What is first class like on the world's most expensive cruise ship? — featuring LivingBobby
In this video: FIRST CLASS on WORLD’S MOST EXPENSIVE CRUISE SHIP (Record Breaking $2 Billion Budget)!
LivingBobby · 1 year ago
How much does it cost to run this cruise ship daily?
The video reveals that Icon of the Seas costs $1 million per day to operate, making it one of the most expensive ships to maintain. This operational cost factors into ticket pricing for all passengers.
What this video answers
How much does it cost to run this cruise ship daily?
What to Expect on the World's Most Expensive Cruise Ship
Icon of the Seas, the world's largest and most expensive cruise ship at $2 billion, is a floating city with 20 floors and capacity for 10,000 passengers. The video follows a complete 24-hour first-class experience aboard this record-breaking vessel, documenting everything from fine dining to onboard activities across multiple deck levels. This immersive tour reveals what life is actually like when you spend a full day exploring a mega-ship that operates at a cost of $1 million per day and produces 30,000 meals daily.
This experience suits travelers curious about luxury cruise living, those considering a Royal Caribbean sailing, and anyone wanting an honest behind-the-scenes look at one of the world's largest ships without committing to a full booking. The video balances upscale dining experiences with casual recreation, giving a realistic sense of both the premium and everyday moments aboard.
Key Moments
Standout Attractions on Icon of the Seas
Empire Supper Club — an 8-course dinner with paired cocktails in a 1920s speakeasy setting, priced at $200 per person
The Park — an entire floor dedicated to outdoor gardens and restaurants, including a sushi bar, jazz bar, champagne bar, and Chops Grill steakhouse
Aquadome — a domed neighborhood featuring a bar, seating area, and a Street Food Market with crepes, Chinese food, mac and cheese, and crate stands
The Hideaway — an adults-only area on the 16th floor with an infinity pool overlooking the ocean and a rock climbing wall
Largest water park at sea — four difficulty levels of water slides and activities across multiple floors
Casino Royale, ice skating rink, laser tag course, mini golf, and carousel theme park area
What You Need to Know Before Booking
The ship spans 20 floors with different neighborhoods and zones — plan extra time to explore unfamiliar areas
First-class accommodations include rooms on floors 9-12 with balconies and comfortable furnishings
The vessel operates with 40 different restaurants and complimentary options at every level, so budget depends on which venues you choose
Specialty dining experiences like the Empire Supper Club require advance reservations and cost $200 per person
Peak times mean crowds — quieter upper floors like Cloud 17 exist but become busier during peak hours
The largest buffet at sea offers continuous breakfast options including fresh crepes, American specialties, and made-to-order stations
Expect a mix of formal dining nights and casual daytime activities — bring attire for both
Frequently Asked Questions About Icon of the Seas
How much does it cost to run this cruise ship daily?
The video reveals that Icon of the Seas costs $1 million per day to operate, making it one of the most expensive ships to maintain. This operational cost factors into ticket pricing for all passengers.
What is the largest structure on the ship?
The Pearl is the largest kinetic structure at sea on Icon of the Seas, meaning it physically moves. It's located on the Royal Promenade and serves as a centerpiece attraction that sets this ship apart from competitors.
Can you ice skate on the ship?
Yes — the video features an actual ice skating rink on the sixth floor. However, skating on a moving ship presents an extra challenge; the floor shifts with the vessel's motion, making it notably more difficult than skating on land.
How many meals does the ship prepare daily?
Icon of the Seas makes 30,000 meals every day across its 40 different restaurants and dining venues, demonstrating the enormous logistical operation required to feed 10,000 passengers and crew.
Is there an adults-only area on the ship?
Yes — the Hideaway on the 16th floor is exclusively for adults and features an infinity pool, suspended sports court with basketball and volleyball, and a milkshake bar, offering a quieter escape from family areas.
This video is invaluable if you're considering a luxury cruise or curious about how mega-ships actually operate day-to-day. Rather than just showing the glamorous highlights, the video documents the real rhythm of a 24-hour sailing — from casual breakfast at the massive buffet to late-night cocktails in the speakeasy, mixed with practical activities like ice skating and laser tag that appeal to all ages.
What impressed me most was how the video balances opulence with genuine fun; the Hideaway infinity pool felt truly luxurious, while the Street Food Market and kids' theme park proved the ship caters to diverse travelers. If you're deciding whether Icon of the Seas is worth the investment, this honest walkthrough will help you decide whether it's your style.
Years on the front lines of helicopter tour coordination — not as a travel blogger, but as the person responsible for making every guest experience go right. Managed 2,000+ cruise guests weekly as Shore Excursions staff aboard the Pride of America in Hawaii
Personally coordinated with helicopter tour operators to confirm age, weight, and safety requirements.
