The development of Royal Caribbean’s third Icon Class cruise ship reached an essential milestone this week when the keel was laid.
At a ceremony held on the Meyer Turku shipyard in Finland on Monday, October 7, the official begin of development was celebrated.
Icon of the Seas was the primary Icon Class ship, and it launched to nice fanfare earlier this 12 months. It is daring new design caught the eye of the cruise business, and now work is starting on its third ship.
Royal Caribbean has not even introduced the identify of the ship, not to mention what options or particulars we are able to anticipate from the ship.
Tim Meyer, CEO of Meyer Turku, shared his ideas on the importance of this second, “Icon 3 is an important vessel for each the shipyard and the accomplice community. Throughout its development course of, we get to see what a mixture of high-level know-how and sister ship expertise can obtain as we speak. “
The ship’s keel is the primary block, and it’s maritime custom to commemorate this section of a brand new ship development.
One other maritime custom is to put the “fortunate cash”, which signify the shipyard and cruise line.
The cash are supposed to deliver luck throughout development, and they are going to be retrieved and given to Icon’s captain and crew earlier than setting sail.
Icon 3’s keel laying comes only a few days after Icon 2 was floated out.
Often called Star of the Seas, this ship was put into water for the primary time on the finish of September. Having two of the identical class of ship underneath development on the similar time just isn’t uncommon. In reality, Star of the Seas’ development journey started when Icon of the Seas was nonetheless being constructed.
Cruise strains generally place orders for a number of ships at a time, they usually stagger development in order that they’ll launch every ship a 12 months aside or so.
What shall be Icon 3’s identify?
Royal Caribbean hasn’t introduced the identify of the third Icon class ship but, however there’s at all times a number of hypothesis as to what it may be.
The rumor mill believes Royal Caribbean will revive an outdated identify for this ship, but it surely’s nonetheless unconfirmed.
The alleged identify of Icon 3 shall be Legend of the Seas, which was a reputation of a Imaginative and prescient Class cruise ship that was offered to a different cruise line in 2017. It is nonetheless in operation as Marella Discovery 2.
There’s a number of sources for the rumor that Legend may very well be the identify.
Throughout a High Tier occasion on Concord of the Seas in Might, the ship’s Resort Director advised passengers the ship’s identify shall be Legend of the Seas.
Previous to that, metadata inside Royal Caribbean’s web site appeared to point the corporate would re-use Legend.
After all, cruise followers love a juicy rumor and the nice ones are inclined to get shared rather a lot.
Royal Caribbean logos ship names with the USA Patent and Trademark Workplace, most of which by no means get used.
Examples of current logos Royal Caribbean have made embody:
- Pleased of the Seas
- Enjoyable of the Seas
- Idol of the Seas
- Love of the Seas
- Nova of the Seas
- Titan of the Seas
- Solar of the Seas
- Marquee of the Seas
- Hero of the Seas
- Fantasia of the Seas
The corporate purposefully logos ship names they by no means intend to make use of as a way to obfuscate those they actually wish to use.
What’s subsequent for Icon 3?
The third Icon class ship will not launch till 2026 and you’ll’t ebook cruises but for it, partially as a result of there’s nonetheless a number of work left on it.
Development of the ship will proceed for a lot of months, with the ship’s metal infrastructure being assembled to type the vessel.
The ship’s keel is the primary block, and different blocks shall be joined collectively till the ship’s main construction is assembled. Then extra of the ship’s options are added in, comparable to cabins, inside buildings, and paneling.
Icon 3 has a tonnage of 250,800 GT and sufficient room for as much as 5,610 passengers.
Royal Caribbean will reveal the ship’s identify, residence port, and sailings, and different essential particulars within the months to come back.