You can’t say it isn’t BIG. But is she too big? It will be the debate round dinner tables for the rest of the year now that Icon of the Seas is on the water.
Royal Caribbean International’s highly anticipated Icon of the Seas arrived in Miami for the first time this week. it will take its first passengers on January 27.
But like a Taylor Swift concert, cruise fans are asking: is it just too much?
Royal Caribbean International would have you believe its a “new era of vacations”. And it may well be.
She’s likely to spend her first few cruises shuttling guests to private islands. But is that all you want from a cruise? Let’s wait and see.
Icon arrived to Port Miami in style, with celebratory fireboat salutes, banner planes in flight and a community celebration at Pérez Art Museum to mark the new vacation’s first appearance of many to come in the Magic City.
The ship is all things to all cruisers: from the beach retreat to the resort escape and the theme park adventure.
Eight neighbourhoods are destinations; adrenaline-pumping thrills like six record-breaking waterslides at Category 6 and the Crown’s Edge experience at 154 feet above the ocean, and seven pools – one for every day of the week.
There is the first suspended infinity pool at sea.
She’ll be sailing 7-night Eastern or Western Caribbean cruises to Royal Caribbean’s private island, Perfect Day at CocoCay in The Bahamas.
Cruise Passenger readers were quick to give their verdict. You can see the comments here.
For more details about Icon, including vacations now open to book, vacationers can visit Royal Caribbean’s website.
I echo Diane Malone’s thoughts. Too big. I have been on a number of RC cruises in the past but draw the line at 3000 passengers. In fact I think around 2500 is a good size. Simply don’t book on these huge ships.
I LOVE cruising but how big is too big! Personally I like the smaller ships, Radiance of the Seas etc. On these large ships I feel that you lose the closeness and the individuality of the staff as there are so many of them. I went on the inaugural cruise of the Anthem of the Seas, and yes it’s big, beautiful, exciting and everything is brand new but it’s very easy to get lost in the crowd. You make a new friend but it can be a few days before you spot them again and the same thing with the staff. It can also be difficult to get in to see the shows due to the amount of cruisers. So for me it’s a NO, but that’s just my opinion.
Everything about this ship is utterly repulsive. A monument to egregious excess and sheer vulgarity.
This and many other large cruise ships are ugly and are nothing more than floating amusement parks and shopping centres.
I also consider them at high risk of a major loss of life in a disaster which will happen someday. While designers say they allow lifeboat capacity etc and they do drills for abandoning ship, the logistics of evacuating more than 7000 passengers and crew in rough seas or if the ship is listing badly make it incredibly difficult. Don’t say it can’t happen! They said that about the Titanic. The Costa Concordia also showed the problem with evacuating people when the ship is listing badly. Launching lifeboats in such conditions is extremely difficult. It would also be impossible for officers to control 7000+ panicking people.
Not for us. We have done about 800 days cruising but will not go on the big ships.
I’ve booked a couple of cruises on her and can’t wait.
I’m a little disappointed she doesn’t look larger. Maybe we need to see images of her next to another ship.
I’ve sailed on various sized ships and found as they get bigger, they seem less crowded as there are more venues and things to do onboard so passengers are spread out more.