RedIguana

The draught is slightly over 30 feet, compared to about 27 for the Zaandam. Keeping the draught to less than 31 feet is pretty normal, as much past that restricts more and more ports. They do that by increasing the width, which allows for greater displacement without the extra draught. The larger and wider ships will also handle rough seas better, especially if they can stay above the 6-8 knot speed required for stabilizers to start being effective, which serves to dampen the roll. Obviously you will undergo more motion on the higher decks. Long and skinny is built for speed and/or fuel efficiency, such as the original ocean liners, as they were meant for transportation at a time when engines did not have the amount of horsepower they can now produce. Modern cruise ships are less concerned with speed and more with passenger comfort, as long as they have the horsepower to achieve roughly 20-22 knot cruise speed and 23-25 knot max. The icon is only 10 feet longer and 3 feet wider than the newest Oasis class ship (Wonder), and 15 feet longer and 5 feet wider than the original Oasis from 2009. Wonder actually has a greater double occupancy capacity than Icon, and the original Oasis is just a few passengers shy of the Icon at double occupancy. The big difference is in the design that allows for a much greater max occupancy (500 more than Wonder and 900 more than the original Oasis).

10 night on Princess departing May 22nd 2023 was easily over double occupancy

The coastal cruise would have to end in Canada to not violate the PVSA. It most likely ends in Vancouver, and if the ship is needed for cruises out of Seattle, would have another short cruise from Vancouver to Seattle.

Under my account there is a booking tab where you can see multiple bookings, but I believe you can only access the most current one.

Try MSC without the Yacht Club, then you are on a budget line.

HAL is still on the upper end of the mass market lines, along with Celebrity and Princess. There is no way you can compare HAL to a budget line such as MSC or Costa. And if you think the penny pinching is bad on HAL, check out what has happened to Celebrity and Princess. They both also have upcharges for a lot of drinks on their lower packages, and Celebrity has upcharges for drinks on their premium package that are covered under HAL's. Decoy cab on HAL is covered by the premium package (14.50, package covers to 15), on Celebrity it is a $2.36 upcharge ($19, package covers to $17).

Somehow that "unused OBC" becomes "unopened Scotch" the evening before disembarkation

From HAL's website: Specialty Dining is based on cruise duration and ship type. For 6- to 9-day cruises, guests will receive one night at Pinnacle Grill, Canaletto or Tamarind. For ships without Tamarind, guests will receive one night at Pinnacle Grill or Canaletto. For 10- to 20-day cruises, guests will receive two nights: one night at Pinnacle Grill and one night at Canaletto or Tamarind. For ships without Tamarind, guests will receive two nights: one night at Pinnacle Grill and one night at Canaletto. For 21+ day cruises (excluding Grand Voyages), guests will receive three nights: one night at Pinnacle Grill, one night at Tamarind and one night at Canaletto. For ships without Tamarind, guests will receive three nights: two nights at Pinnacle Grill and one night at Canaletto. Offer excludes Specialty Dining events in Pinnacle Grill such as Rudi’s Sel de Mer, A Taste of De Librije and Cellar Master Dinner. Reservations and dining times will be available to pre-reserve. My next 2 cruises are on the Nieuw Statendam, a 7 night (a month away) and a 14 night (over 6 months away), so the ship has a Pinnacle grill and Tamarind. Pinnacle grill is not available to book using have it all on either of my cruises (already booked up?), but Tamarind is available on both. My invoice does not show the included restaurants, just that I have it, but it is a TA invoice, not direct from HAL. Under the have it all, it says 2 results, but only has Tamarind available for both sailings. So HAL is being really consistently inconsistent, or more website/app glitches.

The Icon may have a listed space ratio of 44.32, but in reality will sail with a space ratio under 36. HAL's ships are much more likely to sail fairly close to the calculated space ratio. I do agree with you though as far as how well RCI's large ships handle the passenger flow considering the passenger numbers, and do enjoy the Oasis class. Somewhere back in the day I saw something about 35 being the magical space ratio. Under it will feel crowded, over 35 all is good.

Icon is listed as 5610 passengers double occupancy, and 7600 maximum capacity. Crew is listed as 2350. So 2.39:1 at double occupancy, up to 3.23:1 for maximum. From wiki. Curiously double occupancy on Icon is less than Wonder of the seas (5734), and roughly the same as the other Oasis class ships. It is the maximum capacity that is greater by 500-600 passengers over the Oasis class. The Oasis class added about 10k gross tons between Oasis and Wonder, and Wonder is only about 12k gross tons less than Icon, vs the 22k gross ton difference from Oasis. These numbers and speculation is based on wikipedia.

