Cruise ships are engineering marvels, and they can even perform a little-known trick to fit under bridges.
Royal Caribbean recently began offering summer cruises from the New York City area on Symphony of the Seas. Symphony is an Oasis Class ship, making it one of the biggest cruise ships in the world.
Just like sister ship Oasis of the Seas, both have retractable funnels that allow it to pass under shorter bridges.
Symphony of the Seas is indeed massive, coming in at 1,188 feet long, and encompassing 18 decks in height.
Only recently have the giant Oasis Class ships began sailing from the New York area, and a lot of people assumed it wasn't possible because of the Verrazzano Narrows bridge, which blocks access to New York harbor.
The Verrazzano bridge is 228 feet above mean high water at its midpoint, whereas Symphony of the Seas is 238 feet high.
Captain Rob Hempstead spoke to guests on a recently Symphony of the Seas sailing that the ship's funnels do retract and can do so as needed on the Oasis Class ships.
Bridges are common around major ports, and some are just tall enough for cruise ships to fit underneath them.
Captain Rob also confirmed that the funnels are still able to retract, even if a ship has been outfitted with scrubbers on them. Scrubbers act a lot like a catalytic converter in the sense they filter out a lot of the ship's emissions from making it into the air.
The funnels telescope down to give the ship some the few extra inches it needs to fit under the bridge.
According to Captain Rob, all the Oasis Class ships are equipped with this functionality.
There's a second part to this trick, because the ship can get lower in the water by speeding up. By going faster, they squat lower into the water.
When you increase the speed in relatively confined waters, the ship has a suction effect from the bottom, and that actually makes the ship go a bit deeper into the water.
More ships can retract their funnels
It's not just the Oasis Class ships that can shrink down when necessary.
Royal Caribbean's Icon and Quantum class ships all have retractable funnels.
In fact, the brand new Icon of the Seas had to do the same thing when it departed its shipyard to begin operations.
In late November 2023, the 1,198-foot-long, 250,800 gross-ton vessel had to get from Finland to Spain, but Denmark's 11-mile Great Belt Bridge was in the way.
The cruise ship had to "lower and secure" the Icon of the Seas' funnels, allowing it to clear the Great Belt Bridge with only a few feet to spare.
Prior to Icon, Allure of the Seas was the last cruise ship to pass underneath the Great Belt Bridge. The second Oasis Class ship did it in October 2010 and passed with just 20 inches of clearance.
