New Mega Cruise Ships are Floated for Royal Caribbean and Princess

 

Two new mega cruise ships which will both be among the largest in the industry each took to the water for the first time. Princess Cruises celebrated the float out of its new Star Princess (178,000 gross tons) by Fincantieri in Italy while in Finland the valves were opened on the dry dock to float Royal Caribbean International’s Star of the Seas (248,663 gross tons). Both cruise ships are scheduled to enter service in 2025 with the company’s PR departments touting the vessels as “highly anticipated.”

Star of the Seas is the second ship of Royal’s Icon class and she will rival her sister ship as the world’s largest cruise ship. She is slightly behind schedule with the company in February delaying her entry into service by a few weeks to the end of August 2025. When she enters service, she will be sailing year-round from Port Canaveral, Florida.

 

Star of the Seas began her floating process yesterday and will leave the dry dock in the coming days (Janne-Petteri/Facebook)

 

She is building at the Meyer Turku yard in Finland and received the traditional floating ceremony yesterday, September 25, complete with the sounding of the historic cannon to mark the opening of the floodgates. The process takes hours with the ship anticipated to be afloat today. Depending on weather conditions, she will be pulled forward from the dry dock to the outfitting berth in the coming days.

Meyer had just highlighted the fitting of the vessel’s three ABB XO-series Azipods, each weighing 230 tons. They are transported to the yard assembled but without one blade for ease of transport and installation. The propulsion units are each 20 MW. 

“There’s still some fine-tuning left,” explained Mikko Jalava, Foreman at Meyer Turku. “We’re locking the bolts, and the port side blades arrived from Portugal and are waiting to be attached.” Assembly of the pods was one of the final steps before the floating.

 

Azipod preparing for installation on Star of the Seas (Meyer Turku)

 

In Monfalcone, Italy, Star Princess the second ship of Princess’s Sphere Class received her traditional ceremony today, September 26, including with the madrina christening the ship. Third Engineer Chiara del Vecchio did the honors along with Francesca Maraventano, an executive assistant at the shipyard. 

Star Princess is due for delivery in the fall of 2025. She is scheduled to start sailing from Fort Lauderdale, Florida to the Caribbean in October 2025.

Both of the ships are part of the cruise industry’s growing adoption of LNG. While Star of the Seas and her sister Icon of the Seas delivered nearly a year ago are the largest cruise ships built, Star Princess and her sister Sun Princess delivered in February 2024 are the largest cruise ships built to date in Italy.

In August, Royal Caribbean Group ordered a fourth Icon series vessel to be built at Meyer Turku for delivery in 2027 after the third ship of the class in 2025. The company also has an option for two further ships of the class.