Domestic cruise ship ready for certification after 2nd sea trial

China's first domestically built large cruise ship, Adora Magic City, is set for international certification upon completion of its second sea trial on Tuesday, according to China State Shipbuilding Corp, the world's largest shipbuilder.

It's an international convention that cruise ships have two sea trials before receiving certificates from major international classification societies.

With its first sea trial completed in July, Adora Magic City, at 323.6 meters long and 37.2 meters wide, started its second on Sept 7. The massive ship set sail from Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding, a CSSC subsidiary and the vessel's construction contractor, and returned to the shipyard on Tuesday afternoon.

Chen Gang, general manager of Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding and chief designer of the shipyard's large cruise ship project, described the success of the second sea trial as a new milestone in cruise ship manufacturing in China.

It marks the completion of China's first large-scale cruise ship, which will accommodate a maximum of 5,246 guests and serve the burgeoning domestic cruise market when it is put into full operation, Chen said.

A total of 1,339 people from the ship's operator Adora Cruises, inspectors, contractors, service providers, engineers and technicians, were on board for the trial voyage that put the ship through its paces.

All the tests met the design requirements and received approvals from the ship owner, according to the Shanghai-based shipyard.

China had been eager to build its own large cruise ships, icons of shipbuilding power, for a number of years but has been hampered by its lack of design and construction expertise.

In November 2018, CSSC signed a cooperation agreement for the design and construction of two 135,500-metric-ton Vista-class cruise ships with Carnival Corp and Fincantieri.

Carnival, a British-American cruise operator, is the world's largest leisure travel company, while Fincantieri, an Italian company, is one of the world's largest cruise ship makers.

According to the agreement, the vessels are being built to suit the requirements of the Chinese market and Chinese tourists.

Construction of Adora Magic City started at Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding in October 2019.

Yi Guowei, director of the cruise office of Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding and deputy manager of the shipyard's large cruise ship project, said the success of Adora Magic City's sea trials is significant.

"It basically confirms that the strategies, design plans, process methods, raw materials, equipment, construction and debugging processes we have adopted over the past few years all meet the requirements," Yi said.

Adora Magic City, with its construction almost complete, will be delivered to its owner during the 6th China International Import Expo, which will take place from Nov 5 to 10 in Shanghai, Yi said.

In the coming months, the shipyard will wrap up work such as the preparation of supplies for the ship owner, accommodation for the ship crew, the transfer of the operation system and some find-tuning decoration and cleaning, Yi added.

Niklas Peterstam, who will captain Adora Magic City, was on board for both sea trials. The captain from Sweden said he has no doubt the ship, which is set for its first commercial cruise on Jan 1 from Shanghai, will be filled "in no time".

"It's a very nice vessel for families and for everybody else. There is shopping, there are restaurants and playgrounds. There is something for everyone," he said.