I think a cruise is better when you go with friends, so the opportunity for a "guys cruise" sounded like the perfect trip.
As my kids have grown up, I've made friends with other dads from their friend group. Any parent knows you're thrown into meeting the parents of your children's friends, but their parents aren't necessarily going to be your friends.
In my case, I'm lucky a few of these parents became my own friends. One of them, Kenny, thought it would be fun to go on a weekend cruise together.
We chose Royal Caribbean's Utopia of the Seas because it was convenient to where we live in Orlando. Plus, it was over a weekend and that limited time away from home. I also had another reason for wanting to visit: the new Royal Beach Club would be fully open and I wanted to check it out.
So Kenny, Jason, Chris, and Craig all packed our bags and went onboard for what turned out to be a great getaway weekend.
A party ship even if we aren't the target crowd
Ever since Utopia of the Seas launched, it has been set as the weekend party ship as a way to attract new cruisers. While it has plenty of parties, we took it all in stride.
No matter which ship you go on, all of the activities are there for you to try and there's no obligation you have to do any of it. This is what I really like about a cruise vacation. You can choose to do all of it or none of it.
In our case, we participated in select activities that were of interest to us.
We were at the Mason Jar bar every night for the music up there, and participated in the Crazy Quest show too.
But we skipped the sailaway party and Rezolutions DJ party because they were a bit too loud for our taste.
Instead, we found lounges and bars to head to and spend our time together that way.
In fact, we tended to gravitate towards the casino for entertainment.
Royal Caribbean expanded the casino space on Utopia by replacing the comedy club and loyalty lounge with a non-smoking casino. This was a welcome change from the traditional cruise ship casino that still smelled like smoke because it shared the space.
We also tried out the Price is Right game show onboard, in which I won $50 for coming in the top 10 of scores!
I won't pretend any of us were the party crowd that perhaps Utopia of the Seas caters to, but we liked having so many choices of what to do onboard.
All of the food became one of the best reasons to cruise together
Very quickly into the cruise, the food choices became a major focal point.
Royal Caribbean offers so much wonderful food choices on its ships, and I think while we may have skipped over parties, we never skipped a chance to nosh.
As soon as we stepped aboard, the Windjammer buffet had an entire seafood buffet that my friends relished.
Newer Royal Caribbean ships offer a seafood bounty on embarkation day in the Windjammer. As of the posting of this article, I believe it's just on Utopia, Icon, and Star of the Seas.
We planned to go to the Main Dining Room for dinners each night, so we spoke to the head waiter on embarkation day to get us a table together.
Sure enough, we had a large table to ourselves and the wait staff were fantastic.
We were wiped out from fun ashore on the second day, so we ended up having dinner in the Windjammer. However, I really wanted the French Onion Soup from the Main Dining Room. So I went alone just to get soup and the waiters were happy to oblige!
For our final dinner onboard, we decided to try Hooked and the amount of food ordered was a bit embarrassing. Don't worry, between all of us we managed to eat almost all of it.
We booked the cruise for the fun we anticipated, but stayed for all of the food. A bit gluttonous, but the food is part of why I love to cruise.
Our visit to the Royal Beach Club was the perfect "guys day"
One reason we leaned towards this particular Utopia of the Seas sailing was it aligned perfectly with the opening of the new Royal Beach Club.
Royal Caribbean built this new kind of shore excursion as a way to offer its guests an elevated day ashore.
So what started out as a "research trip" for me, ended up becoming the perfect backdrop for my friends.
As dads, when we do almost any excursion with our kids, there's inevitably a lot of taking care of the family needs. But since it was just us, we got to ease into a day of taking it easy in the pool.
We basically spent our day in the heated pool at Chill Beach, which meant we hung out and talked while occasionally going to the swim-up bar, enjoying the view, or sneaking in a nap.
There's no question that Royal Beach Club is a great choice for families (I'm taking mine there in the spring), but I think our day here was the best group activity we did over the weekend.
The trip felt completely different from our other adventures
Family vacations will always be the primary trip we all take, but it was nice to change things up with a friends cruise.
The cruise showed me how much we limit ourselves by only considering cruise ships for family vacations. Not every guys' trip has to look like a scene from "The Hangover".
Unlike going to a bar at home, we had more choices in what we did and none of the risks associated with having to drive after.
Being in our 40's, we were never interested in a wild spring break kind of trip. Rather, it was the perfect excuse to get away for a few days.
