Tips for Royal Caribbean First Timers
Cruising is a divisive vacation choice. People either LOVE it or they HATE it. Although, I’ve found that many of the haters haven’t actually been on a cruise and they simply have the wrong idea of what it’s all about. Hint – there’s more than just all-you-can-eat buffets onboard.
I never expected to become a repeat cruiser, but I’ve now been on 10+ cruises with my family and have enjoyed every one. With cruise lines offering fun onboard activities, top notch entertainment, signature dining experiences, and private beaches – at an all-inclusive price – what’s not to love?
We just wrapped up our first family cruise with Royal Caribbean. Each cruise line operates a little differently, so here’s what you’ll want to know about sailing with Royal Caribbean for the first time.
Download the Royal Caribbean App
After booking your cruise, download the Royal Caribbean app and link your reservation. Prior to your cruise, you can use the app to make dining reservations, spa appointments, and excursion bookings.
On your sailing day, you’ll need the app to check into you cruise and complete your safety briefing.
Then during your sailing, you’ll use the app for a variety of things. This is where you’ll find a calendar of events (there’s no longer a printed one). You can use the app to chat with other cruise ship passengers. And you can keep track of your onboard expenses which are updated in near real time.
Book Extras Ahead of Time
Royal Caribbean utilizes a demand pricing system for add-ons like excursions, drink packages, and the internet. If you intend to purchase these items, do so early to save the most money. The discounts become smaller the closer you are to your sailing date. If you wait until you’re on the ship you’ll pay full price.
KidTripster Tip: When you book in advance, you’re also paying in advance. For instance, when reserving excursions, spa appointments, dinner reservations, drink packages, etc., you will pay for these items up-front. That can be a positive as it minimizes the final bill at the end of your sailing. But it can also add up quickly for a family vacation, so be aware that you will be charged in advance and budget accordingly.
Consider Your Dining Options & Make Reservations
When booking your cruise, you’ll be asked to make a dining choice. Your options in the main dining room will be early seating, late seating or something called “My Time Dining.”
If you choose “My Time Dining,” you can eat in the dining room whenever you like, provided tables are available. Advance reservations are still recommended. You can make dining reservations in the Royal Caribbean app. We found it helpful to have reservations and were seated quickly each night. If traveling with a small group, seating is generally not a problem. We noticed long lines in the “My Time Dining Room” for larger parties.
Meals in the main dining room are complimentary. If you prefer to have dinner in one of the speciality restaurants, that will cost extra. Specialty dining reservations get snatched up quickly. If you want to eat at one of the specialty restaurants, make a reservation as soon as possible.
The cost of the meals in specialty restaurants varies for adults depending on the dining experience. But it’s considerably discounted for kids. Children age 6-12 are $12.99, and those under five eat free.
Children can order off a kids menu or the adult menu in the main dining room. The kids menu included basics like burgers and pasta. That menu doesn’t change, but the adult menu has a different theme each evening.
KidTripster Tip: Crew members take food allergies seriously. Be sure to alert the wait staff if you have an allergy. You can reach out to Royal Caribbean via email in advance of your sailing with questions and requests. It’s recommend you do so 45 days prior to sailing.
[ Related: Celebrity Cruises: What It’s Like Sailing With Kids ]
Internet Packages Available, but Not 100% Reliable
You’ll be able to access the Royal Caribbean app and message friends and family who are sailing with you. This service is free to all passengers.
KidTripster Tip: Use of the app is not available to passengers under the age of 13. During our cruise we saw families using two way radios to stay connected with kids who either didn’t have cell phones or couldn’t access the app due to their age.
If you need to stay connected with the outside world, high speed internet comes at a cost. Royal Caribbean claims that its VOOM service is the fastest internet at sea, with internet that’s six times faster than other cruise lines.
You can purchase a VOOM Surf + Stream packages for individual or multiple devices. As previously mentioned, purchasing before you sail will save you money.
I purchased a VOOM package on our sailing and found internet speeds to be spotty. For example, when sharing short video content on social media it took a very long time to upload, and often failed altogether. When scrolling Facebook and Instagram, photos were slow to load or didn’t load at all. More basic tasks like email and text messages worked pretty well. I had to sign-in and sign-out of VOOM often during our sailing. That often fixed the connectivity issue, but it was a bit of a nuisance.
If you’re hoping to work during your cruise, you should be able to do basic tasks, but you could have difficulty conducting video calls or opening documents.
Editor’s Update: After posting this article, we heard from other passengers that internet speeds were fantastic during their Royal Caribbean sailings. Perhaps we experienced an anomaly.
