GETAWAY 2024
Cruising is on the crest of a wave with passenger number records expected to be smashed in 2024. More than 20 new ships will be launched on the oceans and rivers this year, offering fabulous innovations and exciting new facilities.
Here’s our pick…
Icon of the Seas, Royal Caribbean, launched January 23 Gross tonnage: 250,800 Passengers: 7,600
The newest ‘world’s biggest cruise ship’ – named by football legend Lionel Messi in Miami – is now island hopping in the Caribbean and offers an extraordinary array of facilities.
Guests can enjoy eight vibrant neighbourhoods filled with an array of experiences, live entertainment and 40-plus options for food and drink, day and night.
Icon is Royal Caribbean’s most sustainable ship to date and the first powered by cleaner LNG (liquefied natural gas) and with a MAPs (microwave-assisted pyrolysis) plant that converts waste to energy.
Homeporting in Miami, her cruises will call at Royal Caribbean’s top-rated private island destination, Perfect Day at CocoCay in The Bahamas.
■ More Info: royalcaribbean.com
Queen Anne, Cunard, due May Gross tonnage: 113,000 Passengers: 3,000
Cunard goes forth from May with the luxury brand’s long-awaited new addition to the fleet, the first in more than a decade.
Queen Anne will have 15 dining venues – plus innovative cabaret hotspot Bright Lights Society – and for her inaugural season will sail from homeport Southampton for destinations including the Canary Islands, British Isles seacations, the Norwegian Fjords and the Med.
Making up a classy quartet with sisters Queen Mary 2, Queen