CruzOnBye

Part 1 - Travel Day a.k.a. planes, trains, automobiles, and one giant ship
 
We started our travels the morning of Friday, February 16th. Because basically all of the Northeast has schools off flights were crazy expensive into Miami or Ft Lauderdale - I was afraid we would have to drive from NY but we found a good rate on a flight from Westchester Airport (local to us) to West Palm Beach.
 
Photo of my son wearing merch for his favorite airport 

Flight was a bit bumpy to start but we arrived on time and picked up a rental car to start the journey south to Miami. About 2/3rds of the way we stopped to see my wife's cousin which was nice to spend time with them and my.kids played with her daughter for a bit. We then made it the rest of the way and spent the night at the Comfort Suites Miami Airport North. It was ... Fine. Got the job done and room for the 5 of us and included breakfast, but nothing special.
We then returned the rental car in the evening, taking the fake-o-rail back to the terminal (the "trains" part of this journey) and then shuttle back to hotel

 
They offered a free shuttle to the port but the times were either 9am or 12:30pm, which really didn't work for our 11:30am boa ding time, so we reserved an Uber. That worked out really well - and the driver referred to the Icon as a "monster".
 
We got to the port about 10:50 and got on within 5 minutes - fortunately we were selected for Express after we completed the safety videos in the app, but even without it it would have only been a few minutes more, all was very efficient

 
It felt a bit surreal to be on the ship 478 days after having booked it. But first impressions were that it was beautiful and the openness of the promise with the Pearl and the windows is really nice.

 
We went to our muster station and then put to Thrill Island to do some water slides. The area is amazing and the slides are legit (we did 3 of them, the mat slides were my favorite 

 
Coming up next, food, drinks, more drinks, room tour, and meeting Rover!
 
 

I did that ride January 24 to Megan's Bay on an open air taxi. Just be prepared with all the correct money for the ride and also the entrance to Megan's Bay. The bus was $8 per person over the hill to the beach and then the entrance to the beach was $7 per person - they like exact numbers if you can.
The ride back over the hill was an adventure. The brakes were smoking and smelled like it on the way down. When we get down to the bottom the driver asked who wanted off at the shopping district and no one replied so he got angry and asked for money from everyone before he would take us back to the ship  🤔. It seemed odd but we all payed up and he took us back to the port area.
 

Open air bus to Megan’s Bay is the way to go. This is a great ride and very scenic. I understand Megan’s Bay has been rated up there with the nicest beaches in the Caribbean. 

Hello all, thought I would do a trip report/live blog for our cruise on Icon of the Seas - which is in only 3 days (eek!)
 
This is the February 17-24, 2024 sailing and is doing the Western Caribbean itinerary:
Day 1 - Leave Miami
Day 2 - Sea Day
Day 3 - Sea Day
Day 4 - Puerto Costa Maya, Mexico
Day 5 - Cozumel, Mexico
Day 6 - Sea Day
Day 7 - Perfect Day at CocoCay
Day 8 - Return to Miami (sad face)
 
Who we are - we are a family of 5 from New York that are looking forward to escaping the cold and snow we currently have on the ground. It is me (Phil), my wife (Judi), daughter Olivia (14), son Peter (12), and daughter Emma (9). Here is a photo of us from our cruise the same time last year (on Symphony of the Seas) having completed a Pirate Scavenger Hunt we did on St. Thomas (which was tons of fun)

 
(we look basically the same, just a year older)
 
 
As the title implies, we are staying in one of the new classes of rooms, a Family Infinite Oceanview Balcony. I was excited to try out this room mostly due to the space for fitting all 5 of us - we shall see if we like the Infinite Balcony (a.k.a. window) or not.
 
We have a few fun things planned - including celebrating both my birthday and Olivia's - she is turning 15 and I am, well, more than 15. For her birthday we have booked Izumi Hibachi for lunch (first time doing that) and for my birthday Judi and I are doing the Empire Supper Club (very excited for that).
 
We also have booked lunches at Giovanni's Italian Kitchen and Hooked - last cruise my kids had a combined 42 oyesters at Hooked so figure we will get our money's worth there, especially as we got these 40% off during Black Friday sale.
 
I have also been planning a bar crawl with members of a Facebook Group for this cruise and ~60 people have expressed interest, so we will see how that goes. I made up lanyards with required drinks based on suggestions from JJ Cruising. 

 
 
Our travel day down to Florida is in 2 days - due to this being a school holiday week in New York the flight prices to Miami and Fort Lauderdale were just crazy so we are actually flying from Westchester (our local airport) to West Palm Beach and then getting a rental car to drive down to Miami to stay over for one night.
 
