In 2006, Royal Caribbean International embarked on an ambitious project called Project Genesis. Their mission was to build the world’s largest cruise ship. Scheduled to sail in fall of 2009, Project Genesis isn’t just the largest ship. It’s also the most expensive cruise ship in the world.

(via True Cruise)

Project Genesis isn’t Royal Caribbean International’s first enormous cruise ship. Their last endeavor, Freedom of the Seas, also broke records with its ability to carry over 4,000 passengers and its weight in excess of 150,000 tons.

Project Genesis will, of course, break both records. The 1,180 foot long ship will weigh 220,000 tons and carry a maximum of 6,400 passengers and 2,100 crew members. The ship is so big, in fact, that it will have a common area, as large as a football field, called Central Park. Central Park’s piazza will even host street performers and live concerts. Additionally, the park will be surrounded by a variety of restaurants, including fine dining at 150 Central Park, Italian cuisine at Giovanni’s Table and steakhouse fare at Royal Caribbean’s own Chops Grille.

The ship will also include a number of bars ranging from wine bars to the impressive Rising Tide bar—an engineering marvel that actually moves through three decks from Central Park to the public spaces below.

Norway’s Aker Yards is handling the construction of the ship. Their price for building the most expensive cruise ship in the world: $1.24 billion!

Calling them airports is an understatement. With over fifteen miles of aviation-related commercial properties surrounding some of the largest airfields, these massive urban sprawls are more properly known as aerotropolises. For simplicity’s sake, though, we’ll just call them the world’s most expensive airports.

Currently, the most expensive airport is Hong Kong International Airport, located on Chek Lap Kok island in (surprisingly enough) Hong Kong. With over 47 million passengers in 2007, HKIA is also one of the world’s busiest airports. Passengers may fly in or out via a number of airlines, including Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong Express, Air Hong Kong and many others with “Hong Kong” in their names. For its $20 billion construction, the airport was awarded a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Unfortunately for HKIA, it will soon lose that place.

It shouldn’t surprise anyone that the new record-breaking aerotropolis is being constructed in Dubai. Dubai World Central International, being constructed south of Dubai near Jebel Ali, will cost $33 billion for its infrastructure alone. The plans call for an airfield that can accommodate the latest superjumbo jets, hotels, shopping malls, two 18-hole golf courses and a residential city that can house 750,000 people. Of course, this sort of project takes a lot of time to complete and DWC is no exception. It isn’t expected to be operational until 2017. By that time, yet another record-breaking airport project may be started.

Other aerotropolises include Brisbane Airport in Australia, Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, Incheon International Airport in South Korea, Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia and at least five within the continental United States.

BMW Street Carver

When BMW introduced their Street Carver in 2001, they proved that they could make skateboards with the same precision engineering as their automobiles. The Street Carver is heavier than most skateboards with its cast-aluminum truck assemblies, wood and fiberglass deck and 110mm wheels. The most notable features of the board, though, are the pendulum arms that work against each other to provide you with a much more stable ride. At $500, the Street Carver was also the world’s most expensive skateboard at the time.

Exkate X-24

Nowadays that title rightly belongs to the Exkate X-24. The evolution of this product began when Louis Finkle, an electronics enthusiast, spent five years creating an electric skateboard with a wireless remote that actually uses the rider’s own body to send signals to the board. Since then, Exkate has made a name for themselves with many permutations of the original electric skateboard.

The most impressive of these, of course, is the X-24. Not only is it capable of reaching twenty miles per hour in only four seconds, it can also accommodate a 275 pound rider. The battery charge lasts for roughly ten miles and can be charged around 400 times. The electronic skateboard can even break from twenty miles per hour in only thirty feet.

When it was available, the X-24 could be purchased for just under $1,000. While it’s currently out of stock, a newer model of the most expensive skateboard in the world will be available sometime this year.

Few cars invoke images of wealth as readily as Rolls-Royce. It’s fitting, then, that the world’s most expensive hood ornament should embellish such a car.

The Spirit of Ecstasy, known in the US as The Flying Lady, has a tangled history. Originally commissioned as a personal emblem for Lord John Walter Edward Douglas-Scott-Montagu’s Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost, the sculptor, Charles Sykes, chose Lord Montagu’s secret love, Eleanor Velasco Thornton, as a model for the mascot. He dubbed the resulting ornament “The Whisper.”

When Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, concerned that the fashionable personal emblems of the day were inappropriate for such a prestigious vehicle, set out to create their own mascot, they turned to Sykes to sculpt an emblem that embodied the grace and beauty of the Rolls-Royce. Once again he used Ms. Thornton as the model for his Spirit of Speed, which he later referred to as the Spirit of Ecstasy.

The rights to the Spirit of Ecstasy have changed hands over the years. At one point they were purchased, along with rights to the shape of the Rolls-Royce radiator grill and even some Bentley components, by Volkswagen. Having only wanted the Bentley rights in the first place, they eventually reached a deal with BMW, who owned the rights to build Rolls-Royce cars, which allowed the familiar hood ornament and grill to be reunited with the luxurious car.

