{"id":5928,"date":"2026-07-04T10:35:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T15:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/okdiario.com\/techy\/en\/?p=5928"},"modified":"2026-07-03T23:10:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T04:10:15","slug":"the-worlds-largest-cruise-ship-squeezed-under-a-danish-bridge-with-just-30-centimeters-to-spare-how-it-cleared-the-gap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/okdiario.com\/techy\/en\/the-worlds-largest-cruise-ship-squeezed-under-a-danish-bridge-with-just-30-centimeters-to-spare-how-it-cleared-the-gap\/5928\/","title":{"rendered":"The world’s largest cruise ship squeezed under a Danish bridge with just 30 centimeters to spare: how it cleared the gap"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Royal Caribbean\u2019s new Legend of the Seas has already delivered a jaw-dropping moment before most travelers ever step on board. During its delivery voyage from Finland, the giant cruise ship passed beneath Denmark\u2019s Great Belt Bridge with roughly 12 inches of clearance, a margin so small it sounds more like parking a car than moving a floating resort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The maneuver was not just a viral maritime spectacle. It showed the strange new reality of cruise engineering, where ships are getting bigger, routes are getting tighter<\/a>, and environmental promises are being tested in public. The real question is simple. Can the cruise industry keep scaling up without leaving ports, coastlines, and the climate to carry the cost?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A one-foot squeeze<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Legend of the Seas made the Great Belt passage using retractable funnels, added ballast water, and a carefully controlled speed to lower its effective height as it passed under the bridge. In plain terms, the crew made the ship sit deeper in the water and trimmed everything they could from the top.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\n

Also Read: The US will spend 1 billion dollars on a new naval base in Latin America: why it could redraw the region’s balance<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

That may sound easy on paper, but it is a high-stakes calculation involving weather, ship stability, bridge clearance, and timing. A foot of space is about the width of a school ruler. Now imagine using that ruler as the safety margin for a vessel nearly 1,198 feet long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why this ship matters<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Legend of the Seas is the third ship in Royal Caribbean\u2019s Icon Class, built by Meyer Turku in Finland. Meyer Turku lists the Icon Class at about 250,800 GT, with room for around 7,600 passengers, and notes that the ships use liquefied natural gas as fuel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That 250,800 GT figure is worth pausing on. It is gross tonnage<\/a>, which measures internal volume rather than weight, so it should not be treated like pounds or regular tons. In practical terms, it means this is less a boat in the old sense and more a moving hotel district with pools, restaurants, entertainment spaces, and thousands of people on board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The green promise<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Royal Caribbean says Legend of the Seas is its fourth LNG-powered ship and includes environmental systems such as waste heat recovery and shore power connection. The company also says the ship is part of its broader path toward introducing a net-zero cruise ship by 2035.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those details matter because ports feel cruise pollution up close. When a ship is docked, shore power<\/a> can let it plug into the local grid instead of running its engines, which can sharply reduce emissions at berth when the electricity supply is clean enough. For residents living near cruise terminals, that difference is not abstract. It can mean cleaner air on an ordinary morning walk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
By using retractable funnels and added ballast, Royal Caribbean navigated the Legend of the Seas under the Great Belt Bridge with just 12 inches of space.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The achilles heel with LNG\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Still, LNG is complicated. Cruise industry group CLIA says LNG has virtually zero sulfur emissions and particulate emissions, reduces nitrogen oxide emissions by about 85 percent, and can cut greenhouse gas emissions by up to 20 percent. The same group also acknowledges methane slip as an issue with LNG engines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, when considering methane, environmental groups warn that it totally changes the math. Transport and Environment says LNG is mostly methane, a greenhouse gas far more potent than carbon dioxide in the short term, and argues that leaks can happen across the fuel supply chain as well as from ship funnels. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\n

Also Read: The list of jobs most at risk from artificial intelligence is surprising, as it doesn’t start with industrial robots, but rather with translators, writers, historians, call center agents, consultants, and other professionals who make their living through language<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Reuters has also reported that cruise ship engines had an estimated methane slip of 6.4 percent on average in 2024 research funded by the ICCT and partners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n