Cruisingmama9

I woke up this morning in my own bed. Very disappointed that my morning Starbucks order hasn’t been delivered. Yesterday was disembarkation/travel day. I woke up around 6am to get a shower and start packing. I liked not having to pack the night before and leaving our bags out to be picked up. This was another perk of Star Class. Our last and final Starbucks/mimosa order got delivered around 745 and Hossain came at 8 with attendants to grab all of our bags. Bummer. We headed towards the elevators which Hossain was able to call immediately and skipped all the floors straight to the gangway. He escorted us all the way off the ship into the terminal. It was a sad goodbye for us.

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.

Some activities I don’t mind. Not waiting for shows and skipping is a nice advantage. It’s just the ‘younger’ activities with the young kids that make me feel bad. It was my turn for the flow rider for skipping but it was in front of a 7/8 year old kid. I was like, I’ll go after him it’s okay.

Day 6: Final Sea Day Our final sea day, Jake and I scheduled a Swedish couples massage for 8am. After our massage, we had a light breakfast at Coastal Kitchen. It took a while but I think the food comas finally hit us. At noon, we had Hooked Seafood. I had the vodka oyster shooters, oysters, and fish and chips. We were in a hurry because Hossain scheduled us an ice cream bar in the room at 1:00. One of my favorite things on this cruise with star class has been the free ice cream at Sugar Beach. The Cookies N Cream and Tiramisu are my favorite. After ice cream the whole crew decided on a water adventure afternoon. DJ, Wayne and I went on all of the water slides and then headed to the flow rider. I am not sure how I feel about skipping the flow rider line being Star Class. It makes me feel weird cutting in front of younger kids. When we were at the flow rider my parents took McKenzie to the baby splash zone. They said she had a great time and took lots of pictures. After we were done with water time, it was nap time. After a quick nap for McKenzie, we took her on the carousel again and walked around a bit. Dinner was Wonderland this night and oh my. I have no complaints whatsoever. Everything was amazing from the waiter, to the food, to the entertainment. We decided to have all the food served family style. I wish we could have gone to wonderland earlier in the week - that way we knew what snacks we wanted delivered before later. After dinner, we put McKenzie to bed. We stayed in for the evening with her. My family went to see 1977 the ice show. They said it was good. Jakes asked Hossain for a dozen of wings and a whole pizza to be delivered to the room at 10:00pm. They rang the door bell and woke McKenzie up. I was annoyed but thankfully she went right back down after a minutes or ten. It was a nice but tiring day. The week has finally caught up with me.

Day 5… again. I spent an hour writing my last post and clicked submit reply and it vanished and is nowhere to be found. We docked St. Thomas around 7am but I unfortunately miss that. We didn’t wake up until around 8 when our drinks were delivered. We had to quickly get ready since we overslept. The whole crew went to Costal Kitchen around 845 for breakfast. I had my usual. After breakfast, Jake, McKenzie and I had headed to our excursion. The rest of the crew planned on staying on the ship since everyone had done St. Thomas before. The excursion we did was Mountain Top & Villa Botanical. The last time I was in St. Thomas, I remembered being scared to death by the crazy driver. Turns out, you didn’t truly visit St. Thomas unless you get scared to death with their crazy driving. The one thing I found interesting was that they drove on the left side of the road, yet their steering wheel was on the left as well. Our first stop was the botanical garden. It was so beautiful. Though I do not recommend the excursion/visit if you have difficulty walking or have a little little one like us. We were able to make it work with our baby carrier but I was worried of tripping because the grounds were very uneven. At the garden were parrots, peacocks, and tortoises as well as lots of native plants of course. After the gardens we headed to Mountain Top and has “The Worlds Famous Banana Daiquiri’s”. They made me wish that they had these on board. After our excursion, we headed to boardwalk for some hot dogs. Then we took McKenzie on the carousel a couple of times. After boardwalk, we went to the bionic bar for the first time which was a cool novelty. We then met my brother for Visual Trivia: Airlines. Which, to be honest, was kind of cheating because my brother is a flight attendant. We also sat next to a pilot and joined forces. Needless to say, we dominated the competition (well they did, I was no help). After trivia, we stayed for bingo which I was NOT a fan of. $30 for 1 single game is ridiculous. $300 was the guaranteed prize and the game took like 35 minutes. After bingo we headed back to the room to get ready for bingo. We went to chops which never disappoints. I had the ribeye. I had to cut dinner short because McKenzie was done for the day and need to go to bed. Once she was down, my parents came to watch her and Jake and I went to see Hiro again, but had Hossain reserve us seats in the front. Jake really wanted to watch the show “how it was meant to be seen” and absolutely was like a kid in a candy store. I kept on looking over at his face and he was smiling/laughing ear to ear. He said that was one of the best shows he has ever seen and was glad we got seats in the front for them. We both recommend for anyone with Aquatheater seats to see the show both on your balcony and in the theater. After the show, we went to the casino for a bit, then headed to bed. It was a great day.

