What next after Icon 3?

[Vancity Cruiser]

17 hours ago, Jmccaffrey said:

I hope Project Discovery is real and is between Freedom and Voyager class. This makes it small but not too small. Best of all worlds.

As long as they keep the promenade. That is the thing I miss the most when cruising other lines.

[Jmccaffrey]

4 minutes ago, Vancity Cruiser said:

As long as they keep the promenade. That is the thing I miss the most when cruising other lines.

Agreed. Love this wide open indoor area of the promenade.

[Jill]

On 10/16/2023 at 10:15 PM, Jmccaffrey said:

I hope Project Discovery is real and is between Freedom and Voyager class. This makes it small but not too small. Best of all worlds.

Well you might get your dream! If you’re on Facebook go join this page

[Jill]

Just now, Jill said:

Well you might get your dream! If you’re on Facebook go join this page

Rest of post

[Nathan adams]

On 10/25/2023 at 12:59 PM, Jill said:

Rest of post

I can't find that page.

I assume it's removed.

[Jill]

7 hours ago, Nathan adams said:

I can't find that page.

I assume it's removed.

This is the page. The post is still there 

[Nathan adams]

14 hours ago, Jill said:

This is the page. The post is still there 

It must be hidden or something. I have search and searched. I put in the name exactly as it is shown.

[Rayma]

Let’s speculate! The reasons to order a new smaller class of ships could be:

1) The European Union is setting a price for cruise ship emmissions. It will be cheaper to operate in Europe with a more modern ship (lng etc) - or a carbon neutral ship.

• "In practice, shipping companies have to purchase and surrender (use) EU ETS emission allowances for each tonne of reported CO2 (or CO2 equivalent) emissions in the scope of the EU ETS system." https://climate.ec.europa.eu/eu-action/transport/reducing-emissions-shipping-sector_en 

2) The smaller ships that are used in Europe are the oldest and probably the ones which emit the most emmissions per passanger. Even if it would be possible, there is no bussines case to do expensive technical updates for these old ships.

3) There propably is public money & funding available for these greener cuise ship projects. This would make it easier to make the case to order new ships, even when Royals balance sheet isn’t in a perfect shape after the pandemic.

• Some 70 million € for developing a carbon neutral cruise ship consept by 2025: https://yle.fi/a/3-12327243 .
• Royal is "in": https://www.seatrade-cruise.com/shipbuilding-refurb-equipment/royal-caribbean-group-meyer-turku-team-climate-neutral-ship-goal .

Meyer Turku shipyard has no orders after Icon 3, so there is a pressure to get new orders in. The shipyard has developed the Voyager class, Freedom class, Oasis class and Icon class, so there is a history of developing revolutionary ships with/for Royal  - and a history of Royal Promenades .

So: old ships might be a no-no businesswise in Europe in not so distant future, many European ports can’t handle mega-ships, it might be easier to develop a smaller prototype using new advanced engine technology, there might be public money available for development of a green cruise ship and the shipyards are really in a need for orders… My guess is that project Discovery will see the daylight in a few years! 

[Jamesszy94]

Well... their sister company Celebrity has "Expedition" vessels which sails the Galapagos... 

Maybe if Royal ever wanted to get into the exotic location market, they could make smaller Expedition vessels and sail to places like the Kimberley, Galapagos to name a few. But I guess Royal is the more family-oriented fun cruise line and Celebrity is the luxury-destination oriented one. 

[ApexoftheSeas]

Could quantum 6 be a possibility?

[steverk]

3 hours ago, ApexoftheSeas said:

Could quantum 6 be a possibility?

I understand royal has said no.

However, freedom and oasis aren't cold weather capable. So, if Royal wants to continue sailing northern Europe and Alaska,  they'll have to do more quantum class ships or a new class entirely 

[Matt]

17 hours ago, ApexoftheSeas said:

Could quantum 6 be a possibility?

I don't think so.

Royal has coyly hinted another Oasis Class order is possible, and I'd be shocked if there werent more Icon class ships ordered.  But I think Quantum Class is dunzo.

[smokeybandit]

16 minutes ago, Matt said:

I don't think so.

Royal has coyly hinted another Oasis Class order is possible, and I'd be shocked if there werent more Icon class ships ordered.  But I think Quantum Class is dunzo.

 

They still list a TBA Oasis class ship with a code of LE in the background data that gets loaded when you log into your account.

[Stan N]

On the President’s Cruise last summer, many guests expressed a desire to see a new, exciting class of ship that was small enough to port in Tampa or Baltimore. The executives implied (without directly admitting) that this is a project in the works. We are very much looking forward to innovation without mega-size.

[Jamesszy94]

What would be considered "smaller" size though? (in the context of Royal Caribbean)

Is it smaller than Icon but bigger than Oasis?

