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1 hour ago, Doug_Texas said:

If you take an excursion by boat it is only about 30 minutes away.  We used to run the gauntlet ourselves taking a taxi to Red Hook then a ferry to St Johns then another taxi to Trunk Bay.  That takes at least an hour and a half and a lot of trouble, but cheap.  There is also a ferry direct to Charlotte Amalie but be careful, itinerary limited.

Did you do the excursion with the cruise line or found your own? As I am trying to find an excursion now that would just take me to the beach to save time but not seeing anything quite yet.

So I am looking at OV Balconies, and I see the 7574 and 7576 have the arrows on it. Will this be a connecting balcony? Because I didn't select that category as it had a higher rate. Is this a way to bypass paying extra for connecting rooms or will the doors stay locked since I didn't specify for a connecting room OR does the arrows mean absolutely nothing lol.

7 minutes ago, Doug_Texas said:

The decent beach stop is on both itineraries, St Thomas with a boat excursion to Trunk Bay on St. Johns.  One of the most beautiful beaches in the world.

That place looks amazing. Do you remember how long it took to travel from the port to Trunk Bay?

1 minute ago, OCSC Mike said:

I'd save the money since you're limited in excursions b/c of the little ones and just enjoy the extra sea day (but I'm also frugal and sail primarily for the ship myself so this may be biased).

The one thing I was saying myself was this is the Icon sailing, maybe less port days are better to take in the ship more.

For those who have done both of these itineraries, which one did you prefer?

There's a $1,300 price difference between these for the month of June, with the first one being the more expensive:

Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic
Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas
San Juan, Puerto Rico

vs

Philipsburg, St. Maarten
Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas

I've been to St Marrten and Puerto Rico. We did the city of PR, and thought this was the worst stop. Though if we went this time around we would go to Isla Verde beach in PR.

We love the beaches preferred to walking a city. The DR we would probably just do the monkey tour. We always do the monkey/sloth tour when we visit Roatan, so it wouldn't be our first time with monkey's if we did DR.

We have little feet that would be 4 and 7 at the time. So wild excursions is something we unfortunately haven't and wouldn't be able to do for quite some time.

5 hours ago, Jill said:

April 20 sailing had 6500 passengers, 2300 were kids. 
 

I do think that part of the problem is so many first time cruisers. Our Facebook group for our sailing was loaded with first timers. Maybe it was this group that thought you just turn the kids loose. Just have never experienced this many kids unsupervised on any of our 205 nights on Royal. 
 

We’ve sailed all the oasis class ships for a total of 8 times. Twice during spring break with our kids, a couple times in October but mostly late April /early May. 
 

Comparing our 2 spring break sailings to our recent Icon, Icon was just very different. I wouldn’t say chaotic but close to it and really only on the upper decks. It’s a very “busy” pool deck meaning it felt crowded because of how much “stuff” has been crammed up there. The Hideaway is ridiculously small for adults only but then again Cloud 17 (the original adults only) was also small. I just didn’t like the feel of those upper decks. 
 

Last, for everyone saying it’s a family cruise line, yes I realize that but it wasn’t always heavily marketed to families. Our first RC cruise was 1991. It was not catering to families back then. I would say it started with oasis class (2010-ish) and then the marketing went on steroids for Icon. Well it worked! 

You are correct on that. Royal became a family cruise with the Oasis class. Which was a smart move because it increased their revenue as it got more people onboard. RCCL wasn't a talked about brand before Oasis class. If the descriptions of Icon is accurate, I think it will take maybe two years for the culture change to calm down a bit. All of the new cruisers that are pumped up about Icon are not hesitating to book the ship. Most people did their bookings during Covid and there you have the other large percentage that made their bookings this past winter. So 2025 will have slightly less excited people, and then 2026 and beyond will be normal cruisers.

In the past people behavior overall imo have been great on Oasis class during the summer which is why I am only interested in cruising those ships.

When I saw the tours of Icon the first thing I noticed were how small the pools were. RCCL will hear of the complaints and make small adjustments for Icon I believe. Because they're not going to want their reputation to go to crap considering the price people have to pay to sail with them now. They have been getting away with robbery but that's due to their reputation.

54 minutes ago, recogneyes said:

There are rows with benches and actual seats with backs on the Oasis class ships while it appears Icon only has the  bench seating.

Yeah, I pulled up videos and realized they all had some sort of backing. I don't ever sit fully back to begin with so I never noticed. It's a weird thing to remove though unless they noticed everyone sits forward like me

The kids complaint I am not understanding. I've only sailed on Oasis class during the month of June and have done that about six times. I don't recall seeing so many complaints about kids. Now for those complaining about kids on Icon, what were your recent experiences on the Oasis class and was it during a similar month for a proper comparison?

How many more kids are sailing on Icon vs. Oasis class? Because Icon doesn't even sail at full capacity yet I thought. So wouldn't Oasis have more children by default? What ages are we defining as kids?

I've never seen an issue with kids that's worthy of commenting about. Maybe I don't pay enough attention to people. I do know the ships I've been on has always had a lot of kids because Oasis class is catered to families.

The only reason I can think kids behavior could be crazier on Icon vs. Oasis class would be due to new families cruising for the first time. There has to be a much larger percentage of new cruisers going on Icon. The problem still lies with the parents.

A lot of the poop incidents I've read here and elsewhere has been with adults, which how as an adult are we pooping on ourselves is a bit wild.

I am definitely going to sail on Icon just because I have a family with little ones, but it's making me rethink encouraging my first time Royal Caribbean cruisers to join us.

