Is Icon of the Seas Worth It? What the Pricing Data Says

The short answer: you're paying a 61-76% premium over Oasis-class ships for the same Caribbean itinerary — and Icon almost never goes on sale. That's what 42,645 tracked fares reveal when you compare Icon of the Seas to every other Royal Caribbean ship in our database.

Whether that premium is worth it depends entirely on what you value. Here's what the data says.

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The Premium, in Actual Dollars

Icon of the Seas is Royal Caribbean's most expensive ship. That's not surprising. What might be surprising is the size of the gap — and how consistent it is across every cabin type.

Oasis-class average includes Oasis, Allure, Harmony, Symphony, and Wonder of the Seas. Based on 7-night sailings, weighted medians across all seasons.

The balcony premium is the sharpest. At $276/night versus $157/night, you're paying $119 more per person per night for a balcony on Icon versus the Oasis-class average. On a 7-night cruise for two, that's $1,666 in additional fare — before you add drink packages, WiFi, or gratuities.

Suites tell a different story. Icon suites at $481/night carry the smallest percentage premium (26%) over Oasis-class suites at $382/night. If you're already spending suite-level money, the Icon bump is relatively modest.

For the full cabin-type and seasonal pricing breakdown, see our Icon of the Seas pricing guide.

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How Icon Stacks Up Across the Fleet

To understand Icon's pricing in context, here's where it falls among Royal Caribbean's 7-night balcony medians, alongside ships from other lines in the same range.

Icon sits in a narrow band between $260-$300/night that includes Celebrity Edge, Norwegian Encore, and Star of the Seas. If you're cross-shopping those ships, Icon's pricing is competitive. If you're comparing it to Oasis-class ships sailing out of the same ports, the gap is substantial. We mapped the what Icon-class ships actually cost per night across all 30 RC ships.

Worth noting: Utopia of the Seas, which launched in 2024, actually prices higher than Icon at $353/night for balcony. But Utopia has very limited 7-night inventory — most of its sailings are short 3-4 night runs, which compress pricing differently. Icon's 7-night data comes from 7,793 balcony samples, making it far more reliable as a benchmark.

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Icon Almost Never Goes on Sale

This is the data point that matters most for anyone waiting for a deal.

Out of 8,559 Royal Caribbean deal candidates we've scored, Icon of the Seas has produced 315 scored fares. Its highest score is 79 — barely above our 75-point threshold for a "good deal." It has generated zero pro-level deals (score 90+).

Symphony of the Seas has scored a perfect 100 three times. Icon's best day is a 79. Royal Caribbean doesn't need to discount Icon — the ship fills at full price.

If you're holding out for a "sale," the data suggests you'll be waiting indefinitely.

For context on how we score fares and what these thresholds mean, see our deal scoring methodology.

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The Season Lever Is Your Only Real Discount

Since Icon doesn't go on sale in the traditional sense, the biggest pricing lever you have is when you sail. The seasonal swings are significant.

Fall is the clear winner across every cabin type. A fall balcony at $241/night costs $79/night less than a spring balcony at $320/night. Over 7 nights for two guests, that's $1,106 in savings — without waiting for a "deal" that probably isn't coming.

Spring is the worst value. Suite pricing peaks at $551/night in spring, 35% higher than the $409/night fall floor. If you're flexible on timing, that flexibility is worth more than any promo Royal Caribbean runs. For the full seasonal timing guide, see when to book Icon of the Seas.

We broke down every cabin type and season combination in our Icon of the Seas room prices guide.

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Price Spikes Outnumber Drops

We detected 589 price anomalies on Icon of the Seas across our tracking period. The direction skews up, not down.

56.5% of anomalies are price spikes. Only 43.5% are drops. That ratio is consistent with Oasis-class ships (also 56.5% spikes), so it's not unique to Icon — it's how Royal Caribbean prices big ships in general.

But the magnitude tells a more important story:

• Average price spike: 33.4% increase
• Average price drop: 18.9% decrease

When Icon prices move up, they move up aggressively. When they come down, the drops are smaller. This asymmetry means the risk of waiting outweighs the potential reward of catching a dip.

What this means practically: If you see an Icon price you like today, it's statistically more likely to go up tomorrow than down. And if it does drop, the average decline (18.9%) won't offset a spike (33.4%) that happened the week before. This is the opposite of how older ships like Harmony behave, where Royal Caribbean occasionally runs deep discounts to move inventory.

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The Bottom Line

Icon of the Seas is a premium product that's priced like one — and stays priced like one. Based on 42,645 tracked fares, the ship commands a 61-76% premium over Oasis-class ships, rarely produces deals above a score of 75, and has never cracked a 90.

That's not a knock on the ship. It's a data point. If you want Icon, book it in fall, book it early, and don't expect a sale to bail you out. If you want the big-ship Caribbean experience without the premium, Oasis-class ships regularly deliver deal scores in the 80s and 90s — something Icon has never managed. For the same analysis on Star of the Seas from Port Canaveral, see is Star of the Seas worth it.

Cruise Radar scores every fare 0-100 based on 2.6M+ price snapshots, then shows you the score right on the booking page — so you'll know whether any Icon price you find is actually good.

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Methodology

This analysis draws from 42,645 price snapshots across 123 unique Icon sailings tracked October 2025 through February 2026. Fleet comparisons use our broader database of 2.6M+ snapshots across 9 cruise lines and 75+ ships. Deal scores compare each fare to its ship-specific baseline — Icon is always scored against Icon, never mixed with other ships. For our full methodology, see how it works.

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Pricing data by All Aboard Analytics. Updated February 2026.