what are the best Royal cariban cruise ships right now what are the ones that maybe aren so great I've got a list of my top and bottom five Royal Caribbean ships up next hey everyone it's Matt from Royal caran blog.com everybody loves a healthy comparison rankings I get it and you know what it feels like a good opportunity here to rank cruise ships after all Royal K's got some new Ships coming online you've got star of the Season 2025 and legend of the Season 2026 even more beyond that but obviously when you're choosing your cruise ship there's a lot of ships to consider in fact there's about 30 ships now in Royal kion's Fleet and that means there's a lot of choices and probably one of the most common questions I get is which ship should I choose and which should I go on so I'm going to give you my personal opinion on the top five ships and which ships I think rank in the lowest five now keeping in mind by the way these are opinions and what's important to you and where you're sailing can often times be overriding factors we'll get to that in a minute let's start with the top five and at number one icon of the Seas I fell in love with icon of the Seas almost immediately after getting on board the ship when the ship debuted in 2024 it has Roy Kia's best ideas in one ship because it was a white paper ship which means that real being designed from the ground up without any preconceived notions of what it should include from other ships they really came up with a lot of great ideas and the fact that they distribute crowds better have probably the best pool deck in my opinion and incl include things like a water park and some of the best complimentary dining all while dispersing crowds exceptionally well icon is in a class by itself both literally and figuratively Now icon is also very expensive and only sells in the Caribbean to the eastern and western regions of it but I still think it is a cruise ship that is absolutely should be on everybody's must try list no cruise ship is perfect of course I think it's adults only area to Hideway has a lot of direct sun there's not a lot of shade there I kind of prefer the salarium for that fact but I'm also not a salarium kind of guy guy so the fact that it doesn't have one doesn't really bother me that much and of course the fact that it's a brand new ship means it's not going to be cheap cruise fair prices for icon to the seas are definitely up there nonetheless I love icon I've got a couple different cruises booked on icon and if you're someone who's brand new to cruising and you're asking me for a ship to be recommended to try for the first one I would recommend icon of the Seas every day of the week plus one number two on my list is Wonder of the season now wonder of the season was my favorite ship until icon came out and I really think it is the best iteration of The Oasis class I mean Wonder right now is doing seven night cruises that's going to change and she's going to do three and four night cruises eventually but what Wonder really encapsulates is again the best Lessons Learned From The Oasis class there are currently six Oasis class cruise ships but the seventh coming online in a couple years something I've noticed about all these ships is that Royal Caribbean learns lessons and applies them to every single one when they went to Wast to aure to Harmony to Symphony you can tell there were like aha moments that R figured out as an example wonder of the Seas has a semi-enclosed aquatheater to help prevent some of the wind that disrupted some of the shows there there's Playmakers on board which is a great venue there and they added a new venue the Mason jar bar which is one of my favorite places to go because I love the vibe of that bar itself and the restaurant isn't too bad either the pool deck got refined as well and if you look at the pool deck on say wonder of the Seas versus Harmony of the Seas it's notably difference and I think quite frankly Superior on wonder of the Seas if there's one area that Wonder struggles in compared to other Oasis class ships it's it shows wonder doesn't have a true Broadway show whereas the other older Oasis class ships all do and that is a notable missing feature but just like icon of the Seas I think wonder is a really good choice for a firsttime cruiser and when Wonder moves to three and four night short sailings from Miami it's going to change the dynamic of it a little bit but I still think it's a great ship and one of best in the fleet at number three I've got Odyssey of the season this is very much an undersung unheralded forgotten royal king cruise ship because Odyssey came out during the restart process of 2021 and 2022 and it came out and then wonder the came out almost immediately after that and stole all of its Thunder just like Wonder Odyssey is a representation of all the Lessons Learned of the quantum class now Odyssey is the last in the quantum class and they made some tweaks here that really stand out first and foremost the clex my goodness they added a Playmakers here they reworked the layout of the clex it really makes a huge difference for people actually wanting to spend time in here then you have in the pool deck a secondary main pool that's not enclosed and while I did actually like the enclosure on the older ships having more of a resort vibe to it really stood out Odyssey also got rid of the vestigal idea of having separate dining rooms and instead combined into one dining room and it's really pretty and they did a really nice job with it when you apply all the lessons learned to previous ships onto any ship it's usually a recipe for a very very good time now the problem with Odyssey of the Seas is it spends a lot of time