4 minutes ago, tonyfsu21 said:

As great as the aquatheatre shows are on Oasis class, the water show on Icon blows it out of the water (pun intended). The seats in the Aquadome theatre are back breaking though. 

Oasis class just had benches. How can anything be worse than benches?

Is there a difference in quality of the show since this is the first indoors? Is it a letdown compared to the other ships or equal quality? This has been our favorite show that we always look forward to.

2 minutes ago, PPPJJ-GCVAB said:

For me…once you’ve been to a few of them…you feel as though you’ve seen them all!  Almost always same or very similar questions.  Just not entertaining enough to sit through.

Yeah, I think you’re right. I sort of felt like that the last time but was thinking maybe it was due to less energy with the audience being so small.

I do think in general for shows and small events they could be marketed more through the app. 

For this specific show they should have different questions pretty often. I mean there’s at least an hundred different questions you can ask any married couple. There’s so many newlywed board games they can borrow from.

Some of the entertainment is based on the participants, and if the host isn’t pulling information out of them to get a story the show can become very dull.

Sailing after Covid I noticed the Love and Marriage is a hardly attended event now, when pre-Covid, at least on my summer sailings it used to be nearly a full house. Anyone else experience the same?

The host for Wonder of the Seas in June 2023 also did a horrendous job hosting. There was just a lack of entertainment on their behalf and lack of encouragement to the participants. My wife has encouraged us to do it but the only reason I do not participate is because my answers and behavior would be so boring, and I wouldn't want to poop the party for those watching.

I know it's a bit cruise nitpicking but this is a discussion forum after all. It's my favorite show on the ship. I'm guessing Royal Caribbean had a lot of new sailors since Covid or people just lost interest in the game.

Pre-covid white nights on Oasis class ships was always a popular event. I only can sail in the summer as I won't take my kids out of school for a vacation. So it could be participation was high during the summer months. I don't recall there being a white party post-covid on the sailings I been on. I wear all white in general in the summer so it's no biggie either way for me.

Caribbean night doesn't make sense because it's a cruise..so generally people are going to wear Caribbean outfits on at least 2 of their sailing days.

I always thought when they introduced ages 18-25 that it would be pretty weird. Mixing underage drinkers with drinkers doesn't make sense, neither does have 24 and 25 year old men chasing after 18 and 19 year old girls.

Did Royal Caribbean finally update this to separate the ages more? 18-20 would be more appropriate in my mind.

I do also understand 18-20 would be very niche, so there's that also.

Anyone with children had experiences with the hyperlink meetups? What were your kids thoughts?

I just saw a video of Wonder of the Seas, is it true that Solarium Bistro is now charging for dinner? Pre-Covid I went on Symphony and Oasis, and neither charged for Solarium for dinner.

Sailing is in first week of June, and I just realized my daughters passport expired. What should I bring in place of her expired passport so that she can get off and on the ports (Bahamas, Cozumel, Roatan and Costa Maya) with no issue?

She has a learner's permit, birth certificate, and of course the expired passport.

Is there a floorplan for all of the oceanview rooms? I always assumed oceanview will be in the front or back of the ship only. But now that I look at Icon of the Seas, they have a bunch that's mid-ship. Of course that ship is designed a bit different.

As front/back there will be a good amount of motion with oceanview. As one person in particular gets motion sickness.

If entered wrong year for a child, does it have to be fixed since the year would be different on their passport or can it just be left alone?

Thank you guys. We have passports, and was just confirming for a new cruising group. So making sure I was correct on the information I was going to tell them. Will suggest passports for adults for emergency reasons and official copy of certificates for the little ones.

From Port Canaveral to Charlotte Amalie and Philipsburg, two adults with a five year old and three year old, would anyone in the group require a passport or are copies of birth certificate good enough for all five?

Passports is only optional, as it'll be easier to get back to the United States with it if we missed our cruise from one of the destinations correct?

If passports are recommended for the adults, then how about the two little ones? Just birth certificate for them?

10 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

Imho opinion oceanview cabins feel all the motion. I believe they are only on decks 2 and 3. Interiors are everywhere.  People say midship is your best bet for less motion. I only sail aft, if the ship is speeding or winds are high, regardless of where you are, you will feel it.

Yeah I just realized, I think if they did an oceanview then the best bet would be deck 3 since they're midship. I just don't want them to feel force to get a balcony, so making sure they have all the information.

I've never done a oceanview or interior. What are the best decks + locations for Oasis class to not feel the movement of the ship/waves?

I've only done balconies on Oasis, decks 6-12. Only once I have felt the motion of the boat and that's when I did Boardwalk which was located at the back of the ship, and I said never again lol.

P.S. This question is for a family member btw who are cruising for the first time and doesn't like motion at all. I am just presenting them all options for each cabin.

I would advise to always do new ports, and then when you run out of ports to just pick your favorite ships or change cruise lines to see more places.

Is there a dance club for kids under 18? My daughter is saying there's one for 16 and up, and she'll be 2 weeks away from turning 16 by the time we sail. So I am curious if there's even such a thing, and if so the age range. She likes the idea of dances and just hearing the music and watching people. She has pleaded many times to sail for her birthday which is what we always do, but with our family growing to 5 and the cost to sail in June is like $300+ per person, it's not worth it for her to do some dance one night lol.

I didn't do an exact count on this floor, but isn't there about 104 rooms from end to end in a single row? So to actually be in the middle would be 40-50 range right? Am I being tricked by a TA in that 12600 and 12598 is mid-ship or is it more at the end of Aft? I did a back of the ship balcony last time on Symphony for the first time ever and vowed never to do that again. Preferred not to be rocking while trying to go asleep.