Mikei31

So first off I live in NJ so I am aware of what the weather may or may not be. It could be 80 degrees or it could be 45 and rainy. But I have only taken cruises during summer months. What experience have you had with an early October cruise, especially with toddlers? Are the pools, water slides open? Is the water heated? Is the solarium always open to all guests or still adult only?

It’s simple. The big, new ships are directly made for and marketed to families and young adults. They are simply amusement parks on water. The amenities aren’t intended for older people. Therefore you are going to be disappointed and feel left out. I’m no cruise line genius but id have to imagine its a lot more profitable getting a family of 5 with young kids on board rather than 2 old people. Families and kids will spend money on extras. Older people are generally conservative. There’s a reason why Icon has been marketed as the “ultimate family vacation.” Nowhere does it say cruise and that’s on purpose. With that said, I saw an article recently that said the average age of cruisers has come way down. So the efforts the cruise lines are making are clearly working.

Pay…

You can pay for childcare. It was $7/hr last summer. You have to make a reservation for the time slots you want when onboard. There’s a very small splash area for babies/young toddlers that mine loved. The bigger splash area and main pools is for toilet trained kids only. We went into hot tubs several times and held our baby without being bothered. Other than that you’re kinda on your own. as others mentioned there’s a carousel and there’s also a small indoor “playground” they can climb and run around.

Since when do they allow only 1 person to get the alcohol package? It’s always been required for both adults in the room to get it or neither.

Now what I’m running into while looking for a last minute cruise this July or August is every search is returning with the error, “no rooms available for 3 people”. I have 2 adults and 1 child. How can this be? And there’s no filter to add in guests so only available cruises are shown. I am left to click on every single date and try, only to get the same message

Am I the only one who is annoyed that every time I go to the RC website I have to log in.. and then on top of that, after logging in and searching for a new cruise it doesn’t automatically load my crown and anchor number to the searches.. I don’t remember the number and copying/pasting doesn’t work because it goes in as a form of a link. It shouldn’t be this difficult. Or is it only me

I’ll be very curious to hear how crowded and busy icon feels. Some of those new features will be in very high demand. Swim up bar, infinity pool. Etc. I fear it’s going to be so crazy that it’s not enjoyable. I’d be curious to see the initial reviews from Oasis as a comparison

I’ll be very curious to hear how crowded and busy icon feels. Some of those new features will be in very high demand. Swim up bar, infinity pool. Etc. I fear it’s going to be so crazy that it’s not enjoyable. I’d be curious to see the initial reviews from Oasis

You completely missed the point

When adding the child to the room it no longer gave us a choice for the GTY. We had to select our location and cabin. But again, that doesn’t add up to nearly doubling the price. It seems like a major pricing scam and it’s turning me off to cruising. As I dealt with it on my most recent cruise as well but the jump wasn’t as significant.

So I don’t understand why pricing changes so much when you add a child to a stateroom. Especially since there’s been a kids sail free promotion all year. Please see photos. This is for the same exact cruise with the same cabin type selected. The cruise nearly DOUBLES in price for adding a 2 year old child to the cabin. I don’t get it.

I started this same thread a few weeks ago before my cruise. I was never asked to show my card at any time. The picture i uploaded on the app was all they needed. It could all depend on whoever checks you in but I wouldn’t worry if you have the picture and it all matches your other documents. Don’t listen to the people who tell you they demand a physical card, those same posters said that to me and it was not true.

I don’t think you understand. When I say lines, I’m not talking about walking around looking for an open table. Im talking about their being 200 people in the hallways outside the elevator just waiting to get inside the windjammer…. Being held outside by staff. I will say the line moved rather reasonably but the chaos of it is very unpleasant.

So true about cafe promenade. At least 3 times I went and then just continued to walk by because the line was 20+ deep and I wasn’t gonna waste more of my vacation time standing around.