karebare22

2 hours ago, fwman said:

My wife and I want to book Icon with an Ocean view balcony room. What are the odds of getting a room with an obstructed view or a room in the family neighborhood if we go with the cheaper guaranteed price? We are older and would prefer not to be in the family neighborhood. Thanks!

We booked an ocean view balcony guarantee and were assigned a D4 cabin on deck 14 (14322) which we were happy with. Make sure you book the XB category, this is specifically for ocean view balcony (not surf side or Central Park). Looking at the deck plans, most of the ocean view balconies are located on decks 12 and 14 (categories are CB, C3, C5, D1-5). Note that on deck 14 we had an overhang and a small support beam to the one side but I wouldn’t really classify that as obstructed, however you should consider if it might make a difference for you. We also had some occasional noise from the Windjammer above us (which didn’t disturb us).  We’ve done quite a few GTY bookings and have always received a cabin in the category we booked (except one case where my daughters received an upgrade from interior GTY to an oceanview). Look at the deck plans and make sure there are no oceanview balcony cabins that you’d be unhappy with before booking a GTY. Also consider that your deposit will be non-refundable for booking a guarantee cabin. 

24 minutes ago, harryfat1 said:

 

I’ve been to Curacao many times now, and last time we didn’t even leave the ship. Usually we’ve just walked through the Rif Fort, gone across the bridge and walked around Punda. Got a rental car once to see some of the beaches. Thanks for the info on this walking tour, so many interesting things to see! 
 

On 2/2/2024 at 10:24 PM, Ourusualbeach said:

Toby ended off the week on a high note by winning the Best of the Best competition on the Flowrider.  The first one to sign the board. 

Awesome!  That’s a moment he’ll always remember! My daughter is hoping to be in the Best of the Best on our Feb 17 sailing, but there are a lot of great competitors out there. She’s been in a couple of them, just hasn’t won (yet!).

A big thanks to everyone who took the time out of their cruise vacation this past week to post photos and videos and answer questions. It’s been very helpful, and allowed the readers to get a better feel for this new ship. 👏👍

2 hours ago, 2chiefs said:

Fares are already really high now! Now they're throwing gasoline on to the fire. I've been pricing cruises online for the 2025 season and have noticed the remarkable increase in price to be able to pick your own room. For instance today I mock-booked a balcony cabin on Adventure for May 16, 2025 and the price is $395 higher to be able to pick your own room. That's a lot of "insurance" to ensure you are not bumped from a cruise from the rampant over booking that cruise lines are doing now. I guess it's time to look at other alternative vacations to do. Hopefully all this price gouging the cruise lines are doing will reduce demand, so the prices come back down.

We book GTY quite often because for our family of 4 (2 cabins), it is normally the less expensive option. Your example is actually typical of what I’ve seen in the past, I recall it used to be around $200 per person cheaper (ie $800 savings for our family). I agree that the price difference between the pick/you pick has significantly increased though. For our June 2025 cruise, it is $600 more per person for us to pick the balcony cabin. 
 

Obviously I would prefer to choose my own cabin (location, deck etc), but we have never been assigned a bad guaranty cabin, and even if we were we would accept that. I don’t consider picking my own cabin as “insurance” that I won’t be bumped from a room. I see it as a good savings that I can put towards other things (excursions, dining etc). 

 

1 hour ago, EllieinNJ said:

I always look for group rates from travel agents.  Besides getting a lower price they have enough inventory so you can pick a cabin in whichever category you want, no additional charge.

This is probably your best option vs booking  GTY 

17 minutes ago, ticketsunlimited said:

We saw them (Boston Tribute)

DSB (Journey)

Wanted (Bon Jovi)

 a Jimi Hendrix Tibute

we saw Legends of classic rock (actual members off older Rock bands) not bad

and the Beatles Tribute

I seem to remember a Led Zeppelin band as well

 

All of them were spectacular!!

 

We were bummed not to See Elevation the U2 Tribute band who is suppose to be very good.

 

Nice - all those tribute bands would be great to see. To add to the list, I’ve seen Pandora’s Box (Aerosmith) - we watched that one twice it was so good.

