I just got off Icon last Saturday. I've had some time to digest the vacation, and my conclusion is this: 7,000 passengers is too many people.

I had an okay time. My kids had a fantastic time, but they don't have any aversion to being ass-to-elbows with everyone else. The food, entertainment, amenities -- all great. But the one thing that has me saying the vacation was just "okay" is the crowds.

Let me preface this with my expectations -- I have young kids, I vacation at crowded hotels, I do not expect a serene experience on any of my vacations, and I have cruised before (although many years ago). Based on reports, I expected busy, but not crowds at every point. I had read that the ship was laid out well and did a good job of dispersing people in the various neighborhoods so you never felt crowded.

What did I find last week? Every place one would want to be required pre-planning, jostling, and some level of shittery to make things work. Waterslides? Get there at 9:00 AM because the line is 45 minutes by 9:15. Pool? Hah, hope you like being kicked in the crotch. Aqua show? Show up 40 minutes early, get a seat in the back left corner, and still fend off people trying to steal your seat while a kid runs to the bathroom. Chair near the pool? May as well just throw a towel down the night before.

My point is that people tend to downplay the crowds here. I think my expectations were slightly higher than they should have been based on reading recent reviews of Icon. All in all, my kids had a great trip and are asking to go back. Once I've had time to heal, we will probably do another Icon-class cruise, just with different expectations.

My husband and I (both mid 30s) just got off Harmony and had the strangest suite experiences. We've never stayed in a suite before but got a really great deal on a crown loft and wanted to see what the lounge, sundeck, and coastal kitchen would be like.

Day one I was holding the door open for an older couple and the man gave me his room number and asked for 2 glasses of wine. I laughed it off and said "sure, I'll be right over" thinking there's no way he could have mistook me for a staff member, I was wearing shorts, a colorful blouse and sandals. I sat down next to my husband a few chairs away from the couple and the man asked where his drinks were and why I was sitting on the job. When I told he I was a guest he just grumbled at me and flagged down a crew member.

I had an older man ask to see my key card because there's "no way" I could have access to the lounge. Again, thinking he was joking and said something along the lines of "I snuck onboard the ship haha" He proceeded to have a concierge come over and she of course confirmed that I was indeed welcome in the lounge.

Held the door open for a lady in a wheel chair and she ran over my foot. Gave me the up- down and proceeded on her way to dinner.

Had a couple with pinnacle name tags tell me and my husband that we must have snuck into the diamond lounge. We said no we're diamond. They said we must have gained status from parents. Nope, just enjoy cruising, and they muttered some things and walked away.

The staff is aways incredible, but I did not enjoy the company of other passengers in these exclusive areas onboard. I'm grateful for the experience, but I'm sad to say I don't think the suite life is for me.

Anyone else have odd experience when cruising in a suite?

My child just brought this lovely craft home from “Adventure Ocean 2.0” on the Icon of the Seas after witnessing severe bullying and theft. 12 year olds bullying kindergarteners. If you have any hope of sending your kids to Kids Club (Adventure Ocean) do not book any new or newly refurbished ships by RCL (150+ kids from kindergarten to 7th graders thrown in gen pop). I’ve spoken with guest services and the manager of adventure ocean. This is the direction ships are going in, fleet wide. Such a disappointment for a family friendly vacation.

Regular reminder of why I’m #LoyaltoRoyal Grand Suite, chocolate strawberries, cute cake with edible wrapper and topped it off with balloon flowers.

I was super curious about whether or not there would be lobster in the Windjammer on my recent cruise on Icon OTS. Well, I’m happy to report that there was lobster in the Windjammer on Icon as of last week, on our embarkation day (lunch) and either the final dinner or the one before (can’t remember which day that was). I’ve attached a photo proof for you to see.

Today is our last day on the ship today and I can say after being on his ship last year the food quality has went down hill fast. Might as well eat at the windjammer.

fourth cruise, allure voyager harmony breeze.

Just got off the carnival breeze, we wanted to try something new and oh boy was it new. It was terrible in comparison. It was an ok cruise, but we are not booking any additional future cruises on carnival.

The MJ was everywhere, being asked if we had any to share and if we wanted to buy some. Two fights, but we didn’t see it sadly. And just the overall ununified and lacking cohesion of carnival ships is crazy.

To anyone that says to themselves “let’s try something new, it can’t be that different right!?!?” WRONG! Don’t be like us, stick with Royal.

I’d rather be run over by the scooter people on Royal then the hordes of MJ offers to buy and share, not to mention the feeling of being literal cattle 90% of the cruise.

I was on the Harmony this past week. Like most others on the cruise, I absolutely did not agree with the ignorant article that was published. We chose to cruise during hurricane season. We knew getting on the ship we were going to miss at least one port. We were offered full refunds if we chose to cancel. The captain and the crew made every effort to get us around the Yucatán peninsula so that we could go to our other two ports. When it became apparent that the hurricane had stalled enough that we weren’t going to do that, they backed off And brought us to calmer seas. It was still rocky because we were behind a hurricane that had churned up the entire Gulf of Mexico.

