Trip log, day six. At Sea.
7-Night Western Caribbean Royal Caribbean Cruise from Miami, Florida
March 20, 2025
Cruise Compass – Day 6
Icon of the Seas Deck Plan
Ah, a day at sea to sit back relax and enjoy the ship. I headed out early to get some work done. I was hoping to set up in the AquaDome to enjoy a sunrise view, but it was closed off for rehearsals. I headed back my booth in the corner of Playmakers.
A few hours later i joined the family in Schooner Bar where they were playing Scattergories, not the board game, but a group activity.
We had something cool planned next. Last year on the Wonder of the Seas, we were unable to find availability for the escape room, but on the Icon of the Seas, it is a paid experience so it was much easier to pre-book a time! Rendezvous in Space: The Escape Room. We prepaid for this in advance, which is another thing we really like about RCCL & Carnival – pre-purchasing activities. We love not having a sizable folio at the end, as pre-paying allows it all to be taken care of beforehand. I’ve often thought DCL should switch to this, as you would have less people grabbing things to grab them that they don’t intend to do, such as cabana reservations or excursions, beverage seminars, and maybe even adult dining.
There were 14 guests booked for the 10 o’clock spot, but only 3 of the families showed up totaling 11 guests. This felt like the right number. As with all escape rooms, if you end up sharing the game with strangers, there is a bit of a feeling out period since you are all sent to the room without an opportunity to get to know each other beforehand. This can be good and bad.
This escape room starts out in a fun way with the group divided into two teams – one in the space station and another in a capsule. We had to communicate with the other team in order to safely dock our capsule at the space station before the real game began. The game was challenging enough while still fun to play with total strangers. The crew member eluded that we were not going to make it, but we escaped with just over 10-minutes to spare.
Since there were multiple puzzles to solve, there was a lot of divide and conquer, which turned out to be a good strategy. This also means that there is some replay ability to the game since some of the puzzles you may have not been a full participant in solving. All in all, it was a fun way to spend an hour on a sea day.
Emily and I pre-booked the Sip. Tour. Brunch, which is more accurately a main dining room galley tour followed by brunch with bottomless mimosas and Prosecco.
Sadly, we never took advantage of Disney Cruise Line’s galley tours when they were available. Not sure why, but I’d say we were either not interested at the time or our daughter was still young and we didn’t want to pass her off to the Oceaneer Club. The galley tour was very educational and not just a quick superficial sprint through the spaces.
Galley Tour: Sculptures
Galley Tour: Dishwashing Station
Galley Tour: Stewarding Station
Galley Tour: Bar – Coffee – Soda Station
Galley Tour: Sample Ingredients
Galley Tour: Menu Items & Recipes
There was one particular sign posted in the galley that made me sad.
There was active service occurring in the main dining room, so we were able to see some of the prep for the day as well as plates heading out to tables.
Our host was open to any and all questions and provided detailed responses when needed. On our way out of the galley and into the dining room, we were handed a choice of a mimosa, Prosecco, or orange juice and seated at a table for the brunch portion. We could have skipped this portion, but ultimately hung out for the bottomless Prosecco part of this paid experience.
The food was good, but there are so many other options onboard we should have gone somewhere new to us elsewhere on the ship.
Logically, we followed up brunch with Napkin Folding in the Music Hall.
We were taught some different folds than those we learned years ago with Disney. However, we were not given a to-go handout of the various folds to take home as a guide to impress friends and family during dinner parties. Duh, the internet has expanded and if you really want to learn to fold a napkin in a new way, there are 999 different video tutorials available. I still need to learn how to fold a cocktail napkin fold into a rose.
Isabelle spent the time while we were at brunch in the Aquadome reading, and she was grabbing lunch, so the Mrs and I still had some casino funds from last night and we headed to Casino Royal to play a little game of give and take. Remember, the house always wins, but you can’t put a price on fun. The only bad part of the casino in my book is the smoking, and this casino wasn’t the worst one we’ve experienced in terms of smoke.
The weather was perfect, but the air temperature was not conducive for water-related activities. Frankly, there was a chill in the air based on our climate acclimation. We needed the Roatan weather again, as that was like a late spring day in Florida before the summer humidity kicks in. Instead, we descended in to madness – March Madness – spending the afternoon watching tournament games wishing I could somehow get in on the action without being physically present in the State of Florida. Royal Caribbean and Hard Rock need to expand on their partnership to truly unify over 11 million fans by expanding their gaming ship to shore.
After a one night hiatus, we made our triumphant return to the main dining for the Royal Night dinner menu.
The popular entree tonight was the Maine Lobster Tail, but after seeing all the signs during the galley tour, I had my eye on one specific dessert item… The Artisan Cheese Plate (after my entree, of course). Although, I bet our awesome serving team could have snuck one out to start the dinner, but I wasn’t about to ask after seeing the numerous signs plastered around the galley.
We were out in a just enough time to make it to Spotlight Karaoke for Trivia: Where in the World Am I? where you are shown 3 images as well as text clues and you guess the location. This trivia was not just ports of call related, but extended to not so easy to reach spots on the planet.
Up a deck to Dueling Pianos for Name That Tune: Elton John Hits. I really enjoy a good trivia session where the clues are tough and it is not a runaway or multiple teams with perfect sheets.
We considered Glow in the Dark Mini golf, but it was formal night and we were still dressed for the evening.
Technically, the sun was just about to set, so the glow-in-the-dark effect wouldn’t have been fully visible.
Instead, we strolled around the Royal Promenade for a bit before retiring to our room.
I took a detour to check out the ice skating rink as the family headed up to the stateroom. Seems dangerous and we already have 1 broken ankle in the family. Cool to see and a cool and unique offering for guests.
On my way back, I strolled trough Central Park stopping at the Izumi walk up sushi window to take a closer look. From our room, Izumi is directly across and I’ve been looking at it from afar all week. Figured it was about time to check it out and take a picture of the menu for those in the family that enjoy (and can eat) sushi.
I returned to the stateroom to discover the greatest towel animal ever.
Tomorrow will be a Perfect Day.
yes – that is the greatest towel animal ever!