jeffmw

Well also be on. Family of 4 (kids 12 & 10) and we'll be with another family with kids 13 and 11.

We booked this WAYYY back in March 2023 and got an amazing deal before they realized how huge demand was going to be for Icon. 

My friend called like six months ago to try to downgrade his room from and it was like $2,000 more. 

So excited for this. We've been waiting forver!

We've always used passports. No need to bring birth certificates along. 

In general for cruising, while you don't necessarily need a passport to go on a cruise that starts and ends in the US, it's good to have one just in case if you're stopping anywhere out of the country. 

On 5/13/2024 at 9:42 PM, Jill said:

Have you been on icon? We’ve sailed oasis class twice with our kids during spring break and icon is spring break on steroids. No desire to go back. 

Interesting. I've heard both -- that it's even further of an improvement on Oasis Class from a crowd management standpoint, and others like you who say they felt it was chaotic. I'll be on in December -- over Christmas no-less -- so I'll be interested to see how it is. If we don't like it, no problem, there are plenty of Oasis Class ships. 

1 hour ago, All4family said:

Has anyone experienced the Icon at full capacity? I am sure my sailing in July will probably be full capacity.

I wouldn't worry too much about that. A new boat like the Icon with high demand is at or near capacity most of the time. And I've been on plenty of ships at capacity during peak vacation periods and especially the newest ships do a great job of never feeling too crowded. If it didn't feel too crowded now for the person who commented, it won't in July. 

On 5/8/2024 at 5:33 PM, Tink said:

I am currently on the Icon and I have to say this is an issue.  Pools are constantly being closed and not just the Kiddie pool. In my opinion royal made a mistake changing the boardwalk into a family area. What I observed is that the kids are not hanging out in that area or that pool area.  Rather they occupy every other pool that us adults would like to get in. If kids are going to monopolize  all the other pools why not just reimagine the boardwalk area for everyone to use. 

I balked at people who said separating the pool areas is a big issue (families w/ kids of different ages have to split up on cruises -- it's just a reality) but if no one is spending time down there and everyone is up on the pool deck, that would suggest Royal needs to rethink how they can get more families with small children down to the Boardwalk. My assumption is that part of the ship being well-balanced from a crowd standpoint is assuming there are a sufficient amount of people on that deck. 

On 5/9/2024 at 9:50 AM, OCSC Mike said:

Since my wife is a teacher, we almost always sail with tons of kids even though we don't have any and it's never been a big deal to us. My explanation, aside from being tolerant and easy-going people, has partly been that we don't spend a ton of time where they do (i.e. the main pools). We use the Solarium to chill or a shady spot just outside the Solarium recently on Wonder when the Solarium was too warm that's not really by the pools even though it is on the main pool deck.

If I liked to spend time in/around the main pool or experienced what some others have, maybe it would bother me more. Sure some kids can be annoying and misbehave in the elevators, in WJ, running through the hallways/stairs, etc. but nothing has ever reached the point where it has significantly impacted our enjoyment.

Here's the honest truth: The people on here and other cruise forums that constantly complain about children and their behavior simply have it out for kids. When you tell them they hate kids they get really offended and will insist 100x over that "I don't hate kids. I just hate misbehaving ones" or "I don't hate the kids. It's the parents' fault" but 90% of them don't have kids and are in denial that they just don't like them. They know it's Scroogey to get annoyed by the simple presence of any kid who isn't sitting nicely with their hands folded, but that's how they are and they can't help it. Coexisting with kids is part of cruising on Royal at this point. 

There has to be more to this story or some reason why Icon pools are more likely to be shut down. This is the second post about pools being closed on Icon for these "issues", but there's no way suddenly there's this much more pooping in the pool.

I've never even seen a pool closed on a Royal ship for poop or vomit (although I have seen it on Disney) and all we do is go on cruises during school breaks with thousands of kids. Of course I realize Icon is likely to have more kids and perhaps more first-time cruisers than other ships, but it's not such a higher percentage from Oasis ships during school vacation times that there'd suddenly be this massive uptick in incidents.

