11/12/2024
Hey all, here is my review from our recent vacation on board Icon of the Seas.
I was on this cruise with my Wife, my 7 year old Son, and my Mother in Law. This was our 11th Royal Caribbean Cruise, and first on the Icon class ships.
Embarkation day was flawless. I was waiting online 45 days from the cruise date in order to snag the earliest check-in time that I could. Check-in started at 11:00 AM, and I had just missed the window for that check in, but was able to snag an 11:30 AM check-in time. Outside of the terminal was quite crowded with the last cruise guests coming off, and new ones coming in. There was also a large wedding party that was being escorted around by Royal Caribbean Staff. We arrived to the terminal at about 9:50 AM via Ride Share. I would highly recommend getting there early, as our Ride Share driver shared with us that traffic gets backed up quickly with both prior cruise guests leaving and oncoming guests arriving. Our luggage was collected by a Porter quickly upon exiting our Ride Share, and stacked with many others as they wheeled them into the Port.
Pinnacle, Suite Guests, and The Key were the first to be allowed into the terminal at around 10:00 AM. We waited in line for a very short period of time, and were allowed to enter the terminal very shortly after the first guests. It was a quick escalator ride up to the 2nd level of the terminal and were met by a Royal Caribbean pier associate in order to present our Set Sail Passes and be checked in. This process was extremely quick and lasted no more than 10 minutes, including our escalator ride and walking time. At this new terminal, Royal Caribbean has security screening after the check in process, and again that was extremely quick. They had 4 lanes open and my party and I quickly went through. We then took an embarkation photo with the Icon of the Seas background with one of the ship’s photographers. We had no wait there. Then we walked over to the escalator to the third floor in order to wait for boarding to open. We were told by staff to sit in the order that we arrived up to the floor in because they called people to board by order that they arrived. We had about a 15 minute wait in comfortable seating. The ship was opened up to guests at 10:30 AM and we were on board shortly after. This new terminal is positioned where you can simply walk up a very slight incline of the ramp as it zig-zags up to the ship right at the 5th deck where you enter into the Royal Promenade. I was taking my first photos in front of the Pearl by 10:35 AM.
We greatly enjoyed the boarding process and being right in the center of the action. We like to board early and either look around the ship or get some early pool and hot tub time in. Typically, I like to pack our swim suits in our carry-on bag so that we can have that option. We walked the entire length of the 5th and 6th decks, which are both considered to be the Royal Promenade on this class of ship, and both span the entire length of the ship. There are many new shops and restaurants as well as familiar Royal Caribbean destinations. Dueling Pianos located on deck 6, Pearl Cafe located on deck 6 which includes a larger food menu, Royal Caribbean’s Coffee Bar, as well as floor to ceiling windows for great views, The Attic located on deck 6, Playmakers located on deck 6 Aft, Boleros on Deck 6, Sorrento’s located on deck 5, Starbucks on deck 5, 1400 Lobby Bar on deck 5, Giovanni’s located on deck 6, Spotlight Karaoke on deck 5, Pointe & Feather located on deck 5, Schooner Bar on deck 6, along with the Royal Shops, Guest Services, Focus Photo, NextCruise, Crown & Anchor desk, Absolute Zero (ice arena) located on Deck 6 Aft behind Playmakers, Adventure Ocean on deck 6, one of the many entrances to Surfside on deck 6.
After that, we made our way up to Thrill Island on deck 16 which is home of The Perfect Storm water slides. We were immediately amazed with the size and length of the slides and my Son was instantly wanting to hop on and try them out. Some were right in his size range at a minimum of 48” tall to ride, and there were also a few more intense slides that require a 52” minimum height. The lifeguards were VERY strict about the height restrictions. Every water slide also has weight restrictions and the ship has scales at the top of each slide that every guest (including small kids who were obviously not near the weight capacity) had to weigh themselves on each time in order to ride. The scales were hooked up to a light system which an LED light at the top would either turn green or red. The scale also had a small digital readout for the lifeguard to see if needed. The first tower encompasses The Hurricane Hunter was the less intense of the two circular raft style slides which had a capacity of 4 riders or 595 lbs. Storm Surge had a capacity of 3 riders and a maximum weight of 441 lbs. Pressure Drop is also located at the top of this tower, and is a single rider drop style slide in which you quickly drop down a steep incline while laying down with your arms and legs both crossed. This is the First open free-fall drop at sea with a 66 degree incline. A Royal Caribbean Staple, the Flow Rider is also located at the aft of this deck.
