Are you eyeing a cruise on Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas, the world’s largest cruise ship? Get able to pay a hefty premium.

With demand for the much-awaited new vessel by the roof, preliminary Icon of the Seas sailings are promoting at fares which are greater than 50% increased in some instances than different Royal Caribbean ships on comparable itineraries.

As of Tuesday, for example, seven-night Icon of the Seas voyages to the Japanese Caribbean out of Miami in February 2024 — the ship’s first full month in operation — had been priced beginning at $1,259 per individual. By comparability, comparable seven-night Japanese Caribbean sailings out of Miami on Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas for a similar month can be found beginning at simply $728 per individual.

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In different phrases, you may pay a 72% premium to sail on Icon of the Seas.

The beginning fares listed above are for the least-expensive, windowless inside cabins on the ships. However it’s not simply entry-level cabins that value considerably extra on Icon of the Seas. There is a sharp differential in pricing for higher-level cabins on the 2 ships, too.

As of Tuesday, balcony cabins on Icon of the Seas sailings to the Japanese Caribbean in February 2024 began at $1,658, in contrast with $908 for comparable cabins on Oasis of the Seas sailings for a similar month.

That works out to an 83% premium for a balcony cabin on Icon of the Seas.

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The 2 Caribbean itineraries are roughly the identical, with each beginning in Miami and providing a number of sea days plus a cease at Excellent Day at CocoCay, Royal Caribbean’s personal island within the Bahamas.

The Icon of the Seas itinerary presents further stops at St. Thomas and both St. Kitts or St. Maarten (the Dutch aspect of the island of St. Martin). The Oasis of the Seas itinerary presents further stops at Labadee, Haiti, and both St. Thomas or Falmouth, Jamaica, with some departures additionally together with a further cease at Nassau within the Bahamas.

The sky-high pricing for Icon of the Seas is an indication of simply how a lot pleasure amongst cruising followers there may be for the ship — the primary in a brand new sequence of vessels at Royal Caribbean that will likely be greater than something seen earlier than within the cruise world and have extra facilities than most different cruise ships.

Cruise executives at Royal Caribbean and different main traces have lengthy stated many cruising followers are most drawn to the largest cruise vessels which have probably the most eating places, bars, showrooms and decktop points of interest.

Pricing pushed by provide and demand

Royal Caribbean units and adjusts pricing for particular ships and itineraries based mostly on provide and demand, leading to typically sharp differentials between vessels crusing in the identical components of the world.

The beginning fares for the Icon of the Seas sailings in February 2024, for example, are also considerably increased than the fares for comparable Royal Caribean voyages to the Caribbean that month out of Port Canaveral, Florida, and Galveston, Texas, on the road’s Surprise of the Seas and Concord of the Seas, respectively.

Nonetheless, you may solely pay a 36% premium for the Icon of the Seas sailings as in comparison with the voyages out of Port Canaveral. In contrast, you may pay an infinite 134% premium as in comparison with the sailings out of Galveston.

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As of Tuesday, sailings out of Port Canaveral and Galveston began at $928 and $538, respectively.

The differential in Icon of the Seas pricing continues past February 2024. Seven-night Icon of the Seas sailings to the Japanese Caribbean in April 2024, for example, begin at $1,128 — 59% greater than comparable sailings on Oasis of the Seas.

The pricing differential for Icon of the Seas as in comparison with different Royal Caribbean ships past April 2024 can’t be calculated but as Royal Caribbean hasn’t opened bookings on different vessels within the Caribbean past that month.

Final week Royal Caribbean opened bookings for sailings for Icon of the Seas by April 2025.

The differential in Icon of the Seas pricing, notably, is even greater when the vessel is in comparison with the ships of Royal Caribbean rivals crusing out of Miami. Seven-night Japanese Caribbean sailings out of Miami in February 2024 on MSC Cruises, Carnival Cruise Line and Norwegian Cruise Line ships begin at $449, $579 and $659, respectively.

That implies that you may pay about 174%, 117% and 91% extra, respectively, to sail on a seven-night voyage on Icon of the Seas out of Miami in February 2024 than you’ll on ships operated by these three traces.

The brand new large of the seas

Cruising followers are significantly excited in regards to the arrival of Icon of the Seas in 2024 as it’ll mark the primary time a cruise line has launched a brand new class of ship that may eclipse all others in measurement and facilities in 15 years. The final time that occurred was in 2009 when Royal Caribbean unveiled its much-ballyhooed Oasis class.

Starting from 226,838 to 235,600 tons, the 5 ships of the Oasis class are the present measurement leaders within the cruise world, with even the smallest amongst them being practically 10% greater and extra amenity-packed than every other cruise vessel afloat.

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Every of the Oasis-class ships presents dozens of eating places, bars, lounges and decktop points of interest, making them the largest resorts on this planet that float.

At 250,600 tons, Icon of the Seas will likely be greater than 6% greater than the largest of the Oasis-class ships, the 7-month-old Surprise of the Seas. It will be capable to maintain as much as 7,600 passengers — a brand new document for a passenger ship. That is about 7% increased 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 loads of additional bunks to accommodate households with many youngsters. It will even have extra facilities geared to households, together with a new-for-the-line outside “neighborhood” referred to as Surfside devoted to households with younger youngsters.

Associated: Icon of the Seas will cater to households

As introduced earlier this month, Surfside will function splash areas for infants and youngsters, swimming pools and lounge areas for folks, family-friendly eateries and outlets, and a bar with “mommy and me” matching mocktails for teenagers and cocktails for grownups.

Icon of the Seas can even function the most important water park ever constructed on a cruise ship, with a document six decktop waterslides.

Icon of the Seas is simply the primary of three sister ships Royal Caribbean has on order for supply by 2026 that may make up its new Icon class. The road additionally has yet one more Oasis-class ship on order for supply in 2024.

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