Is it smaller than Oasis but bigger than Quantum?

Is it smaller than Quantum but bigger than Freedom?

Is it smaller than Freedom but bigger than Voyager?

Or will it be smaller than Voyager but bigger than Radiance?

I have a feeling it'd probably be somewhere between Radiance and Voyager class - Maybe 120,000 GT?

[steverk]

5 hours ago, Jamesszy94 said:

 

I have a feeling it'd probably be somewhere between Radiance and Voyager class - Maybe 120,000 GT?

I completely agree. My feeling is it will fit through the Panama Canal and be suitable for cold weather cruises.

I was on the Presidents cruise and heard the original question.  I didn't leave feeling like he had committed to building something for Tampa or Baltimore though.  Therefore,  I doubt that's in the cards. I'm not real familiar with either port. Is it possible to build a terminal on the seaward side of the bridge? That sounds like a more effective solution if it can be done 

[JasonOasis]

7 hours ago, Jamesszy94 said:

Or will it be smaller than Voyager but bigger than Radiance?

I have a feeling it'd probably be somewhere between Radiance and Voyager class - Maybe 120,000 GT?

I don't think Royal will go as small as 120,000 GT.  What I'm wonder is this when it comes to project Discovery, could Royal take a ship the size of lets say Celebrity Edge or a ship the size of NCL's Prima and have that be the foundation for project Discovery in terms of size 130,000 -140,000 GT. 

Edge and Prima can get into some interesting ports, they can't get into Baltimore or Tampa but those ships offer a lot of flexibility in terms of ports they can visit. 

Both Edge and Prima are winners even though they aren't gigantic cruise ships. Although NCL has decided to make the final 3 Prima Class ships larger than the first 3 those first 3 Prima Class ships can get into some very interesting ports around the world as can Celebrity's Edge Class. 

 

[smokeybandit]

Voyager class size, give or take a few GT, seems ideal. Small enough to go some more restricted places, big enough to still feature the bells and whistles.

[fireclan]

On 1/8/2024 at 7:47 AM, steverk said:

I didn't leave feeling like he had committed to building something for Tampa or Baltimore though.  Therefore,  I doubt that's in the cards. I'm not real familiar with either port. Is it possible to build a terminal on the seaward side of the bridge? That sounds like a more effective solution if it can be done 

As a lifelong Maryland resident, I occasionally cruise out of Baltimore and wished that port provided ship options other than the oldest and smallest in the fleet (but, hey, it's still a cruise!). I'll relay a few things that I've been told in the past few years which MAY indicate a change coming to Baltimore - several years ago my son, a  county (adjacent to Baltimore) firefighter toured an area south of the Frances Scott Key bridge which they were instructed would be "Royal Caribbean's new cruise port". At the time, if I remember the conversation correctly, the property was undergoing some type of soil remediation (?).  The location would be in his station's response area and definitely eliminated the Key bridge as an obstacle.  More recently, my brother, who owns a communication business located in a suburb of Baltimore, put a bid in to provide services to "Royal Caribbean's new cruise port" and he indicated the same location as my son reported. Unfortunately, he didn't get the bid so no more information forthcoming.

That's all I got, but I'm hopeful it's news and not rumor!

[WAAAYTOOO]

3 minutes ago, fireclan said:

As a lifelong Maryland resident, I occasionally cruise out of Baltimore and wished that port provided ship options other than the oldest and smallest in the fleet (but, hey, it's still a cruise!). I'll relay a few things that I've been told in the past few years which MAY indicate a change coming to Baltimore - several years ago my son, a  county (adjacent to Baltimore) firefighter toured an area south of the Frances Scott Key bridge which they were instructed would be "Royal Caribbean's new cruise port". At the time, if I remember the conversation correctly, the property was undergoing some type of soil remediation (?).  The location would be in his station's response area and definitely eliminated the Key bridge as an obstacle.  More recently, my brother, who owns a communication business located in a suburb of Baltimore, put a bid in to provide services to "Royal Caribbean's new cruise port" and he indicated the same location as my son reported. Unfortunately, he didn't get the bid so no more information forthcoming.

That's all I got, but I'm hopeful it's news and not rumor!

Hey, T !  Happy New Year !!  This is very encouraging "news" even if it is somewhat circumstantial.  That would be so awesome to finally be able to get a bigger and newer ship up your way.  I think your "evidence" is pretty good though.  

[fireclan]

12 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Hey, T !  Happy New Year !!  This is very encouraging "news" even if it is somewhat circumstantial.  That would be so awesome to finally be able to get a bigger and newer ship up your way.  I think your "evidence" is pretty good though.  

Happy New Year to you and Dan!

Where are you, what ship?

[WAAAYTOOO]

1 hour ago, fireclan said:

Happy New Year to you and Dan!

Where are you, what ship?

