Icon of the seas - Live (ish) - 5/18-5/25

[perfect match]

Thank you @colesc15 for doing this review. I’ve enjoyed following along with you and am looking forward to your recap. I’m hoping that I can find a price I’m willing to pay on an Icon class ship sooner rather than later so we can try it ourselves. 😀

[bajathree]

On 5/18/2024 at 3:05 PM, colesc15 said:

I must have said to my wife at least a million times today already how lucky we are to be on this ship sailing comped through the casino. I actually got goosebumps a few times. 

 

I ignore the Icon offers....no interest in what I call SpongeBob of the Seas. I love Oasis class and have over 20 Oasis class sailings and still counting under my belt. But when Royal designed Icon Class....it was families on steroids that must have been in mind. Having grown kids and in my 60's I have 0 interest in Icon class. They ruined the Boardwalk...they eliminated the Solarium...and made it into a floating CoCoCay kiddie park.

Edited May 25 by bajathree

[colesc15]

Recap time. For starters, like I said, we were lucky enough to receive this through the casino. We had a guarantee oceanview balcony and I don't think we could have gotten a better room location literally right off the elevator bank on deck 12

 

Overall, the ship is gorgeous. I LOVE the new venues and different drinks available specific to icon. 1400 was an awesome bar, and dueling piano is top notch and we rarely went to Schooner because of it. Even the bar down on Surfside had some delicious drinks, just have to avoid all the rugrats. 

 

The Surfside bites was delicious as well. The windjammer was far the best we've ever had with selection and quality, including the lobster twice, but that will eventually go away im sure. 

 

The room design is great, I love the new shower design and being much bigger. We mostly take the stairs so the elevator change I didn't really notice much. 

 

What I didn't like:

 

The pool deck/pools. It feels very broke up and choppy. There's some areas you have to go up and around to get to, etc. Lots and lots of seating but every pool is way too small. The cloud 17 plunge pool was tiny and yet kids were still trying to swim in it. Hideaway is great and I love it, however it does get very hot back there if there isn't a breeze and the pool gets crowded. Overall, pool area/deck goes to oasis class. 

 

Overall, would I go on icon again even though I hate kids? Absolutely. The only place that felt overrun with kids was the pool decks and I think Surfside does a nice job keeping at least a lot of them down there. 

 

Is Icon my favorite Royal ship? No. I think I would rank Wonder, symphony, and Odyssey above it. But I would 100% jump on Icon again if I got another casino offer. 

 

Next month, we have Symphony and in August we have a b2b on Utopia so I'm excited to compare the newest oasis class to Icon and hopefully they carry some of the new drinks to Utopia. 

 

Thanks for following along! 

[colesc15]

Sitting at our resort pass hotel passing some time. Was able to combine my wife's instant certificate from gambling this trip with mine and booked a grand suite on oasis later this year. Can't beat being on icon comped, left the casino for the week slightly ahead, and was able to get the grand suite from our play. Love it! 

[Ocean Boy]

Thanks for taking the time to post during your cruise!

[BecciBoo]

Wow I'm grabbing one of those Songs the minute we get on board!  YUM

[BecciBoo]

27 minutes ago, colesc15 said:

Sitting at our resort pass hotel passing some time. Was able to combine my wife's instant certificate from gambling this trip with mine and booked a grand suite on oasis later this year. Can't beat being on icon comped, left the casino for the week slightly ahead, and was able to get the grand suite from our play. Love it! 

Dang, I wished.  For the first time ever, I had $250 to play with last month and I lost every cent, but happily played the 3 Happy Drums game for almost 3 hrs, but alas, never got the big bonus I was hoping for.  How do you guys do it?  I planned to move around to other machines as instructed, but I kept advancing so I stuck it out...did I do wrong?

[BecciBoo]

1 hour ago, colesc15 said:

The cloud 17 plunge pool was tiny and yet kids were still trying to swim in it.

I think they should have kept this one for adults only along with the swim up bar AND the Hideaway.  There are still plenty of pools for kids and this would keep them in their area in Surfside.  I'm going to write to my contact at Corporate and suggest this right now.  This was my pet peeve on Carnival Jubilee.  There were two infinite edge pools on the back but we never stuck our toes in because of screaming, splashing kids in it.  They were even in the two lap hot tubs which is supposed to be for swimming in place, but no such luck with kids in them all the time.  The only place we didn't see them much was in their own play pool areas...HA!  It won't keep us off Icon though, I love the ship and our cruise is not until September...ain't scared o'no kids, I can stare down the toughest kid.  Don't even have to say..."GET OUT!", think the liquid mercury cop in Terminator  LOL. But will have to find a better price or win a bunch of money in casino! 😍

Edited May 25 by BecciBoo

[colesc15]

Boarded flight 1. See you in 3 weeks Florida during our stop on symphony from jersey. 