I don't think anyone rational has a problem with the entire practice, in principle. It's great for kids and a fun tradition overall. But moderation and common sense is the key here and we seem to be getting well beyond those measuring sticks.

You can have 100 people each hiding 5 ducks. And you can have 5 people each hiding 50 ducks. But you can't have 100 people each hiding 50 ducks. 

The more passengers hiding more ducks, the more you have people looking for more creative places to hide them. I'm not sure how or where Royal would enforce this, but there just needs to be some limitations on 1) quantity brought onto the ship and 2) some areas that are off-limits. 

It was great when everyone didn't know about it because a few people would bring ducks and, if you didn't know about the trend, it would be fun to find one. 

Now it's reaching the point where it's becoming too big of a thing so there are hundreds of ducks on every ship. There are some real Scrooges out there who really hate it. I'm not one of them. I love the idea and it's fun for kids. But there's a fine line between a fun little treasure hunt and dozens of people bringing what can sometimes be hundreds of ducks and there being ducks everywhere. Now, there are ducks from previous cruises visible in inaccessible places.

I feel like, if it gets much bigger, Royal will have to do something to limit it. No idea how they would do it, but once ducks start being left everywhere and dropped into art installations and on top of elevators, etc., it goes beyond its original intention. 

That's crazy. I've seen this happen on a Disney cruise but never on any Royal cruise I've been on. It is a huge pain when it happens. 

Sometimes there are legitimate accidents with kids (or adults) who wouldn't usually have an issue, but it shouldn't happen with kids who aren't potty trained. I feel like there used to be more of an emphasis on making sure there were no swim diapers in the pools and everyone understood the rules, but they don't seem to get enforce it or talk about it as much. I assume they will startup again now if it's an ongoing issue. 

I firmly believe Royal cruises, especially Icon, are meant for families and kids -- but this shouldn't happen. 

21 hours ago, ChrisK2793 said:

‘some kids on balconies (which I’ve rarely seen or heard when in that area on ships) would be better than the constant noise of kids screaming on the waterslides right next to the current adult area in the hideaway

 

Icon is a theme park on the ocean. If having a quiet, serene area for just adults is a major factor in selecting your cruise, you're best off going on a different boat. 

It's the old Ricky Gervais joke of going into a coffee shop and spotting a flyer for guitar lessons and getting pissed off and screaming "I don't want guitar lessons!!" Icon simply isn't for you. If you're on that ship and you're upset about kids making noise, that's not Royals fault. They've been telling you over and over that's what Icon is. Icon isn't for people who want a relaxing, adult vacation. There are entire cruise lines for that. 

8 minutes ago, ChrisK2793 said:

‘Six floors down would have been a great spot to have the Adults Only Area and had the little kids area right behind the waterslides where the Hideaway adults area is now. That would have made much more sense.

 

That's a fair point. Obviously there's less regular need to move between the adults-only area and the waterpark than the waterpark and the splash park. 

But it seems to be a lot more complicated than that. For example, what then do you do with all the Boardwalk balcony rooms? That's a couple hundred rooms that would look out over the adults area. I don't think the adults looking to get away from children would enjoy having dozens of kids in rooms above them staring down and making noise, and you definitely can't make all those rooms adults only. So, my guess is putting the adults area there was an impossibility that would've demanded a redesign of the whole ship. 

They spend years designing these things, so there's rhyme and reason to everything and logistical things we don't know about. 

On 4/8/2024 at 9:41 AM, tonyfsu21 said:

Very sad. At some point this litigation will force active countermeasures on all ships. It won’t be long before suicide nets are deployed around the perimeter of the ship. What a horrible way to go between the onset of hypothermia and the hungry sharks. 

#1 - I don't think they're ever going to install nets. While these incidents make news, I don't think suicide rates are any higher on cruise ships than anywhere else (in fact, they're probably lower). It's not a cruise ship problem. It's a mental health problem. 

#2 - Not to be morbid, but to be fair to our friends in the animal kingdom, my assumption is anyone jumping off a cruise ship in the middle of the ocean would probably drown. Sharks are out there, for sure, but they're not typically aggressively hunting humans. 

