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Pretty lazy day today. Sea day. Spent a fair amount of time in the casino and happy to say that my upward trend ($$) is continuing. Nothing to crow about, just slightly “up” each time I go in there. Up is better than down ! Dan hit his goal of 3000 points so he made Prime and will get an instant comp reward. Whatever points I have (currently at a little over 1000), I will use to upgrade his comp offer with my otherwise useless $$ off reward. It was Royal night in the MDR. We both ordered the lobster as an appetizer since that portion is pretty small. I ordered the chicken Marsala as my main course and Dan ordered some curry shrimp dish (can’t remember the name). Both were very good. I will give my little Promenade view room some kudos (8311, 2T). I truly believe that this room is the quietest room we’ve ever had. It’s far enough aft to avoid the Promenade noise and there is absolutely no noise at all associated with the elevators. It’s very, very quiet and I love being so close to the aft elevators. We’ve been very comfortable in this room, which is a good thing since we will be here again on the next leg (5 nights, 4-14). For leg #3 (4-19), we have to move.

If you are trying to effect change for future builds, all you can really do is log the suggestion/complaint. There really are no next steps there. If you want to switch to a room that's guaranteed to have the bed setup you desire on your future sailing, you need to pay for the upgraded room.

Hi All! A little about myself since I haven't posted on here before, I am Ashley, a 30 year old from Arizona who has been cruising mostly with my parents (and grandparents before they passed) but sometimes solo, with friends, and with groups since I was 9 months old. I have mostly done Royal Caribbean but I have also done some Celebrity and Princess as well as one each of Holland America, NCL, and Carnival (we don't talk about those, there is a reason it was one each). Anyways, all that to say I am very loyal to Royal with nearly 80 Royal Caribbean cruises under my belt. When I am not cruising, I am a full time software engineer to pay for my cruising habit. And now for some history on this cruise.... my parents and I first booked this itinerary for October of 2021 in the summer of 2020. Heck, we also booked cruises in June of 2020 when our May cruise was canceled, August when June was cancelled, November when August was cancelled, so on so forth, you get the idea. Fast forward to summer of 2021 and well over 40 FCCs later, the restart was finally happening and the final payment due date for this cruise was quickly approaching. There we still a lot of unknowns about Israel and what the covid requirements would be to go there and as that was the main reason we booked that cruise (more on that later...), after a family meeting we cancelled it and I spent 2 weeks in October on the Symphony of the Seas with a friend (and my parents ultimately joining for the second cruise after some convincing) instead where I finally earned pinnacle after waiting the entire restart only a little more than 1 cruise away (I promise, I am not a snotty pinnacle, I refuse to wear the pin and prefer to go with the flow instead). With that I had finally made it back on a ship for the first time since January 2020 but I still hadn't made it to holy lands. Fast forward again to February 2023 when my parents were on the Celebrity Beyond celebrating their 40th anniversary without me (to quote Stephanie Tanner: how rude... not, they deserved the vacation without me and they had their neighbors with them to take my place, also I am pretty sure my work would have killed me if I took another cruise at that point). Before they headed out on their cruise, I looked at the itineraries released just a couple months before for Europe in 2024 and found this one, and made the mistake of emailing my parents with the details. It didn't take much convincing that we had to book this cruise. A week later, after a lot of back and forth with them and the future cruises agent on Celebrity Beyond, we finally got this booked and everything confirmed. Note to my future self and really everyone reading this: never book Royal on Celebrity, while we have successfully booked Celebrity on Royal before with no issues, this was a nightmare to say the least, the on-board agent had no clue what the different cabin categories were and after pleading with her that Odyssey had J1s, J3s, and J4s and they were all Junior Suites, she was finally able to find more than just the J1s available. With the cruise finally booked, let's talk about why we wanted to do it: Israel. My mom and I are Jewish and my mom has always wanted to go to the holy land but has said she would never do it by land, she just didn't feel comfortable due to some experiences her parents/my grandparents had when they went. And similar to me, she loves cruising. So this seemed like