Tiffeven

We will be on this sailing with you in 9330. Hossain is our genie. Who do you have?

As @WAAAYTOOO said, the second bedroom is really small. The two beds that are up high do have rails. The lower ones don't. Personally, I would put your eight year old on one of the top bunks, your six and three year olds on the two lower beds, and then have your dad sleep in the living room on the sleeper sofa. You can also request to have the two lower beds pushed together if you are more comfortable with your kids sleeping together (that's what we do). There's definitely enough room to bring your Dad, but obviously it will be less space.

Oh no! That is definitely not what you want to see when you are so close to boarding. Hope it all works out and your family has an amazing trip. I look forward to following along. I love your writing style.

I am so sorry for your loss. I hope this cruise will bring you comfort and peace. I think it is wonderful that you are doing the thing that was so special to both you and your Mom. It is a beautiful way to honor her memory. I will be across from you in 9730 on this sailing. Look forward to meeting you onboard.

Looking forward to following along. Have a fantastic trip!

Thank you so much for following along and for your kind words. Cruising Star Class really does make cruising with kids so much easier. Like you said, don't be afraid to ask for what you want and always tell the genie your expectations from the start. If you want a fast dining experience, tell them. If you want to have food ready when you arrive, tell them. If you want to have the dessert delivered to your room, tell them. They are there to make your trip everything that you want it to be. They are also very good at accommodating any last minute changes. On night 1, we had every intention of eating at Coastal Kitchen, but with kids, things don't always go as planned. I felt bad calling last minute and canceling in lieu of having food delivered to the room, but Sunil didn't make us feel bad about it at all and was so quick to adjust to what was best for our family. On another cruise, the little ones were super fussy at Chops, and we had only had our appetizers and were still awaiting our entrées and desserts. We could have stuck it out and made it through the meal, but we asked if we could just have the rest delivered to our room. They quickly accommodated this, and because we made this change, the little ones were able to rest which put them in better spirits. This made the rest of the evening so much better. You may feel like you are inconvenience them when you make certain requests, but you are not. They truly want your experience to be amazing, and the best way for that to happen is by telling them what you need and want. You and your family are going to love Star Class. As for November, Steven made me promise I'd take it off from blogging. I plan on doing more live blogs in the near future, but November is going to be our lazy, lay around watch movies, and do a whole bunch of nothing cruise.

Steven made me promise I'd take this one off from blogging. Last cruise, I stayed up late every night making sure I blogged for the day while he went to sleep only to wake up 2 hours later and me still be up blogging. Blogging is a ton of fun, and I plan on blogging many more in the near future, but this cruise I'm going to let @Booscruizetake point, and I am just going to be lazy haha. While it does add more onto your already full plate, you will be glad you did when you look back and you have all the memories written down of your amazing trip. I went back and reread one of my live blogs during the shutdown, and I was amazed how many of the little details that I had forgotten. This will be a special way to always remember the lovely time you and your husband had with all of your friends.

Congrats! I'm so happy for you. I can't imagine how nerve racking it must have been with all the canceled sailings when you were in the middle of planning a wedding. Hopefully, we get the pleasure of meeting y'all onboard. We will be in a 2bdr aquatheater suite and are counting down the days!

Starbucks is included with Star Class. I definitely recommend that over Cafe Promenade. In fact, you can even ask your genie to have it delivered to your room.

Sorry, Playmakers didn't live up to the hype. I was hoping we were the only ones that weren't fans, so that maybe it was just a bad batch. I plan on giving them another chance on Oasis in November, but I'll probably just order them to the room this time. We are enjoying your blog. Have a fantastic trip!

I know what you mean. I just always keep a Star Class booked to keep myself from yolo booking after reading other Star Class blogs, but it doesn't always work haha.

It's so hard to keep up with RCB, FB, and CC. I did that before the shutdown, now my cruise social media game is lagging behind haha. They do design the rooms well to block out the noise. It is really interesting how quiet it is, and then you open the balcony door during Hiro, and wow, it is so loud. Then, you shut the door and can barely hear it again. Cruising really is a great way to make friends. So often, those we cruise with (passengers and crew alike) end up feeling like family by the end.

Yay! That's so exciting! Have a blast!

Oh yes! I totally forgot to say hi. We were on deck 9, and @Travelergot Royaled Up to the deck 8 below us. I guess we had the whole side. I wish I would have thought about that while we were onboard. This cruise just felt so busy that I feel like I hardly had time to stop and think. I think it is because we were trying to make up for all the missed cruises. When we go on our Oasis B2B in November, we plan on being a lot lazier. I love the matching outfits. I'm pretty certain we saw you onboard in passing several times. I just didn't know who it was at the time. I hope you enjoyed your B4B. That sounds so incredible. On debarkation day, it always feels like we didn't have enough time to do half the stuff we wanted. I'm just thankful we have another cruise to look forward to. In fact, it was perfect. The day we got home from this cruise, we got the Star Class questionnaire for the next. Also, you did not disturb us at all. Sorry, if our circus disturbed you at any point haha.

