| IMO | 9744001 |
|---|---|
| Gross tonnage | 228,081 GT |
| Length | 361.8 m |
| Beam | 47.03 m |
| Passenger capacity (max) | 6680 |
| Service speed | 22.0 knots |
| Builder | French State; Chantiers de l'Atlantique |
| Yard | Saint-Nazaire |
| Launched | 2018 |
| Maiden voyage | 2018 |
| Class | Oasis-class cruise ship |
| Operator | Royal Caribbean International |
| Status | Active |
Overview
Symphony of the Seas is the fourth Oasis-class cruise ship built for Royal Caribbean International, delivered by Chantiers de l'Atlantique at Saint-Nazaire in March 2018. At 228,081 GT she was, on delivery, the largest cruise ship in the world by gross tonnage, surpassing her sister Harmony of the Seas. She held that title from March 2018 until January 2022, when she was surpassed by another sister, Wonder of the Seas — a date-stamped superlative that matters, because the Oasis class kept overtaking itself.
Her significance is therefore twofold. She is a record-breaker, but a record-breaker inside a familiar design: the fourth iteration of a concept first proved in 2009, refined rather than reinvented. Understanding Symphony is largely a matter of understanding what the Oasis design had become by its fourth ship — bigger, more energy-conscious, and organised ever more completely around the idea of the ship as a destination in itself.
Key specifications
The dataset records her at 228,081 GT, 47.03 m in beam, 22.0 knots and a maximum capacity of 6,680 passengers, figures that agree with the ship's own published characteristics on tonnage, speed and maximum capacity. The beam given is the waterline beam; the Oasis hull is considerably wider across its upper works.
Two dataset figures need care. The dataset gives a length of 330.7 m, while her own article and registry-derived characteristics give 361.8 m overall. The dataset also gives 2018 as the launched year, while her article records a float-out on 9 June 2017. Both discrepancies are flagged in the build notes for this guide and should be settled against a registry record before those two figures are relied on.
Her article also records 5,518 passengers at double occupancy — substantially below the 6,680 maximum — and a crew of 2,200. As with all Oasis-class ships, the double-occupancy and maximum figures describe different things and should never be mixed.
Design and construction
Royal Caribbean ordered the fourth Oasis-class ship on 9 May 2014, exercising an option for another vessel from the Saint-Nazaire yard that had built Harmony of the Seas. The yard, then operating as STX France and now Chantiers de l'Atlantique, gave the hull yard number B34. Steel cutting began in February 2015 and the keel was laid on 29 October 2015.
Propulsion is diesel-electric. Six Wärtsilä generating sets — three 16-cylinder and three 12-cylinder 46D engines — supply power to three 20 MW ABB Azipod units, all azimuthing, with four bow thrusters for manoeuvring. That podded arrangement is what allows a ship of this length to be worked into ordinary cruise berths.
Efficiency was a selling point of this iteration. Her article records an energy requirement lower than the class norm, the use of LED or fluorescent lighting throughout to reduce heat load on air conditioning, waste-heat recovery by steam turbine, and a system releasing tiny air bubbles under the hull to reduce drag, noise and vibration — credited, among other changes, with markedly lower fuel use than earlier Oasis ships.
Naming, launch and maiden voyage
The name Symphony of the Seas continues the class's pattern of abstract, musical and aspirational names — Oasis, Allure, Harmony, Symphony. It was announced in March 2017, while the ship was already under construction.
She was floated out on 9 June 2017, undertook sea trials from 15 to 18 February 2018, and was formally handed over on 23 March 2018. A first passenger sailing followed on 31 March, and her maiden voyage began on 7 April 2018 — the dataset's maiden-voyage year, 2018, is correct at year level.
Her sponsors broke precedent. Actors Carlos PenaVega and Alexa PenaVega, with their young son Ocean, were chosen as the ship's "Godfamily" — described by the line as the first time a whole family had sponsored a ship of this kind. The christening ceremony itself took place in Miami in November 2018, months after she had entered service.
Career by operator
Symphony of the Seas has had one name and one operator throughout her life so far.
| Period | Name | Operator |
|---|---|---|
| 2018–present | Symphony of the Seas | Royal Caribbean International |
Her career to date is therefore a single-operator story, interrupted — like the whole industry — by the COVID-19 pandemic, when Royal Caribbean suspended service across most of its fleet including this ship. That suspension, and the ship's return afterwards, are dealt with under refits and incidents below. No sale, transfer or renaming has been recorded in the sources used for this guide.
Onboard character
The Oasis idea is architectural. The hull is split lengthways by open-air districts — "neighbourhoods" — with accommodation rising on both sides of a central void open to the sky. Symphony carried that established arrangement forward, with the planted Central Park district at its centre, the Boardwalk at the stern with its carousel and AquaTheater, and a suite neighbourhood that formalised a ship-within-a-ship area for suite guests.
Signature devices of the class define her character: a zip line across the Boardwalk void ten decks up, rock-climbing walls, surf simulators, an ice rink and a large main theatre. Her article notes 16 guest decks, 22 restaurants, four pools and 2,759 cabins at introduction — figures given here as a record of the ship as designed, not as a current amenity list.
The result is inward-facing and urban by design. The sea is present, but often viewed from above or astern; the ship herself, rather than the passing coastline, is the place being visited. That was the Oasis proposition in 2009, and Symphony is its fourth and, at delivery, largest expression.
Major refits and incidents
No major structural refit is recorded for Symphony of the Seas in the sources used for this guide; she is a comparatively recent ship and her early history is one of ordinary service punctuated by the pandemic shutdown.
The pandemic episode was serious. During the suspension in spring 2020, a 27-year-old crew member from the housekeeping department was medically evacuated in March and died from COVID-19 in April 2020; his family subsequently sued the line. The incident is recorded here because her own article records it, as part of the fleet-wide story of ships laid up with crew still aboard.
Her article also records individual overboard incidents: in January 2019 a guest who jumped from the ship while docked in Nassau as a stunt survived, was handed to law enforcement and was banned by the line; in August 2019 a passenger died after going overboard, with the body recovered shortly afterwards; and on 29 October 2023 a passenger who went overboard during a repositioning crossing was successfully rescued by the crew. These are passenger incidents, not casualties to the ship herself, and no fire, grounding or machinery casualty is recorded for her in the sources used.
Sister ships and class
The Oasis class began with Oasis of the Seas in 2009 and rewrote the upper limit of cruise-ship size. Symphony's sisters, in delivery order, are Oasis of the Seas, Allure of the Seas, Harmony of the Seas, Wonder of the Seas and Utopia of the Seas. The first two were built in Finland; from Harmony onwards, the class was built at Saint-Nazaire.
Within the class, each successive ship was slightly larger than the last — which is why Symphony could take the world title from Harmony in 2018 and surrender it to Wonder in 2022. The class as a whole was later overtaken in tonnage by Royal Caribbean's Icon class.
Fate and where she is now
Symphony of the Seas is in active service with Royal Caribbean International, which is how the dataset records her: status active, fate "Operating". No sale, transfer or withdrawal has been announced in the sources used here. As a ship delivered in 2018, she remains in the first part of the long service life typical of the Oasis class, whose lead ship remains in service well into her second decade.
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cruise_ships, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_of_the_Seas