This year, designer Jean Kemanjian created a special version of the Spirit of Ecstasy for Manhattan Motorcars to show off at the New York Auto Show. Made of platinum and other rare metals, the figurine is completely coated in 150 carats of high-quality (VVS1) diamonds. While it’s valued at $200,000, it’s not for sale. Even so, it can certainly be called the most expensive hood ornament in the world.

What kind of wax do you use on a Classic car? If you’re the sort of person who only uses the best of anything on your pampered vehicle, then the answer is clear. You’ll get the most expensive car wax in the world.
Enter Swizöl International, a Switzerland-based company that specializes in handmade car care products. [...]

Looking for a top of the line audio system to put in your spacious new SUV? Why not try the world’s most expensive car audio system? Up and coming luxury audio system creators Rogue Acoustics made a splash when they unveiled their premiere car audio system, the RA:1K.
While the RA:1K is highly customizable, the majority [...]

Talal Khouri, a Dubai-based businessman, made history recently when he became the owner of the world’s most expensive license plate. He won the expensive license plate after placing the winning bid during an auction to benefit individuals with special needs.
Oddly, the expensive license plate displays the number ‘5’. You would think the most expensive license [...]

How do you improve a million dollar car? You could try what New York Hedge Fund manager and car enthusiast Jim Glickenhaus did when he took his Ferrari Enzo to Turin, Italy. Hearkening back to 1960s Ferraris such as the 330 P3/4, the overhaul Jim gave his Enzo cost him a cool $4 million. That [...]

If you think of a fishing trip as a father and son spending a relaxing day bonding at the lake, you may not be thinking big enough. For a nominal fare of $15-25,000 USD, Nomads of the Seas offer a trip to Chilean Patagonia on their Mothership, the Atmosphere. As the most expensive fishing trip [...]

The most expensive bicycle in the world was sold to an anonymous buyer at the Lance Armstrong Foundation Gala in 2005. Studded with seven 1-carat Gemesis man-made diamonds and 300 white diamonds, the gold-plated “7-diamond” bike commemorates Armstrong’s victory over seven Tour de France events. The expensive bike, a joint effort between Trek Bikes, Nike, [...]

Audi’s Auto Union Type C pedal car may just be the world’s most expensive toy car. At an unofficial price of over $14,000 USD, the pedal car hearkens back to the days when Audi was known as Auto Union, a joint venture of four German auto manufacturers. The original Auto Union Type C dominated the [...]

If you’re looking to strap an insanely bright light on your head, look no further than Lupine Lighting System’s Betty. If you can believe a product description that seems to have been written by hyperactive chickens, the Betty is better than Lupine’s previous offering, the Edison, in every possible way. Of course, the nearly $1,200 [...]

While the world’s largest passenger plane is readied for its inaugural flight, Singapore Airlines are making a killing by selling tickets on eBay. Sold to an Australian man for over $100,000 USD, two tickets on the maiden commercial voyage of the Airbus A380 have become the most expensive airline tickets in the world.
The plane on [...]

Motorcycles have had mass appeal to the general public for roughly a century and a half. An American named Sylvester Howard Roper designed one of the first motorcycles in the 1860s. The motorcycle was displayed at fairs and circuses around the eastern U.S.. Europeans also had their hand in popularizing motorcycles and during the World [...]

Toyota, the makers of the Lexus line of luxury autos, has just publicly disclosed the full details regarding its newest model. With the success of the less expensive Toyota “Prius”, it only makes sense for Toyota to produce a higher-end model, and the new Lexus LS 600h L will be the most expensive hybrid car [...]

Owning a Bentley has long been a certifiable symbol of status and high-class, now you can take it one step further with the diamond encrusted Bentley shift knob. You could easily purchase several new cars for the price of this one knob. Bentley has been making automobiles out of Britain since the 1920’s and interestingly [...]

Since the inception of eBay in September 1995, the online auction site grown quickly into one of the largest online marketplaces, based around the idea that lets eBay just be the auction house for individuals selling things. People buy or sell just about anything on the auction site including Homes, Mega-Yachts, and luxury [...]

by Hunter Davis
Extremely expensive SUV’s are not anything new. Porsche and Hummer currently produce some of the world’s most expensive SUVs. An infatuation with high-priced gas-guzzlers has produced a market of jaw dropping SUV’s that are sure to impress even the toughest critics.

CNN’s Warrior One
On January 20th of 2007, CNN auctioned off a Hummer [...]

A luxury cruise is something that people often save for years to be able to experience. Modern cruise ships are floating luxury resorts with full hospitality services. Many luxury cruise ships have almost as many crew members as they do capacity for passengers. Private charters are the most expensive and exclusive way [...]

Most people fill up their tank during the daily life and never sit down and total up how much money they spend on their expensive gas fuel. As the production of oil is seems to be nearing its peak, there have been expensive gas prices for all of us.
Those of us who [...]

Big-name rappers and athletes are probably already familiar with Asanti, though you may not be. Last year Asanti was responsible for the then most expensive wheels in the world, a cubic zirconium encrusted set weighing in at a chunky 63,000 carets and an even heftier $250,000.

This year, the manufacturer ups the ante with [...]

If your passion for performance and luxury autos cannot be stopped, and your McLaren F1 is becoming a bore with the rest of your exotic cars, it might be time to check out the long awaited Veyron from Bugatti. At 1.25 million, it is the most expensive car ever made. So what car [...]