Icon 3 Blocks Are In The House!

[Lloyd555]

Icon 3's Pearl in transit by crane (on the left side of the photo).

🎥 Raisio Marina webcam

 

Edited May 30 by Lloyd555

[Lloyd555]

Icon 3 section at Western Baltija Shipbuilding (BLRT Grupp).

📷 Gena Anfimov

 

[Cruising89143]

Saw on a FB group this week that the third ship will be called Legend of the Seas. Makes sense with Icon, Star and Legend. Time will tell. I’m pushing my bets on Asia to counter the Disney Adventure and MSC Asia. Royal will not allow those two cruise lines to one up them. 

[Southern Dan]

It would make a lot of sense for Icon 3 to serve the Asian Market.  Wouldn’t be surprised if Oasis 7 followed.  There are only so many Caribbean ports that overlap to serve Oasis/Icon Class ships…

[steamboats]

4 hours ago, Cruising89143 said:

Saw on a FB group this week that the third ship will be called Legend of the Seas. 

 

This is rumored since April... see here

 

steamboats

 

[Ourusualbeach]

Wonder which new ship will be getting this classic name from the past.  My guess is she will be Oasis 7, the Queen of the Oasis class

 

Edited Thursday at 09:56 AM by Ourusualbeach

[Branfsu]

5 hours ago, Southern Dan said:

It would make a lot of sense for Icon 3 to serve the Asian Market.  Wouldn’t be surprised if Oasis 7 followed.  There are only so many Caribbean ports that overlap to serve Oasis/Icon Class ships…

I think Icon 3 will end up in Miami. Icon 1 will be moved to Galveston. Wonder will be due for a drydock and will have her original asian market branding installed and sent to that market. 

[FamilyCruiserUK]

There must be a saturation point for all the oasis class and icon class ships sailing predominantly from the US. Only soo many ports in the Caribbean and Mexico that these ships sail too. I know one Oasis class sails in the summer in the Med. 

Genuine question but do people not get fed up with the same itinerary and 3/4 night sailings on offer from miami etc? 

[Ourusualbeach]

1 hour ago, FamilyCruiserUK said:

There must be a saturation point for all the oasis class and icon class ships sailing predominantly from the US. Only soo many ports in the Caribbean and Mexico that these ships sail too. I know one Oasis class sails in the summer in the Med. 

Genuine question but do people not get fed up with the same itinerary and 3/4 night sailings on offer from miami etc? 

Ships are still selling out and have been for a decade.  Also you can't really go anywhere else on those 3/4 night sailings

[Southern Dan]

I just put together a list that I'm pretty sure is accurate of all ports part of Caribbean sailings that can handle Oasis and Icon class ships as well as ones that cannot.  Home ports are in bold.  Please correct me if any of this is wrong and I'll update...

 

Do any of non Oasis/Icon ports have plans to upgrade their infrastructure to accommodate the larger ships?  I'm under the impression that some are too small and don't want to be overrun by too many visitors at one time.  Curious what ports from the "non" list more experienced cruisers enjoy the most...

 

- Miami FL
- Fort Lauderdale FL
- Port Canaveral FL
- Galveston TX
- Cape Liberty NJ
- CocoCay Bahamas
- Nassau Bahamas
- Labadee Haiti
- Falmouth Jamaica
- Puerto Plata DR
- San Juan PR
- Phillipsburg St. Maarten
- Basseterre St. Kitts & Nevis
- Charlotte Amalie St. Thomas
- Oranjestad Aruba
- Willemstad Curacao
- Cozumel MX
- Puerto Costa Maya MX
- Roatan Honduras

Non Oasis/Icon Ports:

- Baltimore MD
- Tampa FL
- New Orleans LA

- Key West FL
- Bimini Bahamas
- Grand Bahama Island Bahamas
- St. John’s Antigua
- Castries St. Lucia
- St. Croix USVI

- Roseau Dominica
- Grand Turk, Turk & Caicos
- Kralendijk Bonaire
- Puerto Limon Costa Rica
- Colon Panama
- Cartagena Columbia
- George Town Grand Cayman
- Yucatan (Progreso) MX

 

 

[smokeybandit]

St Croix (with some money from RC) is expanding to be able to handle Oasis.

