Oceandiva $28 Million Luxury Party Boat Ruffles Feathers Despite Zero-Emissions Claims

Oceandiva London, an upcoming luxury experience that will launch in the Spring of 2023, is under fire from residents and local groups, over its recent application to operate the vessel every day of the week between 1 am to 2.30 am the next day, with a possible extension to 3 am in the future. No amount of emissions-free sailing and encouraging of the local economy will make up for the noise of such a large crowd partying on the river, residents tell The Telegraph.

Oceandiva is a Dutch company with similar vessels already in operation in The Netherlands and Germany. Oceandiva London is a joint venture with Smart Group, which will operate it, and is billed as a first step to greener transportation on The Thames. It is a luxury event space that can float up and down the Thames or remain docked, but it is also part of a larger program that will see the creation of “a new electric river highway [through] installing electrical charging points for vessels from Westminster to Dartford,” according to the company.

To people living in some of the neighborhoods by the Thames, Oceandiva is nothing but a pain in the you-know-what, because it will ultimately entail a massive disruption to their quiet life. Whatever gains there are from having a vessel that runs on electricity, there will be equal amounts of disruption from having a 1,500-strong party sail under their windows, and that same number of (presumably rowdy) guests disembarking to continue the party on terra firma.

Oceandiva London was announced to great fanfare earlier this year, with an estimated launch date for this fall. That launch has since been moved up to spring of next year, and the latest application seems to confirm that the date sticks.

The three-deck, 282-feet (86-meter) long ship comes with an estimated cost of £25 million ($28.2 million at the current exchange rate) and the promise of the most exclusive and exquisite floating soirees in a highly-curated space of 2,625 square meters (28,255 square feet).

Moving Venue, which creates menus for the Kensington Palace and the Victoria Museum, luxury catering company Last Supper, whose clients include Gucci, Sotheby’s and Mont Blanc, and “London’s leading mixologists” will help create a memorable experience for the 1,500 guests (or 500 seated guests) onboard. Renders of the ship revealed as of the time of press show a luxurious bar and several lounges, as well as a space dedicated solely to fine dining, and a dancefloor with a stage. The ship’s sleek and minimalist exterior is in keeping with the promise of exclusive, luxury events: a very fancy barge for luxurious entertainment.

That said, 1,500 partying men and women can still cause a ruckus, no matter how fancy their outfits might be. Residents in various London neighborhoods on the Thames have filed over 1,000 complaints with the council, over the plans to keep the party going throughout the week until the early hours of morning. To paraphrase a popular bop, the party onboard Oceandiva can’t and won’t stop, but it becomes a problem when it spills on the dock.

In short, residents are concerned about two main issues: noise pollution as the ship makes its way up and down the river and the disruption caused by embarking and disembarking in various neighborhoods. For the time being, to counter these complaints, Oceandiva London has promised that there will be no disembarkment at Shad Thames, a historic riverside community next to Tower Bridge, past 10.30 in the evening.

This obstacle aside, Oceandiva London aims to keep its promise to “decarbonize the Capital’s river by Net Zero Marine Services (NZMS)” and hail in a new era of marine development. Besides the installation of high voltage electric Smart Docks on the Thames, Oceandiva promises to look for other ways to reduce the carbon footprint of each event held onboard, “from sourcing, energy used, food and beverage choices made, to audience travel and everything else in between.”