I heard Wonder is completely normal cruising. So yeah I think it must be ship dependent

All have minus Hibachi. It is the only remaining location that is vaxed only

Day 4 continued: (I thought this posted yesterday but turns out it didn’t. I lost half of what I originally wrote so hopefully I remember everything.) The whole crew went to Coastal Kitchen for breakfast. I got my usual Salmon Bagel. I was sad that their was only a small piece of salmon but didn’t bother to ask for more. I also tried a bite of my moms french toast and holy fluffy! After breakfast, everyone minus Jake, McKenzie and I went on shore to head to the beach airport. My brother is a flight attendant and obsessed with all things flying so that was a priority for him. I decided not to go with McKenzie because I was afraid it was going to be l too loud. So Jake and I decided to walk her through art gallery instead to look at the art. We also stopped at the Loyalty desk and got McKenzie her Crown and Anchor number We stopped at Park Cafe for sandwiches and then headed onshore for our excursion in St. Maarten. We took the Trolly ride around town and ended with a pirate show. In my honest opinion, it was nice to get off the ship but the tour sort of lacked enthusiasm. I wouldn’t recommend it. Once we got back onboard, there were snacks waiting for us in our room. This was perfect timing on Hossain’s part since we all were hungry and tired from the heat. Jake and I then took McKenzie around the ships looking at anything and everything colorful. Her favorite things so far is the carousel and Central Park. As soon as she sees the horses she reaches forward for them. We went back to the room and all took too long of naps. We have been mostly trying to follow McKenzies schedule with how she is doing. Hossain scheduled Adventure Ocean for McKenzie so we could go to Hibachi (vax guests only allowed). We dropped off McKenzie and headed to dinner. I was happy that I saw a lot of other babies heading in to Adventure Ocean too. Hibachi was really good. Typical Hibachi you’d get on land. Jake loved their lobster and my brother said the scallops were the best he’s had. Our cook kept us on our toes the entire time. After dinner we got McKenzie and put her to bed. My parents stayed in and we went to Love and Marriage game show. We were hoping to be picked since we have only been married for a year but we were outpicked by a couple who have been married for 6 months. Bummer. We left the show then heading to our room for the late night Aqua theater show. We had Hossain order Playmakers so we can eat on the balcony while watching the show. I 100% recommend ordering food for the show, it was a cool experience to try once. After the show we all stayed in and went to bed. DJ and Wayne have adventures that hopefully they could share, they do not go to bed until 2am.

It is currently 7am and we are nearing our destination for today. Today we are docking in St. Maarten. We are doing the Philipsburg by Trolley Train excursion with the whole crew. I thought I’d try and get a jump start on todays writings. Jake, McKenzie and I plan on trying Johnny Rockets breakfast at 8:30. We told our genie this and he said ew, and reminded us that their is Coastal Kitchen from 7:30-9:30.

