World's Largest Cruise Ship 'Icon of the Seas' has set sail from Miami

The world’s largest cruise ship, Icon of the Seas, owned by Royal Caribbean Group, has set sail from Miami, Florida, on its maiden voyage.

The 365m-long (1,197 ft) cruise ship, Icon of the Seas, left Miami. It’s as long as three football fields and can hold 8,000 passengers on 20 floors.

This $2 billion ship uses a cleaner fuel called liquefied natural gas (LNG), but it might release a lot of methane, which is bad for the environment and can harm the climate quickly.

Research in 2024 says that cruise ship engines usually emit about 6.4% of methane, but the people who make the rules for ships say it’s only 3.5%.

The owners of the ship, Royal Caribbean, say it’s better than other ships and uses less energy and they want to make a carbon-free ship by 2035.

Bryan Comer, marine program director at The International Council on Clean Transportation, said:

“Royal Caribbean’s decision to use LNG is their biggest climate blunder.
LNG is mostly methane, a greenhouse gas that traps more than 80 times more heat than carbon dioxide in the first 20 years after it is emitted. The Icon of the Seas uses engines that release methane to the atmosphere in the form of ‘methane slip.’”