The second tower has 3 other water slides. Two identical slides called Storm Chasers are single rider mat slides which you pick up at the bottom of the ride and walk up to the top with. You lay on your stomach with a grip on the two handles at the front of the mat. These are the first duo mat-racing slides at sea with a scoreboard to record your time. The Frightening Bolt is the tallest drop slide at sea at 46 feet, and includes a 360 degree loop. You stand on a platform and the floor literally drops out from below you. There is also no water shoes, jewelry, life jackets, or Go Pros allowed on any of these rides, which the lifeguards were also enforcing. We found that there were extremely long wait times for all of these slides, especially on sea days. Great times to beat the crowds are when the slides first open at 9:00 AM until about 11:00 AM, and then 6:00 PM until they close at 9:00 PM (as most people are out to dinner at one of the many restaurants). Port days are much less crowded as well.
We were allowed into our staterooms at 1:00 PM. We headed there to change and drop off our carry on bags around 2:30 PM and our luggage had already arrived at our room as well.
We did not visit the adult only area (The Hideaway) located on deck 15 Aft due to having our Son with us but were able to view it from above. The suspended infinity pool is about 135 feet above the ocean and has 180 degree views and has the nearby Hideaway Bar. We also saw an instance of some of the beverage staff dancing and shooting champagne (to the tune of the song of the same name) and having many people in the pool also dancing along. This area also has a sundeck with dozens of loungers.
We had eaten breakfast at our hotel before arriving at the ship, so we decided to just munch on different small bites around the ship instead of braving the Windjammer on day 1. I enjoyed the popcorn chicken and churros from the Surfside Eatery on Deck 7. Pretty much anywhere you go on the ship, there is food right around you. It was designed so that you wouldn’t have to leave the “Neighborhood” you were in just to find food, and they definitely surpassed that goal.
The first night consisted of us visiting the Main Dining Room for dinner. We were on the bottom deck of this 3 deck high space with a large glass wall and giant chandelier spanning at least 2 of the decks. Prime rib was one of the highlights of the menu that evening, which is normally one of my favorite things to eat anywhere. The last few years it has seemed to lack in quality and be very fatty, which was the case on this evening for me as well. I wonder if they have possibly switched suppliers in the recent years?
The entertainment for the night was “Headliner Showtime” in the Royal Theater, decks 4 and 5. Reservations were required for the show which was juggler, magician, and comedian Adam Kario. He was wonderful and very entertaining and interacted with the audience several different times and even had volunteers from the audience in his act.
The pool deck areas we found had plenty of seating, even if they weren’t directly in front of a water area. There was plenty of seating outside of the AquaDome Marketplace, behind the Lime and Coconut Bar on deck 15, as well as plenty of “out of the way” areas like the starboard side of deck 15 mid ship.
The ship boasts 7 pools and 9 whirlpools. There is a specially designed area for smaller infants up to age 5-6 or so that is within the Surfside Neighborhood called Splashaway Bay. There is a pool which is also infinity style that is in the very aft part of the ship overlooking the wake and water behind. There is a play structure with 2 small water slides as well as a small water tipping bucket and several small water shooters and other things to play with completely separate from the pool area. There was also a dry climbing structure, and the carousel in the center of Surfside. This area also has the new restaurant Pier 7, which focuses on California style cuisine as well as surf ‘n’ turf tacos. There is also a new complimentary restaurant called the Surfside Eatery that is a much smaller version of the Windjammer and has breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Also located in Surfside is a soft serve ice cream machine that was open 10-10 every day and Surfside Bites which is a grab & go kid-friendly venue which has hot dogs, popcorn chicken, french fries, fruit sticks, and other items. Surfside also is home to the Arcade which has several different types of games and air hockey tables, as well as Sugar Beach which has cotton candy and other various candy items that are available for purchase.
