Bookings on hearth: Demand for Royal Caribbean’s new Icon of the Seas is like nothing the road has ever seen

Eager about reserving one of many first sailings of Royal Caribbean’s soon-to-debut Icon of the Seas? You higher act quick. And convey a boatload of cash.

It is turning into one of many hottest tickets within the historical past of cruising.

“That ship actually has been the best-selling product within the historical past of our enterprise,” Royal Caribbean CEO Michael Bayley mentioned Tuesday throughout a convention name with Wall Avenue analysts. “It has been completely excellent by way of the demand and the pricing that we’re producing.”

Whereas the debut of Icon of the Seas remains to be 11 months away — its first crusing will not happen till January 2024 — it is already reserving up at such a fast clip and at such sky-high costs that it is having a significant impression on your entire line’s outlook for subsequent yr, Bayley urged.

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The yr 2024 is “trying very wholesome, and an enormous driver of that’s Icon,” Bayley mentioned in the course of the convention name, which got here after Royal Caribbean’s father or mother firm, Royal Caribbean Group, reported fourth-quarter earnings.

Royal Caribbean followers have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of Icon of the Seas — at 250,600 tons, the largest cruise ship ever constructed — for years.

First introduced in 2016 and at the moment beneath development at a shipyard in Finland, the 20-deck-high vessel would be the first of a brand new class of ship at Royal Caribbean — the road’s first new class in practically a decade.

Thanks partly to the additional area from its larger measurement, it will even be chock-full of new-for-Royal Caribbean sights and venues, in addition to new forms of cabins. That is acquired Royal Caribbean followers excited — and paying as much as be among the many first to strive it.

Associated: TPG’s final information to Icon of the Seas sights, venues and cabins

Bayley famous that one of many high suites on Icon of the Seas, its three-floor-high Final Household Townhouse, is already 55% offered for all of 2024 at a mean value of $75,000 every week — or $10,714 a day.

It is an instance of what Bayley mentioned had been the “outstanding stats” the road has seen for the reason that ship went on sale — the type of pricing that solely the very high suites on the highest-end luxurious ships usually command.

“You’ll be able to simply get a really feel of the form of demand that’s being generated” from these numbers, Bayley mentioned.

Royal Caribbean started taking bookings for the ship’s first sailings just some months in the past, in late October. As TPG wrote about again then, most of the cabins on its maiden voyage offered out inside hours.

The primary crusing of Icon of the Seas, a seven-night voyage out of Miami to the Jap Caribbean, is scheduled for Jan. 27, 2024.

The ship will sail year-round out of Miami in 2024, alternating between Jap Caribbean and Western Caribbean itineraries, with 4 completely different routings obtainable for departures between January 2024 and April 2025.

Associated: The last word information to Royal Caribbean

When it is completed, Icon of the Seas may have two extra passenger decks than the present measurement chief within the cruise world, Royal Caribbean’s 10-month-old Surprise of the Seas.

It’s going to even be longer than Surprise of the Seas, by a tad, measuring 1,198 ft lengthy — 10 ft longer than Surprise of the Seas.

However its greatest distinction could also be within the variety of passengers it is going to maintain. Its most capability shall be 7,600, about 7% greater than Surprise of the Seas’ most capability of seven,084 passengers.

The larger passenger capability is partly because of the ship’s higher concentrate on household vacationers. Icon of the Seas is being constructed with much more cabins which have additional bunks to accommodate households with kids. It’s going to even have extra facilities geared to households, together with a new-for-the-line outside household “neighborhood” referred to as Surfside.

Associated: Icon of the Seas will cater to households

Aimed toward households with youthful kids, Surfside will characteristic splash areas for infants and children, swimming pools and lounge areas for fogeys, family-friendly eateries and outlets, and a bar with “mommy and me” matching mocktails for youths and cocktails for grownups.

Royal Caribbean is the world’s greatest cruise line, with 26 ships that collectively have room for greater than 94,000 individuals, based mostly on double occupancy per cabin. It has lengthy operated a lot of the world’s greatest cruise vessels.

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