I did think about this when I first saw the design. The objective was to split up the usual high-traffic areas to prevent anywhere from being too crowded -- which it does a great job of -- but for anyone with kids of split age groups, this does present an issue. 

But... these ships are increasingly built to be like theme parks with distinctly different areas. And if you've ever been to Disney or any other type of theme park or water park with kids of different ages (where one wants to ride coasters while the other wants to meet Cinderella, or one wants to be in the kiddie pool while the other wants to go on slides), you know you either need to split up or compromise. 

To me, it's not that different from any other Royal boat where there are things to do all over the ship. I often find myself going with one kid to karaoke while my wife takes the other to play sports. Then there are times when we say to one of them, "too bad, we're going to stay together and spend time as a family now." It's just a reality of being on a massive ship with a million things to do. 

I've gone on cruises with just my family of 4, to groups as big as 5 families, all with kids of various ages. It's hard and perhaps even unrealistic to keep everyone together on a cruise when there's so much to do. 

On 4/7/2024 at 3:54 PM, tonyfsu21 said:

Interesting that a person with this supposed wealth is traveling for a week on middle tier family cruise line. Why are they not laying out on the beautiful white sand beaches of St Barths at Eden Rock? 

I constantly wonder this also when I see the prices for the largest suites on Royal ships. I love cruises, but if I had a $30k+ budget to spend on a week's vacation for my family of four, there's no way I'm going on a Royal Caribbean cruise. For that kind of money, you can go just about anywhere in the world, stay at a 5* hotel, and eat at Michelin star restaurants every night. 

On 4/10/2024 at 11:29 AM, b_resh_uh said:

I do think the insane pricing going on at the Orlando theme parks has a part to play in this

Assuming we operate under the dastardly capitalist assumption that a product is worth whatever people are willing to pay for it, Disney realized it had underpriced it's vacations for decades and jacked everything up over the past 10 years or so. Disney went from -- in the 80s and 90s -- being a vacation most families could afford, to something comparable to a cruise or resort vacation, to a trip difficult for a family of 4 to pull off for less than $8k+. 

The cruise industry is now realizing the same thing. Why offer something for $6k if you can sell it for $9k and people will still pay it? If Icon is the high-end Royal experience that competes with Disney World, why shouldn't it cost about the same as a week at Disney World? 

I keep saying, we are all in for disappointment over the next several years. Royal's prices are going up by significant %s, and they won't be going back down. This is the new pricing standard. The budgets we are accustomed to for our vacations are obsolete. 

On 4/5/2024 at 10:27 AM, michaelp1446 said:

It seemed that the sensitivity had been adjusted from 2 years ago to reduce the number of false button pushes. When the elevator gets packed, there seemed to be a lot of people that accidentally leaned against the buttons. I don't know which was a brighter red -the buttons or the faces of those who realized what they had done

 

If the buttons were reduced to make them less sensitive, I can't imagine what they were like before. As it is now, if you're within 6 inches of the button is lights up. As I said, on easily 95% of the elevator trips I took there were buttons accidentally hit either by people while I was on it or by people who had just gotten off. If it was more sensitive before, you must've not even been able to stand in the elevator without setting them off. 

15 hours ago, Jamesszy94 said:

Could it have been that you went during school holidays/holiday season?

 

Nah. I was on Symphony during Winter Break once, Wonder last Spring Break, and Mariner two Spring Breaks ago. Fully used to boats jammed full of kids. It really boiled down to fewer venues and areas to do things, and much worse traffic flow.

18 hours ago, TakeMeSomewhere said:

It's also smart of Royal to have different ships for different needs. Cold vs warm weather, young children focused vs more adult focused. Even if Royal is a family brand it doesn't mean that's all they have to do. It is important for people to research or to have a travel agent to research the right ship for them.

