barjpoe Posted December 22, 2022 Report Share Posted December 22, 2022 Just to start a new topic. Royal states its coming out in 2024. Is that possible, because Icon is also coming out in 2024, and haven't seen any news on Utopia or booking availability. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cakemeister Posted December 22, 2022 Report Share Posted December 22, 2022 Keel laying for Icon was in April, and keel laying for Utopia was in July, both of this year (2022). It should be feasible, if construction for both ships follows normal timing, (and I am clueless on how long it takes to build a cruise ship) for both ships to be completed in 2024. https://www.royalcaribbeanpresscenter.com/press-release/1599/royal-caribbean-celebrates-keel-laying-for-icon-of-the-seas/ https://cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/2022/07/keel-laid-for-royal-caribbeans-utopia-of-the-seas-at-chantiers/ MarcBerger 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcBerger Posted December 22, 2022 Report Share Posted December 22, 2022 3 hours ago, barjpoe said: Just to start a new topic. Royal states its coming out in 2024. Is that possible, because Icon is also coming out in 2024, and haven't seen any news on Utopia or booking availability. Sure, it's the 6th and final oasis class ship being built in France. Booking will likely open up spring/summer of 2023....It won't be done till end of 2024. 6 days ago. courtesy Pavels Kurenbins Send Icon is much closer to being completed and will be doing sea trials by summer/fall 2023 and debuting Jan 2024. AlmondFarmer 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barjpoe Posted January 6, 2023 Author Report Share Posted January 6, 2023 thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twangster Posted January 6, 2023 Report Share Posted January 6, 2023 Royal is always very careful not to cannibalize sales of the newest announced ship by making announcements about another future new ship. I suspect they are riding a wave of booking fever for Icon and they don't want to do anything to let air out of tires. On the other hand it's also possible they plan to send Utopia to China since Wonder was diverted to America. If that's the case we may never hear much until news breaks in Asia. At the moment the cruise industry is still trying to restart in China with only state run limited options having just restarted recently as I understand it. They may be holding off announcing anything until it is more clear how cruising in China will progress. Utopia is a name that may have stronger meaning in Asia which I why I suspect they went with it despite their polling here that seemed to favor other names. Royal may not even know with certainty what they plan to do with Utopia at this point. With Australian cruising not taking off like it did here after the restart that could factor into plans to put an Oasis class into the Pacific. At the moment it's probably best for Royal not to say much about Utopia. By waiting perhaps they can create another wave of Utopian hysteria and roll that into the tail end of the Icon booking wave by timing Utopia announcements perfectly. Then there is the competition. Carnival seems to be delaying new builds but MSC and NCL may be cranking out some new ships so maybe they want to be cognizant of what the competition is planning to announce so it doesn't give them an opportunity to rain on the Utopia parade. Only time will tell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chili Posted January 6, 2023 Report Share Posted January 6, 2023 I think Utopia has a pretty good chance of heading to Asia. Hong Kong Cruise terminal has Ship LNG ,Shanghai and Singapore also . China dropped its cruise ban in December and I think we can expect Spectrum to be deployed to Hong Kong later this year to start things rolling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barjpoe Posted January 6, 2023 Author Report Share Posted January 6, 2023 good thoughts But the news is saying that a difference variance of C....d is showing up in China..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plumlee2028 Posted January 6, 2023 Report Share Posted January 6, 2023 The China possibility has some legs with some competitive moves. Carnival's new company, Adora, is building ships in China and has a few ships now (2 previous costa, 1 new build coming, more new builds on the way). However they are still upstart and the capacity isn't there yet. Costa has basically left. Carnival not only moved Costa back, but has taken that capacity out of the Costa brand. Costa's two "built for china" ships are transitioning to Carnival and another costa ship moved to carnival. They are going to sell two more Costa ships this year. They have cut that brand in half and are likely focusing on the Med and French, Italian, and other European cruisers. Princess, which started some China operations, seems content to focus on Japan for their Far East operations. Norwegian, with the Joy, gave up before Covid even existed. Be interested to see if Utopia ends up with some Wonder changes like the more blocked off Aqua theater, closed in Solarium, etc that were added for the climate in Asia during construction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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