Icon of the Seas hitting 132% occupancy but there's still room to carry more cruisers

The ship embarked on its inaugural cruise from PortMiami in late January.

Occupancy could still go up

That 132% sounds whopping — and it is — but there's still a bit to go before full occupany.

Icon has 5,610 lower berths (double occupancy) so 132% load factor works out to 7,405 passengers. The ship's full passenger capacity is 7,600.

Ramping up

Typically lines introduce new ships, especially those of a new class like Icon, at reduced occupancy giving crew and systems time to settle in, and ramp up load factors gradually.

In reporting second quarter earnings today, Royal Caribbean Group put the company's overall occupancy at 108%. It may climb higher in the peak Q3 summer vacation period.

CEO Jason Liberty told analysts load factors were 'pretty normalized' (post-pandemic) in the second half of 2023.