Progreso claims it's expanding.

Cayman can't figure out what it wants to do with cruising in general

[la_croisiere_s'amuse]

2 hours ago, FamilyCruiserUK said:

Genuine question but do people not get fed up with the same itinerary and 3/4 night sailings on offer from miami etc? 

 

1 hour ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Ships are still selling out and have been for a decade.  Also you can't really go anywhere else on those 3/4 night sailings

 

Yep. Numbers don't lie, so clearly there are quite a few people who aren't fed up with them yet. 🙂 

 

If I were to hazard a guess, it's likely because those particular cruisers see the ship itself as the main destination. I recently watched a YouTube video of some experienced cruisers who sailed on the Icon and never left the ship for more than an hour or so. And that was on a seven-night itinerary! They just felt there was so much to do and explore on the ship that they didn't want to miss anything.

 

And I'm pretty confident that RCI wouldn't be investing the eye-watering sums involved in the Icon class without some pretty solid statistical analysis. Granted, they don't have crystal balls so all sorts of future developments could make it seem foolish in hindsight.

 

For now, I'm just glad there will be three Icon-class ships in the fleet, which will hopefully bring prices more in line with what I'm comfortable paying! 😉 

[Southern Dan]

9 minutes ago, la_croisiere_s'amuse said:

For now, I'm just glad there will be three Icon-class ships in the fleet, which will hopefully bring prices more in line with what I'm comfortable paying! 😉

For real.  I've been comparing 4 different cruises for January 2026 and I think I'm going to wait until January 2027 to sail on my first Icon Class ship.  Might book once the 26/27 dates are announced in November to try and snag the lowest price.

[Branfsu]

1 hour ago, Southern Dan said:

I just put together a list that I'm pretty sure is accurate of all ports part of Caribbean sailings that can handle Oasis and Icon class ships as well as ones that cannot.  Home ports are in bold.  Please correct me if any of this is wrong and I'll update...

 

Do any of non Oasis/Icon ports have plans to upgrade their infrastructure to accommodate the larger ships?  I'm under the impression that some are too small and don't want to be overrun by too many visitors at one time.  Curious what ports from the "non" list more experienced cruisers enjoy the most...

 

- Miami FL
- Fort Lauderdale FL
- Port Canaveral FL
- Galveston TX
- Cape Liberty NJ
- CocoCay Bahamas
- Nassau Bahamas
- Labadee Haiti
- Falmouth Jamaica
- Puerto Plata DR
- San Juan PR
- Phillipsburg St. Maarten
- Basseterre St. Kitts & Nevis
- Charlotte Amalie St. Thomas
- Oranjestad Aruba
- Willemstad Curacao
- Cozumel MX
- Puerto Costa Maya MX
- Roatan Honduras

Non Oasis/Icon Ports:

- Baltimore MD
- Tampa FL
- New Orleans LA

- Key West FL
- Bimini Bahamas
- Grand Bahama Island Bahamas
- St. John’s Antigua
- Castries St. Lucia
- St. Croix USVI

- Roseau Dominica
- Grand Turk, Turk & Caicos
- Kralendijk Bonaire
- Puerto Limon Costa Rica
- Colon Panama
- Cartagena Columbia
- George Town Grand Cayman
- Yucatan (Progreso) MX

 

 

I'm pretty sure Bridgetown Barbados is Icon/oasis capable (I believe harmony went there during the pandemic). I think I read somewhere that St. John Antigua can handle oasis class and that was one reason why royal was going to develope a beach club there. I think I also read that the port developer at San Juan (global ports holding?) is going to expand St. Lucia to be oasis capable. My guess is the long term plan is to alternate an oasis class between Bayonne (summer) and San Juan (Winter). 

