World’s Largest Cruise Ship ‘Star of the Seas’ Leaves Assembly Dock For Outfitting

Finnish Shipbuilder Meyer Turku floated out the second ship in the Royal Caribbean International’s Icon class, the Star of the Seas. The behemoth left the dry dock after 19 months when its assembly phase was completed.

Some of the final stages of the assembly process included fitting the Azipod Propulsion System and the huge 367-ton dome, the biggest glass and steel structure lifted onto a cruise vessel, which took days.

She will now undergo interior outfitting as her maiden voyage is scheduled in August 2025.

The float out was marked with an event in which a ceremonial cannon was fired. Then, the gates of the dry dock were opened and the 16 m deep, 80 m wide and 365 m long dry dock was filled with around 92 million gallons of water which took nine hours.

After the dry dock was flooded, the vessel floated out with the help of tugs and moved towards the outfitting pier where final outfitting would be done.

The vessel is nearly the length of the assembly dry dock, measuring 364 m lengthwise with a gross tonnage of approximately 248,600. The process of emptying the dry dock took 12 hours.

Though behind schedule, with the company delaying its maiden voyage by a few weeks to the end of August 2025, once operational, it will sail throughout the year from Florida’s Port Canaveral, alternating between itineraries to the eastern and western Caribbean.

The ship has 8 neighbourhoods, each with outdoor entertainment facilities, not to forget the 6 tallest waterslides ever on a cruise ship and a one-of-a-kind entertainment space called AquaDome.

It has 20 decks with more than 2800 cabins for guests. There are double-occupancy spaces to accommodate 5600 people, bringing the total passenger capacity of the cruise ship to around 7600. The ship will have around 2350 crew members.

It is dual-fuel enabled, can operate on LNG, and has 3 Azipods and 6 engines. Since the Star of the Sea has left the assembly dry dock, the third vessel of the Icon Class will enter the dock, scheduled for delivery in 2026 while the fourth ship of the class is also due in 2027. The cost of each ship is reported to be $2 billion.

World’s Largest Cruise Ship ‘Star of the Seas’ Leaves Assembly Dock For Outfitting appeared first on Marine Insight – The Maritime Industry Guide

Source: Maritime Shipping News