Should I book Royal's new Icon for $7K or NCL's Joy in the Haven for $7K?

[Sigyn]

I'm torn. Looking at spring break cruises for next March. I can book an ocean view balcony on Royal Caribbean's newest ship, Icon of the Seas, which launches in January next year, for $7K for three of us. It will have all the bells and whistles and I know my son, who will be 16 then, would have a blast, as he did on Harmony of the Seas this previous spring break. Tons of kids, lots of fun. He mostly hung out with his newfound friends in the lounges, having virgin drinks, and walking around the ship, and sitting in the hot tubs, and playing cards in the library (yes, the library! It was always empty and so the teenagers loved that it was a nice place they could make their own.) They skipped 80% of the activities on the ship. No idea why. But that's my son. 

The alternative I'm looking at would please my husband and I a bit more - going on the Norwegian Joy and staying in the Haven. It's $6K for a "basic" Haven penthouse or $7K for a forward facing Haven cabin with two rooms that gives our son a separate sleeping area with a door. I know this would please my husband because he hated the lack of privacy (if you get my drift) on our cruise on the Norwegian Prima in December. Plus, the pampering that comes from the Haven would be awesome. The only suite available on the Icon is $15K. Can't do that. That would blast our vacation budget for the summer. 

My question to everyone here is, would a teenager have fun on the Joy? Would there be a lot of teenagers at spring break? Believe it or not, my son didn't meet any kids at Christmas on the Prima and he was bored to death. He's very social, but it was just an odd time and all of the teenagers on the ship were with their families and had brothers and sisters to hang out with. He had SO MUCH FUN on the Harmony with something like 2,000 kids out of the 6,800 passengers and he made tons of friends, all of whom he's still Snapchatting with now, two months later. 

[cruisekitty22]

I would wait on the Icon until it has a few sailings under its belt.  New ships tend to have problems in the first few sailings. 

[complawyer]

no question, the haven hands down!!!. we took our grandson on many cruises on ncl ships, and he never failed to make friends.  ncl also offers (or they did inthe past) things for kids of all ages, for teens 13-18 they have the "entourage" especially designed for teens. up until he was 19 and no longer eligible, we singed him up and he met tons of kids and they hung out. i joke that we saw him when we got on the ship, and then not until we disembarkation. we only requested that he check in periodically throughout the day, and meet up with us a few times for dinner.

 

if your'e going to compare the2 ships, in addition to the privacy issue, you need to (at least i would) compare cabin size, itinerary and estimated number of fellow passengers. our first suite was on the spirit from new orleans a few years back, at that time our grandson was about 14, he was overjoyed that he could call the butler (randy) and order pizza whenever he wanted. definitely go with ncl

[mjkacmom]

Our last cruise was on the Gem, in 2 balconies, kids were 14, 14, 16, 19 and 20, Memorial Day week, all of them found posse’s to hang with, just like our previous NCL cruised. My kids are very close (now that they are older they go out to bars together) but most found their own groups (my 19 and 20 year olds were in the same group of young adults).

[deweytrader]

Your son can do the same things on the Joy that he can do on the Icon.  I would book the Forward-facing penthouse on the Joy in the haven for the same cost as the Icon.

[hallux]

The amount of "stuff" on that top deck of the Icon (based on the renderings) just makes it look gaudy to me.  It seems so busy and so dang vibrant and colorful.  Just as with the Oasis-class, I'm not sure I'll ever step foot on Icon or her sisters.  I like that NCL isn't trying to one-up themselves with bigger and bigger as RCL is, by deciding to make the Prima class even a little SMALLER.

[Sigyn]

4 hours ago, complawyer said:

no question, the haven hands down!!!. we took our grandson on many cruises on ncl ships, and he never failed to make friends.  ncl also offers (or they did inthe past) things for kids of all ages, for teens 13-18 they have the "entourage" especially designed for teens. up until he was 19 and no longer eligible, we singed him up and he met tons of kids and they hung out. i joke that we saw him when we got on the ship, and then not until we disembarkation. we only requested that he check in periodically throughout the day, and meet up with us a few times for dinner.