the perfect solution. I had also unfortunately aged out of birthright during Covid as a result of them changing the age policy during that time so this would give me a taste of Israel to see if I wanted to join a volunteer trip or something else in the future. When June 2023 arrived and the flights opened up to book, there wasn't a doubt in our minds that we were going on this cruise. Before booking the flights we had a family meeting and I made one important note to my parents: If this cruise doesn't go to Israel, are you still ok with going for the other ports? They both said yes. My mom has always wanted to go to Santorini since watching Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants so while it was not Israel, there would still be something on her bucket list to cross off. Even though the itinerary at the time didn't have Ephesus, Turkey on it, we knew it was likely this would appear if Israel was removed and my dad wanted to see the House of the Virgin Mary after missing the opportunity to see it while on the Splendour of the Seas in 2000. After that discussion, our flights were booked and we started making hotels and other plans for the trip including booking excursions for every port except Israel since conveniently none were open for Israel and also I knew if we did make it there, we would want to do a private tour so we could cover both the Christian and Jewish heritage there adequately. Once again, let's fast forward this time to November 2023. Unfortunately, we all know what happened on October 7th. The days that followed made it very obvious that this was sadly not like other times Israel had been attacked. They were not getting out of this quickly. We received the not at all surprising email that this itinerary was changing. Out was Israel and in was Turkey, as I unfortunately predicted, along with Mykonos. After yet another family meeting (I think this is at least the 3rd one in this story, sensing a theme here...) we unanimously decided we were still going, barring any crazy world event. It was full steam ahead and I finally decided to start planning the tours for our pre-cruise stay in Rome. We also booked an excursion for Mykonos through the ship and I left my dad to figure out Ephesus himself. I still don't think he has that planned, you can tell who is the planner and who isn't in this family. Now let's fast forward to February 2024. It was Super Bowl Sunday and I had plans to go to the Phoenix Open with my dad in the corporate tents on the 17th hole. Instead, I got woken up by a call at 6am with news that my mom had passed out just before midnight the night before and they were in the ER room at Mayo Hospital. This cruise was far from the first thing on my mind, I wanted to know how my mom was doing, what had happened, if there was anything they needed as the hospital is less than a mile from my house, I can literally see it from my backyard. In the weeks that followed, and what seemed like hundreds of doctors appointments, a couple dental appointments, and a surgery later, we finally brought up this cruise again. Her doctor's gave her the all clear to go, they just warned that we had to be careful, she couldn't over exert herself. Another family meeting and the swapping of tours later to some less strenuous ones, we were once again on track for this cruise to happen. Now finally we have made it to today. We fly out in a little more than 2 weeks on the evening of 4/30. We finally settled on a hotel for our one night post cruise in Rome before flying home so the last thing is planned. As many hurdles as this cruise had and the amount of times we thought this wouldn't happen, we are looking forward to it finally happening, even if it is a little different than originally planned. I am just grateful that we are all still here to enjoy this as a family. I have never done a live blog of a cruise before. Not here and also not on that other cruise board that shall not be named. Something about this cruise feels different, while I hope this isn't my last big European adventure with my parents, I know there is a chance that will be the case so I really want to remember this and document it. Not only are my parents getting older, I am also getting older and who knows what will come for my future as well. While we have plenty more cruises planned as a family out of the US to the Caribbean as well as the Mexican riviera on the west coast, I don't know that I will have a trip like this as a family once again. I promise my future posts won't be as much of a novel. There was a lot of backstory to cover and I hope I at least made it interesting to read. In the coming days I will start to talk about our plans for both pre-cruise and on the cruise but figured it made sense to start with the back story first. Since I have never done this before, not sure how to end these, I am sure I will figure that out better as I go. So for this one I guess I should say TTYL!

