Icon of the Seas Deck Plans: How Many Decks and What’s on Each

Royal Caribbean lists Icon of the Seas as 20 decks, 18 of them open to guests. There’s no Deck 13, so the plan runs to 20 but counts 19 numbered decks. Twelve carry cabins; the rest hold the pools, the Promenade, the theatre and the neighbourhoods.

That’s the short version. The useful bit comes next: which deck your cabin sits on, what’s directly above and below it, and how you get from one end of a 365 m ship to the other without losing an afternoon. If you’re still choosing a ship at all, our Icon of the Seas guide covers the whole thing.

Why you see 18, 19 and 20 decks all quoted for Icon of the Seas

All three numbers are right, because they’re counting different things. Royal Caribbean lists 20 decks for the ship.

Eighteen is how many you can walk on. Nineteen is how many numbered decks exist, because Deck 13 is skipped. Twenty is the highest deck number, not a count of anything.

The missing Deck 13 is superstition, and it’s a fleet-wide habit rather than anything special about Icon. Ship plans run 12 then 14, and no cabin number ends in 13 either. Where a ship does keep a Deck 13, it tends to be sport or public space rather than cabins, on the reasonable assumption that some guests would rather not sleep on it.

Skipping a number doesn’t leave any deck unreachable, which is why you’ll see both “19 decks” and a plan that finishes at Deck 20. If someone tells you Icon has 19 decks, they mean numbered decks. If they say 18, they mean the ones you can use.

Icon of the Seas deck by deck, Deck 2 to Deck 20

Two things before you read down the list. The numbering starts low and the fun sits high, so the higher you go the more there is to do.

And a deck with no cabins isn’t off limits, because plenty of the best space on the ship is on decks where nobody sleeps. The reverse is true as well: several cabin decks have nothing else on them at all.

Notice where the cabins stop and start. Decks 3 and 4 have them, Decks 5 and 6 have none at all, then Decks 7 to 12 and 14 are where people sleep. Decks 16 and 17 are suites only, and anything above 17 is open deck.

The neighbourhoods are stacks, not decks

Go looking for the one deck Chill Island is on and you’ll come away confused, because there isn’t one. Chill Island runs across Decks 15, 16 and 17 and holds four of the seven pools, including Royal Bay Pool, Swim & Tonic and Cloud 17. Nowhere on the plan is it a single deck.

Same story for most of the eight neighbourhoods. Royal Promenade spans Decks 5 and 6, and on Icon the Deck 6 level is a proper second storey on both sides rather than the narrow gallery you get on Oasis-class ships.

The AquaDome is a two-deck glass bubble on the forward top of the ship with the AquaTheater inside it. The Hideaway sits aft on Deck 15.

Surfside is aft on Deck 7. Central Park lives on Deck 8 but sprawls across five decks vertically.

The Suite neighbourhood is a stack of three or four decks depending on where you draw the line, and what’s certain is that The Grove sun deck is Decks 18 and 19, Coastal Kitchen sits on two levels, and suite grades turn up on Decks 8 to 12, 16 and 17.

A working model that holds up once you’re on board: Decks 3 to 6 are the indoor eating and entertainment base, Deck 7 is Surfside, Deck 8 is Central Park, Decks 9 to 14 are the residential buffer, and Decks 15 and up are the resort and suite stack.

One consequence catches people out every day. The AquaDome anchors the front of Deck 15 and The Hideaway anchors the back, so “meet you on Deck 15” isn’t an instruction anyone can follow. Same with the spa: forward on Decks 12 and 14, while the Surfside stack runs aft below it.

Getting between decks: the lifts have no buttons inside

The 22 lifts are destination elevators in the forward and aft atriums, and there’s no button inside the car. You tap your deck on a touchscreen in the lobby, tell it how many of you are travelling so it can group you, and it gives you a lettered car.

Get in the one it names and it takes you there. Stand inside jabbing at a panel that doesn’t exist and you’ll be holding up everyone behind you.

These are the vertical routes that do the work:

• An escalator links Decks 2, 4 and 5. It is an escalator, not a lift, which matters if you have a buggy or a wheelchair.
• A midship-aft indoor staircase links the Royal Promenade on Decks 5 and 6, Surfside on Deck 7 and Central Park on Deck 8 in a single climb. This is the shortcut that saves the most time on the ship.
• Stairs also connect Decks 5 and 6 inside the Promenade.
• Outdoors at Surfside there are steps and a slide from Deck 8 down to Deck 7, and steps down to Deck 6 by the sliding doors.

That midship-aft staircase is also the one that fails you with wheels. Push a wheelchair or a buggy between the Promenade, Surfside and Central Park and you’re going round via the forward or aft lift banks instead. The Deck 2, 4 and 5 link is an escalator, so same problem.

