Just back ICON

[BecciBoo]

Got back a week ago.  Firstly, we found our new favorite ship.  Everything is a 10 except for one thing which I'll get to later.

As usual these days, check in was a breeze and we went directly to muster and then to Aqua Market for lunch.  Got Gngr bowl and it was pretty good.  Also got the Crepe, YUM.  We were cruising with my daughter and hubs and this was their first cruise on an Oasis type ship so they were really wowed.  First sentence was..."WOW, it's huge!"  Went to MDR to check on our 4 top on window and it was great.

 

Cabin time:  our interior accessable cabin was a big disappointment.  It was quite large, but the storage was non existant.  Don't worry, I made complaints to Guest Services and talked to the hotel mngr after Top Tier and then on my exit review too.  Why?  There was only one drawer, that's right 1 drawer in the whole cabin.  And it was the vanity drawn under the mirror.  This forced us to live out of our suitcase for all folded clothing.  We were shorted 2 cuby baskets as well...while Daughter had 4 and at least 6 drawers in her balcony cabin.  I just can't hang with stuff all over the couch etc.  Brought pleny of magnet hooks and we surely needed them! There was plenty of room for at least 3 chests of drawers along the walls with plenty of turning space for a wheelchair or scooter so I couldn't figure out why they did that.

 

We unpacked our hanging clothes and went exploring and it soon became evident that this ship is the berries...all of them.  Even with kids I saw nothing to complain about.  And the food on this cruise was excellent...the best Windjammer offerings we've ever experienced.  MDR also good, albeit not a lot new.  But it was good.

 

We were at the Empire the next evening and it was an experience! We were in costume and that was so much fun.  For me, there was just too much food and drink to partake of.  After dinner we were miserable.  But it was all tasty.  And I didn't finish even one drink.  But it was impeccably served and the waitstaff were really in the spirit of the theme.  They were fantastic.  The trio was dynomite too.  Especially the piano player and the base fiddle...fabulous!  For us it was worth the money and the highlight of our cruise!

 

The first show was Aqua Action and we have never seen such a spectacular show on land nor sea.  Truly a feast for the senses.  This is a must not miss.  Wizard of Oz comes in second and was also magnificent.  Truly Broadway class.  Skating show was good but nothing much new, but we always love it.

Pools were always pretty crowded, we never even made it to Hideaway, we chose to stay on board for all ports but Coco so we swam in the morning at Cloud 17 and the Cove.  I went down one slide, I think it was purple and that's all the energy I could muster.  It was sure fun though.

 

One of our favorite most visited places night and day is the Overlook and the pods, it is accessable with a dedicated elevator so no problem for me.  We just loved it in there.  The weather and the seas were absolutely perfect the whole week, water almost like a mirror most days.  We really threaded the needle considering Helenne was on her way.

 

 Bar service was great everywhere, 1400 was our favorite followed by the Lime and Coconut at Cloud 17.  There was so much we missed doing and before we knew it, the dreaded Friday sign came out in elevators.  BTW, the new elevator system is fantastic.  Hardly any waiting in fact the majority of our rides were us two only.

 

Now for Coco Cay and the horribly expensive Hideout Cabanas.....that were fabulous.  But one and done for us.  Since my daughter and hugs treated us, we loved it but would not pay $1399 for it.  The butler was terrific and johnny on the spot and of course the infinite pool was heaven!  There were only 3 other cabanas occupied so it was very quiet and we loved that we could use our phone music or theirs, great audio system. Food was good but nothing to really write home about.  Coconut shrimp was the best! Pizza was very good everywhere on island and the ship.

 

We were off the ship in 10 minutes with no problems self assisted.

 

In short, we LOVE LOVE LOVE this ship even with kids and families, didn't pose one single problem for us...no different than any other ship in the fleet.  The only caveat would be I think Cloud 17 and the Cove should also be Adult only...oh and Swim and Tonic too, the kids have the whole of deck 6 to themselves and they can do the big pool, so I put this in suggestions on my exit survey.  We are determined to book Star as soon as we can.

[PhillyFan33579]

Enjoyed reading your review. I think Icon is a great ship for families and I have it booked again later this year, along with Star next year. But I still prefer Oasis class ships. The lack of the Solarium and Boardwalk on Icon are big negatives in my book. But I understand this is not an issue for a lot of people. 

[BecciBoo]

Sorry I do not understand why my pic is on its side.  It is right side up on my photo files.???

[perfect match]

Thanks, @BecciBoo for your take on Icon. You’ve got me wondering why the ship designers don’t seem to think people who require accessible cabins don’t need clothing storage that they can reach. 🤷‍♀️ That’s not the first thing I’ve questioned about cabin design but I won’t get started on that here. 
 

Loved your outfits for Empire! Everybody looked great!
 

We’re looking to try Star too since we prefer the easy 90 minute drive to Port Canaveral over the nightmare drive from our house to Miami. 

[Ashland]

I agree about all the positives on Icon. Loved the food in the WJ as well as elsewhere.

We were with extended family and had two SurfSides Suites the storage was so disappointing a very bad design for these cabins. I guess they assumed you weren't going to be traveling with anything but the clothes on your back. We certainly won't book these again.

[ARandomTraveler]

Cute outfits!

[PhillyFan33579]

7 hours ago, Ashland said:

I agree about all the positives on Icon. Loved the food in the WJ as well as elsewhere.

