The senior VP of technical operations at Princess Cruises, John Gunner, says that the company’s new ships will each be equipped with a 52mW powerplant that consists of two 14-cylinder and two 12-cylinder Wartsila F-Series engines. Every engine will have dual pumps for improved fuel consumption.

The system will be propelled by two shaft lines using water lubricated stern tubes.

Gunner said “In principle, the pods are more fuel efficient. But there are trade-offs both inside the ship in terms of configuration and outside on the hull form. We believe that the shaft lines provide the best solution for us and in terms of longevity.”

He added that the shafts lubricated with seawater significantly reduced the amount of maintenance when compared to pods.

Princess Cruises is currently also busy testing a highly advanced monitoring system that will give them a better understanding of power consumption on board their ships. Princess was, of course, a pioneer of the so-called “shorepower” and the company has ten ships at present that can plug in to alternative marine power.

Gunner went on to say that whenever the company had to consider new technology, it always considered the effect it would have on energy conservation and fuel consumption. They would first use mathematical models to evaluate the technology and if the numbers added up they would test it on a single engine or a single ship.

Hopefully the cost savings achieved through this will eventually be passed on to passengers.