Did you know a dog lives on Royal Caribbean's newest cruise ship?
Icon of the Seas has many innovative firsts in the cruising industry including a furry, four-legged friend named Rover!
Rover, a golden retriever puppy, has been chosen to permanently live onboard Icon of the Seas as the Chief Dog Officer. Her only job on the ship is to bring joy, love and happiness to guests sailing on the world’s newest and biggest cruise ship.
As Icon of the Seas sails around the Caribbean, Rover is able to explore the ports of call while also trotting all around the ship itself. Icon’s Chief Dog Officer is cared for by her handler, Alison Hubble, who has been working for Royal Caribbean for six years.
Under Alison’s attentive care, Rover lives quite the adventurous - and luxurious - life! Alison’s official job title is “Rover’s Chief of Staff.” Talk about a dream job!
On Rover’s official Instagram, @chiefdogrover, Alison shared an exclusive look into her and Rover’s special cabin onboard Icon of the Seas. With her own built-in-crate and extra living space, the stateroom has everything Rover needs for a comfortable stay.
The stateroom for Rover is unlike any cabin we’ve seen on a Royal Caribbean ship. Take a rare look inside Rover and Alison’s oceanview cabin, which appears to be specifically designed to comfortably accommodate Icon’s Chief Dog Officer. As if Rover wasn’t cute enough, the video is narrated from the pup’s point of view.
In a heartwarming video "narrated" by Rover, the Chief Dog Officer welcomes viewers into her cruise cabin.
The beginning of the cabin tour shows Rover politely sitting on one of her many dog beds. She says, “Welcome to my room tour! This is where I chill out when I am not roaming around the ship.”
According to the Instagram video, Rover’s cabin appears to be a one-bedroom cabin with a living room and couch, large vanity with cabinets, office, separate bedroom and bathroom. In the background, there is also a large crate for Rover to use in the living room.
Having plenty of space for Rover was likely a priority of designing her cabin, as a standard cruise stateroom only has around 150 to 200 square feet. In addition, most crew members live in double occupancy cabins for only 120 square feet. Either of these options would likely be too cramped for a large breed dog.
The cabin tour shows a large countertop with cabinets for storage. It looks like there are three large cabinets above the counter and three drawers below. A sliding door unveils an open space with a dog bowl of food for Rover with a plushy green bed for her to use too.
Rover also shows off her many different dog beds during the cabin tour. The video pans to Rover playfully chomping on one of her toys, in which she shares with followers, “I have a different bed for every vibe - whether I want to play, lounge or binge Netflix!”
Rover's tour on Instagram also shows the cabin's living room area, which is opposite of the desk space in the stateroom. You can see the living room features a couch, mounted TV on the wall and more cabinets for storage.
Rover’s stateroom tour continues by showing the large desk for her handler to use.
During the Instagram video, Rover shares how she likes to "scroll on Instagram" while her Chief of Staff works on the computer at the desk. The design of the desk area in Rover’s cabin looks similar to the vanities that can be found in standard cabins on Icon of the Seas.
However, Rover’s cabin has a large leather desk chair for her handler, Alison, to use while in the stateroom. Comparatively, Icon’s standard cabins have a smaller and more decorative desk chair for guests to use at their vanity.
(Infinite balcony cabin on Icon of the Seas shows a similar desk with different chair compared to Rover's cabin)
There is a large mirror, illuminated by a ring light, above the desk. Rover’s cabin has no shortage of storage either, as there are three more drawers under the desk as well. There is natural light coming through a porthole window next to the desk.
During the Instagram cabin tour, Rover also shares with viewers how she loves to nap while watching the sunset from her cabin. Based on the proximity of the sea, Rover’s cabin looks to be located on a lower deck onboard Icon of the Seas.
Read more: Guide to Icon of the Seas cabins and suites
One of the coolest aspects of Rover’s cabin is her crate, which was specifically designed for Icon’s Chief Dog Officer.
Panning back to the cabinets near the stateroom’s entrance, Rover shares with followers how her crate was specifically designed for her! She says, “Then I also have this crate made specially for me, where I usually sleep for the night. I also order room service from here and play with my toys!”
At this point, we can see Rover hanging out in her built-in crate. Her aforementioned "room service" looks to be a bowl of dog food. Rover’s crate is located under the stateroom’s cabinets with a clear door that encloses the space. In her crate, Rover can eat dinner, play with toys and relax.
Based on this, it appears that Rover’s handler has been crate training the golden retriever pup. This is unsurprising, as crate training has many benefits for both canines and owners. In particular, crate training provides Rover with a safe, comfortable and familiar place to rest when she is apart from Alison.
The video tour also shows Rover surrounded by a plethora of toys! She proclaims, “The toys always appear from some magic drawer, but I am not tall enough to see it. So, I don’t really know!”
Rover shares the cabin with Alison, who has a separate bedroom to use.
Continuing her cabin tour, Rover brings followers into Alison’s bedroom next to the living room. This space looks very similar to Icon’s standard cabins with similar aesthetics, decoration and coloring.
In the video, Rover playfully burrows under the bed with a pink ball in her mouth. Rover says to followers, “My favorite spot is under my Chief of Staff’s bed. It’s so cozy down here!” Followers can also see two more dog beds for Rover to use in Alison’s room. Rover is not lying when she says she has a dog bed for every vibe!
