Royal Caribbean Cruise Review

The first post was our trip report. Here are my thoughts on the cruise overall, especially compared to Disney.

Rooms: Eric's parents were supposed to come with us but ended up not being able to. For a variety of reasons, we weren’t able to cancel their room, so we basically had two rooms but only used one (RC doesn’t have rooms that technically can accommodate 5 people, so we had to have 2 rooms—a triple and a double—but they weren’t able to get us connecting rooms. Because of that, we ended up just using the triple, which had two pull-down bunk beds and a king bed, which was plenty of bed space for all of us). Piper and Fletch slept in the bunks and Deke slept with Eric and me.

The room was decent, but small. I missed the split bathroom from the Disney cruise and having a curtain to pull between the main bed and kids sleeping area. But, because it was an interior room, the kids slept really well. You just had no idea what time it was or when it was time to wake up. We had to wake them most days.

Food: We hate getting dressed up for meals at the end of a long day and sitting with other people to eat. Also, our dining time was 8pm (and they couldn’t change it), which was too late for us, so we just did all of our meals at the buffet. The food was mediocre. The burgers and hot dogs were okay, but they didn’t have many other kid friendly options. It would have been good if they had pizza, but it was only available for lunch one day. On the day we left Bermuda, they did have delicious tacos but because everyone was getting on board and eating at once, it was a disaster to stand in line for them. I missed the Disney food choices, the Disney dining rooms, and having pizza available at every meal.

I will say, however, the bars make a meal virgin pina colada. That was a real highlight. Also, my opinion of the dining might be better if my kids didn’t act like completely practically feral at every meal and like they had never been in public before, so every meal was painful.

Pool: The pool was a saltwater pool, and was divided between a shallow kids’ area and a regular pool for everyone. It was really only crowded one day, and we generally didn’t have trouble finding chairs. They also had kids whirlpool tubs, which they loved (they weren’t hot). It would have been nice if there was a splash area or slides or other features, but overall, I liked it.

Kids Club: The kids club was great. It was surprisingly small, and I was worried when we walked in that the kids would hate it. On our Disney cruise, the kids club was huge. This club was just two smallish rooms. However, as you can tell, my kids loved it, and couldn’t get enough of going. The counselors were extremely nice, and you could tell they loved their job.

The best part, for me, was that because it’s a small club, it wasn’t a free-for-all. It’s very structured kids programming, with the counselors running continuous activities and no video games or movies. On the Disney cruise and at Aulani, the kids clubs were just a free-for-all. Fletch spent all of his time on both trips playing video games, which I didn’t like. On this trip, they did science experiments, gagaball, crafts, made friends, etc. Very cool.

The only downside of this kids club was that it had set hours, with two hour breaks in between so they were open 9am-12pm, 2pm-5pm, and 7pm-10pm. It was fine, but other than the pool, there weren’t any other activities for kids on board. If my kids hadn’t liked the kids club and if the weather had been bad, I’m not sure what we would have done. 

We also had no trouble getting into the kids club. At registration, they told us to arrive 15 minutes early before each session b/c it club fills up. But we never had an issue. In fact, I don’t think there were that many kids on board because we kept seeing the same kids over and over again. However, they did have a very archaic sign-in/sign-out system that took a long time. Again, I missed the Disney efficiency of using magic bands to get in and out.

Bermuda: We loved Bermuda and really want to go back. The beach at Horseshoe Bay was beautiful, and there is a ton of history there to explore. We took a private taxi from the dockyard to the beach because it was cheaper than the private minibuses for our family. We paid $40 on the way there, and $30 on the way back (b/c we split it with another couple), so $70 total. The mini-bus would have been $90 for all of us, and you have to wait around for them to fill up before they depart. The taxi leaves immediately.

At the beach, we rented two chairs and an umbrella for $45. They have decent changing facilities, a small grill/restaurant, and a shop. I wish we had brought sand toys from home because I paid an arm and a leg for them on the beach.

Overall: While we had an amazing time, if you couldn’t tell from my review, we really missed the Disney boat. In general, this boat just had less personality than Disney, no family/kids activities outside the kids club and pool besides two 15-minute family activities per day, no kid-friendly shows, and the restaurants weren’t nice/fun enough to make us want to eat at them (unlike Disney which has awesome themed dining). Eric and I both said that unless we got some amazing deal, we likely won’t do any ships other than Disney again at least until the kids are older. They really are worth the extra cost. But, it was really cool to leave right from Baltimore and that made it total worth trying it once.

Summer Cruise--Bermuda

We’re back from our cruise out of Baltimore on Royal Caribbean’s Grandeur of the Seas, and here’s my trip report. I’ll put my overall review in the next post.

Saturday (embarkation day): It was very cool to just drive to the ship in Baltimore. We had to wait in a car line for about 30 minutes as a lot of cars came at once and they didn’t have enough people unloading luggage into the luggage carts. But, after that, parking was easy and really close to the terminal entrance.

We got in the terminal and had about an hour wait in line to check in. That was…not fun. But, after that, we easily made our way onto the ship. By then it was about 1:30pm, and we were all hungry so we went right to the buffet at Windjammers (where we ate all of our meals) for lunch.

