Breaking Down the Numbers: One Year of Fun on Icon of the Seas

Royal Caribbean has released an eye-catching infographic celebrating one year of Icon of the Seas, the world’s largest cruise ship. While it highlights fun milestones, it also offers insights into passenger trends and onboard experiences. Let’s break down the numbers and see what they reveal.

Milkshakes Are Big Business

Icon of the Seas saw the debut of a new milkshake venue called Desserted. Here, they serve up over-the-top, Instagram-worthy drinks. Located in the Thrill Island upper deck of the ship, it’s apparently a very popular spot.

According to Royal Caribbean’s infographic, they sold an average of 152 milkshakes per day! That’s 25% more than the number of drinks they sold at the three-story Lime and Coconut pool bar.

What makes this even more impressive? Desserted’s milkshakes aren’t included in Royal Caribbean’s drink packages (even though Johnny Rockets milkshakes are on other ships). With an average price of $14 per shake (plus an 18% gratuity), this small venue brought in an estimated $914,000 in revenue in its first year.

Celebration Table Struggles to Find Its Audience

Another new concept debuting on Icon of the Seas was Celebration Table, an exclusive dining experience located in the AquaDome. This private space seats up to 14 guests for a prix fixe dinner with a choice of four themed menus: American, Italian, Asian, and Seafood.

However, according to the infographic, only 96 groups booked Celebration Table in the first year—an average of just two per sailing.

With a price of around $1,000 per group (or $71 per person when fully booked), the cost isn’t drastically higher than a specialty restaurant like Chops Grille, which typically runs about $60 per person. But if a group has only 10 people, the per-person price jumps to $100, making other specialty dining options more attractive.

With Celebration Table, you get prime real estate with a private room and amazing views, but the 14 person limit may be too small if you want the space for a special occasion. If I were cruising with my immediate family and wanted to do it, we’d have too many people to fit in that space.

With just 96 parties in a year, Royal Caribbean only made roughly $96,000 out of this premium space on the ship.

Free Ice Cream Demand is Sky High

One of the most staggering stats? Sprinkles, the ship’s complimentary soft-serve ice cream stand, served 1.59 million cones in its first year—averaging 4,368 per day.

To put that in perspective, for every drink served at the Lime and Coconut, passengers enjoyed 36 free ice cream cones.

Crown’s Edge Was More Popular Than Thought

One of Icon of the Seas’ most anticipated new attractions was Crown’s Edge, a combination ropes course and zip line that lets guests walk on a narrow beam 100 feet above the ocean.

When it first launched, the price of the 90-second attraction was a ridiculous $89 per guest, or $1 per second. Since launch, the price has come down considerably. For an April sailing, the price is now $29, a far more reasonable cost. Still, it’s worth noting ropes courses are free on Carnival and Norwegian ships where you spend much more time on them.

15,000 people tried out the attraction in Icon’s first year. That’s about 40 people a day.

Entertainment Options Galore

The Icon of the Seas has three main performance venues on board: the Royal Theater, the AquaTheater at the AquaDome, and Absolute Zero (the ice rink). In the Royal Theater, the larger of the venues holding 1,220 guests, they’ve shown The Wizard of Oz and The Effectors: The Origin Story 308 times.

For the AquaTheater and Absolute Zero, which are about 35% smaller, they ran more shows, 449 performances of the Aqua Action! stunt/dive show and 426 ice shows.

We can’t tell from the numbers how many of the Aqua Action shows were canceled. One of the biggest problems with the AquaTheater on the Oasis Class ships was that they were frequently canceled due to bad weather. Since the AquaDome is enclosed on Icon of the Seas, it would be interesting to see if show cancellations have decreased.

Icon of the Seas Bringing Fun to Thousands

From thousands of ice cream cones to nearly a million dollars in milkshake sales, Icon of the Seas is clearly making waves. While some premium experiences like Celebration Table have struggled to gain traction, high-energy attractions and indulgent treats are thriving. And there are so many other new features about that ship that the infographic didn’t cover, like the Dueling Piano Bar, Surfside kid’s neighborhood, and Category 6 Waterpark.

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