompeii.

♪

They return to the vessel six hours later.

The megaship leaves port en route to messina

On the island of sicily.

But new challenges lie ahead.

Strong sirocco winds can make this part of the journey

Very bumpy for the passengers and crew.

What ingenious technology

Keeps this megaship stable in the roughest seas?

And what is its secret for producing

Some of the cleanest emissions of any ship in its class?

Narrator: It's dinner time on day four of msc bellissima's

Eight-day mediterranean cruise.

Thousands of passengers enjoy meals

In one of the ship's four huge restaurants.

Maitre d' vincenzo porzio

Must make sure every diner receives five-star service.

But running a restaurant at sea has its challenges.

Sudden changes in weather

Can make this stretch of water rough

And cause the ship to pitch and roll.

Choppy seas make any ship move from side to side,

Risking spills and even injuries.

And if the ship encounters a big squall,

The effects onboard can be devastating.

The higher a ship floats in the water,

The greater the effect can be of violent movements

Caused by rough seas.

Bellissima's towering 213-foot height

Makes it vulnerable to a phenomenon

Called parametric rolling.

Large regularly-timed waves hitting the ship head on

Make the vessel see-saw.

When a large wave reaches the back of the vessel,

It makes the ship tip forward.

The way the weight is distributed across a ship

This tall can then cause the vessel to roll to one side.

When the next wave hits, it rolls back the other way.

Each new movement is more extreme than the last

And can cause passengers to become seasick.

At the shipyard where bellissima was constructed,

Engineers worked to solve the problem.

First they identified the specific type of ship movement

That causes passenger sickness.

To minimize this rolling motion,

Engineers installed a pair of fin-shaped

Stabilizers into the vessel's hull.

The stabilizers arrived at the shipyard

Ready to plug into holes cut into the ship's hull.

Hydraulic pistons move their articulated wing-shaped fins.

Measuring 18.4 feet long

By 8.2 feet wide,

These stabilizers are bellissima's

Secret to smooth sailing in all weather.

♪

Sensors on each stabilizer measure the direction and degree

Of the ship's roll.

If the motion goes past just one degree,

Bellissima's crew can deploy the pair of stabilizer fins

Stowed inside its hull.

The fins work like wings to correct the ship's roll.

If the sensors detect the ship rolling starboard,

They automatically instruct the fins to rotate,

Shifting the vessel the other way.

In big seas, the system works continuously

To level out the rolling motion,

Ensuring bellissima's passengers and crew

Experience a smooth ride.

Up on the ship's bridge, officers monitoring the weather

Give the order to activate the stabilizers.

Chief engineer luigi de martino

Makes sure they deploy without a hitch.

A pair of 5.2-foot-long pistons turn bearings

That swing each fin into position.

A computer automatically adjusts the angle of the fins

To counteract any roll caused by waves hitting the ship.

Each fin is just 13% the width of bellissima's hull.

But their combined effect on the ship is huge.

♪

With the stabilizers deployed, vincenzo's team

Is able to wait on every table

Without danger of being thrown off balance.

♪

Bellissima arrives at messina on the morning of day five

Of the cruise.

After a 10-hour stay in sicily, it will power onwards to malta.

And this megaship will face new engineering challenges.

What innovative technology keeps the air

Around the outside decks free from noxious exhaust gases?

And what's the secret to maneuvering this leviathan

Into the tightest ports?

♪

Narrator: 8:00 a.M., day six of msc bellissima's

Eight-day tour of the mediterranean.

The mighty cruise ship docks at valletta,

The capital of the island of malta.

While many passengers disembark to explore

The winding streets of the old city...

...Some remain on the ship to relax on the sundeck

Or take the plunge in the vessel's water park.

Pool supervisor alonso stewart is onsite

To ensure nothing ruins the guests' outdoor experience.

Guaranteeing good air quality across a cruise ship's

Outside spaces is a tough challenge.

The ship needs a reliable source of power

To run all its essential systems

And provide all passengers onboard

With a constant stream of electricity.

♪

Bellissima's four diesel electric motors

Work around the clock.

At peak output,

They produce 67 megawatts of electricity,

Enough to power 50,000 homes.

But burning heavy fuel oil produces exhaust gases.

Many cruise ships vent these fumes from funnels

Positioned above the top deck.

On bellissima, these outlets are just a few feet above

The ship's popular water park.

So engineers have to make sure guests

Don't breathe in harmful gases.