We were with extended family and had two SurfSides Suites the storage was so disappointing a very bad design for these cabins. I guess they assumed you weren't going to be traveling with anything but the clothes on your back. We certainly won't book these again.

The last time we sailed on Icon we stayed in a Central Park Infinite Balcony. We were both very surprised by how limited the storage was in the cabin. We have sailed on every class of RCI ship this year with the exception of Quantum. Icon has the least amount of cabin storage of any ship we have sailed on this year. Even older ships like Grandeur and Enchantment had significantly more storage space in the cabin than Icon. For what it’s worth, we have also sailed on every Celebrity ship class this year. All the cabins we stayed in on Celebrity also had significantly more storage than Icon. Icon does have the nicest shower I have used on any ship in a regular cabin, not including suites. 

[LuCruise]

Thanks for your review.  Great to hear you loved it and had such a wonderful time.

I do worry about the storage thing.  We are 4 to a stateroom when we go on Icon in December so we'll have to figure it out.  The ship sounds amazing though . Can't wait for exploring all the areas...the Overlook area looks amazing.  Empire supper club looks like a wonderful experience too.  

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and feedback.

[Ashland]

5 hours ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

The last time we sailed on Icon we stayed in a Central Park Infinite Balcony. We were both very surprised by how limited the storage was in the cabin. We have sailed on every class of RCI ship this year with the exception of Quantum. Icon has the least amount of cabin storage of any ship we have sailed on this year. Even older ships like Grandeur and Enchantment had significantly more storage space in the cabin than Icon. For what it’s worth, we have also sailed on every Celebrity ship class this year. All the cabins we stayed in on Celebrity also had significantly more storage than Icon. Icon does have the nicest shower I have used on any ship in a regular cabin, not including suites. 

The shower in the SurfSide Suites had a feature unlike any other we've experienced.

You could hear talking from the cabin next door when they were in their shower...this was an absolute surprise of another bad design.

[BecciBoo]

9 hours ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

Celebrity also had significantly more storage than Icon

Ascent in April coming up, can't wait, we have an aft this time.  Not accessible but my chair folds up to the size of a suitcase.  Hope we can put everything away this time.

[BecciBoo]

7 hours ago, LuCruise said:

We are 4 to a stateroom

My daughter's regular balcony (not infinity) was what I am used to with a bank of 4 drawers and the vanity drawer and 4 cubby baskets under the clothes closet which was generous.  We used our two cubbies for dirties and shoes

[ZoeyVictoria]

4 hours ago, Ashland said:

The shower in the SurfSide Suites had a feature unlike any other we've experienced.

You could hear talking from the cabin next door when they were in their shower...this was an absolute surprise of another bad design.

We had the same thing happen on Carnival’s Celebration, but only when we were in our shower. .  We couldn’t tell if it was coming from the vent or the drain.     Very odd at first, but by the last day, the guy sneezed and I called out “Bless you!” just in case they could hear us, too.  

[seadog67]

22 hours ago, BecciBoo said:

Sorry I do not understand why my pic is on its side.  It is right side up on my photo files.???

Thanks for the review of Icon! Cannot wait to try this class one day.

 

For the photo, this happens to me and the quick fix is to just crop the photo even just a small bit with Photos App on Iphone or any photo app on Android then post and it will show as the correct aspect.

[Ashland]

2 hours ago, ZoeyVictoria said:

We had the same thing happen on Carnival’s Celebration, but only when we were in our shower. .  We couldn’t tell if it was coming from the vent or the drain.     Very odd at first, but by the last day, the guy sneezed and I called out “Bless you!” just in case they could hear us, too.  

Yes, you could hear when the showers were both occupied. Our extended family was in the cabin next door and we talked to each other that proved this point. It was coming from the vent above the shower. A very bad design flaw that RCI is aware of as we commented on it to our SL concierge the LA and on our comment survey end of cruise. 

 

So anyone sailing in this suite class on Icon just a heads up...you can be heard.

[TheBeardedCruiser]

4 hours ago, Ashland said:

Yes, you could hear when the showers were both occupied. Our extended family was in the cabin next door and we talked to each other that proved this point. It was coming from the vent above the shower. A very bad design flaw that RCI is aware of as we commented on it to our SL concierge the LA and on our comment survey end of cruise. 

 

So anyone sailing in this suite class on Icon just a heads up...you can be heard.

I love making people laugh... I'd be tempted to bring a waterproof Bluetooth speaker and play "adult entertainment" over the speaker for hours at a time. Make then jealous. Then the next day I'd play hours of fart noises. 🤣🤣🤣

For the record, I wouldn't really do this!!!

[Cruise a holic]

Glad you enjoyed the cruise.  We were very disappointed with our ICON cruise in January.  Found the Surfside family suite a real disappointment.  Agree, no storage, cramped and poor location as no elevators in the aft area of the ship.  Suite lounge  and Coastal kitchen dark and disappointing.  Shops expensive. Split bathroom in our "suite" tiny and we aren't large people.  While the ship had some positives, we will stick to Oasis Class Ships.

Edited 13 hours ago by Cruise a holic

[BecciBoo]

15 hours ago, Ashland said:

you can be heard

Oh yeah, that reminds me.  Our cabin was on deck 10 right at the elevators whilst the Empire is right under it on deck 8, but we heard words being sung by the singer clear as a bell late after bedtime.  Don't they insulate anymore?  I mean there was deck 9 between us, they might as well have been right next door!  Well, at least they didn't keep us up too late....