Thanks for the great tips Jim, I agree with you. I did Icon and felt it was too expensive and too crowded with long lines everywhere. My family also did Celebration and enjoyed the cruise more than Icon since there were less crowds and shorter lines.
Good insight! While Icon is a gorgeous ship the prices are a bit much. I've also looked at Celebration on Carnival but book Mardi Gras for HALF the price as Icon
Great video, Jim! I always enjoy watching your content! For our 2022 honeymoon, thanks to your advice, we booked a Havana balcony on the Vista and it was the perfect experience! Happy cruising to you!
Great video!! You are on point! Carnival hit a home run with their Excel class ships! Tremendous value! The Serenity area offers comfort that you have to pay much extra for in other cruise lines! Alot to so at night, great food, great design. Its our favorite class of ship. We like the Oasis class but Carnival's Excel class beats them out for the $. We've been doing MSC Yacht Club which is the best value in cruising! Exemptional food and service at a great price. We also have been cruising NCL because they are a better deal if you factor in their excellent included drink package and airfare discounts. Carnival's fares are less, but their drink package is ridiculously expensive. Carnival's fares can also be a bit pricey during peak season. We are cruising NCL out of Miami next year on winter break. The 7 day Carribean cruise with airfare (Nyc to Miami) and unlimited drinks included is only $2600 for 2 people!! The fare for the same 7 day cruise on Celebration is only $1600 but with their drink package and airfare, the cost soars to over $3500!! We are cruising MSC out of Brooklyn in July. We are trying their "g-pop" aka general population because of the low price and are going with the entire family of over 12 people! People say MSC g- pop is nothing like thier Yacht Club. We ll see. Im retired and relatively young (49) so I can cruise any time, My wife is a teacher and can only go during peak season. She retires next June so we ll be cruising Carnival alot more. We ll get great off peak deals on the fares to offset the drink costs. Carnival's expensive watered down drinks is their Achilles heel. We normally arent big drinkers but we do enjoy our Blue Hawaiians poolside and Martinis at night when on a cruise. If you dont drink, then Carnival is the best overall option out there for the $. MSC is the cheapest all around but doesn't compare overall to Carnival. Royal's prices are absolutely retarded now! Great cruiseline, but not worth the $ they want! I cant believe people pay!! We made 450k when i was working and still make over $350k retired and have a net worth over 5 million. Yet we REFUSE to be ripped off by Royal. We rather invest the thousands of dollars we save by cruising Carnival, MSC and NCL into mutual funds!!
Jim Zim,,I so appreciate your take on cruising and value for your dollar. You also like quality and good service and fair treatment and ability to both do things, have choice, see history and shows as well as have good food and down time and like nice casual kid things as much as elegant adult things. I loved your first Panorama and her sister ship's overview and nice to hear you say you feel same way about Celebration and her class and repeating Panorama and her class. I would be happy with even older ships and have dreams of one day being the old Auntie that takes family on a cruise...I am finally getting closer to travelling more often and am so glad that as each new Carnival class comes out, you can still like the quality and think these newer classes pass well for a big family trip with plenty of choice and entertainment and kid food and activity as well as adult space and times. That cost is insane now on Royal and the size of Icon especially, dragging stuff with little wee wee ones, that is a lot of ground...thanks so much. Making money and growth is a good thing but this level currently on Royal is just too much...I will take more affordable mainstrean and premium lines and wisely choose with Carnival. I even liked the Paradise in 2009..an oldie before oldie updates...lol. Looking forward to the 2 classes you reccomend, all the new things since my Paradise and Spirit cruises, and the new Italian Carnival ones look fun too.
We cruised on the Celebrity Apex, which was awesome and half the price of the Icon. Later this year, we are sailing on the Symphony of the Seas for 1/3 the price of Icon! Symphony of the Seas has the Ultimate Abyss, Central Park, and the most amazing entertainment. Royal and Celebrity have Solariums that are free, quiet and available to adults only. No need to shell out extra money.