The bedroom does not appear to have a window, although the living space appears to have two portholes. The bedroom also has closet space for Alison’s personal use, as Rover’s necessities seem to be mostly kept in the living room area.
Connected to the bedroom is a bathroom, which looks similar to most of Icon of the Seas’ cabins onboard the new cruise ship.
Rover proceeds to show viewers a look at her cabin’s bathroom. This area looks the most similar to any other cabin on Icon of the Seas. We can see the design is essentially the same as a standard cabin on Icon of the Seas with a large walk-in shower, toilet and sink with shelving above and below.
“Across the way is the bathroom, where I like to do spa days after the beach,” says Rover as she snuggles into the shower.
One of the biggest improvements in cabin design for newer cruise ships is having a larger bathroom with more space in the shower. Royal Caribbean took this a step further by adding a seat in the shower for added convenience and comfort.
I am sure Alison appreciates having the extra space in her cabin’s shower to clean Rover. This is especially helpful after Rover enjoys the sandy beaches each week at Royal Caribbean’s Perfect Day at CocoCay.
Rover also shows off her many different accessories, including multiple pink collars and a lifejacket.
After showing off her bathroom, Rover shows Instagram viewers all of her pink collars and harnesses hanging from the wall. “I also have a spot for all of my accessories, and another one for my lifejacket.”
The video tour shows three pink collars hanging on the built-in hooks on the wall of her cabin. Looks like Rover might need to get some magnetic hooks for her cabin walls if she expands her collar collection!
Continuing with her stateroom tour, we can see where Rover keeps her lifejacket. One of the cabinets looks to be the space where Alison keeps Rover’s lifejacket. Rover proceeds to model her lifejacket for viewers, saying that, "everyone laughs when she puts on her lifejacket."
Sporting her yellow lifejacket, Rover clarifies, “It is for safety guys! It’s not even funny! But, I do look pretty cute, right?”
There’s no denying that Rover’s home is one of the most unique cabins in Royal Caribbean’s fleet!
Although Rover might live an atypical life for a pup, she is cruising in style onboard Icon of the Seas. It’s endearing to see Royal Caribbean has designed a special cabin particularly for Rover and Alison. Safety was also clearly taken into account with plenty of room for Rover to have enough space and constructing a built-in crate.
Compared to a standard cabin on Icon of the Seas, Rover and Alison’s cabin appears to have more space than most inside, oceanview or balcony staterooms. In addition, Rover’s cabin is likely bigger than most crew cabins onboard the cruise ship.
Rover’s cabin is filled with toys and dog beds for her to use each day! During the tour, we can see at least four different dog beds throughout the cabin for Rover to lay in.
Rover is one of the cutest crew members on Icon of the Seas - and her only job is to bring joy to fellow passengers.
Having a dog onboard a cruise ship is distinct to Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas. Never before has the cruise line had a dog as a permanent resident onboard one of its cruise ships. The furry friend has already made herself at home onboard the 248,663 gross ton cruise ship.
Dogs are typically only welcomed onboard cruise ships if they are service dogs. The only cruise line that allows non-service dogs is Cunard’s Queen Mary II, which has a dog-boarding facility onboard its oceanic voyages. The kennels book years in advance, mostly from travelers who are moving abroad between England and the United States.
In contrast, Royal Caribbean has also clarified that Rover is not a service dog. Instead, she is considered a crew member whose job is to bring happiness and joy to guests and fellow crew members onboard.
Rover is always under the care of Alison. Royal Caribbean shared on Instagram, “Alison is always by Rover’s side to make every day fun and make sure she has plenty of naps and never misses out on any treats!”
Guests are encouraged to give Rover all the belly rubs if they see her onboard Icon of the Seas. You can find Rover enjoying the breeze of the pool deck, playing fetch in the Promenade or out exploring the ports of call. Sometimes Rover can even be found on the bridge with Captain Henrik Loy!
Alison was chosen as Rover’s Chief of Staff after a lengthy interview process.
Apparently, Royal Caribbean International President and CEO Michael Bayley thought it would be a good idea to have a dog onboard Icon of the Seas for crew members and guests. Royal Caribbean sent an email to employees that the company was looking for a caretaker for a dog living onboard a cruise ship.
After applying for the position, Alison was chosen to be Rover’s handler. Alison shared that she considers this her dream job. Before boarding Icon of the Seas, Alison and Rover first boarded Freedom of the Seas to earn her sea legs!
According to Alison, Rover loves to chase her tail, which she finds to be hilarious! Rover also loves people and toys. Alison said she loves to see crew members and guests light up when they meet Rover. In fact, Alison always leaves her cabin a few minutes early to allocate enough time for people along the way to interact with Rover.
In addition, Rover determines her own schedule with plenty of naps throughout the day! There are no scheduled meet and greets with Rover. Alison also shared that she tries to spend ample time in the crew quarters, as many fellow crew members have been missing their dogs back home for months.
For now, Icon of the Seas is the only ship in Royal Caribbean’s fleet where you can find a dog onboard. However, many would love to see all of Royal Caribbean’s ships should have one! Until then, Rover is the one and only - and she is clearly pampered as such!
