Tatka

Well... this is unfortunate. Kids will need to wait for day or two. I hope Solarium will not be opened. Especially because of specific shape of cascading pools. On "my" Thanksgivings it should be easier (gets warm faster)... On Christmas it will be tougher. I remember times when ships sailing out of NJ did not have covered pools at all.

Well, I sail on Anthem during Thanksgiving every year. Almost 1400 kids on board. I do not see them is Solarium. So something can be done about adult places. 😉 But of course in other places there will be kids.

No need. Tons of other Royal ships.

Why? I do not care. I am an emptynester with no plans to sail on Icon anytime soon. People who are interested though can do this or pick another Royal ship.

But in a way Icon is a new Disney. Direct competition to Disney.

Declare some places adult only? Disney does it. Other areas will be for all and kids are kids. This ship is created for families. We don't have kids, and have no plans to sail on Icons unless she or sisters come to Bayonne, NJ and in times when schools in surrounding states are in session. There are plenty of other ships and RCI is building more Oasis(es)

We sail on Anthem (well it will be Odyssey from now on) twice a year out of Bayonne NJ.. one of which is on Thanksgiving with almost 1400 kids on board, and adult areas are adult areas. For example Solarium.

Disney actually controls very well adult areas so adult fans without kids have fun. I expect RCI to fix this situation.

Two different things. Also ... improving the food is much more expensive. Catering gourmet food to 6000 people is very difficult. Luxury lines are luxury, because catering to smaller crowds and to multiple thousands are not the same. And they are much more expensive.

I'd love to have this feature working as I always have phone with me, but my card often stays with my husband as he brings drinks. I also sometimes forget my card when go to gym early in the morning from our dark room.

We loved it… watched it for the last (9th?) time in January. Loved Terry Lavell. Other than this aside from Aqua shows… (not production shows) we loved Mamma Mia, Saturday Night Fever. Loved In the Air , but this is Circus de Soleil like show I think.

Great! So X prices will come down when clients switch to MSC? 🙂

Exactly. It takes time to leave Chesapeake bay

Different with RCI. Diamonds (80 points) get 24 hours from the time you log in. Diamond Plus (175 points) get 2 times X 24 hours. Not 48 hours strait, but 2 X 24.

We are D+ so each has 2 days. I use husbands 2 days and then buy remaining days with my D+ 2 days discount. It is cheaper as more days you buy, less each costs. Not by much, by 1 dollar approx. I think for Ds it could be cheaper to buy precruise without D discount if it is 17.99-19.99 and cruise is longer. This part is somewhat difficult to figure out though.

We enjoy all classes for the different reasons. We only sailed Radiance class once so we cannot make judgement, but on smaller ships like Grandeur/Enchantment and soon Vision we love how everything is so close and we just move between musical lounges (including Centrum) easily. Also we noticed that there are much more music on Vision class. It starts earlier and does not have gaps. I understand that it is a compensation for lacking of more grand entertainment, but we found to be enjoying this format. Especially because we repeat ships and grand shows are more difficult to substitute. Also we find better variety of headliners on Vision class. Every year we sail twice on Quantum class ships, once on Freedom/Voyager class, once on Oasis class (last year it was two cruises on Liberty instead of Oasis) and once on Vision.

Oh, thanks we won’t use Crown lounge then. We like Royal Viking one anyway 🙂 Our next is Vision in March for 12 days.

You are very welcome. In Bermuda if we travel somewhere we use public transportation which is wonderful! Even local schoolkids are very polite and quiet. Both buses and ferries. For multidays sometimes it makes sense to buy multiday pass. https://www.gov.bm/public-transportation-fares We do not always leave West End as there are so many things to do there. Even a little beach called Snorkeling park. During our first visits when we had 3 days we took bus trips through whole island visiting Crystal caves and town of St George's.. and returning back using ferry. I enjoy even just riding a bus. 🙂

I sailed with RCI since 2004... and with other lines since 2003. My first 3 cruises - Splendor in 2004 and Explorer in 2007/2009 - featured weaker food than during last year. I never expected RCI to feature fine dining - Celebrity, Holland, Princess had always better food, but even they were not fine dining - but I do not think current food on RCI is Golden Corral quality. It is in between. Maybe somewhat worse than pre-pandemic, but not Corral worse. I do not think it is done on purpose, there are pretty obvious reasons. Huge losses during pandemic, huge inflation etc. There is huge competition as cruising is still evolving. I do not believe RCI would upset loyal following on purpose.

No, this is not getting to this point. This comparison is ridiculous.

Terry Lavell is great!!! We hoped to see him on 1/7 sailing as he was aboard … but he didn’t perform. Nice review.

Nice review! We will miss Anthem…We loved Iconic band in MH. So talented…

I like Oasis, but I wish they had a real outside promenade. This was a key part of any cruise ship.

My husband once tried to enter a room with the same number, but on different deck. Card didn’t work so he knocked and the other guy was very surprised. Thankfully they laughed. Thankfully it was once during 60+ cruises.

Liberty offers the best ice show we’ve seen on RCI ships. Broadway show: Saturday Night Fever and Circus de Soleil like show: In the Air That is my video about Liberty & Bermuda last May. As for Bermuda itself we were there 3-4 times multi days (3-4) so this time we took it easy and only went to Hamilton. Didn’t even go to the beach. But you can get idea about Liberty. I love 12 dayers from Baltimore to Southern Caribbeans on Vision class too. Different type of experience though.