Royal Caribbean's Icon of the Seas will spend a night tied up at PortMiami before its next Western Caribbean and Bahamas sailing, after the line flagged required maintenance for the world's largest cruise ship.

The change, detailed in a message to booked guests, pushes the departure back by roughly a day. Guests still board on Saturday, September 26 as originally planned — US Customs and Border Protection requires everyone aboard by then — but instead of sailing at 4:30 PM that afternoon, the LNG-powered ship now leaves Miami at 4:00 PM on Sunday, September 27.

The upside for passengers is a rare bonus evening in Miami. Boarding guests can start using the ship's bars, lounges, entertainment venues and spa as soon as they're aboard, though the shops and casino stay shut while the vessel is in port. Anyone who'd rather explore land can come and go freely: gangways stay open until 8:00 PM on Saturday and until 2:30 PM on Sunday, so there's time for a South Beach dinner or a Wynwood wander without racing a sailaway.

The trade-off comes further along the itinerary. To make up the time, Royal Caribbean has dropped the scheduled September 28 call at Costa Maya on Mexico's Yucatán coast. Instead, Icon of the Seas stays at sea before reaching Roatán in Honduras on September 29 as planned. The seven-night sailing still calls at Roatán and Cozumel and returns to Miami on October 3 as scheduled.

Royal Caribbean is sweetening the deal with refundable onboard credits that scale with cabin type. Inside and oceanview staterooms get $300, balconies get $350, and suites get $800. There's an extra $50 for each third and fourth guest in a cabin, so a family of four in a balcony room would collect $450 on top of the base credit.

For travellers already booked, this is a good-news maintenance delay: no flights to rebook, boarding unchanged, extra time in Miami, money to spend onboard, and the marquee ports — Roatán's reef diving and Cozumel's beaches — intact. The only real loss is Costa Maya, which many consider the most skippable port on that route anyway. If you're sailing, it's worth noting the ship is quieter and cheaper to enjoy during the port overnight, and credits like these can be applied to drink packages, speciality dining or spa treatments.