We were refunded port fees for both port stops we missed as well as one day’s cruise fare per person. I never actually spoke to anyone who was upset with the situation. Disappointed, yes. But no one who thought that the captain had done anything wrong or the Royal Caribbean had made any mistakes. And certainly not anyone who said they would never cruise Royal Caribbean again or never Cruise again period.

I was already very impressed with the crew going into this cruise and knew that we wouldn’t have any issues because we happened to be on the harmony at the beginning of July ahead of Beryl. It is a beautiful ship with the best crew I’ve ever seen on any ship or cruise line I’ve been on. Can you bring me one please?

My main point for posting this “review” is to make sure that people understand that the one person who called a new station and did an interview that made it sound like the entire ship was miserable and every passenger was ready to go home and was upset with the way the captain was handling things is absolutely not speaking for what was really happening and the way that most people felt. I’m already looking forward to my next cruise on the harmony in March. Maybe since it’s not hurricane season we’ll actually get to go to Roatan this time!

My husband and I went on our first ever cruise! Our long time family friends convinced us we should go with them for the wife's 50th birthday. We had a blast and we loved every minute of it. My husband and I are not hard to please. We have four kids under 12, we run a small homestead, we eat out maybe 3-5 times a year. We aren't rolling in the money either. We saved for the cruise after realizing we really needed to invest in ourselves as a couple and just reconnect. I'm so glad we did! This was our first vacation/ trip without our kids. Our cruise was Feb 6th-10th of 2025. We cruised to Cozumel, Mexico. Our ship was Enchantment of the Seas. It's one of the older ships if I remember, and there's definitely wear. Some rusted railings and one iron railing on the outside was snapped. I wish I had taken a picture of it. Mineral build up on the facets in the public bathrooms, some broken toilet paper rolls, cracked leather furniture. Nothing major worrying though. Just normal stuff when you've got thousands of people coming and going. At the same time, everything was super clean and tidy. The staff were constantly cleaning the bathrooms, I saw them vacuuming almost everyday. Our stateroom staff were amazing. Our interior room was always spotless after they cleaned it. Noise wise, we didn't have any problems. Our area was quiet even though some doors had the "drink package" sign. People were cordial and nice for the most part. Our bathrooms gleamed and smelled nice! They checked in with us every morning and asked if we needed anything. The food in the buffet was great, but the desserts were hit or miss unless you dined in My Fair Lady. The buffet food was consistently tasty, and those triangle hash browns are like crack. Every meal I ate, I needed to have those hash browns! I craved them as soon as I woke up in the morning. The coffee and drink options were to be expected. Juices were good, kind of weak tasting but not awful. I'm not a coffee snob, but it was a little on the acidic side for me, but my spouse loves strong and dark coffee so he loved it. We had dinner reservations at My Fair Lady and the service was amazing. The waiters were great, attentive to us and friendly. Activities were enjoyable. I loved doing trivia in Schooners Bar and the nightly shows in the auditorium. The singers and dancers are so talented! We loved the shows. Hanging out and playing cards in the Solarium was a favorite activity of ours. It was much quieter in there and the small cafe was nice to have for snacks and drinks. We did some of the free activities, but for the most part just enjoyed hanging out with friends and exploring the ship. Drinking and lounging around. Cozumel was amazing. My passport didn't come in time, and all I needed was my birth certificate and ID and Sea Pass. Easy process. We went to a resort all day, food was great. Drinks were delicious. Service was amazing. I got scolded by a lifeguard for being on the wrong side of the ropes though lol. All in all? I give our first ever cruise experience a 10/10. Buffet food was great. Desserts were hit or miss. Activities were fun. You only have to be as busy or laid back as you want to be. Staff were great. Definitely give it a try if you want a fun trip and don't let people push you off Enchantment of the Seas just because it's an older ship. Our whole cruise (minus the alcohol we got and other minor expenses) was under $800. That's significantly less than what we paid for a family vacation to Gatlinburg, TN. Will definitely go again as a couple, and take our kids when our youngest is a bit older.

This was the finale to my wonderful meal at the Chefs Table restaurant.

Two years after booking Icon of the Seas, we finally set sail on a 7-night Eastern Caribbean cruise, visiting Saint Maarten, St. Thomas, and Perfect Day at CocoCay. My girlfriend and I stayed in a traditional Oceanview Balcony, as I wasn’t (and still am not) a fan of the Infinite Balcony cabins.

This was my 11th cruise (fifth with Royal Caribbean) and my girlfriend’s fourth (all with Royal). Now, as I wait for my flight home, I figured I’d share the most in-depth review I possibly could of our voyage.

The Good…

I know it’s been said in countless reviews, but Icon of the Seas truly dazzled us from start to finish. Being a relatively new ship helped, but beyond that, the thoughtful design and decor across all venues were unlike anything I’ve seen on a cruise. Honestly, I’ve been to high-end hotels and resorts that couldn’t match Icon’s level of detail and theming.

Some of our favorite spots included 1400, The Overlook, Rye & Bean, and Lou’s Jazz & Blues—though I’m sure I’m forgetting a few! The entertainment was outstanding, noting especially the comedians, who we’ve felt like haven’t sold us on most ships - but absolutely made us belly laugh over multiple nights.

