MTNeedsAVacay

Hi all! This is our first cruise. We wanted to do an easy vacation after moving back to Maryland a few months ago. We’re about an hour from Baltimore, so Enchantment it was! We are on night 7 of an 8-night cruise. We really love this ship. We were looking for a relaxing vacation and we found it!
 
My husband and I have found that relaxing on the pool deck or deck 10 are what we really needed. We have done some trivia and we go to watch karaoke. We have been enjoying Giles in the piano bar (Schooner’s) and just walking around the ship at night. We’ve been to all the headliner shows in the Orpheum as a family and we’ve all thoroughly enjoyed all of them. We could be doing the classes and the game shows and such, but we’re really enjoying our chill time on the deck.
 
Our girls are 11 and 13 and they are having an absolute blast with all of the new cruise friends they’ve made. There may not be all of the bells and whistles of the bigger ships, but we are having a ton of fun and also chilling out. It’s been an amazing family vacation so far! We would definitely sail this itinerary again… Baltimore, Bermuda, Coco Cay. ☀️
 
Other details:

Husband has the Refreshment Package (which includes Starbucks beverages and Frappuccinos on this shop because there is no standalone Starbucks). Nobody else has a drink package. We’ve ordered mocktails and such and I’ve tried them with no problem. There aren’t any bracelets or anything like that. I brought a covered cup with a straw that I use for water, iced tea, lemonade, or whatever comes out of the juice machine. Highly recommend doing that. The kids haven’t cared one bit that they don’t have the soda package because they just go get whatever drink comes out of the juice machine whenever they want. (The teen club which is sort of their HQ is right above the Windjammer where all the drinks are.) We brought two bottles of wine onboard and have only had one so far. Not that we aren’t drinkers (we’ve bought a few drinks) and have done mocktails (all the calories without the fun haha) but I knew if we got the alcohol package I’d be trying to make it “worth it” and would suffer the consequences the next morning. 😜
 
All of the staff are amazing and our steward knew our names from Day 1. Inacio has been awesome!
 
I was really worried that we had late dining because I booked the cruise late. We were able to call a week before the cruise and switch to My Time Dining. But guess what? We went the first night and haven’t been back. It was great, but there is so much (surprising!) variety at the Windjammer plus the ability to have multiple desserts LOL that we have just been going there. 
 
We went to Horseshoe Beach in Bermuda. Do not buy the $39 “excursion”! It’s $7/person when you get off the ship. Super easy! Bring cash. They use American money. Also, the shops close very early (even with our ship in port overnight on a weekend!). If you want a T-shirt, get it before 5 or you will end up with a shirt from a pub near the ship. Very cool, but if you didn’t eat there, you may not want a shirt from there. 🙂
 
Perfect Day at Coco Cay: Oasis OTS got there a couple of hours earlier than we did, so a lot of the chairs were taken. We ended up first getting chairs by the beach but after we went in (wasn’t great for beach fun swimming because there were no waves and there was a lot of gross seaweed and rocks and stuff) we moved to the pool. We didn’t do the big waterslides (it was $140 pp for our sailing and we would’ve all had to buy tix because they aren’t 14) and my girls had so much fun doing everything else that they didn’t miss it. After seeing the number of stairs to the top of that thing, I’m not sure I would’ve done it more than once anyway LOL!).
 
Here’s some stuff you definitely want to bring with you:
- pump hand soap
- hoodie
- magnetic hooks (I already have a second set of these in my cart for next time LOL)
- more tank dresses/coverups than you think… easy to just throw on so you can go to eat
 
#1 Observation:
NOBODY CARES WHAT YOU LOOK LIKE. Please just be comfy and enjoy your time and get your tan on!
 
Happy cruising! Feel free to ask me any questions and I’ll do my best to answer. I was so stressed out before we came but all of those stresses are gone!
 
😎
 

Yes- we are a family of 4. All had 11am check in time but 2 days ago both of my kids randomly had their times changed to 10am but my husband and I still show 11. 

If you get a test from cvs or Walgreens, rest assured it’s solid for being acceptable by Royal 

Can you believe it!!!  I already got my OBC!  We purchased the stocks yesterday.  We filled out the PDF and emailed it last night.  We got notification this afternoon.  And the OBC appeared on my account just now!  Happy Dance!! 

