PhillyFan33579

A year ago I would have agreed with you 100 percent. I still tend to agree with you today, but recent moves and announcements by RCI at least make me pause to think about their future. Allure is already doing short cruises from Port Canaveral. Later this year, their two newest Oasis class ships, Utopia and Wonder, will be doing short cruises from Port Canaveral and Port Miami respectively. They are building new beach clubs in Nassau and Cozumel. They continue to expand Coco Cay and Labadee is another popular RCI port, although currently not being visited. There are still plenty of ports in the Caribbean that can support larger ships like Oasis and Icon class ships. The bottom line is RCI is a for profit business that has to answer to stockholders. If, and I don’t know if this is true or not, RCI can generate more revenue with a fleet of bigger ships that frequent RCI’s ports on a daily basis, it would not surprise me if at some point in the future RCI no longer goes to ports that cannot accommodate larger ships.

I still find it interesting that last year RCI implied a new smaller ship class was going to be announced soon and that Utopia would be the last Oasis class ship. As of today no new ship class has officially been announced by RCI, but they did announce a 7th Oasis class ship would be built. It wouldn’t surprise me if RCI continues to focus on bigger ships for the near to distant future. RCI leadership always talks about how appealing their bigger ships are for families. Most families are going to be way more interested in bigger ships with all the bells and whistles, not a smaller ship with limited bells and whistles. My guess is RCI will/does generate a lot more money on bigger ships that attract families who are fairly new to cruising with little to no perks than a newer smaller class of ship that will likely attract older/more experienced cruisers who have a lot of perks due to their C&A status.

I understand your comment. I was referring to the OP’s original comment that mentioned using 4 BOGOs for 8 people. The OP stated 4 of them are Diamond or higher, which leads me to believe 4 of them are not Diamond Plus or higher (meaning 4 of them don’t have the BOGO perk).

Others in this thread have already answered your original question. I have been on Symphony and Liberty within the last few months and enjoyed both shows. Of course later this year the casts will likely be completely different, which can have a big impact on the show quality. If the ship matters to you, in my opinion there is no comparison between Symphony and Liberty. Symphony is my favorite Oasis class ship while Liberty is my least favorite Freedom class ship since she was never amped.

Just an FYI, the BOGO perk only applies to Diamond Plus and Pinnacle. There is no BOGO perk for Diamonds.

At a recent lunch with officers we were told RCI was going to start charging passengers a nominal fee for paper copies of the Cruise Compass in the near future. Keep in mind at a lunch with officers last Spring we were told RCI was going to soon announce a new smaller class of ship. Over a year later the only thing I have heard officially from RCI is they are building a 7th Oasis class ship and 3rd Icon class ship, which are not small ships.

Just curious why you would do a B2B on a 3 and 4 day cruise? I would book a 7 day cruise every time instead of doing a B2B 3/4 day cruise.

Harmony is my least favorite Oasis class ship due to no pool in the Solarium. So Allure is a step up in my book.

You enter on deck 5 on Icon.

I have cruised out of Miami four times in the last few months (Icon, Explorer, Freedom x 2). For every one of these cruises port employees never looked at or checked anyone’s check-in time. That has also been my experience when cruising out of Port Tampa, Port Canaveral and Port Everglades this year. The bottom line is you can show up at the port any time you want.

in my book the best thing to come from COVID cruise related is the elimination of the in person muster briefing where the ship basically shutdown for an hour or so on embarkation day.

You have better luck than me. In the last few months I have been on Icon, Symphony, Explorer, Allure and Freedom. The earliest cabins were ready was 1:15 PM on Explorer with the latest being 1:35 PM on Symphony. On the bright side not too big a difference between 1:00 PM and 1:35 PM.

I understand everyone has a different worth it meter. In my world I can’t believe what people are paying to cruise on Icon. I booked a couple of cruises on Icon the day bookings were first available. I paid $3300 for a CP balcony on her second cruise, which I thought was a little high but not surprising for a new ship. But the prices I am seeing online and hearing from others what they spent to cruise on Icon is way more than I am willing to pay. I did mock bookings a few weeks ago comparing Icon to Oceania ships and for similar itineraries/same week Oceania was cheaper.

