Icon of the seas looks intimidating to us without kids

[cruisevibes]

The ship itself looks awesome, but to those of us without kids it looks intimidating. I was on Anthem of the seas for thanksgiving week, the amount of kids running in front of us all around the ship was very annoying. Imagine this monstrosity of a ship called Icon of the seas where it has multi-levels dedicated to families. That's a lot of kids running around going nuts without parental supervision. Let's be honest, parents don't seem to want to be parents lately (or it seems so in public). We saw kids climbing on top of the art piece outside of Jamie's on Anthem of the seas. Not one crew member did anything or asked them to climb down and they shouldn't have. It's not their job to parent someone's kids. The parents sure didn't do anything, their attitude was like "they're just being kids" while they climbed on a piece of art worth thousands of dollars. The point is that as incredible as Icon looks, a lot of us will pass on this ship so we don't have to deal with the kids who don't have manners because the parents refuse to actually raise them. Anyone else feel the same way? I'm not trying to be inconsiderate, I have nephews and nieces also but their parents are actually parenting them and keep them well-behaved in public. 

 

It would be awesome if the next Icon class was less family-focused and more of a general cruising style. 

[gumshoe958]

Like any Royal megaship, she’ll be overrun with kids when school’s out and much calmer when it’s not.

And like any Royal megaship, she’ll have plenty of places where you can get a respite from the kids.

 

Ultimately, Royal is a family line that has made a business decision to appeal to kids. If Icon’s not for you, that’s fine. Other ships and lines are available.
 

Royal has 5, soon to be 6, classes of ship. All different, catering to different tastes. Why do people expect every single ship to be designed just for their tastes?

I don’t really like burgers. But I don’t moan about McDonald’s or Burger King not catering for me and demand they change their menus. I just don’t go there. Other restaurants and foods are available.

 

Edited December 10, 2022 by gumshoe958

[lcpagejr]

I agree with OP.... If Im spending mega bucks on a cruise....I do not want an amusement Park atmosphere and large crowds. Yes their are other cruise ship options which better meet what a cruise should be. Six flags enviornment...``not my cup of tea

[reallyitsmema]

34 minutes ago, cruisevibes said:

The ship itself looks awesome, but to those of us without kids it looks intimidating. I was on Anthem of the seas for thanksgiving week, the amount of kids running in front of us all around the ship was very annoying. Imagine this monstrosity of a ship called Icon of the seas where it has multi-levels dedicated to families. That's a lot of kids running around going nuts without parental supervision. Let's be honest, parents don't seem to want to be parents lately (or it seems so in public). We saw kids climbing on top of the art piece outside of Jamie's on Anthem of the seas. Not one crew member did anything or asked them to climb down and they shouldn't have. It's not their job to parent someone's kids. The parents sure didn't do anything, their attitude was like "they're just being kids" while they climbed on a piece of art worth thousands of dollars. The point is that as incredible as Icon looks, a lot of us will pass on this ship so we don't have to deal with the kids who don't have manners because the parents refuse to actually raise them. Anyone else feel the same way? I'm not trying to be inconsiderate, I have nephews and nieces also but their parents are actually parenting them and keep them well-behaved in public. 

 

It would be awesome if the next Icon class was less family-focused and more of a general cruising style. 

 

You sailed a family ship during a holiday sailing, lots of kids are to be expected.  As far as someone on top of the sculpture in The Via, I have sailed Anthem many times and have NEVER seen anyone on that sculpture.  I have seen kids standing on the base of it for pictures as that is one of the picture spots that the cruise line photographer sets up but never on the sculpture.  Please share a picture of what you saw.

 

Icon does not seem like a ship you should book if you don't want excited kids on a ship.  Lots of others to choose from.

[basenji56]

I sailed on Odessey last month.  Loved it.  Almost no kids.  But that was on a transatlantic.  I'm sure in a few weeks it will be a zoo.

 

[goldfish65]

Hopefully Icon will draw all the loud, ill-mannered, pushy, crass, yappy, and inconsiderate parents and offspring. 😬

[smokeybandit]

Quite the opposite. With the isolated communities, Icon may well be the best ship for families and for adults who want an adult only feel.

[Nunagoras]

By reading CC boards there are some things that are becoming pretty much noticeable on me. Among those:

 

The market has changed a lot on the last 20 years, but there remains being a certain number of ones that seems to not noticed or don't want to notice or accept it.

 

On top of that; part of the "Voyager-to-Oasis" cruising generation are now entering their 50's-to-60's; kids free on their lives, awaiting retirement and, perhaps, awaiting a time when to have such a quiet holiday time becomes essential.

 

Simply; the mainstream mega-ship segment cruise lines decided to go after the 20-30 yo with little kids generation, and the little bit more premium classic experience lines might no to be ready to capture all of those, because prices are a bit higher and ships are a bit smaller.