I think ultimately you'll have to decide which factors are most important to you- the ships with less children will likely be smaller ships. However, you will also get plenty of singing/dancing/entertainment on smaller ships as well. If you decide a bigger ship with the extra bells and whistles is what you want to experience, try to find a sailing during the school year, as those also will generally have less children than a summer or holiday sailing.
I think you'll have a great time regardless of what you decide! Good luck and happy sailing!

I've been able to catch a reasonable amount on some sailings - it depends on where you are.  I couldn't catch a thing in Alaska unless I was in port - the wifi is just too unstable in Alaska on the ships.  I caught quite a lot on Caribbean sailings. Good luck!
(And now I've forever outed myself. Great.)

Guys Burger Joint for the win!

Well.. my worst nightmare came true. I was on Wonder of the Seas June 2nd out of Rome and I’ve tested positive for COVID. My husband and kids are negative. They have no symptoms. I wanted to share here so others have a reference if this happens to them or for anyone that can share with me some advice. My advice: 1. Get travelers insurance. 2. Book your flight through Air to Seas. They have been VERY helpful. Will be refunding me and rebooking me 3. Know ahead what the protocol is in the US for getting back to the US if you test positive. Better to be prepared. I have been “Flagged”. I have to Quarantine in Rome for 5 days I tested Thursday after our Rome excursions and can not retest until Monday. NO way around this. Very easy to get tests at the Pharmacia’s here. We did not have an appointment, just walked up and tested. Boom!! Mine lit up like a Christmas tree.  Had I tested on the ship, before getting off,  RC will accommodate you on the ship until your quarantine is done then Air to Sea would get me home from whatever port I’d complete my quarantine. Option 2, find a hotel and Quarantine. Not easy on a weekend to find a room. Im staying near the Pharmacy I tested at. Not sure I have to do that but don’t know that I can get unflagged any other way. Very scary and stressful and I’m here alone as a female. I must wait 5 days to test here. Where I’m confused is, being I feel well aside from allergy symptoms which is not new for me at all, what happens in 5 days if I’m still positive. Yes. I’m vaccinated and boosted. I can’t get a clear answer here at the pharmacy, RC, or Air to Seas as to what I do then. I was told to call the airline and see what their protocol is. I waited on hold for 2 hours before being disconnected by Air Canada. Not sure if a certificate of recovery will do. If yes, where do I even get one?  Or if I HAVE to have a negative rapid antigen test. So this story is to be continued. I had THE most amazing trip and am trying to stay positive in that I get a little vacation alone. Which as a health care provider having worked the whole pandemic… it may be a much needed time to reflect and relax. Any thoughts.. please keep them positive as I’m just trying to get through this. 

I’m a Disney Gay on Harmony of the Seas right now, prepare to be disappointed!!  I will never step foot on a Royal ship again. Meh to just plain bad food, apathetic to over worked and stressed crew, long lines, nickel and diming, adult only areas with clearly under age children in them, and the crew and officers won’t enforce the rules …. a completely different vibe.

Yes that is exactly what I meant. I am very much leaning into the "Disney gay" stereotype right now for content.

Day Five: Sitka
We anchored at about 7:00 this morning and since we have a front room, it woke us all up early as the anchor was lowered. There weren’t enough docks for all the ships that were going to be here today so we had to tender. For any of you who don’t know what that is (I didn’t), tendering is when you board a smaller boat, such as the lifeboats, from your ship and go to a smaller dock. Usually you have to get a ticket to tender and they’ll call your ticket number when it’s your turn. The captain had told us yesterday that we could tender from 8:00-9:00 AM with no ticket. Only problem was everyone wanted to do that and they couldn’t use all of their lifeboats so the line to board was super long. Finally we got to the front of it and boarded the tender. There were about a hundred people in there in total. It was helpful cause it brought us right to town, whereas if we docked, we’d have to take a ten minute shuttle. We planned to get in port with tons of time to spare before our afternoon excursion to shop. We also did a walk up a little hill to get some good pictures.

For our excursion, we got into a sightseeing boat that had a nice warm heated area with a tiny little shop where you could get complimentary hot chocolate, tea, and donut holes. There was also a second floor that was open air so you could see really well. We saw about five whales, a ton of sea otters, and sea lions. They were all amazing to see and I wouldn’t trade that excursion for anything else. 



Afterwards, we went back to the ship to catch a movie. We got a little more fancied up but not too much since it wasn’t formal night and headed off to get some pictures.    Dinner was great. I had tomato soup, steak, and tres leche. The tomato soup and tres leches were amazing. The steak was a little fattier than I’d prefer. 

