Eamon

Hello,
We just got off Icon earlier this morning. Thought I'd provide a quick review while we're waiting for our flight back home...
About Us - Me (49), my wife (48), and our two boys (13 and 15).
Embarkation - Our boarding time was 11:30 AM. We arrived at the pier at 10:20 AM and we were onboard by 10:30 AM. I had a drink in-hand by 10:35 AM. LOL! Royal has the embarkation process down perfectly! Hats off to Royal! We were super impressed!
Capacity & Crowds - A crew member told me there were 2,400 kids on our sailing, and the ship was at roughly 85% to 90% capacity. The crew member said they're going to 100% by the March 30th, 2024 sailing. The ship didn't feel too crowded to me, except for a few areas on the pool decks. We sat at Cloud 17 the whole week, since they have padded loungers up there 🙂. We never had to wait more than 5 minutes for a drink. On the other hand, Coco Cay seemed very crowded. We arrived at South Beach around 10:15 AM and all the loungers were taken. We should have gotten off the boat earlier, but no big deal. We went back to the ship by 1:00 PM and had the ship to ourselves and went on a bunch of the slides. I think next time, we'll stay on the ship 🙂.
Food & Dining - We had the Unlimited Dining Package. I was able to lock in all our reservations right when we got on the ship at Izumi. The process took roughly 30 minutes, since the people in front of me were taking forever. Once it was my turn, I gave the lady my print up of all my desired reservations (used Google Calendar). She loved the print out and quickly locked in all my options. Only bummer was Hibachi only had 9:00 PM available, other than that, we were able to get all the times we wanted. We did not eat in the Main Dining Room at all. We ate at all the Specialty Dining venues except for Pier 7. The food was great! And the service was great, too! Only place I would not go back to is Hibachi. Guess it's more for the show, but we agreed the food was not very good 😞 . Way too much butter and salt (at least that's what we thought). My wife and I also did Empire Supper club and it was spectacular! What a great dining experience!
Room & Accommodations - My wife and I had cabin 14756, and our boys were in an inside cabin 14747. Our room was on the aft of the ship, directly below the Hideaway. We had an unbelievable view of the back of the boat (please see pic I took from our cabin). My wife did not like the rattling and shaking feeling in the cabin. She said she would not want the same cabin again. There definitely was a lot of rattling and shaking going on, but I was ok with it b/c of the view. We also heard them moving around chairs each morning around 7:00 AM - 7:30 AM presumably cleaning the deck above us. We also noticed we felt the ship moving a lot more (overall) than we had expected. For comparison, we were on the Wonder of the Seas two years ago and we did not feel that ship move at all. On a scale from 1 to 10, I'd say Wonder was about a 1 or 2 while Icon was about a 6 or 7. My boys were also complaining about it. One of the crew members also said she was surprised to feel the boat move so much and agreed it was more than Oasis class ships like Wonder. But overall, our room was fantastic! 
Shows & Entertainment - We saw Wizard of Oz on the second night and it was excellent! We were super impressed! We also did Starburst and the headliner show. Both were good, but Wizard of Oz took the cake! The comedians were also very funny! 
Disembarkation - Getting off the ship this morning was a breeze. We walked off with our luggage around 8:45 AM. However, complete chaos ensued when we got outside the terminal to hail a taxi, Uber, Lyft. People all over the place trying to hail their Ubers, Lyfts, etc. It took about 30 mins to finally get a Lyft out of there and then 20 mins to the Miami airport. The airport is also crazy busy, with very long security lines. It took us almost 1 hour to get through security and to our gate. We are on Southwest.
That's all I can think of right now... Hope this helps! If you have any questions, please give me a shout!
Thanks!
Matt

Did this on Harmony in Feb.  It was about 20 people, 2 long tables with 2 chefs leading.  I found it pretty much in keeping with what I would have expected.
I also thought that the quality of the ingredients was very good, and the quantity of sushi I made and ate was certainly worth the cost of the class.