 

if your'e going to compare the2 ships, in addition to the privacy issue, you need to (at least i would) compare cabin size, itinerary and estimated number of fellow passengers. our first suite was on the spirit from new orleans a few years back, at that time our grandson was about 14, he was overjoyed that he could call the butler (randy) and order pizza whenever he wanted. definitely go with ncl

I appreciate the input! Part of the problem on the Prima was that they'd pretty much eliminated the teen club. There was no location for it, they just told the teenagers to meet the first time in the kids area and later on it would be something like "meet on Deck 15 at 6 pm for XYZ activity"  It was really odd, and my son didn't want to participate because, at age 15, meeting in what looked like a preschool area was not appealing at all, even if they were going to head somewhere else afterward. 

[complawyer]

i thought you indicated your choices were between the ncl joy and rcl?

[Sigyn]

23 minutes ago, complawyer said:

i thought you indicated your choices were between the ncl joy and rcl?

Yes, that's what I'm considering. 

[Sailing12Away]

Not sure how this is even a fair comparison. A balcony with no perks, vs a Haven suite for the same price. I would love to understand why in the world anyone would consider the balcony on RCC instead of a Haven suite for the same price. That's insanity. Jump on the Haven suite and don't look back.

[RB9643]

First, the Joy is not the Prima. I can't imagine your son not being thrilled with the Joy. While we don't travel with teenagers, I can see the difference.

 

Secondly, as stated previously, it's a two-room suite in the Haven! Is there really any comparison?

 

Finally, you're comparing a brand new, first-in-its-class ship still working out all the problems and kinks that inevitably come with it, to a tried and true, proven Breakaway+ class ship.

 

No-brainer.

 

[Cruising Lynne]

3 hours ago, hallux said:

The amount of "stuff" on that top deck of the Icon (based on the renderings) just makes it look gaudy to me.  It seems so busy and so dang vibrant and colorful.  Just as with the Oasis-class, I'm not sure I'll ever step foot on Icon or her sisters.  I like that NCL isn't trying to one-up themselves with bigger and bigger as RCL is, by deciding to make the Prima class even a little SMALLER.

I agree with your assessment.  I won't ever go on Icon, because it is just too big. I feel like ships like that are one thing that give cruising a bad name, and leads to ports limiting ships or not allowing them. They just dump too many people on a port all at once, and they need larger piers to dock at etc.

 

I have not cruised on Joy yet, but have a trip coming up on her in the fall. It seems like it does have things that a teen could enjoy, such as the go-karts, laser tag, and Galaxy Pavilion. Just need to allow extra spending money for these items. For me I like that it has a Spice H2O and an Observation Lounge. Haven for the same cost as Icon would be a great thing!

[Sigyn]

I booked the Haven forward-facing penthouse on the Joy. Cabin 12108. Done! Thanks for the input. 

 

Funny enough, the go-karts on the Prima weren't that appealing to my son during our December cruise, and my husband really didn't like them because of how they randomly gave speed boosts to some drivers and not others. He hated being passed by people not driving as well as he did. 🤣

 

My son loved hanging out (napping) in the observation lounge on the Prima, and the Galaxy Pavilion. We all enjoyed the specialty restaurants on the Prima. They were amazing!

Edited May 27, 2023 by njsmom

[Travelling2Some]

5 hours ago, deweytrader said:

Your son can do the same things on the Joy that he can do on the Icon.  I would book the Forward-facing penthouse on the Joy in the haven for the same cost as the Icon.

Agree with this.  Plus I would please the person who's paying for the cruise!

[Travelling2Some]

1 hour ago, njsmom said:

Funny enough, the go-karts on the Prima weren't that appealing to my son during our December cruise, and my husband really didn't like them because of how they randomly gave speed boosts to some drivers and not others. He hated being passed by people not driving as well as he did. 🤣

 

Both my husband and I agreed that we would never bother with the go-karts again.  One and done!  Uncomfortable helmets, visors so cloudy we could hardly see, hard to steer and just boring.  Waste of space.

[RB9643]

9 minutes ago, Travelling2Some said:

Both my husband and I agreed that we would never bother with the go-karts again.  One and done!  Uncomfortable helmets, visors so cloudy we could hardly see, hard to steer and just boring.  Waste of space.

 

 

That's disappointing to hear. We're on the Encore repo next April. With 9 seadays, fewer kids, and less than capacity, I was hoping to get a pass and ride the heck out of those things.