My brother and I rushed off to a teenager silent disco right after. It was really cool and I’d do it again. They had these light up headphones that would switch color depending on what music you were listening to. Then we went to Optix and I learned how to play Super Smash Bros! I won twice after I figured out the controls with my favorite character, Princess Peach. There wasn’t any schedule for Optix so we just hung around then went back to the room and yet again fell right asleep.
Stay tuned for my Alaska Adventure!

Day Two: Sea Day and Inside Passage
This is morning we had a bit of a late start. I, of course, woke up around 6 am and read a bit but everyone else slept in a little bit later. It’s colder today so I’m wearing a long sleeve shirt under a t-shirt and I’m warm and cozy. At breakfast the pancakes were wonderful as well as the chocolate donut. The whipped cream was a little strange, it tasted like butter and I didn’t really like it. 
We went to a sudoku competition and some other guy finished the puzzle in almost four minutes! I’m not great at sudoku so I turned my paper into origami. Afterwards we listened to a talk about the Klondike Gold Rush and Mounties, but we couldn’t stay the whole time since we wanted to go to the Alaska Port and Shopping Show where they gave us some great tips on where to shop and a coupon for a free pendant that I might show a picture of in the next post. Then we had a quick lunch and my mom and I headed off to a lady’s pamper party. A little bit later we went to a Disney trivia and we won, only missing one question! My brother and I went to go to Optix, but a sign on the door said “At the basketball court” so we figured they were playing basketball which neither of us wanted to play. We headed back to the stateroom and I wrote some in my nook. Later we found out from the Royal Caribbean app that they were playing dodgeball, not basketball. I would’ve liked to play dodgeball, but I only found out after they were done so I guess you should always check the app or go see what Optix is doing if they’re not there. 
Today’s duck of the day is Belle. She’s my favorite duck because she has a book. I wanted to make sure she liked where she was hiding so you can guess where she went. 

You guessed it, in the cozy little library on deck nine. We went back to see if she was still there a couple hours after we hid her and she was. Hopefully a book lover finds her soon. 
We played around in the room a bit and I read some. Surprisingly, we found internet from the Canadian shore for a little bit and posted my blog yesterday even though we were at sea. 
Tonight was formal night so we got all fancy and took some pictures. Sadly when I’m fancy, I’m wearing a dress and sandals and therefore a bit cold. But it was okay since we staying inside most the time. 
Once we got all the pictures we wanted, we rushed off to the production of Piano Man. We got there about ten minutes late but could still find some seats. I figured it would’ve been a bunch of Billy Joel songs with a small amount of storyline, but then they started playing Elton John and then Wizard of Oz. I got very confused and the storyline was nonexistent. The tech team had some problems moving set and with lighting and audio. I only stayed because the performers were amazing even with the random script they had to go off of and I love music. 
Then we rushed off to dinner. I had a fruit cup, roasted chicken, and carrot cake. I have to say, all three were amazing and I entirely recommend them, though the carrot cake is not there every day, so be on the lookout for it. 

These were some of the activities to do in Optix, but I didn’t do any of them. A friend told me the selfie hunt was quite a workout and was fun. 

I played on their foosball table. I won and then we went back to the stateroom and I read some more in my nook and watched the beautiful sunset which seemed to never end. 


I read until I almost fell asleep in my nook, then had to get in bed and sleep. 

 
 
Stay tuned for my Alaska Adventure!

Day One: Embarkation 
Finally, the day to get on the cruise! We woke up around 6:00 AM since we haven’t quite adjusted to the time zone yet and we just lazed around our Airbnb for an hour or two. Then, since we’re in Canada, we decided to find a local place to have breakfast and found Tim Hortons which was amazing. I got a chocolate croissant and definitely recommend going there. 
After breakfast, we had a bit of time to spare so we went to a lighthouse at Stanley Park. It was windy and rainy so we had on rain jackets but I wished I had my gloves. The weather is in the 50s and 60s so that’s a little chilly for a Floridian. 
Then it was off to the cruise port to board the ship! It all went pretty fast until we got to the room to wait to board, but that wasn’t too bad either. Once we got on we went to Windjammers, the buffet, and had lunch. The burgers there were amazing, but for dessert the only ice cream they had was chocolate so I got a slice of pound cake instead. 
Once we were done with lunch, we played a quick game of ping pong and then headed off to see the stateroom. It was bigger than any other stateroom that I’ve been in before, since my parents booked the “Ultra Spacious Oceanview”.  When I first heard that, I was most excited that we would get to see the ocean, but I absolutely love how much space we have too. There was this little room with a bunk bed in there for me and my brother to share and it had a curtain to separate it off from the rest of the stateroom. The best thing about the whole room was these two giant windows with a platform to sit in them. There was plenty of dresser and closet space to put everyone’s clothes. It’s pretty great. 

