Largest cruise ship in the world makes maiden voyage – 01/27/2024 – Market

The largest cruise ship in the world makes its maiden voyage starting this Saturday (27).

Royal Caribbean International’s Icon of the Seas set sail from Miami, in the United States. The host of the maiden voyage was actor Mario Lopez.

As of late Saturday afternoon, travel influencers were already sharing their first reports about the vessel and their impressions.

A few days ago, the launch of the inaugural trip was attended by award-winning footballer Lionel Messi.

The Icon of the Seas has a water park, seven swimming pools, more than 40 restaurants, bars and lounges and six spaces called neighborhoods – areas with different profiles, such as those dedicated to families with small children or a set of gardens called Central Park (like the famous park in New York).

The ship’s capacity is for up to 7,600 passengers, who have access to 18 decks, spread over 1,198 feet in length, the equivalent of 365 meters. The vessel was built in Finland. The crew is made up of 2,350 people.

The ship headed towards a private island belonging to the company that owns the cruise, Royal Caribbean International, in the Bahamas.

Also on Saturday, environmental groups raised concerns about the possibility of the vessel powered by liquefied natural gas – and other giant cruise ships that will follow it – leaking methane, harmful to the atmosphere.

The ship was built to run on liquefied natural gas (LNG), which burns cleaner than traditional marine fuel but poses greater risks for methane emissions.

Environmental groups say the methane leak from the ship’s engines is an unacceptable risk to the climate due to its harmful short-term effects.

“It’s a step in the wrong direction,” said Bryan Comer, director of the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), an environmental policy think tank.

“We estimate that using LNG as a marine fuel emits 120% more lifecycle greenhouse gases than marine diesel.”

In terms of warming effects, methane is 80 times worse over 20 years than carbon dioxide, making reducing these emissions critical to curbing global temperature warming.

_{With Reuters}