Monday, June 14, was an iconic day for the cruise industry as Royal Caribbean International marked the start of construction on its first Icon-class ship. To celebrate this milestone, the world's largest cruise line held a steel-cutting ceremony at the Meyer Turku shipyard in Finland, where the name of the revolutionary ship was revealed: Icon of the Seas.
Richard Fain, Chairman and CEO of Royal Caribbean Group; Michael Bayley, President and CEO of Royal Caribbean International; and Tim Meyer, CEO of Meyer Turku, attended the ceremony. This first step in the ship's construction also marks the official start of Royal Caribbean's new chapter in building a clean energy future as the leader in innovative ship design. Icon, which will be launched in fall 2023, will be the first of the company's three ships to run on LNG (liquefied natural gas). LNG and other environmentally friendly applications on the state-of-the-art ship, such as shore power, will boost energy efficiency and reduce its carbon footprint. More details about Icon's advanced environmental technologies will be released soon.
“We made a commitment to making clean energy at sea a reality when the Icon class was first announced in 2016, and we are excited to see construction underway on what will truly be a ship like no other,” said Michael Bayley, President and CEO of Royal Caribbean International. “Our decades of work in ocean conservation, energy efficiency, and continuous improvement will be evident throughout the Icon. We look forward to revealing more game-changing features as it begins to take shape.”.
Royal Caribbean is already renowned for its decades-long commitment to energy efficiency and emissions reduction through technologies such as air lubrication, which sends billions of microscopic bubbles along the ship's hull to reduce friction, and advanced waste heat recovery systems that convert waste heat into additional energy—up to 3 megawatts—to help power the ship's operations. The use of such technologies, including LNG, will result in further reductions in overall emissions, virtually zero sulfur dioxide and particulate matter, and a significant decrease in nitrogen oxide production.
