Royal Caribbean's newest Icon-class ship, Legend of the Seas, has finished its debut summer sailing the Western Mediterranean and is now crossing the Atlantic for its first Caribbean season.

Built at the Meyer Turku shipyard in Finland and delivered earlier this year, the 250,800-ton vessel spent its inaugural months running seven-night loops from Spain and Italy. Ports on the itinerary included Marseille in France, La Spezia in Italy, and Palma de Mallorca in Spain — a classic western Med triangle that pairs big-city culture with beach stops.

The season wrapped in late October with a 13-night repositioning cruise. The ship left Barcelona on October 29, called at Palma de Mallorca, Málaga and Cádiz along the Spanish coast, then set off on a nine-night crossing to Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, its winter homeport.

Fort Lauderdale will also host the official naming ceremony on November 11, 2026 — Veterans Day — with retired U.S. Air Force General Lori J. Robinson serving as godmother. After that, the Legend settles into six- to eight-night Caribbean and Bahamas itineraries, every one of them including a stop at Perfect Day at CocoCay, Royal Caribbean's private island. Further afield, the schedule includes Oranjestad in Aruba, Willemstad in Curaçao, and Cozumel in Mexico, so there's a genuine southern Caribbean flavour mixed into the shorter sailings.

The Med isn't losing the ship for good. The Legend is booked to head back east in May 2027 for a second summer season in the Western Mediterranean, resuming the same seven-night pattern from Spain and Italy. Meanwhile, Royal Caribbean is already prepping the next Icon-class arrival: Hero of the Seas, due to join the fleet as the fourth ship in the class in 2027.

Why it matters for travellers: if you've been eyeing an Icon-class ship — the class behind the buzz around Icon of the Seas — the Legend gives you two very different ways to try one. Winter 2026-27 means warm-weather Caribbean sailing with a guaranteed CocoCay day, while from May 2027 it returns to the Med for those who'd rather hop between Spain, France and Italy. Booking the shoulder months either side of the repositioning is often where the value sits, and anyone set on the European version should wait for the 2027 summer itineraries rather than chasing it this year.