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Guest Post by Laura Disher Gibson
Now that the sun has set on that amazing cruise I wanted to share a couple of final thoughts. My husband and I as well as his cousin and her husband (in our late 40s to late 50s) joined the Inaugural cruise on the Icon of the Seas with stops in Perfect Day at Coco Cay; St. Thomas and St. Kitts.
First of all, we have cruised about a dozen times but never on Royal Caribbean. Jason Mace suggested it and we thought why not? Several months after we booked our cousins decided to join us as well!
What made the ship exceptional? All the staff on our sailing was experienced and picked to be on the cruise so top notch! I dropped a donut one morning in the windjammer and before I could BEND my knees someone was picking it up!
Food options (and included) were a plenty…..fast service at surfside; the nachos for a mid afternoon snack; the option 247 at the Pearl but I’d be remiss if I didn’t say Windjammer was the best buffet we’ve had at sea and the dining room food and staff were amazing!! My fav meal was the escargot; lamb and cheese plate in the main dining room. Our service there was amazing…they had 16 guests per sitting and looked after you!
The shows were TOP notch…Wizard of Oz wouldn’t be my first pick to see but it was Mirvish quality and the aqua show and ice show BLEW me away!
AND 7 pools people…each with a different vibe; food and drink option! I only tried 3 of them and they were great. The adult only was always super crowded as was the swim up bar but the water was a decent temperature to enjoy!
New elevators were great! Pick your floor they tell you the elevator to go to. Other than our disembarkment day it was never crowded or an issue.
We did self-disembarkment (as we always do) and we got a shuttle from the port to Miami airport for $10 per person. We were at the airport by 9 am. Apparently the buffet closed at 8:30 but we went to eat around 7am and were off the ship (quickly) by 8am so didn’t encounter this.
For excursions, we wandered around CocoCay and enjoyed lunch and a relax at South Beach. In St. Kitts, we booked a tour when we got there for $38US per person. It was OK. The view of the beaches and the banana daiquiri were great. We did the catamaran and 2 island tour with Royal at St. Thomas and while it was a bit disorganized at the beginning the tour guides and boat staff were amazing! We say a lot of St Thomas and Nevis and the catamaran with free drinks was a blast!
Downside was felt a bit nickled and dimed – $30 a day US for internet is crazy; burgers were a charge at the deck 15 restaurant but not at the surfside dinner or on the buffet? Dress code was not enforced at all in the Dining room (lots of men in shorts and lots of people with ball caps and tshirts on) – if you don’t want to dress up eat at Windjammers….My husband even asked and the staff just shrugged their shoulders.
Questions I’ve been asked by family and friends since we’ve been back:
Was it hard to get around? Did you get lost? NO we found after the first day it was pretty easy to navigate. Our room was on the 8th deck between surfside and Central Park (AFT) so it was pretty easy.
Was it crowded? How was embarkment/ports/disembarkment? NO, but we were lucky as it was at 80% capacity. It was less than 15 minutes from when we walked in the door to when we got on the ship (we went at our assigned 1 pm time) with no wait and a few checkpoints. In St Kitts, we had an excursion booked.
Any questions? What did I miss? Now where to next…..
Ready to book your ICON(ic) vacation? Contact one of our travel advisors for more information.
Vacations for Canadians
102 Lovers Lane, Ancaster, ON, L9G 1G7
289-812-2355
TICO #50027364
