Doug_Texas

We are sailing from Miami for the first time (Icon 27th). We booked the Breakwater in South Beach to experience night life and a Cuban show. We have another cruise booked sailing from Miami and will need to decide about lodging. What are the advantages / “go to” aspects of Intercontinental?

I’m on a 9 night mini segment of the World Cruise and hope it is a normal experience. At least it is in August - hope things settle down by then.

We had weather which delayed the trip to the bank. We leave a week from Friday for a SBS so it’s 200 $1 bills. One of the exciting rituals. (It’s the packing I hate - except this trip includes threads for Empire Supper Club!)

Please provide details/URL because I haven't seen that. The paper receipt they bring shows no gratuity like a drink ordered for a charge does.

Yes you should let your server know any time you want to use them. You may want to use them all for $14 cocktails and not $7 beer (you have a couple 50% off glass of beer and wine vouchers in addition to D vouchers). Drinking is a science and does involve math. System works well. We always take a stack of $1 bills for gratuities. The servers get no automatic gratuity for a voucher. You can tip by using the slip they bring you but we have noticed they like cash better. We've noticed using cash there are more times they give you a freebie. Check your vouchers from the app to see if a freebie was given. Works the same in MDR. Congratulations on Diamond!

I'm glad to see this. The Hideaway infinity pool looks great but small.

That would have been a cruise you would want to go to guest services and say you did not want to not do auto-gratuity, decide for yourself.

I agree with everything you said, especially about getting earlier flights now. I will say as a general point that the RCL Air2Sea program delivers a lot of value to travelers where the NCL program, if you are talking about the 2 for 1 “Free at Sea” is not comparable. There are more terrible NCL air reviews than you can count.

Royal tries to maintain relationships with countries around the globe. Yes, the U.S. is liberal now regarding these products but in Europe alone as an example CBD products (non THC products) require prescriptions in Austria, Belgium, and Finland. They are outright illegal in Albania, Belarus, Bosnia, Malta, Serbia, and Slovakia. In South America Argentina and Brazil require prescriptions and CBD is outright illegal in Venezuela and Ecuador. I’m sure there are similar lists in Asia and the Caribbean. Are there CBD sniffing dogs at check in? No. Will you get away with it, probably. It’s against policy and I just steer clear of potential travel issues.

I very often see either low usage or an employee having to do cleanup or restocking of supplies. I’ll bet Royal regrets Bionic. I have to say, when I cruise with someone who hasn’t seen Bionic before we go to it to marvel at the attempt. I also have to say I’ve only watched others getting their drinks made which is all the entertainment I need. I’ve never actually had a beverage from Bionic.

Vision, Radiance, and Voyager classes are very old. New NCL Prima class are 142K GT which maps to Voyager class in weight but designed for about 20% fewer passengers. Two new Prima class ships are coming (which could be a bit larger to accommodate methanol tanks) and as @Chili speculates for RCL, will be “green ethanol” powered. Viking has two hydrogen fuel cell ships being delivered in 2026. RCL will definitely build smaller ships because the quarter century old part of the fleet will retire, green is here, and you can’t run a mass market line solely on Quantum, Oasis, and Icon class builds. I can’t see retrofitting an old Vision class but could see retrofitting an AMPED Voyager class. There are some design constraints with retrofit. Some smaller ship action will happen and it’s exciting.

27 - Doug_Texas (Icon)

Cudos for avoiding WJ. A great cruise for us is when we complete the cruise with no WJ interaction.

The new Royal ships (Icon, Star, Utopia) run on LNG. This trend makes Discovery class a must. 2026 a pretty short fuse though.

Agree. Plus your D+ drink vouchers not accepted in Bionic Bar.

We ALWAYS pick our own cabin. If you book when the deployments first come out; a) overall pricing is better and, b) spread on GTY often pretty small. Obviously ridiculous pricing on new ships like Star OTS introduced new pricing dynamics.

Same with Jan Icon 20 days out. Just log on to cruise planner all the time.

Yes

My Icon sailing date is 1/27 (22 days to go) and no entertainment booking yet. I think Royal wants to remain unpredictable so you keep checking Cruise Planner and buy other things while on the site.

Nicely said. Enjoy your wine you bring aboard in your cabin and walking around the ship. If you want a bottle in any restaurant I would purchase it from Royal.

I think NCL food & beverage is better but the sailings cost more.

True, TA has no role in shore excursions, drinks package, internet, etc. That is Cruise Planner.

Celebration table just went up for sale in the Aquadome on Icon. Description is, "Special occasions get the VIP treatment at Celebration Table — an all-new exclusive dining experience for you and 13 of your closest crew in AquaDome. With sweeping ocean views, every seat is a window seat. Choose one cuisine for your table ahead of time — American, Italian, Asian, or seafood. Each pre-fixe menu offers a pleasing choice of entrees and sharable appetizers — all served family-style along with a signature cocktail." On main screen of cruise planner it says $999.99 per package and seems to indicate it's for booking 14 people. When you click through it says $999.99 per guest and says you can reserve up to 8 people. $1,000 divided by 14 is $71.42 pp and seems to make more sense but who knows. Not sure of the reality but we aren traveling alone so not interested.

We always buy Blue Cross Blue Shield GeoBlue travel health policies but rarely get trip insurance for cruise fare / flights. Their policies act as “primary”, are very low cost, and pay medical providers directly. It’s common for a policy to be around $50 and cover $1M. I get annual policies because I’m on Medicare which is minimal coverage internationally.

Yikes! RCL web says, “ A passport is the best ID document for travel. Make sure yours doesn't expire for 6 months after your cruise ends.”. The 6 month requirement is pretty universal now for any international travel. The “closed loop” and birth certificate suggestion is a good one.