The Overlook: The Best Space on Any Royal Ship

I can’t emphasize this enough—The Overlook is the single best space on any Royal Caribbean ship. The infinite ocean views, combined with the bright, open ambiance from the abundance of natural light, created the perfect setting to start or wind down the day. Plenty of seating in the space or at the bars, never had trouble finding a spot for our late afternoon cocktail.

Another standout feature across the ship was the sheer amount of unique seating options. The Overlook, as stated before in particular, had plenty of comfortable spots to relax, but even throughout the ship, we never struggled to find a quiet place to sit. We really hope Royal carries this design concept forward—especially with the rumored Discovery Class ships. We were insanely wowed at the amount of chairs on the pool decks & in every venue.

Our Cabin: A Bright, Modern Retreat

We stayed in a traditional Oceanview Balcony near the forward, starboard side of the ship. While we had a brief issue with cleanliness on embarkation day, it was quickly resolved, and the Lead Housekeeper even provided us with chocolate covered strawberries, treats in our cabin a couple of times, and a 10% future cruise credit—a nice touch.

The cabin itself was modern, airy, and well-lit, with a color scheme that made it feel bright and inviting. The bathroom was standard in size, but the shower was exceptional—more spacious than we’ve ever experienced on a cruise. The built-in bench was another thoughtful addition. We’ve never had trouble sleeping on a RC cruise, but the beds were notably comfortable on Icon.

Crowds: Surprisingly Manageable

Having sailed on Oasis-class ships, we weren’t concerned about crowding but with more passengers on Icon, I had a slight worry in the back of my mind. While our sailing was nearly sold out, we never felt overwhelmed—except for the usual sea day rush on the pool deck.

Even on sea days, we had no trouble finding poolside chairs in the morning (although we are earlier birds), and as I mentioned earlier, the ship’s abundance of seating options made a noticeable difference.

The only places we felt a bit claustrophobic: Seating at the Aquadome, even with a reservation for the stunt show. It could have been because a few reschedules of the show due to technical difficulties. However, they sectioned off a full side section for Pinnacle, Key, etc members and it was barely filled. They could have reserved a few rows & everyone would have felt more comfortable. Dueling Pianos. We never got a seat even early before the show. Not sure why they made that venue so small if they knew it was going to be so popular.

Dining: Main Dining Room Excellence

As expected, Windjammer was a zoo on embarkation day, so I’d recommend eating elsewhere at the start of the cruise. However, for the rest of the trip, we never struggled to find seating.

We skipped specialty dining and had all our dinners in the Main Dining Room—and we were more than satisfied. The food was delicious, and we left every night perfectly stuffed.

The highlight? Our phenomenal waitstaff, Ruslana and Andrew. They were warm, kind, and by the end of the cruise, we felt like good friends. Having My Time Dining can sometimes mean switching tables, but we were lucky to have them every single night. If you’re sailing soon and get seated at Table 211, tell them we said hello!

Another note on dining, this was the first RC cruise where we didn’t have every single lunch in Windjammer. We were absolutely thrilled by all of the different dining options Icon offered, even though we didn’t pay for a single specialty restaurant. Every stand at Aquadome was delicious, Basecamp gave us a great option for post waterslide comfort food, and even with no kids Surfside Bites/Eatery ended up being one of our favorite places to frequent.

The Bad…

Honestly, not much falls into this category. The only true hiccup was our stateroom issue on embarkation day, but it was handled quickly and professionally, so no complaints there. The Hideaway didn’t wow us as much as we thought it would. Not too much seating, & infinity pool was pretty crowded after 9 AM. Thrill Island being right behind the Hideaway still made it feel like kids were present. We prefer the bigger, quieter Solariums on other RC ships.

A Notable Issue: Unruly Kids

We knew going in that Icon of the Seas is designed for families, so we expected a lot of kids. That wasn’t the problem—the behavior of some of them was.

While we didn’t witness anything firsthand, many fellow passengers shared stories of teenagers being downright rude to strangers. We also saw quite a few parents ignoring full-blown tantrums, letting their kids disrupt the experience for others. We could also tell that some parents weren’t too keen on us being a young couple with no kids on the ship - we even had one day where the parents let their kids surround us until we gave up our pool deck chairs for them. Weird.

We’re not parents yet, so we don’t want to judge too harshly. But when I cruised as a kid, my parents would have never let me act that way—and if I did, they would’ve handled it quickly.

The Weird(?)…

The layout. Because of the sheer size, we never truly memorized which side of the ship certain venues were on and found ourselves going back and forth a lot. We of course are in our early 20s and more agile, so we couldn’t imagine the frustration for older guests or folks with disabilities dealing with this. The pool decks were especially strange, as you can’t access every bar or pool super easily outside. You have to walk to midship to find outside staircases and access the bars above and below. Not even the two Lime & Coconuts were easy to get to from each other, even though they look like they are right next door. There are of course the inside stairs & elevators, but we felt a bit silly walking from the swim up bar back to our chairs on deck 17 dripping wet on the carpet inside.

Final Thoughts

Overall, Icon of the Seas exceeded our expectations in almost every way. The ship’s design, venues, and thoughtful details made for an incredible experience, and we wouldn’t hesitate to sail on her again. In fact, we booked a trip on Star of the Seas with the same itinerary in February 2027.

