Do you need the main dining room on Icon of the Seas?

We recently took a cruise on Royal Caribbean’s newest ship; Icon of the Seas and we had a little challenge for our family: Do we ever need to go to the main dining room? For some that is a very loaded question. There are people that wouldn’t ever dream of not going to the main dining room and those that are like us that don’t see the drawn of the main dining room, especially with all the additional dining options.

Now the caveat here is that we heard that the main dining room on Icon was a cut above the rest and we saw that in the other venues on the ship compared to like venues on other Royal ships, so this is not a knock on the main dining room on Icon specifically. We just don’t see the drawn of the main dining room when there are so many other options available to us. We also don’t have any schedule while cruising so picking a dining time never works for us, and the “my time” dining usually involves waiting in a long line to then sit and eat for a considerable amount of time, that my 8-year-old (and frankly myself) just don’t have the patience for.

Now yes, we did branch out from the complimentary venues and paid for some of the specialty restaurants, but that only accounted for four of our meals that could easily have replaced by other complimentary offerings. In Addition, Sorrento’s pizza is a normal mainstay in my cruise diet, but the pizza at Giavonni’s ruined Sorrento’s for me on Icon. Side note, I found that you don’t need a reservation to just order their pizza, it is part of their bar menu and $9 for their signature pizza was well worth it. We also ate one time at Playmakers, it was our first time on a ship that had one so we had to try them and they did not disappoint.

We also ate at Hooked, which was very good. My wife who doesn’t enjoy seafood that much, actually booked it on our next upcoming trip again because of how much she enjoyed it (though I do have to tell you they let her change the surf and turf to turf and turf…. and how can you go wrong with two filet mignons. Here is the traditional steak and lobster;

But if you don’t want to pay extra for food, can you really avoid the main dining room. On Icon I believe that to be an overwhelming yes. Just their new aqua dome market could suffice for at least five different meal options, and many more if you wanted do double dip on some of them. My favorite was Feta, a Greek inspired pita and rice bowl station that I think I ate there four times, so good. The mac and cheese bar was my son’s favorite, where my wife enjoyed the crepe station. This is single handily the best new addition in my eyes to their fleet.

We have an 8-year-old, so we spent a lot of time in the new surfside neighborhood. The surfside bites was a great option that had, dare I say it, popcorn chicken that would fill any of your Disney chicken finger needs plus they have burgers and hot dogs and more.  They also have the surfside eatery which is a kind of small buffet that we would frequently for another quick meal. They had a smattering of different foods during the sailing which a nice change of pace.

Then you may have one of my favorite new venues; Pearls café. The food here was so good. They have both quick heat items (similar to Park Café) and an assortment of quick grab items (shout out to the couscous and tzatziki cups). My only complaint about the venue is if you go for coffee in the morning, there are food only and coffee only lines. I guess I understand the rational for this, but there were many times I just couldn’t wait in a second long line to grab a muffin or donut that I think should have been in the grab and go section anyway.

Kummelweck from Park Café

Then of course you have the mainstays of Park Café, El Loco Fresh, Sorrento’s and the Windjammer that all seems to be just better on the Icon then their counterparts on other ships. So, it is true, we went on a 7 Day sailing and didn’t eat at the main dining room once. Do you think we miss out or messed up? Let me know in the comments.