NOVA: Ultimate Cruise Ship

Pioneering shipbuilders embark on an epic endeavor to build the ultimate cruise ship.

Weighing 54,000 gross tons and stretching over two football fields, the Seven Seas Explorer is no ordinary boat. Join pioneering shipbuilders as they endeavor to build the ultimate cruise ship.

It will be decked with the finest gold, marble, and crystal, and designed to offer guests the roomiest accommodations of any commercial cruise ship…But engineering opulence is no easy feat.

In "Ultimate Cruise Ship," NOVA follows a pioneering team of ship builders as they embark on what is advertised to be a milestone in maritime engineering.

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A worker grinds one of the propellers of the Seven Seas Explorer at the Van Voorden Castings workshop in Zaltbommel in the Netherlands.

Courtesy of Martin Gorst

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Workers install the starboard propeller on the prop shaft of the Seven Seas Explorer, at the Fincantieri shipyard, Sestri, Genoa, Italy.

Courtesy of Martin Gorst

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A section of the Seven Seas Explorer on the slipway at the Fincantieri shipyard in Castellammare di Stabia, near Naples in Italy. When it is launched, chains like these will be attached to the hull to slow it down as it enters the water.

Courtesy of Martin Gorst

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A section of the Seven Seas Explorer on the slipway at the Fincantieri shipyard in Castellammare di Stabia, near Naples in Italy.

Courtesy of Martin Gorst

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The Seven Seas Explorer moored to the quayside of the Fincantieri Sestri shipyard, Genoa, Italy, shortly before leaving the shipyard.

Courtesy of Martin Gorst

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Aerial view of the Seven Seas Explorer cruising in the Mediterranean Sea.

Courtesy of Martin Gorst

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Frank del Rio, CEO of Norwegian Cruise Holdings, the parent company of Regent Seven Seas, in the Regent Suite on board the Seven Seas Explorer.

Courtesy of Martin Gorst

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