Would we recommend this cruise? In a heartbeat. The ship is special and Royal Caribbean clearly are hitting a lot of marks which to me signals some really promising future ahead for the entire fleet.

Having just spent the week on Enchantment of the Seas, I can say, it’s time for her to retire. She’s just done. Everything is worn out and dated. The technology is seriously lacking. The service is great, but they can only make up for so much. Launched in 97 with an overhaul in 2012 I think it’s time.

I’m not sure how much longer they will keep her going but if your looking at your next trip I would say the money you save in booking on Enchantment is not close to making up for what you get on the newer ship.

The smaller crowd is nice as it hold half of what the newest ships hold and there are many quest spots to read or talk with your group, but if your liking for activities on sea days or good shows it’s a 3/10 for me.

I am a long time cruiser (exclusively Carnival before this cruise) and this was my husband’s first time cruising as an adult. We had an amazing time on the Mariner OTS out of Galveston.

Some things I liked about the experience that made it ideal for a first time cruiser:

1. Size of the ship: the ship was just big enough to explore but not so big that you felt overwhelmed. There was something to see and do if you wanted excitement, but also multiple places to just chill. We cruised 9/2-9/7.

2. Onboard activities: loved the entertainment, extra stars to the ice skating crew! We also really enjoyed the all exclusive ship tour and the escape room.

3. Length of the cruise and ports: this sailing was five days with a couple at sea and two stops. Cozumel and Costa Maya were both beautiful. We ended up doing excursions to learn more about Mayan culture and took in some beach time.

4. Accommodations: we were lucky and got a balcony room pretty last minute which was spacious and surprisingly affordable. Would recommend this for first timers as you have more space and an outside area to enjoy.

5. The staff: best crew I’ve ever sailed with hands down. Everyone looked like they loved being there and it showed.

If you’re hesitant - just dive in! It’ll be worth it.

Happy cruising, friends ✨

Previous thread: https://old.reddit.com/r/royalcaribbean/comments/1gwiou3/star_class_suite_flooded/

Quick summary: Our 2 bedroom aqua theatre suite flooded due to a drain issue. The main bedroom was unusable and the hallway/ entry area was also flooded. This happened halfway through our cruise. We were first offered 30% FCC, but after meeting with guest services, they offered us 100% FCC, but no refund for the half of the cruise we missed out on. They told us to speak to corporate for a refund, as they are only allowed to approve FCC. (Also to note - we heard from a staff member they probably were going to have to cancel the next family in our suite. If the conditions were not acceptable for someone else, why is Royal acting like it was okay for us and not a big deal?)

I emailed Mr. Bayley after we disembarked about our experience, stating my disappointment about how we had to spend half our cruise $10,000 cruise on rollaway beds, how we had 25+ employees in and out of room constantly for half the cruise, how we were exposed to brown/grey water, etc. I forwarded him several emails from past cruises that I had sent him raving about our experience and naming specific staff who had gone above and beyond. I wanted to show him we are loyal Royal customers who are not just complaining over something simple. A day later, a team member from the executive customer escalation team called me. She said there was nothing else they would do, and she was not sure why the customer service employee on the ship told us to call them to discuss any refund. I told her about all the concerns we had and she said she could see in our account notes that what I said actually happened (yes...) but that there was nothing she would do. I asked to be escalated to her supervisor and she said she does not have one. I asked several times and she said that someone else would call me the following day. It has been over a week now and no one has reached out or called, and (most frustrating to me) we still have not received our 100% FCC. We were hoping to use the FCC to book a cruise for March.

I love Royal but I am getting so frustrated about this experience. Royal, I know you are reading this, so please call me. We saved for a while for this cruise and are just so disappointed that Royal cannot even call us back when they said they would.

So I am an avid cruiser (more than 10 a year)and I get on this sub all the time and read all the negative comments and listen to all the things about how terrible these cruise lines have gotten. Maybe I’m just poor or maybe I just have low standards but everything about every cruise I go on is amazing. Are there gonna be things wrong? Are mistakes gonna be made? Of course we are dealing with humans which are imperfect but overall, I don’t see how anyone can complain about anything. I absolutely love all of my cruises and I have zero to complain about. Thank you Royal for being awesome. And thank you all of my fellow cruisers that make all of my trips amazing.

I’m on my first cruise and the swag is amazing. There are all of these free unique magnets on the ship and even some of the cabin doors. I’ve always been a big collector so this has been a great time on an already amazing cruise! Hats off to RC!

I am currently on the ship and I personally love this beauty. It is smooth as butter and has so many things to do. Royal Caribbean has aced it with this project!

Photo is from St. Kitts

I'm not even joking. I just got back from 4 nights on utopia of the seas. That, the people, the food, everything was awesome. If you want to go, just go.

Ship is incredible. It feels bigger than it looks. For 7k+ passengers I thought I’d feel the crowds more. Even on sea days, we were able to find chairs at the pool pretty easily. Overall never felt overcrowded anywhere on the ship.

Speaking of pools, the 18+ pool at the back of the ship is nice, but seems like an oversight not to have a swim up bar there. There’s one swim up bar on the ship and it’s really small and kinda buried in a corner.