I've been debating on whether to do a live blog for this cruise. I started one for Harmony a couple years ago, but we had a family emergency and didn't end up going. But, since I haven't seen anyone do a live Star blog on Icon yet, and we are now just 2 weeks out and fairly certain no emergencies are on the horizon, I figured I'd give it a whirl. Who's going: my Wife (Kelli) and I (Tim) Room: Icon Loft 17020 We are flying into Miami from Houston the day before and staying at the JW Marriott Marquis. We've stayed there before and I have a ton of Marriott points so its free! We got our survey way early on February 1st almost 90 days out! However, we didn't hear from our Genie (Marla Rivera) until just under 3 weeks out. (More on that in a minute.). Ironically we got another survey exactly 3 weeks out, which I thought was weird, but it turns out a tone of people got the survey that day. Even folks with sailings in July lol. Royal IT strikes again! Now back to the Genie e-mail; I kind of panicked when we didn't get contacted by the 21 day mark. (This is our 4th star class sailing and we've always gotten an email from the genie by at least day 28.). So, me having FOMO like you wouldn't believe, sent a message to Royal Caribbean International through Facebook messenger and asked them to please look into it the next morning. Imagine my surprise when I had an email from Marla Rivera by that afternoon. Apparently Sunil just left and the genie's have had to double up a bit which resulted in the delay. I've read nothing but great things about Marla as an OG Genie and so far she has lived up to the billing. I responded with our canned word document that includes our dining, snack, coffee, show, and beverage preferences. She had our entire schedule sent to us the next day with all of our requests! Since then, we have been back and forth a few times as we finalize our arrival in 2 weeks. Royal Up: So, the Royal loft suite had been available since we booked. It started out at 110K and has worked its way down to 60K this week and as of last night was still available, but it was gone this morning. (This has happened before as it would disappear from inventory as someone held it and then show back up a day later.) Of course I put a minimum bid on it just in case. We shall see what happens lol. The only place we are likely to get off the ship is Cozumel as we love Paradise Beach, so we have a reservation there with a day bed. We have a Casita reserved while we are in port in Roatan and we do have a reservation at the Empire Supper club which Marla confirmed we will be refunded and only charged $130 pp plus gratuities. Other Star Class up charges I will confirm if there have been any changes since Icon launch once we get on board (Chops Iconic cuts, Izumi in the park, basecamp, deserted) We are really excited and can't wait to get this started! More to come as we get closer

There is breaking news this morning that Dillard’s is reporting significant shortages of red undergarments. They believe they are not the only store experiencing supply chain issues and are extremely concerned that the shortages could last for years. Govern yourselves accordingly … Curt from Canada

Royal Caribbean should give me a JS at the price of an interior because that really fits my needs better………….

Then pay for a stateroom that DOES work for your situation or don't cruise, but don't blame Royal Caribbean for your family dynamic (ages) and physical characteristics (height/weight). Your opinion - better choices for families with young children and large adults should be available at lower prices. Reality - what's available is what's available.

There are no next steps and no one for you to contact that can resolve the problem you have created for yourself. I realize this is not what you want to hear but it is the truth.

Respect the facts in the replies. Children in Beds (not the floor) Adults in Pullmans. Royal Caribbean gave you an option/cabin that was safe for the age and size of the people involved. You chose and choose to not see it that way.

Technically they did offer you are cabin that accommodates your party. Beds for children and Pullmans for adults.

A good travel agent would be aware of the room configurations and find you a room that's available with the sofa bed accommodations you are seeking or suggest other ships that might have those options. Most inside cabins are smaller and would not have the space for a sofa bed, which is why they tend to have pullmans. A solution if you really need the cheaper in price accommodations and are concerned with safety would be to sleep the children on the beds and put the adults in the pullmans. It's not ideal, but it would give you back the floor space.

I disagree that there is no way to identify staterooms with a sofa bed. Deck plans show which rooms have a convertable sofa vs. Pullmans. Do your homework before booking. Is it quick and easy during the booking process? No. Is it impossible to get the information in advance? Also no. I would also note that the implications that Royal should not allow a room with Pullmans to be booked with children younger than "permitted" to use a Pullman or that Royal is not "accomodating a family with young children" because of the existence of Pullmans as the lower cost option are both invalid. If you want the cheaper stateroom, the children can use the regular beds and the parents can use the Pullmans. We did exactly this when our youngest child was seven but very small - regular beds were Mom and youngest, Pullmans were Dad and older child.

