PRebecca

If it makes you feel any better -- we in the West have to wake up at 4:30 a.m. to make a 5:00 a.m Zoom meeting when it's held at 8:00 a.m. on the East Coast . . .

We board today for my first RC cruise - Anthem, Grand Loft Suite, 7-night out of Bayonne. I’ve been up since 3:30 this morning in excitement. I don’t know if I’ll have the stamina for a live blog, and I saw the feedback on here that we have a LOT of star class blogs, but I figured I’d start this and maybe add any interesting observations as a newbie.
I’m traveling with my family - husband, two kids (12 and 7).  We’ve been trying to sail RC since we booked an awesome Black Friday sale in November 2019 to sail in March 2020. You all know what happened then. As we kept rescheduling and getting canceled, we kept upgrading. This story started in a junior suite and ended up in star class, lol. We had two years to pay it off and, as a teacher with a doc husband, we both really, really needed an amazing break from the last two years of reality. Our genie is Leroy and he’s been lovely so far in our emails. I’m ready to grab the wheel from my husband if he tries to pull over before the star class zone at the port, lol. 
I am usually a great packer, but with the limits of air travel taken away, I’ve gone insane. Apparently I think I’m Beyoncé and need several outfit changes per day. 🤦🏻‍♀️ I’m legit concerned about fitting it all in the car. Then there’s my 7-year-old, who announced to me that she’s all packed and when I checked she is bringing a slinky, an army of stuffed animals, and one shirt. I remedied that but let her keep the slinky, because I’m not gonna die on that hill. 

This site has made me feel like an expert  before I’ve ever even stepped foot on a ship. You all are so kind and patient! Thank you for answering my questions and for your blogs that gave me an exciting preview of star class. I was especially inspired by @Lovetocruise2002 and @WAAAYTOOO from reading their blogs and asking them questions - thank you! 

We live about 90 minutes from Cape Liberty so it’s way too early to leave but I am so antsy. I might burst into tears when we finally get on the ship after so many tries. Sorry for rambling, but I’m sleep deprived! Hope to update from on board later today.
 

Day 7: Cococay
Everyday I was excited for but I was especially excited for Cococay. We had booked the over the water cabana in the beach club. 
 
We started the morning with breakfast being delivered to our stateroom. We asked Hossain to put the exact same order as he did the first day. We woke up to rain so we just ate breakfast inside. The whole day had a calling for rain and overcast so we were all very bummed. 
 
After breakfast, we met Hossain at the bionic bar so he could escort us off the ship. This escort probably wasn’t needed because the line was very short. It was probably because it was pouring at this point. 
The whole crew took the trolley to The Coco Beach Club. I loved the beautiful scenery walking in. We had cabana number 16 which we requested through our genie. We were only docked in Cococay from 10-5 which didn’t seem like a long time at all. We swam, tanned, floated, ate like 3 lobsters each. I loved it all. It was the first true do nothing day. The only thing I didn’t get the opportunity to do that I wanted to was snorkel. I’m not mad about that though because I still saw and held a star fish on the near by sand bar that was about 20 feet away. 
 
We started packing up and left around 4:30. We didn’t get back on the ship until 5 minutes until all aboard. Once onboard we got ready for dinner. Tonight’s dinner was at Hooked Seafood. I was tired and wasn’t too hungry but the food was good. I had the soft strip crab and captains platter with an assortment of seafood. 
 
After dinner, we put McKenzie to sleep then switched off with my parents. They packed in the room and Jake and I went to see 1977 Ice show. We both discussed afterwards that we were really impressed with the talent the skaters had. We would watched all the ice shows over again. I really liked the ice shows videography on the ice. Jake laughed that it was just projectors but it was still cool to me. After the show we got icecream, then headed to the Rising Tide Bar since we haven’t rode it up yet. It was fun but definitely a novelty just like the bionic bar. To the the night, we headed back to the room and stressed out over all the bags we had to pack!
All in all, the day went by WAY TO FAST and we are all sad we have to leave. We talked about our highs and lows on the cruise and I plan on sharing a few of them on another post soon. Maybe when I’m flying I’ll start composing that. I will also have to share photos, pros and cons of star Class (almost no cons) and also the adventure of traveling with an 8 month old baby. 

