Icon of the Seas will have Royal Caribbean International’s “biggest-ever focus” on families, as the line looks to increase its share of the new-to-cruise market.

Icon launches in January 2024, and across the 28 stateroom categories, more than 80% of rooms sleep more than two people. The ship will feature the new Surfside neighbourhood, which is dedicated to families with young children. This is a key target audience for the line, which already carries between 200 and 600 children under six years old on each cruise. 

Speaking in Miami to unveil the design of the ship, the line’s president and chief executive Michael Bayley said:  “On Icon our focus on family is probably the highest level it’s ever been. We’re going more and more towards delivering phenomenal vacations to families.”

Bayley said the new-to-cruise market was a “sweet spot” for Royal Caribbean, and that in 2019 the line carried more than one million people on their first cruise. He said offering short taster cruises is key, as clients then graduate to seven-night sailings.

From October 2023 Allure of the Seas will offer three- and four-day cruises from Port Canaveral. He added: “We think that once we get that message out to young families [about the facilities onboard], we’ll see a lot more new-to-cruise coming onboard Icon.”

Bayley said the brand’s family demographic is “vast from a marketing perspective”, adding: “Everyone is in a family, so we want to make sure that families have a fantastic vacation with Royal Caribbean. On Icon, whether you’re a grumpy old man or an innocent young kid, everyone can do their own thing and be super happy all day.”  

The icon will offer the three-storey Ultimate Family Townhouse, which has access to the new family-focused Surfside neighbourhood

He acknowledged that while school-age children were at school for the majority of the year, families with pre-schoolers can holiday throughout the year.  “That market is quite powerful. A young family is a big market, and we think it’s an under-served market and we think that Icon, especially with Surfside, is going to really deliver on that.”

He stressed that the ship caters for multigenerational families, highlighting the new neighbourhoods and features, including adults-only areas and the largest waterpark at sea. 

The Royal Caribbean team in Miami has spent more than one million working hours on the design process for Icon, in addition to time spent by external experts. It worked with 10 futurists to understand what consumers of the future would expect from holidays.

Bayley said: “Icon is the culmination of everything we’ve learnt in more than 50 years. We push the boundaries of what’s possible and what’s expected. This is the work of thousands of industry experts from around the world.”

New family cabins include the 285-square-foot Family Infinite Balcony, which sleeps six and borrows the Infinite Balcony concept from sister line Celebrity Cruises. It includes a bunk bed alcove for children at the rear of the cabin, with a secret den, a separate space for adults and a 50-square-foot balcony. 

The new Surfside neighbourhood houses the Ultimate Family Townhouse, which takes the brand’s existing Ultimate Family Suite concept and spreads it across three storeys, with 1,772-square-foot of internal space, alongside two balconies. Sleeping eight, it includes a slide, Lego wall, video games, movie theatre, karaoke and backyard that leads straight into Surfside.

The Family Infinite Balcony stateroom includes an area for children at the rear