Trip log, day one. Miami, Florida.
7-Night Western Caribbean Royal Caribbean Cruise from Miami, Florida 
March 15, 2025
Cruise Compass – Day 1
Icon of the Seas Deck Plan

For the third spring break in a row, we are stepping out on the Mouse to experience a week at sea with another cruise line. If you recall, in 2023 we sailed to the Eastern Caribbean on the Mardi Gras, one of Carnival Cruise Line’s vessels sailing from Port Canaveral. Then, last March we experienced cruising with Royal Caribbean for the first time onboard the Wonder of the Seas during a 7-Night Western Caribbean cruise from Port Canaveral. This year, we are going to set sail on the World’s biggest cruise ship, Icon of the Seas. We will be sailing to the same Western Caribbean ports of call as last year, but in a better port order: Roatan, Costa Maya, Cozumel, then Perfect Day at CocoCay.

I hope you enjoy our third non-Disney Cruise trip report as we continue to expand our cruise experiences, and see what other lines and ships offer to get a better perspective on the cruise industry. While the Icon of the Seas is sailing from Miami, a sister ship, Star of the Seas will be coming to Port Canaveral in August sailing itineraries to the Eastern and Western Caribbean. This trip report will range from what we did each day to direct comparisons to our Disney cruising experiences. If this is not interesting, no hard feelings. Please check back in May for a trip report from the Disney Magic. For those of you remaining, thank you for following along! Now, let’s embark on this trip report.

Our alarm went off at 4am and I’d be lying if I said I jumped out of bed in anticipation. It’s too early for that and I need some coffee. We had 99% of our packing done so we didn’t have much to do before heading out the door to Orlando International Airport. No, we are not flying from MCO to MIA. We are taking the Brightline train from the Orlando Station located at MCO’s Terminal C to Miami. Our awesome friend picked us up and whisked us off to MCO to catch the 6:50 Brightline departure. 

This is our second cruise from South Florida where we utilized Brightline rather than driving from Central Florida and parking at the port. We arrived at the Miami Brightline station on time which was 10:20 AM. When we checked in for the cruse, we picked a noon embarkation time from the options available. The timing was perfect and with more than an hour we waited out the crowd at the train station and enjoyed some coffee in the Brightline station.

We were not sure how long it would take to get a ride share to the port. Earlier in the week, Royal Caribbean sent out an email saying that it was going to a be busy weekend at PortMiami and to plan extra travel time. We requested a Lyft once we were outside and in less than 10-mintues, our driver arrived. The distance from the Miami Brightline Station to PortMiami is about 2 miles depending on which terminal you ship is at. The 5-minute ride ran just under $20 for a Lyft XL including the tip.

11:30 AM, we were out of the car and now ahead of schedule as we made our way to the embarkation line at the Royal Caribbean terminal at PortMiami.

This is where things took a surprising turn. First, the embarkation lines set up for different arrival times were all empty and arriving guests were welcomed into the terminal. As we were just about to walk inside, a lovely shoreside Royal Caribbean representative (I wish I could remember her name) working the exterior entrance line pulled us from the general line and took us in a separate door and led us to an elevator. Turns out, this was an express route to the Star Class suite level check-in area (note: we did not book a suite).

Who knew that having a broken ankle came with skip the line perks. In all seriousness, my wife broke her ankle requiring two surgeries a few weeks ago, and during this cruise, is only toe-touch weight-bearing until we get back home – they just removed her cast and fit her for a boot earlier in the week. That being said, we are about to experience cruising from a different perspective. Emily will be using a combination of knee scooter and crutches. Out of the gate, the representative outside went above and beyond providing excellent customer service in a scenario where it was not necessary and not asked for but greatly appreciated as this was Emily’s first big trip outside of the comforts and familiarity of home.

From stepping out of the Lyft, only 12 minutes elapsed until we stepped onto the ship. I wish for the sake of research I could tell you how long it would have taken normally, but things are clearly efficient as the ship is fully booked with 7,300 passengers. For reference, Disney Cruise LIne’s Wish Class maximum occupancy is 4,000.

When embarking on the Icon of the Seas, you enter into the Royal Promenade, home to the Pearl, which is a dynamic work of art that houses a staircase. Albiet early, I expected it to be a mad house, but there was plenty of space to move around. Of note, there are crew members all over with ‘Ask me for Help’ vests on, which was certainly useful to many guests.

During our trip on the train, we completed the first portion of Royal Caribbean’s Muster 2.0 process watching a video in the app.