OMG! It's THE MATT from RCB!!!😱 (Fan girl moment 🤩) Thank you for your reply @Matt!!! This makes me EXTREMELY happy! I'm super stoked now!!! I would watch YT videos of the Promenade parties and parades. I never experienced it, now I finally can! 🥺
 

My last night on symphony and it’s mixed emotions. Cruise was awesome and I was stoked to be back on symphony. Service was really good overall. Specialty restaurant servers were on point and worked their arses off. Bartenders at trellis bar had to be androids because they never stopped and were ridiculously efficient. Just another top notch royal experience. Had a group of ten and everyone was overjoyed with  the trip. 

Yes, as explained in the new Pinnacle orientation. 
As someone who wears a Pinnacle badge from time to time I can tell it does open doors and generally is well received by the crew.  

Really excellent attitude and I feel exactly the same way. I have a hard time articulating how much I love cruising. I guess it’s akin to a child’s excitement at going to theme park? 

When I wake-up tomorrow morning, I'll have 49 days until my next cruise on the Ovation of the Seas, Alaska.  It's been a long dry spell.  The thing I like best about cruising is sea days.  I just love sitting in a bar, on the balcony, anywhere on the ship where I can see the Ocean, land masses, inside passages go by.  Not to mention the great tasting food and drink.  I've never enjoyed a vacation more than one on a cruise ship and Royal makes it even better.  

I was on Independence that same weekend and had a great cruise. Ate most meals in the MDR, a couple in the WJ. 
I had no issues or complaints aside from the key lunch being laughable. But it did just that, made me laugh. Aside from that meal everything was as expected for us.  
I hope your next cruise is better for you!

Anthem is getting there. Even though we're at about 78% capacity, it does seem like a full cruise. But, after several months of reduced capacity, I'm really happy to be getting back to pre-shutdown cruising. It was a unique experience having so few cruisers...but it was also strange. For me, there was always a nagging feeling of worry. The masking/distancing protocols; the constant unease over onboard infections and possible quarantine; the sudden change in itineraries due to onboard numbers; vaccinated-only venues; mask on/mask off/constant masking; really weird seeing entertainers performing in the bars and lounges for no audience; Windjammer closed for dinner due to lack of guests.
But the one constant was the crew. They were so happy to be back! Excellent service with wonderful attitudes! Even though their restrictions were so much more involved than for the guests. They still did their best to make the cruise as wonderful as possible! 
I like seeing capacity increase. It means we're getting back to where we were before the shutdown. I really missed that...enjoy your cruise!

I am sorry that you had a less than perfect cruise 😞 . I was on Independence in February and they were definitely short staffed. This is the first time EVER on an RC cruise that I (over)heard any complaints from staff. However, I could tell that all staff were really hustling and trying to make our experience amazing. The MDR was definitely short staffed to the point that the head waiter was assisting in bringing food and clearing tables. Every staff member that I interacted with was friendly and definitely met  (and even surpassed!) my requests. Everyone has staffing issues now, including my own office! When I am on a cruise, I am just so happy to not have to cook and do dishes myself that I am willing to overlook any potential shortfalls. That is something you will have to decide- if the service and food are exactly the same, would you be happy on your next cruise?

I enjoyed my Independence of the Seas cruise in November. Was there something specific you didn’t like in the buffet? In my experience, buffet food tends to be more plain to appeal to more people. Exceptions are the Asian cuisine, which I always enjoy. I thought the MDR food was very good and served warm and didn’t order room service. As for MDR service, we enjoy the dining experience and like to give ourselves about 1 hour and 45 minutes to eat so we can chat and slowly enjoy one meal and courses. But we did have a show one night where we needed to be out of there in a hour and they were able to accommodate us. I think there is a staff shortage just due to people who test positive, but overall I really enjoyed my cruise. At the end of the day, we are traveling during a pandemic and I felt like RCI did a good job with the circumstances 

I just used an MEI agent for the first time.  She was able to get me rooms that I didn’t have access to when I was trying to book it myself.  She was also able to get the cruise for $1000 less.  I’m sold on using an agent from now on.

Yes, your story is exactly why I use one.

My brother complained to me that I didn’t write my post day blog post yet. So my apologies for being late for anyone who maybe waiting. Yesterday (day 2) was a beautiful sea day.  We had breakfast delivered to our balcony at 8:00am along with our standing Starbucks order. I had the salmon and lox and a grande ice chai tea latte made with oat milk. The salmon bagel is my typical go to breakfast on cruises. 
 
