Royal Caribbean's Oasis-class ships ushered in the modern mega-ships. Oasis of the Seas, the first member of the class, introduced features that had never been seen on a ship before.
This class, which now has six members as Utopia of the Seas joins the Royal Caribbean fleet, introduced the neighborhood concept to cruise ships. Those neighborhoods include two outdoor spaces — Central Park and The Boardwalk — which are unlike anything previously seen on a cruise ship.
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The Boardwalk offers an outdoor area featuring a carousel lined with restaurants, bars, and shops. It also offers Royal Caribbean's AquaTheater, a performance space featuring a pool where the height of the floor raises and lowers.
Central Park literally brings a tranquil park to the middle of the cruise ship. It features plants, flowers, and places to sit along with bars, restaurants, and live music at night.
Utopia of the Seas is essentially an Oasis-class greatest hits collection. The cruise line takes most of the best things from its sister ships and refines them. This isn't a ship full of innovations like Icon of the Seas, but that's not a knock.
It's a nearly perfect cruise ship with just a few minor flaws.
Image source: Daniel Kline/Come Cruise With Me
5 things I loved about Utopia of the Seas
Royal Caribbean made very few changes from Wonder of the Seas, the previous Oasis-class ship to Utopia of the Seas. The only truly new addition is The Pesky Parrot, a Caribbean-themed bar that replaces the Robot Bar on Wonder (and most other Oasis-class ships).
That's clearly a popular choice as the bar was both packed and Royal Caribbean Head of Beverages Ed Eiswirth noted that he was happy to see people bringing drinks from Pesky Parrot to the pool deck.
He did point out that this would cause some glassware issues, but he took passengers traveling down 9 decks to get a drink, a pretty strong vote of confidence. Pesky Parrot, however, did not make my list (simply because I'm not a fan of sweet or frozen drinks, which is much of the menu.
I did love a number of things on Utopia of the Seas.
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1. Destination elevators
Icon of the Seas introduced a new elevator system where passengers input their floor into a tablet and are then sent to a specific elevator. The system works really well and it cuts down on the amount of stops each elevator makes. It also avoids the classic "kid hits all the buttons" and you get stuck stopping at every floor problem.
2. Improved menu at Bell & Barley Pub
Nearly every Royal Caribbean ship has a British pub that offers an acoustic guitar player at night. The other locations, at least as far as beverages go (a few offer food, but not the ones on Oasis-class ships) offer the same menu.
Bell & Barley, the pub on Utopia, builds off the classic menu while also adding a customizable gin and tonic choice as well as an enhanced selection of gins. The pub has also expanded its beer offerings.
3. Thoughtful cabin design
Icon of the Seas cabins used every inch of space well. Utopia follows on that with plentiful outlets and USB ports (as well as a USB-C port). The bathrooms also feature the slightly redesigned shower that somehow feels much bigger even though it fills the same amount of space.
4. Central Park is mostly the same
On Icon, Central Park featured an expanded version of the Izumi Japanese restaurant as well as a champagne bar and a new jazz club. Utopia of the Seas keeps the new take on Izumi, with its walk-up to-go counter, but does not add either new bar. The space basically swaps out the underused Vintages wine bar found on most Oasis-class ships in Central Park and replaces it with the expanded Izumi, a positive change.
5. The adult solarium is perfect
Much like Central Park, this is a case of if it's not broken, don't fix it. This adults-only pool area adds some non-seethrough celing panels to cut down on sun exposure. It also offers larger hot tubs than on the other Oasis-class ships and a two-level pool (although the bottom level is more just a wet area for pool chairs). It also has the Solarium Bar on the same level as the pool instead of up a flight of stairs as it is on some Oasis-class ships.
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2 things I didn't like on Utopia of the Seas
It's actually pretty hard to find fault with Utopia of the Seas. Royal Caribbean had five previous Oasis-class ships to draw from and an endless amount of customer feedback. There were, however, two things I did not like (one low-tech) and one high-tech.
1. The wasteful paper towel dispensers
In most public bathrooms on Utopia of the Seas, Royal Caribbean uses paper towel dispensers embedded in the top of the structure that holds the sinks. To grab a paper towel, you have to pull up and it often either rips or you have to did in and grab more paper towels than you need (getting them wet, so you can't leave them for someone else. The traditional pull-down paper towel dispensers would be less frustrating and lead to fewer wasted paper towels.
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2. The hand-wave door technology is a work in progress
Many of the doors on Utopia of the Seas use sensors where you wave your hand and the door opens. That technology can be as frustrating as those sinks which use a sensor to turn on the the water. It does not alway work and that can leave you standing at the door waving your hand like some sort of failed magician.
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