Royal Caribbean took delivery Monday on its latest entrant in the ‘biggest cruise ship ever,’ a contest it keeps winning as it adds more and more mega ships. The newest, Icon of the Seas, is 6% bigger than Wonder of the Seas, which only gained the title a year ago.
The ship, which will sail its first cruises in January, has beds for as many as 7,600 passengers and 2,350 crew, giving it a population larger than three-quarters of the towns and cities in the U.S. Unsurprisingly, at that size, it’s divided into a series of ‘neighborhoods’ with different themes.
Part of the reason for the extreme passenger count is that Icon features more cabins with extra bunks for children and is aimed at family groups as well as couples. It’s the first of a new class of ships, to be called the Icon class, with two more on order even as the line awaits the last of the previous Oasis class.
Once in service, the ship will be making week-long cruises in the Caribbean.