I have watched tons of videos on the ship and have my spreadsheet ready! ... just hope we are. 🙂 

I’m sure glad you said something b/c I was planning on draining the ship’s bank….but now I will leave a little sump’n for ya.
😵😵‍💫

Me, hubby and our kiddo are taking advantage of Labor Day week. We snagged this opening day online and then transferred to our TA. Booked our first balcony 🤩! It will be AFT with what looks like will be a cool view of the Boardwalk and Aqua Theater (comparing to exact room location on Wonder..so we will see!). It rang in ~$1500 all in which wasn't cheap but not awful for 4 nights on a brand new ship during holiday week, right? And yes, I paid a little extra for balcony experience to surprise my boys..but it was "only" about $100 more than an interior so thought this was my best opportunity to give it a try! 
Deluxe Beverage Packages for sure! Black Friday deal was not great, especially at a $120 pp sticker price 🥴...I'm hoping between New Years and 4th of July it will come down and get some of that back. Waiting on dining options to appear to see if I want to do a surprise meal one day for us. We don't usually pay for dining, so we'll see...If Giovanni's Italian is on there then I probably will, the boys are pizza addicts connoisseurs 😅

"Have to" like it's a chore! 🤣
I'll be pricing some of those as well but it will mostly be an either/or situation in my case.

This is why I always put it in my cart and go all the way to almost paying for it to see the final price, THEN decide what I'm going to do. I've done what you've done a few times too! Tricky tricky, that Royal... 😉

May 11th is National Brunch for Lunch Day, celebrated on the day before Mother's Day every year. 😊

Precisely! That's not to say we don't spend much time planning. We've only done 4 cruises total, all on Royal. In that time though, I've never seen insane bargains on the CP after we've booked what we wanted (mostly dining, and the (must have) beach bed at Coco Cay.  But back to Giovanni's on Wonder. If you haven't been on Wonder and the weather is nice, lunch in the outdoor dining area was our second favorite dining experience of the cruise, topped only by 150 Central Park for dinner.

So I had noon lunch reserved for my upcoming Wonder sailing...and today this deal popped up (below). So I cancelled mine and immediately went to rebook and it was unavailable! I am so bummed. I called Royal and they checked to see if any other time or day was available and she said no 😞 Dinner is, but I was shooting for this 40% off deal. So just be careful out there if you are rebooking for the lower price!

I've seen your blog comments before re. food, I think we are on the same wave length 😄  We always have late night Sorrentos, it hits so good every time. We just hit Platinum so we have awhile before D+ but it sounds like there's great benefits to look forward to. We have 4 future cruises booked and #4 will put us at Emerald...we're trying haha. All that to say, we do enjoy the food the ships, I know we will check out Mason Jar bar for some of those cocktails in there, but I might see if a deal comes along for Brunch...meanwhile i keep refreshing my page to see if someone gives up a lunch so I can swipe it lol.

They will. We don't do much specialty dining but I will say that Mason Jar brunch is amazing. That's all I have booked right now ($20.99 during Black Friday). We turn D+ after our next cruise and will probably try GK for dinner with a BOGO in June.
I'm a WJ fan myself. The new layout on Wonder is very nice. I didn't spend much time there last June b/c family treated us to a GS so we were in CK and the suite neighborhood a lot since we wouldn't normally have access. I'm not a big MDR fan so I'm looking forward to checking out dinner in the WJ (even if it's after the MDR). I eat so much throughout the day that I don't need my dinner to be amazing. There's always something, somewhere... and then there's Sorrento's after that... which has actually been much better than in the past on my last 2 cruises and others have agreed on several different ships. The pizza seems to be much crispier and less of a soggy mess.

Yeahh if it was 40% dinner I might bite...but Sorrentos it is! LOL. I haven't been on Wonder before but I feel like the complimentary options will suffice. We are #teamwinnjammer 😉 We like to experience and graze lol.

Some random photos from Hubby’s phone to wrap this up. Overall, while I would be just as happy on any Oasis class ship, Icon is a beauty, and it is not lost on us how fortunate we feel to have the opportunity to sail on the maiden voyage. Not sure when we will sail her again, but we will. 🙂






And it’s bye for now. Time to get ready to “Go Big…or Go Home.” 😉

Happy Sailing everyone in Feb.....21 days till our cruise on Freedom....cant wait!!!!! 🙂

12 - waaaytooo (Allure)
22 - waaaytooo (Radiance)
26 - waaaytooo (Radiance)

Love seeing my name on the cruise list.