 

Guess I'll just shell out the $15 the first time and see how it goes.

 

 

[bluecruisin]

I would cruise on the Icon now. In a couple of you might be cruising without him and can do the Haven then

[RB9643]

1 minute ago, bluecruisin said:

I would cruise on the Icon now. 

 

Can you tell us why?

 

 

[Sigyn]

40 minutes ago, RB9643 said:

 

 

That's disappointing to hear. We're on the Encore repo next April. With 9 seadays, fewer kids, and less than capacity, I was hoping to get a pass and ride the heck out of those things.

 

Guess I'll just shell out the $15 the first time and see how it goes.

 

 

Definitely try them once before getting the pass. Even if you like them it would be difficult to ride them enough to get your money back from the pass. They're only open certain hours, and if it rains, they shut down since you can't do them on a wet track. You also have to make reservations to use them, and the reservations are tough to get. At least, they were on the Prima. Maybe the folks with the unlimited pass get easier access, not sure. Something to check. I offered to buy my son as many rides as he wanted, but he rode once when his dad did it, and once when I did it, and that was it. He wasn't interested in going again. And he's a 15 year old boy who loves cars. So go figure. He thought they were just kinda meh and not nearly as fun as go karts on tracks at home. 

[RB9643]

1 hour ago, njsmom said:

Definitely try them once before getting the pass. Even if you like them it would be difficult to ride them enough to get your money back from the pass. 

 

Will do. I believe a 7-day pass is $199, which would be twice a day, every day. Too much. However, if it's steeply discounted on a 21-day, it might be worth it. We'll see.

 

[MaryZ]

We love the Oasis class ships with kids.  We don't bother taking our grandkids on NCL. 

Royal offers so much more for kids.  We are leaving in a few days on the Oasis with family.

 

I would pick Icon over the Joy.  Just the fact that it's a brand new ship completely and absolutely geared to kids of all ages is why I'd choose it. 


 

[Sigyn]

2 hours ago, MaryZ said:

We love the Oasis class ships with kids.  We don't bother taking our grandkids on NCL. 

Royal offers so much more for kids.  We are leaving in a few days on the Oasis with family.

 

I would pick Icon over the Joy.  Just the fact that it's a brand new ship completely and absolutely geared to kids of all ages is why I'd choose it. 


 

I'm sure it all depends on what the kids like to do. My son loves to surf, scuba dive and go boardsailing, but it turned out the Flowriders on Harmony didn't interest him much. He finally did them the last day and said they were fun, but I picked the ship in part because it had two Flowriders and he loves water sports. Yet, he did it once for a half hour. Same with all the slides on Harmony. Once each. My son and his friends were more about walking around, hanging out, sitting in the hot tub, sitting in the lounge with virgin drinks and feeling more grown up than they actually are, and going to the outdoor parties in the evenings and watching the adults act ridiculous. 😂

[BunnyHutt]

We’ve got 2 teenage boys (15 and 17) and would absolutely choose the private space over the public amenities. It’s a spring break cruise - there will still be kids on the ship. Your son will absolutely appreciate the extra space as well, trust me!

[mjkacmom]

9 hours ago, njsmom said:

I'm sure it all depends on what the kids like to do. My son loves to surf, scuba dive and go boardsailing, but it turned out the Flowriders on Harmony didn't interest him much. He finally did them the last day and said they were fun, but I picked the ship in part because it had two Flowriders and he loves water sports. Yet, he did it once for a half hour. Same with all the slides on Harmony. Once each. My son and his friends were more about walking around, hanging out, sitting in the hot tub, sitting in the lounge with virgin drinks and feeling more grown up than they actually are, and going to the outdoor parties in the evenings and watching the adults act ridiculous. 😂

As a parent of 5 I agree, my kids loved to meet others, sit in hot tubs, and eat for free.

[graphicguy]

This is a no brainer.  $6K for the Haven Cabin vs $7K for a balcony Cabin on Royal?  Haven  Restaurant, Butler, Concierges, Haven Bar…..etc.

 

Joy has lots for your son to do…..Laser Tag, Go-CArts, Galaxian Pavilion, great shows.  

 

Easy decision!