Tag Archives: Meyer Turku

Royal Caribbean’s New Icon of the Seas Delivered

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After more than seven years of dreaming and 900 days of design and construction by thousands of experts, Royal Caribbean International welcomed the Icon of the Seas during a handover at Meyer Turku shipyard in Turku, Finland.

Representatives signed on the dotted line just two months before the new ship’s January 2024 debut in Miami.

Marking the milestone at the celebration were more than 1,200 crew members and workers, who were joined by Royal Caribbean Group President and CEO Jason Liberty, Royal Caribbean International President and CEO Michael Bayley and Meyer Turku CEO Tim Meyer.

“Today, we are celebrating more than a new ship; it’s also the celebration of the culmination of more than 50 years of innovation and dreaming at Royal Caribbean to create the ultimate vacation experience,” said Jason Liberty, president and CEO, Royal Caribbean Group. “Delivering Icon of the Seas represents all that can be accomplished with strong partnerships and a commitment to delivering memorable vacations responsibly, and we thank Meyer Turku and an incredible village of skilled partners for joining us on this journey. The memories millions of families and vacationers will make on Icon will be our greatest accomplishment yet.”

“Welcoming Icon of the Seas to the Royal Caribbean family is a remarkable accomplishment years in the making for thousands of innovators, engineers, architects and designers,” said Michael Bayley, president and CEO, Royal Caribbean International. “Seven years ago, we had an ambitious idea to create the first vacation truly made for every type of family and adventurer; now, it’s in our hands, and in this final stretch, we’ll bring it all to life for the biggest debut in our history in January 2024.”

Tim Meyer, CEO of Meyer Turku, commented on the handover of Icon of the Seas as a significant moment in the shipyard’s history: “Icon of the Seas is the world’s largest, but above all, the world’s most advanced cruise ship. Together with Royal Caribbean, we set the bar exceptionally high in terms of design, technology, safety and reducing energy consumption.

Inside the Construction of Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas

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Northern Europe’s largest gantry crane, nicknamed “Baby” at the Meyer Turku shipyard, lifted a single block of cabins for Royal Caribbean’s new Icon of the Seas, weighing more than 900 tons recently, Royal Caribbean Group officials said Tuesday.

The nine-deck, roughly 60-meter-wide block was moved in one day. It was the largest ever lifted in Europe, as far as shipyard officials knew.

Meyer Turku CEO Tim Meyer said there were no nerves in the move. His team had done a detailed study of how the steel would flex while being lifted and knew exactly how it should be handled while being moved into place.

“It’s very easy,” Meyer deadpanned. “It’s like building a Lego ship.”

While hoisting the cross-section of cruise ship cabins was a feat of engineering, it was also an example of Icon’s aggressive build schedule. Putting the blocks together shoreside is much faster than doing so on the ship, so the larger the block moved, the less schedule burden.

In all, the Icon consisted of 201 blocks, with roughly one installed a day. Each block required about 100 meters of welding once in place.

Building the world’s largest cruise ship meant roughly 2,600 workers a day coming to the Turku, Finland shipyard, representing some 20 nationalities from countless subcontractors. The ship will debut in Miami next January.

The Turku shipyard opened in 1737 — 58 years before the Meyer family started building ships.

Royal Caribbean Group President and CEO Jason Liberty called the yard the “tip of the spear” of innovation.

In their seventh generation of ownership and 228th year in operation, the Meyer family remains both focused and humble.

Patriarch Bernard Meyer, CEO of Meyer Werft, declined to spend much time looking backwards.

“We have no time to be proud; we have work to do,” he said.

Royal Caribbean Newbuild Outlook: ‘Market Underpenetrated’

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Royal Caribbean Group and its portfolio of cruise brands will launch 11 new ships between 2023 and 2026, culminating in the third Icon Class ship in 2026 being delivered from Meyer Turku to Royal Caribbean International, and a newbuild for TUI Cruises from Fincantieri, according to the cruise ship orderbook.

In the near term, Jason Liberty, president and CEO, said that the business would grow capacity by 10 per cent in 2024, 5 per cent in 2025 and 6 per cent in 2026.

“I think the first thing to point out is, that’s not just one brand in one market, in one destination,” he said. “So this reflects our three wholly owned brands and how they’re going to grow in their different segments and also for these ships to be in other parts of the world.

“If you look at the orderbook, as you get into ’27 and ’28, it’s lighter orderbook. We believe that at Royal Caribbean that the addressable market is underpenetrated, especially in all the different markets in which we operate. We work very hard to create global brands that attract guests from all over the world and build revenue management systems to effectively harvest that quality demand. And we think that apparatus more than supports our expected supply growth over the coming years.”