For beginners, "Color Up" is a good Youtube channel.
 

It's $10

Recently, I have been receiving the invitation to submit a Royal Up bid the same day that I check in for the cruise, which is 45 days prior to boarding.  For example, yesterday was check-in day for our 2-22-24 Radiance sailing.  I checked in mid-morning.  In the early afternoon I received the RU offers, which I completed immediately and submitted.  By dinner I had received an email letting me know that my RUB had been accepted.
Honestly, it doesn’t normally happen that quickly in succession but the RU invitations do seem to be coming in conjunction with check-in for me.

We often cruise during the holidays and we are again this year.  I have to say, this has been the best holiday cruise ever...so far...and I have no reason to believe it will not continue.  We had a number of friends sailing with us this year and have run into new old friends that we didn't expect to see.  I have had a wonderful few days.  Looking forward to the rest of the 2 weeks with the same anticipation.

Yes, the DBP includes all specialty coffee items you would be entitled to using the coffee card. So, you would not need to buy a coffee card if you have the DBP.
Also, you can use the DBP on all Starbucks products sold in the Cafe Promenade or Cafe270 on select ships. We used our DBP on our last 2 sailings on Wonder for everything on the menu shown below. Here is an example of the core Starbucks menu available in the Cafe Promenade that is included in the DBP:


 
However, you cannot use the DBP or coffee card at any stand-alone Starbucks kiosks... Wonder had both a kiosk AND Cafe Promenade... at the kiosks, you must charge to your ship account or use Starbucks gift cards only...

Do you mean how tall you have to be? Because those are two different things 🙂
I'm tall enough to do the zip line on Oasis, but I don't know if I could get high enough to try.

Awesome - 🍹 Each person needs to drink 3.8 drinks per day to break even
Challenge accepted! 

Awesome - 🍹 Each person needs to drink 3.8 drinks per day to break even
Challenge accepted! 

Hello all! After watching the most recent Q&A, I thought it might be helpful for some to have a tool to determine if the drink package is worth it. I am not aware of any existing tools so I added one to a website that I own:

https://goingroyal.com/drinkPackage

Feel free to enjoy and let me know if there is anything else that you would like to see on this site

Photo courtesy of Marc Walker. CD on Navigator

Here is an old thread explaining this situation way better than I am doing:
https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/5811-lifeboat-capacity-how-full-is-the-ship/
 

@AndrewJL, don't worry about it.  It speaks volumes about you that you want it to be perfect in every way, but the cruise itself and what you do will be fantastic.  You won't miss the things you don't have.
I'm not sure whose quote this is, but it's one I love and I think it applies here.  In your life people will forget the things you say and they will forget the things you do, but they'll never forget the way you make them feel
You're going to make her feel like a million bucks.  Have a great cruise!

25 years from now, I'll still watch 3 elevators in the bank go past my floor while the elevator one floor away just sits there.
 
 

My experience trying it: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2018/02/20/experiences-izumi-sushi-making-class-royal-caribbean

If you like sushi, I would recommend it. It was a lot of fun and a lot of food. And a pretty good deal for the price, IMHO. 

Because so many base pay's don't cover the bills in 2023

Here ya go…

At that price the Deluxe Bev Package was a no brainier for Oasis TA in April 2024

Just bought a few Flowrider lessons for a few adventurous souls in our group.  Will see if my daughter and son-in-law can learn to out surf their old man!

Sorry to disagree,  but I believe the problem is not StarLink. Based on my experience,  the problem is Royal's on board infrastructure. 

Suddenly my boarding pass is USELESS! 

Today’s glitch for my cruise leaving tomorrow. Where did my deck & muster station go? 🤷‍♂️🤣 They still show on my set sail pass & I knew what they were of course, just having more fun with the wonderful app.

OMG, I am never going to reveal my identity. I totally found it on the invoice. For some reason I was looking for the pay-by-date as a line item. Oh boy, I need this cruise. Thank you so much!