After breakfast, Little Wayne, DJ, Jake, and I did the Escape Room with other Star Class families. It was submarine theme but that’s the extent I’ll say in case anyone else participates in the future. We escaped with 10 minutes left. 
 
After the escape room, we all went back to the room to relax for a while. Around noon the whole crew went to Playmakers for a light snack. Wayne, DJ, and I went down via the Ultimate Abyss and my Mom, Dad, and Jake went down with McKenzie via the elevator. My husband is freaked out at heights, hence why he didn’t go down. The pulled pork nachos were Devine and I think I’m going to make a whole meal out of them one day. Little Wayne didn’t care too much for the pulled pork on the nachos since they were a sweeter tang and he prefers a more savory taste. The garlic fries were also really good! 
 
Wayne, Jake and I are on a Facebook group for the sailing that we are on. On the Facebook group, a Slot Pull was organized for 1pm. Buy in was $20 and a total of 60 people signed up. So all in all $1200 was played. We started at Wheel of Fortune for $5 bets. Everyone got to spin 4 times. So much fun. If anyone has the opportunity to be part of a slot pull I highly recommend. We ended up at $1160ish when everyone took their turns. The group then decided to move to another machine.. quick hits. $5 max bet and everyone spun 4x again. That machine was a terrible decision. We ended up with around $900 I believe. Finally the group decided to head to high stakes room and do a $25 max bet until we lost or won jackpot. We ended up winning a $2,600 jackpot! Everyone took home $45! We all tipped the girl who hit the jackpot $5 as a thank you. 
 
After the slot pull we took McKenzie and walked around the ship. She was due for a nap (her and her pappy played while the rest of us were at the casino). Jake took McKenzie on the carousel and the BEST thing happened. McKenzie waves for the VERY FIRST TIME. I’m sure the other passengers thought I was crazy because I started cheering and crying. We then got some icecream at Sugar Beach and it was DELICIOUS. I got the tiramisu and I think I could service solely off of that.
 
McKenzie fell asleep on me and we headed back to the room and let her nap, Jake took a nap as well. We were awoken about 30 minutes in to a doorbell ring with special infused water for DJ. Just a little bitter but it was funny.
 
Dinner was at 150 Central Park and nothing disappointed. I had the Lamb Wellington. It was good, no complaints. After dinner Jake and I stayed in with McKenzie and put her to bed around 8:30pm. Jake then asked Hossain, our genie, for a pizza and a dozen wings to be delivered. I thought he was crazy because we JUST had dinner. But by the time it came… I had two slices of pizza as well. We then crashed around 10:30pm. 
 
All in all, day 2 was a very relaxed and chill day. Nothing over extraordinary for readers but everything that the hubby and I needed, relaxation with our daughter ❤️

Wow. I am trying to sum up my thoughts from our first day and the easiest thing to say is just wow…
Yesterday was amazing. We got to the port around 10 and the star class porters were right on getting our bags tagged and loaded up. Check-in was smooth and took roughly one minute for all seven of us. We sat down in the suite lounge which in my honest opinion was a little bland for being the suite section but I guess Covid has a little to blame for that? The couches were very comfortable but that’s about it. Hossain met us and another family of his and walked us on board around 10:45ish. He has us waiting in the Royal Promenade while he took his first family to their rooms. We decided to have our first beverage on the rising tide bar. I had a lovely mimosa! 🙂 It was nice hearing the champagne bottle popping open. That was the sound that officially resonated vacation for me. 
 
After about ten minutes waiting on the rising tide bar, Hossain came and got us. He walked us to our room (2BR AT deck 9). McKenzie and I were the first in the room and wow, I knew we were in for a great time. The decor on Symthony is beautiful. We had birthday decorations in the room for DJ and I and Hossain gave us birthday cards. I could right a book on the room but I’ll save that for another time.
 
We then went to our mustard station to get that out of the way. Jake got a hot dog, then we all rode the carousel with McKenzie for the first time. She loved the vibrant colors of the animals. We then came back to the room, our luggage was waiting for us so we unpacked. At 12:30 we had a welcome lunch from Chops delivered to our balcony. I had the shrimp cocktail and filet mignon with asparagus. The filet was a bit over cooked but was still juicy and flavorful so I didn’t mind. 
 
