Why Royal Caribbean is about to own the market for short cruises from Florida

Call it the ultimate cruise ship for short weekend getaways.

When Royal Caribbean's giant Utopia of the Seas debuts in 2024 with a series of three- and four-night sailings from Port Canaveral, Florida, it'll instantly shoot to the top of the list of the best ships available for short getaways in North America.

Not just to the top — but miles above its closest competitor.

The still-under-construction, 236,860-ton vessel, which will be the second-largest cruise ship in the world when it debuts, will be far bigger, newer and more amenity-filled than any other cruise ship sailing short itineraries in North America.

In short, it'll be the ship that everybody wants — or should want — for a short cruise. And, for Royal Caribbean, that's the point of what some longtime industry watchers may have seen as an unusual first deployment for the vessel.

Cruise lines often assign their newest and biggest ships to longer seven-night sailings — a more lucrative market — and place older and smaller vessels on shorter runs. However, Royal Caribbean is taking the opposite approach with Utopia of the Seas.

In the great chess game that is ship deployment among the major cruise lines, Royal Caribbean's announcement Tuesday that Utopia of the Seas would focus on short sailings when it debuts in July 2024 was a king-killer move in the short-cruise market. A checkmate moment.

Aiming at first-time cruisers

Royal Caribbean's plans for Utopia of the Seas are all about drawing new customers who have never cruised before — or what is known as the "new-to-cruise" market.

People who are new to cruising are leery of booking long sailings in case they don't love cruising as much as they hoped. As a result, they tend to gravitate to short three- and four-night cruises where they can test the waters, so to speak. Until relatively recently, many of the ships devoted to such short sailings out of North American ports weren't the best the industry had to offer. To try the best ships, you had to book a longer sailing.

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That all began to change in the last four years as Royal Caribbean began deploying some of its best vessels on short itineraries out of Florida, starting in 2019 with two snazzily upgraded vessels, Navigator of the Seas and Mariner of the Seas, and continuing this year with an announcement that one of the line's giant and much-loved Oasis-class vessels, Allure of the Seas, would begin short cruises out of Florida later this year.

Allure of the Seas is one of the biggest, most amenity-filled ships in the world, and its deployment on short cruises will be a game changer for the niche. However, the deployment of Utopia of the Seas on short cruises is even more game changing.

Of the five giant Oasis-class ships now sailing, which are the five biggest and most amenity-filled cruise ships currently at sea, Allure of the Seas is one of the oldest (it was unveiled nearly 13 years ago), and it's the only one that lacks a massive water park, a marquee feature for the series. It also lacks several other features found on newer Oasis-class ships.

The deployment of Utopia of the Seas on short cruises as its first mission after debuting in 2024 marks a first for Royal Caribbean. Never before has the line sent one of its new Oasis-class ships directly into short-cruise service.

Related: The 6 classes of Royal Caribbean ships, explained

"We've made a strategic shift to put our best products on short getaways," Royal Caribbean Chief Marketing Officer Kara Wallace told TPG this week. "Our goal really is to bring and attract the next generation of cruisers, and Utopia is a ship that will do that."

Noting that the shift in strategy goes back to the deployment of Navigator of the Seas and Mariner of the Seas on short cruises in 2019, Wallace said the idea was to "make that first impression, the best impression" with first-time cruisers.

Royal Caribbean has occasionally offered one-off short cruises on Oasis-class ships in the past as part of ship redeployments, and the sailings have always been a hit with customers, Wallace said. That, in part, gave the line "the confidence to ... move forward and make a move like this."

Another factor behind the move, says Wallace: Vacationers these days are increasingly eager for short getaways. There are a growing number of people who would rather take multiple short vacations in a year than just one or two longer vacations, she suggested.

"People are choosing to do more frequent shorter getaways, and if they want like a teaser, a sampler platter (of a cruise), Utopia of the Seas is it," she said.

As one of Royal Caribbean's newest and biggest ships, Utopia of the Seas will have nearly all of the most popular marquee features found on various ships across the Royal Caribbean fleet.

Related: The biggest Royal Caribbean ships | The best Royal Caribbean ships | The best Royal Caribbean itineraries

Like the five other Oasis-class vessels, Utopia of the Seas will have three separate pool areas, a kiddie splash zone, a surfing simulator, a miniature golf course, a basketball court and even a zip line. And that's just on the top decks.

Inside the vessel, you'll find more lounges, bars, restaurants and shops than you can imagine, plus two casinos, a spa and a showroom with Broadway-style shows. It will even have indoor ice skating rinks.

In addition, as Royal Caribbean announced Tuesday, Utopia of the Seas will have several new-for-the-line venues, including an as-yet-unnamed dining experience that will draw on snazzy technology to create a "locomotive journey" as you dine. Royal Caribbean was coy about the latter concept but released the artist's rendering below as a tease of what customers can expect.

The line also said the pool areas of the vessel will have a "reimagined" look as compared to the pool areas on earlier Oasis-class ships, and the massive, 10-deck-high Ultimate Abyss dry slide that is a signature feature of several other Oasis-class ships will be 43 feet longer on Utopia of the Seas.

Wallace also hinted at two other tweaks to the Ultimate Abyss slide that could make it the most over-the-top slide experience at sea: the addition of "booster rollers" on its inside that will make riders go faster, and new transparent tube sections.

"People on the outside can see you going down the slide, and [riders] get that glimpse of daylight before it goes back to dark again," she said.

Two giant new Royal Caribbean ships on the way

Utopia of the Seas is just one of two giant new ships that Royal Caribbean plans to debut in 2024 — both among the biggest cruise vessels in the world.

The other new vessel, Icon of the Seas, will arrive in January 2024 and has been getting more press of late as it'll be the biggest cruise ship ever built.

Icon of the Seas also will boast a number of buzzworthy new features, as you can see in our sneak-peek video below. TPG's video team got exclusive access to the ship in May at the shipyard in Finland where it's being built.

Wallace said the two ships are aimed at two different markets. Icon of the Seas, which will do seven-night voyages out of Miami, is positioned as the "world's best family vacation" option, while Utopia of the Seas, which will sail from Port Canaveral, is the ship for the "world's biggest weekend."

"The exciting thing about them [is] that they're doing two different products out of two different markets," Wallace said. "Icon is really focused and doubling down on the family market, and Utopia is all about the weekend and the short getaway."

Utopia of the Seas will rotate between three-night sailings starting on Fridays that end on Monday mornings and four-night sailings that start on Mondays and end on Friday mornings.

All of the Utopia of the Seas sailings will include a day at Perfect Day at CocoCay, Royal Caribbean's private island in the Bahamas, which Wallace notes will turn the short cruise experience on the ship into a resort experience at an epic level.

Related: The ultimate guide to Royal Caribbean

When you include Perfect Day's water park, pool and beach offerings, it's a trip where "there's not three slides [the number on Utopia of the Seas], there's actually 17 slides in a weekend. There's eight pools. There's six beaches," she said. "When you think about all of these things together, it really makes this the best possible short getaway there is."

Members of Royal Caribbean's Crown & Anchor Society loyalty program will be able to book initial sailings for Utopia of the Seas starting Thursday. The ship's sailings will open to the general public for bookings Friday.

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