I cruised on Royal Caribbean’s BILLION Dollar cruise ship BEFORE anyone else!

I cruised on Royal Caribbean’s BILLION Dollar cruise ship BEFORE anyone else!

I’m currently on board Royal Caribbean Star of the Seas, the newest cruise ship in the world, one of the biggest cruise ships in the world, and I’m giving you a first look at what this new cruise ship is all about. Up next. Hey everyone, it’s Matt from Royal Caribbean.com. Star of the Seas is basically Royal Caribbean’s followup to Icon. They had such a great success with it, they wanted to double its success and fun with this brand new ship. So, when Royal Caribbean invited me to go to Puerto Rico to check out the ship before anybody else got on board to see what’s new, different, and exciting, you know, I was ready to hop on there and see it for myself. Now, you’ve got to remember Star of the Seas is one of the biggest cruise ships in the world. It’s 1,196 ft long, 219 ft wide, has a capacity of 5,610 guests at normal occupancy, but a maximum capacity of over 7,000 guests when you add in the 2,350 crew members on board. That is nearly 10,000 people on one cruise ship. And if that sounds daunting or look crazy, I got to tell you from experience of having gone on Icon of the Seas, it’s actually not nearly as crowded as you might think. In fact, I have really surprised when I went on Icon and the same holds true here on Star by how uncrowded the ship is. This ship was designed with big crowds in mind to be able to spread them out and manage people better so that there’s things happening so it does not feel like a sardine can. Our crews departed from Pon Puerto Rico which is on the south side of the island and this is an opportunity to get on board while the ship is still being worked on. Realgram is still doing its final tweaks and adjustments. Although not everything is quite ready for guests yet, but they have a couple days to get all that sorted out. My biggest question going into Star of the Seas is how does this ship compare to Icon? How does it match up? And what’s certainly different about it? When I boarded the ship, I went straight to my cabin because luckily enough, it was ready for me when I got on board, which not usually the case, but because this ship is brand new and no one sailed on it yet, my room was already ready. I have cabin 9624, which is an infinite balcony cabin. And what makes this room interesting and different is that it has a balcony, but it’s not a traditional balcony where you open the door, step out on the balcony, and you’re outside. Instead, there’s an infinite balcony. And with infinite balconies, it allows you to either keep the sliding glass open or closed and take the space back in. It’s almost like a carium, if you will, if you have it closed. And if it’s open, well, then you have the outdoor breeze. Like all the cabins on Star of the Seas, I’m really impressed by the level of storage they have in here, as well as the connectivity. There are plugs and USB outlets everywhere. You probably don’t need to bring a outlet extender with you when you sail on an Icon class cruise ship because there just simply so many outlets here. If you need one, then you’re probably an Uber geek out there. I’m talking to you travel spree. If there’s one area I don’t love about the cabin, this was true in Icon of the Seas is that they have some baskets instead of drawers in one area of the room. And I don’t love the baskets. They make a lot of noise when you slide them in and out. And I just don’t love the idea that people can see my clothes that are in there. But I digress. So, as I started walking around Star of the Seas, I really wanted to take what the ship feels like and kind of understand better what makes this different, unique, and even the same as Icon because it’s clear that Royal Caribbean really didn’t want to mess with the winning formula that made Icon such a big success. Star of the Seas began construction right around the same time as Icon. So, the layout and look are very similar. In fact, the differences are pretty subtle on board. I quickly picked up on the fact that Star is really everything I love about Icon. Overall, Star is very similar to Icon both on in terms of amenities and size. As such, you can expect to have some of the main features on board both ships. The category 6 water park, indoor aqua theater, crowns edge ropes course, the massive absolute zero ice skating rink, and even the adults only hideway. It’s a bright and colorful ship that’s meant to evoke a party atmosphere. I don’t think you’ll ever find the word subdued or subtle on this ship. Star of the Seas really does rely on that winning formula. Open spaces, a connection to the water, and great things to do that are certain to make memories for everybody on board. I loved how the pool deck is and how the layout provides so much more space for chairs, shade, pools, and bars. Compared to other Royal Car ship like the Oasis class, I just feel like there’s so much better seating on Star of the Seas. And of course, having an entire water park on board means the ship has more thrills than others out there. Every other Royal Caribbean cruise ship that’s not an icon class only has like two or three slides and those are great, don’t get me wrong, but when you have six, it’s a whole different feel to it. My favorite area of the ship though, I think, is still Central Park because of how beautiful it is. And I loved how much there’s to offer here. In walking around Central Park, I noticed a lot of new artwork and beautiful designs. Plus, you’ve of course got the trellis bar, I sushi window, bubbles, and lose. And it’s such a whimsical area. It’s my favorite place to hang out. Granted, I do wish that maybe it wasn’t August and the humidity level was 1,000%, but my goodness, what a beautiful space in the evening, especially to go and enjoy everything over there. I was also curious about the changes Royal made to Surfside because this is an entire area dedicated to families on board. Now, Royal Caribbean said before the cruise that Surfside was going to skew a little bit older. On Icon of the Seas, they were kind of aiming for that like six and under crowd. And on Star, they wanted to make it appeal, if you will, to a little bit older, like maybe 9 and 10 year olds. And how they did that essentially is through some of the water activations over in Splashway Bay. Splashway Bay is