There's one thing that can make or break a cruise experience, and it's not the food, the entertainment, or the cabins.
It's flow.
I'm talking about passenger flow, the ability of guests to move freely through crowded bottlenecks or dead ends on a cruise ship. And when you're building the Icon of the Seas, the world's largest cruise ship, designed to carry 5,610 passengers at double occupancy (up to 7,600 at maximum capacity), you have to pay special attention to where people congregate and how they move from point to point A to point B through a 20 deck high ship.
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Luckily, Royal Caribbean's ship designers are pros when it comes to the river.
There's a buzz online about the size of the ship, and the assumption among many people who have never sailed on a massive cruise ship is that thousands of people crowded together on a floating mega-resort will lead to the feeling that there are people everywhere gives. They imagine a vacation marked by queues, claustrophobic spaces full of people and the inability to find a quiet place for themselves.
While certain parts of the ship will be heavily trafficked (on sea days, the pool deck is never quiet on large, mass-market ships), Icon of the Seas passengers won't feel like they're always jockeying for seats, tables, and clear paths fight minute of the day. The ship is designed to move passengers easily across decks, connecting key public areas and avoiding dead ends.
“We had to go to great lengths to make it feel like there wasn't too much or that putting 7,000 guests in there wouldn't feel overwhelming,” Jay Schneider, Royal Caribbean's chief product innovation officer, told TPG an interview on board the Icon of the Seas. “And that led us to some really concrete decisions.”
Here's what he told us about what his team did to create a massive cruise ship that doesn't seem as crowded as you fear.
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Guest flow
Surf site. ERICA SILVERSTEIN/THE POINTS GUY
Schneider and his team make a point of studying other cruise lines, both Royal Caribbean and its competitors. “I think ships often feel stuffy, cramped and closed when it comes to guest flow,” he said.
“Cruise ships are always finding dead ends for people that they can’t get around, and we’ve really focused on avoiding that.” [on Icon of the Seas]. If you don't want to do that, you can get from Deck 2 to Deck 8 in the heart of the ship without having to touch an elevator.
I experienced this relaxed process aboard the Icon of the Seas when I took a quick look at the ship this week before its first sailings (even though it only had hundreds, not thousands, of people on board). When you're in Surfside, the family area of the ship, you can easily walk up the stairs to Central Park, an outdoor parking area of the ship, or down to the indoor, mall-like Royal Promenade. You don't feel lost because the districts are different and you can easily move between them.
To support guest flow, Icon of the Seas offers multiple ways to move between decks in key neighborhoods. Several staircases in the Royal Promenade allow you to change decks in several places, not just at both ends. Two locations on the ship – from Deck 8 to Surfside and between two levels of the Chill Island pool deck – allow you to slide between decks.
Related: Royal Caribbean ships ranked by size, largest to smallest – the full list
Icon of the Seas also features a new elevator system where, instead of getting into an available elevator and selecting a floor inside, you select your floor using a touchpad and are then directed to one of the 12 elevators in the lobby. The amount of research that went into this plan is staggering.
Schneider sent team members to observe people using this new elevator technology in high-rise office buildings and on other cruise ships where it was used. They then conducted their own tests.
“We built a replica of the elevator lobby at Symphony of the Seas,” Schneider said. “We put live guests through two different simulations. We adjusted one trip and then came back months later with a new one. We had a few hundred guests walk through because the elevators play a key role in that process. This is where technology comes in to help us make this targeted.
The team realized that while the technology wasn't intuitive for many guests, it made a big difference. Ultimately, “we chose this because the river is so important.”
But here too, the shipping company is taking a smart approach when it comes to making movement on the ship smooth. “We will have greeters on decks 5, 6 and the windjammer on the first day of the cruise,” Schneider explained. “We're going to have someone explain to you what it is on the first day because we learned from our testing that everyone has it after the first day and we didn't want to add that cognitive overhead.” [to figure out the new system] on the guest.”
As a side note, one of the obstacles to smooth sailing on cruise ships is often teenagers congregating in the stairwell. We spoke with members of Royal Caribbean's product team who told us how they held many focus groups with teenagers to figure out how best to provide them with hangouts and activities that they would be more likely to participate in to get them into certain areas of the ship and out of the elevator stairwell.
The result is that more teen activities will take place around the ship rather than in the teen lounge, with the takeover of adults-only areas like the Hideaway or a teen teppanyaki dinner in Izumi.
