Royal Caribbean’s Star of the Seas is sort of able to set sail – and this time, households and youths are getting prime billing.
In a brand new video launched by the cruise line, Jennifer Goswami, senior director of product improvement, gave a candid look contained in the design course of behind the following Icon Class ship, set to debut in August 2025.
“Star of the Seas is coming alongside nice. As of this morning, she’s 96 p.c prepared,” she stated, espresso in hand, as she walked by way of Royal Caribbean’s Miami headquarters.
Goswami has labored on about 15 ships throughout her profession however says Star of the Seas stands out for its youth-forward design.
“We actually wished to give attention to youth and household,” she stated. “We redesigned our total playscape. We added some enjoyable to Splashaway Bay. We redesigned Journey Ocean and gave teenagers a full refresh.”
The adjustments are based mostly on visitor suggestions from Star of the Seas’ sister ship, Icon of the Seas, the primary of the category, which started crusing in January 2024.
“Teenagers informed us they didn’t essentially assume it was cool on Icon, so we actually did loads,” she stated.
The brand new area has been overhauled and made extra interesting based mostly on what older youngsters requested for, though Goswami didn’t element what the adjustments entailed.
She additionally stated a lot of the ship’s Surfside neighborhood has additionally been reimagined.
“Realizing that we’re crusing out of Port Canaveral, we actually wished to double down on youth and household,” Goswami stated.
That included constructing a bigger Splashaway Bay and absolutely revamping the playscape space to raised match the age and pursuits of right now’s youthful cruisers.
Goswami handed the dialog over to Daniel Perlmutter from Royal Caribbean’s Particular Tasks workforce, who defined how the playscape is being rebuilt.
“One of many issues that we actually realized right here was that youngsters are somewhat bit older than we thought they had been going to be,” he stated. “We wished to include extra bodily play… to actually be sure we’re hitting on that older child demographic.”
Royal Caribbean’s design method blends visitor suggestions with hands-on testing. Within the video, Goswami walks by way of the corporate’s warehouse area, the place life-size venue fashions are constructed.
“That is the place we actually get to construct issues out, check them, convey totally different focus teams by way of them,” she stated.
One instance? A brand new character debuting on Star of the Seas’s carousel.
“We truly constructed out fairly just a few and introduced numerous totally different youngsters by way of,” she stated. “That is the one the youngsters informed us could be essentially the most enjoyable,” mentioning a purple and pink seahorse design.
Learn Additionally: Icon of the Seas Facilities and Every thing You’ll Love Onboard
Along with bodily fashions, Goswami famous that Royal Caribbean’s digital lab permits the workforce to stroll by way of the ship earlier than it’s constructed, giving the workforce an opportunity to see all the components, proper all the way down to the kinetic tiles within the Pearl or signage placements.
Whereas dreaming up new venues is the “best half,” Goswami stated the precise execution is extra complicated.
“There’s not a lot that’s simple about making a cruise ship,” she admitted. “However seeing merchandise that we’ve dreamed about for years bodily make it onboard is a sense I by no means thought I’d be capable of have.”
Second Icon Class Ship
Star of the Seas is Royal Caribbean’s second ship within the cruise line’s iconic Icon Class and scheduled to debut in August 2025.
Wrapping up development on the Meyer Turku shipyard in Finland, which started on February 15, 2023, with a steel-cutting ceremony, the 250,800-gross-ton vessel will homeport in Port Canaveral, Florida, and supply as much as 5,610 passengers an opportunity to sail 7-night roundtrip voyages to the Caribbean.
Visitors have an possibility between Jap and Western Caribbean routes, each of which can name on the cruise line’s non-public vacation spot, Excellent Day at CocoCay within the Bahamas.
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