Icon sets sail on her maiden voyage
– The world’s largest cruise ship, Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas, set sail from Miami on its maiden voyage on Saturday, carrying what amounted to the population of a small city.
The ship, built over 900 days at a shipyard in Turku, Finland, is a monument to enormity, longer than the Eiffel Tower is tall, with 20 decks and room for more than 5 600 passengers (7 600 at max) and a crew of 2 350.
To ensure no-one goes bored or hungry, the monster ship, registered in the Bahamas, has seven swimming pools, including a more than 151 000-litre “lake”, six water slides, a carousel, what Royal Caribbean says is the largest ice arena at sea, and more than 40 dining venues and bars.
Still bored? There will be 50 musicians and comedians as well as a 16-piece orchestra.
The $2 billion (about R38 billion) Icon – the first in Royal Caribbean’s new Quantum Class of ships – is stuffed with the latest technology and, despite its mammoth size, claims to be more ecofriendly than some smaller cruise ships.
The Icon is powered by what its owners say is ecofriendly liquefied natural gas (though some experts say such systems can leak damaging amounts of methane gas into the atmosphere).
It also features a system – microwave-assisted pyrolysis – for converting waste to energy-producing gas, and a reverse osmosis system to provide nearly all the fresh water the ship needs, the company says.
The Icon was christened in style last Tuesday, when global soccer star Lionel Messi, now with the Inter Miami side, pushed a button to send a bottle of champagne crashing against her bow.
The company says ticket demand for its inaugural cruise was “unprecedented”. The Icon will spend a week in the Caribbean before returning to Miami.