Welcome to the Royal Crimean blog podcast.

We can look into the world of Royal Caribbean cruising.

I'm your host Matt Hodgeburg and this is episode number 514.

In 2024, Railroadman is going to launch not one, but two new cruise ships and you might be tempted or already booked the inaugural sailing on one or both.

But what is an inaugural or maiden voyage really like?

And shouldn't you book it?

Today, let's talk about that.

Here we go.

The fact that Royal Caribbean has two new cruise ships launching in 2024 is a big deal.

Usually you only have one new cruise ship in a given calendar year,

but within about six months of each other, you're going to have icon of the seas and

Utopia of the seas launching at the same time in the same year anyway. And this is a big deal.

I mean, it's a big celebration. It means a lot to the cruise line. There's a lot of

symbolism. We don't need to go into that. But with a new ship, it's very tempting to want to say,

ooh, I want to get on that ship. I certainly do that as well. And when you look at cruise ships and

you look at maiden voyages, the allure of going on a brand new ship adds a certain checkmark, if you will,

in your maybe bucket list or belt of accomplishments, if that makes any kind of sense.

Because these brand new ships carry a lot of marketing and height around them. And that

generates a lot of interest and also a lot of

people want to check out these new ships, right? You've got icon of the seas, which is a new class

of ships, and they also have Utopia of the Seas, which while being the sixth in the Oasis class,

still has a number of new innovations that really make it interesting. Not to mention the fact

...