[lexy1]

5 hours ago, colesc15 said:

Recap time. For starters, like I said, we were lucky enough to receive this through the casino. We had a guarantee oceanview balcony and I don't think we could have gotten a better room location literally right off the elevator bank on deck 12

 

Overall, the ship is gorgeous. I LOVE the new venues and different drinks available specific to icon. 1400 was an awesome bar, and dueling piano is top notch and we rarely went to Schooner because of it. Even the bar down on Surfside had some delicious drinks, just have to avoid all the rugrats. 

 

The Surfside bites was delicious as well. The windjammer was far the best we've ever had with selection and quality, including the lobster twice, but that will eventually go away im sure. 

 

The room design is great, I love the new shower design and being much bigger. We mostly take the stairs so the elevator change I didn't really notice much. 

 

What I didn't like:

 

The pool deck/pools. It feels very broke up and choppy. There's some areas you have to go up and around to get to, etc. Lots and lots of seating but every pool is way too small. The cloud 17 plunge pool was tiny and yet kids were still trying to swim in it. Hideaway is great and I love it, however it does get very hot back there if there isn't a breeze and the pool gets crowded. Overall, pool area/deck goes to oasis class. 

 

Overall, would I go on icon again even though I hate kids? Absolutely. The only place that felt overrun with kids was the pool decks and I think Surfside does a nice job keeping at least a lot of them down there. 

 

Is Icon my favorite Royal ship? No. I think I would rank Wonder, symphony, and Odyssey above it. But I would 100% jump on Icon again if I got another casino offer. 

 

Next month, we have Symphony and in August we have a b2b on Utopia so I'm excited to compare the newest oasis class to Icon and hopefully they carry some of the new drinks to Utopia. 

 

Thanks for following along! 

Thanks for sharing with us.  Oasis and ICON are best lines for sure. Having come off Icon the week before you, it really was great to have all the fresh memories again.  I'm glad you enjoyed it.  I agree on the other pools. Needed at least one more adult only one because hideaway was always crowded and too many kids in all the other pools.  I'll be on Utopia in Sep with the grandkids and will have no choice but to endure. LOL I wish I understood more about these casino offers!!

[PhillyFan33579]

9 hours ago, bajathree said:

I ignore the Icon offers....no interest in what I call SpongeBob of the Seas. I love Oasis class and have over 20 Oasis class sailings and still counting under my belt. But when Royal designed Icon Class....it was families on steroids that must have been in mind. Having grown kids and in my 60's I have 0 interest in Icon class. They ruined the Boardwalk...they eliminated the Solarium...and made it into a floating CoCoCay kiddie park.

Your post is similar to several I have posted concerning Icon…no Boardwalk and no Solarium are big negatives in my book. I probably liked Icon a little more than you did, but Oasis class ships are much better in my book. However, I realize Icon is targeted at younger adults with families, not someone in their late 50s like me (closing on 60 fast). 

[colesc15]

4 minutes ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

Your post is similar to several I have posted concerning Icon…no Boardwalk and no Solarium are big negatives in my book. I probably liked Icon a little more than you did, but Oasis class ships are much better in my book. However, I realize Icon is targeted at younger adults with families, not someone in their late 50s like me (closing on 60 fast). 

I get this. I loved Icon, would sail again, but definitely like oasis class more. 

[PhillyFan33579]

6 hours ago, BecciBoo said:

I think they should have kept this one for adults only along with the swim up bar AND the Hideaway.

I agree with your comment 100 percent, but it will never happen. Icon is all about families and kids, not older adults like myself. I have never seen so many kids on a ship as I did during the 7 days I was on Icon in February. 
 

Speaking of the swim-up bar, there is a good frozen drinks Lime and Coconut bar located right next to the swim up bar. We spent a lot of time there because the drinks were good and the bartenders were even better. Every day we were there we saw kids splashing all around the swim-up bar and lost count how many times splashes made by kids ended up in peoples’ drinks. We heard several passengers complain to bartenders about kids, but bartenders all answered the same way saying kids had as much right to be there as adults. 

[bajathree]

13 hours ago, colesc15 said:

I get this. I loved Icon, would sail again, but definitely like oasis class more. 

So then I think you kind of answered my question with this. Since Icon was a comp sailing for you.....would you pay out of your own pocket to sail Icon again?