 

Are there opportunities? Yeah, but even Voyager class ships are ageing right now...

 

I've no magic wand on cruise lines directions, but it would have been great if the whole industry didn't put apart what seems a relatively good part of the cruise demand and of the cruise money. Viking and Virgin are being surprisingly good at capturing that very segment, even though that wasn't really Virgin's primary goal! We need perhaps one more adult focused line so that the prices may normalize a bit. Or X will need some more ships, just to talk about RCI group. Yeah, we need more vessel for the 3k pax segment!... But I doubt it will happen.

 

For me and for now my strategy is sadly to cruise less, but when cruising, at least I'll to go on no less than X, or an X and above like product experience. No need nor for those so many kids, not the childish designs of some of the modern mainstream ships. Maybe I can try the older ships, but if so, I keep my expectations adapted to the reality. Older ships are ageing...

[cruisevibes]

56 minutes ago, basenji56 said:

I sailed on Odessey last month.  Loved it.  Almost no kids.  But that was on a transatlantic.  I'm sure in a few weeks it will be a zoo.

 

That sounds awesome! Jealous 😊

[Bead Pirate]

We will do a one and done on the Icon (just to sail her). The kids are overwhelming on the Wonder and the Icon will be no different... 

 

It does not seem there is any time that the kids are not on board anymore...

 

[gumshoe958]

2 minutes ago, Bead Pirate said:

We will do a one and done on the Icon (just to sail her). The kids are overwhelming on the Wonder and the Icon will be no different... 

 

It does not seem there is any time that the kids are not on board anymore...

 

Transatlantics are your friend.

[cruisevibes]

2 hours ago, reallyitsmema said:

 

You sailed a family ship during a holiday sailing, lots of kids are to be expected.  As far as someone on top of the sculpture in The Via, I have sailed Anthem many times and have NEVER seen anyone on that sculpture.  I have seen kids standing on the base of it for pictures as that is one of the picture spots that the cruise line photographer sets up but never on the sculpture.  Please share a picture of what you saw.

 

Icon does not seem like a ship you should book if you don't want excited kids on a ship.  Lots of others to choose from.

There were 2 sets of kids. The first set are the ones I was speaking of. They were toddlers. The second set were the teens pictured in this attachment. The teens climbed on top of the sculpture and took pics on it. This pic shows them standing on the stage around it but they did actually climb to the top. I’m sure it’s on RC surveillance for the ship. The other guests next to us were gasping when they saw it. We were all like wow, all of Jamie’s had a front view. I’m sure the teens posted the pics on social media. Maybe searching RC or anthem of the seas hashtags will help you find their pics. 

[Trixie21]

We will try Icon in a couple of years time.

No one can really say what the experience for couples without kids (we are in that category) on Icon is like until she has done a few sailings .I know it is a ship primarily aimed at families but we have never not been able to find a quiet spot somewhere to relax on any ship at any time . 

Families can add to the atmosphere in our opinion and we are more than happy to relax on our balcony if it gets to busy.

Just saying we all need to wait and see what happens !

Icon does look absolutely amazing , by the way.

[CruiseBride926]

3 hours ago, cruisevibes said:

The ship itself looks awesome, but to those of us without kids it looks intimidating. I was on Anthem of the seas for thanksgiving week, the amount of kids running in front of us all around the ship was very annoying. Imagine this monstrosity of a ship called Icon of the seas where it has multi-levels dedicated to families. That's a lot of kids running around going nuts without parental supervision. Let's be honest, parents don't seem to want to be parents lately (or it seems so in public). We saw kids climbing on top of the art piece outside of Jamie's on Anthem of the seas. Not one crew member did anything or asked them to climb down and they shouldn't have. It's not their job to parent someone's kids. The parents sure didn't do anything, their attitude was like "they're just being kids" while they climbed on a piece of art worth thousands of dollars. The point is that as incredible as Icon looks, a lot of us will pass on this ship so we don't have to deal with the kids who don't have manners because the parents refuse to actually raise them. Anyone else feel the same way? I'm not trying to be inconsiderate, I have nephews and nieces also but their parents are actually parenting them and keep them well-behaved in public. 

 

It would be awesome if the next Icon class was less family-focused and more of a general cruising style. 

Then don’t go 🤷‍♀️

[gavvy]

You could argue if icon is the family fun ship aimed towards the Disney crowd that leaves more ships in PC with less kids? Making it better for everyone.

 

That's if icon does sail from PC permanently 

[Oceansaway17]

I am booked for Icon on May 2024 and like any new ship, I go to see and enjoy the ship. I look at artwork and decor.

I can dodge what I need to and for me it would be more drunk adults or noisy rude teenagers and also pushy rude people. 

I think little kids are cute and innocent and get excited and are fun to watch.

 

In fact put me on a ship with a ton of kids under age 11 and sprinkle in some nice well mannered and not drunken adults and I would be quite happy.

