An Iconic Cruise- Overview and Design
Drone Shots by Dewin Vega
Icon of the Seas has been one of the most anticipated cruise ships ever to have traversed our seven seas. When Royal Caribbean initially announced information about the ship, it became apparent that this ship would be different in many ways from anything else that was out there. The Icon of the Seas would prove to be iconic and groundbreaking in a variety of ways.
Drone Shots by Dewin Vega
Royal Caribbean was already known for their big and amazing ships with the Oasis class of ships. With each Oasis class ship, the ships got bigger and better. The Oasis class is known as well for having the ship separated into neighborhoods (sections of the ship with different themes designed to help make the ship seem less crowded) and was the first ship class to have inward facing balconies. Even prior to the pandemic, Royal Caribbean was leading the way with these big and amazing cruise ships that had so much to offer families of all ages, couples or even solo cruisers. After the Pandemic, surprising in some ways and unsurprising in others, travel (especially by cruise ships) has become even more popular and (just like everything else) quite expensive.
When Royal Caribbean announced the Icon of the Seas, it became apparent quickly that this ship would be designed like no other ship before it. They were planning on taking everything that people love about the Oasis class and add more! It was as if the group that designed the Icon of the Seas had gotten together and said “What’s everything that we can improve about the Oasis class?” and “What would our dream ship include?”. And then they just did it all. So, when bookings opened up for Icon (nearly 2 years ago), we quickly grabbed a room at what we thought was a high rate but totally worth it. We soon learned that the prices would only go up and up. About a year ago, we tried to add additional family members, but couldn’t justify an interior room for $4K. And, when checking to see if the prices of our room category (the family infinite balcony) had gone down, we discovered that they had, in fact, doubled. This was bonkers to us and left us wondering would it actually be worth it.
When trying to gather my thoughts about the ship and everything that it has to offer, I am overwhelmed and don’t even really know where to start. We spent all of the first day exploring the ship and that still wasn’t enough time. In every space there was something new and big and amazing to look at it. Every area was either entirely new or plussed from the areas found on previous ships. For example, in what is the Boardwalk neighborhood on Oasis class ships, they have the Surfside neighborhood which has a carousel like on the Boardwalk but this carousel is ocean themed. And that’s just one minor example of how things are different. So, I’ll do my best to break everything down into more bite sized pieces of information.
As mentioned, everything on Icon is an either an addition or an improvement over previous Royal Caribbean ships. It still had many of the great neighborhoods that we are used to finding with some fun additions. Instead of 2 or 3 waterslides, there were 6 waterslides found in Thrill Island. There was no solarium for adults (which we feel meant there was less shade available) but there was a nice pool with fun tables to put your drinks on. The aqua theater was moved inside, which meant that not only would they be able to design it with fewer restrictions but also that fewer shows would need to be canceled due to weather. There was an ice skating rink as we have found on many other Royal Caribbean ships but the one on Icon was circular allowing the ice skaters to gain greater speed and gives sailors better seating options. We found that decks 5 and 6 were a mix between the traditional promenade that made its debut on the Voyager class of ships and the Esplanade found on Quantum class ships (which we thought was really cool). And, the promenade had the auspicious Pearl, which was quite an impressive feat in engineering and amazing to look at it but didn’t add much else to the cruising experience.
Because the ship was so large and was filled with so many different and unique areas, Chris and I were able to find some places on the ship that we really enjoyed and weren’t super crowded. Our favorite place to relax was not the adults only area but actually Swim and Tonic. This place seemed to be one of the ship’s best kept secrets. Found on deck 16, the hot tub was never too crowded, the pool was not too cold because it was relatively shallow, the pool had loungers in the water that were always free, the area was next to a towel station, you could easily walk to Lime and Coconut Frozen (where you could get regular drinks as well as choose from 5 or 6 alcoholic frozen flavors, like Wet Willy’s- which we never miss while in Savannah), and there was a swim up bar, which was awesome!! Swim and Tonic was our favorite spot, but there are so many different areas on the ship that every family, couple or solo cruiser could find something that suited them best.
Now, with all of the amazement in what the Icon had to offer, there is definitely still some room for improvements. It seems that, in some ways, the mentality when designing the ship was that “more is more”. There were two new music venues offered on the ship, a jazz club and a dueling piano bar. While Royal had never had dueling pianos anywhere on the ship, previously you could enjoy some fun piano music in the Schooner Bar. But that space would get too crowded and wasn’t really set up for performances. The problem with adding a dueling piano bar, or essentially anything, is satisfying the question where can we put it that makes sense. They decided to put it above the Karaoke bar, and we discovered that this would cause the music from both venues to bleed together. You would be walking through the Promenade and hear the screeching from the Karaoke bar and the singing from the piano bar and you wouldn’t be sure necessarily which was coming from which. And, while the jazz club in the Central Park sounds like a great idea, we never went in it, not even to look around. Perhaps my parents would have gone in there and if we were on the ship without our kids then we might have gone in there, but we will likely never know.
Another example of just adding more for the sake of it was the fact that there were so many bars that none of them seemed super busy. This was actually a plus for us and for many cruisers, but it did, however, cause two issues. First, it made it so that we had trouble figuring out which bars were open and when they were open. We also had trouble keeping track of where we had gotten that delicious beverage (I’m sure the delicious beverages had nothing to do with that lapse in memory). Second, we learned from talking to a bartender that we had met on a previous ship that it is actually difficult to get bartenders to come and work on Icon because there are too many bars. On the smaller ships, the tips would be handed out more freely as it was easier to find that one bar and that one bartender that knew you and knew your drink order. For me, this was a very interesting issue to find on the largest cruise ship in the world.
I have come away from this cruise wondering what is next for Royal Caribbean. With the Star of the Seas currently being built, I am very anxious to see what changes they make from their Icon design. Will they pare down the number of music venues and bars? Or, will they move some things around so that they seem less hidden? Will they add some venues that are missing from the Icon? Will they include the Pearl or will they add something else just as unique? I am excited to find out as more details about the Star of the Seas are revealed.
