Icon 4 ordered with options for Icon 5 and 6.

[DaniMSCRoyal_85]

1 hour ago, Southern Dan said:

Port Canaveral, Fort Lauderdale, Miami could be homeports for 2 each and Galveston 1 so that is 7. 

 

Perhaps San Juan for Southern Caribbean sailings and one in Asia  That is 9...where would the other 3 go?  I'm going to be surprised if they go ahead with Icon V and VI for this very reason...

Europe?

[lovesthebeach2]

1 hour ago, DutchCruiseFan said:

I'm just curious about the homeports when they have 7 Oasis ships and 6 Icons. It can't all be Florida and Galveston in winter.

Perhaps one in Asia, but that still leaves 12 huge ships!

I was thinking the same thing. Where will all these ships fit? Because Royals. It the only cruise line building like crazy.

Port Canaveral had planned to build another cruise dock but I read the other day that’s not happening. 

[lovesthebeach2]

34 minutes ago, DutchCruiseFan said:

I agree. The cruise industry is having unprecedented growth and it's great to see. But that will stop, and the amount of new ships coming is astonishing. There will be a very interesting time in the future where it won't be as easy to fill these ships and the profits of these big cruise lines will drop dramatically.

I feel the same….i doubt cruising will stay this hot forever. 

[fred30]

Hopefully we get to the saturation point soon

and the prices start dropping.

Edited August 27 by fred30

[tidecat]

42 minutes ago, DutchCruiseFan said:

Sending an Icon or even Oasis to the West Coast would be quite the statement and surely make Carnival feel uncomfortable. I wonder how many ports in that area could actually handle a ship that size tho?

If RCI wants to go the short cruise route, Ensenada is really the only port you really need. Mazatlan should be good as it is an industrial port with large container ships. Puerto Vallarta likely would be OK as is. Cabo San Lucas would be a bit iffy as it is a tender port.

 

Icon being a replacement for a Quantum-class or smaller isn't quite the ask it would be if RCI was adding an Icon-class to serve alongside another ship.

[Oceansaway17]

2 hours ago, Southern Dan said:

Port Canaveral, Fort Lauderdale, Miami could be homeports for 2 each and Galveston 1 so that is 7. 

 

Perhaps San Juan for Southern Caribbean sailings and one in Asia  That is 9...where would the other 3 go?  I'm going to be surprised if they go ahead with Icon V and VI for this very reason...

do not forget Cape Liberty in Bayonne as well.  That port can handle the big girls too

[Hoopster95]

1 hour ago, DutchCruiseFan said:

Sending an Icon or even Oasis to the West Coast would be quite the statement and surely make Carnival feel uncomfortable. I wonder how many ports in that area could actually handle a ship that size tho?

 

1) How do they deliver an Icon or oasis to LA? Would that be profitable to do?

2) Can Oasis or Icon get into Ensenada (channel depth, etc). That is THE only port close enough to satisfy the PVSA and to support the 3/4 day sailings so coveted by Royal to maximize profits.

[Another_Critic]

2 minutes ago, Oceansaway17 said:

do not forget Cape Liberty in Bayonne as well.  That port can handle the big girls too

Only April/May to October, unless they "winterize" Central Park.

[tidecat]

Just now, Oceansaway17 said:

do not forget Cape Liberty in Bayonne as well.  That port can handle the big girls too

Since we know people may be willing to pay a premium to avoid flying, an Icon in the Northeast, would be huge.

[Oceansaway17]

1 minute ago, Another_Critic said:

Only April/May to October, unless they "winterize" Central Park.

I agree all the big girls should have 1 pool covered and perhaps parts of Central Park too. Getting to the restaurants in the rain is tough.

  Bad weather happens even in the Caribbean.  

[Oceansaway17]

Just now, tidecat said:

Since we know people may be willing to pay a premium to avoid flying, an Icon in the Northeast, would be huge.

YES YES YES.  At least they gave us Odyssey and now Symphony.

[RobInMN]

5 minutes ago, Hoopster95 said:

 

1) How do they deliver an Icon or oasis to LA?

 

Suez Canal or around South Africa, Indian then Pacific Oceans.

[Hoopster95]

1 hour ago, Ourusualbeach said:

PC, FLL and MIA could each hold 3 if you add in the ones they are using for Short cruises

 

One or two each day in each port ... Freedom (3)+ Oasis (7)+ Icon (5) = 15 ships for a possible 21 slots. Mid week homeports like Seattle (Quantum on Mondays, Ovation on Fridays).

 

Future 7 sailings will be 5 sea days, one CocoCay and one at Nassau (for an extra charge to the Beach Club obviously).... all for the low price of $1500 per person (interior) + $2000 for a cabana for 6 hours.

