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.
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