♪

Classic liners solved the problem

With long exhaust funnels

That release dirty sulfurous fumes high above the top deck.

Bellissima's upper-most public space is over 180-feet high,

Nearly double the height of a classic liner.

And it's around 33 feet away from the ship's exhaust outlet.

Simply making bellissima's funnels longer

Will create a big problem

When the megaship enters ports spanned by low bridge decks.

[ ship horn blows ]

♪

At the shipyard, workers raced to finish building

Bellissima's sister ship, msc virtuosa.

A giant equipment install reveals both ships' secret

To beating harmful fumes.

A pair of huge steel drums, 16 feet in diameter

And over 33 feet tall, each weighing 22 tons.

These steel drums called scrubbers remove almost

All of the environmentally damaging sulfur compounds

From the engine's waste gases

As they move through the exhaust system.

Nozzles inside a scrubber's drum

Spray nearly 6,000 gallons of seawater per minute

Into beds packed with metal filings.

Engine exhaust gases rise through the moist beds

And pollutants dissolve into the water.

Water droplets trickle down the inside of the drum

And collect in a treatment chamber.

Here, a chemical process separates the clean water

From pollutants.

And the waste forms a sludge.

Experts responsibly dispose of this waste on land

When the ship is in port.

♪

Bellissima departs valletta and powers forward

Into open water toward its final stop -- barcelona.

The scrubbers kick into high gear to clean waste gases

Ejected by the ship's four giant diesel electric motors.

On the top deck, guests are busy racing down the water slides

Or working on their tans,

Oblivious to the ingenious technology

Working in the background.

750 miles of open sea

Lie between the vessel and barcelona.

Will this giant ship arrive on schedule?

And what is its secret

For docking in the narrowest, busiest ports?

♪

♪

Narrator: In the mediterranean,

Cruise ship msc bellissima closes in on barcelona.

The port city is the last stop on the mighty vessel's

Eight-day, 1,864-mile journey.

Captain raffaele pontecorvo and his officers

Will have to reverse the vessel over a mile

Down this narrow channel to reach the busy harbor.

Parking backwards means the ship will be facing

The right way for a fast departure

Later this afternoon.

But guiding this ship to its berth is a huge challenge.

The vessel's tall profile makes it vulnerable to high winds

Blowing it off course.

One wrong move during the reversing maneuvering,

And it could collide with another megaship.

Bellissima relies on a responsive

Steering system to help guide it through narrow channels

In all weather conditions.

[ ship horn blows ]

♪

At the shipyard in France where bellissima was built,

Engineers prepare to install a sister ship's propulsion system,

A pair of 20 megawatt electric motors in waterproof housings

Called podded thrusters.

Unlike fixed propeller propulsion systems,

These pods swivel their propellers to direct thrust

Precisely where it's needed.

Bellissima carries a pair of podded thrusters at the rear.

Four fixed thrusters in the bow

Direct powerful jets of high velocity water

To help steer the ship from the front.

Together, they make this huge vessel highly nimble.

♪

Outside barcelona port,

Captain raffaele engages the podded thrusters.

They slowly turn the vessel 180 degrees.

♪

The ship is ready to begin the 1.2 mile journey to its berth.

Luckily, high winds are not an issue today.

But threading this giant ship through the port's entry channel

Is still no simple task.

Moored up on one side is a mega cruise ship.

On the other, a massive container vessel.

Environmental engineering officer pasquale maresca

Helps steer a perfect line between them.

Pasquale relay's readings from this laser measurer

To track the distance between bellissima

And the moored megaships.

♪

Bellissima's berth comes into view.

Captain raffaele turns the rear thrusters

And pulses the bow thrusters to delicately maneuver

The 1,034-foot-long ship alongside the key.

♪

The megaship completes its eight-day,

1,864-mile voyage right on schedule.

Passengers disembark to return home

After their mediterranean adventure.

Msc bellissima is one of the most innovative

Mega cruise ships in the world.

Built into its mighty structure

Is a series of engineering marvels

That make this ship the pinnacle

Of passenger vessel design.

A wide hull and small draft

Allows it to slide into the shallowest ports,

Extra-quiet propellers drive the ship

Without disturbing the guests,

An ingenious water plant

Turns the salty sea into crystal-clear drinking water,

Fin stabilizers keep the ship steady in the roughest weather,

Exhaust scrubbers clean waste gases

And reduce noxious emissions.

This giant passenger vessel

Is one of the world's biggest cruise ships.

Msc bellissima is built to be the ultimate.