
With cruise bookings seeing a resurgence after the Covid pandemic caused luxury liners to mothball, a Finnish shipyard is putting the final touches on what will be the world’s largest cruise ship.
Royal Caribbean’s luxurious new vessel Icon of the Seas is nearing completion in the Turku shipyard on Finland’s southwestern coast, its maiden voyage scheduled for January 2024.
With its seven pools, a park, waterslides, shopping promenades, ice skating rink and “more venues than any other ship”, larger vessels like the Icon of the Seas also offer more options for spending money on board.
This “in turn enables cruise companies to be more profitable,” he added.
The extra income is welcomed by the cruise lines in order to survive Covid lockdowns the cruise lines “had to take a lot of credit” they now have to pay back.
“It’s going to be a challenging time with financial austerity for cruise companies,” Papathanassis said, adding that he expected ticket prices to rise.
While “the tendency towards increasing the size of the ship is not going to stop”, Papathanassis believes “it will certainly be slowed down”.
The reason behind this is not engineering but rather the financial equation.
“The bigger the ships are, the higher the investment cost and the required technology know-how. And technological know-how does not come cheap,” Papathanassis explained.
Similarly, larger vessels come with their own unique challenges, such as port overcrowding, he noted.