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.

Why do you think the icon won’t be doing that?

They have a Mediterranean schedule next year which is stopping off every day across multiple culturally interesting places.

A friend was the wife of a cruise ship captain, they both worked for years in that industry, and she told us that on every cruise someone always goes missing.

Absolutely hideous!! Imagine being on deck, relaxing and reading with the amount of noise that would be resonating. I'll stick with Arcadia.

I bet once on it would be amazing. I'm sure my children would love it. But it does make me feel slightly sad inside at the same time. Kind of like the human space ship in the movie Wall-e

I think dd designed something like that on Roblox.

Like Event Horizon, but at sea. No thank you.

A friend and her husband were in the US on holiday and went down to see some ginormous new cruise ship that was due in port. They walked up and down but couldn't see it, they asked someone where it was and he pointed to where they'd been, what they had thought was a block of flats was the vessel.

Not my cup of tea but my kids would love it. That's the one great thing about there being so many cruise ships is that there's something to suit most people. You can just avoid the ones that wouldn't be your thing.

Massive cruising fan here, but that doesn't flaot my boat (sorry!) at all

That said I'd love to go on it to see the thing and how it all feels, just for the experience - I'm on Florida's gulf coast right now and was going to do a try-out cheapie on Symphony of the Seas (smaller but still vast), and the hurricane put paid to that

It looks hideous to me. But I think the chute that hangs out over the sea is strategically placed... Any troublesome passengers probably get shoved down it!

I always thought it would be a sure fire way of being able to disappear
Get off the boat at a port undetected.
Dont know what the security is like nowadays but the only time I went it was very easy to be missed if you did or didn’t get off the boat.

Records show you never left the boat. At the end of the cruise they see you didn’t get off so record you as missing at sea.

🤣🤣🤣🤣your friends have the measure if you🤣🤣🤣

missing as one 'I can't find my wife' (later found in the salon with a cocktail' yes.

'Missing' as in overboard... don't be so gullible 🙄🙄🙄

Except it’s not

as you’re scanned out and in at each port, any non returning passengers are reported as missing

They scan your sea pass and or passport depending on what each country or port requires

They're not only an ecological disaster, it's only a matter of time before there's an actual physical catastrophe too.
Whether it's a terrorist attack, fire at sea , extreme weather or human error (like the Costa Concordia 10 years ago, which was nothing like as big as today's behemoths) the loss of life could be appalling. That ship had 'only' 4,000-odd passengers and it grounded then capsized within reach of land but some 34 people still died.
We went to Dubrovnik a few years ago and the floating tower blocks in port every day, each carrying some 8,000 passengers, made the city so overcrowded that we only went into the centre after 4pm, after the excursions had all returned to the ships.
(DH climbed the city walls one day to find a large group from a particular country struggling to get to the top and complaining bitterly there were no escalators or lifts!)

Cruise passengers are not popular with local businesses either as they don't tend to spend much money, a coffee or a beer, a small souvenir and that's it. They mostly eat and drink on board because they've paid for it.
To top it off they are floating sinks of viruses and infection.

Hell on earth. I’d rather have a week in Skegness.

Awful

I love boats.
Hate cruises.

I'm an antisocial bugger and DH seems to attract all those sort of people you run away from on holiday so being trapped out at sea with no escape is my idea of hell.

But a water park on a cruise? double hell.

Well, I wish I was younger, thinner, fitter... it looks like great fun if I was the above!!

I've never wanted to go on a cruise, Just not my thing (I'm more 'remote French village')
and I get a bit freaked out if I can't get out or get off something.

The places I'd like to cruise around, are the exact places I don't think cruise boats should be.

Covid & the 'stuck cruise ships, people restricted to their cabins. Terrifies me.

but it looks like a ship load of fun to me. Like being able to be a child again!

but I'm too old, too fat & too unfit to make the mist of it these days!!

@awmum2b I hope you have THE most brilliant time. How old will your kids be when you go?

Horrible.

Aside from the environmental impact, these things are hideous anyway, even when not neon and tacky.

When they dock in places with beautiful scenery it’s a sight no one wants to take in.
I imagine you’d hear the shrieking on this one from several miles away.

It would give me nightmares to be in the middle of the ocean in a floating town! Plus boarding and disembarking would take forever. I'd prefer a small ship cruise and a separate holiday to a theme park hotel.

It's absolute heaven for teenagers.
I avoided cruises like the plague until DC were mid teens. How I wish we'd done it sooner thay loved every minute.
Not what I would choose now for just adults, though I love a cruise but for a family holiday yes.

@RewildingAmbridge it does look like a primary school project doesn't it!
My teens would love it.

Cruises are awful things for the enviroment but I wish we could do a Med cruise. One dc has allergies and one has sen who couldn't cope with different hotels and food all the time.

It's like an unicorn got very drunk on pink cocktails, are Barbie and vomited the whole thing up.

This looks like "end of civilisation, party while Rome burns" type stuff to me.

That’s like moaning that you could relax with your picnic and read Pride and Prejudice under the biggest roller coaster at Alton Towers. If you go on this cruise then you aren’t going to sit quietly and read. Obviously. If you do want to sit quietly and read you choose a holiday that reflects that. Doesn’t mean this is hideous or awful or anything else. I think it looks good fun - plenty for kids to keep them entertained, plus some good stops to see interesting places.

I do feel so sad for those on mumsnet who jump to criticise anything they see as ‘less than.’ They’ll leap in disgust at any mention of Blackpool with ‘oh I would only holiday to places of CULTURE, how tacky and gross’ When in fact they seem to struggle to comprehend that you can have a good old laugh and plenty of fun in Blackpool, following decades of British culture, and that doesn’t (in my experience) ban you from taking in the classics sights of Rome the same summer if you can afford it. If anything, the varied aspects of these two places broadens the mind far more than seeing just one of them.