Royal Caribbean Blog

Ship builder Meyer Werft has listed the gross tonnage for Royal Caribbean's next class of cruise ships, which sheds a bit of light onto how large these ships will be.

The Project Icon ships were announced in late 2016 with few details, but the ship yard lists the ships will have a gross tonnage of 200,00 tons.

In comparison, 200,000 tons puts the ship between the size of Royal Caribbean's Oasis and Quantum class ships.

1. Oasis of the Seas: 225,282 tons
2. Project Icon: 200,000 tons
3. Quantum of the Seas 168,666 tons
4. Freedom of the Seas 154,407 tons

Gross tonnage is a nonlinear measure of a ship's overall internal volume.

At the time of the project's announcement, Royal Caribbean said these ships would accommodate approximately 5,000 passengers. The new ships are scheduled for delivery in the second quarters of 2022 and 2024.

Royal Caribbean has announced effective February 28, Royal Caribbean will be removing Michael's Genuine Pub on its Quantum Class ships and replaced with a new concept.

Royal Caribbean informed travel agents the cruise line is concluding its contract with Michael's Genuine Pub onboard Quantum of the Seas, Anthem of the Seas and Ovation of the Seas.

With the ending of the contract, the former locations will become these new venues:

• Harp & Horn on Quantum of the Seas — February 26th
• Brass & Bock on Anthem of the Seas — February 25th
• Amber & Oak on Ovation of the Seas — February 26th 

According to Royal Caribbean, the new pub experience, "will offer a wide selection of beer and specialty cocktails, and will also feature a menu of bites."

Royal Caribbean will take delivery of the world's largest cruise ship, Symphony of the Seas, on Friday, March 23, 2018.

The event will celebrate the handing over of the ship from French shipyard STX France to Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. The ship cost 1.2 billion euros, and will be the 13th ship delivered by the shipyard to Royal Caribbean.

Royal Caribbean's fourth Oasis Class cruise ship measures 362 meters long and 66 meters wide, and weighs in at 228,000 gross tons.  

Sea trials are scheduled to commence on Thursday and last to Sunday, which will test the ship's performance. 

Symphony of the Seas will be Royal Caribbean International's 25th ship in the fleet and will start its inaugural season in the Mediterranean Sea this summer, before arriving in her home port of Miami.

Royal Caribbean entertainment spans beyond the stage and onto the ice at the cruise line's signature Studio B ice rink. Home to productions unlike any other, the venue pairs state-of-the-art technology features, like jaw-dropping projection capabilities, lighting and sound, with highly skilled entertainers to bring show-stopping performances to life.

Royal Caribbean's Adventure of the Seas has returned to service following an extensive refurbishment, and we have a look around the ship at some of the changes.

Royal Caribbean Blog reader RKSister shared these photos from onboard the ship, at the start of the first sailing post-refurbishment.

Photos by RKSister

Royal Caribbean has added an Izumi specialty restaurant to Adventure of the Seas, and we have a first look at this new style of Izumi experience.

Photo by Carl Luxford

Izumi on Adventure of the Seas is the first Izumi location to be positioned on the Royal Promenade, which means it will be unique in its offerings.

Since Izumi took over a space that was previously occupied by a sports bar, Izumi on Adventure of the Seas will offer simply sushi and sake/beer.

Photo by Travis Kamiyama

Photo by Travis Kamiyama

Photo by Carl Luxford

Izumi on Adventure of the Seas represents the 19th Izumi location to open across Royal Caribbean's fleet.

Happy weekend! We hope you are having a wonderful weekend, now it’s time to kick back, relax, and catch up on another week of Royal Caribbean news!

Royal Caribbean CEO Michael Bayley leaked the news that a Quantum Class ship will call Southampton home in 2020.

In an interview, Bayley talked about the change, mentioning the cruise line had not yet made a decision which ship will be moved there for the summer, but it would likely be Anthem or Quantum of the Seas.

Royal Caribbean News

• Symphony of the Seas will have her sea trials next week.
• Royal Caribbean held a special Symphony of the Seas preview event in London.
• Our list of five things to love about Central Park on Oasis Class cruise ships.
• Check out our full review of Izumi on Brilliance of the Seas.
• According to a recent survey, Royal Caribbean is the most Instagrammable cruise line.
• Here is what we spent in total on our last Royal Caribbean cruise.
• We shared a photo tour of a Category 5D balcony stateroom on Brilliance of the Seas.
• Royal Caribbean released a new video of Adventurist Shay Mitchell in St. Maarten.

Royal Caribbean Blog Podcast

The 236th episode of the Royal Caribbean Blog Podcast is now available and this week, Matt and John Bamber talk about learning to scuba dive on a Royal Caribbean cruise.

Did you know that you can not only go scuba diving on Royal Caribbean, but learn and become certified in scuba?  This week's episode is all about how you can try your hand at scuba during your vacation.

Please feel free to subscribe via iTunes or RSS, and head over to rate and review the podcast on iTunes if you can! We’d appreciate it.

Royal Caribbean Around the Internet

The Orlando Sentinel covered the changes coming to Mariner of the Seas.

Eat Sleep Cruise shared the cheapest times of year to go on a cruise.

Travel Weekly looked back at the last decade for Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.

Cruise Hive shared 50 Royal Caribbean tips and tricks.

Here is a look at the category 5D Ocean View Stateroom with Balcony, which will take you through the cabin to provide an idea of what to expect if you book this category stateroom.

On Brilliance of the Seas, we reviewed stateroom 8160 on Deck 8 near the aft of the ship.  It was one of the last staterooms on the deck, which meant it was a bit more secluded than some other rooms.

This stateroom has a small couch for sitting on during the day.

The bed in this photo is joined together, but can be split up upon request. Access to the balcony is also on the other side of the bed.

The private balcony measures 41 square feet in size.

After being postponed a few weeks ago due to bad weather, Symphony of the Seas will try for sea trials again for three days of testing next week.

The soon-to-be largest cruise ship in the world will head out at night on Thursday, February 15, at 4:30 pm during high tide. She will return to its basin Sunday, around 4:30 pm.

Symphony of the Seas will sail between Noirmoutier, Belle-Ile and Saint-Nazaire in the meantime, with a hundred or so people on board.

Delivery of Symphony of the Seas to Royal Caribbean is scheduled to occur in March 2018.

Love Royal Caribbean cruises and the start of the weekend? Then you will love Friday Photos, where we celebrate the start of the weekend with some great Royal Caribbean photos that our readers have shared with us. Sit back, relax, and let's enjoy this week's batch of Royal Caribbean photos!

Our first photo is of Serenade of the Seas, taken by Peter as she departed Boston.

We move to CocoCay with our next photo, taken by Twangster.

Carole Beattie sent this photo of Allure of the Seas, as seen in Civitavecchia, Italy.

Nicole Nallinger took this photo from her stateroom TV, while onboard Anthem of the Seas.

Here is a shot of Oasis of the Seas docked in St. Maarten, taken by John Bamber.

Take a look at this sunset in Labadee, taken by T.L. Maring from Oasis of the Seas.

Since I cannot say no to sunset photos, here is another great sunset photo from on Oasis of the Seas, taken by Casey D. King.

Thank you to everyone for these wonderful cruise photos.  If you would like to share your Royal Caribbean photos with us, use this form to send them in.  Have a great weekend!