How long it takes to walk from one end to the other

Icon is 365 m from bow to stern, and the practical result is that a forward cabin and an aft kids’ club is a commitment rather than a stroll. There’s no official end-to-end walking time, so judge it by what sits at opposite ends of the same deck: the AquaDome forward against The Hideaway aft on Deck 15, the Vitality Spa forward against the Surfside stack aft below it on Decks 12 and 14.

The other trap is the gym. It’s forward on Decks 5 and 6, while the spa is forward on Decks 12 and 14. Book a high cabin and a daily gym habit turns into a long vertical commute twice a day.

And watch the word midship. On a ship this long, a cabin billed as midship can sit just as far from the forward lift banks as the aft ones, which leaves you with a walk whichever way you turn. Pick a cabin near a named lift bank instead.

Choosing a deck for a cabin: what is above and below you

Your deck is the last decision before you pay, and the only cheap chance to avoid seven nights under a waterpark. The number matters far less than what’s directly above your ceiling.

• Decks 9 to 11 are the safest band if you’re a light sleeper, with cabins both above and below.
• Deck 8 is the best all-round location, near a Central Park entrance and a main lift bank, with the Promenade and Surfside below and cabins above.
• Decks 7 and 8 aft suit families with young children, putting you close to Surfside.
• Decks 7 and 8 lower down suit anyone worried about motion, along with anything low and midship rather than high at the bow or stern.
• Deck 12 has cabins above and below, though the cabin over your head can still carry a bit of sound.
• Deck 14 sits directly under the AquaDome, the pools, the Windjammer and The Hideaway, and the noise changes along the length of the deck because the space above changes.

Deck 14 is the one to think about hardest, and it isn’t a blanket no. Cabins 14150 and 14152 forward sit under the restaurant, where chairs get shifted about.

Further aft, under the Windjammer, you get off lighter. The scraping of tables and chairs at night clusters in the aft block beneath the Windjammer and pool deck.

If you want Deck 14 anyway, it’s the only deck with true sit-out Central Park balconies; everywhere else on Icon those are Infinite balconies.

Two more checks before you commit. On Deck 12, cabins 12164, 12166, 12564 and 12566 are marked obstructed view, and that symbol isn’t limited to those four, so read the legend rather than the picture.

And ignore the tip about avoiding cabins below the pool deck on Decks 4 and 5, or near a Deck 6 nightclub: the plans show no cabins at all on Decks 5 and 6, so the tip is simply wrong.

Reading the plan like a local: cabin numbers and dead ends

The first digit of a cabin number is the deck. 11734 and 11570 are on Deck 11, 10556 is on Deck 10, 3600 is on Deck 3. Odd and even don’t reliably tell you port from starboard on Icon, so use the plan itself for side, and use the rest of the number for position: 11734 is aft starboard, 11570 is mid-forward starboard, and the same deck runs the whole length of the ship between them.

Corridors dead-end, which nobody expects. A neighbourhood cuts straight through the cabin corridor, so on Deck 7 the port-side corridor stops where The Pearl rises through the ship.

Walk the wrong way and you’ll meet a wall, not a lift. The Pearl is four storeys tall, three of them visible from the Promenade, and it’s the most reliable landmark on Decks 5 and 6.

Read the legend properly and it tells you which cabins sleep three, four or five, which connect, which connect via a private foyer (an Icon-class feature), which are accessible and which have an obstructed view. The Ultimate Family Townhouse is a three-deck suite with its own Yard opening onto Surfside, sleeping up to eight.

For the grades themselves, and what you actually get inside them, see our guide to Icon of the Seas room configurations.

What the deck plan does not open up

Some of the best-looking space on the plan is shut to you unless you’ve booked the right cabin. Coastal Kitchen, the two-level suite restaurant overlooking the AquaTheater, is suite-only.

The Grove, with its private pool, whirlpool and dining, is suite-only. The multilevel suite sun deck is for Star Class and Sky Class.

Read the plan as a map of the ship, not a map of your access.

Four decks of the ship are crew space, home to around 2,350 crew, and never show up as anything you can walk through.

One thing to check if you’re buying a suite for the perks: Royal Caribbean’s deck-plan notes say Sky Junior Suites lose the included VOOM internet, so look at the inclusions for your sailing rather than assuming the grade still carries everything it used to.

The rest of the ship’s activities, including what each neighbourhood does with its space, is covered in things to do on Icon of the Seas.