After lunch we finished unpacking, explored a bit, ate Sorentos pizza, went to the spa for the raffle (lost), then came back to the room to get ready for dinner. We had Coastal Kitchen. I got the Smoked Salmon and Crispy Pork Belly for an appetizer and the Salmon for my Entree. I could see myself eating at Coastal every night. My only complaint was our service was a little spotty. We will definitely have to ask for speedier service moving forward because 2 hours sitting for dinner with an eight month old is not my definition of fun. Pre baby I may have liked that but not anymore. I had to leave before dessert was brought out because McKenzie was getting fussy and was ready for bed. 
 
My parents thankfully took night duty for McKenzie so us ‘kids’ could go out. We saw iSkate2.0 and I LOVED it. So much passion in some of the skaters and spunk. I would watch it again. After the ice show…. Well there’s not too much to remember after that because we all got drunk… off of lemon drops for me! 
 
This was a lot to unpack but it is nice looking back at our first day. I am currently the first one up and I am watching the beautiful blue waves on our balcony. Life is good. ❤️
 
 

Hi
I just wanted to introduce myself. On my Profile Pic it`s me and my wife. We are so relaxed and easy and enjoy life in a good way. We are from Siwtzerland and i wonder if here are some more poeple from Europe, Seems like we have a lot of poeple from US here.
Our first Cruiese was in 2013 our Honeymoon, on Celebrity Reflection sencond on Celebrity Silhouette. Our Travel Agent over here said Honeymoon on a ship is ok, but they Americans doesn`t really care about Honeymooners. Then we get on Board.... wrong... Travelagents over here are expensive and not worth the Money. Over here you get no better deal on with a Cruise Agent, so i book everythimgs by myself. Everything a Agent can do, i can do better. And it even feels better when you come home and your wife is telling you, "Who is a good boy? you are a good boy. Yes you are, you have been such a good boy, and you behaved so good."
2014 Silhouette (Celebrity those with the big white X) Funny Story. True Story we visited Venice for the first. 2014 you can go by ship through the Canale Grande to the Port. They told us, "get up at six o`clock and you can see how we drive "through" the City." But... we arrieved a little bit erlier. I get out of the shower. Wanted just to take i little look and what did i saw? We have been in the middle of Venice. Now the Funny thing. I was so excited, i step out to our Balcony ejoying the view, Our room was two or three decks down from the Bridge i looked up to the Bridge and some of them looked down to me. Then came a voice from behind, "get your cloth on." I swear i did not realized.
Royal Caribbean: 2015 we have been on the Allure of the Seas, we invited my Perents to come with us on this Cruise. They don`t have much money ( We are not rich either), but i wanted them to see, how the life of her Son looks like i have three Sisters, my Perents always went on Holidays with us, so it was a little "Payback". My wife went on the Zip-Line, my Mother (73) went on the Zip-Line, i was so afraid... afraid of the heigt, of loosing control, of flying... But i did it. My Father asked me, "If you are afraid why are you doing this?" my answer, "Who knows if i can do it aver again, if i don`t do now." In December 2015 i got Epilepsie and i am not allowed to do this anymore.
2016 Brilliance of the Seas. We have been a little disapointed, just a little. Cruising on Allure and now on Brilliance, it`s normal beeing a little bit... less excited, but it stikk was a amazing Cruise. But we visited great spots like Venice. If you go to Venice in Summer and it is raining, wear flip flops. You will get wet shoes and feet anyway.
2017.... We moved to another House so...no Money
2018 We have bee invited to Turkey for Holidays, you can`t say no to Free Vacation.
2019 Oasis of the Seas. Oh yes Finally Cruising again. maybe everyone who Cruised 2019 maybe remembers the Birthday of RC? We where on the Main Dining Room, having a starter... Meal, Desert (we couldnt decide, so we took two each.) and after that... They brought us a Birthdaycake. The small once but,... we had two Deserts each. I have been at Private lesseons on the Flowrider. I was first timer. They said "hey cool, you are doing so well." They brought me some skill and stunts. One of the instructors said, "Hey man, cool lets do some together". So we ware Surfing together. I was so nervous, i didn`t want to make a mistake, so i fell down with the instructor rigth behind me and i smashed right of his board. Funny for everyone watching this.
2020 Covid.... Holiday with the Family of my wife, worst idea ever.
2021 June back and ready to cruise from Southhampton to the Cannaries.
 