No doubt you can have a great time at Coco Cay without spending a dime. I have done that literally dozens of times. My favorite free area is South Beach and I enjoy hanging out at the floating bar (same goes for the floating bar at Labadee).

I have been to Hideaway three times. We have paid $22.99, $25.99 and $49.99 (on Icon when nothing was cheap). Well worth it in my book for the heated pool and no kids. It was sold out all three times we went there and it never felt crowded, especially the pool (the Oasis Lagoon pool gets crazy busy in the swim up bar area). In my book it is easy to justify spending money for the water park and the Beach Club. The slides at the water park are excellent and I have never met anyone who has gone to the Beach Club who didn’t think it was the best part of Coco Cay.

My gut instinct is you will miss the treatment you receive on CCL as a Diamond. I think you would be treated great by the staff on an RCI ship, like every passenger is treated, but you won’t get the special attention you receive on CCL. Just a side comment, I think it is way too easy to reach Diamond on Carnival (200 days). It has been years since I have sailed on Carnival, but on multiple cruises I went on a lot of loyalty perks were not provided because half of the passengers on the ship were Diamonds or Platinums.

One of my favorite areas on current RCI ships is the Solarium. We enjoy spending time without kids around in a more relaxed atmosphere. There is no Solarium on Icon. The “adult” pool (Hideaway) on Icon was more of a party atmosphere with loud music there daily during our cruise (2/3 - 2/10). It is also located next to the miniature golf course, waterpark and flowrider, so it is in a loud area even without the music. I am also a big fan of the boardwalk area on Oasis class ship, which doesn’t exist on Icon. That area is now Surfside. We enjoyed Icon but the ship is definitely geared towards younger families with kids, not people like us in our late 50s. Having said that, we both loved the waterpark and the 1400 Lobby Bar is now probably my favorite bar on any RCI ship.

As others have stated, it is up to the Captain. Prior to last year I had been on 30 if not more Western Caribbean cruises and the ship never changed time. Then last Summer I was on 3 cruises where the ship changed time (went back an hour early in the cruise and forward an hour later in the cruise). The change was well publicized including multiple announcements on the room speakers. I have been to the Western Caribbean several times already this year with no time changes. Based on my limited experience, not many Captains change ship time in the Western Caribbean.

In my view the cabin is more like a bigger oceanview room with a window that can be opened (technically lowered). When we were on Apex a few years ago we liked it (probably the novelty of it), but when we were on Icon we didn’t like it. I don’t think I would book one again. I like the feeling of being outside on a regular balcony and you don’t get that feeling on an infinite balcony. Plus, unlike a regular balcony, one person can’t be enjoying the balcony while the other one is inside taking a nap, for example. My bottom line recommendation would be if you like the extra room, this cabin type will appeal to you. But if you like the feeling and functionality of a normal balcony, you won’t like this cabin.

The previous poster provided a great answer. When I was on Icon a few months ago I saw everything from tuxedos (not many though) and dresses to people dressed very casually like any other night on the cruise. If my memory is correct, the “formal” nights were nights 2 and 6.

It seems to vary from ship to ship every year. Last year I did a cruise on Liberty the Monday after Thanksgiving and the ship was decorated when we boarded, so it was decorated shortly after Thanksgiving. It is impressive how they literally decorate the ship over night. By the same token they also remove the decorations overnight. I did a B2B on Wonder in 2022 over Christmas and New Years. They took down all the decorations overnight on the 29th if my memory is correct. We had friends join us on the second half of the B2B on 12/31 who were bummed that all the Christmas decorations were gone.

I doubt he is an Eagles fan. He said he never gets the drink package 🙂.

From my experience they are usually decorated by the first week of December at the latest. I have been on 4 Thanksgiving cruises. They never decorated the ship the day after Thanksgiving or before the cruise ended for that matter (I realize 4 cruises is a very small sample).

I have cruised on Odyssey multiple times. They always had pickleball in the morning at the sportsplex.

You can’t buy the refreshment package on day 3 of a cruise.