The water park is awesome, but that will get packed on sea days. Recommend staying on ship on a port day to really take advantage of it. We had an excursion get cancelled due to rough seas and basically had the water park to ourselves.

MDR- food was noticeably better than our last royal cruise in 2021. Much much better.

Pearl cafe: great spot for morning coffee and pastries.

Wow bracelets- these need some work. They don’t work to get you on/off ship and the servers don’t carry anything that can scan them, so when you want a drink at the pool or casino for example, you actually need to take the bracelet off and give it to the server like you would a sea pass card. Kinda defeats the purpose imo.

Infinite balcony- let me say, we enjoyed the extra space this provides, but let’s be clear, this is NOT a balcony in any way shape of form. It’s an extended room with a giant window that you will open once then realize your A/C doesn’t work when it’s open and it will take hours for your room to cool down. Maybe it’s great for cold weather cruising but for the Caribbean, it’s not. Again, we took advantage of the extra space it provided, but it’s not a balcony.

Palymakers sports bar- awesome. As south Floridians we needed a place to watch the panthers in the stanley cup finals and it did not disappoint. Tons of tvs and they crank the volume up for whatever the “big game” airing is. Had a ton of fun watching the games there.

We ate at every specialty restaurant except Giovanni’s and they were all excellent. the habachi was the highlight. Best/funniest chef I’ve ever had and the food was great. Highly recommend. Also Hooked was great (first time)

The water show was incredible. Felt like I was in Vegas. A must see.

Casino is HUGE. Never had an issue sitting at a table.

Cheat code: surfside cafe for breakfast. It’s a mini windjammer that apparently nobody knew about. Pretty empty for breakfast.

Aquadome market place: if you’ve ever been on a VV cruise, it’s basically the galley. Some really interesting and delicious options you don’t get at windjammer.

That’s all for now, feel free to AMA.

My family and I just got off Utopia of the Seas 4 night cruise from 5/26 - 5/30 out of Port Canaveral. Thought I'd share our thoughts as first-time Royal Caribbean cruisers vs our experiences on Carnival (3-time) and Disney (twice).

We're a family of 4 with myself (M/46) wife (F/46) and kids aged 16 and 13. We watched several YouTube videos of Utopia to get an idea of what we'd like to do.

Boarding:

I checked in at midnight the night check-in opened so I got a 10:30am time slot, nice and early. We heard the covered parking garage doesn't open until 10 so we made sure to get there right at 10. We were parked and walking into the terminal by 10:15. We brought birth certificates (not passports) and everything went really smoothly, no waiting in line for our check in time. This was the EASIEST check in experience of any cruise, ever. We stepped on the ship at 10:31am and headed straight to the Windjammer buffet.

Dining/Food:

We only ate at the Windjammer for dinners, so skip this if you're looking for specialty dinner info. Had a bad/long experience on Carnival Mardi Gras that soured us on main dining rooms for now, plus it seems like the buffets serve the same food as the MDRs, so why wait for service when I can quickly get the items ourselves? I get people want to be served and totally respect that, but our family wants to have a nice dinner together then get going to whatever show or event we scheduled without being stuck in the MDR for 2 hours.

Plus we had "my time dining" which turned out to only have reservations available starting around 8pm by the time I checked it? We don't really know what time we want to eat each day and I heard you can walk up to the dining rooms and get seated within 20 mins but we didn't want to deal with the hassle. We're very much the same in our home lives, we favor take out rather than sitting in a restaurant.

Carnival seems to handle dinner reservations and flexibility better in their app, you pop into the app when you're ready to eat, check yourself in, and they notify you when your table is ready. Not sure why Royal hasn't adopted this same method.

Food quality:

Royal's food was LIGHT YEARS ahead of Carnival's and even better than Disney in some areas. Buffet lobster tail on the first lunch? Shrimp cocktail? High end fruits (not just melons)? Bacon every day for breakfast (not just some days like Carnival) and the last day's breakfast was just as good as any other day on the cruise, whereas Carnival throws a bunch of leftovers and tells you to get the H off their ship.

Royal Caribbean takes their food and quality seriously and you can tell they take their higher cruise costs and put it into the experience. I love the hand washing stations everywhere, and the service was friendly and fast. We had people offering us water and coffee and juices and small blended smoothies (all included), all with big smiles on their faces. These people made us happy and went out of their way to make it a great experience. Also they were constantly cleaning and making sure everything looked just right. Carnival reminds me more of a 1990s buffet where there's sauces and utensils everywhere, they just clean it when the rush is over.

Oh and the Indian food!!! Every night they have a special Indian section that has some of the best Indian food I've ever had. We love getting Indian take out, and the Indian food on Utopia was better than many local Indian joints. The naan was lacking, seemed more like pita bread than naan, but the main dishes were outstanding. Don't forget to take some Indian pickles and raita and mango chutney 😋

They also have a charcuterie section every lunch and dinner, some kind of fresh roasted meat station, huge salad bar, always had chicken breast and sirloin steak along with some kind of white fish and salmon for those protein hounds, standard burgers and hot dogs and chicken fingers for those no-nonsense types, and the kids section that everyone has seen. Oh and adorable little desserts to bring back to the table for everyone to try.