Most cruises have a 7 night segment. If he had started "Free Bird" mid-cruise, mot of the passengers would be disembarking before the song was over🤪

The thing I really miss from Royal Caribbean that I wish PG had is the peppercorn pork belly.....

A simplified version of the Key West cruise ship saga. Key West tried to shut off cruise stops to ships with greater than 750 total capacity. Florida passed a law prohibiting this. Key West responded by not allowing ships at the piers they control, which is 2 of the 3, after the person in control of the privately run pier threatened to sue. So only one pier (pier B) is open for cruise stops. Since many of these itineraries are planned a few years out, scheduling conflicts over 1 pier may not be known when published. If you want to know if an itinerary actually has a berth for Key West, check the schedule at Caribe Nautical. They are the ships agents for Key West. Obviously this excludes cancellations due to weather or winds. I've made the Key West stop on 2 of the 3 cruises with Key West on the itinerary since the restart. The one I missed I was not expecting the ship to make the port, as it was not on Caribe Nautical's schedule, the ones that made port were on the schedule. @Haljo1935, I just realized you will be on my march cruise. When you see the mid fifties gentleman (I may be using that term loosely) in the black Kangol hat with his early 20's daughter, wearing quite unusual, but different, shirts, please say hi!

Update as requested. After not hearing anything by Jan 31st, I went to the Sheerid website and under the help section was an option to resend the E-mail. I clicked that, and had the E-mail in seconds. This morning I called HAL, and they were able to apply the AARP credit to both my bookings this year. My assumption is that there was a glitch sending the E-mail, and neither myself or HAL received it, and it went to both of us on the resend. The agent was also able to confirm my shareholder OBC was on the reservation. So all is good for my March cruise. On a side note, after about a week of the stock perks app showing I owned 100 shares, the redeem button became usable. Since I have already obtained the OBC the old way for my March cruise, I have not tried it out. I will try it for my August cruise after the board re-authorizes it this year (I assume they will). Thanks to everyone who has posted their experiences and tips here, you all make this site a cornucopia of information. The call this morning lasted a grand total of 15 minutes and 20 seconds.

I have 5096 on the Nieuw Statendam for the 14 night Norway/Scotland in August/September this year. That balcony is worth more than a standard vista suite balcony, and is a no brainer compared to the limited extra square feet in the angled. My opinion anyway.

Ok, let me know if I've figured this out. If you press your floor 10-12 times you get a private elevator so no one will abscond with your wine bottle?

There appears to be quite a few teachers and families on my upcoming March 7 night Caribbean. Just the number of under 18's from maybe 50 posters on that site that shall not be named appears to be more than I had on a March 2022 cruise on the whole ship. I will be traveling with my college daughter (spring cruise for us appears to be becoming a tradition), but I have no intention of letting college students interfere with my drinking 😈

Now if they would let the new hire revamp the app all would be good. Maybe they can have the new hire reconfigure the Princess app for HAL. Glad everyone's accounts are being fixed!

I'll give everything a few more weeks, then call again. The issues appear to be delays with their third party verifiers, if it doesn't get caught up in the next few weeks I will be on the phone with them to attempt to get them to manually input the verifications and credits. Everyone here has been great listing their experiences, helpful advice, and phone numbers to use!

Oh yeah adults can play. Team A drinks if you land on an even floor, Team B drinks if you land on an odd floor. Introducing Elevator Pong! Fun for all those over 21! 😈

In this case I used the HAL email for the OBC, not stockperks, and have received the admonishing letter. My medical/first responder OBC is not showing up yet either, although that is on one of the invoices from my TA. My AARP is also in limbo, as they (as of phone call yesterday) seem to be waiting on verification, which I applied for 2-3 days before I booked, and seemed to show up on a mock booking as verified, but still have not received a verification e-mail (18-19 days now). It will all work out I am sure. Last year on Princess some of the stock OBC was coming through within hours of applying via the E-mail.

I'm not sure you have to blame the kids. Somehow I can picture a slightly inebriated lizard pushing multiple combinations of numbers just to see how the system works. Or just trying to figure out where it is said lizard really wants to go 🤣

Elite on Celebrity will be diamond on Royal. 4 vouchers per passenger that has the status. Cabin mates do not share status. However, you should be able to link your wife to your account, and she will now have the same status as you.

Silly AI. Making the assumption I know where I want to go and can remember how to get there 🤪.

How far out is your cruise? My March 10th is not showing there yet, but it was approved only 8-9 days ago.