 

I agree. And this is why it makes sense that many of the older boats (with naturally less to do for families) are typically used for cruises less geared towards children (9+ days, unique ports, more remote embarkation locations like PR, etc.) I knew what we were getting into before we left. I worried my kids would have less to do without all the venues and activities I spoke of above. I just figured it was a new boat and it's Royal (which does target families above all else), so I could trust there'd be enough onboard to compensate. But honestly, they made the problem worse by scheduling adults-only activities during prime hours (middle of the afternoon, early evening, etc.), removing kids from some of the key venues and activities that catered to them. 

We're focusing a lot on the "my kids didn't have as much to do" narrative here, but honestly it was everything else too. The crowds and elevators is nothing I've ever experienced on a Royal boat (including sold-out Wonder and Symphony during school breaks). And I felt overall that the additions (North Star, iFly, SeaPlex, 270) didn't nearly balance out all the subtraction (Central Park, Boardwalk, Sports Court, Aqua Theater, water slides, Abyss, play area on Wonder, mini-golf, ice rink, karaoke bar.) 

I respect everyone's opinions here. Most things in life are subjective.

I will say, however, the predominant nature of the responses 1) cite the fact that Quantum ships were developed for cold weather, and/or 2) appear to be written by people without young kids who are on cruises to have a mostly 'adult' experience. All of that is fine. It makes total sense for there to be cruise ships with more indoor options if they're going to be deployed outside of warmer climates. It also makes total sense for there to be cruises with more adult-driven experiences (although I'd argue the lack of Central Park and the Aqua Theater with no replacement is a bit underwhelming in that respect.)

However, for most of Odyssey's short history -- including this cruise I just went on -- it has been deployed in the Caribbean packed with families with young kids -- which is increasingly Royal's target demographic.

If I were taking a Celebrity Cruise in Alaska, Odyssey would be an amazing ship. But for a cruise full of kids needing things to do during two sea days, it underwhelmed. The SeaPlex continually kicking kids off the sport court to have adult sports competitions, giving the hundreds of kids no where to go on a ship built for cold weather, was particularly unideal. It was a Spring Break Caribbean cruise with no waterslides, no mini-golf, no sports court, no Boardwalk, no carousel, no Abyss, no ice rink, and no designated karaoke venue. It does, however, have a lot of specialty restaurants and a giant crane that you could pay to stand in and take pictures. To me, that wasn't an even trade.  

I also didn't mention the massive footprints of the Music Hall and Boleros. There are huge back areas of these venues far from the entrance, which serve no purpose other than to provide huge spaces for people to drink. Again -- great for a Celebrity or Virgin ship catering to adult experiences. Not ideal for one catering to families. 

Before I begin, let me say that Odyssey is a beautiful ship and -- more importantly -- the service and staff are excellent. Our cruise last week had the best service and easily the best food of any Royal ship I've been on. I can't stress this enough. After several cruises lamenting the quality of MDR service and food quality, and the freshness of food in the Windjammer, everything on this cruise was fantastic. 

That aside, I've never before been disappointed by a ship on Royal -- and our group (all of us veteran cruisers) was continually underwhelmed by Odyssey's design. You wonder what happened during development of the Quantum Ultra ships that they totally missed the mark after killing it with the Oasis Class. 

I've been on Wonder, Symphony, Freedom, and Mariner, and I felt even the Freedom & Mariner were superior in so many ways.

