Royal Caribbean International’s Icon of the Seas will join the fleet in early 2024. This Icon-class ship will become the world’s biggest cruise ship at 250,800 gross tons. It’ll carry about 5,600 folks and stretch 1,198 feet long boasting new eco-friendly engines. The massive vessel will have 8 neighborhoods, with 5 fresh ones like AquaDome, Thrill Island, Chill Island, Surfside and The Hideaway.
Icon of the Seas will offer 2,805 rooms in 28 types, including new layouts for families of three, four, five or more. 179 of these rooms will be suites. The ship will run on liquefied natural gas (LNG) to cut down on pollution, and will use other green tech, like plugging into shore power at ports. Icon of the Seas will have loads of places to eat and drink such as Izumi, Giovanni’s Italian Kitchen and Wine Bar, Lime and the Coconut bar, Chops Grille, Trellis Bar, Park Cafe, Sorrento’s, Playmakers Sports Bar & Arcade, Boleros, Starbucks, Schooner Bar, Pearl Café, El Loco Fresh, Cantina Fresca, Sprinkles, Hooked Seafood, The Lemon Post, Sugar Beach.
Icon of the Seas (2024-built) is Royal Caribbean’s first ICON-Class cruise ship, to be followed by two same-designed sisterships – Star of the Seas (2025-Q2) and TBN of the Seas (2026-Q2). Icon OTS is also the world’s ever-largest passenger ship by volume (250800 GT-tonnes), or ~6% bigger than Wonder OTS.
Like Royal Caribbean’s ships in OASIS (Allure OTS, Oasis OTS) and OASIS PLUS (Harmony OTS, Symphony OTS, Wonder OTS, Utopia OTS) classes, the ICON ships are zoned in neighborhoods (8x total theme decks) named AquaDome, Central Park, Chill Island, Thrill Island, Royal Promenade, The Hideaway, Surfside, and Suite Neighborhood.
Note: CruiseMapper’s Icon OTS deck plans are valid for 2024-2025-2026 (through April 25th).
Besides the 22x lifts/destination elevators (positioned in the forward and aft atriums) and all staircases, an escalator interconnects decks 2-4-5. An indoor staircase (positioned midship-aft) directly connects three neighborhoods – Royal Promenade (decks 5-6), Surfside (deck 7) and Central Park (deck 8).
Destination elevators allow passengers to more efficiently move between decks for reduced crowding and better passenger flow. In front of the lifts, there are digital panels to select which deck to go to and which lift to take. Inside the elevators there are no panels/buttons to push, meaning fewer stops on every floor.
RCI’s ICON-class ships have 40+ F&B concepts (including 23 fleet-firsts) and 26 fleet-first features/amenities/technologies (including 15 water activities). Each of these liners has 7 swimming pools, 9 outdoor Jacuzzies, and the fleet’s largest waterpark (with 6x waterslides).
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