First order of business was to check-in at our muster station to complete the mandatory safety process. Once onboard guests have until 4 o’clock to check in at their assigned assembly station. The process is so simple and now we are free to enjoy the ship and start our vacation. Oh! One unique thing about the Icon of the Seas, we do not have life jackets in our stateroom, in the unlikely event of an emergency, life jackets will be distributed at our assembly stations. Personally, I love this as it frees up space in the staterooms. The first thing we typically do before we unpack, we move the life jackets from the closet and place them under the bed. I would not recommend this to everyone as this can be a safety risk as it can cause a delay in an unlikely emergency.

Now well ahead of schedule, we worked our way up to deck 15 forward to lunch in the AquaDome Market. There is a made to order Mediterranean station where I was served the best gyro on the high seas. The ingredients were fresh and very flavorful.

Following lunch, we made our way closer to our stateroom hanging out in Central Park to pass the time until we could drop off our carry on items.

Emily spotted Bubbles, a walk-up window in the park serving Champagne and other sparkling beverages. She ordered the Chandon in the souvenir cup and just happened to be poured from a RCL bottle of Chandon.

The other walk-up bar in Central Park had limited beer options, so I took the stairs down few decks to Point & Feather in the Royal Promenade, which was still not all that busy during what I’d consider a peak embarkation period. Anyway, I ordered a beer and headed back up to join the family in the park until the staterooms were available.

We stayed in a Central Park room last year on the Wonder of the Seas. Our room this week is slightly different, as we booked a Central Park Interior stateroom, which features a porthole overlooking Central Park instead of a verandah. Actually, the majority of Central Park rooms on Icon of the Seas do not have a traditional balcony. They have large windows that drop down which in turn will open your room to the outside and turn off the AC. Not an ideal setup when sailing in the Caribbean. You effectively have an indoor balcony or an outdoor stateroom.

The room held the three of us well including the knee scooter and crutches. The storage was abundant, and we actually had unused space here and there. We loved this stateroom and would absolutely book it again.

For the first time in 3 weeks, Emily is able to get in and out of the shower without needing a spotter. Seeing the bench in the shower and a grab bar on the wall may have brought a tear to Emily’s eye since she is unable to stand on both legs. We actually purchased a collapsable stool for her to use as we anticipated a shower setup similar to what we had on the Wonder of the Seas. And, we were thankful not to have a bathtub like on Disney Cruise Line. The bathroom was a great setup and featured more than enough storage for our family. Plus, there was an always on nightlight in the ceiling, which is awesome.

Just inside the room near the bathroom, there is a control panel for the temperature as well as the lighting. This was great as you could dim various lights in the room rather than just on/off. There were pre-programed modes for morning, evening, movie, and sleep. This is also all available to be controlled via the Royal Caribbean app on your phone.

To compare this to an inside stateroom (11B) on the Wish or Treasure, this stateroom definitely wins out, and it is not because of the window. The way the square footage is laid out gives this stateroom the edge, as there is a lot more usable space. There is a TON more storage, both in the bathroom and the stateroom. Neither has a great refrigerator, as the Wish class has the drawer fridges, and this stateroom fridge was only big enough to hold 4 tall bottles; it would not hold say, a plate. The room was bright and the TV was actually in FRONT of the bed (imagine that!). While Isabelle doesn’t like the couch when you walk in and then the bed, the set up was perfect for our current situation. In terms of stateroom, the Icon has the edge over DCL for this particular comparable stateroom.

Given the size of the Icon and the amount of passengers, we were shocked to see 2 of our 3 suitcases sitting outside our stateroom when we arrived at around 1:00 PM. We unpacked and I walked around the deck hoping to find my suitcase without any luck. On the Icon, luggage is delivered up to 6 o’clock on embarkation day. Currently, I have the clothes on my back and my tuxedo.

Royal Caribbean offers a selection of stateroom gifts, decorations and accessories which can be purchased ahead of your sailing and is similar to the Onboard Gifts you can order from Disney. We loved the cheese tray last year on the Wonder, and ordered a wine and cheese tray.

Well, the cheese plate (which included packaged saltines) was extremely disappointing based on the marketing photo and compared to the same gift we ordered on the Wonder of the Seas last year.

I think Emily may be right thinking RCL figures folks are just ordering this for the bottle of wine in the room and the cheese is going to waste. Wine is easier to find onboard, unique cheese is harder to source. Now, the order of strawberries and champagne was more in line with were just ordering it for the Champagne. However, buyer beware, you get what you pay for here as Royal Caribbean is NOT delivering Champagne with this order. Domaine Ste. Michelle Brut is from Patterson, Washington which is multiple time zones away from the Champagne region in France. Dear Royal Caribbean, please rename this offering to Strawberries and Sparkling Wine. Also, the prices pictured are ‘rack rate’ and we did not pay these, as our items were purchased during the Black Friday sale.

