Engine-Room Work Starts on Royal Caribbean’s Sixth Icon-Class Ship

Production has started on the floating engine-room unit, or FERU, for Royal Caribbean's sixth Icon-class ship, an unnamed newbuild planned for 2029, before formal hull construction begins at Meyer Turku in Finland. The machinery module began June 8 at Crist Shipyard in the Port of Gdynia, Poland, where Crist and Meyer Turku are building the unit that will later be towed to Turku for integration.

Power plant work starts in Poland

The FERU is a prefabricated floating block containing the ship's main engines, LNG tanks and auxiliary machinery. Once completed, the unit will be floated out and moved by tugboats to the main assembly yard, allowing complex machinery work to proceed separately from hull construction.

Icon 6 project manager Kimmo Suutari called the start of FERU production "a significant milestone in the project's progress," and said a carefully prepared start gives the wider project a stronger base.

The module is the fourth FERU produced through the Meyer Turku-Crist collaboration. "Crist is already a familiar shipyard to us," FERU project manager Marja Aartovaara said, adding that the project organizations have developed a strong working relationship.

Aartovaara said Meyer Turku also has "an excellent site team" at Crist to keep the work on schedule and maintain quality during the Gdynia phase.

Royal Caribbean's Icon queue runs into 2030

Royal Caribbean Group confirmed orders for the sixth and seventh Icon-class ships with Meyer Turku for 2029 and 2030 delivery slots. The seventh order remains subject to customary conditions, including financing, while the group's broader framework with Meyer Turku reserves shipbuilding capacity through 2036 and includes the fifth Icon-class ship planned for 2028.

Meyer Turku has built 25 Royal Caribbean Group ships over a partnership of more than three decades. Its current production sequence places Icon 6 behind Hero of the Seas, the fourth ship, which has been under construction since September 2025 and is scheduled to debut in August 2027, and the unnamed fifth ship, which began construction Jan. 19, 2026, for a 2028 debut.

Formal construction of the sixth ship at Meyer Turku is expected later in 2026 or in 2027, with steel cutting normally serving as the first public construction step. The first two Icon-class construction cycles were about two and a half years: Icon of the Seas began construction June 14, 2021, and entered service Jan. 27, 2024; Star of the Seas began Feb. 15, 2023, and entered service Aug. 31, 2025.

Meyer Turku's Perno yard has a 365-meter by 80-meter dry dock and outfitting piers, and the yard can handle two to three large cruise ships at a time through staged production. Published Icon-class specifications put the ships at roughly 248,663 to 250,800 gross tons, about 365 meters long, with 5,610 passengers at double occupancy, up to 7,600 passengers at maximum capacity and 2,350 crew.

Royal Caribbean has not named the sixth ship. The line has not disclosed how its design will compare with the earlier Icon-class vessels. The next scheduled class debut is Legend of the Seas, due to enter service in the Western Mediterranean on July 4.

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