When I bought this set, I was well aware, that i t would be quite a large ship. But man, was I surprised when I realized how large it REALLY was!! It also is only my second floatable LEGO ship, the first being a police boat from the late 90's. Still, coming at a retail price of more than 120€, this thing was way overpriced, when it came out. So I had to wait and luckily, a good discount had me buying it for some 90€. This still leaves us with a price-to-piece-ratio of some 12 cents/piece, which is not that great, but of course, two pieces in this set are as large as 400 regular ones together, these being the ship hull. But in detail:

Parts

Obviously, the most interesting parts are the two large hull parts. These were already used in an older Deep Sea Explorers-series, in the 60095 Deep Sea Exploration Vessel, to be precise. But, other than the mentioned set, this one has TWO parts, making this ship excessively huge.
There are not that many more interesting parts in this set, but all of them can be used well in MOCs, as we have several base plates, tiles, monitors, hinges and a winch. Also, the sturdy, well-known dingy is still the same as in the 90's.

Minifigures

Eight minifigures are included in this set, which is a good amount for a large set, only a few sets have more (City squares, for example). We have a male and a female diver in the new light diving gear with flippers and some more tools, a female diver in heavy diving gear with an underwater camera, a grey-bearded captain, a male sailor/technician, the "special" minifigure Harl Hubbs, a male helicopter pilot and a female pilot for the submarine. Some of them have a two-sided head and also some extra accessories are provided (walkie-talkie, wrench, life vest...)
There are also two animals included, a nicely designed ray and a super-cool looking great white shark! This guy can almost swallow a whole minifigure! How convenient!

The build

While this ship is quite large, the build is not really that difficult.
The wreck of the old pirate ship is built first, together with the small submarine and the helicopter. When it comes to the ship itself, the bow is built first, with the hangar for the sub and the landing platform for the helicopter. Then, the second large hull piece is attached via large linked TECHNIC. It is further fortified with several plates, tiles and even two plates clipped to the sides. These also hide the inevitable gaps between the two hull parts, because those hull parts have a slight slope outwards each. Even though the two parts can ONLY be linked together at the top, the parts hold together very well. The next part of the detailed instructions covers the winch for the shark cage and finishes with the large bridge, which lies above the crew quarters and some sort of canteen/technic room.
One has to pay special attention where to put several pieces when starting to build the ship itself, just because it is so large, even in the instructions booklet. This set also has some transparent stickers, but not that many, which I appreciated. I'll cover those later.

The completed model

As mentioned in the introduction, this ship is absolutely HUGE! It is some 60+cm (2+ft) in length and some 17cm (6+in) wide. The bow has a box for gear and a cargo area for storing the submarine. The cover of this bay serves as landing platform for the small helicopter. Behind this platform is the large moon pool. A mobile crane reaches above this pool with a winch to lower the shark cage or the small submarine into the water. The crane itself can be moved across the whole moon pool, moves up and down via a gearing mechanism and can be rotated 360°. This crane can also be used to pull up the modules of the 60265 Ocean Exploration Base.
In the rear end of the ship is the large tower, which holds the bridge and some bunks underneath it. The bridge has several control monitors, steering wheels and windows all around. The top has two hatches for easier access and in the back are two more large doors. To the sides of the bridge are two adjustable spotlights and in the back are the two chimneys. The bridge-section can be removed individually, revealing the bunks for the crew with some space for personal stuff and two fish tanks (with stickers). This compartment can also be removed and underneath is some sort of canteen/briefing room/technic/engine-control room with several chairs, a table, a coffee machine and some control panels.
The stern of the ship has a small crane with a rubber dinghy, might be some sort of life raft or for support-/supply-missions.
The small helicopter is simple, but sufficient for its purpose. It has two clips to hold some gear and two swimmers for landing on water.
The tiny submarine is a very nice construction with a completely transparent cockpit for 360° underwater observation. The transparent parts open to the front and upwards and that way, it can also be attached to the hook of the large crane.
There is also some piece of underwater scenery, in this case the stern of a sunken pirate ship, complete with secret area with some hidden gold inside. The mast and wheel are also still intact. The stingray and the big white shark complete the fascinating underwater experience.

Overall opinion

In one word: impressive! The sheer size of this ship is breathtaking! And it also floats!! It also has some (not many) nice functions, like the multi-purpose crane, the hatch for the sub which also serves as landing platform and the "modular" bridge tower. Another positive point for me is the abundance of minfigures with very cool accessories and gear. The new great white shark looks very cool and gives even more options to play *"Jaws" theme playing...* The small sub and the helicopter are nice additions and also have a decent design. I especially liked the realistic design of the bridge and the flexibility of the crane. The sunken ship is OK, could have used a little more detail in my opinion.
The large size of the ship comes at a cost, though. Instead of creating one large hull piece, LEGO recycled the hull pieces of an older ship, as mentioned above. Putting these two identical parts together leaves the ship with an ugly gap between the two hull parts, insufficiently covered by two plates, which look quite odd. Another negative point are the stickers: they are transparent, which leads to visible air bubbles being stuck underneath, especially with the two large ones to the sides of the hull. Also: stickers, that go all the way down to the bottom on a floating boat? Won't they unstick when wet? Haven't tested that yet... And, while we're at stickers: Why not give the ship a name, or at least a number to be printed on the stern? Don't large ships have something like that?
So, while these points subtract a little from the overall design, this is still a very good set, which perfectly caps the newest Deep Sea Explorers Theme. Again, the strength lies in the combination with the other sets of the series, even though this one can pretty much stand on its own!

This is a first for me! First review and first of these city large hull ships. I have always, as AFOL, liked the lego pre-formed large boat hull sets but have never owned one so when i saw this it drew me in.

The majority of the build is of course built around these very large hull pieces and so the build experience was quite quick and simple but I really enjoyed it. the bridge is full of great detail. There is a communal kitchen and dining area at the bottom of the bridge section and then the next level has a small sleeping compartment and then there is the navigation area with plenty of space for the crew.

The side builds of the helicopter, the diving sub, rubber boat and the small piece of ship-wreck are simple but add a great deal of playability to the set for kids and has a working crane for the shark cage.

There is a great number of minifigures and its always great when you get lego animals so getting a large great white shark and a sting ray are happy inclusions.

I'm not against the use of stickers in this set but I didn't like the choice of clear backed ones. On this set particularly the ones on either side of the front of the ship with the hammer head design ,once applied, the yellow colour is dulled down a bit and would have been better to be on white backed ones.

All in all a great set with plenty to offer the kids out there and for AFOL's. If your an AFOL that does not mind the large hull pieces I can really see a great opportunity for MOC's to be made from the hull pieces. I think they would make a great container ship MOC for someone out there.