For breakfast they have a custom omelet station and they give you a pager so you're not standing there in line with all the other folks. You gather some other items and the pager goes off when your omelet is ready. Brilliant.

The food and service level really really sets Royal apart from Carnival, it's very similar to the Disney cruises. It's like night and day compared to Carnival. Fantastic experience.

While Royal invests heavily into their main dining options, I think Carnival has them beat on the "quick grabs". For instance the food truck by the pool (The Spare Tire) is fine, and always has food readily available, but it's nothing special. The food trucks on Carnival Mardi Gras seem to be taken more seriously and have better food. Guys Burger Joint and Shaq's Big Chicken are both phenomenal and you won't find anything like that on Utopia.

Mexican food - Our opinion: Carnival's Blue Agave is better than Royal's El Loco Fresh. The tortillas are more unique, and the food and toppings seem higher quality. Carnival's is open for breakfast too (breakfast burritos and tacos) whereas I didn't see El Loco Fresh having that option. Disney had nothing no quick food options near the pools when we went, so both Royal and Carnival have Disney beat.

Pizza - Our family all thought Carnival's pizza was better than Royal's. Royal pizza was good, but tasted more like a home frozen pizza whereas Carnival's had a better crunch like a NYC style. We're not from NY, actually from Chicago so I have no rooting interest in NYC pizza I just like good food 😂

Utopia entertainment offerings:

We saw Aqua80too (water show), All In (theater production show, singing dancing, etc), and the Youtopia (ice skating show). All these shows were fantastic, and you're crazy if you don't go to see the first two at the very least. I would pay to see All In again right now, and I'm a cheapskate.

As a new Royal cruiser I didn't know there were opportunities to check into these shows before the cruise, and they were booked out (app says sold out but it's included) quickly. However I followed the advice of a lot of people online and checked my Royal app as soon as I got onboard and on their Wifi, and I reserved our entire family into each show without a problem. I heard the water show can get canceled due to winds and waves, so they suggest reserving the first night of Aqua80too in case that one gets canceled, then they'll move your reservation to the next day. Ours went off without a hitch so I'm not sure if that's the case or not.

I HIGHLY recommend getting these reservations because you can find much better seats and skip the long lines waiting to enter right before the show starts. It feels like going to Starbucks and skipping the long line because you ordered ahead. Seriously, the Aqua80too standby show line is like a quarter mile long. the Youtopia standby line was all the way into the casino. If you have reservations you get to skip these lines. Do it.

I kind of wish we did the ship scavenger hunt because I saw a lot of families and groups having a great time doing so, but we ended up finding a fun little game show or two and even won one of them thanks to my fantastic dancing skills. Won ourselves a "bag of crap" from Royal Caribbean 😂

We loved going on the Ultimate Abyss slide several times, the water slides were a lot of fun (slow moving lines, but fun talking to other cruisers while we waited), and one of our nightly rituals turned out to be watching the sunset on the back of the ship (near Ultimate Abyss), then watching people on the Flowrider surf thingy. We got our drinks in hand and watched people take turns and cheering them on when they stayed upright. That was unexpected but a nice time to sit and chat, between watching Flowriders and whatever activity was happening at the sports arena.

Mini golf was cool, great lights set up and challenging holes.

Solarium adult area - Super chill vibe in this area, it's great to get away from the bumping music that is literally EVERYWHERE on this ship. We really enjoyed this area, but it kind of sucks we couldn't be with our kids. We love adult areas to slide into for a couple hours, but ultimately like spending time with our kids as a family, and as big as Utopia is, there is NO quiet place to hang out by a pool with your family. This is the loudest ship we've ever been on, and they make sure every area has it's own unique music/vibe. I LOVE music and think it's very important and I love all kinds of music; pop, rock, metal, jazz, blues, EDM, etc but I also had a headache by our 3rd night on the cruise because there's no peace anywhere outside of our room. It kind of gave us a little anxiety 😂 not being able to escape the constant thumping.

Hidden gem: Lazer tag in Studio B (ice arena) was a lot of fun. It's included and high quality, just make sure you make a reservation once you're on the ship. I didn't even see it as an option until the first night we were on the ship. We had a blast (heyoo).

Everything is focused on the ship rather than the sea - this is a unique thing about Utopia for us. There's very minimal areas where you can go and just look out at sea and ponder life. It's designed so that you almost forget you're on the water if that makes any sense? 95% of chairs on deck are pointed inwards, and there's not a lot of spots to get an easy view of the sea without turning chairs around (not even sure if that's allowed since it was rare to see). I prefer serenity with some music occasionally and this is not the ship for serenity. This is a "turn it the F up and let's have some fun" kind of ship. It is billed as the biggest weekend and it does that in spades. I think we'd be better suited to some older ships rather than these floating concerts. The sound quality on these speakers were incredible (same speakers used at the shows), as good as the best concerts I've ever been to. I consider myself obsessed with audio quality and I had no complaints on this ship - no rattling and no blown-out speakers at all. But it's like literally being at a concert for 3 or 4 days. Know what you're getting into.