10 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Best Flowrider in the Fleet.  Steeper pitch, higher pressure no seams.  Toby is spending 6 to 8 hours a day working on his Ollie's and Shuv its.

 

 
Wow, he’s great! Will Icon have a Best of competition on Friday? He could be the first one to sign the Icon board if he wins! 
 

How are the lines, considering there’s only 1 flowrider?

3 hours ago, cusematt4 said:

Apologies, I meant the tribute bands rccl used to have at music hall on oasis and anthem class ships.

 

I wonder if a different tribute type band will remain on the Icon.  Does anyone know if a rotations will remain after phoenix?

Someone enquired about the entertainment line up for the Feb 17 Icon cruise and the tribute band will be Legends of Classic Rock. According to their social media page, they’ll be on Icon throughout the year. 

On 1/29/2024 at 9:56 PM, harryfat1 said:

Speaking of free booze, here's a question for you veteran RCI cruisers, when did they stop the free booze on day 2's formal night when the captain used to welcome guests at the bridge of Royal Promenade and they were giving out free booze to anyone and everyone?

 

Since I was back at the Allure folder for the previous posts, I saw the free booze for the first formal night.  This was back in 2014

I didn't see any alcohol in my 2016 Freedom of the Seas folder so it must be between those 2 years that they stopped the practice of captain's welcome party on day 2?

 

This had me thinking back. I miss the Captain’s champagne reception that was always held on the first formal night. I feel this ended with the Covid shutdown. From my cruise compass (I save them all!) I see that Oasis did have the reception in summer 2019, and I’m pretty sure it took place on Anthem in Feb 2020. Then after the restart with the social distancing, then cutbacks and trying to increase revenue, it just never came back.

10 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

Since we were visiting the crazy aunt (aka shopping and shop talk), we didn't want the uncle in prison to feel left out so we went to visit him as well (aka going to check out the pictures we took last night after dinner in front of MDR).

 

Yeah, I know, I have a dysfunctional family tree...

 

While the wife and the boys were checking out the pictures, I took a picture of the photo package prices:

 

 

As I mentioned, if you sign up for the package by the end of day 2, it's 20% off.  But obviously, if you buy it from home (especially at BF sale), the discount is even bigger.

 

So check out the price of the 100 photo package that I bought pre-cruise.  I got it 50% off the old price of $300 or $150.  Now the package costs $400 or $320 with a discount.

 

So the $150 is a bargain if you need that many pictures. But my 100 picture cost of $150 is cheaper than the 10 photo package without discount...

 

If your future cruise is after BF, by all means, wait for BF sales to get the discount.  Better than anything you would get after boarding...

Not sure if Odyssey had this available, but for our Oasis cruise you could view (and order) all your photos right in the App. We found this really convenient! It was one of the tabs at the bottom. It also showed many, but not all, of the photos from linked cabins (plus a few extras of strangers 😂).
Note that the photos are watermarked, and it’s not possible to take a screenshot. 

I’m really enjoying all the photos and videos, keep them coming!

I assume with the high #s of D+/Pinn/suite guests that there isn’t any priority seating set aside for the shows?

18 hours ago, asomante said:

At what time are you supposed to watch WOZ if you have the late seating at 8:30pm?  3pm is the only option? 

We are also late diners. I sure hope they adjust the time to later for one of the shows to accommodate. I’ve run into this scheduling issue on other ships too. I remember having to eat a rushed meal/skip dessert & sprint to the other end of the ship to get a seat, or go to Windjammer. 

Great photos and review, thanks! Icon looks amazing! 

3 hours ago, h20skibum said:

That should give you the daily Cruise Compass in PDF form.  If you keep this browser window open, all you have to do is refresh it each day to get the new compass.  Of course, you could scan the card again or enter the above address again each day.

 

Once I had the compass in the browser, I would save it each day to my iPhone.

This is exactly what I do. The QR code with the link is usually also posted on a wall at guest services (often where the old paper copies used to be). 

My only problem was that for a couple of days I forgot to refresh and save the PDF copy. You can’t go back and get previous days, you only have access to the compass for the current day.

6 hours ago, luvtoride said:

Our family party of 10 had one of these long tables with one side having "Booth seating". 

