Just Off Icon - Quick Review - March 9th, 2024 Sailing

[putinbay]

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

[barjpoe]

thank you

[WAAAYTOOO]

Thanks, Matt !  Great review.

[Tink]

6 hours ago, putinbay said:

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. 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 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

Matt - Did you use your UDP discount for the Empire Supper Club?  If so,  when were you able to book the reservation?  I am getting mixed answers on this.  Thanks - Rose

[Jill]

1 hour ago, Tink said:

Matt - Did you use your UDP discount for the Empire Supper Club?  If so,  when were you able to book the reservation?  I am getting mixed answers on this.  Thanks - Rose

Good question! We went ahead and booked at full price for Day 5 so I’m hoping to cancel once onboard and book with UDP. Not sure if I should try that at Empire or use crown concierge 

[Jill]

@putinbay were there enough sunny spots at Cloud 17? I’ve been hearing awful reviews of The Hideaway so looking for a great spot to get some sun without the boom boom boom of the DJ at Hideaway

[putinbay]

11 hours ago, Tink said:

Matt - Did you use your UDP discount for the Empire Supper Club?  If so,  when were you able to book the reservation?  I am getting mixed answers on this.  Thanks - Rose

Hello, yes, we booked the Empire Supper Club for day 5 several weeks before our cruise at full price. I went down there on day 3 during the afternoon hours (probably around 1:00 PM) and asked if I could cancel and rebook so that I could get the UDP discount. The gentleman that manages ESC was super nice and said, "No need to rebook. I will refund you the difference right now." The refund came back as refundable ship board credit. I was really happy that it was a quick and frictionless refund process, and I thanked the gentleman several times . My wife and I were seated at the first table (please see pic below taken from my seat).

Also, out of curiosity, I asked if the entire week was sold out. He answered, "Yes."

Hope this helps!

Thanks,

Matt

[putinbay]

10 hours ago, Jill said:

@putinbay were there enough sunny spots at Cloud 17? I’ve been hearing awful reviews of The Hideaway so looking for a great spot to get some sun without the boom boom boom of the DJ at Hideaway

Hello,

Yes, we had a spot at Cloud 17 that we went to each day that was sunny. The spot was a bit closer to the smoking section, but we never smelled any smoke since we were upwind of the smoking section. We went to the Hideaway right when we got on the ship last Saturday in Miami since our underaged boys were off and running doing their own thing (Flowrider, water slides, basketball, etc.). There were tons of empty chairs since we were on the ship so early, and yes, there was a lot of shade from the fake palm trees. We spent most of the first day at the Hideaway, but agreed that we need to be in a spot where our boys can come talk to us, so we moved to Cloud 17 starting on day 2. They are pretty strict around letting under aged children into the Hideaway (and rightfully so!).

We did go back to the Hideaway a few times for some drinks and just hang out. I did not think the music was too loud. And interestingly enough, our cabin was literally right below the Hideaway, and we never heard any music coming from the Hideaway, although, we did hear them moving around chairs at roughly 7:00 AM - 7:30 AM each morning (presumably, they were cleaning the deck and moving around the chairs). 

Hope this helps!

Thanks,

Matt

[CanHardlyWait]

1 hour ago, putinbay said:

Hello,

Yes, we had a spot at Cloud 17 that we went to each day that was sunny. The spot was a bit closer to the smoking section, but we never smelled any smoke since we were upwind of the smoking section. We went to the Hideaway right when we got on the ship last Saturday in Miami since our underaged boys were off and running doing their own thing (Flowrider, water slides, basketball, etc.). There were tons of empty chairs since we were on the ship so early, and yes, there was a lot of shade from the fake palm trees. We spent most of the first day at the Hideaway, but agreed that we need to be in a spot where our boys can come talk to us, so we moved to Cloud 17 starting on day 2. They are pretty strict around letting under aged children into the Hideaway (and rightfully so!).

We did go back to the Hideaway a few times for some drinks and just hang out. I did not think the music was too loud. And interestingly enough, our cabin was literally right below the Hideaway, and we never heard any music coming from the Hideaway, although, we did hear them moving around chairs at roughly 7:00 AM - 7:30 AM each morning (presumably, they were cleaning the deck and moving around the chairs). 

Hope this helps!

Thanks,

Matt

This information on Cloud 17 and Hideaway is very helpful. I booked a bed at Hideaway for 2 of my sea days and have been concerned about the volume of the music. Also was planning on Cloud 17 for other days. Still a little concerned about the proximity to the smoking section, but I'm good with chairs in shade or sun. 

One question. Did you smell the smoke while in the pool at Cloud 17?

Again, very helpful trip report. Thanks!

[putinbay]

5 hours ago, CanHardlyWait said:

This information on Cloud 17 and Hideaway is very helpful. I booked a bed at Hideaway for 2 of my sea days and have been concerned about the volume of the music. Also was planning on Cloud 17 for other days. Still a little concerned about the proximity to the smoking section, but I'm good with chairs in shade or sun. 

One question. Did you smell the smoke while in the pool at Cloud 17?

Again, very helpful trip report. Thanks!

Hello,

No, we did not smell any smoke. I think they have the smoking section strategically placed whereby the smoke just dissipates off the ship pretty quickly, especially if the ship is at sea, moving along at a good clip. Also, from the way back of the ship where they beds are in the Hideaway, I would argue the sound of the wake behind the ship helps to drown out the music, at least that was definitely the case from our aft balcony (kinda like a white noise).

Hope this helps!

Thanks,

Matt

[Tink]

On 3/17/2024 at 7:17 AM, putinbay said:

Hello, yes, we booked the Empire Supper Club for day 5 several weeks before our cruise at full price. I went down there on day 3 during the afternoon hours (probably around 1:00 PM) and asked if I could cancel and rebook so that I could get the UDP discount. The gentleman that manages ESC was super nice and said, "No need to rebook. I will refund you the difference right now." The refund came back as refundable ship board credit. I was really happy that it was a quick and frictionless refund process, and I thanked the gentleman several times . My wife and I were seated at the first table (please see pic below taken from my seat).

Also, out of curiosity, I asked if the entire week was sold out. He answered, "Yes."

Hope this helps!

Thanks,

Matt

Thanks Matt,

 

That was helpful Info.  I am going to try and do the same.  I was worried if i had not booked it now I would not get it once on board.  Your response confirms that.