Royal Caribbean Might Start Building Smaller Ships Next—Here's Why
- Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian are all set to introduce new, larger ships in the coming years, indicating that the trend of large ships in the cruise industry is continuing.
Is the era of the XXL ship already over?
With Celebrity's biggest Edge Class ship, Xcel, coming this November, Royal Caribbean's next super-sized Icon Class ship, Legend of the Seas, set to make its debut next year and Norwegian's next entry into slightly larger ship category, Prima Plus Class' Luna, coming up in 2026 too, it's likely the large ship trend isn't going anywhere anytime soon.
But with the recent debut of Celebrity's sell-out river class shipsand more river-friendly options on the way from other American cruise lines, interest in smaller, more intimate ships that can fit in new and unique ports is another cruise trend making waves.
On the heels of the news that Celebrity's entire 2027 Compassand Seekerinventory sold out in under five hours last week, Royal Caribbean is now revealing more of its upcoming plans for the next build in line after its Icon Class—the to-be-determined Discovery Class.
While Royal Caribbean executives have been referencing the next ship class after Icon since 2023, according to Travel Host , during a recent President's Cruise event on board Utopia of the Seas, Royal Caribbean President and CEO Michael Bayley finally outlined its plans.
Related: Celebrity's New River Cruise Ships Just Sold Out in 5 Hours
What's Next for Royal Caribbean's Discovery Ship Class
"We've been working a lot on the Discovery Class…it takes a lot of work to design a ship…[but] we're getting really close," Bayley said in a Common Ground chat.
The president and CEO then went on to share details cruise goers have been waiting for. "We want the ship[s] to be able to really focus on…the more exotic itineraries," Bayley said.
"It'll go through the Panama Canal, which we think will be a real positive because it'll be able to go to Alaskain the summer, and it can get back into the Caribbean."
While he offered little further detail on destinations or sailings, cruise experts have been speculating that this could mean the new ship class will focus more on rest-of-world routes like South Pacific, Asia, South America and Northern Europe.
Bayley noted Royal Caribbean intends to use the Discovery Class to "start replacing the older hardware that currently operates in many of those itineraries," which include Visionand Radiance.
While those ships are smaller, as of 2106, a Panama Canal expansion has allowed ships up to 4,000 passengers and up to 168,000 tonnage to pass through, so the jury is out on what the actual size the Discovery Class will end up being.
Cruisers on Reddit were hopeful that the upcoming class could blend some of the newest amenities of the bigger ships along with the enhanced access of smaller ones. "I'm hoping it's small enough to fit in a lot of ports that their current fleet cannot go to. Also, I would love to see some of the innovations they made with Oasis and Icon class but on a smaller scale," ryansox wrote in a recent discussion about the Discovery Class in the Royal Caribbean community on Reddit.
Passengers may not have to wait too much longer to find out. "We can't make any announcements now, but I'm hopeful that in the coming months we will be able to make an announcement on that class," said Bayley.
This story was originally reported by Parade on Sep 30, 2025, where it first appeared in the Travel section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
