Royal Caribbean is growing its fleet of megaships, with plans to build three more Icon of the Seas-style vessels. 

The cruise company, which currently operates 68 ships, this week said it is partnering with Finnish shipbuilder Meyer Turku to build the additional Icon-style ships. The deal includes options for Royal Caribbean to order fourth and fifth vessels. In addition to other Royal Caribbean ships, Meyer Turku built Icon of the Seas, the largest cruise ship in the world, which made its maiden voyage in January.

A sister ship, called Star of the Seas, will set sail from Cape Canaveral in the summer of 2025. The third Icon class ship, which will launch in 2026, has not yet been named, according to Royal Caribbean Group. 

Royal Caribbean Group president and CEO Jason Liberty said the company ordered the forthcoming ships based on enthusiastic customer response to Icon of the Seas, a ship so big it dwarfs The Titanic in size. The 250,800-ton ship, accommodates roughly 8,000 people and features dozens of restaurants, theme parks and “neighborhoods.”

“Building on the incredible momentum and market response to the launch of Icon of the Seas and the excitement for its sister ship, Star of the Seas, coming in 2025, we’re thrilled to join with Meyer Turku once again to expand our roster of Icon class ships and continue our future growth plans,” Liberty said in a statement on the repeat partnership. “Since its debut, Icon has changed the game in vacation experiences and exceeded our expectations in both guest satisfaction and financial performance.” 

“We’re just getting started”

Royal Caribbean said Icon is just the beginning of a new trend in cruising. 

“Icon of the Seas is unlike anything the world has seen before, and we’re just getting started,” Royal Caribbean International president and CEO Michael Bayley said in a statement. “We are leading the vacation industry in developing new experiences for our guests to create lifelong memories, and we continue dreaming and evolving to deliver more ways to chill and thrill.” 

While the cruise industry was momentarily battered by COVID-19, statistics show that cruising remains a popular way to vacation. In 2023, 31.7 million passengers took cruises, surpassing 2019’s record 20.7 million passengers, according to industry trade group Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA). CLIA expects that trend to continue, and forecasts that the number of cruise passengers will reach 34.7 million by the end of 2024. 

But while Icon has proved popular among cruisers, it’s drawn the ire of environmental advocates, who say cruise ships’ increasingly large sizes are not climate-friendly. 

The world’s biggest cruise ships are now twice as big as they were in 2020, according to a Transport and Environment report. CO2 emissions from cruise ships were nearly 20% higher in 2022 than they were in 2019, the Brussels-based group that advocates for clean transportation found.

Icon of the Seas features energy-efficient technology designed to reduce its carbon footprint, and Royal Caribbean has pledged to introduce a net-zero ship by 2035. But climate advocates say these advances aren’t enough to mitigate pollution from these ships, and that their sheer size and capacity is proof that the industry isn’t prioritizing sustainability. 

Royal Caribbean did not immediately respond to CBS MoneyWatch’s request for comment about its ships’ sustainability. 

A Thai court jailed a famous Spanish actor’s son for life on Thursday for the grisly murder of a Colombian plastic surgeon on a tropical holiday island in a case that has gripped Spain.

Daniel Sancho Bronchalo, a 30-year-old chef with a YouTube channel, was found guilty of the premeditated murder of Edwin Arrieta Arteaga on the tourist island of Koh Phangan last August.

The case has generated enormous interest in Spain because the defendant’s father, Rodolfo Sancho, is a well-known actor, and scores of Spanish reporters flew in for the trial. 

Sancho’s mother, Silvia Bronchalo, has also been in acting and both parents were at the sentencing, The Associated Press reported, adding that both are 49.

Bussakorn Kaewleeled, a lawyer for the victim’s family, said the family members were happy with the outcome.

“The plaintiff is satisfied with the sentence because he will be put in prison for life and they receive some financial compensation,” Bussakorn told reporters outside the court on the island of Koh Samui.

“The verdict has been delivered, both sides have the right to appeal according to Thai law,” Bussakorn added.

When asked about Sancho’s reaction, she said: “He is sad, but we can’t forget the loss of the dead one.”

The court at first sentenced Sancho to death but commuted that to life imprisonment due to his cooperation during the trial, the AP reported, citing Police Col. Paisan Sangthep, deputy commander of the Surat Thani Provincial Police, who attended the hearing.

Lurid details of Arrieta’s death

Sancho claimed he killed Arrieta, 44, in self-defense and admitted hiding the body but denied destroying the Colombian’s passport.

The trial had testimony that Sancho chopped up Arrieta’s body and put the parts in plastic bags before distributing them around Koh Phangan.

Sancho led police to seven sites where he allegedly disposed of the victim’s dismembered body in plastic bags, CBS News partner network BBC News reported. 

While Thailand still has the death penalty for some crimes, including premeditated murder, it rarely carries out executions — the last being in 2018.

Arrieta’s family said before the verdict that they favored a sentence of life imprisonment.

“Let him be left in Thailand so he can take time, all the time that God gives him to live, to think about what he did,” Darling Arrieta, the victim’s sister, said in an HBO documentary about the case.

“He not only dismembered my brother, he dismembered a family.”

Disputed versions of events  

Sancho and Arrieta agreed to meet in person after getting to know each other online.

Sancho’s father said in the same HBO documentary that Arrieta had threatened his son, and then “there was a fight, and in this fight, there was an accident.”

The defense argued that Sancho acted in legitimate self-defense after Arrieta tried to force him to have sex.

“He tried to rape me, and we fought,” Sancho said in a statement quoted by the Spanish daily El Mundo.

Sancho testified that Arrieta fell as they fought and hit his head on a bathtub, lost consciousness and died, the AP reported.

Another lawyer for the victim’s family, Juan Gonzalo Ospina, said in a recent interview with El Mundo that Sancho was living a “false reality.”

Ospina said it was proven at the trial in April that Sancho had bought knives, plastic bags and cleaning supplies before the crime and kept them in the room where the killing took place.

According to IMDB, Rodolfo Sancho has dozens of film and TV credits to his name and starred in “El Ministerio del Tiempo” (“The Ministry of Time”).