The endless parade of bigger and bigger cruise ships may be coming to an end, or at least to a punctuation mark of sorts, although several more are recently launched or are on order.
The hint of change came from Michael Bayley, CEO of Royal Caribbean, the line best-known for ever-larger ships, including its recently-launched Icon of the Seas, first of a class of ships larger than any previous.
But Bayley, speaking at a preview event for the line’s next new ship, said that the next new class of ships, to be called the Discovery Class for its likely first member, Discovery of the Seas, may be smaller, and be able to operate in ports such as Baltimore and Tampa, where numbers of its ships cannot pass under bridges into the port.
Bayley didn’t give a timeline for the new class or when orders will start, but he did tell Travel Weekly that “It’s not as simple as making [the ship] broader and less high, but we constantly look at the ability to get ships in these places. So, maybe Discovery class will have the great solution for that.”
