colesc15

Forgot to take some pictures, but went to the casino for a bit, turned my $500of free play into like $536 of real money, then went to the windy J for dinner. I wish every windjammer in the royal fleet had the selection and quality as icon.. You can definitely tell they allow for more money into their big money maker. Food was delicious and so many good desserts. I normally skip dessert on Royal because they usually suck, not today lol.

Can't beat a Miami sailaway

I'm excited to try all the new bars and new bar drinks. The "oh Mai gawd" today at Hideaway was delicious.

Understandable. I love music so this has been my vibe. We've been here all afternoon and loving the view.

I must have said to my wife at least a million times today already how lucky we are to be on this ship sailing comped through the casino. I actually got goosebumps a few times. We've been at Hideaway the last few hours enjoying the water and view with it being as hot outside as it is.

I feel like they took a lot of what people loved on oasis and implemented it with a twist. I will say so far, icon blows oasis class out of the water. The Hideaway is to die for

The feels like temp is a little over 100 here and I thought for sure the overlook would be hot, but the ac is working great.

Just doing some wondering and everything is so different compared to oasis class.

First impressions. Wow. I can see where all of Royals cuts are going, the windjammer on icon lol.

It's Icon day! We've stayed here at the Hyatt place miami airport east before. Close to the airport and always clean, and love using points for the room. They didn't have any king rooms left when we got here, so wife and I got our own queen beds, love it! Enjoyed their complementary hot breakfast (in Miami, rare), now hanging out in the room for a bit and heading to the ship around 10:30 or so.

Hi everyone. I wasn't going to do a live trip report, and I still may not keep it very live, but, currently in the air on the way down to Miami via Delta. We board icon tomorrow and we can't wait! I'll try to keep it live as much as possible, but, new ship and all, I may lose track of updating continuously. A little about us.. My wife and I are in our 30s, no kids, and recently turned Diamond Plus this year. We make full use of Royals casino program. We cruise as much as possible. I believe we have 8 cruises booked through the casino for 2024, from. Icon, to Wonder, to Utopia b2b late August. This cruise, we're in an oceanview balcony from the casino program fully comped with I believe $500 in free play. We likely won't play much in the casino this trip just because of so much more going on to experience. Pictures and more will start tomorrow! We're so excited for this ship! We also have Empire Supper club booked for night 4. Let's go!!

I submitted my Royal status of diamond plus to Virgin. We'll see if that does anything

We've always been onboard Royal ships by 11 am or so, but it appears boarding is later for virgin? What's the earliest people generally board?

Is 8am generally the earliest?

Hi. First time cruising virgin. We normally carry off our luggage on Royal and many times are off the ship and through everything by 7-7:30. Assuming no unusual coastguard delays/clearing the ship, is there a similar process in virgin when we can carry our luggage off and be off the ship by 7-7:30? Thanks.

Hi all. Considering our first virgin cruise. If I book one, and do the status match after the fact using our royal caribbean status, will the status match still work and I'd get the perks for that already booked cruise, or do I have to do the match before booking? Thanks.

Has anyone used Port Canaveral quick shuttle? I found them online and reviews seem decent on Google but not so much on trip advisor. It looks like $40 pp for one way

To piggy back off this since it'll be our first b2b, since we have the same cabin, after doing the quick walk off and back on, even though cabins aren't open, since we have the same one, do we still have access to our cabin throughout the morning even though the hallway doors are closed until 1?

It never fails lol. I hate when the category you're booked in is sold out because then you're at the mercy of what they're telling you vs doing the math. My 4 day was the $60 each and the 3 day, my interior was higher than the Ov balcony so he originally told me I couldn't upgrade unless it was more expensive but I knew that wasn't correct and finally got him to confirm like 3 times that I'll have the same cabin before he starts making changes. I wasn't 100% confident until I got my two invoices showing the 0 balance and same cabin number.

I swear, if you call the casino 4 times for pricing, you'll get 4 different prices and you just have to take the one that you like lol.

Circling back. I called a bit ago to check the upgrade pricing since my interior category is sold out and the only way to check is by calling the casino.. I was able to upgrade to an oceanview balcony midship near the elevator where I picked the cabin number for BOTH the 4 night and 3 night sailing getting the same cabin for a total of $61 a person.. So $122 to go from an interior to oceanview balcony in the same cabin for the full 7 days. I couldn't pass that one up! A week on utopia only paying port fees and taxes and the $122, yes please!

I think unless the price drops enough where we can pick our cabin, which then I can pick the same Ov balcony for both, we'll stay with what we have. If we used the balcony more than a few minutes each day I'd be more pushing for the change but

Yes, it'd be a oceanview balcony. And no obstructed oceanview view balconies on any oasis class ships

Agreed! We found ourselves using the balcony less and less, and loved how dark and cool the interior cabin was. We randomly had the virtual balcony on Wonder last month and that felt like a nice in between because I could at least see what it was like outside at any time instantly.

Decisions decisions. I was shocked my wife and I didn't hate the interior our first time after 20 cruises of balcony or above