cmurchake

Can only vouch for Sapphire, but I had an amazing time. There were 5 ships in port the day I was there (5th came later in the afternoon) but it was never overly crowded. Got there pretty early in the morning and got seats with shade. I will say that shade areas on the beach fill up pretty quickly. Food, drink, and a boutique shop were all pretty nice. Water was beautiful! Can't wait to get back one day

Hideaway was great. Think of it as like a mini Vegas dayclub. Pool was pretty crowded during prime times, but we still got in quite a bit. The seating fills up fast so we normally got seats somewhere in Thrill Island and then walked over to Hideaway. There are servers who will deliver drinks to you right in the pool which was fantastic. The Overlook was a pretty cool spot with lots of cool seating and views. The Overlook bar wasn't always open, but Rye and Bean bar was every time I was there. The Aquadome market is right there as well for some food. You can also watch practice of Aqua Action which was pretty neat.

Luckily I didn't experience rude passengers. I did read on FB many people complaining about kids. I will say that there were a ton on this sailing, way more than I've ever seen, but it did not ruin my time at all. The main pool was closed several times...not sure it was every day though. The good news is there are many pools to choose from, but like almost every other ship, the pools are going to be crowded at peak time no matter what. I think some of the beauty of cruising is that 2 people can be on the same cruise and have wildly different experiences. It really can come down to what you make of it. I prefer to go with the flow and enjoy rather than nitpick or critique every little detail.

I did not receive anything in my balcony stateroom

I was on Icon last week. I'm probably not the best to answer dining questions, but might be able to assist with others. Not sure how many people were onboard, but I was very pleasantly surprised how good the service was, how small lines were, and overall how efficient things seemed to run.

sorry, I booked an ocean view balcony guarantee

In my experience there was a variety of shaded and sun seating. If you wait too late in the morning and you might have a tougher time finding exactly what you want.

I was not a big fan of this type of room. Like others have said, when the window is down the AC turns off which is unfortunate is 1 person wanted to use the "balcony" and the other stay "inside". Within minutes the mirrors fogged up on us and we shut the window again. I wouldn't book this cabin again, but it is far from a "bad" cabin.

I just got back from Icon and chose an ocean view guarantee (booked late and it was all they had). We were assigned an infinite ocean view balcony on deck 11 pretty close to midship. While I didn't like it as much as the traditional ocean view balcony, I felt pretty lucky to not get assigned Central Park or Surfside. All luck of the draw