the aqua park on board, and it’s for kids on there. And there’s, you know, slides and there’s geysers and all sorts of ways to get wet. And evidently, there are new activations, things they can do to basically be more appealing to a slightly older audience. In addition, the W’s edge pool, which is on the very back, has been basically now given back to the kids. Originally, the idea was like, all right, part of the pool is for the kids, part of the pool is for their parents, but in reality, kids took it over anyway, so most parents didn’t want to go in there. Anyway, long story short, it’s now totally kid-friendly. Speaking of Surfside, I was surprised that Pier 7 was still on board because Pier 7 was one of the venues originally at one point that Railine talked about replacing with a new venue. In fact, there were even surveys that came out talking about some ideas for it. But as it turns out, Pier 7 is exactly the same. And overall, Surfside still has that great appeal that for kids, I wish my kids were still that young that we could fully take advantage of it. In the meantime, my oldest daughter will continue to go to Surfside Eery and have the animal chicken nuggets because that is just her favorite thing in the whole wide world. In general, you’re going to find tweaks, replacements, and a few surprises in the Star of the Seas because they’re really subtle differences between the ships. If you’re coming into Star thinking, “Man, how different is it from Icon?” not that much more. Now, for example, the Broadway show on Icon is Wizard of Oz, but on Star of the Seas, it’s Back to the Future the Musical, which is going to be an amazing add-on here because Back to the Future the Musical is a full Broadway show. It’s incredible and it’s included in your cruiser, which is even better. Another big change is over in the Aquedo marketplace because you have new food halls there. Pigout Barbecue, M Thai, and Lacita will replace Ginger, Max, and Toast and Garden. You’ll still have, don’t worry, the feta and the crepes, but Royal Kirby is leaning into some new ideas here with a Thai place, a barbecue place, and a I assume Mexican place, some sort of Latin American food. Anyway, the point is is you’ve got some new options to try out there. You’ll find me there quite a bit. Speaking of new restaurants, another one is the Lincoln Park Supper Club, and this really is the only true new dining restaurant on board. like Aquedome is still the same with some tweaks. Whereas here with Lincoln Park, it’s a totally different menu altogether. Now on Icon of the Seas, the Supper Club is an experience where you have jazz music tied to New York theme. Here on Star, it’s going to be Chicago themed, and I can’t wait to try this out myself. There are arguably the two cutest changes on Star of the Seas. First and foremost, you have Sailor, the family dog. Yes, there is a golden retriever that lives on board Star of the Seas and you can meet Sailor while on board. Now, to find Sailor, it’s more of luck because occasionally she’ll go through public areas, but if you see her, you’re absolutely welcome to say hello and stop and pet and take a selfie with her. But this is a golden retriever dog. It was an idea that first came on Icon of the Seas. Of course, there was Rover on Icon and on Star it is Sailor. And yes, they’re both girls. And I mean, do I really have to explain why golden retriever is cute? But the other really cool idea was they actually have a group of housekeeping robots, which is a first for Royal Caribbean. There are two types of robots that can clean floors and carpets constantly. Bob is for hard surfaces and Betsy takes care of the carpeting. I found them in the overlook, but I’m not sure exactly where they’ll be deployed to yet, but it’s a neat idea. I like that they’re embracing technology, but making it fun. I also noticed what looks like telescopes around the ship in various public areas. These are very similar to the small wonders feature that are on Oasis and Allure of the Seas. But basically, you find these things, you look through them, and there’s a different design in each one. Truly, what you’re talking about Star of the Seas is an opportunity to sail on a ship that is as good as Icon of the Seas, if not a little bit better, with some of the tweaks and changes they’ve made here. I really don’t think Royal Caribbean wants or ever intended to blow people away with a completely new experience that was fundamentally different than Icon. Instead, you’ve really got the winning formula on another ship. It’s like, you know, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. And also double up what’s working for them. Now, of course, this is a very short preview that I’ve only been on here, and this is not the full experience. I’ll be going back on Star of the Seas for a couple more sailings to get the full experience, really see and do as much as I can on this new ship and truly experience what Royal Caribbean intended with it. The cool thing about a first look experience like this is that it gives me the opportunity to share with all of you what to expect and what Royal Caribbean has planned for it. Of course, we’re going to have a full cruise ship tour for you where you can see every single part of the ship. If you’re watching this video when it first comes out, we’ve got a preview of the ship coming up next in our next video. But if you’re watching this video later on, we’re going to have the full ship tour for you to check out. Let me know in the comments below what are you most excited about Star of the Seas and which features are the most surprising to you. While every down below you, hit the like button, subscribe to our channel, and turn on notifications so that way YouTube have a brand new video to share. This has been Matt from royalblog.com and we’ll talk again real

Royal Caribbean invited me to come check out Star of the Seas before anyone else, and it’s our first look, early glimpse of what this new ship is like!

The second Icon Class ship, Star of the Seas hopes to bring back the magic that made Icon of the Seas so successful and add a few twists and improvements too!

Full disclosure: Royal Caribbean invited to sail on Star of the Seas for free as part of a press trip. All thoughts and opinions are my own, and the cruise line didn’t pay me or edit this video!

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