We sailed on Carnival Horizon-loved the Havana deck and it is exactly as you say. The one experience we had that you didn’t mention was we got to sit in the hot tub and enjoy the sailing out of port! I have never been able to do that with such a great view OR uncrowded hot tub. It was amazing!
I'm with you. We booked with Catlin 5 months ago for the New years eve inaugural sailing for 2 people was $5,500 now it's over $9,000 for the same ocean view balcony cabin. I only plan on doing this cruise ship one time.
We were just on the Carnival Celebration last week for a 7-day Eastern Caribbean out of Miami. We were on a casino rate, so it was really reasonable. We really liked the ship. We stayed in an interior cabin in the Havana area on deck 8. We enjoyed the private area for Havana guests and our companions were in a Havana balcony so we hung out on their balcony as well as the lounge chairs and Havanna pool overlooking the side of the ship. We joked that they must add ice at night to that pool as it was so cold! It was fun to watch the ship leave port from the open area outside of the balconies that wrap around the front of the ship. I liked the layout of the ship, the many food options, activities, large casino, shows, etc. We found the food and restaurant service to be lacking compared to other lines we have been on. I did enjoy the Steakhouse, Italian restaurant, and of course Guy's Burgers. I did find the buffet to be lacking variety for dinner, but it was better at lunch. Aside from that I would do it again and would recommend it. We met a lot of really nice people. My wife and I do not have children, but there appeared to be plenty of activities for kids.
Thanks. You definitely can cruise other lines for way less money for the same experience. Unbelievably anyone would pay these insane prices. Celebration is a great ship.
At first I was in aww of all the things on the Icon of the Seas but then I realize I wouldn’t take advantage of a lot of the offerings that’s on the ship. So for me it’s not worth it at this time. I’ll wait a few years once they drop the prices.
Jim- you nailed it with this one. We’re sailing Jubilee in September for 1/3 of the cost of Icon while Jubilee is still in its inaugural season. Agree with you about the Havana experience. It’s the most affordable “ship within a ship” at sea. RCI’s own Celebrity Edge-class ships are also running anywhere from 1/3-1/2 the cost of Icon which simply baffles me. That’s for Beyond and Ascent which are brand new! Why is RCI out pricing its premium line with its mainstream line? RCI sure is super proud of Icon. I hope people don’t bite at these high prices. It’ll be bad for the cruisers like us.
Hey Jim, i have a question: can you do a strength test with all your engines at your home please ? If yes, i think the White Pass diesel locomotive would win against the others
I really think Royal Caribbean’s absurd prices is their compensation for building these 200,000 GT ships that they’re now forced to relegate to 3-4 night cruises because apparently jacking up the prices and shortening the cruise creates better profit? Even though they carry the same activities as any other modern cruise ship but bigger is better am I right?
Icon's price point is just outrageous. I get it that its the newest ship and new ships always cost more, but Royal is just going crazy with their prices. Not just the cost of the cruise itself, but also the cost of extras at places like Coco Cay. Cabanas at Coco Cay for one day are going for the price of a 7 night cruise on Carnival. Going on a zipline once is priced so expensive that its the cost of an 8 hour excursion on almost any other cruise line. I've been enjoying Princess when I was loyal to Royal for years. The price has always been right for me, the plus and premier packages are less than the drinks package alone on Royal, and I really like the food (I know food is subjective but I've loved the food on Princess). I dont know what Royal thinks they're doing but they've got Icon booked solid so until there are cabins there going empty, Royal will keep charging their outrageous prices for Icon.
I've done 64 cruises, but only one was with Celebrity. You can find out what I loved about it ( and what I didn't love) here: ua-cam.com/video/jRaqi_xSo4c/v-deo.html
You're doing yourself an extreme disservice by judging Carnival based on that old ship. Today's Carnival is nothing like that, which I'm trying to show in this video. I could cruise with any of the cruise lines. The fact that I continue to choose Carnival more often than any other cruise line should tell you something.
