Forget Icon of the Seas, Royal Caribbean has a plan to go small

Royal Caribbean steadily outdoes itself when it comes to cruise ship innovation. It has steadily held on to the "biggest cruise ship in the world" title with no rival stepping up to even try to take that crown.

In fact, Royal Caribbean Group (RCL) - Get Free Report CEO Jason Liberty even said on Icon of the Seas that Star of the Seas and the third unnamed Icon-class ship would not be bigger than the first ship in the series. That does not mean there won't be changes on the cruise line's next two Icon-class ships. 

Related: Royal Caribbean cruise line makes a huge beverage change

Royal Caribbean has steadily improved each new entry in every one of its cruise classes. Some of that is driven by customer experience and other changes come from seeing how passengers use the ship.  

Icon of the Seas, for example, isn't just bigger than Wonder of the Seas, the previous biggest cruise ship in the world. It also has a greatly improved flow. Royal Caribbean designed its newest ship so passengers can seamlessly walk through the various "neighborhoods" in the heart of the the ship without having to take an elevator.

That's most noticeable in the Pearl Café where you can get a cup of coffee and then walk up a long staircase to enjoy your beverage in Central Park. In addition, the Pearl itself is a visual and architectural marvel serving as a load-bearing structure that allows for the floor-to-ceiling glass windows in the café.

Royal Caribbean has mastered the big ship and now it's going to turn its attention to designing its next class of smaller ships.

Royal Caribbean has begun designing new small ships

Smaller ships can visit ports that larger vessels cannot. The cruise line's Radiance and Vison classes can carry about 2,500 passengers. That's around a third of the full passenger load for Icon of the Seas and well below Voyager and Freedom class — sort of the cruise line's mid-sized ships. 

Jewel of the Seas, the newest ship in the Radiance-class was built in 2004. All the other members of both of these classes are at least 20 years old. 

Royal Caribbean has been hinting at building new smaller ships since July 2023 when brand CEO Michael Bayley discussed the issue on Allure of the Seas, the Royal Caribbean blog reported.

"I think when we're ready we can announce steps that we will take to do just that,” he shared.

Bayley also addressed the issue at a media briefing on Icon of the Seas.

"From a brand perspective we recognize that Radiance and Vision are getting older. We’re working on ideas and concepts on replacing those ships. We’re quite actively working on what that would be," he said. "If we go through all the process and get the approvals, they’re going to be amazing."

Royal Caribbean makes a discovery

While it has not been confirmed, the new ship design project is believed to be called "Project Discovery." That suggests the new class would be the Discovery class and the first ship in the new class would be named Discovery of the Seas.

Bayley implied during the media event that the company understood the need for smaller ships and implied that some work had begun. It's likely, but not confirmed, that any new class of ships would not be an update of Radiance or Vision class, but a white paper/blank page reimagining like Icon class.

That does not mean the any new ships would not borrow heavily from its predecessors. Icon of the Seas builds upon a lot of Oasis-class concepts including its neighborhoods while also introducing new innovations. 

If Discovery class is built, Royal Caribbean Blog reported that it would be similar in size to the current Radiance class. (The blog is written for Royal Caribbean fans.)  That would allow for it to visit more ports and, in theory, use a new ship for a version of its World Cruise, which is currently sailing on Serenade of the Seas, which had its first sailing in 2003.