Royal Caribbean to announce new ships?

Royal Caribbean may well be ordering the first of what will be a new series of vessels for the line.

Chairman and CEO Richard Fain made the announcement in a conference call with Wall Street analysts to discuss fourth quarter earnings. He said "We feel that the time may now be right for such a move, we have been working intensively on developing a new design." He also noted "We think we are near to an acceptable outcome.”

Fain also hinted the ships in the new series would be smaller than the recent Oasis Class ships. He said the design under development "reflects our innovative spirit but in an efficient package."

Cruise ships take years to build, so even an order placed today would be unlikely to result in a finished vessel before 2013 or 2014.

The Oasis class ships are the largest Cruise ships in the world and although packed full with exciting features they are limited to where they can go simply because of their enormous size. Time will tell as to whether they will build something equally as stunning or go for a smaller vessel with more options.