Also if it was a shorter cruise for Carnival, they generally are a different experience than the 7+ day cruises with them. All the Carnival cruises I've been on have been 7+ days. The vibe was definitely fun but never out of control or rowdy. I have also experienced RCL on an Oasis class ship and still had a good time, but it was definitely more tame and I missed the Guy's burgers. I will be experiencing Princess next year on the Sun Princess. I already know I won't be having a Carnival experience, but we also getting one of their Cabana mini suites complete with premier package for less than that RCL balcony mentioned in this vid
I think you might be exaggerating just a little bit... because I actually have control of exactly when UA-cam is allowed to play ads during the video... and the first ad break that I have authorized is at 5 minutes and 43 seconds in to the video. Now it is true that the next authorized ad break after that is about three minutes later... but after that it's about five more minutes until the video is completely over before UA-cam is allowed to run another.
@@JimZim not just your video, here in Slovenia 🇸🇮 popular UA-cam videos have adverts every few minutes. It’s a problem that pushes us to ad free subscription. Loved the video all the same 🧔🏼♀️
Thanks Jim Zim! When i got into cruising years ago your videos were on my regular watch list.
Absolutely LOVE your drone views! Great video! Considering Mardi Gras for 10 year anniversary this September!
Thanks for the great tips Jim, I agree with you. I did Icon and felt it was too expensive and too crowded with long lines everywhere. My family also did Celebration and enjoyed the cruise more than Icon since there were less crowds and shorter lines.
Good insight! While Icon is a gorgeous ship the prices are a bit much. I've also looked at Celebration on Carnival but book Mardi Gras for HALF the price as Icon
Great video, Jim! I always enjoy watching your content!
For our 2022 honeymoon, thanks to your advice, we booked a Havana balcony on the Vista and it was the perfect experience!
Happy cruising to you!
I am so glad to hear that!
I love Carnival. I think most people hate it for no good reason.
Great video!! You are on point! Carnival hit a home run with their Excel class ships! Tremendous value! The Serenity area offers comfort that you have to pay much extra for in other cruise lines! Alot to so at night, great food, great design. Its our favorite class of ship. We like the Oasis class but Carnival's Excel class beats them out for the $. We've been doing MSC Yacht Club which is the best value in cruising! Exemptional food and service at a great price. We also have been cruising NCL because they are a better deal if you factor in their excellent included drink package and airfare discounts. Carnival's fares are less, but their drink package is ridiculously expensive. Carnival's fares can also be a bit pricey during peak season. We are cruising NCL out of Miami next year on winter break. The 7 day Carribean cruise with airfare (Nyc to Miami) and unlimited drinks included is only $2600 for 2 people!! The fare for the same 7 day cruise on Celebration is only $1600 but with their drink package and airfare, the cost soars to over $3500!! We are cruising MSC out of Brooklyn in July. We are trying their "g-pop" aka general population because of the low price and are going with the entire family of over 12 people! People say MSC g- pop is nothing like thier Yacht Club. We ll see. Im retired and relatively young (49) so I can cruise any time, My wife is a teacher and can only go during peak season. She retires next June so we ll be cruising Carnival alot more. We ll get great off peak deals on the fares to offset the drink costs. Carnival's expensive watered down drinks is their Achilles heel. We normally arent big drinkers but we do enjoy our Blue Hawaiians poolside and Martinis at night when on a cruise. If you dont drink, then Carnival is the best overall option out there for the $. MSC is the cheapest all around but doesn't compare overall to Carnival. Royal's prices are absolutely retarded now! Great cruiseline, but not worth the $ they want! I cant believe people pay!! We made 450k when i was working and still make over $350k retired and have a net worth over 5 million. Yet we REFUSE to be ripped off by Royal. We rather invest the thousands of dollars we save by cruising Carnival, MSC and NCL into mutual funds!!
You are the voice of reason Jim. You make the best videos Jim.
That's very nice of you to say!