That was our Cruise Life.
By the way we are 39 have no kids, but who cares about that?

@Lovetocruise2002 Your luggage is having an adventure of its own! 
We definitely got soaked! I don't know what happened but all of a sudden we saw a gush of water coming straight for us!
#geniewaswrong
#soakingwet
 

I don’t think I’ve taken my big camera on deck yet.  My 360 camera is tiny and most people don’t even notice it.  
 

OK, I'm starting to get worried. The first cruise is booked but I just realized we have neither clothes steamer nor salad shooter. Can I even go on a cruise without having those things at home? We also never had the idea to travel with our kitchen knives.
Maybe cruising isn't for us after all if we don't even do the basics "normal" cruisers do...

That first magnet from Allan made me smile, this one just cracks me up!

Well it's some good news - I have a great deal! haha

Woohoo! Our first b2b!
October 31, 2023 and November 6, 2023 on Liberty.

Here’s my overview
We arrived at the terminal around 10:30 and a Star porter immediately grabbed us!  We went thru the Star line and was on the second floor within a few minutes.  No line at all.  Our genie, Nicoli, met us and escorted us into the suite section to wait for boarding to begin.  About 15 minutes later when boarding began we had to wait in line with all of the other suite people.  I did find that a bit surprising that we were not ahead of that crowd to board.  Since it was so early our Mexican restaurant was not ready so we headed to our room.  Luggage was not there.  After doing some hooting and hollering it was time to eat.  Our food at the Mexican restaurant was o.k.  
Headed back to room to unpack then headed for ice cream and milkshakes at the ice cream place.  The milkshakes there were better than Johnny Rockets.  We did eat at Johnny Rockets for lunch one day and had a “new” employee.  She was completely at lost on how to take an order for five people.  Our French fries came out way before our hamburgers, which were totally all wrong.  Hubby stayed to eat his while the rest of us got out of there.  Hubby had a nice chat with the manager and explained the employee was not ready to be on her own.  She needed to still follow someone.  
We did hit the casino each night only to be disappointed each night.  I don’t expect to overall win each night but I do expect some give, instead of all take!  It was the worse loosing casino I had ever been to.  Maybe, the machines are tight due to covid.
We ate at most of the speciality restaurants and all were good, except Chef’s table, which was a disappointment. Everyone at the table got their steaks cooked way wrong and didn’t eat them. Even if the steaks were cooked correctly the meat was a cheap piece of meat.  I felt for the people that had actually paid for that privilege.  Service was good!  
150 had the best service and really good food.  The server there was top notch!!  Kids had steaks at all places we ate at dinner and each voted the “suite lounge” as having the best steak….ever.  
The Garden Martini at 150 was awesome.  I was surprised how much I enjoyed a vegetable martini!  On the other hand, I did not like the lavender martini at chops.  Odd taste  
One thing you need to take into account is the amount of “tips” you will need to give.  From our first porter, guy who sat up our breakfast each morning on the balcony (he was awesome), lunch in speciality restaurants or suite lounge, dinner in speciality restaurants, bartenders, cabin steward, Genie, and two porter guys to get to our cab.  Since there were five of us we tipped $10.00 for breakfast, $20 for lunch and $50.00 for dinner.  Porter guys got $10.00 each.  It added up fast.  
We saw shows:  Comedy and the Ice show.  Comedy was fine.  We had seats reserved on the front side. Ice show was good and was made even better due to our middle front row seats.  Loved it there! Also, we watched the aqua show from our balcony which was fun.  We did not go to the headliner show because the singer was not our type.  Our Genie would meet us at each show and make sure we had our preferred drink.  Nicoli also met us each night at dinner.  He would then get our nightly snacks order and breakfast order for the next morning.
Our Genie showed up for our first balcony breakfast and sat a few moments with us on our balcony.  We would then see him again at dinner.  Most days it was just at dinner unless we went to a show after dinner, but we texted several times a day.  I think Nicoli figured out fast that we preferred our space and did not need constant cuddling.  I liked using the what’s up app for contact with him.  It was easy just to text him, instead of having to call him.   He always responded immediately and completed what I wanted.  One night I decided during the dinner that I wanted my daughter’s birthday cake to be delivered there. Nicoli made it happen. Both cakes were unbelievable. The taste was really good but the art work was the best I had ever seen!!  
Our Genie was a good fit for us.  He is personal, easy going and professional, when needed.  He had “four” rooms our week….five in our room, four in another, two in the other two bedroom aqua suite and I think three in the last room.  Because of lack of replacement, he was on his second tour and due to go home in April for a break.  On some ships, due to lack of Genies, some genies have had to service more than seven rooms.
