Star of the Seas

Star of the Seas is the second Icon-class ship, built by Meyer Turku and in service from 16 August 2025. She runs to roughly 250,000 gross tons and carries 5,610 passengers at double occupancy, up to 7,600 when every berth is filled. The design decision that explains her is a decision not to design much. Royal Caribbean repeated Icon of the Seas rather than evolving it. The eight neighbourhoods and the flow are unchanged; the differences are the show slate, a few restaurants and a handful of cabin grades. What is new is where she works: Port Canaveral rather than Miami, on seven-night Eastern and Western Caribbean loops.
Where she is distinct, she is better. The AquaDome Market stalls were reworked, with La Cocinita, Pig Out BBQ and Mai Thai replacing Icon's line-up, and reviewers rate the result an improvement. Lincoln Park Supper Club swaps Icon's New York theme for 1930s Chicago. The entertainment is Star's own: Back to the Future: The Musical in the Royal Theater, Torque in the AquaDome, Sol on the ice at Absolute Zero. The inherited hardware still works: Category 6 at Thrill Island, Crown's Edge and Central Park.
The criticism is specific rather than sweeping. Cruise Critic has published no editor score for her, and its member reviews at the time of writing ran to 32, with 19 rated excellent and two poor or terrible. Members reported balcony cabins feeling smaller than on other Royal Caribbean ships, and several found Back to the Future flat. Cruise Critic calls dining quality hit-and-miss and notes crew still learning the ship on early sailings. Royal Caribbean Blog is blunt about price: fares are high and discounts rare compared with older ships.
She suits families with children up to about ten, who get the most from Surfside and Adventure Ocean, and anyone who wants activity built into sea days. She suits people sailing from Orlando who would otherwise drive to Miami. She does not suit value seekers, anyone who dislikes queues and scale, or travellers who came for the Caribbean itself. Ports are secondary here.
Cabin choice matters here, because the noise sources are fixed and known. Roughly 70 per cent of the cabins have a balcony, and balconies begin on deck 7. Deck 14 is the compromised deck: those cabins sit under Chill Island, the Windjammer and The Hideaway adult pool, which means loungers scraping at dawn and DJ sets into the evening. Cabins flanking the AquaDome catch rehearsals by day and bass at night. On decks 3 and 4, Music Hall and Casino Royale run late. Inward-facing Surfside balconies from deck 7 to deck 12 overlook a children's neighbourhood all day. We are still mapping her venues, and would rather leave the fields empty than guess.
Browse the deck plan alongside this, and pick the cabin before you pick the fare.