fruit party How to Build the World’s Largest Cruise Ship (or One of Them, Anyway)

The valves were opened and more than a thousand workers gathered at the Meyer Turku shipyard in Finland to watch the “float out” of Royal Caribbean’s Star of the Seas. The nine-hour process — which involves flooding a special dock with more than 92 million gallons of water to push the 250fruit party,800-ton mega-ship onto a pier for the final stages of construction — had begun.

Like its sister ship, Icon of the Seas — the world’s largest cruise ship — the Star measures 1,196 feet long and towers 20 decks high. Capable of carrying nearly 8,000-passengers, the behemoth is scheduled to launch on Aug. 31, 2025, from Port Canaveral, Fla., and will have many of Icon of the Seas’ features: eight “neighborhoods,” six water slides, seven swimming pools and more than 40 dining, drinking and entertainment venues.

VideoViews from the ship’s Central Park “neighborhood.”CreditCredit...Vesa Laitinen for The New York Times; Scott McIntyre for The New York TimesImageThe water park’s six slides are being built from the ground up and will be completed early next year.Credit...Vesa Laitinen for The New York Times

Icon of the Seas, which cost $2 billion to build and launched in Miami earlier this year, has been a hit among cruise-goers, despite criticism over its size and potential to harm the environment. While Royal Caribbean does not release booking figures, the company revealed that the ship has exceeded expectations both in terms of guest satisfaction and financial performance; 2025 bookings from July through October have outpaced 2024 levels for the same time period.

In response to the demand, the company has started construction on the third Icon Class ship, which will be completed in 2026, and plans to order a fourth for 2027, with options for a fifth and a sixth.

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