RCI is doing the right thing by appealing to kids who will be the next generation of travelers down the road.

 

And it was while sailing as a kid with parents that Captain Kate over on Celebrity fell in love with cruising who by the way served on the Harmony with Captain Johnny.

[sgmn]

5 hours ago, gumshoe958 said:

Like any Royal megaship, she’ll be overrun with kids when school’s out and much calmer when it’s not.

And like any Royal megaship, she’ll have plenty of places where you can get a respite from the kids.

 

Ultimately, Royal is a family line that has made a business decision to appeal to kids. If Icon’s not for you, that’s fine. Other ships and lines are available.
 

Royal has 5, soon to be 6, classes of ship. All different, catering to different tastes. Why do people expect every single ship to be designed just for their tastes?

I don’t really like burgers. But I don’t moan about McDonald’s or Burger King not catering for me and demand they change their menus. I just don’t go there. Other restaurants and foods are available.

 

Problem is Royal isn't building the smaller more traditional ships anymore. So if you want to cruise on Royal Caribbean, eventually there will only be big ships left. 

Apart from anything else there are some ports around the world that are banning the big girls and some ports are too small for them, so you'll be restricted where you can go. 

Edited December 10, 2022 by sgmn

[topanga49er]

7 hours ago, goldfish65 said:

Hopefully Icon will draw all the loud, ill-mannered, pushy, crass, yappy, and inconsiderate parents and offspring. 😬

Wow that's not too nice.  Looking forward to being one of the not pushy, hopefully not too crass parents that are going to have a blast with our teenage kids.  It gives us with a "5" in our birthday decade a bad name.  When did we get too old for fun?

[pyrateslife4me84]

It’s a family cruise line. 
 

Those who don’t like kids should sail on Virgin. 

[ggo85]

When we saw RCCL’s move to market to families with kids, we mostly moved to other lines.  We now only only cruise RCCL at times when we are quite sure there will be fewer kids and also cruise on the smaller ships.  Just off an RCCL cruise with very few kids and those we saw were well behaved. 
 

Marketing to families is a huge positive for some and a huge negative for others.  If you cruise a mega RCCL ship during or close to school holidays, you’re going to be overrun with kids.  Their families paid to be there.  Your call whether you want to join them. 

 

[kitkat343]

We sailed on princess Panama Canal cruise leaving on January 8th.  There were only 10 kids on board.  On the previous sailing, there were 250 because it was over New  years.  I have kids and do understand that not everyone wants to be on a cruise ship filled with children.  Either sail on lines like virgin, or take itineraries that don’t appeal to most families (bonus: they’re usually more interesting anyway) and sail during the school year.  

[ldubs]

IDK.  It is pretty easy to identify those ships that cater to families.  The prime family vacation times are no mystery.  So, someone who doesn't want to be around kids books a family oriented cruise.  Pretty much a guarantee they will be back here to complain about it.  

 

My suggestion is to not voluntarily do things you know you won't enjoy.       

[shofer]

12 hours ago, lcpagejr said:

I agree with OP.... If Im spending mega bucks on a cruise....I do not want an amusement Park atmosphere and large crowds. Yes their are other cruise ship options which better meet what a cruise should be. Six flags enviornment...``not my cup of tea

DH & I are retirees and agree we would rather not sail on children+ itineraries.  We sailed on Symphony 1/29/22 and there were some children but it was only half capacity and of course most kids were in school.  Loved the ship, able to enjoy shows, activities, etc. with mostly other adults.  Only exception was the ice show @ 10:30 PM, there were 2 little boys (about 5-6 y/o) who wouldn't stop talking.  As a parent, I'm thinking why aren't these kids in bed?  After turning around a few times and glaring, the parents finally separated them.  If your vacation schedule allows for sailing while the kids are in school, just choose those off times.

[Trixie21]

10 hours ago, sgmn said:

Problem is Royal isn't building the smaller more traditional ships anymore. So if you want to cruise on Royal Caribbean, eventually there will only be big ships left. 

Apart from anything else there are some ports around the world that are banning the big girls and some ports are too small for them, so you'll be restricted where you can go. 

A passenger at captains corner said they were told Royal were currently working on a new class of ship sized between radiance and voyager class - they said it was called project discovery . Those ships will need replaced in the next few years so this sounds quite plausible to me. So many ports where only smaller ships can get into.

[sgmn]

5 hours ago, Trixie21 said:

A passenger at captains corner said they were told Royal were currently working on a new class of ship sized between radiance and voyager class - they said it was called project discovery . Those ships will need replaced in the next few years so this sounds quite plausible to me. So many ports where only smaller ships can get into.

Interesting, fingers crossed. Would be nice to have new smaller ships with all the technology and glitz of the bigger ships. Maybe updated specialised restaurants too