This is first class on the world's most expensive cruise ship that is also the largest cruise ship! Enjoy this first class travel experience and 24 hour challenge of a video! Thanks again to Rosetta Stone! Get 60% off the Lifetime Subscription here: https://partners.rosettastone.com/livingbobby.
Now during this video, I review what it’s like to be in first class on the world’s largest cruise ship. After seeing America’s worst cruise, I wasn’t sure what to expect out of this cruise ship tour / 24 hour challenge, but I found out that the world’s largest cruise ship is truly the ultimate travel experience!
During this challenge I do a full cruise ship tour. I also discover Why It Costs $1 Million Per Day To Run One Of The World’s Biggest Cruise Ships and How The World's Largest Cruise Ship Makes 30,000 Meals Every Day and so much more! Join me as I explore the Icon of the Seas similar to Symphony of the Seas, and other Royal Caribbean mega-ships. This challenge was interesting as I also compare it to first class airplane seats like Emirates First Class and also cheap sleeper trains like Amtrak. Additionally I saw how the rooms were like compared to overwater villas and even an arctic cruise to Antarctica.
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Watch All the 24 hour challenges:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJyWHYKj1MV5aJ3sEDNrdcus1Brljpz1v
Watch these specific ones next:
$100 in WORLD'S CHEAPEST COUNTRY Vs. MOST EXPENSIVE COUNTRY (Budget Challenge)!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgeFxJU4NkQ
$1 in WORLD’S CHEAPEST COUNTRY Vs. MOST EXPENSIVE COUNTRY (Budget Challenge)!:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LexIVAJ2q8
24 HOURS in WORLD’S BEST FIRST CLASS (Record Breaking $68,000 Ticket)!:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6SvOU_QE6A
LIVING on VENDING MACHINES in TOKYO for 1 WEEK!:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTlD2H6uSFc
LIVING on WORLD’S BEST BURGERS for 24 HOURS (Gordon Ramsay, MrBeast Burger & MORE)!:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_v5Iyx6nfU
The old largest cruise ship: FIRST CLASS on WORLD’S LARGEST CRUISE SHIP (Record Breaking $1.4 Billion Budget)!
https://youtu.be/WZzthm1Gpjo?si=Nh_MQUCQ4BWJ4JL8
Video transcript for “FIRST CLASS on WORLD’S MOST EXPENSIVE CRUISE SHIP (Record Breaking $2 Billion Budget)!” Accessibility
A full written transcript of this video, provided for accessibility. Select any timestamp to jump the video to that moment.
The new world's largest cruise ship has come out recently and it's... INSANE costing $2 billion dollars with 20 floors and a total capacity of 10,000 people which makes me wonder what's on these 20 floors? like how's the food at the 40 different restaurants? what kind of activities are there?
and overall what's it like to live on board for a full 24 hours? well to find out I booked a first class ticket on the next sailing so let's step aboard and start the 24-hour timer wow, this is amazing! what a welcome on the world's largest cruise ship and this ship is absolutely enormous
with like I said having 20 different floors and we're going to be discovering each floor on this ship and since we boarded on Floors 1 2 and 3 the first floor we're on is floor number four and the first thing I noticed on this floor is they have this casino called Casino Royale
which if you go through the casino there's two other main attractions on this floor of the main theater that features The Wizard of Oz and then through these doors a music hall/ nightclub wow I've never been to a nightclub during the day anyway coming up through the escalator we come
in the fifth floor being I think the biggest space we both have ever seen on a cruise ship before feeling like a small City having all these different shops and complimentary restaurants like this pizza place but definitely the most impressive part of the royal promenade is the
Pearl which is the largest kinetic structure at Sea meaning it moves anyway coming up the stairs through through the Pearl we come in to the sixth floor with this floor having several different restaurants as well however definitely the coolest thing on this floor is they have an ice rink the
only problem is we both are not very good at ice skating we do not know how to ice skate so being on a moving ship what could go wrong you know like oh gosh just walking right here is so scary how do you do it you slide yeah you just slide like roller skating have you ever roller skated
good people no I've never roller skated ah why is everybody so good at this I am getting the hang of this oh my I don't got the hang of this I got this i got this I'm almost at Lucille I'm almost at Lucille oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh you're good you're good you're good sorry I'm
trying to make it I did oh oh my gosh obstacle but anyway coming up to the next floor we have the theme park area of the ship we're having a carousel here an arcade in front of you there I feel as though there's like a Willy Wonka in the Chocolate Factory energy going on here yeah that's
so true like there's like Gian lollipops here a candy shop ice cream bar then continuing up the rainbow colored staircase we come into the next floor being the eighth floor in the incredibly impressive Park I get to say this there's a park on a cruise ship now spread all around this park
there's all these different restaurants here having a sushi and Habachi place to a jazz bar to a Champagne Bar to the best restaurant in this park and one of the fanciest on the ship of chops Grill and since it's lunch time we're going to go check it out but anyway at this restaurant as
you probably guess from the name it's a steakhouse where it's a three course lunch my theme today is eating as much as I can so this is perfect anyway for the first course we have something called called the wed which is a iceberg lettuce with bacon bites cream and cheese and then Lucille went