No other posters are missing the point. You had an interior cabin, it had Pullmans which according to you didn't meet your needs, you think Royal should have done something to improve your situation. The rest of us are just pointing out why your expectation is misguided.

Omg...some of these tangents from live blogs lol...first Batman and underwear math, now lucky red undies

Paying for an interior and expecting comfort for 4??!!!

I will be on that sailing. I saw hideaway passes for $16.99 for that sailing.

Government agency??? You can’t be serious

Exactly my point - if you want an interior cabin for lower cost, parental convenience doesn't have to be a "thing." We did what worked for us. The OP believes that Royal should provide other options at low cost.

True, the adults could sleep in the pullmans if there are concerns about the children sleeping in them.

If this post is real, then it's a good reason to work with a travel agent.

And sometimes *in* your stateroom depending on your stateroom attendant! Note: To anyone at RCCL that sees this, feel free to DM me regarding being your headliner comedian. I'll be here all week

This is why I like the app. You can select your arrival time first and come back later and fill out the rest of check-in.

Get over yourselves.

I think they use White Night to prank people. On my last trip, White Night corresponded with Italian night in the MDR. Saw quite a lot of people that dressed up with red stains after dinner.

My icon sailing for next week had OW cabanas drop to $1,999. Beach club we got for $125 I think the cruise fare has gotten so high that people are forgoing extras.

The pricing is not all crazy high. My May 20 sailing of Freedom of the Seas has the lowest price I've ever seen for an OTW cabana

She is out of luck on this point. Who says the Pullman's, sofa beds, etc are for children. I would have slept in the Pullman and put my kids in the bed, not on the floor.

Well depending on if you get a maniac for a room attendant you may be on camera in your stateroom too.

https://www.usa.gov/credit-freeze Also one for banking, too https://www.chexsystems.com/security-freeze/information

This card seems to be an indication of drink package sales on that cruise not being at whatever target RC wants them at.

That was novel-worthy. I can be long-winded for no good reason… this wasn’t that. 1. To echo @Lovetocruise2002, glad your mom is able to go & wishing her the best. 2. Love the Full House reference from a 30-year-old, lol (yes I know there are reruns & Fuller House, which was pretty weak, but still). 3. I hope you do get to Israel someday. I’m not at all religious and I was in high school when I went (part of a sponsored basketball trip) so I didn’t come close to fully appreciating it but it was still meaningful & I’m sure it would be 100x moreso for you. 4. Live blogging is a great way to document a trip, even a random Caribbean cruise with no special meaning… so all the more reason for this one. Hope everything goes smoothly over the next 2 weeks… you’ve clearly dealt with enough bumps in the road related to this cruise.

Your expectations and assumptions about your cabin don't align with what you paid for. You got exactly what you paid for. Sleep in the beds that fit you and your children appropriately or move your deposit to another sailing and wish your family members a "happy anniversary, but sorry, I'm booking a different cruise. I'm not happy with the cabin I reserved for your anniversary sailing." The hospitality industry doesn't care who or how one sleeps in their beds, just that they've got heads on the pillows ($$).

No interest in pigs at all unless they are bacon. So they can charge all they want to swim with them as far as I am concerned.

Now if they’d drop the drink package to about $68 I might bite. Lol We have our 5 drinks a day but there are so many cool craft cocktails on this ship, the package would be nice. So far it hasn’t gone below $72. Hoping the 10 drink card makes an appearance

Switch to newer ships that only have sofa beds (no Pullman's). You can still do GTY and not worry. See if you can pay change fee and move reservations to newer ships.

This ^^^. No need to add the credit card to choose your arrival time in the app. Just jump to that part of the check in, choose your time and come back to fix the credit card issue later. Hope you get a resolution soon!

No parking, yummy unlimited food included, and even free drinks if you’re Diamond or above… I compare it to an AI beach club without the additional fee (since we have vouchers & a few drinks is good enough for me).