Okay, final thoughts, rambling, and wrap ups.
Overall, this was a great time. I will sail again with my mother despite all her flaws.........🤣😭
I hate to say but the Publix sub and meal from San Juan, were the best of all the food I had on this experience. 
Going forward I may not get the UDP. I can thank Wonder for saving me the money. At $300+ per sailing the quality of food doesn't make the extra cost worth it. Plus, I am D+ and can use the BOGO and a 3night if I want to do any specialty dining. I plan to incorporate room service to supplement on nights that I don't like the MDR menus.
I don't think I will use the laundry perk again. I don't wear perfume but I like my clothes to smell a certain way. The clothes were clean and smell industrial, worse once anything hit them (when I went through the casino the shirt I had on took in the smoke and I wanted to vomit from the smell). They also ruined my brother's white shirt and shorts. They are dingy as if they didn't wash them with whites. 
There is no ship I won't sail again: but Wonder is my favorite and I sadly spent most of Allure comparing her to Wonder, which was the cleanest of them all. Even though the crew looked less happy on Wonder, they still were amazing, and I think they truly make the cruise. However......
I can't say that any of my room attendants were spectacular. Despite tipping a little something at the beginning, I felt like it was always surface stuff done. I know that at most, the three rooms I stayed in were vacuumed once during my stay.  And I(we) am the type that cleans up before someone comes to clean. 
There is a clear difference, sorry not sorry, in the way solo guest are treated. I felt it hard on Allure and it really turned me off......granted that could have just been the "shorty on an Oasis class" aspect. But it was difficult to enjoy. Plus, my brother is awesome, so I don't think I will cruise solo in the near future.......in my own room, YES.
If you want to board all willy nilly, PC is for you. They never checked boarding times and they didn't care about beverage limits. They just want to get you on and off the ship. On both Wonder and Allure, it wasn't even 10:30am when we completed muster. 
The casino was horrible across all three ships. Considering how much I played, never more than I would pay for a cruise, I didn't come out ahead in any aspect, which was a first for me. I hit a couple of smaller jackpots, but machines were constantly breaking down and/or occupied. And the selection of machines wasn't that great. 
Cleanliness was a major issue on most ships, and I missed waving at crew members as they cleaned the rails, wiped the glass and made they ship beautiful. 
The weather was not great. It was rainy and windy plus cold for most of the time. It was better than my weather at home, but not nearly hot enough for my brother. 
Parents continue to believe that the ship is their babysitter. More than once I waited to make sure that ambling children, who were alone, found their way back to their parents. 
Popcorn and hot chocolate/coffee is clutch for ice shows.......switch it for any drinks when it comes to any other entertainment. I know people are like how you can bring food on a cruise?????....... but the lack of pretzels, popcorn and chips are noticeable when you are sailing for more than 7 days......or even if you aren't. 
I want to thank all of you for reading my blog, your kind words concerning our "good looks"🤣 and the feedback/stories in general. My and my brother's next cruise is in 98 days...........

Aquadome area 
 

^^This^^
Dan and I have discussed many times, recently, that we would be out of the cruising business if we had not moved to FL when we did.  It's not just a matter of $$$, but the stress of flying these days has gone up exponentially.  Add the inconvenience of a hotel stay and it is just overwhelming.  My hat is off to those of you who are flying in these days.

GUYS. 
i went to my royal app and all of the sudden confetti appeared on the screen!!!!
WE GOT EXPRESS BOARDING 
CHA-CHING THIS DAY IS TURNING AROUND!!!!!!!! 🤩🥰🎉🥳🎊🍾

quick update:
we had major uber shenanigans. 
i ordered an uber comfort, because they are newer/bigger with extra legroom. we have always gotten a midsize suv or hybrid SUV with the comfort. 
well they picked a camry. 
and our bags would not fit. 
so the driver pulled up, looked at the bags, and said he couldn’t take us. and that we had to cancel the ride. 
we did. 
and then 5 mins he came back, got OUT OF HIS CAR (this is where i became concerned) and asked if we were good. and i was like sir we cancelled like you asked. and he said well i’m back here. 
…not for us!!!!!
then the second uber arrived and the app wasn’t working so none of the driver’s messages were coming through. he was 5 feet away and almost left. 
….thinking i may try lyft next. 😳

Hi fellow floaters,
Got this one booked.  Family of 6 (4 youts aged 9-20).  Kids are looking forward to our first time at Coco.  I am looking forward to the Solarium.  Enjoyed Allure several years ago, hoping Wonder is as good or better.