| IMO | 9829942 |
|---|---|
| Gross tonnage | 248,663 GT |
| Length | 364.83 m |
| Beam | 48.48 m |
| Passenger capacity (double) | 5610 |
| Passenger capacity (max) | 7600 |
| Crew | 2350 |
| Service speed | 22 knots |
| Builder | Meyer Turku |
| Yard | Perno shipyard |
| Hull number | 1401 |
| Launched | 2024 |
| Maiden voyage | 2025-08-16 |
| Class | Icon-class cruise ship |
| Operator | Royal Caribbean International |
| Status | Active |
Overview
Star of the Seas is a cruise ship operated by Royal Caribbean International and the second ship of the Icon class, following Icon of the Seas (2024). Built by Meyer Turku in Finland and entered into service in August 2025, she shares with her sister the title of the largest cruise ship in the world by gross tonnage, at 248,663 GT. Where the first Icon ship was a leap into a new design, Star is its confirmation: a near-identical second hull that proved the class — its liquefied natural gas machinery, its eight-neighbourhood layout and its sheer scale — could be repeated. She is the newest ship in this batch, and her history so far is a construction history.
Key specifications
The frozen dataset gives 248,663 GT, a beam of 48.48 m, Meyer Turku's Perno yard and IMO 9829942, with capacity, crew and speed blank. Two dataset figures need context. The length of 351.32 m is a registered or between-perpendiculars figure: her overall length is 364.83 m, as recorded by her reference article, and the difference is logged with this batch. Researched figures give a capacity of 5,610 passengers at double occupancy and up to 7,600 at maximum occupancy, a crew of about 2,350, 20 decks, and a yard number of NB 1401. Her machinery is diesel-electric built around Wärtsilä dual-fuel engines — the Icon class was designed for LNG operation — driving three ABB Azipod units, with Wärtsilä bow thrusters.
Design and construction
The Icon class was announced in October 2016 as a joint Royal Caribbean–Meyer Turku programme for a new generation beyond the Oasis class. For Star of the Seas, steel-cutting began on 15 February 2023 at Turku; her name was announced on 5 October 2023; and her keel was laid on 15 December 2023. Blocks and sections were also fabricated at other Meyer facilities and in Gdańsk. She was floated out on 25 September 2024 — so the dataset's "launched 2025" is a year late, and the error is logged — undertook sea trials in spring 2025, and was delivered on 10 July 2025. Her reported cost, in excess of €2 billion in secondary sources, reflects a ship that is less a scaled-up predecessor than a floating district of neighbourhoods, plant and hotel systems.
Naming, launch and maiden voyage
The name was announced during construction, in October 2023, extending the "of the Seas" convention Royal Caribbean has used since the 1980s to the second Icon hull. She entered service on 16 August 2025 — the dataset's maiden-voyage date — and, unusually, her formal christening followed her first revenue sailing, on 20 August 2025. Her launch, in the shipbuilding sense of the hull leaving the dry dock, was the float-out of September 2024 described above; the 2025 dates in the dataset and in most press coverage refer to delivery, naming and entry into service rather than to the hull taking the water.
Career by operator
| Period | Name | Operator |
|---|---|---|
| 2025–present | Star of the Seas | Royal Caribbean International |
She has had a single operator and a single role: the second unit of Royal Caribbean's flagship class, delivered into the same top-of-the-fleet position as her sister. Her career to date contains no charters, transfers or renamings, and — as a ship that entered service in 2025 — no meaningful deployment history beyond her inaugural season. Any account of her working life at this stage is properly an account of her construction and of the class she confirms, which is how this guide treats her.
Onboard character
The Icon design organises its enormous interior into eight themed "neighbourhoods", a concept developed from the Oasis class and carried further here. Its defining structures are the AquaDome, a glass-domed performance and leisure space at the top of the ship; the Pearl, a giant spherical structural element that is also a kinetic art installation in the Royal Promenade; a central open-air park of real planting; a dedicated family neighbourhood; and the Category 6 waterpark, presented by her operator as the largest at sea, alongside the suspended infinity pool of the adults' area and an ice arena. The era-defining point is the combination itself: a ship of a quarter of a million gross tons arranged not as decks of uniform public rooms but as a set of distinct districts, with LNG machinery below intended to mark a generational change in how such ships are powered.
Major refits and incidents
None — and, for a ship delivered in July 2025, none would be expected. No refit has fallen due and no casualty or major incident involving Star of the Seas is recorded in the sources consulted for this guide. Her early record consists of construction milestones, sea trials, delivery and entry into service. This section will be the one that dates fastest, and it should be the first checked when this guide is next revised.
Sister ships and class
She is the second of the Icon class: Icon of the Seas (2024), Star of the Seas (2025), Legend of the Seas (entered service 2026) and further ships on order for delivery later in the decade, all built by Meyer Turku. Royal Caribbean has announced an order book of at least seven Icon-class ships in total. The class is, as of the sources consulted, the largest cruise-ship class ever constructed, and Star's 248,663 GT exactly matches her first sister's tonnage — the two ships shared the "largest cruise ship in the world" title on her delivery, a title that passes within the class rather than to a competitor.
Fate and where she is now
The dataset lists her status as active and her fate as operating, and her reference article records her in service with Royal Caribbean International, registered at Nassau, Bahamas. She is at the start of her career: a brand-new flagship-class ship under her original name and operator, whose story so far is the story of her building — and whose long-term significance will be as the ship that turned the one-off spectacle of Icon of the Seas into a class.
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cruise_ships, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_of_the_Seas, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icon-class_cruise_ship, https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_of_the_Seas