The ''Freedom'' class is a group of three

cruise ships Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports-of-call, where passengers may go on tours known as "s ...

for

Royal Caribbean International Royal Caribbean International (RCI), also formerly known as Royal Caribbean Cruise Line (RCCL), is a cruise line brand founded in 1968 in Norway and organised as a wholly owned subsidiary of Royal Caribbean Group since 1997. Based in Miami, Flori ...

. The first ship of the class, , was the largest passenger ship in the world, and the largest ever built in terms of passenger capacity and gross tonnage, when it was built in 2006. These two records were then shared by all three ships until the construction of was completed in November 2009. ''Freedom of the Seas'' left

Aker Finnyards STX Finland Oy, formerly Aker Yards Oy, was a Finnish shipbuilding company operating three shipyards in Finland, in Turku, Helsinki and Rauma, employing some 2,500 people. It was part of STX Europe, a group of international shipbuilding companie ...

Turku Shipyard,

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

on 24 April 2006 and started regular sailings out of Miami the next month. The second ship of the class, , sailed on its maiden voyage on 19 May 2007. The third ship of the class, , was delivered and started work out of Southampton in April 2008.

Design

The ''Freedom''-class ships are similar in design and layout to the earlier second-generation , including an ice skating rink and a central atrium named the Royal Promenade, featuring a pub, shops, arcades, bars, and a 24-hour Cafe Promenade. New features added to the ''Freedom'' class include the FlowRider surf park, cantilevered whirlpools, a full-size boxing ring, and the H2O Zone waterpark. The first ship, ''Freedom of the Seas'', is estimated to have cost US$800 million.

Future

In March 2008, Aker Yards and Royal Caribbean announced a memorandum of agreement for a fourth ship in the class, subject to board approval and finalization of terms and conditions, but no actual order for the ship was ever announced. In 2011, Royal Caribbean announced that it had ordered two ships from the similarly-sized , making an order for a fourth ''Freedom''-class ship unlikely.

Ships

References

External links

Royal Caribbean webpage for the ''Freedom'' class
{{Royal Caribbean Cruise International Ships Cruise ship classes Royal Caribbean International