Our room steward had 15 rooms to clean, one two bedroom aqua suite and the rest were a mixture of inside and balcony rooms.  Our suite was like cleaning three rooms, so he had 18 rooms to clean.  The cruise after us were increasing their passenger count but not staff.  He will have to clean three to five rooms more starting after our cruise.  Every day we would leave two bags full of stuff to be cleaned and pressed.  Two dry cleaning bags are in your room.  You fill out a paper on what you have in the bag.  I have heard horrible dry cleaning stories but all of our stuff came back better than what we get from our dry cleaners at home.  
Our passenger account was just over 50 percent.  Definitely didn’t feel as crowed as pre covid.  The casino was crowded.  There’s a good distance between the smoking and non smoking sections.  Non smoking section is bigger too.  
We only did one tour and that was in Honduras - Sloth and Monkey tour.  It was so much fun!  If you do this tour  hang back from the crowd.  Let them all run into the monkey cage.  By doing so you will get more personal attention at the end.  In Costa Maya, we walked into town.  The walk there and back was around 4.4 miles.  When you get to the end of the street there’s no signage of which way to go to town.  Go left!  In Cozumel we just walked straight out of port for a bit and walked back.  The weather was perfect in all the places for walking.  We did have rain a couple of times but we were already back on the ship.  
The last sea day our Genie had us and two other ladies for a personal hour on the flow rider.  Hubby and son took advantage of that hour.  It was fun watching them!  Son did the rock climbing and climbed right past our room.   Almost close enough for us to reach out and knock him down!
This was our first “diamond” cruise.  We already had unlimited drinks and the suite lounge so really didn’t need the use of the diamond lounge.  We did each get a “free” picture so that was a nice bonus.  
A repeat:  I hosted our slot pull on the first sea day at 11 am.  It took about an hour with 79 people participating.  We each put in 15 dollars.  At the end we had each lost $5.00.  People thanked us the whole cruise for hosting!  Our Genie gave us shirts, hats, water bottle and two sets of towel clips that said VIP and reserved to give as gifts for those who won the most money on their pulls.  
Our cruise was the first cruise having masks as optional.  Around ten percent (maybe even lower) chose to wear them.  I don’t think we had many cases, if any.  Except for staff wearing a mask the cruise was just like the old days……well, less crowded.  
Maybe because we were away from the suite floor….we just never got any unannounced visitors.  Guy came with our preplanned breakfast order, afternoon snacks then nightly snacks.  The Aqua suites are a good distance from any civilization but we ended up loving that.  We are walkers and always enjoyed the long walk down the hallway to our room.  
Nicoli left us each a royal hat as a gift.  We gave him cash as we were leaving the ship.  We gave the room steward cash the last night, incase we didn’t see him the next morning.  
Our Genie met us the last morning at seven with a porter.  He was thankful that we were leaving that early.  Most star class passengers try to stay until the last moment leaving genies trying to get them “all” off and rooms set up for the next passengers.  Our luggage was put on the cart and we all entered an elevator that was going “up” and Nicoli with a special card made the elevator go down.  He walked us to just before customs and handed us over to another porter.  Customs was just a facial recognition moment then off the ship we were.  The porter was awesome.  He brought us over to the taxi service on the side and had someone take us to the airport.  I’m thinking going to the side for a cab is normally not allowed.  I think you have to wait until they line up at the front entrance.  
I started this cruise at 137 pounds. First day off the ship I weighed 140.  Three days later I’m at 138.  Thinking tomorrow I’ll be back to the 137.  At this point, I’m sick of food.  Nothing sounds good.  I’m still stuffed.  By the last night on the cruise I just couldn’t eat, even the fish I was so looking forward to having.  
Hubby and I started the cruise thinking “star class” wouldn’t be a good fit for us.  I still tried to keep the rooms clean, but it was hard to keep up with our kids (grown-ass adults), so we did get our monies worth from the cabin steward!  Everything was done so smoothly.  First class service and attention.  I know some of you “hate” to show your special card but I recommend you keep that sucker around your neck to be seen.  You are paying for first class service!  
The vacation was one of the best ever, and I attribute that to being star class.  It’s expensive and I would not recommend using monies that should be going to your retirement account to take a star class cruise. You could do several  cruises instead of one star cruise for the same price.  Think hard before you spend that much for one week.  
That said, I’m older. More life is behind me than ahead of me.  I’ve spent my time in an interior/balcony room.   I’m getting close to the time that it’s good to spend some of my kid’s inheritance money, so I booked another two bedroom aqua suite - January 2024 on the Harmony.  
Thanks for following!
 