[bajathree]

14 hours ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

Your post is similar to several I have posted concerning Icon…no Boardwalk and no Solarium are big negatives in my book. I probably liked Icon a little more than you did, but Oasis class ships are much better in my book. However, I realize Icon is targeted at younger adults with families, not someone in their late 50s like me (closing on 60 fast). 

We can add those Infinite balcony cabins to the list also🤨

[hollon]

can I add, I couldn't stand the Cruise Director, in my opinion, she was just silly.  The asst CD was so much better. 

[colesc15]

2 hours ago, bajathree said:

So then I think you kind of answered my question with this. Since Icon was a comp sailing for you.....would you pay out of your own pocket to sail Icon again?

I wouldn't pay, but, at this point, I wouldn't pay for any cruise because of the amount of free ones we get through the casino and have many go to waste since we simply just can't use them all. I haven't "purchased" a cruise in probably 3 years now so unless the casino program ever changes, we'll only be sailing on comped cruises. This year alone, through the casino, we have sailed or will be sailing jewel, oasis, Indy, wonder, icon, symphony, utopia b2b, oasis again and also sailing virgin in October to try them through the casino. In 2025, we have a princess cruise booked through the casino to try, then oasis and wonder so far. 

 

So morale of the story, if it isn't comped through the casino, we aren't going lol. 

[colesc15]

41 minutes ago, hollon said:

can I add, I couldn't stand the Cruise Director, in my opinion, she was just silly.  The asst CD was so much better. 

Really? I really enjoyed Gemma. 

[OCSC Mike]

1 hour ago, colesc15 said:

So morale of the story, if it isn't comped through the casino, we aren't going lol.

 

If you enjoy gambling and would likely gamble anyway, I don't blame you!

[colesc15]

1 hour ago, OCSC Mike said:

 

If you enjoy gambling and would likely gamble anyway, I don't blame you!

This! I see a lot of people in the casino who are playing simply because they hear "free cruise" and don't actually enjoy gambling. Then they get mad when they lose. Lol. We enjoyed gambling even before the casino program, so at least we're getting something in return for our money. And on occasion, you can leave the cruise with more money than you went with, or leave even which is 100% also a win. But going in with the expectation of losing x amount of money makes the entire process that much more enjoyable. 

 

This cruise, at the end of the 7 day, we left up $90 and I'd take that every cruise if we could due to the cruises we earned and will get in the future. We only earned a junior suite on oasis but it was $27 to upgrade to the grand suite which I was shocked by to get full suite perks. 

 

But, if you don't enjoy gambling at casinos, you're going to leave your vacay angry when you lose since 95% of the time, you'll go home down. 

[OCSC Mike]

9 minutes ago, colesc15 said:

We only earned a junior suite on oasis but it was $27 to upgrade to the grand suite which I was shocked by to get full suite perks. 

 

Hopefully the casino department doesn't ever learn to do math... that upgrade price is absurd, lol.

 

[edrussell]

Excellent review, thanks for taking us along.  Nice to see one from a gamblers perspective.  We have taken 7 cruises thus far and have 7 more booked.  Have never paid base fare and don't plan on it.  We do pinch ourselves from time to realizing that our cruises are COMP'd and we have come away from several sailings ahead in the casino.  Cheers.

 

[colesc15]

On 5/26/2024 at 11:47 AM, edrussell said:

Excellent review, thanks for taking us along.  Nice to see one from a gamblers perspective.  We have taken 7 cruises thus far and have 7 more booked.  Have never paid base fare and don't plan on it.  We do pinch ourselves from time to realizing that our cruises are COMP'd and we have come away from several sailings ahead in the casino.  Cheers.

 

Same. I love the casino program 

[BecciBoo]

On 5/26/2024 at 10:53 AM, colesc15 said:

we left up $90

But now give us the figure you spent to get the $90!  It all sounds good until you do the win/spend figure, the break even figure....so you put in the machine maybe $500 maybe more just to get $90 back and some points?  It doesn't make sense to those of us who have to sacrifice the cruise fund and then play for 3 hrs and lose every penny........like me.....😥

Show me the extrapolation of what cruises you "won" with fares compared with all the money you've gambled..then we'll see.  I've looked at all the material/pamphlets etc and the real money is just not worth it to lose outa my pocket.  I sure had fun though at the magic drums bandit. But I only earned 79 pts or something and it disappeared along with my initial $250 in the machine at the end of March.

Edited May 31 by BecciBoo

[BecciBoo]

On 5/26/2024 at 8:05 AM, colesc15 said:

I haven't "purchased" a cruise in probably 3 years now

But how much money have you gambled away to get those cruises???