Cruise Lines Expand Fleets for Vacation Treasure : Transportation: Eighteen new ships are set for delivery by late 1997, including the two biggest liners ever made. Passenger counts are projected to hit 8 million in the year 2000, nearly double the ’93 tally.

A crew on an elevated platform touches up the white paint near the ship’s name. Installers spread their tools on a vibrant abstract-pattern carpet in a lounge. A contractor uses a laptop computer linked to a slot machine.

Adjustments are made with hours to spare before the maiden cruise of Holland America’s Ryndam, heralding a three-year building boom for the cruise industry.

Four cruise lines have $1-billion worth of ship orders each, influenced by industry projections that passenger counts will rise from 4.1 million in 1993 to 8 million in the year 2000. Eighteen new ships are set for delivery by late 1997, including the two biggest liners ever made.

“We’ll have more ships than the Spanish Armada, or at least more beds,” joked Rich Steck, a spokesman for Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. “We already know where the gold is out there in passenger land.”

More than just industry growth is feeding the building frenzy, a business dominated by shipyards in Finland, Italy, France and Germany.

The profit potential on more efficient ships, the availability of financing, favorable currency exchange rates and new safety rules mandating major renovations on older ships are playing a role in the boom.

“I don’t think there’s any end in sight,” said Tim Gallagher, a spokesman for Carnival Corp. The company’s 2,060-passenger Fascination began sailing in July, and Carnival has three more ships on order.

Holland America, meanwhile, has orders for two more ships, while Princess and Royal Caribbean each have four ships on order, and Celebrity has three.

Carnival and Princess have generated the most intrigue by promising 100,000-ton liners, the biggest ever built and vastly outdistancing the largest now at sea, Kloster Cruise Ltd.’s 76,049-ton Norway. The passenger capacity will be 2,600 on the ships, which are due for delivery in 1996 and 1997.

Carnival is paying $400 million for its mega-liner. Princess, which is buying the other ship, isn’t saying what it cost.

“I think we’re pretty much pushing the outer limits,” conceded Carnival chairman Micky Arison. “It gets tougher and tougher to take advantage of that additional size.”

The sleek, white Princess ship will feature three dining rooms instead of the standard two and a suspended nightclub reached at the stern through a moving walkway.

“We are looking at a specific passenger profile,” said line spokeswoman Julie Benson. “It attracts a lot of first-time passengers.”

Most of the new ships are destined for Caribbean service, the world’s biggest cruise market, a year-round option and the preference of first-time cruisers.

“The untapped potential in the Caribbean, where we’re putting more tonnage over the next several years, we think is vast,” Benson said. “Companies are going to need new, innovative, spectacular ships to attract those people and to keep them coming back.”

However, few cruise operators have the ability to buy the big ships.

“The only ones that really have the money to do it are Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Princess and Cunard,” said Dean Witter Reynolds Inc. cruise industry analyst Paul Mackey.

“You’re seeing a growing oligopoly emerge in the industry where those cruise lines that are consistently adding to capacity are getting the benefits of economies of scale and are outpacing their weaker rivals,” said Smith Barney Inc.’s Jill Krutick.

But U.S. shipyards are getting only a small share of the building boom--although North America provides most of the cruise industry’s passengers, the big liners are being built in Europe. That trend is unlikely to change any time soon because of the cruise lines’ past experience with the U.S. yards.

Under pressure to seek at least one U.S. bid, Carnival asked a Virginia yard for a proposal on its Sensation, which sailed last year. The proposal arrived 10 months after Carnival placed its order in Finland, and with a price tag 75% higher.

Moreover, U.S. shipyards, accustomed to raising their prices in Pentagon contracts, have a harder time than their European competitors when it comes to building ships under budget and on time.

For now, U.S. yards tend to get contracts for components, services and spare parts.