Jim Zim,,I so appreciate your take on cruising and value for your dollar. You also like quality and good service and fair treatment and ability to both do things, have choice, see history and shows as well as have good food and down time and like nice casual kid things as much as elegant adult things. I loved your first Panorama and her sister ship's overview and nice to hear you say you feel same way about Celebration and her class and repeating Panorama and her class. I would be happy with even older ships and have dreams of one day being the old Auntie that takes family on a cruise...I am finally getting closer to travelling more often and am so glad that as each new Carnival class comes out, you can still like the quality and think these newer classes pass well for a big family trip with plenty of choice and entertainment and kid food and activity as well as adult space and times. That cost is insane now on Royal and the size of Icon especially, dragging stuff with little wee wee ones, that is a lot of ground...thanks so much. Making money and growth is a good thing but this level currently on Royal is just too much...I will take more affordable mainstrean and premium lines and wisely choose with Carnival. I even liked the Paradise in 2009..an oldie before oldie updates...lol. Looking forward to the 2 classes you reccomend, all the new things since my Paradise and Spirit cruises, and the new Italian Carnival ones look fun too.
We cruised on the Celebrity Apex, which was awesome and half the price of the Icon. Later this year, we are sailing on the Symphony of the Seas for 1/3 the price of Icon! Symphony of the Seas has the Ultimate Abyss, Central Park, and the most amazing entertainment. Royal and Celebrity have Solariums that are free, quiet and available to adults only. No need to shell out extra money.
We sailed on Carnival Horizon-loved the Havana deck and it is exactly as you say. The one experience we had that you didn’t mention was we got to sit in the hot tub and enjoy the sailing out of port! I have never been able to do that with such a great view OR uncrowded hot tub. It was amazing!
That's a great point about the views of sailaway from the hot tubs in the Havana area of the Vista-class ships!
Carnival Firenze and Carnival Venezia also have hot tubs in their Terazza area, just no pool like their Vista-class sisters.
I'm with you. We booked with Catlin 5 months ago for the New years eve inaugural sailing for 2 people was $5,500 now it's over $9,000 for the same ocean view balcony cabin. I only plan on doing this cruise ship one time.
Another great video Jim!
Thank you!
Great point on Vista class Havana! Have tried it but will!!
We were just on the Carnival Celebration last week for a 7-day Eastern Caribbean out of Miami. We were on a casino rate, so it was really reasonable. We really liked the ship. We stayed in an interior cabin in the Havana area on deck 8. We enjoyed the private area for Havana guests and our companions were in a Havana balcony so we hung out on their balcony as well as the lounge chairs and Havanna pool overlooking the side of the ship. We joked that they must add ice at night to that pool as it was so cold! It was fun to watch the ship leave port from the open area outside of the balconies that wrap around the front of the ship. I liked the layout of the ship, the many food options, activities, large casino, shows, etc. We found the food and restaurant service to be lacking compared to other lines we have been on. I did enjoy the Steakhouse, Italian restaurant, and of course Guy's Burgers. I did find the buffet to be lacking variety for dinner, but it was better at lunch. Aside from that I would do it again and would recommend it. We met a lot of really nice people. My wife and I do not have children, but there appeared to be plenty of activities for kids.
Totally agree Jim! Not just icon overpriced on Royal.
Thanks. You definitely can cruise other lines for way less money for the same experience. Unbelievably anyone would pay these insane prices. Celebration is a great ship.
At first I was in aww of all the things on the Icon of the Seas but then I realize I wouldn’t take advantage of a lot of the offerings that’s on the ship. So for me it’s not worth it at this time. I’ll wait a few years once they drop the prices.
Thanks Jim!
Thank you for sharing 😊
Thanks for the eye opening comparison
Jim- you nailed it with this one. We’re sailing Jubilee in September for 1/3 of the cost of Icon while Jubilee is still in its inaugural season.
Agree with you about the Havana experience. It’s the most affordable “ship within a ship” at sea.
RCI’s own Celebrity Edge-class ships are also running anywhere from 1/3-1/2 the cost of Icon which simply baffles me. That’s for Beyond and Ascent which are brand new! Why is RCI out pricing its premium line with its mainstream line?
RCI sure is super proud of Icon. I hope people don’t bite at these high prices. It’ll be bad for the cruisers like us.