We had this kind of seating arrangement for our party of 12 on our holiday cruise. With all the tables together, it was a real hassle if you were one of the ones sitting in the middle of the bench seat. Especially when dressed in a long formal dress, and having to visit the restroom during dinner after having a few pre-dinner cocktails 😬 It would have been nice to have a small separation of the tables in the middle. It was also awkward for our waiter & assistant to reach over with the plates and drinks. However, we did have a nice amount if space around us and didn’t feel crowded at all.

Hi Tim, we are sailing on Icon the 2 weeks after you. What a ship for your first cruise! I’ll be reading your Live from posts for sure, thanks in advance! 

On 1/19/2024 at 6:06 AM, JaycenA said:

I'm currently booked to sail on the Icon on Feb 24th, but have encountered a super strange problem with RC invoicing that threatens to derail my cruise.

Long story short, cruise paid in full about three months ago, but shortly after that I started receiving invoices saying I still owed about 300.  I called - they said it was a system error and they would correct.  Every month, the amount owed has doubled, now over $900.  I've called repeatedly and been assured it's a system error.

Well, when I called this week (next week final payments are all due) I was informed it's not a glitch, but I MUST pay the 900 or my fare will be cancelled.  I have all the back-up showing this is clearly a system error.  I've escalated this to someone in 'leadership' but they keep insisting the system is correct, even though they can't tell me what the additional 'charge' is for.  Beyond frustrated - does anyone know of any way to get in touch with corporate or escalate this beyond the 'customer service' department?  The compete lack of logic on their part (not to mention they conceded they have the records of my previous calls) is just... WOW.

We are also on this sailing (and the week before). We were paid in full by the due date, but decided we wanted to prepay gratuities so called in last Friday to do this. Pretty simple you’d think? Our reservations are now all “messed” up. We got a notice for one cabin that we owed a large amount, and the prices were all changed. When we called our TA, we found that RCL had submitted a refund to us (I have no idea why) for around $1200, but we were told it should have been $138, so my husband had to pay the difference. Thankfully that refund was posted to our credit card today.  Our Next Cruise OBC has gone missing on one of the reservations, and port fees & taxes (which went up because of Bahamas, and that we paid with final payment) reverted to the lesser original amount on one of the reservations. The latest invoice emailed to us (copy #36!) at least shows a balance of zero. I never want to prepay gratuities after final payment again!

1 hour ago, JaycenA said:

Still not 100% resolved, but this rep has now proactively followed up with me nearly every day to let me know that they are still aware of the issue, they're still working to correct it, and that my cruise will not be cancelled for non-payment.

Glad you are having good follow up on this issue. I think we’ll both be ready for that 1st sailaway drink on Icon!

19 minutes ago, harryfat1 said:

Personally, I don’t know why anyone would want a connecting cabin if the other end isn’t your family member.  Maybe you get it as a guarantee type of cabin but I have seen one cabin of a connecting cabin available to book but not the other.  So either the cruise line is holding out on not making that other cabin available or someone just booked the ½ of the connecting cabin and not paying attention to the deck plan symbols on what is a connecting cabin.

Our first cruise after the restart we booked a guarantee balcony cabin. Ship was only maybe 1/2 capacity, yet we ended up being assigned to a balcony that was connected with another family. It seemed like almost all the rooms around us were empty. I remember our cabin steward opened up the balcony divider with the empty cabin on the other side of us for the day that we were cruising through Endicott Arm & Dawes glacier,  so we had more space for our family for the scenic cruising (kids were in an interior cabin across the hall).

29 minutes ago, harryfat1 said:

Speaking of cabin attendants now is a good time to talk about ours.  At the risk of sounding like a grumpy (grumpier) old man, I would say she was probably the worst one we have had on all the cruises.  From my cruise experience, most are very good but ours wasn’t very good. Not sure if they are understaffed or if she has to work extra hard/long due to the ship being 125% of double occupancy but I was not impressed by her attitude/performance.

Ever since the room service was cut to once a day, I’ve noticed the service isn’t what it used to be, so I do wonder if they are understaffed. Our last attendant did a good job, but just wasn’t very friendly. He did mention he was 2 weeks from the end of his contract, so I imagine he was just tired of all us demanding cruisers and ready for a break!

