Like sister ship Oasis of the Seas, the Wärtsilä engines installed in Allure of the Seas have common-rail systems, ensuring lower fuel consumption and reduced emissions, giving smokeless operation at  various engine loads.

Allure of the Seas, the sister ship of Oasis of the Seas, will today be handed over to Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd (RCCL) by STX Europe’s shipyard in Turku, Finland. The 361 meter long ultra modern vessel is powered by six Wärtsilä 46 engines, including three 12-cylinder and three 16-cylinder Wärtsilä 46 engines in V-configuration, and Wärtsilä 7500-horsepower bow thrusters with a combined power output of some 20 MW that make the vessel easy to manoeuvre.

Over the decades, Royal Caribbean International has had several of the world’s most innovative ships in its fleet, and as its partnership with Wärtsilä stretches back 40 years, most of them have been powered by Wärtsilä engines. Just 12 months ago, Oasis of the Seas, the world’s most innovative cruise ship at that time was delivered.

“Allure of the Seas is Oasis’ sister ship, with the same propulsion setup, the same thrusters, and the same specifications,” says Fred Danska, Director, Cruise Business at Wärtsilä.

Allure of the Seas is 361 metres long, has the gross tonnage of 225,000, has 2700 staterooms, 16 decks and can accommodate about 6400 guests and a crew of 2200. She has 21 swimming pools and whirlpools, 24 restaurants, a floating park with 12,000 plants and more than 2600 theatre seats.

Like Oasis, the Wärtsilä engines installed in Allure also have common-rail injection. Combined with electronic control, this means that the fuel injection’s timing, profile and duration can all be controlled accurately and even take place in stages, to provide improved low-speed operation, better load control and longer periods between overhauls.

Wärtsilä common rail systems also ensure better combustion at all operating speeds and loads, lower fuel consumption, reduced NOx emissions and a reduction in exhaust emissions – giving smokeless operation at various engineloads. In engines of older design, it is practically impossible to optimize the fuel injection characteristics for different loads and different fuels.

Solid and long partnership

Wärtsilä has long and extensive experience in providing propulsion solutions for the world’s most innovative cruise ships.

“What is truly remarkable is the long partnership between Wärtsilä and Royal Caribbean International,” says Danska. “We’ve worked together since the Song of Norway days.” The cruise ship referred to was built at what was then the Wärtsilä shipyard in Helsinki, and delivered to Royal Caribbean in October 1970. Cooperation evolved into an agreement signed between the two companies in 2000.

“Our relationship is built on a solid foundation of trust and transparency, the essential prerequisite for a long-term partnership,” says Danska. “We work very hard to truly understand both our customers’ businesses and the needs of their customers. We’ve always done what is needed to be the forerunner in technological development: we were the first to implement common-rail technology in ships, and we are also at the cutting edge with emission-reduction technologies.”

As they are sister ships, the good news about Allure of the Seas is that changes to the specifications of the equipment installed on Oasis have not been required. The feedback that Wärtsilä has received about Oasis’ first 12 months in operation has been good.

“The experience we have gained from Oasis has been really good, everything has worked fine and the loadings have been optimal for the engines installed on the vessel,” says Danska. Getting it right first time is good news because with only a year between the deliveries of these two gigantic ships, making changes to the installed technologies would have been less than welcome.