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Jan 01, 2024

Icon of the Seas: First look at the building site that will become the biggest cruise ship of all time

We look inside Royal Caribbean’s half-finished Icon of the Seas – and find a

We look inside Royal Caribbean's half-finished Icon of the Seas – and find a floating city which might yet silence its critics

You can see it long before you reach the waterfront. You can see it before you conclude the short drive from Turku with a left-hand turn off Road 185, and a descent through the gears towards the docks. By this point, this 21st-century behemoth is impossible to miss, its upper decks soaring clear of the pine tree-line which, even in this relatively urban, south-westerly corner of Finland, wraps the landscape in a persistent haze of fragrant evergreen. Indeed, there is a jarring contrast when the full thing comes into view – swaying fir fronds giving way to raw metal. But there it is, in its enormity, as you pause at the gate and the security checkpoint. Icon of the Seas: the world's biggest cruise ship.

It is not quite ready. Not yet. It is due to be guided out of the famous Meyer Turku shipyard – which sits five miles west of Finland's sixth biggest city, amid the islands and channels of the country's fractured Baltic coastline – on October 26. And its inaugural voyage, with passengers, is not scheduled to depart from Miami until January 27, 2024. But when Royal Caribbean's newest baby takes to the ocean, it will smash all sorts of records.

It will not just be the world's biggest cruise ship (with a gross tonnage of 250,800: a giant kitted out with 2,805 cabins, capable of carrying 7,600 guests and a crew of 2,350). It will be the longest too – all 1,198ft (365m) of it. It will have the world's largest pool at sea ("Royal Bay", able to hold 40,000 gallons of water), and the tallest drop-slide on the waves – "Frightening Bolt", which, some 46ft (14m) tall, will carry its riders for 282ft (86m). Inside, the "AquaDome" will be the largest freestanding dome on the water, a rare feat in glass and steel – rising to 82ft (25m) in height, stretching to 164ft (50m) in width.

You might go as far as to argue that its delivery date will be the moment the cruise industry – brought so low by Covid – puts the pandemic completely behind it. After two years when the future of an entire type of holiday seemed in peril, here is a significant step forward. Icon Of The Seas will be the first graduate of Royal Caribbean's "Icon" class – a new breed of mega-ship. The second, already under construction, is due in 2025.

Of course, Royal Caribbean has form when it comes to gargantuan vessels such as these. The five largest cruise ships presently in service are all part of its fleet – including Oasis of the Seas (the company's previous mould-breaker – which heralded the arrival of the "Oasis" class back in 2009), and Wonder of the Seas, which, for the next few months, is the current largest. Its reign will be brief: it only sailed its maiden voyage in March 2022.

Icon will eclipse them all. But not everyone is convinced that big is beautiful. When renderings of the finished ship were published last November, social media was awash with mockery. Some comments decried a vessel which rears to 20 decks – and will carry almost 10,000 people – as "human lasagne". Others – noticing the multi-coloured tangle of waterslides on top of the ship – referred to garish cakes and children's birthday parties.

There is no such amusement during a preview tour of the vessel. Building Icon is no laughing matter for those involved, and the Meyer shipyard takes its business seriously. The firm has a long relationship with Royal Caribbean. Meyer crafted Song of Norway, Royal Caribbean's first cruise ship, in 1970. It is also forging the second "Icon" vessel.

Icon is so huge that it appears to have devoured the shipyard. Certainly, it has taken it over. The term "Icon Village" floats around the edges of the conversation during the tour, a reference to the near-3,000-strong army of shipbuilders labouring towards that autumn deadline. There are other buzz-phrases too, more flattering than "human lasagne". Not least the enthusiastic talk of a "white-paper ship" – the intimation being that Icon is a blank canvas being filled in, a seafaring game-changer, indebted to no former blueprints.

For the moment, "blank canvas" feels closer to the truth. Indeed, it is difficult to equate the mass of naked steel and tethered tarpaulins, looming over the waterfront, to the finished vessel in those bright renderings. January will pop with champagne bottles and ticker-tape, but here in May, Icon is still a building site – a dimly lit place where masses of exposed cables extend along gloomy corridors, like orgies of wriggling snakes. A work in progress, sparsely illuminated by showers of sparks from blow-torches, where the air is thick with the smells and sounds of paint, friction, rubber and heavy machinery.

However, appearances can be deceiving. Harri Kulovaara, the Finnish naval architect who is also Royal Caribbean's "executive vice-president of Maritime and Newbuilding", says that Icon of the Seas is far closer to completion than the casual observer may think.

"The ship is more than 70 per cent done," he insists. "We have about 2,600 people working on it every day. And every week, we move about one per cent closer towards finishing. It is only when a ship is at around a 90 per cent level of completion that the panels and the finishing touches are put in place. All the hard work comes much earlier."

"This is a large task – but it is very well-scripted," he continues. "Although it has been six years [since work began], the ship is actually being constructed in a short timeframe."

While the pandemic had an inevitable impact on construction, Kulovaara says that the unforeseen interruption also proved to be helpful. "We used that time to perfect the design," he adds. "We went through the entire design in a systematic way. As difficult and as unfortunate a period as it was, we were able to use the time in a positive manner."

For all the hard hats and steel-toed boots still at work, plenty of Icon has already taken shape. You can already walk through the "Surfside", the cavernous space on Deck 7 that will offer splash- and paddle-zones for families with younger children. "Central Park" is already laid out, on a similarly huge scale, on Deck 8 – although this open-air "neighbourhood" will have an adult inflection, with boutiques, restaurants and a jazz bar.

"Chill Island" has emerged on Decks 15-17, even if its cluster of swimming pools is not yet evident. "Thrill Island", its partner on Decks 16-17, will be the largest waterpark at sea. Some of the green, purple and pink tubing of its waterslides – the cause of much of last year's "child's birthday cake" mirth – is already fixed into position. The "Aquadome" is there too, still full of barriers and building-work ephemera, but visibly the widescreen performance space where singers will hit the high notes, and acrobats will spin and swirl.

The idea of a "white-paper ship" reaches into the engine room. Royal Caribbean has been keen to emphasise Icon's "green" credentials. The ship will make use of liquefied natural gas (LNG) as a primary fuel source, will have an on-board desalination plant to produce fresh water, and will convert waste heat from the engines into energy. Of more immediate interest, maybe, to passengers cynical that every big corporation makes grand claims to sustainability, will be The Pearl, a multimedia cocoon (part of the "Royal Promenade" on Decks 5-6) which will beckon guests aboard via glowing lights and gentle sound effects.

Perhaps the biggest question, however, is how much all this size and scale will weigh upon the customer. The answer, at the top of the chart, is "a lot". The "Ultimate Family Townhouse" – a three-storey hideaway that can sleep up to eight people, and comes complete with a slide between floors – could cost up to US$75,000 (£60,000) per week.

That said, there will always be a wide range of prices on a ship of such proportions. And if you fancy hopping onto its decks next year, you can sign up for a seven-night "Eastern Caribbean & Perfect Day" voyage – sailing from Miami on November 30, with stops at St Kitts, St Thomas and Royal Caribbean's exclusive-use Bahamian island CocoCay – from £1,419 a head (0344 493 4005; flights extra). Cabins are also still on offer for the maiden voyage (January 27, same itinerary), from £2,955 per person.

Browse Telegraph Travel's selection of best river and ocean cruises