 

As a side note, I'm just finishing off planning my own 15 day trip to cambodia + Vietnam, all 5 star hotels/resorts, private transfers/guides/tours included in both Cambodia + Hoi An, 2 day Halong Bay cruise in the Presidential suite ($599US). So far with business class flights I'm just barely over $10,000 Canadian... less than many cabins on Icon for two for only 7 days

[shof515]

11 minutes ago, Oceansaway17 said:

do not forget Cape Liberty in Bayonne as well.  That port can handle the big girls too

 

can the icon fit under the Verrazzano narrows bridge? 

[DutchCruiseFan]

7 minutes ago, RobInMN said:

Suez Canal or around South Africa, Indian then Pacific Oceans.

Likely around South America.

[SilkySal]

11 minutes ago, DutchCruiseFan said:

Likely around South America.

Day dreaming here: Maybe the westbound newly built ship would make a stop to pick up passengers (me) in Florida, then continue on around South America to the west coast home port. Then, I could hop on another ship from the west coast back to my home in Florida! A dream come true maybe! LOL! Cheers!

[Another_Critic]

18 minutes ago, shof515 said:

 

can the icon fit under the Verrazzano narrows bridge? 

It has retractable funnels and was built in the same ship yard as Oasis.  Funnels need to retract to get under the Great Belt Bridge to leave the Turku shipyard. 

 

The Verrazano has more clearance than the Great Belt.

[ONECRUISER]

3 hours ago, RFerrington said:

These ports (and all of them, in actuality) can have more than 2 big ships homeported there....they just have to be scheduled so that they aren't in homeport at the same time.  That means more and more of the shorty/non-weekend schedules, which seems to be the way things are going, even now.

Agree, easily 3 departing on different Days same Port/Pier. That's how Royal did it yrs ago, one on Sat, one on Sun and 3rd doing 3/4/5 days leaving only on weekdays. Even a 4th doable, easier if one Ships starts doing longer then 7niters

Edited August 27 by ONECRUISER

[RobInMN]

49 minutes ago, DutchCruiseFan said:

Likely around South America.

Other than the UWC, I can not recall a RC branded ship going around the tip of South America. As far as I know, all the Quantum and Voyager class ships that have serviced the Pacific have all come from the Atlantic via the Suez.

I thought I had always heard that the Straight of Magellan was the more dangerous route (Samali Pirates aside), making the potentially longer route more attractive.

[Biker19]

4 minutes ago, RobInMN said:

Other than the UWC, I can not recall a RC branded ship going around the tip of South America.

Mariner did a long time ago @Merion_Mom may have info.

[Billy Baltic]

I don’t think the problem will be finding ports for the ships. It’ll be finding people to fill them. Cruising is going through a boom. How long it lasts is unknown. Having all these ships with 6k - 7k capacity will take a lot of filling, especially if they’re doing 3/4 night itineraries. 

[Another_Critic]

20 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

Mariner did a long time ago @Merion_Mom may have info.

How did Navigator get to LA (San Pedro)?  I thought I read that it went around South America without passengers.

[SUgwoz]

Would anticipate at least one of the Icon ships doing 8 night or longer itineraries. 

[Nunagoras]

Well: For certain personal reasons I've been away from cruise information for a while now. Today I received these news on my social media pages... Cruising seems to be enjoying its best days after Covid. I have long predicted that we would see what the 2028-32 shipyard season would be by late 2024... Here we are now watching it all in its glory!... Arguably 3 Carnival ships Oasis size, plus some NCL ships that size as well, and now we know there will be some 6 Icons!... Wow! That was the part I didn't predict! At best I predicted that mainstream ships would become, say something like Freedom-to-Quantum size at very best! So was I too wrong!

Let me to get my best possible analysis on this one:

Lower Mainstream lines like RCI, CCL, NCL and MSC will all of them become "destination ship" only by 2035. They'll offer you the bare minimum ports to make the cruise an International travel on the eyes of the US legislators, but nothing more on top of it really. Upper small ships mainstream will be for trademarks on the likes of X/Princess/Virgin which will perhaps continue developing the way they have been on the last decades from now.

It would be great as well to understand that by 2029 Lady Oasis will be 20 years. Nobody knows how many years more can such a behemoth like these to stay afloat profitable enough for their owners to go. I believe some of these new behemoths are just replacements for the first 3 Oasis class ships that will reach EOL "soon".

As per ports, do note that they can redeploy those ships quite freely these days worldwide. they can have one in the Middle East (when that stupid war on Israel ends), they need to have one Summer in Europe for the dry docks. And a growing number of ports ready to support them elsewhere. If the demand is rising so quickly there might to be no reason for companies to stop, other than extreme port limitations. No way. The trend seems to run towards short run limited ports and lots of sea days per cruise per behemoth!... The "good ole days" of mainstream small ships to visit "exotic" ports are way over!...

[longhorn2004]

This could be a replacement ship for one to be retired.