jrapps

That's exactly what I said when they started doing 3/4 days on the Freedom class. They were once the largest cruise ships in the world (before Oasis was built) and now, 90% of their sailings are 5 days or less, mostly 3/4 day itineraries.

I would rather see the Oasis-class stay in Royal but trickle down...you will start to see the Freedom/Independence/Liberty taking over routes done today by Voyager/Mariner, which will take over for Vision/Grandeur which will eventually be sold/scrapped. Eventually, Oasis-class ships will be doing the shorter 3/4 day itineraries out of FL & Galveston while Quantum, Icon, and future classes will be the new premium 7-day ships. What I want to see is Celebrity push the envelope within. Just like Icon is an amped Oasis which was an Amped Freedom....what would an Amped up Edge look like? For Icon, I wonder now when is it too much? When the Freedom class came out, I'm sure cruisers of the day couldn't envision they would one day be the "old" smaller ships of the fleet doing 3/4 day itineraries from smaller ports. There is always something bigger and better around the corner. What could possibly come our next over the next 10-15 years that will make Oasis and Icon class the "OLD" ships of the fleet? 27 water slides on the top deck? a submarine ride off the back of the ship? a tube coaster waterslide that goes down the side of the ship and under the water?. Royal may also have an issue long term as the Oasis fleet ages and would be prime to take over 3/4 day itineraries, but are too big to sail from many ports. When there are no more small ships left, what happens to ports like Tampa and Jacksonville?

While I personally love the family-forward activities and size/amenities of the Oasis class and now Icon class, I guess I can see your point. I for one am very much looking forward to sailing on Icon, but I can admit as we get older my wife and I are getting more refined in our cruising tastes. For the past 20 years it has been heavy Disney and Royal with the kids, who are now teens/pre-teens. We are in our 40s and continue sailing Disney and Royal as family vacations, but starting to look at Celebrity, NCL, MSC, and Virgin as potential adult-getaway trips. I can see once the kids are in college and we do more adult cruises than family cruises, we may prefer an experience where there are less families with young kids everywhere all the time. Of course, we really prefer larger ships so that limits us. Today we only do short 3-4 day cruises without the kids (hard to cruise even without them during school) and Royal is really the only line that has larger ships doing short cruises. We have zero desire to go on anything as small or old as Vision/Grandeur. To me, sailing on these mega family-designed ships in non-peak times when most kids are in school will suffice. But yes, I agree with a lot of what you said and hope that RCL sees that as the 25-35 crowd becomes a 45-65 crowd, they will want to maintain the "new high tech flashy" cruise experience without the in your face little kid splash park. Hopefully they have plans to add more larger ships to the Celebrity fleet in the future?

I found another screenshot with the Surfside restaurant. Its called Bites. My guess is sandwiches, hamburgers, hot dogs...pool-adjacent food for the kids at splashaway You can also see slides in this mockup

The one on 16 also looks very small, my guess is it just goes down 1 level and lets out under that stairwell, so just a faster way for kids to go from 16 to 15. There's no way that goes all the way down to deck 8, there would need to be a queue, maybe even mats for a dry slide that big.

I wonder if that is a small slide DOWN into the Adventure Ocean on Deck 6? If it went UP to the top of the ship you would see it in the pictures

For the other un-names restaurants in Surfside, this again could just be mockup but seems the dining just past the carousel, starboard side, is both an ice cream place and a counter-serve food place, possibly hot dogs or snadwiches?

There is a rock climbing wall:

I was hoping for a level 2 playmakers but appears not to be the case. In the mockups it is just called "Surfside Eatery", not sure if that is the real name or just a working-title. When standing at the staircase by the entrance to Surfside on Deck 6, you can see Playmakers: And just above it is "Surfside Eatery"

Looks like there is a staircase down to Deck 15 that isn't on the deck plans, you can see it here:

Anyone else notice that Cloud "17" is for guests 16 and older....would have thought that would be 17 and older...or call it Cloud 16? Just an odd observation.