over in Europe which is not a problem in of itself but obviously if you're cruising from North America it's going to be tough to get on there secondarily if you're cruising on Odyssey the Seas from the New York area because odyssey's could be based in the tri-state area over in beo New Jersey because it lacks that indoor pool aspect of the secondary pool that that Quantum and Anthem all had you know when you have a cold day coming down from New Jersey or coming back up it can limit the opportunities to spend outdoors I don't think it's a big deal because before any of the quantum CLA ships this was always a thing but it's worth noting and also Odyssey doesn't have any water slides this is true of all the quantum class ships but obviously if you got kids that might be an issue for you at number four we're going to Utopia of the Seas Utopia and wonder are so similar that you really have to split hairs about what makes them different and the reason why Utopia fell down in number four instead of being closer to wonder is simply because she is doing those three and four night sailings and I love weekend sailings but I admit I live in Florida and I cruise all the time which is not representative of what most people do short three and four night cruises are great but I really feel like they should be augmenting your cruising experience not being the primary driver meaning I think most people plan vacations around longer sailings but you work in three and four night cruises to kind of like you know pass the times more or less and help pad your cruising plans while I say all that Utopia the Seas is really popular with first-time Cruisers that's the market Royal caran is going after they want people who have never cruised before that are looking at three and four night cruises because they're short sailings and it's their opportunity to dip their toe into the cruising Waters to look at the options and choices out there and see oh my goodness like Royal Caribbean Utopia is so much better than every other cruise ship out there for a short Cruise we're going to go with Utopia Roy gri made some nice tweaks to Utopia this season also it has the Mason jar which I like but also it has a much better pool deck area they refined a lot of the features and Royal caring actually said it's their best inclass pool deck and you can see some of the tweaks and enhancements that are there as well there's obviously a lot of parties which may be a pro or con for you depending on your perspective but that means really is that it's like a regular roolling cruise ship experience but they just added more parties there's more of a pool deck party Vibe there're also college parties at night where again it's still Royal CRI don't get me wrong you're not going to go here and confuse this with like Las Vegas or something truly debaucherous but it's still very much a hey there's a lot more going on in terms of parties and events just like Wonder I think their shows really are lacking I do like Aqua 8s 2 which is in the aqua theater but the other shows in the ice skating rink and in the main theater are kind of like ho hum been there done that that not that exciting but on a three or four night careers you only have a couple nights on the ship anyway so there's plenty to hold your attention and to round out my top five I'm going with Freedom of the Seas now this was a really tough choice because I wanted to go with other ships like Oasis of the Seas or Mariner of the Seas but I went with freedom because I thought the upgrades that Freedom of the Seas got and is about to get actually with some changes to its Casino we'll talk about that in a minute have really made this ship stand out it's a tremendous value and I think it's a great ship to go on so freedom of the sea has got an upgrade in 2020 and she's actually at the time of this recording of this episode getting some upgrades as well as part of her maintenance uh schedule that happens every 5 years nonetheless I think the balance of what you get on board the ship versus what you pay is really good Freedom has water slides it has a loco freshh it has giovan's Italian Kitchen on board it has a playmaker is a really nice casino and they're actually adding a second casino to replace vintages on the Royal prominon this is the first time theyve done this on a ship that's not an oasis class ship but this is a really intriguing option I got to check it out for myself but so far I kind of like the idea I think where Freedom maybe LAX a little bit is the cabins you're not going to find nearly as many ornate or upto-date cabins especially in terms of Decor compared to the other four that are on this list but it's still a great chip and I wouldn't hesitate to go on it and now it's time for the five worst least favorite however however want to look at it Ro cring cruise ships out there starting with number five I guess is Explorer Of The Seas Explorer this uses a Voyager Class ship but the problem with Explorer is it never got the upgrades that Mariner and nav Navigator got in fact Voyager and Explorer and Adventure are kind of a step down because again the of those upgrades but Explorer really is lacking because she never got her amplification in 2020 when she was supposed to because of the whole Cruise industry shutdown so it's not it's a bad ship it's just lacking compared to other Voyager Class ships and really it's been left behind to some extent now I'm hoping Royal Caribbean will upgrade the ship the next couple of years similar to what alur the SE is getting right now that's why lur is not on this list actually because she's getting some major upgrades and I really hope Explorer gets those as well the best thing about