Thank you! Best of luck on your Royal Up. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you. Happy cruising!

Thank you. I'm glad that I was able to help ease some of your concerns. Enjoy your cruise and your time with family!

Thank you! I'll be honest, there was many a night I stayed awake while Steven fell asleep, but I did enjoy blogging the trip and hope it helped answer some of the questions that others have. Steven did catch a picture of me blogging on the balcony one day.

Final thoughts: This trip has been absolutely amazing. It was off to a rough start, but wow, it ended as one of our favorite cruises. We worried about how cruising would be with all of the new Covid restrictions and if we would walk around with a scarlet letter on our heads bringing kids too young to be vaccinated on a cruise. We were totally wrong. Everybody on the ship was very nice and some even smiled, laughed, and played with the kids, especially the youngest two. We didn't get a single rude comment or look from other passengers about cruising with kids. The staff seemed so happy to be back at sea and were very accommodating. There were obviously things we missed like the Quest, Love and Marriage, World's Sexiest Man Competition, and the Belly Flop Competition. We also wish we could have done laser tag and the escape room, but there is so much to do even without those that it was still an amazing trip. One thing I missed was the interaction that we usually get with our room attendant. I don't think this was his fault though, as there are so many new rules they must abide by such as not going into the room when the guests are there. It made the experience less personal with him even though he seemed like a nice guy. The vaccinated only and everybody shows were also an annoyance at times when the everybody show ended up playing too late for kids. Hairspray was phenomenal, but Steven commented that the minimal seating detracted from the ambience (there was less people to laugh and clap at key moments in the performance). We also did not like having the Windjammer closed for dinner, but we were always so full anyway. We only made one stop at the Windjammer this cruise, and we actually perferred how it is now with them serving you food. It's nice not to have to worry about people touching all the food with their hands plus the food seemed fresher perhaps due to smaller portions being brought out at a time. Sunil picked out all of our servers at the specialty restaurants and he did a fantastic job because all of the servers we had were wonderful (with the exception of the guy at Playmakers, but Sunil did not choose him). We continually saw the Covid restrictions being modified. Room service went from not being allowed in your room to allowed in if you go into a different room and then finally to closer to what it used to be like all within a one week period. We watched a limit of five in a pool be modified to no limit. The genies went from not being able to pick up your kids from Adventure Ocean to being able to. Initially, we were told they were not doing the 2 for $20 t-shirts sale on this cruise because it puts people in too close of proximity to each other, but on day 6, the t-shirt sale happened. Cruising is slowly returning to normal, and we watched this transition happen every day. I would be remiss to end this without taking about Sunil. If you are lucky enough to get him as your genie, you are in for a treat. He truly made this trip unique. He went above and beyond and became like family to us. The kids are already talking about requesting him as our genie when we go on Symphony in April, which we are definitely going to do. For anyone wondering, he goes home on November 27th, and then he is going back to Symphony in January. Lastly, thank you to everyone who followed along. I hope this helped show what the current state of cruising is. Happy cruising and best of luck to everyone!

Disembarkation: Today was the day we had been dreading. When I woke up, I opened the curtains to see Miami. We tried to drag leaving out as long as possible and told Sunil we wanted to be the last ones he escorted off the ship. Room service does not make deliveries on disembarkation day, but Sunil made sure we got our normal breakfast and Starbucks delivered to our room. He showed up to our room at 9:15am like we had arranged. With him, was a porter to get our luggage. It took about 15 to 20 minutes to get from our suite to our car. Disembarkation was very smooth and we didn't have any issues.

