Royal Caribbean's new Icon of the Seas, world's largest cruise ship, opens for bookings

Booking the first voyages of the biggest cruise ship ever built is now possible.

The first in a new series of vessels at the line that will be bigger than anything seen before in the cruise world will be the Icon of the Seas.

Only members of Royal Caribbean's loyalty program can make reservations. All customers will be able to make reservations on Tuesday.

The current size leader among cruise ships, Royal Caribbean's Wonder of the Seas, will be more than six thousand tons larger. A passenger ship can hold up to 7,600 passengers.

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There will be seven-night voyages from Miami to the Caribbean on Icon of the Seas. The ship will alternate between the Eastern Caribbean and Western Caribbean itineraries.

• Seven-night Eastern Caribbean voyages with stops at St. Kitts, St. Thomas and Royal Caribbean's private island in the Bahamas, Perfect Day at CocoCay. There are 17 such departures.
• Seven-night Eastern Caribbean voyages with stops at St. Maarten (the Dutch side of the island of St. Martin), St. Thomas and Perfect Day at CocoCay. There are 16 such departures.
• Seven-night Western Caribbean voyages with stops at Roatan, Honduras; Costa Maya and Cozumel, Mexico; and Perfect Day at CocoCay. There are 31 such departures.
• Seven-night Western Caribbean voyages with stops at Costa Maya and Cozumel, Mexico; and Perfect Day at CocoCay. There are two such departures.

The first booking for Icon of the Seas will take place in January of 2019. The cheapest windowless inside cabin was priced at $1,537 per person, which was more than double the average Royal Caribbean cruise to the Caribbean. The cabins for the sailing start at $1,958

On the ship's Eastern Caribbean route, it will stop in St. Kitts.

The price for an inside cabin on the later sailings of Icon of the Seas was almost $1,000 per person. As of early Monday, the cheapest voyage on the ship was in Sept. 14, 2024.

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The Icon of the Seas was ordered before the start of the COVID-19 Pandemic and is currently under construction.

Icon of the Seas features

Wonder of the Seas has 16 passenger decks, but Icon of the Seas will have 18.

It will be shorter than Wonder of the Seas. It's 10 feet longer than Wonder of the Sea.

The number of passengers it will hold could be the biggest difference. Wonder of the Sea's maximum capacity is 7,084 passengers, but its maximum capacity is 7,600.

Due to the ship's focus on family travelers, the passenger capacity has increased. There are a lot of extra bunks in the cabins that are being built for families with lots of children. Surfside is an outdoor neighborhood dedicated to families with young children.

The icon of the seas will cater to families.

Surfside will feature splash areas for babies and kids, pools for parents, family-friendly eateries and shops, and a bar with "mommy and me" matching cocktails for kids and grownups.

The biggest water park on a cruise ship will be built on the Icon of the Seas.

The ship will have eight neighborhoods, which are themed around specific activities. The line's last series of giant ships, the five-vessel Oasis class, will bring three of them back. Wonder of the Seas is a part of the Oasis class.

The first of Royal Caribbean's three sister ships will be Icon of the Seas, and it will be delivered by the year 2026. One more Oasis-class ship will be delivered by the line in 2024.

The arrival of the Icon class is a big deal in the cruise world. It will be the first time in 15 years that a new series of large ships will arrive.

The first Oasis-class ship was launched by Royal Caribbean. Each of the Oasis-class vessels is a little bigger than the last one.

The Oasis-class ships are larger than any other cruise vessels afloat.

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