On 1/21/2024 at 2:25 PM, SilkySal said:

We'll have #9179 interior in November, 2025. Sigh, it seems like a fairly long wait but trying to have patience.

We were assigned this cabin (booked as an interior GTY) for the Feb 24 sailing.  I’ll try to remember to post photos for you!

35 minutes ago, harryfat1 said:

As promised here are a few pictures from our company’s holiday party last night.

Wow, very impressive! I work as  a public servant, and holiday parties are at our own cost. This year we had a simple gathering with “bring your own lunch” to the boardroom , and music off someone’s phone 😂 

On 1/19/2024 at 1:18 AM, harryfat1 said:

I bought these luggage tags last year.  Very sturdy and handy.  Waterproof.  Used them for the Navigator and used them again for the Odyssey. 

 

In the old days, I always had to borrow the stapler from the front desk of the hotel when I checked out on the last day just so I could staple all the luggage tags before boarding the ship.  Now it’s all done before leaving the hotel room to go downstairs.  No more borrowing staplers.

I have these same holders and have used them many times, so a worthwhile investment. I remember the old days of borrowing staplers at the hotel when we were anxious to leave to get to the ship.

21 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

In less than 15 minutes after dropping off the luggage, we were having our onboard pictures taken.

Although my daughters really don’t want to stop for the embarkation photo, I always insist since this is always one of my favourites and we get it as one of our “free” photos. My girls are now at an age where we barely see them all week other than at dinner or the flowrider, so I find we keep missing out on group photos, so this is my one guaranteed family photo for the trip. It’s nice to have a pic with a more fun or relaxed pose too.

So exciting! I’ll be following along and will appreciate every report and photos, it makes me even more excited about our upcoming trip, and helps the time go by faster.

Happy to read another one of your trip reports! Even though I’ve been on Odyssey and to all of the ports, I always learn something new from your reports - they are helpful to seasoned cruisers as well, not just newbies. Your fabulous pictures help to bring back memories of my sailings, so thank you for taking the time and effort.

1 hour ago, harryfat1 said:

 

I have one of that portable luggage scale thing from many years ago.  Maybe the next cruise will bring it to make sure we are not over the limit.  

My portable luggage scale (non-digital, old style) is one of our must pack (in carryon) items since we nearly always need to fly to the home port. Many times we have checked in our 4 bags, each weighing 50.0 lbs on the dot! 👍

On 12/3/2023 at 10:21 AM, sailaway54321 said:

Checked the website 2 days ago, was listed at $25. a day, now $35

I’m not able to find the price on the website, I wish it was more clearly shown. Now we’re rethinking about parking at the terminal at the end of the month.

On 12/4/2023 at 2:48 PM, captainkurt said:

Is Garage B exclusive to NCL?  How would NCL know when you enter Garage B if you are embarking from Terminal A?  Secondly, is it possible to park in Surface Lot C or Garage C and walk (safely on a sidewalk) to Terminal A?

I have the same question….

41 minutes ago, LuCruise said:

Thanks so much for sharing the other side and experience on Rhapsody.  I discussed with DH and he feels strongly they will be fine.  As you say, they know what to expect.  They will be 16 and 20 so can just enjoy the basics. This cruise has 2 ports we've been too but I think if we be sure to do something at each, plus a new port of Belize (which sounds nice), they'll be fine.  And maybe they will meet others too as you mentioned.  Appreciate the feedback.  

Just an FYI, our daughters shared an inside cabin Rhapsody. It was smaller than the inside cabins on the larger ships (only a chair instead of a small sofa for sitting, and no fridge/cooler). Cabins are clean but really overdue for an upgrade/modernization of furnishings. 

We had a similar dilemma. My hubby and 20ish daughters are flowrider addicts, so going on a smaller ship without one needs justification 😂! Last NYE we sailed on Rhapsody vs other bigger/newer because: price and new variety of ports (it sailed from Barbados). We made it a 13 day cruise with a back to back (to make the most of the flight).  The family knew what to expect, and we had a great time. A smaller ship was a nice change. The kids made some friends and enjoyed the pool, gym and bars. It helped that the cruise was port intensive.