Day 7 continued: Now that the fun of Coco Cay was over, we knew we had to get to packing. We decided after a day in the sun and with a long evening of packing ahead of us, dining in the room would be the right call for our last evening. We had Izumi delivered. We order a couple different variations of hibachi, the truffled creamy lobster tempura roll, miso soup, mango, chocolate, and strawberry mochi, and chocolate lava cake with vanilla ice cream. The food arrived with the meats and vegetables as we ordered and a giant plate of fried rice. It was very good, and the sushi roll had a nice little spicy kick to it, but we were so full that we couldn't finish all of it. We took the kids to Adventure Ocean for their last evening, but the babies did not want to go to Royal Babies and Tots when they saw their favorite staff members were not working. Instead of going to the casino like we planned, we took the babies to the carousel and we were happy we did. Their favorite Royal Babies and Tots staff members, Edel and Sylen, were working there. They were so good with the babies, and the girls loved them and that's saying a lot since Kat never goes to anyone except Mommy and Daddy. On one of the days we picked the girls up, Sylen was on the floor with the girls laughing and playing. She had no idea we were observing her, but Kat and Nyssa were laughing so hard and it was very clear how much Sylen cared about the children she was taking caring of. I just wish we could take Sylen and Edel on every cruise with us. We rode the carousel a whole bunch of times and went for ice cream at sugar beach. On the way to get Christian and Sophia from Adventure Ocean, I asked Sunil if it was possible to get Baked Alaska again, and after calling around, he told me they didn't have any made, so I asked for guacamole and chips for Steven and me and ice cream for the kids. After it was delivered, Nyssa and Kat ended up eating almost all of the guacamole and wanted more, so I messaged Sunil. He told me Playmakers had already closed, but he got us some anyway. While we snacked on our chips and guacamole, we finished our packing and called it a night. Sugar Beach, the carousel, and Nyssa and Kat's favorite Royal Babies and Tots staff members:

Thanks for following along.

She has already told me she wants to ride the carousel when we go back. Have a safe trip home. It was so nice meeting y'all.

Day 7 continued: After sampling the food, we set out to ride the waterslides. We were successfully able to ride every waterslide in the park, spend some time in the wave pool, and do the pool obstacle course thing in less than two hours. The reduced capacity definitely came in handy today. Several of the slides had no line, and the longest line, which was for The Slingshot, took about 10 minutes. Even Daredevil's Peak was almost no wait (maybe 3 people in front of us). We had so much fun at the waterpark and wish the ship was in port longer. Daredevil's peak was very fast and a lot of fun. Screeching serpent or should we call it the wedgie maker (the blue slide that is open and pretty much straight down) was Steven's favorite. All of the slides were so much fun, and we really enjoyed our time there. It was time to go get the kids so they could enjoy Perfect Day as well. When we got back on the ship, Sunil had pizza delivered to the room, so the kids could snack while they switched to swim clothes. He also had a very long and fun conversation with us. It was nice being able to joke and get to know him a little bit better. We only had a little time left at Coco Cay, so we asked Christian what he wanted to do, and he rode two of the smaller waterslides before him and I headed to Daredevil's Peak. He also rode Steven's favorite waterslide, and of the four, he agreed with Dad and said his favorite was the Screeching Serpent. We also took the kids to the wave pool. The wave pool was very nice. A nice touch was it had water sprayers that kids could turn and play with but if they turned them away from the wave pool they lost pressure and turned off, so kids couldn't spray people walking by. Christian, Nyssa, and Kat played on the obstacle course in the pool for a bit. Then, we headed to Splashaway Bay, so the babies and Sophia could play and slide on the smaller slides. They were just shutting down the waterslides at Splashaway Bay when we got there, but they were nice enough to let the babies and another toddler each slide once before shutting down. We started to head back to the ship, and when we were walking through Captain Jack's, the entertainer started singing Baby Shark. It was really cute and he also joked with us about having five more kids, which was quickly shot down by Steven and me. Then, we passed belly dancers who Nyssa decided to try to dance with. They all played along and danced with her. It really was a Perfect Day, and out of our three trips to Coco Cay, this was the best one yet. Truly a Perfect Day at Coco Cay:

Sorry for all the noise. We had plates flying everywhere, but I saved my Starbucks, so it's ok.

Day 7 continued: After walking down the pier, you go left to go to Coco Beach Club or straight for Thrill Waterpark. As we were walking down the pier, we realized we had forgot our cabana tickets, but figured we'd keep going anyway. We walked up to the entrance, they scanned our seapasses, and voila we were inside no tickets required. We walked up to the cabana concierge, gave them our room number, and then they escorted us to our cabana and gave us a bracelet. Sunil had reserved cabana 45, and told us this is the one they recommended when he asked for the best one. It was in a perfect location in the waterpark. It was right at the bottom of daredevil peak (the tallest slide) and convenient to everything in the waterpark. It had two loungers outside, a couch and chair inside, a cooler area for water, six water bottles, a place to charge your phone, a Bluetooth speaker, a safe, and six towels. You also have a cabana attendant who brings you drinks and food from Snack Shack. Snack Shack is complimentary. If you have a drink package, it is covered here. If not, you pay for any alcohol like you would on the ship. We decided we'd order mozzarella sticks, a cabana burger, a cabana chicken sandwich, a funnel cake, a coco loco, a tropical mango water, and a diet coke. There were birds and a family of chickens that kept walking through the cabana and landing on the table, and the cabana attendant told us to let her know when we were done with the food, so she could take it without the wildlife getting to it. There was a button on the table that we would press anytime we needed the cabana attendant. Headed to Thrill Waterpark: The Cabana: Cabana menu from Snack Shack and our food: