Diver2014

My first impression of Icon is 'awesome'. I love it. I'd love to sail anywhere on it or any of RCI's ships (going on Wonder OTS next month). I can't think of a ship I didn't like, after 37 cruises. Maybe I'm too easy.

Back in the 'old' days, HAL used to advertise their cruises with 'tipping not required'. Well, that went by the wayside back in the 90's I think or early 2000's. Every cruise line that I can think of now automatically adds in the crew tips to everyone's daily account, then adjustments are made if you prepaid or get them included in your package. When we prepaid, we had a credit listed on our daily room charges to start out with until the crew tips added up to zero. We choose to prepay grats on all our cruises now just so we don't have a balance at the end of our cruises.

I read these topics just for the entertainment value. Since the title was about a 'lousy cruise on Zuiderdam', I took the bait and all I can say is ---some people expect everything to go exactly the way they want and if anything goes wrong, then it's a lousy cruise. So they come to Cruise Critic to air their grievances and meanwhile I just shake my head. Poor things. I'd love to be on their lousy cruise.

The scuba diving in Grand Turk is awesome. My dive club spent a week there a few years ago. We got to swim with a pod of wild dolphins, taking photos and enjoying their company for over an hour. A once in a lifetime event.

There are two types of zipline on Coco Cay - one where you sit up in a harness and the other where you lay flat and go head first. Both were horribly expensive for a few minutes of thrill.

We're sailing next July from Southampton to Iceland. Great photos!

I remember sailing on the Seaward as a brand new ship, with the latest designs, technology and passenger comforts. Where is she now?

Try the Ron Jon surf shop.....

No problem. I was using a walker because I just had a knee replacement and we were waived to the front of the line by port personnel. They opened the 'ropes' so I could just pass through and they took us right up to a separate line (with no people waiting) for the next available check in. They got an elevator for us and we were on the ship within 15 minutes of arriving. Couldn't have been happier.

Don't bother renting a car. You heard right - parking can be hard unless you want to pay a fortune to park in a public garage. Uber would probably be your best bet. Getting to South Beach from the port is fairly close - the causeway runs next to the port so mileage wise, it's not that far. Coconut Grove and Coral Gables both have trolleys. Don't believe the reviews. They are there for the tourists. I don't see the draw to Little Havana. It's a pretty run down area on 8th Street that I wouldn't bother with.

In the event of a real emergency, I imagine the whiners that don't want to go to their muster stations for the drill will be the ones shoving people out of the way to get into a lifeboat - without their life vest because they didn't know where it was or didn't know how to put it on.

This is the rainy season. We joke about being able to set our clocks everyday at 3pm because that's when it rains. It may not get very cold but it does rain this time of year.

We had lobster on one of the sea days on Mariner and it was delicious! Plus, our waiter brought us as many plates as we wanted. We had to stop him at four. And all served with drawn butter. Mmm, it was soooo good!

I rode the Metrorail and Metromover five days a week to and from work for 13 years and never had a problem. If you are able to wheel your luggage, you'll be fine. There are elevators at both stations (although very, very slow.....). They were safe, especially during the day when downtown office workers were the main passengers. The security and police ride the cars and make their presence known and they are always somewhere around the platforms.

It's possible if you get off the ship early. MIA isn't that far from the cruise terminal and it's a straight shot once on the freeway. Airport security at MIA will be the longest wait but they do sometimes let people whose flight is being boarded to bypass the line and go to the front, much to the chagrin of people who have been waiting. It's still a fairly fast process considering the number of people who go thru MIA daily.

Not that this will help the OP much but Key West just isn't what everyone expects it to be. It's a tourist town with plenty of land travelers let alone a few ship loads of more tourists. There's just not that much to see there. You can wander around Duvall Street amongst the t shirt and sunglass shops or visit the aquarium or Mel Fisher's gold treasure museum but that's it. Unless you want to sit on the waterfront and have cocktails and watch the boats go by all day. Going on a cruise just to see Key West is setting oneself up for disappointment. IMHO.

Wow, you are a wealth of welcome knowledge! Thank you so much! We are looking forward to our cruise next July to Norway and Iceland.

Seriously? There's no way you can make a 7:25 flight out of Miami. Even if you got off the ship first and had a rush cab or Uber to MIA, going thru security then out to the concourses, I wouldn't bet on any flight before 10 or 11am. It's about a 25 minute drive from the port to MIA but it's a really busy airport and nothing goes as planned.

We love eating in the WJ's on RCI ships. I like a variety. We always do breakfast and lunch in the WJ. We eat in the MDR for dinner whenever something is on the menu that I want. We don't do specialty restaurants. Food and dining is so subjective. Everyone has their own tastes so to speak.

No. Only to Coconut Grove, Coral Gables and around the greater Miami area. It’s basically for sight seeing, not transportation. No place to store luggage and if it’s full, you may be denied boarding if you have luggage.

"worst cruise ever", "worst vacation ever". Hmmm, I just cannot get my head around any cruise being the 'worst ever' and changing of ports "worst vacation ever" but I guess that's just me.

Good, I won't be running into you on board. 'It could have been nicer'. What a useless comment along with your 'sunshine'. Good riddance.

Your glass can be half empty if you want but I prefer half full. I don't really care about the buffet in the Prima lounge. If I wanted to go on a Breakaway class ship, I would. I'm judging the ship by the photos that BirdTravels posted. Don't rain on my parade.

Wow! What an awesome review! And what an awesome ship! We're booked for July next year from Southampton to Iceland (not going to try to spell those names). The observation lounge looks fabulous - that's one thing I miss on a lot of ships. Everything looks amazing! Because our cruise will be shore excursion intensive, much of the entertainment doesn't appeal to us because we'll probably be in bed by 9pm to get ready for the next day! Only 2 sea days out of 11! Thanks again for so much information and fabulous photos!

I asked my cruise consultant that exact same question. We wanted to spend one night in Southampton before our cruise next summer on Prima. We leave the USA the evening before, fly all night, arrive early in the morning and then spend the day in Southampton, stay overnight there and board the ship the next day. That's a 'one day' deviation even though technically, we're leaving the USA the 2nd evening before the cruise.