Day 3! Today we were a bit more active. Today was mostly about McKenzie in the AM and then us parents in the PM. McKenzie and I were up around 7:30am and had mommy and me balcony time. We were dancing to the sound of the waves . Our standing morning drink order (Starbucks, Mimosas, Bloody Marys, and Infused Water) was all delivered around 8am on the dot! The sleepy heads slowly started to wake up for their drinks about an hour later. DJ woke up right after me and did yoga on the balcony. I was getting hungry so I tried to wake up everyone for breakfast… Coastal Kitchen closed at 10am for breakfast and by the time everyone was ready it was 9:45am. We didn’t go to Coastal (annoyingly) because we didn’t want to be those people rolling in right before closing time. So we went to the Windjammer for breakfast. I was not too pleased with the windjammer. (I almost never am because I feel as if peoples rudeness just shines bright whenever we go there.) People we’re definitely rude. I had 3 people cut in front of me at separate occasions for food like they were going to run out… of course they didn’t. I had a light breakfast of avocado toast and bacon. We had lunch reservations at Izumi at noon so I didn’t want to get too full. After breakfast we took McKenzie to the baby splash zone. She had a blast and loved crawling in the water. We only had her in the water for maybe 10-15 minutes because she was getting tired. I plan on going back tomorrow when less people are on the pool deck since we will be docked at St. Maarten. For Sushi lovers, Izumi is a dream while dining Star Class. There is no limit to what you order. They just ask that you do not waste, and only order what you truly feel like you’re going to eat. I had a Miso Soup to start, the Poke Bowl (the best Poke Bowl I’ve ever had) and the Truffle Creamy Lobster Tempura Roll. I really need a minimum of a 2 week cruise in order to appreciate all of the food. After sushi, we had a private decorating kit delivered to our suite. Wayne, DJ, Jake and I all made a competition out of it. We still need to show Hossain the photos of the cupcakes we created. However, I am already claiming myself as the winner. Jake and I went to the Solarium for an hour to hang out in the hot tub. I got a couple Bahamas mamas which were good but I think the Pool decks were better. We had to quickly leave because we had to get ready for dinner. Dinner tonight was Jamie’s Italian. We got every appetizer to share. My favorite was probably the calamari. I got the shrimp linguini for my main. Very good but I wish I had more sauce. We asked for our desserts to be delivered to the room because we had a 7pm showing of Flight. My family went to the 7pm showing while Jake and I got McKenzie to sleep. The family came back and we switched duties. Jake and I then went to watch Flight. Our genie met us at the entrance and escorted us to our reserved seats. A perk that is nice when you struggle to make time like me! I am sad to say that I did not enjoy Flight. I loved aspects of the show, the props were impressive and the talent was good. But the story line sort of confused me. I do not want to ruin the show for others who may watch it so I will not go into detail. We then headed to the 60 seconds or less game show in On Air which was nice but I think majority of cruise guests went to the Disco so it was very thinned out in participants. I was a participant for a round and had to balance then catch pencils in my hand. I lost by a couple of seconds. To end the night, Wayne, DJ, Jake and I got Sorento's Pizza.

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.

On our way to cruise terminal, eta 10:05am. We have a 10am boarding pass (we know the ship won’t be ready to board but we would rather wait at the cruise terminal than the hotel)! Traveling with an eight month old has been crazy. My husband and I are lucky that McKenzie is a very good baby. I am normally a strict mama with bed time/nap time but have decided to try and be more relaxed on this vacation. I realized this yesterday while flying. She fell asleep on the plane which was around her bedtime but as soon as the plane landed at 9:15pm, she was WIDE awake. We immediately tried to put her to bed when we got to the hotel but she decided she wanted to be awake until 11:30pm. This morning, the whole hotel was awoken by firing alarms at 6:45am… everyone evacuated and we were outside for about 30-45 minutes. McKenzie was a trooper and was surprisingly happy for only getting a little over 6 hours of sleep. Turns out it was all over burnt toast…

It’s official!!! We all tested NEGATIVE!! Mimosa’s here I come! Can’t wait to share our star class experience with you all

Landed safely in Fort Lauderdale around 9:15pm! The rest of the crew picked us up at the airport which was a nice surprise. It was nice seeing my brother since I haven’t seen him since Christmas. I am currently 8 minutes in on my Royal Caribbean Covid test so I am blogging to help pass the time along. Fingers crossed

