ONBOARD ICON OF THE SEAS -- The difficult part about being on the Icon of the Seas as a journalist is dealing with how big the ship -- and everything on it -- is. Its size almost defies the imagination, and its features pushed the boundaries of my camera lens.
I stepped onto the Icon on Tuesday for a three-day preview sailing of Royal Caribbean International's first-of-its-class ship.
The first thing I laid eyes on when I walked inside was what looked like a stunningly beautiful, hollowed-out giant golf ball. Named The Pearl, the three-deck structure is a jaw-dropping architectural marvel with a modern staircase cut through the center. Above my head as I walked inside it, some 3,600 kinetic panels silently shifted, reflecting dazzling shimmers of light.
Despite my best efforts, The Pearl was too big to fit in the picture frame until I used a wide-angle setting, and even then it was a challenge. But I have faith guests will figure out how to take selfies with it.
The Icon itself is huge. At 250,800 gross tons, the Icon is 6% larger than the Wonder of the Seas, which was the world's largest cruise ship until the Icon supplanted it. The Icon is longer than three football fields laid end zone to end zone, with room to spare.
The ship is so long, walking down the hallway to my room felt like an endless journey toward an infinity mirror.
The Icon can carry 5,610 guests at double occupancy and up to 7,600 passengers at max capacity. It is almost too big to fathom: eight neighborhoods, five of them new for Royal Caribbean. Six waterslides. Seven pools. More than 40 restaurants, bars and places to be entertained.
Icon has a whopping 28 stateroom categories, including a three-story accommodation called the Ultimate Family Townhouse, complete with a multilevel slide, areas for karaoke or watching movies, a whirlpool and a back patio with ping pong, a white picket fence and a mailbox.
The 2,523-square-foot townhouse, which overlooks the Surfside neighborhood, is completely booked for 2024, said Royal Caribbean International CEO Michael Bayley during the ship's naming.
In the new Thrill Island neighborhood, six waterslides twisted above my head. There were so many, I struggled to trace their points of origin. Décor in the neighborhood for adrenaline-seekers was inspired by the idea of a lost island, with wood panels painted in yellow, red, blue and orange lining the stairs that led to what looked like a treehouse.
Similarly colorful was the new open-air Surfside neighborhood built for young families. Guests are welcomed by an enormous pink flamingo wearing a tropical scarf around its long neck. Just beyond the bird, I found myself drawn to the citrus-colored Tetris pieces outside the arcade and the carousel of playful beach creatures, like an octopus and a pineapple.
I seemed almost unable to capture the essence of any neighborhood with a single photograph, because they all left something out. For instance, from the Water's Edge pool on the aft of the ship in Surfside, I could see the curves of waterslides 10 decks above me.
The ship is "lighter, it's brighter, it's wider in all the right areas," said Cruise.com president Anthony Hamawy, who sailed on the Icon three days earlier than I did. "It feels roomier."
Icon is the most anticipated vessel in the cruise industry in recent history, and one that its creators call a game-changer that redefines the multigenerational family vacation.
Royal Caribbean Group CEO Jason Liberty said that while it was fun creating the Icon, "I can tell you firsthand it's even more fun to experience."
The Inter Miami CF soccer club wore their new jerseys on the Icon of the Seas, featuring the Royal Caribbean crown and anchor on the front. Photo Credit: Royal Caribbean
Royal Caribbean brought some of that fun to its naming ceremony in the reimagined AquaTheater, complete with a diving and dancing performance. TV show host Mario Lopez played emcee for the evening.
The naming also featured international soccer superstar Lionel Messi, the "Icon of the Icon." As part of festivities, he and his Inter Miami CF teammates wore the soccer club's new jersey -- black with pink trim and the Royal Caribbean crown-and-anchor emblem on the front. Royal Caribbean is the team's official jersey partner for the 2024 season.
Wearing an Inter Miami CF pink hoodie during the naming ceremony, Messi placed a soccer ball atop a stand to cue an oversize bottle of Champagne to crash into the bow. And in Royal Caribbean fashion of bigger is better, the bottle was a 15-liter Nebuchadnezzar.