with the beef Caraco here with arugula parmesan and truffle seasoning all I got to say is that was a good first bite of our meal on the CR ship but for our second course of the main course we went the Beautiful the stunning fet Min now along with this beautiful steak we have four different sides
here of the bacon mac and cheese mashed po Poes asparagus and Grier Tater tops wait lucil have you ever had a tater top before no I haven't I love the name it feels like so American okay Lucille's first Tater tops ever I'm living the American dream for our third course we of course have
the desserts with us going with a beautiful red velvet cake and warm chocolate cake with on the side some ice cream that lava cake is unreal and and that lunch was incredible but what's crazy is being in Hour 3 now we've only explored 1/3 of the ship so far and above us here you can start to see
the first rooms on the ship which from floors 9 to 12 are mostly just that and that's where our room is as well which we'll explore later but first we're on floor 14 where I felt like this ship feels like a floating city but this floor really exemplifies that with having a spa a barber shop
a salon a place to get your nails done a juice bar and so much more although the spa looks super cool we have something else to try out with there also being a fullon laser tag course which we've just signed up for the next game oh my gosh and this laser tag course is legit and lucil and I seem
to be on different teams ready who's going to win all right time to win this is intense these little kids are way too good I'm just running from them hey I keep getting shot by somebody who is this who is gray oh my gosh I'm right behind lucil wait who won who won who won who won
like you're team W oh my gosh we won wait who is who is gray gray that's me gray is you I'm gray but coming in to floor 15 we start to get to the most famous levels of this ship being the outdoor deck levels and it's so big that actually is split up into different neighborhoods so for
example right over here we have chill Island and just like the neighborhood suggest it's a great place to chill with having these super cool nets to lie down in a complimentary grab and go taco place an enclosed pingpong Arena and then of course hot tubs and also the largest
pool on any cruise ship holding 40 gallons of water and again that was just one neighborhood on this level like if we go to the forward of the ship we come into the Aquadome neighborhood being this incredibly impressive Dome like structure which this room has both a bar and also all
these seats to just relax and watch the forward of the ship but definitely my favorite part of the Aquadome is the complimentary Street Food Market which is wild because there's all these different types of places here like there's a Chinese restaurant make your own mac and
cheese stand a Euro stand a custom sandwich and salad place and make your own crate stand I think we have to see if it's lucila PR yeah Crepes amazing yeah she she's French so she's gonna try yeah where are you from I'm from Indonesia Indonesia okay what part of Indonesia uh Bali Bali thank you what are your first impressions of the CR look absolutely packed
so I am very excited is it Lucille approved it is 100% luil approved but anyway we have five more outside levels to explore but being in hour 7 now we have to get ready for dinner which is honestly a shame because these are supposedly the coolest levels on board thought we'll check
them all tomorrow but first we're headed to floor 12 to check out our room and also get changed for dinner which is a pretty solid room having a big couch a super comfy bed but definitely the coolest part about this room is the balcony and although this room is cool right now we
have to get changed into our noral attire here because we're headed to the best restaurant on the ship called the Empire supper club which is an 8 course food and drink experience with the price coming out to $200 a passenger and we've just been told that our table's going to be riding
in 15 minutes via invitation so when we wait I have a little surprise for Lucille Lucille come here do you know how hungry I am right now tell me J I love it you see as you guys know from past videos I've tried to improve my French over the years but recently I've really found
something that's a true learning hack of Rosetta Stone you see it's designed to be 100% on the go with for example having an audio companion tool that you can download for when you're offline but what really has been the absolute game changer for me has been the true accent
feature so if you've been thinking about learning French Arabic Chinese English or any of these 25 different languages I'd highly recommend Rosetta Stone and if you click the link in the description box below you can get 60% off the lifetime subscription for just $149 so thank
you so much again to redone for sponsoring this video and trust me it's worth it anyway now I believe our table is ready you looking for okay looking around I can understand why this is the most fancy restaurant on the ship like it has sort of like a Speak Easy 1920s Vibe and the
menu itself is unbelievable like I've never seen anything like this as this is an eight course meal complete with eight separate drinks and eight separate ambiances the band plays while you eat your meal so to respect the vibe for those around us most of this part is going to be silent
flogging so starting with the first course we have a caviar on top of tiny onion bagel with cream cheese that's paired with a big glass of champagne and anyway for the second course we have a beautiful crispy Oysters Rockefeller with chizo bernes sauce and a leaf of Parmesan like
