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Make it a romantic escape for two, or bring the whole family along for the thrills. With room for 6,000 passengers or more, the biggest Royal Caribbean ships are truly massive resorts like you find at such landlocked destinations as Orlando and Las Vegas. If you're in the "bigger is better" camp when it comes to a resort experience, these are the Royal Caribbean ships for you. Today the ship docks at Royal Caribbean’s own Bahamian island, the Perfect Day at CocoCay. Back on the Icon, some older matrons are muttering about a run-in with passengers from the Celebrity cruise ship docked next to us, the Celebrity Apex.
RCI "NextCruise" (onboard booking)
Foodies will delight in fresh, authentic Caribbean dishes on this itinerary to the Western Caribbean and Perfect Day at CocoCay on Wonder of the Seas®. In Cozumel, Mexico you'll find lunch specialties featuring locally caught seafood, often grouper and red snapper fried on a plate with rice and a vibrant salad. In Roatán, Honduras, ceviche is the local favorite, along with fried plantains and baleadas — tacos made with soft flour tortillas. The ship's final port is Puerto Costa Maya, Mexico, a charming fishing village where the salbutes (fried corn tortillas topped with shredded chicken) make a great appetizer to the catch of the day, served hot off the grill.
Who sails Royal Caribbean?
While endless activities and entertainment options are certainly appreciated, I will enjoy a cruise equally with or without these activities. Except for rock climbing walls, the Vision Class ships have none of the signature Royal Caribbean deck-top attractions such as surfing and skydiving simulators. For the most part, their top decks are lined with pools, whirlpools and sunning areas, as is typical for ships built in the 1990s. All have at least two pools and six whirlpools, except for Enchantment of the Seas, which has three pools and six whirlpools. Vision Class ships are also sometimes based in secondary ports such as Baltimore or San Juan, Puerto Rico, where the size of the local cruise market might not warrant a larger vessel.
RCI-Royal Caribbean itineraries by ship
I spent $2,000 for 7 nights in a 179-square-foot room on one of the world's largest cruise ships. Take a look inside my ... - Yahoo News UK
I spent $2,000 for 7 nights in a 179-square-foot room on one of the world's largest cruise ships. Take a look inside my ....
Posted: Sat, 20 Apr 2024 04:00:04 GMT [source]
We're particularly fond of the two-deck-high Music Halls on Quantum Class vessels. On Oasis Class ships, there also are 735-seat outdoor "aqua theaters" that are home to dazzling aerial and water shows (Icon of the Seas has its own version of this under a glass dome called the AquaDome). Quantum Class ships have Two70, an extraordinary, high-tech theater space that offers multisensory shows combining singing, dancing and acrobatics.
I also get reserved seating for a performance of The Wizard of Oz, an ice-skating tribute to the periodic table, and similar provocations. The very color of my Suite Sky SeaPass Card, an oceanic blue as opposed to the cloying royal purple of the standard non-Suite passenger, will soon provoke envy and admiration. But as high as my status may be, there are those on board who have much higher status still, and I will soon learn to bow before them. To appeal to a wide variety of people, Royal Caribbean provides a broad selection of cabin types at different price levels.
Additionally, Royal Caribbean runs a Royal Babies nursery program for children aged 6 to 18 months, which includes engaging classes for both children and their parents, helmed by early childhood experts. The Royal Tots program, aimed at 18-month to 3-year-olds, provides 45-minute interactive play sessions with appropriate activities and toys. Many ships also offer short-term babysitting services at the nursery for an extra charge. These ships also host a range of entertainment-focused attractions including massive rock climbing walls, surfing simulators, zip lines, mini-golf courses, and basketball courts, to name just a few. Some of the newer ships even offer skydiving simulators – large acrylic tubes that mimic the adrenaline rush of skydiving.
Like other Freedom Class vessels, it's notably smaller than Royal Caribbean's giant Oasis Class ships, but it still is big enough to offer a lot when it comes to deck-top attractions, eateries, lounges and bars. The back of its top deck features a FlowRider surfing pool, a water park area with swirling waterslides and a rock-climbing wall. This seven-night Eastern Caribbean itinerary on Wonder of the Seas® is a top choice if you want to change things up and go on a unique adventure in each port. Your first destination is Philipsburg, St. Maarten, where you can tour the island on an ATV, sample rum from a local distillery or end the day with a sunset horseback ride on the beach. Virgin Islands at Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, head straight to Magens Bay, often short-listed as one of the world's most beautiful beaches.
Family rooms redefined
Allure OTS (from Port Canaveral and PortMiami) is the first OASIS-class boat with year-round season of 3-4-night itineraries. Both Australian ships also have scheduled 2-night and 3-night weekend getaways. Both are also deployed during summer 2025 in Alaska, and homeported in Seattle WA. Quantum OTS (from Brisbane) offers 3- to 13-night Queensland roundtrips to Airlie Beach and Cairns or discover the South Pacific by visiting Port Vila (Vanuatu) and Noumea (New Caledonia). Explorer OTS from Ravenna Italy offers roundtrips to the Greek Isles and Adriatic Sea ports.
Maybe that’s why there’s so much signage on the doors around me attesting to marriages spent on the sea. Maybe that’s why the Royal Caribbean newsletter slipped under my door tells me that “this isn’t a vacation day spent—it’s bragging rights earned.” Maybe that’s why I’m so lonely. There is, however, a clientele for whom this cruise makes perfect sense.
Thrill Island refers to the collection of tubes that clutter the ass of the ship and offer passengers six waterslides and a surfing simulation. There’s the Hideaway, an adult zone that plays music from a vomit-slathered, Brit-filled Alicante nightclub circa 1996 and proves a big favorite with groups of young Latin American customers. This is a large, multichandeliered room where I attended my safety training (I was shown how to put on a flotation vest; it is a very simple procedure). But the maître d’ politely refuses me entry in an English that seems to verge on another language. Meanwhile elderly passengers stream right past, powered by their limbs, walkers, and electric wheelchairs.
Or crank the party vibe way up at Hideaway Beach℠, the ultimate adults-only beachfront paradise fueled by DJ-spun beats and craft cocktails. The original gamechanger is running up the score again — loaded with all new adventures in the biggest Royal Amplified reimagining ever. Speaking of vibes, if you're looking for a secluded place to drink (as in, not the swim-up pool bar), few will top the Overlook Pods, perched just behind the AquaDome. But compared to the rest of my mediocre meals on Icon of the Seas — including dinner at a specialty restaurant — my complimentary pork pita wrap from the food hall's Mediterranean-inspired stall was admittedly pretty decent. It's the first show-at-sea I've seen with a waterfall and nine-foot-tall robotic arms, and so far, it's one of my favorites. The ship's riff on Broadway-approved "Wizard of Oz" — 16-piece live orchestra and flying bed included — delighted me, a hater of most musicals.
Or bond over bumper cars and roller-skating at the largest SeaPlex® ever. Scope out incredible 360-degree views from 300 feet up in the North Star® observation capsule. And experience edge-of-your-seat entertainment at the transformative Two70®. Take adventure to the next level on this Quantum Ultra Class favorite. A day or two before I got off the ship, I decided to make use of my balcony, which I had avoided because I thought the view would only depress me further. This entire time, I had been living in the ship’s Disneyland, Surfside, the neighborhood full of screaming toddlers consuming milkshakes and candy.
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