Royal Caribbean Group has a habit of going one bigger in its newbuildings. The latest leviathan to come out of the Meyer Turku shipyard in Finland sets another record for being not only the largest cruise ship, but also the largest passenger vessel ever to sail.
The ship, as can be seen from its vital statistics, is enormous and incorporates many original features. So big is Icon of the Seas that trying to describe its main attributes in an article is a challenge.
The ship is the first of the Icon class of ships, first conceived to be a Quantumplus class, but which grew as planning advanced and new ideas surfaced. So now the three ships to be built are more Oasis-plus class, and are of about 250,000 gross tons and 365m in length.
Interestingly, if the Meyer Group had not taken over the bankrupt STX Turku shipyard, then it would have been impossible for the German shipbuilding family to be involved, as its