what am I even looking at right now and how did they put parmesan into this Leaf form which was unbelievable but now like I said each course has a drink pairing but honestly when the cocktail came out for the third course I I was shocked I thought it was going to be a small glass no we
don't do that we don't do that here we want to get you wasted quick as possible my God anyway paired with the Staten Island Spritz we have the raviolo which is topped with spinach crispy gonell and an entire egg yolk in the middle being definitely my favorite bite yet however truly seeing the size of these drinks I started questioning how we were going to make
it through this meal like literally for our next drink Talia came by casually saying this is the strongest drink on the men okay I just want to start there and I can confirm it was definitely one of the strongest drinks I've ever had anyway with this drink we have our fourth course with
having a butter poached prawn on possibly the craziest plate I've ever eaten from that is until the fifth course arrived of the Caesar salad having an arch made out of faka bread and Parmesan in the shape of a butterfly and I'm not going to lie I'm not sure if it was the
east of housting cocktail paired with it but I just I had no idea how to eat this so when I made my attempt the butterfly well let's just say it it flew away anyway for the sixth course of our main course we had the wagu steak which I finished so fast Talia brought me seconds on
like seriously Talia is the best waitress I've ever had so everybody please spam the comments what Talia is the best however the seventh and eighth courses truly brought this meal to another level of the dessert courses of the chocolate beehive and cotton candy with chocolate drizzled
on top and with it a noita and toasted almond cocktail completing one of the best meals of our lives but anyway good morning right now we're headed up to the top floors to discover the remaining floors we haven't experienced yet starting with the 16th floor being one of the craziest levels on this ship having a rock climbing wall mini golf course and then an area
called the Hideaway which is an adult only area with possibly the coolest infinity pool I've ever seen making you feel like you're in the ocean itself and it's crazy because like just when we walk around the ship there's so many different things going on like above us on another floor
are people walking off the side of the ship which truly shows just how much there's still to explore like on this level you also have the largest Buffet at Sea with this Buffet just being epic in size from having anything from for example a bakery section where they seem to have anything
that you could possibly ever want to an American station having all sorts of different American breakfast Specialties to an avocado toast and bagel making section being freshly made right in front of you yeah I feel like you can get anything here it's true yeah one my favorite option to get
is their ice coffee station yeah yes yes coffee is much needed after those eight cocktails last night but other than the coffee we went with basically everything the buffet had and when I say we I I really made myself don't judge me I'm on vacation anyway continuing to level 17 we come
into an area called Cloud 17 which just shows how enormous this ship is is there's like no one on this level right now with having a champagne glass hot tub another infinity pool a suspended Sports core where you can play basketball volleyball or even pickle ball a milkshake bar that puts mini
pinatas on top of their enormous packed shakes and the start of the largest water park at Sea where there's four different water activities with varying difficulties from 1 to four and I'm going to try them all starting with level one and I got to say like watching these people wipe out on this
this is a pretty high level one difficulty I'm a bit scared to be trying all these things can't believe this is level one want to relax as much as possible your turn you want to keep the board straight oh my gosh I cannot believe that was level one anyway for the level two difficulty things go to another level literally
I feel like that's enough space to like fly off yeah of the freaking balcony here going to the seventh floor or this get seriously injured oh my gosh okay let's do this oh my God oh my God I'm shaking holy crap if level two was not scary enough with that drop this one goes off the ship
itself all right all right let's walk back up those stairs an extra level this time oh God my legs are literally shaking right now ready for another one I think it's I need a minute to catch my breath okay so it's actually 3 hours later now and I've have not tried level four it just it just seems way too scary so I procrastinated by doing a lunch SL tour through
the kitchen of the ship blew my mind and just made me so grateful for the crew of this ship it's insane that they can pull this together for 10,000 people and also we checked out the first class areas of the ship of the top Decks that was also super cool but being an hour 23 now
oh gosh I feel like I just have to do this what is what am I even doing this is ridiculous are you ready Bobby no I am totally not ready oh my God what am I doing what am I doing 3 2 1 so how do you feel Bobby that was the most terrifying water slide or literally
anything I think I've ever done but overall now officially having explored all 20 floors of this ship I got to say this experience has been nothing short of amazing so huge thanks again to Talia of course the CRP master and truly every crew member on board who made her trip so
special this was truly an unforgettable experience and it's thanks to you all
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