the Atlantic - with a pitstop on Puerto Rico - from the shipyard in
Turku, Finland, where it was built, it was greeted with a cacophony
of fireboat salutes and a banner flag flyover. The commotion
brought traffic to a halt along the causeway to Miami Beach that
parallels the cruise ship channel.
Argentine soccer star Lionel Messi was even in on the ship’s early
fanfare as the Icon of the Seas’ “godfather,” christening the
20-deck ship on January 23.
The ship is officially the biggest cruise ship in the world, with
Royal Caribbean’s Wonder of the Seas, new in early 2022, trailing
close behind at 1,188 feet long and 235,600 gross tons.
Passengers on its maiden voyage, a sold-out, seven-night cruise to
the Eastern Caribbean, will be able to enjoy some next-level
experiences at sea.
Icon of the Seas’ list of superlatives and firsts is long
Finding time to fit in everything onboard Icon of the Seas promises
to keep passengers busy. And speaking of passengers, the ship can
carry a whopping 7,600 guests at full capacity, along with 2,350
crew – so about the whole population of Sedona,
Arizona.
Among the behemoth’s attractions, there’s Category 6 – the ship’s
17,000-square-foot water park, currently the largest at sea and
sprawled across Decks 16 and 17, with six slides that include
Frightening Bolt (the tallest drop slide at sea at 46 feet or 14
meters) and the first family raft slides at sea (Hurricane Hunter
and Storm Surge).
The ship has the first cantilevered infinity pool at sea, as well
as the largest swimming pool at sea (the 40,000-gallon Royal Bay)
and the largest ice arena at sea (Absolute Zero, where guests can
skate or watch a performance).
Some 50 musicians and comedians keep passengers entertained with
ensembles that include the largest orchestra at sea (16 pieces) as
well as the first at-sea performance of “The Wizard of Oz,”
complete with flying monkeys. There’s even a resident golden
retriever, Rover, dubbed the Chief Dog Officer, who is still a
puppy and appears on her own schedule alongside a dedicated
handler.
The buzz is real – and so is the blowback
Long before it arrived in Miami, social media images of Icon of the
Seas generated online buzz from eager vacationers as well as
heavily polarized opinions about the over-the-top ship, in
particular about the potential environmental impact of such a large
ship.
A Royal Caribbean spokesperson said Icon of the Seas is 24% more
energy efficient than required for ships designed today. The
company plans to introduce a net-zero ship by 2035.
The ship is Royal Caribbean’s first to be powered by liquefied
natural gas (LNG). Not everyone is impressed with that
choice.
“Royal Caribbean’s decision to use LNG is their biggest climate
blunder,” said Bryan Comer, marine program director at The
International Council on Clean Transportation.
“LNG is mostly methane, a greenhouse gas that traps more than 80
times more heat than carbon dioxide in the first 20 years after its
emitted. The Icon of the Seas uses engines that release methane to
the atmosphere in the form of ‘methane slip.’”
The organization says LNG can only “significantly contribute to
achieving climate goals” when methane-slip and other factors are
greatly reduced or eliminated, which the council says is still a
major challenge.
The ship’s parabolic bow — a first for Royal Caribbean — is
designed to help a ship move more easily through the water and does
help reduce fuel consumption and emissions, Comer said, adding that
it also helps the cruise line’s bottom line.
The ship produces more than 93% of its fresh water through reverse
osmosis. And Icon of the Seas also has the brand’s first
microwave-assisted pyrolysis waste-to-energy system (MAP), used to
convert onboard waste to gas that the ship can use as energy.
High interest from avid cruisers
Interest in the massive ship is undeniably high among cruise
devotees.
Colleen McDaniel, editor-in-chief of Cruise Critic, told CNN Travel
that Icon of the Seas is the most researched topic on the cruising
website so far in 2024.
For avid cruisers, McDaniels said, the biggest buzz around Icon of
the Seas is the fact that it’s the first in an entirely new class
of ship for Royal Caribbean, which last debuted a new class of
ship, Quantum Class, in 2014.
“Thinking about all that’s changed in cruise – and travel – in the
past 10 years, there are so many new concepts and options to be
excited about onboard,” McDaniels said, calling Icon of the Seas
“absolutely groundbreaking for the industry.”
Next up in Royal Caribbean’s Icon Class of ships is Star of the
Seas, under construction in Finland and due to debut in August 2025
for Caribbean sailings out of Florida’s Port Canaveral, near
Orlando, with similar amenities to Icon of the Seas.
“The unprecedented demand for Icon of the Seas prompted Royal
Caribbean to open bookings for Star of the Seas – Icon’s sister
ship – three months earlier than originally planned,” said a
company spokesperson.
New ship ‘neighborhoods’
Icon of the Seas’ eight different onboard “neighborhoods” are
designed to appeal to cruising’s multigenerational demographics as
well as passengers with different interests, including families
with young kids and adults-only travelers.