We also enjoyed the AquaDome Market which included several new smaller restaurants in a food court style setting including GNGR which has Asian style selections, Feta Mediterranean which has shawarma, in a bowl or in a pita as well as hummus and other Greek Style items. Mac’s which has 5 different types of macaroni & cheese dishes, Creme de la Crepe which is a crepe stand with around 4-5 different options such as salted caramel and strawberry Nutella. There is also a bar located inside this strip, and as the name suggests opens up into the new redesigned AquaDome. This has been moved up to the front of the ship on deck 15, as it was previously positioned on the outside in the rear of the ship on all of the Oasis Class ships. This is a new all indoor area with specially designed rigging and lighting as well as 4 robotic arms which assisted in the lighting and setup of some of the props used in the aqua show called Aqua Action! We loved the new and improved space, but found that the seating in the AquaDome very uncomfortable. It was wooden bleacher style seating with only some rows of the seating having partial backs, and some smaller areas having a padded bench seat. There are also limited chairs located at the top of the seating area and a few high bar style tables. The aqua show was definitely more technologically advanced than any show we had seen on the Oasis Class ships. The areas of the stage that could be lifted and lowered seemed bigger and more prominent. The divers had 3 main levels to dive from and with the indoor location had less of the elements to be concerned with than previously. There were 2 highly skilled performers who opened the show in a rotating sphere style apparatus and were swinging around and around and performing high above the water level. There was also rigging for an aerialist that “flew” around the stage on the show high above the water. We found that the show itself was entertaining, but hard to focus on just one element as there was too much going on at one time. There were several dancers around the front edges of the water, as well as swimmers doing aerobics and dance moves, and divers coming down from different heights at the same time. One of the acts that the robotic arm assisted in was making a small half pipe for 3 skateboarders to do some light tricks on. This seemed very out of place to us and we wondered what it had to do with the aqua show. The music and sound effects were also very loud.
We found several other “pros” to the ship that we liked. The new “Destination style” elevators were as advertised. I would estimate about 90% of the time they were faster than a traditional elevator and did indeed bring you to where you wanted to go quicker. There were 10 elevators in the front of the ship, and 12 elevators in the rear of the ship. The busiest times and longest waits were again on sea days.
Absolute Zero which houses the ice rink was a vastly improved area. The rink design on Icon is circular as opposed to the rectangular design on other Royal Caribbean vessels. There was more area for the skaters to use, and Icon had more skaters in the cast than other shows that we have seen. The show we saw was called “STARBURST: Elemental Beauty” which also had a featured act in the show who incorporated juggling and dance moves. We always love the ice shows and Royal Caribbean has done a terrific job with all of the shows that we have seen on all of their ships. The only small “con” to the new circular design was that some seats had a support post obstructing some of their view. There were also some other activities such as Battle of the Sexes in addition to the usual open ice skating and ice shows that took place inside the venue. We sadly missed the other shorter family style ice show that was scheduled mid-day on day 6.
The main show in the Royal Theater was “Wizard of Oz”. This was a terrific adaption of the Broadway show that included extremely realistic props, moments of hilarity, and great dancing. Even someone not a fan of Broadway would enjoy this show.
We found that the sound systems were great in every venue as well as the pool decks. The only “con” to this was that they played dance/club style music all the time on the pool decks and in the venues before the shows. We missed the typical radio style music that is on most other ships.
The main activity deck also included the typical rock climbing wall, a beautifully designed 9 hole miniature golf course with a “Perfect Storm” type theme, and the new “Crown’s Edge” which is part skywalk, part ropes course, and part thrill ride which goes out over the side of the ship several stories high. We found out that this activity is at an extra cost and was $89.99 per person! We definitely would not consider this at that high price point.
The new large pool with swim up bar, called the Swim and Tonic is located on deck 16 and was very busy in the times that we saw it.
A few of the other “Pros” for us were as follows: the ship is powered by CNG (no exhaust fumes as found at times on typical ships). There are plenty of towel stations. More than any other Royal Caribbean ship and were all located within walking distance of each of the main pools, water slides, and whirlpool areas. Service and staff were all wonderful. The ship (as expected being a newer ship) was extremely clean and showed very little signs of wear/use and maintenance is obviously kept up very well. There are also 14 Coca Cola Freestyle machines on board this ship, as I typically purchase the soda package and found a machine convenient to almost everywhere I was.
None of our party purchased the internet package, but the 1 free day that I received the internet was fast and reliable. We also used the app for messaging other members in our group and for checking the Cruise Compass several times a day.
We stayed in a Surfside Interior room on the 8th deck, which was vastly improved from earlier ships. It had plenty of USB outlets for charging devices, and was spacious (for cruise ship rooms). The bathroom is greatly improved, there is a rectangular shower with bench seat that is so much more convienient than the circular showers on other ships. The only complaint I had on the room was the noise that was caused by kids banging on the walls of the climbing structure in Surfside that was attached to the wall. That typically ended by around 10:00 when the carousel and ice cream closed.
My ratings for the food on board of the food that I ate: Creme de la Crepe- 9.5/10, GNGR- 8/10, Main Dining Room- 8/10, Windjammer- 9/10, Surfside Bites- 9/10.