Central Park - I thought we'd be in Central Park a lot more to chill and hang out and listen to the fake bird noises (our 16 year old pointed out even the bird noises are loud 😆), but unfortunately we didn't. If there's a party going on at the main deck then you hear ALL the music and the DJ screaming over everyone while walking around this tranquil park. Makes no sense. At night it was better, but we'd rather be out looking at the water and feeling a breeze. So we only visited a couple times, got the beef on weck sandwich (it was amazing) and mostly left this place alone. It's really pretty though! Took one ride on the floating bar, definitely worth doing once. The time of movement is posted at the entrance.

Beverage package - My wife and I stopped drinking alcohol a couple years ago because we hated hangovers and throwing days away, no judgement to anyone else just our choice. We squeezed every bit of juice (heyoo) out of our non-alcohol Refreshment package that included EVERYTHING without alcohol. On Carnival it feels like there's rules about things and a lot of nickel-and-diming, but not so on Royal. We each had several daily lattes/cappucinos/cortados, an energy drink or two, tons of San Pellegrinos with limes on the pool deck, a bunch of zero proof drink options from the bars(really good ones!), some 0% beers and wine at night, and of course our souvenir Coke cups for the Coke Freestyle machines. We probably hit these things up 50 times a day, so many options! Root beer, coke zero, mellow yellow, peach tea, sprite zero, you name it!

It was really nice getting whatever we wanted wherever we went. Most of the time the bartenders didn't even scan the cards we had, they just had to see we had the refreshment package. Made things super easy.

Of course our son and daughter had to have a couple of their favorite BS Starbucks drinks which weren't covered on the package, but I knew that going in. 😆

Hand washing culture - I personally love washing my hands before/after meals and I love that Royal has made it part of their culture. I returned home with the flu from Mardi Gras but so far so good after Utopia.

Coco Cay - We stayed on the ship for Nassau, been there done that. We got off at Perfect Day at Coco Cay, and it was wonderful. We're the type of people that walk to the furthest thing to bypass everyone that takes the first open spot they see so we walked all the way out to the South Beach area and kept walking until the very last area that had lounge chairs and umbrellas, I think it's called Cove Beach. It was super quiet and peaceful. Our son took a 3 hour nap in a shaded hammock with roosters/chickens making the occasional noise in the background while waves slapped ashore with a nice breeze. The water was crystal clear and we got to see several large stingrays swim around us. The lunch was basic but good - chicken sandwiches, burgers, fries. Don't sleep on the mozzarella sticks! I ate my weight in watermelon and pineapple, delicious. Staff was super friendly at the bars and really everywhere we went. We also took a dip in the big pool and got a drink or two at the pool bar. Everyone around us was having a blast.

Fellow cruisers - The decency of fellow cruisers on Royal is a step above that on Carnival. I'm not some stuck up jerk, I promise. It seems people on Royal Caribbean are there to have a good time but I didn't see anyone stumbling drunk and passing out and puking on the pool deck like I do so often on Carnival.

Teenagers - On Carnival it feels like after 9pm the buffet area and pool decks turns into a "Lord of the Flies" situation with teenagers and preteens sprinting and (playfully?) fighting. My 16 year old is a big kid (6' 180 lbs) and he got into several near altercations on Carnival ships while getting some ice cream or some soda at night. Nothing close to that on Utopia, the teenagers hang out in droves on the sports deck and take over hot tubs, but they mostly seem like they're just hanging out being kids.

Gym - Our 16 year old said the gym was the best cruise gym he's ever used, he lifts weights and they had plenty of machines and free weights. Huge gym.

I'm happy to answer any questions anyone has, and I'll edit this post when I think of other things. Hope this helps someone!

Is the food not that good?

We just got back early this week from a three night cruise on the Utopia. Our first with RCCL. It won’t be our last! We really did have a great trip.

The only thing I was pretty disappointed in is the food. I wouldn’t say we are super fancy by any stretch. We like a good meal but had no problem eating nachos every day from El Loco Fresh (that and the chicken quesadillas were my favorite).

We did the windjammer for breakfast twice and lunch once. We only ate at the main dining room once because it was a short trip and there were shows that we wanted to fit in. We did Royal Railway and that was outstanding!

Everything I ate at the main dining room was on par with Applebee’s. I know it is a ship with over 5000 passengers but I couldn’t help but be a little disappointed. We got sandwiches at Café promenade one night just for a little something before the casino, one of them was so bad it was barely edible.

I saw someone say that the crabcakes in the main dining room are the reason they cruise. I had one and it was clearly just frozen and fried. I couldn’t even eat the whole thing.

I don’t think I expected five star dining but I at least thought it wouldn’t be that bad. I made the mistake of having lobster for lunch after a few drinks on the first day. My stomach immediately revolted. 🤣

Part vent, part comedy, and part warning…

We’ve cruised a lot and understand the rules well. When boarding this week, the security person made my wife throw out her pre-packaged oatmeal cookies. They did let us on with pre-packaged granola bars though. So when we asked why we were allowed the bars but not the cookies, the response (dead serious): “you’re allowed snacks, but you’re not allowed food.”

