If you own a television, you probably have seen commercials for Royal Caribbean's Icon of the Seas and/or Utopia of the Seas, the cruise line's upcoming new mega-ships. When it starts sailing early next year, Icon of the Seas will take the title of largest cruise ship in the world from sister ship Wonder of the Seas.
Utopia, which will become the sixth Oasis-class ship, won't take the "biggest ship" title, but it will be nearly as large. Having sailed on all of the Oasis-class, ships, I can tell you that they're incredibly impressive.
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These ships are floating Las Vegas resorts with two outside areas including the Boardwalk and the absolutely stunning Central Park, a literal open-air park sitting in the middle of Oasis, Allure, Harmony, Symphony, and Wonder of the Seas. Utopia and Icon will both have Central Park as well as other first-of-a-kind features that have created incredible demand for sailings on those new ships.
This has pushed prices very high on those and while it's tempting to want to try the next big thing, booking the newest ships, and even newer ships, is generally a mistake.
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How to view the Royal Caribbean fleet
Royal Caribbean generally charges lower prices for sailings on older ships. There are exceptions when older ships are doing special itineraries that bigger ships can't, but generally the older the ship, the less it will cost for a similar itinerary compared to a newer ship.
With much of the Royal Caribbean fleet sailing out of Port Canaveral, Fort Lauderdale, and Miami, that means that there are often different ships sailing very similar trips. For example, you can sail 3-4 sailings that stop at CocoCay on the Oasis-class Allure of the Seas, or the smaller Freedom-class Independence of the Seas, Liberty of the Seas, or Freedom of the Seas.
In nearly all, if not all, cases, it will be cheaper to sail on the smaller ships than on Alure of the Seas. The Freedom-class ships, however, may lack some restaurants and the outdoor space their larger sister has, but they offer enough choices for a three or four-day sailing.
Independence and Freedom even have an upgrade — the Playmakers sports bar — that Allure has yet to receive.
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On a recent 3-day weekend on Independence, my group ate at different specialty restaurants each night. My friends and I ate Italian at Giovanni's Table one night one, sushi at Izumi the second night, and dinner at Chop's Grill on the third. We even had lunch at Izumi on a rare sea day (3-day sailings generally stop at Coco Cay and in Nassau) and shared some wings at Playmakers.
And, while we were heavily celebrating my birthday, none of us had a drink at every bar onboard (although we came close).
Know what you want from Royal Caribbean
While the bigger and newer ships tend to have the most lavish entertainment, there's lots to do on smaller ships. Independence actually has a Broadway show, "Grease," and Liberty of the Seas has "Saturday Night Fever."
In my case, I enjoy watching the acoustic guitarist at the pub or the solo piano player at the Schooner Bar and all four ships sailing those itineraries have both those venues.
The older/smaller ship equals cheaper prices generally applies on weeklong sailings too. This summer, for example, I sailed on Explorer of the Seas, a Voyager-class ship which is slightly smaller than Freedom-class for a week out of Raveena, Italy.
Yes, my room was a little dated and could use some touchups, but the itinerary took me to places I have never been and the ship had plenty of options at night (including my friend Sam Ensuque as the acoustic guitarist at the pub.) There was, of course, fewer restaurants, no robot or moving bar, and no Central Park or Boardwalk, but it had good music, a lively casino, and a wonderfully attentive crew.
In a broad sense, it almost always makes sense to trade down from the newest ship to an older one, even in the same class. Wonder of the Seas, for example, is slightly "better" than its predecessor, Symphony of the Seas. It has one new restaurant (Mason Jar, which was excellent and which has a great companion bar) and it has some nice in-room improvements like more USB ports.
But, the differences between Wonder and the first ship in the class, Oasis-of-the-Seas, are minimal enough that unless the price was close, it generally makes sense to book the older ship.