Explorer the Seas though is it's Cruise fairs are among the cheapest out there you get some great deals on an Explorer the SE sailing and that's just because you're going to compromise on the on board experience now that it's bad but it doesn't have as much to do as some of those upgraded and/or newer ships next up is Liberty of the Seas and everything I just said about Explorer you can apply to Liberty as well now Liberty has a few more things going for it because it did get some water slides on board explored it too but Liberty has the title wave water slide which I think is really cool but that's about where it ends Liberty doesn't have those major upgrades in terms of bars and restaurants and it's just a little bit lacking but just like explore you can probably get some really good deals on it so it's not the worst ship in the world and when you're talking about either explore or Liberty being Voyager or Freedom class ships those are still big ships with plenty to do and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them to a family I think there's enough to do on board especially in the ports you're visiting as well to keep you occupied and it won't be the wor worst experience ever continuing with our trend of ships that should have got upgrades but they didn't Jewel of the Seas is next up now I actually like the radiance Class A Lot my favorite chips are brilliant in serin of the Seas but juwel is definitely the stepchild of the class because she never got some of the upgrades that the rest of the radiance class got specifically it still has like a NASCAR themed bar in there which looks so so dated and really having instead a pub would be such a better upgrade this is something that you'll find on the other Radiance class but they don't have it here on juwel and it's unfortunate now if there's a benefit to Jewel of the Seas it's a Radiance class ship so it's not going to feel nearly as crowded again these ships only have a little over 2,000 passengers on board so unlike an oasis or even a freedom class ship it's going to feel a lot less crowded there still be crowds and lines are going to be wrong but it's a lot more manageable and for the bottom of my list the last two spots on this I'm just going to put the entire Vision class and I apologize in advance for this I know there's a lot of fans of the vision class and I just told you in a recent video how much I actually enjoyed enchantment of the Seas more than I thought I did and that was absolutely still the truth in here the problem with the vision class is no matter all the virtues you can come up with for it they just lack compared to the rest of the fleet they really felt like they've been left behind because they're small older cruise ships this goes back to something I alluded to at the very beginning of this video expectations and what you're looking for in the experience and if you watch realing commercial if you look at what real advertises and then go on a vision class ship they are not the same thing and I think Royal knows this this is why they've been working supposedly on a plan for newer smaller ships called The Discovery class and I'm going to link to those videos here after this video is over so you can take a look at and get an idea of what royman has up its sleeve but that's not confirmed yet still in the rumor phase so we'll forget about that in the meantime the thing with the vision class is I really don't think they deliver on the Roy experience that you can expect on the bigger newer ships now you don't have to have a big new ship to have a good time and the vision Clash ships are going to be probably really cheap they're also going to offer you maybe opportunities to go into different ports so obviously if you're in Europe and you're trying to go to some of the great Greek Islands you're going on a vision class ship that's not a bad thing actually and you can have a great time because you're there for the destination and in that situation that's a great choice so when I'm listing these ships as the lowest five or bottom five worst five however you want to look at it this is about expectations and what you're looking for if you're a family that's looking for hey we want to have a fun Caribbean crew we've seen all these great things about Royal Caribbean I wouldn't pick out Grandeur of the Seas as the ship for you I would pick out maybe you know Wonder or Utopia or Freedom or icon because that I think is representative of what you're looking for but if you're saying Matt I really want to get into the far reaches of Alaska or I want to go over to the Greek Isles or I want to slip into one of the smaller ports in Europe then obviously the vision and Radiance class ships even the ones on this list are great choices for that because first of all they're your best and only choice for it but also you're going for the play places you're visiting and that's more important my hope with this list is you get an idea of my own opinions on things cuz people like hearing my thoughts on what are the best and worst ships out there but also it makes you think twice before you just pick a ship especially just not picking a ship based on price that would be a huge mistake all right all that out there let me know in the comments below what are your top five and worst five Ro Cru ships out there what are your thoughts on my list you agree with me you think I'm crazy about any of these I'm curious to hear your reviews in the comments below while you're down below our video hit the like button subscribe to our Channel and turn on notifications that way YouTube let you have a brand new video to share this has been Matt from Royal blog.com and we'll talk again real soon