Star of the Seas ‘96% Ready,’ Says Royal Caribbean
Royal Caribbean’s Star of the Seas is almost ready to set sail – and this time, families and teens are getting top billing.
In a new video released by the cruise line, Jennifer Goswami, senior director of product development, gave a candid look inside the design process behind the next Icon Class ship, set to debut in August 2025.
“Star of the Seas is coming along great. As of this morning, she’s 96 percent ready,” she said, coffee in hand, as she walked through Royal Caribbean’s Miami headquarters.
Goswami has worked on about 15 ships during her career but says Star of the Seas stands out for its youth-forward design.
“We really wanted to focus on youth and family,” she said. “We redesigned our entire playscape. We added some fun to Splashaway Bay. We redesigned Adventure Ocean and gave teens a full refresh.”
The changes are based on guest feedback from Star of the Seas’ sister ship, Icon of the Seas, the first of the class, which began sailing in January 2024.
“Teens told us they didn’t necessarily think it was cool on Icon, so we really did a lot,” she said.
The new space has been overhauled and made more appealing based on what older kids asked for, although Goswami didn’t detail what the changes entailed.
She also said much of the ship’s Surfside neighborhood has also been reimagined.
“Knowing that we’re sailing out of Port Canaveral, we really wanted to double down on youth and family,” Goswami said.
That included building a larger Splashaway Bay and fully revamping the playscape area to better match the age and interests of today’s younger cruisers.
Goswami handed the conversation over to Daniel Perlmutter from Royal Caribbean’s Special Projects team, who explained how the playscape is being rebuilt.
“One of the things that we really learned here was that kids are a little bit older than we thought they were going to be,” he said. “We wanted to incorporate more physical play… to really make sure we’re hitting on that older kid demographic.”
Royal Caribbean’s design approach blends guest feedback with hands-on testing. In the video, Goswami walks through the company’s warehouse space, where life-size venue models are built.
“This is where we really get to build things out, test them, bring different focus groups through them,” she said.
One example? A new character debuting on Star of the Seas’s carousel.
“We actually built out quite a few and brought a lot of different kids through,” she said. “This is the one the kids told us would be the most fun,” pointing out a purple and pink seahorse design.
Read Also: Icon of the Seas Amenities and Everything You’ll Love Onboard
In addition to physical models, Goswami noted that Royal Caribbean’s virtual lab allows the team to walk through the ship before it’s built, giving the team a chance to see all of the elements, right down to the kinetic tiles in the Pearl or signage placements.
While dreaming up new venues is the “easiest part,” Goswami said the actual execution is more complex.
“There’s not much that’s easy about making a cruise ship,” she admitted. “But seeing products that we’ve dreamed about for years physically make it onboard is a feeling I never thought I’d be able to have.”
Second Icon Class Ship
Star of the Seas is Royal Caribbean’s second ship in the cruise line’s iconic Icon Class and scheduled to debut in August 2025.
Wrapping up construction at the Meyer Turku shipyard in Finland, which began on February 15, 2023, with a steel-cutting ceremony, the 250,800-gross-ton vessel will homeport in Port Canaveral, Florida, and provide up to 5,610 passengers a chance to sail 7-night roundtrip voyages to the Caribbean.
Guests have an option between Eastern and Western Caribbean routes, both of which will call at the cruise line’s private destination, Perfect Day at CocoCay in the Bahamas.