[smokeybandit]

1 hour ago, Southern Dan said:

For real.  I've been comparing 4 different cruises for January 2026 and I think I'm going to wait until January 2027 to sail on my first Icon Class ship.  Might book once the 26/27 dates are announced in November to try and snag the lowest price.

I got what I thought was a surprisingly good price on Star (at least compared to Icon) for March 2026. And I've gotten 2 price drops since booking.

[Southern Dan]

I’ve been keeping an eye on Mid OVB for January 26 sailings.

 

Celebrity Ascent 11 Nt is 3,900 for a porthole balcony (no IV for us)

Oasis 8 Nt is about the same

Allure 8 Nt is about 4,200

Star 7 Nt is about 5k

 

I’d like to do the Ascent bc it has a great itinerary but I don’t think my wife can take two whole weeks off unfortunately.

 

[PhillyFan33579]

4 hours ago, FamilyCruiserUK said:

There must be a saturation point for all the oasis class and icon class ships sailing predominantly from the US. Only soo many ports in the Caribbean and Mexico that these ships sail too. I know one Oasis class sails in the summer in the Med. 

Genuine question but do people not get fed up with the same itinerary and 3/4 night sailings on offer from miami etc? 

I think more and more people are cruising for the ship itself as opposed to the ports. When we did a 7 day cruise on Icon in February we never got off the ship. I have also done numerous 3 and 4 day cruises out of Florida where we never got off the ship. I live in Florida so the shorter cruises have always been appealing, especially before I retired. From my experience ships keep getting more crowded on port days with people who don’t get off the ship. 
 

Additionally, there are a lot of people who love Coco Cay and keep going on cruises just to go there over and over again. I think the same thing will happen with the beach clubs RCI is building in Nassau and Cozumel. There will be a lot of people who will want to go to these places multiple times. 
 

The bottom line in my opinion is there has been and continues to be a strong demand for short cruises out of Florida. Ships doing short cruises out of Florida continue to sell out every sailing. One thing I have seen lately is people don’t seem to be paying the big premium on Utopia normally associated with new ships. However, I think this has more to do with all the attention Icon and Star are getting. No doubt in my mind Utopia sailings will eventually start selling out as prices come down. 

[smokeybandit]

The big question is how many of these first time cruisers become regular cruisers?

If they do, do they stick to the shorties because that's what their work/family schedules allow? Or do they move onto longer ones?

At some point there will be a tipping point, but it doesn't seem we're there yet.

[PhillyFan33579]

56 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

The big question is how many of these first time cruisers become regular cruisers?

If they do, do they stick to the shorties because that's what their work/family schedules allow? Or do they move onto longer ones?

At some point there will be a tipping point, but it doesn't seem we're there yet.

This topic (or at least closely related) came up at a recent over 340 luncheon. Earlier in the cruise during the Top Tier event the staff was talking about how many new cruisers (at least new to RCI) were on this ship and on most RCI ships in general. Anyways, I don’t remember the specific numbers/percentages, but at the luncheon a few of the officers were talking about the vast majority of Americans who have never been on a cruise before. They said that is one of the target groups RCI is focusing on. They didn’t go into specifics, but said historically a certain number of first time cruisers are likely to cruise again within the next few years. 
 

Like you mentioned, the big question is when will the market reach over saturation. Almost every cruise line is introducing newer and bigger ships, including RCI. At some point this continued growth will likely reach its tipping point, to use your term. I assume this is an area all cruise lines “numbers people” pay close attention to. My thought is the current high demand is still at least partially due to the cruise industry being shutdown for so long during COVID. Eventually the demand will taper off, but I still think the demand will be strong. But that is just one person’s opinion. Only time will tell how things will play out. 

[cruise1957]

4 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

St Croix (with some money from RC) is expanding to be able to handle Oasis.

Progreso claims it's expanding.

Cayman can't figure out what it wants to do with cruising in general

LOL, I love Cayman it's one of my favorite ports.