Monday, November 15, 2010

Why don't we build it here?


Think critically. Don't make excuses. I wanted to bring up again a subject we raised on Midrats two episodes ago.

We know two things; labor unions are much stronger in Europe than here. The cost of labor is greater in Europe than here.

Here is the question for you; why can the Germans do this and we can't?
The biggest cruiseliner ever built in Germany, the Disney Dream, emerged from its dock in the Meyer Werft shipyard over the weekend, a 340 meters long, 16-deck giant for 4,000 passengers commissioned by the US Disney Cruise Line for family trips around the Caribbean.

The Disney Dream inched out of its covered construction dock at the Meyer Werft shipyard on Saturday in a spectacle accompanied by a firework display and witnessed by some 10,000 people.

It is one of the biggest cruise ships in the world and the biggest ever built in Germany. It is 340 meters long, has 16 decks and can accommodate 4,000 passengers. Mickey Mouse in a captain's uniform adorns its bow. The ship was commissioned by the US Disney Cruise Line for family vacations around the Caribbean.

It features a 245-meter-long water slide that winds its way down through the top four decks. The construction took 20 months and it will be handed over to its owner in December.

Disney plans to double its fleet of cruise ships to four by 2012 and Meyer-Werft will also built its sister ship, Disney Fantasy.

Including Disney Fantasy, the Papenburg, Germany-based Meyer-Werft currently has nine cruise ships on its order books worth €4 billion ($5.6 billion).