My first reaction to seeing all the images and deck plans was "Wow, that is a lot going on". but the more I look at them the more it is growing on me. My random thoughts: I like how they moved Splashaway bay to the back of Deck 7. Deck 7 will be "Families with small kids", while pools on Deck 15 will be families with older children. Love the large circular elevator bank design Love the escalators Love the 360-degree Absolute Zero, finally time they changed things up from StudioB Interesting that the fitness center and Spa are no longer co-located Is this the first ship to move Sorrento's to the port side? Still cant wait to see what the Pearl is, but it takes up a considerable amount of space from decks 5-9. They moved a LOT of stuff to the 2nd floor of the Promenade, like Giovanni's. Deck 6 seems to the be the strangest one to me. Lots of narrow corridors, and Playmakers seems to be placed wherever they found room. UNLESS...right above it on Deck 7 is a yet un-named dining place, could this be a 2-story Playmakers??? That would be awesome! Central Park, only deck 14 appears to have balconies, I assume most of central park is now infinite verandas? The strange partial deck overlapping seems strange at first, but logically it could be genius! Seems like it creates a lot of shade while still being very open. All the loungers on Royal Bay pool are under Deck 17, but the pool is Deck 15. That is a 2-story ceiling. Cove pool also has all the seating surroundign the pool under an overhang. Lots of Shaded pool areas here. I sort of like what they did with Cloud17, an adult only pool deck, but only 1 hot tub and too close to the smoking area. Is Coastal kitchen now 2 decks? Its on Deck 17 but an un-named restaurant is above it on 18. Seems odd there would be 2 separate Concierge restaurants.

So the "Boardwalk" is called Surfside on the Icon...interesting!

I can't imagine it has any larger chance of leaking than the pools/flowriders/waterslides you normally se on the top deck. What I am waiting to see is how the Solarium fits in with this. It is rumored to be a dual-purpose area but from that photo there really isnt much space in front of the aqua theater for a solarium. 1.5 days and then we will know.

You can see it in this photo from a few pages back...

They didn't remove the Aqua show, they just moved the Aqua theater to the front of the ship under the dome.

I could see them doing either 4 funnels, or 2 much larger oversized ones (front and back). I still think they try to add a funnel or 2 to the front to keep the profile consistent with the rest of the fleet. But awesome renders!

Count me as one that thinks the quality has gone way down, but I feel like the decline even started pre-covid. We wont even cruise Royal without the UDP package anymore, which I suppose was their hope all along, force people to pay even more $ for "decent" food.

On our last cruise I basically told them each and every time I ordered a drink to use a voucher or my refreshment package. It felt very tedious.

Obviously a lot of opinions all over the map here. For us, we love Disney and cruise it almost as much as Royal. Yes it is more expensive, but it is hard to compare apples to apples, it really is a different experience. My kids happen to love all things Disney and the kids club is amazing. We also think the food on Disney is FAR superior to Royal. Now all that said, I never pay 3x the rate for Disney. Maybe I go on more off-peak times than you are looking. When we look for cruises and compare Royal to Disney, we usually see about a 50% premium for the Disney one. Once I factor in that I almost always buy the unlimited Dining plan and a soda package on Royal, that difference becomes a lot closer. If you are looking at the Wish, keep in mind that is their BRAND NEW ship, hasn't even had it's maiden voyage yet so yes you will be paying a premium for that. Nothing wrong with the Dream or Fantasy and the prices will be a lot closer to what you are seeing for Royal.

Good to know. I don't mind following policy, just strange that it's not consistent across the fleet. I think it's a foolish policy as I already paid for the unlimited dining, why make me leave and come back? I've been at playmakers and when I hit the $20 limit, they just close the check and open a new one. Odd that Izumi can't do the same. What about the $15 upcharge, is that also standard (as opposed to just the $10 upcharge we usually pay)

On the Freedom now...went to Izumi last night and they billed things differently than we are used to. We have the Unlimited Dining and have used that for the Hibachi several times in the past. It's always been a $10 upcharge no matter what we ordered. This time, they charged $10 if you got the 1-meat meal, but charged $15 for the 2-meat option. They also charged us for the sushi appetizer we got. When I explained we had the UDP they said you can't use that while at a hibachi table. Not sure if that is the "right" policy or not but we have ordered sushi at the hibachi table 4 times in the past year, never been charged extra with UDP. They literally told us if we leave and come back 20 min later then we can get sushi included. Sad to see this changing. Might make us rethink the UDP on these short 3 day cruises

So this morning I just won my very first Royal Up! The SetSail updated to the new room but luggage tags still say the old room. I called and they told me it can take 48hrs for the new luggage tags to appear, but I sail on Friday What do I do if the luggage tags don't update in time?

For those on the Ovation now, is it better to have a balcony room on the port or starboard side? We are going next year, deciding what room to book. Thanks

Less tons, and less staterooms. But they will make it 1" longer than the Wonder so it's the BIGGEST! 🤣