Cruise Part 1 - The Boat

Our 7 night cruise with Royal Caribbean International to the Eastern Caribbean was absolutely amazing.  We visited 3 different places…and did so much, I feel like I need to split this post up into different sections.  So this is going to be about the cruise line, the boat and everything we did on it!!

Our first mission was to try and sneek booze onto the ship. Some cruise lines allow a certain about of bottles…but Royal Caribbean does NOT allow any alcohol onto the ship. I researched a bunch of blogs and websites on good ways to try and get it on the ship. I’ll admit I was a little nervous…imagine…The Souza’s and The Brown’s being disembarked from the boat…I would have cried!  Anyway…the hub didn’t want to do anything crafty. He felt that we’d just put them in our bags and if they made it COOL, if not, Oh well. So when we landed in Florida our first stop was a liquor store…called Yogi’s…funny huh?!?  We got 3 HUGE bottles…one of Vodka (in a plastic bottle)…one of Malibu (in a plastic bottle)…and one of Crown (in a glass bottle). 

The 2 plastic bottles made it…but the glass bottle was confiscated.  So my personal opinion is that they can detect the glass (with metal cap) bottles…and can’t, or don’t care about the plastic bottles!  So future cruisers…shoot for plastic bottle's!!!

The ship was AMAZING. Like totally AMAZING. Its practically a floating resort/small city.  Here are some pics of it…

This is like a main street of a city…there were restaurants, shops, pubs, café’s, it was awesome.

3 story dining room. One of the options for food at dinner time. It was fancy and delicious.

Basketball court and rock climbing wall…and a mini golf course to the far left too.

 

Kiddie Pool Area

 

Main stage pool area where there was music, games, a band, etc.

 

Adult only pool.

 

Kids Club Pirate Parade…which was totally cute!!

Places I don’t really have pictures of are the other dining options, inside stores or  bars. I’m not really sure WHY but just don’t have pics of that.

Our itinerary was:

Day 1: Fly into Florida and Board Ship/ Set Sail
Day 2: Cococay Bahamas  (click here to see our day at Cococay)
Day 3: At Sea
Day 4: St. Thomas (click here to see our day at St. Thomas)
Day 5: St. Marteen (click here to see our day at St. Marteen)
Day 6: At Sea
Day 7: At Sea (also our Wedding Anniversary…click here)
Day 8: Home!

 

Day 1: LAX

We got to the airport a GOOD FEW hours early. So we were able to relax and have a few drinks! Yosh and I were asked if we wanted to move seats (the man sitting next to me was VERY large and taking up half my seat)..so Yosh sat behind me which gave each of us 2 seats..was nice for our red eye flight.

We spent half the day at a Florida beach…Coco Beach.

One thing I noticed was there are hardly any waves at the beach. The water was much warmer and there was NO sea weed! It was strange! But I really liked it. Owen and other kids would love this beach since they wouldn’t be scared of the waves, loud waves or cold water!

Once on the boat you have to wait (a good few hours) before getting your bags sent to your stateroom…so we hung out, napped by the pool (we put swim suits into our carry on’s) and of course sipped some cocktails while our ship set sail!! The whole idea of how large the ship is is absoultely fascinating…how it moves through the water is crazy!

The days at sea we usually ate, laid out by the pool and just relaxed…and “the brave ones” rode the FLowRider!! 

Our evenings usually started with dinner in the “formal” dining area…followed by a show of some type, drinks and sometimes dancing or fun in the casino! It was awesome to have so many choices of activities and places to go! I swear the boat has something for everyone. You like mellow, they have piano or cigar bars, you like pubs, you like latin music/dancing…it has EVERYTHING!

First night dining…”casual night” and the Love & Marriage Game Show

First Formal Night…Followed by a late drunken night at The Crypt night club.

Yes I’m too cheap to pay $20 for the pictures…so I cheated and took pictures of the pictures! hahaha Yeah quality sucks BUT you get the idea!

Another Casual Night…followed with boys watching the Boston Basketball Game while us girls got our addiction of Fifty Shades of Gray on!!

Another casual night…when Kyla stayed back for some “extra sleep” (aka passed out after a crazy excursion on St. Thomas) and I took the boys to a magic show (which they hated and actually feel asleep during it!) And the magician appeared on America’s Got Talent…so he was good…the guys were just haters!!

The boys went shopping for these Cuban Linen outfits together…and were so excited to wear them! I will admit…they looked pretty cute! I loved it! And I dragged everyone to the ice show that night(I was all about enjoying the entertainment on this trip!)

Formal Night #2…much later in the cruise. We looked fancy for dinner…then got comfy for some gambling, a comedy show and dancing! (ps. we learned a cool line dance “The Wobble” its super fun and I can’t wait to show everyone hahaha)

Then off the ship we were at 6:30am on the last day…we wanted to beat the rush off the boat and decided to not wait for breakfast (good call Sean!) See how humid it is in Florida…my camera wouldn’t even de-fog!

 

While on the ship you use on cash (other than in the casino)…everything you purchase is on your SeaPass…which is good and bad. You don’t have to worry about ANYTHING except this (which doubles as your room key as well!) BUT you also don’t realize how much you are spending either (until you look at your account on your TV every morning)

 

 

 

Since we booked direct flights…we had to wait until 6:50pm…so it was another beautiful day at Coco Beach Florida for us! (After breakfast AND hunting down a Target to get the next Fifty Shades book for Kyla and I!)

Overall it was totally amazing experience. There were all types on this cruise boat. Huge family groups, lots of honeymooners, Lots celebrating anniversaries…and the usual small families as  well. I think the idea of the cruise ship it awesome…I personally didn’t get sea sick (for those who came to Hawaii with us 8 years ago…yeah its shocking huh!?!?) but we had lots of Bronine on hand to make sure no one was nauseous for too long.

A few things I didn’t like about the cruise…
#1: The No bringing alcohol rule sucks (but we kinda beat that one)
#2: No irons allowed…either brought or provided in your stateroom…therefore everything must be sent out for a price to be pressed! Yeah annoying.
#3: If you pay so much money to be on the damn ship EVERYTHING should be included…some restaurants aren’t included and you have to pay extra money…so in the beginngin we were so confused as to which places were free and which ones we’d have to pay…just include everything for God’s sake!
#4: Maybe 2 days at each port would have been cool. Only one day at the destination isn’t enough to see it properly!
#5: Include the gratuity tips for the 4 major people within the cost of the cruise as well. Having to pay out at the end if a pain in the a$$ and kinda confusing as well.

That’s not too many things to complain about…overall it was awesome.

Thank you to The Brown’s for sharing in this journey with us…it was definitely a vacation of a lifetime with some of our best friends.