 

Aww, thank you. Both kids are usually easy going but everyone has their breaking point and she had definitely reached hers. Her brother can be moodier than she usually is so I was more concerned about him all week but he had a ball no matter what we were doing.
We all have our moments, I'm sure I probably had some on this cruise too. The beverage package snafu was really irritating.

I think this is a good time to reflect on traveling with teens or just kids in general. Like I mentioned in my intro post, we don't do huge family trips very often. So they don't get to GO BIG like this pretty much ever. Heck, this was only Mr. & Mrs. Regular's second cruise ever and I love doing my research but it's not like we're experts at this whole cruise thing (yet). Plus, we know our kids. We know that since they don't get to leave their environments for more than 2-3 days at a time they would need some expectations laid down and help figuring out the norms. Cruising isn't for everyone and while we hoped they would love it there's never a guarantee. Here are some things we did in the lead-up to the trip and during our vacation that helped us. All families and kids have different needs, so what we did may not fit your family's needs or style and I hope you find some helpful takeaways.
We told them about this trip shortly after we booked it so they had about 9 months to help us with the planning and researching. I wanted them involved so they could 1)be informed and 2)give input and feel invested in the trip. We watched some short ship tours online and I would share the excursion options and ask what they were interested in doing. We made plans as a family but also gave them a lot of freedom to spend time away from us if they made friends on the ship. When we did the check-process about 45 days before sailing we also started our conversations about expectations. We covered everything from behavior (e.g. no shenanigans no matter how many other kids were joining in) to a daily budget for extras ($5 a day or 2-3 bigger purchases like shirts or souvenirs) and when we wanted them to check in with us, like have dinner each night. They also each downloaded the app so they could explore menus, deck maps, the cruise compass once onboard, etc.
Laying out clear expectations was very helpful, but we also allowed them to make requests of us. If they were not into what we wanted to do in a certain moment we let them know it was 100% fine to bow out and go back to the room. Or if they were excited about something and wanted us to come with them. We wanted them to feel comfortable vocalizing when they needed time away or something different. I know I've joked about "forced family fun" and "torturing teens with X activity" but we really didn't want to do that in reality. There was always another option, another activity, another space to discover on this ship that it was ok to change their minds.
With the exception of the food selections, there wasn't much we could do about that. SK1 has some sensory issues that can be challenging when it comes to food, noise or crowds and she can shut down quickly. Food this week was a trigger for her where she will just get to decision fatigue and have nothing. Or she will order something familiar or similar to what's at home and what is served is nothing like what she had been expecting. I think that's a really relatable situation for adults but as kids those emotions are intense and they are still learning how to process those situations. Expectation is directly linked to sadness, disappointment and anger when those ideas aren't met it can be a recipe for disaster.
As parents, we have to accept that just because we are on vacation and have spent a lot of time, money and energy on this experience it doesn't mean our kids are going to change their behaviors and habits. I see this all the time at Disney, too. Tantrums will still happen, meltdowns will happen, they will get tired if they don't have their nap, siblings will squabble and fight. They have been up late, up early, eating restaurant/takeout food for 7 days and completely out of their routines and environments. Give them some grace, and give yourself some grace too. Cruise ships are overwhelming. Build in some time to help them process what they're feeling and then find an option to help them move forward. That might be a time out or a time in, or a snack, a good wailing cry in your stateroom, or whatever. Once they have a chance to hit the reset button it will right itself until the next time. Our trip wasn't ruined because she had a couple struggles on day 5! The rest of the cruise was fantastic and she is looking forward to the next one. Especially since she's had this experience under her belt, we will know how to prepare for it.