To think that this looks absolutely hideous?

[KimberleyClark]

It’s Royal Carribbean’s latest cruise liner, Icon of the Seas. Don’t get me wrong, I love cruising, but on ships that look like ships, not floating theme parks or apartment blocks.

It's not the stops I'm talking about. It's the time spent within those ports that's the issue.

Ships used to dock very early in the morning and leave fairly late. We are talking, 8, 9, even 10 pm. When I've sized up itineraries more recently (pre-COVID admittedly) they typically re-sail at 4-5 pm. This leaves a lot less time to explore the area and can drastically curtail your experience of a visit.

At the more popular destinations there would typically be an overnight stop. Having looked at RCI's more recent itineraries it would appear this rarely happens nowadays at all.

If your reason to cruise is to soak up the atmosphere of a place and get the most out of your visit, that reason seems pretty much to have disappeared.

Looks like hell to me. But then I don't like the idea of cruising at all!!

Might be fun to visit with kids for a day. But that would be more than enough for me.

Looks horrible

Exactly this

I saw that in the summer. It docked in an ancient port and they piled off and swarmed the area. Was hideous.

That’s what they all say.

If you get sea sick you are stuck on a floating Butlins holiday with no way to get off.

Dh loves cruising. DH’s family love cruising

”You won’t feel any movement Kenny”
”NDNs great aunts grand daughter wasn’t sick once”

and other shit like that

I spent 2 days with my head down a toilet then someone gave me sea sickness tablets and spent the next 2 days asleep. (I am very sensitive to certain meds)

I don't suppose it does matter. But amazingly enough people like to discuss things they find interesting, even if it will never affect them.

My kids would look at that and think 'fantastic!' but the novelty would wear off very quickly. It's definitely nothing like my idea of a holiday. More like a helliday.

I’ve never been a cruise but am going on P and O Iona next year which is also a big ship but hopefully not as tacky as that. I want to give cruising a go but still a bit worried it might be nothing more than a floating Wetherspoons 😭

Why do people respond to these posts to say "you don't have to go on it, why does it matter?" Aren't we allowed to say something looks dreadful, even though we are not being forced to look at it? Wouldn't you make those kinds of comments to your friends in a normal conversation.

In fact I think the use of these kinds of boats does "matter" for their environmental impact. But even if they didn't, I think we are allowed to say they look awful!

You didn’t since the Icon hasn’t sailed yet

you probably saw the wonder of the seas that was cruising around Italy and Barcelona this summer

OMG this looks AMAZING! All those waterslides!

A cruise (of any sort) doesn't appeal to me but then my idea of holidays probably don't appeal to everyone either.

On a separate note I'm always amazed (I know I'm very stupid) at how such enormous vessels even float.

YANBU it looks like it has haemorrhoids.

Well I'm going to go against the grain of the thread and say we've actually booked to sail on her in 2024 and we're all really looking forward to it. We enjoy cruising, we've done a range of cruise lines and ship sizes and previously we have tried to go for a mix of things for adults and children, on the last trip we learnt that we were a bit port heavy and the children really enjoyed being on the boat more than anything, they enjoyed the pool and kids activities...so we've picked this one this time to give them more of the experiences that they really enjoyed and we get a few stops in the Caribbean

If it's not your thing, that's fine, you absolutely don't have to go but I can tell you there are plenty of people that are keen to go as sales for this boat are at record level and some of the comments seem a bit snobby and derogatory of others

Well AIBU would be much quieter if people only posted about things that matter...

I always hated the idea of these big ships but post covid and seeing how they are basically floating germ canisters there is no chance whatsoever I’ll ever go on one.

As an introvert and someone who has sensory issues and most probably undiagnosed asd, this is truly my ideal of hell on earth (or rather hell on sea).

That looks like my actual nightmare. Hardly any space, everything crammed in, so many people and so much noise. And you're trapped on it!

Not my kind of holiday as I mentioned upthread, but I genuinely hope you have a fabulous time😊 Vive la différence!

The only good thing about that ship is that it means 7500 fewer people will be where I want to go on holiday!

Some one who gets sea sick and hates forced to entertainment and is surrounded by the same people everyday of your holiday with no escape

Dh said he would take dc on a cruise ship with his family as they would love to introduce cruising to them.
I never took my eyes off dc. (Didn’t know it at the time that they are both ADHD ) But they had to be watched all of the time. Both of them would be climbing over the rails and running off and I had visions of them in the sea. I didn’t trust Dh with dc. He never saw upcoming danger. (Doesn’t see consequences in most things). His father and mother were elderly and had set ideas about what dc would be doing and I don’t think they could ever understand that dc didn’t do what was expected.

Spot ten things you HATE and circle them!! Strangely enough, I like short cruises in cold countries that get you from one culturally interesting place to another. Not this though. 💀

🤣🤣

I would rather work extra hours and not have holiday than ever go on any sort of cruise, but my kids would have LOVED that when they were young 😆