Our stateroom host introduced himself and asked us a few question including when we prefer to have the room serviced since it is only offered once per day. We choose the evening turn-down service while we are at dinner and out of the room (in the mornings, we just rolled up the bedding for the couch & made our own bed). It was nearing dinner time and my suitcase was still missing and by now, I’ve walked around the stateroom corridors in the Central Park area couple times. I was puzzled. How could 1 suitcase go missing when it was loaded onto the same luggage cart curbside? Our stateroom host suggested going to check the confiscated luggage area on deck 2. Good news, bad news. My suitcase was not one of the many that were being held by security due to prohibited items or alcohol. There was one other spot to check, an area with about 30 bags that were missing luggage tags. Not there either. I remember last year on the Wonder of the Seas our friend’s suitcase was delivered to a room down the hallway which is why I was canvasing the stateroom corridors in the afternoon. Oh well, off to dinner in the same clothes I’ve been wearing since 4 o’clock in the morning. Worst case, we are in Cozumel in a few days, I can go shopping at the Mega. As we were walking to dinner, I did converse with another gentleman in our hallway who was also missing his suitcase, and he was in swim trunks.

We chose the 5:00 PM dinner time, which was in the main dining room on deck 3, the largest of the 3 decks of the MDR. Tonight we were served the ‘Welcome Aboard’ menu. The menus are single pages and feature a Chef’s Recommendation at the top with a dish from each course. Each night there are premium sections available for an additional cost.

The food was good and I was thrilled with my choice, the Aromatic Chicken Saag. While the presentation may not be up to the standard of Disney Cruise Line, the food is prepared really well with flavor and served fresh. Emily’s fish dish was fantastic.

We were in and out of the dinner in under 1 hour! First night, and I think we have a great serving team. At no point did we say we were in a rush, hurry or wanted to be out quickly. However, our server did ask if we had any scheduled plans when we first arrived.

After dinner, we stopped in the Empire Supper Club where we will be dining in a few days to discuss allergy and dietary concerns, but it was unstaffed at this time. We have a few days so we’ll check back later. We had time before trivia, so we took a stroll through our favorite area, Central Park.

We then headed to Starlight Karaoke for 70’s music trivia. Arriving shortly before the start time, we were pleasantly surprised by the available seating. Other guests showed up and the venue held guests really well. This was not the case last year on the Wonder of the Seas, so again, a nod to RCCL, as they did a great job building venues with capacity in mind.

Across the way in the Royal Promenade the jewelry store EFFY was handing out complimentary Royal Caribbean bracelets.

Our main scheduled event for the evening was the variety act in the Royal Theatre. While we did reserve a spot for the show in advance, it was ultimately not necessary as we could have walked up as there were plenty of open seats. 

The juggling was enjoyable, but the set was more of a small venue routine and not what I’d expect as a headliner show in the main theatre.

One more thing to mention, RCCL has their cruise planner available about 30 days before the sailing. This allows you to see what will be going on and pre-book things. It helps to see the entire voyage, as you can see when something is available multiple times and won’t interfere with something else you may want to do. You can also see menus in advance, as well as themed nights, such as formal nights, or other fun nights (one on our sailing was Caribbean night for example).

On our way back to the room following the show, we ran into a couple we cruised with back in 2010. At the time it was our daughter’s first cruise. Kids grow up so fast. Literally the last time we saw them our kids were going to be just starting preschool and now she’s a few months away from heading off to college. 

MY SUITECASE!!! As we were walking down the stateroom corridor, I spotted my suitcase sitting outside of our room. Coincidentally, this was the only suitcase with a Castaway Club luggage tag and strap.

Tonight we set the clocks back 1 hour. Last spring break I refused to accept the onboard time change. This year I’ll go with the flow. However, come Monday, I’m still working on traditional east coast time.

Flipping through the TV channels, I found an awesome documentary on the history of Royal Caribbean titled The Royal Caribbean Story. From my perspective, it was really interesting. It ended with the indication of a part 2 coming up. However, the next thing airing was a promo for the shows on the ship. I’ve been unable to find a copy of The Royal Caribbean Story online and suspect it may be an onboard exclusive – if you happen to know of a copy online, please let me know. This does not surprise me as Disney Cruise Line also produces exclusive onboard content about the ships. Frankly, after watching this onboard, I’d love to see a genuine in-depth documentary on history of Disney Cruise Line as this was not a marketing or promotional video. It was really well done.

Time to head to bed and enjoy a lovely day at sea tomorrow.

Complete Trip Log Index

• Day 1 – Miami
• Day 2 – At Sea
• Day 3 – Roatán, Honduras
• Day 4 – Costa Maya
• Day 5 – Cozumel
• Day 6 – At Sea
• Day 7 – Perfect Day at Coco Cay