I started cruising in 2007 when my mom got the cruise bug. We started with Carnival. After almost 10 cruises going to the same places over and over again I wanted a break from it and to get to use my time off for other things and other types of vacations. I did another cruise with a friend in 2011 on NCL through a casino offer. My mother and brother kept going after their Carnival stint and they tried other cruise lines and eventually ended up loyal to Royal. They lured me back to cruising in 2014 with an Alaska cruisetour which was on Radiance. From there they kept enticing me with itineraries that went to different places and then my mother decided to start spending my inheritance and sailing in the fancy cabins, so came along for the ride. My brother was involved with the Royal Caribbean Blog community and one of those next sailings happened to be on a RoyalCaribbeanBlog Group Cruise in 2018. I joined the message boards and had a good time on the cruise with the group and have only missed one group cruise since then. I also started taking up my mother's offer to sail with them as much as possible and I became loyal to Royal, with a couple of NCL diversions for music charters here and there. My mother and brother hit Pinnacle and "graduated" to trying out Celebrity, so I've taken one of those as well. I'm now at 37 sailings with Royal alone with most of those after the pandemic restart. I have 13 more scheduled through 2025. I do live in Florida, so a lot of those are short sailings since they work with my schedule better (less time off). I also have two NCL music charters coming up and another Celebrity sailing. I've now occupied myself with cruising as the only form of vacation. I end up traveling solo a lot and I'm super comfortable going alone on cruises so I stick with it.

Man, this was such a great show. Person of Interest Sorry, this doesn't help you one bit. I will say that I trust Royal more than I do the government.

Marla is awesome! Tell her that Sabrina and family say hello. We had her last year on HM in the Villa and ran into her again during Icon inaugural. I am super happy that you decided to blog this one. While I have nothing booked for Icon in the near future, we do want to sail her again one day. And I am super interested to know what the uncharges are for SC. Rumour has it that they have changed it to include few more things, but then someone said a few weeks ago that was not the case. So please let us know what your experience will be. Good luck on your RU bid, but it might be a blessing if you don’t win it. That balcony has zero privacy! You will see when you get there. Go to Swim&Tonic and look up. You can practically touch the RLS balcony.

Since I’m not personally interested in lcon and Star class is way above my pay grade, I’ll be the weirdo most interested in this part since we’re going there for the 1st time in July. I was actually just discussing it in the shore excursion forum today as they’re about to add 3 new daybeds & I’m being OCD about ours. I’ll let you get back to the Star class stuff & pop back in when you get to Cozumel, lol. I’m sure you’ll have an amazing cruise.

The good news is that if you stay in the hot tub long enough on the ship, your fingers will be too pruned to be able to use for biometrics.

You can swim with pigs for free at any of the beaches if you look around closely.

Well, this bodes well for my live blog!!! This past week has been a whirlwind, with a less than stellar skate on Wednesday. However, it was a fun week, and a few fun cruise related things happened. Our cabin is now confirmed - the barcode trick was correct and we have been assigned cabin 10174. I am very happy about this, as it looks to be in a great location. Our cruise documents have also arrived in my inbox. I managed to get a photo of the rink I was skating on this week, can anyone with better vision than me give an estimate if the one on Oasis is bigger or smaller? Cruise prep for the coming week is to do a dummy packing run, and pray that my suitcase is under the weight limit for my airline... 30 days to go!!!

Not like they can tell you.

No. It used to be more common then pretty much disappeared for a while until recently. I also saw it on Wonder last month. It typically won't be offered until the midway point of the cruise or just after (on 7N cruises) in my experience.

This type of sailing is on our bucket list! I am glad that your Mom is able to go with you guys. Such a blessing!

There's always a white night, but barely anyone participates.

Done!

I had been on 4 cruises before we started cruising as a family in 2015. Big Red Boat, Norwegian, Carnival and RC. Since 2015, 14 cruises, 13 of them RC. 6 more on the docket between now and March 2026.