 

A little bit later we went to the check out the teen club, Optix. The soda bar isn’t open anymore, and there’s a lot of video games in there. It seems like a great place to meet up with friends, have a nice chat, and it has scheduled activities everyday.
 
 

Finally we had started moving from the dock, so we went up to the top deck to get a cool picture with the Lion’s Gate Bridge as the ship passed below it. It almost looked like we wouldn’t make it under. 
We went to dinner and everything seemed so fancy. We have great waiters who somehow always refilled our drinks without us even noticing he was there. I got Caesar Salad for a starter, which was amazing, New York Strip Steak for the main course, and Apple Blossom a la mode for dessert. Both the starter and dessert blew me away, but I was a little disappointed that there wasn’t any A1 or any sauce but it was great other than that. 

After rushing through dinner, I went to Optix to do a scavenger hunt. It was this question sheet that you had to run around the ship and try to find all the answers. My group didn’t finish all the questions, but we won with the most questions right. The grand prize… a highlighter. Honestly I would’ve loved it even without the prize. 
We are participating with Cruising Ducks so I went back to the stateroom and got my duck of the day to hide before getting some sleep. Today’s duck was named Scrooge. 

Stay tuned for my Alaska Adventure!
 
 
 
 

Travel Day Post
After a 4:00 AM wake up call, we were on our way to the airport to catch the first flight. Unusually, lines for both checking bags and security were shorter than expected when we got to the Orlando airport. We did have a bit of a holdup before we could get to our gate though. One of our bags had to be searched because they didn’t know what something in it was. So they took it aside and pulled out our lunchbox that we brought to eat on the second flight. The perpetrator was a block of cheese. Luckily that didn’t make us late for the first flight and we got on with no problem. Sadly my dad couldn’t sit next to the rest of us on the plane, but he was only a row up and across so it was alright. The flight was smooth and I got a cup of hot tea about halfway through. We got off at Toronto and only had an hour and fifteen minutes to get through customs and catch the flight to Vancouver. 

Customs was pretty easy too, we had to walk a lot and then we got to the desks with the people checking everyone. You show them your face and passport and they make sure you are who you say you are and then they ask if you’re bringing any food. If you had meat or dairy, they had to make sure it was sealed and from the USA. We had brought salami and that troublesome block of cheese so it took a little longer but then we were on our way to our gate. The best part about customs was that we got to skip the whole security line. Then we were on our way to the flight to Vancouver and got there just in time to board. 
 
The five hour Vancouver flight was tiring. This time they had soda so I got Sprite and my mom got Diet Coke. I tried to sleep on the plane for a bit, but I’ve never been able to sleep that well when we’re flying. When we started the descent to Vancouver, we saw the mountaintops peeking out from the clouds and it all seemed so magical. 

Once we got our checked bags, we headed over to pick up our rental car. It was a little small for all our stuff, but we made it work. Then we were off to the Lynn Canyon to see the suspension bridge. The whole forest was like we stepped into a fairytale and we hiked for an hour. We might have done more, but there were so, so, so many stairs. Either way, I highly recommend it, just don’t forget your water bottle and camera. 

We got to the Airbnb which was rather comfortable and had our airplane leftovers for dinner. Then we got the must do of any vacation: ice cream! It was at this cozy little place called Welcome Parlour Ice Cream that had a kind of sampler dish where you could get four scoops of ice cream. I shared it with my brother, Jonathan, and it was amazing. Then we met a very friendly dog who just loved attention. It was nice that even though we had to leave our dog at home, we still had dogs around. 
 
Finally we got back to the Airbnb and Jonathan and I just fell straight asleep, excited to board the ship the next day. 
 
Stay tuned for my Alaska Adventure!

This might lead to am entirely new section of RC Blog all from the kids perspective! 

The following is from my teenage daughter who is doing this as both a summer project and a bit just for fun
Pre-Cruise Post
Tomorrow my family and I will be leaving Florida to go on Royal Caribbean’s Radiance of the Seas Alaska cruise! I’ve never been on a Royal Caribbean cruise or an Alaska cruise before, but I have been on quite a few Disney cruises in the Bahamas, Caribbean, and even the Panama Canal. This cruise was originally planned for 2020 but with COVID, it got pushed back a year, then another year. I’m just glad that it wasn’t canceled again, yet (I’m hoping I didn’t just jinx it), and I’m very excited to be cruising again!