We're in the mother ship (home) right now.  LOL

Next up is Liberty 1-22-24.  It's just a short 4-nighter.

Give our love to G, too !!

[craftycruiselady]

Honestly, I hope nothing for a year or two. Let the debt come down a bit so they can stop asking us for more than the cost to rent a small island for an interior room. If anything they need something to start to replace Grandeur and other tiny ships to still get the smaller ports. I get the point of them pushing the mega ship to go almost no where to keep a captive audience but some of us still cruise to actually cruise and get off in port and they lose the tiny ports with those mega ships. I can go to a water park and a pool at home for a tenth of the money.

[LGCruises]

Hi there! I normally just lurk on the blogs, but there is an interesting piece of information that I have not yet seen elsewhere:

I’m currently on the 11 Night Caribbean Sailing on the Anthem of the Seas, and this morning I attended the Captain’s Corner event in Two70. Captain Tony began by talking about the upcoming launch of Icon for a few seconds and then mentioned what I assume is related to Project Discovery, he did not actually use this phrase.

In his words “After Icon, there are plans to build new smaller ships. These are planned to be between the size of the Voyager and Radiance classes.”

He did not mention anything else, and no one asked any follow up questions. (Most of the questions for the QnA were complaints about the quality of food in the Windjammer and the change to once-a-day stateroom housekeeping.)

Anyway, I’m not sure how credible Captain Tony is and where he might’ve gotten this info from, so I’m curious as to what everyone else thinks.

[LGCruises]

I forgot to add one last thing!

Captain Tony did also mention that Royal hopes to officially announce this new smaller ship before the end of this year.

[steverk]

8 hours ago, LGCruises said:

I forgot to add one last thing!

Captain Tony did also mention that Royal hopes to officially announce this new smaller ship before the end of this year.

This all consistent with everything I've heard. It's pure speculation on my part, but I'm betting on an announcement in September or October. 

[Matt]

11 hours ago, LGCruises said:

Captain Tony did also mention that Royal hopes to officially announce this new smaller ship before the end of this year.

That's consistent with that Royal has hinted at: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2024/01/05/royal-caribbean-ceo-new-smaller-cruise-ship-could-be-announced-2024

[Chili]

A interesting video on methanol for the shipping industry.

A interesting note is the Panama Canal might be carbon neutral.

 

 

[Chili]

 

[Jamesszy94]

What do we think they'll name Icon 3? One of the 24 trademarked ones? Or something new? 

[smokeybandit]

17 minutes ago, Jamesszy94 said:

What do we think they'll name Icon 3? One of the 24 trademarked ones? Or something new? 

My bet is on Intrigue

[Thumper44]

1 hour ago, Jamesszy94 said:

What do we think they'll name Icon 3? One of the 24 trademarked ones? Or something new? 

I wish they would start recycling the classic royalty-themed names like Majesty, Empress, Monarch, and especially Sovereign.  But my actual guess would be one of the short 4 or 5 letter ones already trademarked:  Idol, Love, Apex, Nova, Hero, Eden, Haven, etc etc.  Queen of the Seas might be a nice compromise, I suppose.

It's funny, at first I hated some of the recent names (Icon, Utopia, Star… bleh!!!) but now all three sound totally normal and fine… so I guess I'll get over it, whatever they pick.

Of the 35 "of the Sea" names so far, the only one I can't forgive is Quantum of the Seas.  I've yet to hear a cogent explanation for what that even means.

[ApexoftheSeas]

3 hours ago, Thumper44 said:

But my actual guess would be one of the short 4 or 5 letter ones already trademarked:  Idol, Love, Apex, Nova, Hero, Eden, Haven, etc etc.

I'm rooting for Apex!

[steverk]

5 hours ago, Jamesszy94 said:

What do we think they'll name Icon 3? One of the 24 trademarked ones? Or something new? 

Whatever it is, it as decided some time ago. I've heard more than once that they had a name for the third icon class way before they had a name for icon 2. Trinity maybe? Sounds sacrilegious. 

[Jamesszy94]

To me it sounds like they're going with a theme. Icon is like a thing or person that people know, a Star is also similar to that

My bet for Icon 3 is something along the lines of Fame of the Seas or something

Idol of the Seas?

 

[Zambia-Zaire]

Mark it... Nova otS 

[Plumlee2028]

Oasis Number 7 is officially next after Icon 3.  Due in 2028.  That leaves 2027 open for something else, but they may be intentionally taking that year off.  

https://cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/2024/02/royal-caribbean-group-signs-agreement-with-chantiers-next-oasis-class-ship/

[JohnK6404]

... and here's Matt's article from just this morning  ...

Royal Caribbean announces order for new Oasis Class ship | Royal Caribbean Blog

[ApexoftheSeas]

Do we know when in 2028?

[Chili]