Royal Caribbean shares new info on 'Discovery' class ships
Passengers have been wanting to hear this for a long time.
Royal Caribbean has been talking about smaller ships for a very long time. It seems that every time the cruise line launches a new Icon or Oasis-class ship its executives get hit with multiple questions about when they will build smaller ships.
In recent years, the cruise line has not exactly done to these questions. Royal Caribbean Group CEO Jason Liberty and Royal Caribbean Group CEO Michael Bayley have openly admitted that a smaller class has been talked about.
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Neither man, however, has given out much information.
Passengers want new, smaller ships because these ships can stop in ports where the larger ships do not fit. Some cruise line passengers also preferred the intimacy of a few people being onboard.
Some of Royal Caribbean’s smaller ships are also near the end of their lifetime. All ships get repurposed and refurbed all the time, 35 years is considered a reasonable lifetime.
Now, the cruise line has quietly given out some information on its plans for smaller ships.
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Royal Caribbean has talked about smaller ship
Royal Caribbean has been talking about the need for a new class of smaller ships for quite some time.
"We're always designing the next classes of ships really for all of our brands," Liberty said during Royal Caribbean's second-quarter-earnings call. "We specifically pick segments and brands in those segments and deployments and experiences that we believe have a very long runway to generate demand globally, as each of our brands are globally sourced business."
He also made it clear that the cruise line sees a need.
"And, of course, the other thing I think that's important when you think about ship classes, whether they could be small, they could be larger, is kind of also a consideration that we also have ships that are reaching 30, 35 years. And so some of this is not just about we want to build same-size ships, smaller ships. It's also replacing ships that will eventually kind of reach their end of life."
At the time of those comments, Liberty was just talking. The cruise line had not ordered a new class of ships or fully confirmed that one was coming.
Royal Caribbean's Senior Vice President of Sales and Trade Support Vicki Freed commented on smaller ships during a recent sailing of Ovation of the Seas.
Royal Caribbean shares smaller ship-class news
Freed was speaking to a group of travel advisors (or travel agents depending upon the lingo) and she confirmed the new class of ships.
"The Discovery Project is our next new class of ships, following the Icon of the Seas, and the Star of the Seas, and the Legend the Seas. And we're in the design process now," she said, according to Royal Caribbean Blog. "We meet on a regular basis with the architects, with the designers...the ops team and the hotel operations, food and beverage. And so it is a top secret design at this point."
Freed also made some remarks that suggest that the project has moved forward internally.
"It's an exciting project. It'll be a new class of ship. In true Royal Caribbean style, it will be special, it will be innovative. And I think it'll be something that'll be a home run from the beginning," she added.
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Royal Caribbean has two classes of smaller ships, Radiance and Vision classes. The newest of these ships, Jewel of the Seas, was built in 2004.
The cruise line's oldest ship, Grandeur of the Seas, first sailed in Dec. 1996. At max capacity, Grandeur holds roughly 2,400 passengers while Icon of the Seas, the world's largest cruise ship, can hold 7,600.
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