Verandah Debate About This Page:

[PixieMichele]

So here's an interesting question, I'm sure someone with more knowledge of cruise ship construction may know...

Why are some verandah's plexiglass and others whitewall? Obviously, we know there is a difference in category, and therefore price, so is the difference purely for the sake of a price point or is there a structural reason as well?

I never really considered that the location of some of the white wall verandahs may have a structural purpose but then again I'm more concerned with what's going on on-board to care about the structure of the ship! Anyone know the answer?

[toddjodybrent]

While I don't know for sure, I would say structure and more importantly, overall design/look of the ship. The design would come first and then that would determine if some staterooms have whitewall while others had plexiglass depending on their location. Price point would be the last consideration--and is more important to guests because of perception that one type of verandah is better than another. I'm sure others who know more (Dave?) will chime in with specifics. Interesting question!

[Dave Marx]

It's almost definitely "look" rather than structure. DCL's design esthetic goes for those broad expanses of solid white. If you look at some of the other cruise lines (say, the more recent designs from Royal Caribbean), there's this huge, rectangular block of verandah staterooms that, to me, looks like a high-rise hotel/apartment complex. Disney's design includes diagonal and curved lines, and horizontal "stripes," all of which seem to de-emphasize the verandahs and make it look more like the classic 20th-century ocean liners they emulate, and less like a floating hotel.

All cruise ships tend to have broad expanses of solid wall fore and aft on the upper decks. I think it's mostly needed to give the appearance of strength and bulk, and at least forward, cut wind resistance a bit. As to structural need? See the last paragraph.

While some of that big expanse of white would be porthole staterooms regardless, there's no structural reason at all for the curved lines that create the cat 7A partially-obstructed views on the Dream Class ships. A vertical line would have been perfectly fine instead. If they'd "squared-up" those curves at the widest point, a dozen porthole staterooms would become verandahs. I'm not sure whether 12 additional verandahs (or 12 fewer portholes) makes a substantial difference.

Financially? Every solid wall verandah and partially-obstructed view reduces the potential value of that stateroom, so DCL may pay a price for the look. A big "apartment block" would yield more full-price staterooms, but if the overall appearance of the ship is cheapened, that could negatively affect the price of every stateroom on board.

There's almost zero chance that those expanses of sheet steel are necessary structurally. If we imagine the hull to be a hollow shell to which floors have been attached, then we could assume any added expanse of heavy sheet steel would help make that hollow shell stronger. However, the ship is essentially a solid stack of Lego blocks, each of which is structurally complete. The hull is only the side of the brick that we can see from the outside. It still has 5 other sides, each welded to its neighbor.