Related: The Ultimate Guide to Royal Caribbean Cruise Ships and Itineraries
Opening of the Royal Promenade
Royal promenade. ERICA SILVERSTEIN/THE POINTS GUY
The Royal Promenade is the main thoroughfare of public areas for many of Royal Caribbean's larger ships. The interior often feels like a mall, with shops and restaurants lining an artificially lit, windowless corridor. Your first step onto the ship often occurs in this busy yet chaotic space, and the effect can be overwhelming. On Oasis-class ships with two-deck-high promenades, the upper deck dead-ends before reaching the opposite side of the ship.
On Icon, Royal Caribbean has set out to open up the Royal Promenade to make it lighter and more spacious, improving the feel and flow. Schneider said there were three main factors that led to the space's success.
The first is the Pearl, a spherical structure in the middle of the promenade with a staircase inside. It looks like an art installation, but in reality it is the structural support of the ship. It replaces the steel skeleton that supports most ships in the area and takes the load, allowing the middle of the ship to be fitted with windows on both sides that look out to sea. The effect brings more light into the room to eliminate the gloomy mall feel.
The second step was the removal of huts above the Royal Promenade. “For the first time you won’t find any cabins on a Royal Promenade,” said Schneider. “And so we get a complete 360° mezzanine and so we also create a more spacious feeling.”
Without inward-facing cabins overlooking the promenade, Royal Caribbean could redesign this space so that the upper level extends entirely from the front to the stern of the ship. The result is that a person standing on the boardwalk doesn't feel as cramped by all the cabins looking down, and the flow of passengers through the space is aided because people can walk over on two levels with multiple elevator banks at either end to switch between levels.
The latest change is that “all facades – except retail, which must close – are open.” The Point and Feather Pub has no wall on its promenade side, but is open to traffic. Giovanni's, the Italian restaurant, is a completely open space that you can enter on the upper level. This also creates a feeling of openness and allows people to move freely between aisles and venues without creating bottlenecks at the doors.
Related: The 5 Best Destinations to Visit on a Royal Caribbean Cruise
Self-contained districts
Surfside Restaurant. ERICA SILVERSTEIN/THE POINTS GUY
Schneider didn't mention Icon's neighborhood concept in terms of guest flow, but Linken d'Souza, Royal Caribbean's vice president of food and beverage, gave us some insight into how Icon of the Seas was designed with simplicity and convenience in mind.
“With all the neighborhoods, we thought about how to make it convenient,” he told us. This means guests will find food options in the larger areas of the ship, so they don't have to leave the ship like everyone else and feast on the Windjammer Marketplace buffet. You can find options where they are.
For example, in Surfside, the neighborhood geared toward young families, you'll find three restaurants: the Surfside Eatery buffet, Surfside Bites for takeout kids' meals, and Pier 7, a casual specialty restaurant where kids eat free but parents can enjoy upscale lunch options. and enjoy dinner. Nobody has to walk across the ship when hunger strikes.
In the Thrill Island neighborhood, home to all the adrenaline-pumping offerings (water park, ropes course, climbing wall), there's Basecamp, which serves comfort food like burgers and chicken sandwiches, and in the AquaDome there's the AquaDome Market, a five-venue food hall and venue the specialty restaurant Hooked Seafood.
By giving your guests a reason to stay in one place, you reduce the number of people constantly crossing the ships and crowding elevators and corridors.
Related: 35 Royal Caribbean Cruise Tips and Tricks to Make Your Trip Even More Enjoyable
He also talked about the new restaurant reservation technology Royal Caribbean is working on to make it easier to get to the restaurants you want when you're fighting for space with 7,000 shipmates. Of course, multiple dining locations, including additional free dining options (based on guest feedback), will hopefully ease the pressure on certain popular spots.
In addition, the Icon of the Seas offers five set meal times as well as My Time Dining, so that half the ship doesn't end up in the dining room at the same time. This also means passengers have more choices so they can find the meal time that works best for their family.
The programming will also help spread people around the ship. The lookout point in the AquaDome is intended to be a quiet place to read or relax on a day at sea when there is no AquaTheater show. To achieve this, the ship does not schedule popular activities in this area during the day to avoid the crowds and noise elsewhere.
Bottom line
When vacationing on the world's largest cruise ship, expect lines and a crowded pool deck. But by employing several intelligent design and programming strategies, Royal Caribbean aims to avoid unnecessary crowds on Icon of the Seas as much as possible.
I experienced this on the Wonder of the Seas (now the second largest cruise ship in the world); In places where I encountered bottlenecks or crowds on smaller but less well-designed ships from other shipping companies, it actually felt less crowded.
So don't be afraid of a ship that carries 7,000 people. You'll be surprised at how much your shipmates don't get in the way of your perfect vacation.
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