Royal Caribbean's Icon of the Seas, the world's largest cruise ship, will arrive in Port Miami for the first time on January 10, 2024, heading to dock.
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The world's largest cruise ship set sail from Miami, Florida over the weekend, embarking on a seven-day island hopping trip through the tropics on its first commercial voyage.
On Saturday, onlookers gathered as Royal Caribbean International's giant ship, an icon of the sea, left the Port of Miami to great cheers.
Featuring eight “districts,” seven swimming pools, six waterslides and a total of 20 decks, the ship has embarked on its first cruise, aiming to capitalize on soaring travel demand.
Remarkably, the ship is approximately five times the size of the Titanic, with a maximum passenger capacity of 7,600 people.
The ship cost $2 billion to build, is approximately 1,200 feet (365 meters) long from bow to stern, and weighs 250,800 tons.
In a press conference earlier this month, Royal Caribbean Group CEO Jason Liberty described Icon of the Seas as “the biggest, baddest ship on Earth.”
The opening of giant floating resorts is raising new concerns about the environmental impact of cruise tourism.
The ship is built to run on liquefied natural gas, which burns cleaner than other conventional marine fuels but contains high levels of methane.
Royal Caribbean's Icon of the Seas, billed as the world's largest cruise ship, will set sail from the Port of Miami in Miami, Florida on January 27, 2024 on its first cruise.
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Methane is about 80 times more potent at warming the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, and scientists warn that methane emissions must be drastically reduced to avoid the worst of the climate crisis. .
“This is a step in the wrong direction,” Brian Comer, oceans program director at the International Council on Clean Transport (ICCT), said, according to Reuters.
“Using LNG as a marine fuel is estimated to increase lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions by more than 120% than marine diesel oil,” he added.
Last week, the ICCT released a report warning that methane emissions from LNG-fueled ships were higher than expected under current regulations, and said the use of LNG as a marine fuel was “rapidly increasing”. It pointed out.
Royal Caribbean International says every kilowatt of energy used on Icon of the Seas is “scrutinized for energy efficiency and emissions reduction.”
On January 27, 2024, people wait for Royal Caribbean's Icon of the Seas, billed as the world's largest cruise ship, to depart for its first cruise from the Port of Miami in Miami, Florida.
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