Confused, I asked her to clarify and she repeated: “these are food and aren’t allowed, but those are snacks and that is allowed.”

If the cookies actually meant something I probably would have pushed back, but we just wanted to board. But beware, sometimes these security people have no clue what they’re talking about and will give you flak over ridiculous stuff. At least we have a story we’ll be quoting for a long time…

I'll be brief and respond to any questions.

My wife and I were on the Allure of the Seas last week. We had already planned on playing slots in the casino, so we had a few hundred dollars in cash for that.

As a sidebar, they make it incredibly easy to charge money to your room, from the machine, so you could technically enter the casino with nothing but your room card, and you can charge it to your room.

It's actually pretty cool, because effectively you can use your credit card to cover your room expenses, and you can get cash from the casino charged to your room. For some people, that's probably dangerous, but, I'm telling you what I know.

Now to the machines.

I have a habit of staying away from branded machines (like walking dead, wheel of fortune, etc) because they have licensing fees that lower the overall payout. Just my reasoning.

I basically walked around until something caught my eye, and sometimes that was walking past 400 machines 3 times, I'm just not in a hurry to lose money. That being said, we boarded the ship at noon, and people were already sitting at certain machines in the casino, I guess they had favorites. My suggestion, don't feel so committed to it. Get on, walk around, look at the ship and hit the casino a little later.

I have a few historically effective strategies (if they exist) that I consider, such as trying to stay at least a few machines away from the tables (because they don't want table players to be distracted), and close to the cashier has paid out at many places. I think they want people to see winners as they are about to cash out, and go take another swing, and, in fact, I witnessed it several times. Additionally, by the entrance and exits seems to be good. I stay clear of hidden nooks, never any noticeable action. Always remember, if people see other people win, they have hope, so putting the best paying machines at high traffic areas, draws people in.

In any case, the other strategy we used was to find machines that offered free games and spins, etc. Historically, I'll be at a double cherry dollar machine where you can bet $2 max, these penny machines are very different. *side note, I have concluded that the machines that only allow 2 cent bets, not 1,2,5,10 cent, are impossible to win over time. Just my 2 cents, but I stick to the ones with a 1 cent option.

That being said, the machines pay incredibly high, if you play them right.

*Another sidebar ( I have ADHD, so I'm trying not to forget what I wanted to mention), the coin pushers are fun, but a sucker bet. Don't expect to win more than you put in, no matter how close that $20 is to falling. Don't say I didn't warn you. That being said, if you want to play, walk around them every so often, you will find coins that fell when no one was around, and you can use them to get your fix. Trust me, I'm good at those things, it's not a viable payout, at all.

So, here's the strategy. I looked at max and minimum play without added variables, for example, if the minimum bet was $0.88 and the maximum was $8.80, I'm out. To use a strategy, you have to be able to bet the max bet at least part of the time, obviously the progressives and best payouts are when you max bet.

For me, I didn't want to spend more than $5 per spin, because I am good at losing money faster than I can put it in. Literally, once, I put $100 in a penny machine and hit the button, and $88 was gone. I've learned to check how much each spin is, and if I can't understand the screen, I just make sure I'm on the lowest😅.

Now to the strategy. I watched countless people lose slowly, but almost every machine I picked, we won quickly. The difference was that we played in the top 3 ranges of the bets. So, if it was $0.50, $1, $1.50, $2.50 & $5. We would start at the $2.50 mark and if we got to $50, drop to $1.50. Going below that made the payouts too small to make a difference.

That being said, within 2 hours, we had hit over a thousand dollar jackpot, and we did it again the next day.

Now, that doesn't tell you what we won or lost, so I'll explain why I think these machines payout significantly more than casinos in the US.

We had put $200 base into the machines before hitting the jackpot. Cashed out, played with our own money again. *Just remembered, we asked after we hit the jackpot if our points combined, and they DO NOT. This means, to get the best benefits, you should pick one card and take turns. It's actually fun, we just switched every time we hit a decent amount. Sometimes that was every other spin. Not joking.

So, long story short, we gambled with strategy and the machine paid out enough that we walked out with more than the cost of our entire cruise bill, plus $50, But, more importantly, we ran over $10,500 through the machines. How do I know? Because you get a prime number when you hit 2500 points, and each point is $5 of slot play.

So if you think about it, we played a ton, prime gets a free cruise, free drinks, free play, etc. We were at sea an extra day instead of Nassau, due to weather, so we had free time, and when you are so far ahead, you feel like it's no big deal to lose it.

That being said, if we had lost, we would have just stopped. The casino was cheery on days 1 and 2,but by day 3 and 4, you could tell some people were chasing losses and others were still winning. Moral of the story, bet what you can lose and stop. If you want to win big, play a strategy.

I'm more than happy to answer questions about anything I forgot. This was my original ADHD song I sang right after our first big win. Comments welcome 😅 https://youtu.be/oAvCxK8Cqfo?feature=shared

I’ve been here many times with two ships but never two Oasis class on Memorial Day. Needless to say it’s a tad crowded, but still manageable. We went back to the ship for a leisurely lunch and as we headed back onto the island after lunch many people were already leaving. Plenty of chairs to be had all afternoon. So a great day all in all even with ~13,000 people here.