Thanks for sharing great job
Hey Jim, i have a question: can you do a strength test with all your engines at your home please ? If yes, i think the White Pass diesel locomotive would win against the others
I’ve definitely had more fun on carnival!
I really think Royal Caribbean’s absurd prices is their compensation for building these 200,000 GT ships that they’re now forced to relegate to 3-4 night cruises because apparently jacking up the prices and shortening the cruise creates better profit? Even though they carry the same activities as any other modern cruise ship but bigger is better am I right?
Icon's price point is just outrageous. I get it that its the newest ship and new ships always cost more, but Royal is just going crazy with their prices. Not just the cost of the cruise itself, but also the cost of extras at places like Coco Cay. Cabanas at Coco Cay for one day are going for the price of a 7 night cruise on Carnival. Going on a zipline once is priced so expensive that its the cost of an 8 hour excursion on almost any other cruise line. I've been enjoying Princess when I was loyal to Royal for years. The price has always been right for me, the plus and premier packages are less than the drinks package alone on Royal, and I really like the food (I know food is subjective but I've loved the food on Princess). I dont know what Royal thinks they're doing but they've got Icon booked solid so until there are cabins there going empty, Royal will keep charging their outrageous prices for Icon.
I am in total agreement with you!
I've sailed MSC, and have another one booked. I'll pass on Carnival again.
I had looked into Havana but found it too expensive, so we went with MSC Yacht club.
Have you heard about MSC Seashore and MSC World Europa. They have very good prices.
I have sailed with MSC once before. Never again. It was the worst cruise out of the 64 I've been on.
@@JimZim Thank you Just asked because I leave the end of the month on MSC Seashore. Lets see how it goes. Thanks for the imput.
Jim, do you recommend Celebrity for a fellow boomer??
I've done 64 cruises, but only one was with Celebrity. You can find out what I loved about it ( and what I didn't love) here:
ua-cam.com/video/jRaqi_xSo4c/v-deo.html
@@JimZimthanks
I don’t know, I sailed with Carnival Fantasy back in the day, and that was like Walmart on the water. I’ve been turned off Carnival forever.
You're doing yourself an extreme disservice by judging Carnival based on that old ship. Today's Carnival is nothing like that, which I'm trying to show in this video. I could cruise with any of the cruise lines. The fact that I continue to choose Carnival more often than any other cruise line should tell you something.
Also if it was a shorter cruise for Carnival, they generally are a different experience than the 7+ day cruises with them. All the Carnival cruises I've been on have been 7+ days. The vibe was definitely fun but never out of control or rowdy. I have also experienced RCL on an Oasis class ship and still had a good time, but it was definitely more tame and I missed the Guy's burgers. I will be experiencing Princess next year on the Sun Princess. I already know I won't be having a Carnival experience, but we also getting one of their Cabana mini suites complete with premier package for less than that RCL balcony mentioned in this vid
Hi Jim
I would say your days of getting free cruises from Royal as an influencer are likely over....
They have never even once offered me a free cruise, a reduced-rate cruise, or anything of the kind. So, I am free to express my 100% honest opinions.
@@JimZim I am sorry, I thought you had mentioned that your Icon cruise was as an influencer. I must have you confused with someone else. My apologies.
Great advice ❤ but I got adds every 3 minutes interrupting my viewing 😵💫
I think you might be exaggerating just a little bit... because I actually have control of exactly when UA-cam is allowed to play ads during the video... and the first ad break that I have authorized is at 5 minutes and 43 seconds in to the video. Now it is true that the next authorized ad break after that is about three minutes later... but after that it's about five more minutes until the video is completely over before UA-cam is allowed to run another.
@@JimZim not just your video, here in Slovenia 🇸🇮 popular UA-cam videos have adverts every few minutes. It’s a problem that pushes us to ad free subscription. Loved the video all the same 🧔🏼♀️
I’m surprised.
You had me interested UNTIL you mentioned Carnival. NOPE. I stopped the video after that.
How long has it been since you last cruised with Carnival?
Just got off the Celebration. Wow what a home run Carnival has done with these new ships. Don’t think I will be returning to Royal anytime soon.