The construction of Royal Caribbean’s fourth Icon Class cruise ship has entered a pivotal stage with the installation of its first fully prefabricated cabins at the Meyer Turku shipyard. Built off-site as complete modular units, the cabins streamline the construction process while ensuring consistent quality at an unprecedented scale. As hull assembly continues and interior outfitting comes into focus, the vessel begins its transition from industrial structure to inhabitable floating city—one that will soon join the world’s largest cruise ships when delivered in 2027.
At the Meyer Turku shipyard in Finland, construction of Royal Caribbean International’s fourth Icon Class cruise ship has reached a defining moment. With the installation of its first prefabricated cabins on Friday, January 9, 2026, the vessel has entered a new phase of assembly—one that shifts focus from the ship’s massive structural form to the interior environments that will soon host thousands of passengers.
The cabins arrive on board not as piecemeal components, but as complete, factory-built modules. Produced by Meyer Turku’s subsidiary, Piikkiö Works, each unit is fully finished before leaving the factory, then transported to the Turku yard and carefully lifted into place. This modular approach compresses timelines and reduces the amount of labor traditionally carried out inside the ship, bringing a level of precision and predictability more commonly associated with architecture than shipbuilding.
For Meyer Turku, prefabrication is not simply about efficiency—it is about control. By completing cabins in a dedicated factory environment, the shipbuilder can ensure consistent quality, tighter tolerances, and smoother coordination across trades. Once installed, the cabins effectively become part of the ship’s structure, allowing outfitting work to proceed in parallel rather than sequentially.
The unnamed vessel has been under construction for several months, with its keel laid in the dry dock on September 8, 2025. Since then, the project has advanced through the hull-block assembly stage, as large prefabricated sections were joined to form the ship’s immense framework. The addition of cabins marks a transition from pure structure to inhabitable space—a moment when the ship begins to feel less like an industrial object and more like a floating city.
Hull construction is expected to continue through the coming months, with Meyer Turku projecting that the ship will float out of dry dock in the summer of 2026. From there, it will move to an outfitting pier, where interior finishes, technical systems, and final detailing will be completed ahead of delivery.
The fourth Icon Class ship is scheduled to be handed over to Royal Caribbean in the second quarter of 2027. When complete, it will join a fleet that represents the largest cruise ships currently in operation. Icon Class vessels feature more than 2,800 staterooms and are designed to accommodate approximately 7,600 passengers, combining hospitality, entertainment, and engineering at an unprecedented scale.
The installation of the first cabins offers a glimpse into how contemporary shipbuilding is evolving. Modular construction, long embraced in architecture and housing, is increasingly shaping the way cruise ships are assembled—prioritizing efficiency without sacrificing comfort or design intent. In Turku, as prefabricated rooms settle into place, the next Icon Class ship begins its transformation from steel and structure into a fully realized passenger experience.