Ate lunch, and then check out the kids club to register the kids. We then went to our room to get our luggage and change into bathing suits. By about 3:15pm, we were at the pool, which wasn’t crowded at all. Swam until dinner time and then ate at Windjammers. By the time we were done eating, it was around 7:30pm, and the kids looked exhausted so we just went back to our room to unwind and get a good night’s sleep.

Sunday (Day at sea): We ate breakfast around 7am, and then took the kids to the kids club when it opened at 9am because it was pretty gray and cloudy out. Eric and I hung out at the adult pool for the morning and then picked the kids up at 12pm and had lunch. After that, Deke was tired and requesting a nap, so Eric and Deke napped for a few hours in the room, while Piper, Fletch, and I went to the pool b/c the sun came out. Eric and Deke came down to the pool around 3:30pm, we stayed there until 5pm, and then we played family bingo and ate dinner. After dinner, we took the kids back to the kids club from 7pm-9pm. Eric and I just hung out on deck and read. We picked them up, and we all went to bed after that. This was a really fun, relaxing day.

Monday (arrived in Bermuda): The boat wasn’t schedule dot arrive in Bermuda until 1-2pm. In the morning, we went to breakfast, and then brought the kids to the kids club from 9am-12pm. Eric and I relaxed together by the pool all morning. At 12pm, we picked up the kids, ate lunch, and then hung out in our room until the boat docked. We got off the boat around 2pm, and walked to the old fort next to the dockyard, which has been turned into the National Museum of Bermuda.

We LOVED this museum. It was so cool. The fort is still intact from the 1800s, and has amazing views of the ocean, tons of cool cannons, as well as lots of awesome exhibits. I would have loved to stay longer but the kids weren’t too into the exhibits. However, they also have a neat (small) kids playhouse and a really neat shaded playground. We hung out at those for a long time.

After the museum, we walked around the port area, which has lots of shops and restaurants. Most of the shops are in historic buildings, so it’s not as manufactured as some other ports. By this point, the kids were hot (especially Piper who acted like were dragging her on a death march), so we went back to the ship for dinner.

We changed into our bathing suits and ate dinner by the pool, where they showed Moana on the big screen. That was so fun. The kids loved night swimming, and it was just so nice to hang out together. (It basically combined my favorite things: swimming, ocean breezes, my kids playing nicely, and Lin Manuel Miranda—can’t beat that.) After that, we were beat, and crashed for the night.

Tuesday (Bermuda):  We woke the kids up at 6:30am so we could get off the boat and get to the beach early, since our boat was scheduled to leave Bermuda at 3pm, and we had to be back on board by 2pm. We coaxed them out of bed, ate breakfast, and caught a private taxi to Horseshoe Bay. We were the first ones on the beach except a group of elderly people out for their morning soak in the children’s pool. Horseshoe Bay is gorgeous, and has a regular beach as well as a smaller tidal pool that is protected from the waves by rocks and is called the children’s pool, that is amazing for families.

We all loved the beach, and could have stayed all day. Piper played with friends from the kids club at the children’s pool, while the rest of us hung out on the regular beach. Around noon, we packed up and changed (ugh, a huge, sandy process b/c taxis don’t allow any bathing suits or sandy people), and took a taxi back to the ship. The kids fell asleep within 3 minutes in the taxi.

When we got back, we then made the mistake of trying to drag the kids to a few more stores before getting back on board. HUGE MISTAKE. This basically set the kids off in a whirlwind of tantrums and crankiness that lasted the rest of the day and night. We got back on the ship at 2pm, and they asked to go to the kids club, which was fine with Eric and me. They hung out there until 5pm for dinner, and we attempted night swimming again. However, the movie on the big screen was Power Rangers, and they all were scared, and requested within a few minutes to go to the kids club, so we did that instead. We picked them up at 10pm, and then all went to bed.

Wednesday (day at sea): Went to breakfast, and then we all swimming. We got to the pool around 8:30am, and it was already crowded. The kids swam for a while, and then we went to this slime competition that the kids had been told about in kids club. After that, went back to the pool, but by then Deke and Piper were just done. However, Fletch had made a friend early in the trip and wanted to keep hanging out with him. So, Eric took Piper and Deke back to the room, and I stayed at the pool with Fletch.

We all met for lunch, and then the kids went back to the kids club from 2pm-5pm. We picked them up at 5pm, and then went back to the room for a bit. Piper and Fletch said they wanted to spend the night in the kids club, but Deke wanted to swim. We went to dinner and dropped Piper and Fletch off but by the time we got to the pool, it was cool and way too windy to swim. No one else was out there, so Deke asked to go with Piper and Fletch. So, off he went too, and Eric and I hung out alone again for the last time. We definitely felt like we got a break and got to relax, which was so nice. We picked everyone up at 10pm, packed our bags, and went to bed.

Thursday (disembarkation day): We had a 9am disembark time, so we ate breakfast at 8am, and then went to our assigned lounge to disembark. That ran about 45 minutes late, but after they called our number, it was easy getting off. And, so easy to get our luggage and walk to our car, and drive home. The only bad part is that the kids were SO UPSET that the vacation was over. Me too, kids, me too.

Finally, here is an awesome video that Eric made from our trip

That’s the trip report. Next post is my thoughts on the trip.