Half a work day is between me and our family vacation on Symphony. The hubby and I took pre-pre covid tests last night before taking our official Royal Caribbean tests. They were both negative! DJ, my brothers friend, has landed in Fort Lauderdale. My mother and father are 2 hours away in Melbourne. My brother should be landing soon in Colorado then he will be off to Fort Lauderdale as well. Everyone has tested negative thus far but our final Covid tests are packed with my parents. We all plan on taking the tests together tomorrow night in our hotel room. I wish we were able to take the tests before we traveled to Florida but so be it. It is what it is. Just two more sunrises until I can have a mimosa in hand while overlooking our balcony. My husband made fun of me for always mentioning Mimosa’s. He said I never drink them when we cruise but that’s all I talk about wanting to do. I called shenanigans and he told me he counted last cruise that I only had three the whole time. I told him I am the Queen of Morning Mimosa’s and that it is my duty on every vacation for everyone to know that!

Thank you for all of this We all have a standing Starbucks order already in! I requested a Grande Chai Tea Latte made with Oatmilk We haven’t asked for bottles of water but definitely will, my father doesn’t drink alcohol and only drinks water so he would be happy with this one. Tours are still shut down to my understanding. We also only plan on using Royal Tots for when we go to hibachi since that is a vaccinated only restaurant. Also is there a Ben and Jerry’s on Symphony ?

Great idea! Thank you for this suggestion! Any other star class suggestions? Our party has mostly asked for drink/food related things and I do sense we will be in a food coma by day 3…

We will definitely take that recommendation! I will admit that I ordered my husband 2 extra pair of shorts (a size larger) to be worn at the end of the cruise for this very reason! Our crew is all about the food

I will definitely pass over the hello! Hossain has mentioned in our emails that he has a little boy as well - he said he is excited to meet my little one for this reason and whatever she wants, she will get! I chuckled at that comment from him

Whoa! See you on board!

Our cruise is now 3 days away and time is dwindling down quickly. I have 2 ½ more workdays until I am relaxing on our balcony enjoying the waves with a mimosa in hand. My parents, Big Wayne and Kelly, are leaving this afternoon from Maryland to drive down to Florida. My parents have always enjoyed long peaceful car rides and decided to start their vacation early this way. My parents visited McKenzie, my husband and I this past weekend up in PA for my birthday and offered to take our luggage with them if we were finished packing. I quickly packed up 3 suitcases (a small, medium, and large sized). I was having a little anxiety with the thought of taking an 8-month-old through the airport with a ton of luggage, so my parents taking all of our luggage early was a MAJOR help. Now the only thing we have to travel with on Friday for our flight is our daughters diaper bag, a pump bag, and our travel stroller. My brother, Little Wayne is currently in London (he is a flight attendant) and will be making his way toFlorida on Friday. DJ will be flying in from Jacksonville (where he is stationed) on Thursday evening. Our Genie assigned for the cruise is Hossain and already he has been a blessing. He has been very communicative to our questions and requests so far. The only things that is up in the air is whether or not we will be able to do Chefs Table or not. Currently, Chefs Table has been discontinued on Symphony until further notice. We are not quite sure why. I was really looking forward to the wine pairing but will schedule something at Vintages perhaps. Every time I close my eye, I just imagine a mimosa in hand over looking the beautiful sea.

The time is finally approaching very quickly and I have officially decided to blog my vacation experience with the www (aka Royal Caribbean Blog)! I am Kayla (25f), a new mommy and newer wife to my wonderful husband Jake (26m). We will be cruising with our little girl, McKenzie (8 months), my mother, Kelly, father, Big Wayne., brother, Little Wayne, and brothers friend (ex boyfriend but friend still? I have no idea!), DJ. We will ALL be cruising on the March 19th sailing on symphony of the Seas in the 2 Bedroom Aqua Theater Suite! We are BEYOND EXCITED. I have so much excitement that I decided to live blog throughout our trip in order for me to calmly express my excitement for everything. I plan for this blog to mostly be about our experience with sailing Star Class mixed with sailing on Symphony mixed with sailing as first time parents. As you can read this trip is about all firsts! Feel free to join along with me!