A little bit about myself: my name is Caitlyn and I’m 13 years old. Now you’re probably wondering why a teenager is taking the time to write a blog while cruising. There’s two reasons really. One, I love writing more than almost anything else. I even go to an arts school to major in creative writing. Two, I had started researching what there was to do on the ship. Thing is, all the information I could find was from an adult’s perspective. I could find advice on what club to go to once the kids were asleep, but couldn't find almost any information about activities for teenagers or specifics about the teen club Optix, other than it exists.  So I said to myself: "Self, why don’t you help all the other teenagers going on this kind of cruise and write the info yourself?" And so that’s what I’m doing.

I’ll be going on this cruise with my mom, dad, and my 15 year old brother, Jonathan. In my posts, most of the pictures will come from Jonathan. Sadly we can’t take our dog Coco, so we had to find people to take care of him. Luckily, we have good friends who offered to let him stay at their house so he isn’t lonely. I will miss him from the moment we leave till when we get back again.



The toughest part about this cruise was probably the planning. Seven days to fill with excursions and the endless possibilities of what we could do. Needless to say it took a lot of planning, but I’m happy with the way it turned out. We’ll be doing a fun excursion at almost every port. There’s also a little bit of an adventure after the cruise before we go home too, but more on that later.

Nope, I was wrong before, the toughest part was packing! Since I live in Florida, we have to fly to Vancouver to board the ship. We can only have four carry-ons (one per person) and we’re only checking two bags so we don’t have any space to spare. One way to save space was using these wonderful packing cubes that make everything seem to take less space… although, it can’t do anything to make these clunky hiking boots any smaller




We are nearly done packing already and somehow all of our clothes and shoes and cameras and everything fit into our suitcases. Now it’s just a matter of waking up tomorrow before the sun is up and fitting everything in the car… Wish us luck!

Only one more day till we fly out and I think I might explode with excitement! I’m going to try my best to post every day, but we didn’t get the internet package, so I can only post at ports. If I miss a day, I’ll catch up later. I just can’t wait for seven days on the seas to the last frontier to see the beautiful scenery and run away from the Florida heat.

Stay tuned in for my Alaska Adventure!

Was on Explorer May 8 for 6 nights.  Experienced delayed boarding....but learned that was actually due to reduced staffing at the port, not the ship's fault.  Having read the reviews, we did not elect MTD, and experienced absolutely no issues with respect to late night seating in the main dining room.  Most crowded night was, of course, lobster night, but that was it.  Also spent a lot of time in the bar/lounge areas (no judgment please) and became friendly with the bar staff (no surprise - - I'm a bartender myself).  Yes, they were out of a lot of liquor, but the dedicated staff would go "borrow" from other bars as they could.  Supply chain problem for sure (just look at the dining menu).  My restaurant suffers from it too.  As far as staffing, well I can't comment on the underlying issue, but I did see virtually every staff member work exceedingly hard and most definitely dedicating themselves to the guests - night & day.  There were several times I just wanted to jump in and help.  Happy to see the guest count up, but if you're living in the real world, the expectation needs to drop a notch or two, or the patience level needs to increase a notch or two.  We'll get there again...just takes time. 

RC finally changed the text of this email
 

So, after gathering more information I can affirmatively state that the app has apparently not been updated with the correct times.  I can say that because my new friend Nityam has us scheduled for lunch there on day 2 (Saturday) at 12:00.  
I can only assume that the johnny on the spot IT guys at Royal will some day get around to updating the dates and times on the app as we get closer to the cruise.  We still have a couple of weeks so there is no rush!!

When I was on Oasis last month, Portside BBQ was open from 12-5PM every day but not dinner. It might be due to staffing shortages.

We just finished a 5 day on Mariner of the Seas and Wow the Main Dining Room was spectacular!  The food was so good, steaks, salmon, deserts, everything. We didn't feel the need to dine at any of the specialty restaurants. Francis and Karan were on their game. Good Job Mariner!

Booking this sailing this week! Can't wait!

Gotta try to completely disable Harmony before they send it over to us plebs in Texas.

They make it sound like a love tap, not an egregious navigating mistake that it is.

Making you call is a great way to not have to give out so many loyalty rewards.  I'm not sitting on hold for a can of Coke.