• Quantum boats were developed after Oasis Class but they didn't include Central Park, Boardwalk (+ carousel & Abyss), Aqua Theater, or skating rink -- yet they basically added nothing to replace them.
• The elevators. OMG  The no-touch buttons are a disaster. Of the 50 elevator rides I took during the week, I think I can count on one hand the times I got in and there weren't at least 2 or 3 buttons hit with no one getting off. You couldn't get within 2 feet of the panel without accidentally hitting a button. It was a joke among every passenger on the ship. I get that it's a COVID thing, but Wonder doesn't have this issue.
• The SeaPlex is a cool room but the big mistake was removing the sports court and skating rink, etc., and thinking the SeaPlex could handle everything. The sports court on every ship I've ever been on is in constant use by kids playing soccer or basketball. But because of the lack of other venues, every time kids would go out to play, within 30 minutes they were kicking everyone off for bumper cars, laser tag, adult sports tournaments, pickleball lessons. It was crazy. You had a boat FULL of kids on spring break and every time they started having fun they'd shut the court down for an adult 3-on-3 basketball tournament and leave all the kids with nothing to do. 
• No waterslides. I realize not everyone cares about waterslides, but at this point they've been an expectation on all ships and cruise lines for 15 years. It's odd that they felt waterslides were unimportant enough to build Quantum class with none and then do a total 180 and decide they're so important that Icon needed SIX. They seem to have sacrificed them for the North Star, which is gimmicky, limited to a small % of passengers, and a clear effort to replace something free with something that drives $$$.
• The 270 Theater that essentially replaces the skating rink and Aqua Theater is terribly underutilized. We were on the boat for 6 days and never had a reason to go there. 
• In general, I had the overwhelming sense that the amazing job Royal has done with crowd control on other ship classes was totally missed here. I've never felt crowded on a ship, but Odyssey is full of overcrowded venues (SeaPlex and Esplanade, particularly) and they totally screwed up the Windjammer. Half the seating is way in the back far away from the buffets, and as a result the WJ always felt crowded. There are buffet stations in the back but they were never open, even during the busiest of breakfasts, etc. 

Again, staff, service, food, cleanliness -- all excellent. But Royal totally missed the boat, so to speak, on ship design here. If not for the food I'd go on Mariner 10x again before I'd go Quantum class. 

Just my opinion 

15 hours ago, twangster said:

Formal dress code is rarely enforced to absolute standards such as men must wear a tie and jacket.  

 

Correction. Formal dress code is never enforced. 

One quick update here... It seems at the very least Royal is changing the availability of some excursions.

I'm going on Odyssey in 2 weeks and in our Facebook group multiple people are reporting that Royal has cancelled their Labadee excursions (jet skiing and kayaking). Someone else has said their cabana hasn't been cancelled, so perhaps they're just limiting the excursions that venture off the coast but are still bringing people to the port.

6 hours ago, loki007 said:

Star Link will be much better than cell service at sea

Yeah not an expert on this but isn't there no cell service in much of the ocean? Isn't VOOM pretty much the only option?

Just keep in mind that Royal will wait for their own excursion to get back if it's late, but they won't wait for one they're not affiliated with. So if something unforeseen happens, you're SOL. In many of these ports, the transportation can be unreliable. Old busses and vans break down. There's blockages in the road or unexpected traffic. Or sometimes someone else on the excursion who isn't with a boat doesn't get back in time and you're waiting.

There are a lot of variables, so I'd be careful. I'd find out when you need to be back before you book anything (it could be as early as 4 p.m. depending on the upcoming trip) and then make sure you're scheduled to be back 90 min. to 2 hours before. 

1 minute ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

 Next stop - Falmouth.

From Labadee to somewhere more dangerous 

Enjoy!

12 hours ago, CanHardlyWait said:

How sad you felt the need to point out both sides after reading. All because some took my personal feelings as a judgement on there actions? Live life. Enjoy life. Go anywhere and everywhere. Nothing said today was anything other than my personal take on how I need to roll, to be ok with myself at the end of the day. 

I didn't take it personally -- don't get the wrong idea. I absolutely feel you have a right to make that decision, whether it be for political reasons or simply because you cruise for the ship and not the port. I don't judge you for either one. My comment about it not being a sin was more about the greater state of the world and humanity -- that people suffer everywhere and it's not a sin to enjoy life in spite of that. 

11 hours ago, Eighty8 said:

But there is a significant difference between there and Haiti... Jamaica actually has a functioning govt. Something that basically doesn't exist at this point in Haiti. Appears that most of the state apparatus has collapsed in Haiti, including the police and military. That is not normal... It has a level 4 'Do Not Travel' warning from the US State Dept. That doesn't exist in any other Caribbean port. 

 

This is fair. I suppose I'd argue that a "functioning government" doesn't necessarily matter when your murder rate is 3x higher than a place where there isn't supposedly such a thing. But I see your point.