Where to get the current deck plan, and why yours may not match

Royal Caribbean publishes the interactive plan on its own site, dated by sailing window rather than once and for all. Different date ranges come with separate plans, and venues swap between them. So a plan copied from an old PDF, or one saved to a forum thread years ago, can be out of date in the way that matters most: the restaurant you’re walking to has moved.

Get the plan for your dates, not the ship in general. On board, the Royal Caribbean app carries deck maps, reached by tapping the ship icon near the top of the app screen, plus the daily planner, menus and the eMuster step. It works on the ship’s free guest Wi-Fi without an internet package, which makes it the most reliable map you have once you’re out of your cabin.

If your printed plan shows something different from the one in the app, trust the app. Royal Caribbean dates its plans but doesn’t publish a list of what changed between sailing windows.

Accessibility on the deck plan

Fifty cabins are wheelchair-accessible, and they’re concentrated rather than spread across the ship. Named examples appear on Deck 4 (4268, 4270, 4668, 4670), Deck 11 (11734, 11570), Deck 14 (14256, 14656), Deck 16 (16010, 16032) and Deck 17 (17018).

The fit-out is the full standard: open bed frames, a wider entry door, turning space, lowered vanity and closet rods, a wider bathroom door, roll-in shower, grab bars, fold-down shower bench, hand-held shower head, raised toilet and lowered sink. Royal Caribbean requires guests booking an accessible cabin to complete a Guest Special Needs Form.

Route planning is where people come unstuck. The link between the Royal Promenade, Surfside and Central Park is a staircase, and Surfside itself has steps and a slide, so a wheelchair or buggy has to go round via the forward or aft lift banks instead.

The Deck 2, 4 and 5 connection is an escalator. Budget for those detours rather than discovering them on day one.

Timing the pinch points

The same journey is five minutes or twenty-five, depending on when you attempt it. Muster is no longer a mass assembly: watch the safety video in the app or on the stateroom TV, then visit the assembly station printed on your SeaPass card at any point before sail. That spreads the crowd, but it also means people trickle to their stations all afternoon rather than all at once.

The lifts are the real pressure point. When a show lets out, the entertainment decks become an elevator convention within seconds, and the destination system groups riders by where they’re going but can’t absorb several hundred people at once.

For one or two decks at those moments, take the stairs. The Royal Promenade spikes during big events, Surfside concentrates families, and the pool and waterpark decks are intense on a sunny sea day.

The pressure-release spaces are Central Park, and the AquaDome at quiet hours. The single best anti-crowd tactic is to group your day by neighbourhood instead of crossing the ship repeatedly: pick a zone, stay in it, and walk once.

Central Park rewards that approach anyway. The Central Park neighbourhood on Icon of the Seas is where the ship goes quiet, and the AquaDome at the forward end of Deck 15 is the other place a crowded sea day thins out in the evening.

Icon of the Seas deck plan FAQs

How many decks does Icon of the Seas have?

Royal Caribbean lists 20 decks. Eighteen are open to guests and 19 are numbered, because Deck 13 is skipped. Twelve of the decks carry cabins.

Why is there no Deck 13 on Icon of the Seas?

Maritime superstition. Plans are drawn 12 then 14, and no cabin number ends in 13 either. It’s a fleet-wide habit rather than anything unique to this ship.

Does Icon of the Seas have a Deck 17?

Yes, and it carries suites. The missing-Deck-17 convention belongs to MSC, where Italian superstition treats XVII as a tomb inscription. Icon has a working Deck 17 with the Cloud 17 adults-only pool and the sports court on it.

Is Icon of the Seas the biggest ship?

It shares the title with Star of the Seas. Both have 20 decks, 2,805 staterooms and the same double-occupancy capacity, and both measure 248,663 GT by the registries. Royal Caribbean’s own page gives 250,800 for Icon, so the two numbers you see quoted are counting slightly different things.

Which deck is the best on Icon of the Seas?

Deck 8 is the best all-round location, near a Central Park entrance and a main lift bank. For quiet, Decks 9 to 11 have cabins above and below. For families with young children, Decks 7 or 8 aft put you beside Surfside.

Which deck should I avoid on Icon of the Seas?

No deck you need to rule out entirely, but Deck 14 forward and aft sits under restaurants and the pool deck, and that’s where the chair-moving at night comes from. Cabins 14150 and 14152 forward are the ones to know about.

What deck is the casino on?

Casino Royale is on Deck 4, and you can also reach it by escalator from the Deck 5 Promenade or from Deck 2 starboard. The escalator linking Decks 2, 4 and 5 is the reason all three routes work.

What deck is the main dining room on?

The Main Dining Room sits aft on Decks 3 and 4, spanning both. It’s one of the few venues on the ship spread across two decks, which matters when you’re given a table number.