Offerings within them range from Royal Caribbean’s first swim-up
bar at sea, Swim & Tonic, in the ship’s Chill Island
neighborhood, to The Lemon Post in a new family-focused
neighborhood called Surfside, where guests can order mommy-and-me
and daddy-and-me cocktails and mocktails within steps of a kiddie
splash area.
While Royal Caribbean was already known for its onboard
neighborhoods, which guests can bounce between, McDaniels said Icon
of the Seas has leveled up the concept on this ship.
“Without a doubt, this ship was created to compete directly with
resorts on land, particularly those that cater to families,” she
said.
The new ship’s most anticipated offering for families might be
Surfside on Deck 7. Geared toward families with kids 6 and younger,
it centers around a Seussian-looking carousel for which kids made
the ultimate call on the ride-on characters (a rainbow-toothed
narwhal and a pool floatie-style flamingo, among other whimsical
creatures).
The carousel sits steps from several family-friendly dining
options, including a buffet, snack window and new specialty
restaurant, Pier 7, with all-day brunch and where kids younger than
12 eat free. And two water play areas for young kids are also
nearby and right next to the Water’s Edge pool, where parents can
ostensibly keep an eye on their children while also relaxing with
ocean views.
For the 18 and up crowd, another new onboard neighborhood, The
Hideaway, takes its inspiration from international beach club
scenes, with a multilevel terrace with uninterrupted ocean views
and the first suspended infinity pool at sea, cantilevered 135 feet
(41 meters) above the ocean.
The ship’s features will be particularly impressive to people who
have never cruised before, said Rob Clabbers, founder and president
of Q Cruise + Travel, a Virtuoso agency in Chicago.
“For Icon of the Seas, the clients that are most excited are
families with younger children,” said Clabbers, pointing to
features such as the water park, pools and a surf simulator.
The ship is also generating interest from clients who aren’t
necessarily traveling with kids, he said, especially the Suite
neighborhood, which is an area that feels like a ship-within-a-ship
reserved for suite guests only. Royal Caribbean’s largest Suite
neighborhood to date, it spans four decks and has its own private
sun deck, pool and hot tub as well as two exclusive
restaurants.
“The entertainment, the amenities, the restaurants, the quality of
shows and variety of activities – and even the design of the
interior and exterior spaces – is simply mind boggling for those
who are used to staying in most land-based resorts,” Clabbers said.
“And that doesn’t even include the things you can do while
ashore.”
More than 40 onboard restaurants, bars and lounges include 21
options new to Icon of the Seas, among them pay-extra offerings
such as a walk-up sushi window at Izumi, specialty restaurant
Empire Supper Club (with Wagyu ribeye and butter-poached
langoustine on an eight-course menu that costs $200 per person) and
a walk-up Champagne window at Bubbles in the ship’s Central Park
area.
The 28 different kinds of onboard accommodations range from
157-square-foot interior plus cabins, which start at $3,600 per
week for two people, to the three-story Ultimate Family Townhouse,
with its own wraparound deck, cinema, outdoor hot tub and spiraling
slide to ride between decks that averages $100,000 per week and can
accommodate eight people.
A marvel of engineering and big aspirations
Impressive feats of engineering are on display everywhere on Icon
of the Seas.
The 82-foot-tall steel and glass AquaDome crowns part of the top of
the ship, housing a theater where high-divers perform, a
55-foot-tall water curtain feature, a bar and Royal Caribbean’s
first food hall.
The sphere-shaped Pearl, on the ship’s World Promenade, towers
three decks high and cycles through colorful vignettes, drawing
selfie-takers while simultaneously providing structural support
midship and opening the area to expansive ocean views.
At a recent press panel onboard the ship, Michael Bayley, president
and CEO of Royal Caribbean International, told media that the ship
“ticks all the boxes” for what the company was hoping to
create.
“It’s big, it’s bold, it’s perfect for the Caribbean, it’s perfect
for our market,” Bayley said.
The ship’s offerings are in response to demands the brand heard
from cruisers both new to cruising and already loyal to Royal
Caribbean, said Jay Schneider, Royal Caribbean’s chief product
innovation officer.
“We researched and concept tested and heard the same thing,” he
said, naming the desires to make memories, try “firsts” together,
bond and have options galore that include “a mashup of thrill and
chill” as commonalities that resonated over and over in research
sessions.
“Nowhere in our office is there a thing that says, ‘Let’s go build
the world’s biggest ship,’” Schneider told CNN Travel. (The
original plans were for a ship that was about 50,000 gross tons
lighter).
Royal Caribbean International is clearly pitching Icon of the Seas
to a market that goes beyond cruising.
“We didn’t create Icon to compete with other cruise ships,” he
said. “We designed it to compete with any other family vacation you
wanted to do anywhere else on the planet — from skiing to Vegas to
the Grand Canyon.”
