Carnival’s Eye on the Horizon

GLOBE- SPANNING FLEET OPERATIONS CENTER OPENS IN MIAMI

CARNIVAL CRUISE LINE HAS TURNED an eye to the future with the recent construction of a high-tech Fleet Operations Center ( FOC). The 35,000- square- foot facility takes up an entire floor of Carnival’s Miami headquarters, and boasts a 74-footwide video wall with 57 HD screens, able to display any internet source — such as weather maps — as well as up to four TV sources around the clock.

The screens also use custom software to monitor Carnival Cruise Line’s 26 ships, with the ability to expand their view to the entire Carnival Corporation fleet. That’s 104 ships in nine different cruise lines.

The FOC isn’t only watching where ships are on the map. Two custom software packages, Neptune and Argos, let teams monitor thousands of data points and predicts how one situation — say, a decrease in wind speed or an increase in engine temperature — can affect every other system on the ship.

Designed with emergency management in mind, the FOC is inside a building designed to withstand a Category 5 hurricane, with backup power supplies and enough facilities to safely house and feed employees and their families in the event of a major storm.

The space was also laid out with an eye to getting the best out of their staff, with seating in open “pods” arranged to maximize collaboration between different teams (and cut down on the number of emails in everyone’s inboxes).

“We combined best practices from the military, government, and industry to create the largest and most advanced fleet operations center in the industry,” says Carnival Cruise Line President Christine Duffy.