Royal Caribbean Cruises Are All-Inclusive
What’s great about Royal Caribbean is that the base price is pretty affordable. However, the add-ons can add up quickly. If saving money is your goal, take a no (or limited!) frills approach. Don’t worry, though, you’ll still have an excellent vacation.
Remember there’s plenty of free food and drink on-board. If you want to keep the cost down, skip the drink packages and stick to the free lemonade and iced tea. If you’re a light drinker, ordering an occasional cocktail or glass of wine is still cheaper than investing in a daily all-you-can-drink package.
Don’t feel like you need to make a specialty dining reservation when the meals in the main dining room, the buffet, and at other onboard eateries are complimentary. We thought the food was really good throughout the ship!
As for excursions, in places like Nassau, you can exit the ship when in port and explore the nearby area on your own instead of booking an excursion.
KidTripster Tip: If you’re doing an excursion that involves leaving the port, I recommend booking through the cruise line versus a third party site. While the third party sites may be cheaper, excursions booked through Royal Caribbean provide protection. For instance, if an excursion booked through Royal Caribbean is delayed returning to the port, the ship won’t leave without your group. The same is not true when booking through third party sites. If you’re not back on time, you’re on your own.
The Perfect Day at Coco Cay is as Advertised
When you describe something as “perfect,” it can set you up for failure. But we’ve gotta be honest, Royal Caribbean really does have this “perfect day” thing figured out.
Coco Cay is the cruise line’s private island, available only to Royal Caribbean passengers. Most of its Caribbean cruises make a stop here.
The island is just steps from the dock. Whether you’re looking to relax, or be adventurous, there’s something for everyone.
Even better, you can spend all day here without spending any extra money. Lunch and snacks are provided.
KidTripster Tip: Eat breakfast before leaving the ship. The snack shops don’t open until 10:30. Lunch isn’t available until 11:30.
There are several places to sit by the beach and pool. Chairs and umbrellas are free to use. Even with two large cruise ships docked during our visit, we had no trouble finding places to sit. Lines for food and drinks were relatively short and moved quickly.
You may want to hop around the island during your day to experience the beaches plus the large freshwater pool. We were here from 8-4 and could have stayed longer!
KidTripster Tip: Life vests are available for complimentary use – both on the ship and at Coco Cay.
KidTripster Tip: Consider bringing your own sand toys and snorkel gear to avoid spending extra money during your visit. My son loves to dig in the sand and I travel with collapsible sand pails to avoid purchasing overpriced beach toys.
Add Extras to Make it More Perfect
Can you purchase extras to make it even more perfect? Yes, you can!
Since it was our first time at Coco Cay, we purchased passes to the Thrill Waterpark. This is a legitimate water park! It includes Daredevil’s Peak, the tallest slide in North America and it has the biggest wave pool in the Caribbean.
Here’s the downside. It cost over $400 for three of us to enter the waterpark. Was the waterpark necessary for us to have a perfect day at Coco Cay? Maybe not, but it certainly added to the experience. I don’t regret it, but I would remind people that if you can’t afford it, you’ll still have a perfect day on the island.
Other Coco Cay extras include the 1,600 food long zip line, a hot air balloon ride, scuba diving, snorkel gear rental, private cabanas, and much more.
KidTripster Tip: No need to bring any money or credit cards with you to Coco Cay. You can use your SeaPass to pay for cocktails and anything else you decide to purchase on the island. If you purchased an onboard drink package, that applies at Coco Cay.
[ Related: Top 10 Reasons to Cruise Royal Caribbean ]
Don’t Skip the Fun & Free Stuff for Families
Included with your fare are lots of fun on-board activities for families. Take advantage of them! Here are a few:
Adventure Ocean youth programs: Youth programming is included in your fare. This goes beyond a babysitting service. It’s fun and educational. Kids are divided by age: Aquanauts ages 3-5, Explorers ages 6-8, and Voyagers 9-12, plus a space just for teenagers. Programming is tailored to the ages of the participants. Nursery services are available for babies and tots ages 6-36 months at an hourly rate.
Pools & Slides: While each Royal Caribbean ship is unique, you’ll find pools, play areas and slides on each and every one. No matter the ship, there are big slides, small slides and tot-sized ones, too, making the pool area fun for all ages.
FlowRider: The FlowRider surf simulator gives the experience of surfing while on the ship. Sign up on deck to participate. Instructors will be by your side to make it a fun and safe experience.
Sky Pad: This is a trampoline experience on the top deck. Participants wear a bungee harness and take to new heights. We’ve heard that this feature is closing on the ships, but that the space will be transformed into a different fun experience.
Rock Climbing Wall: The rock climbing wall is accessible to those ages six and older. We saw kids of all ages scaling the 40-foot wall during our cruise.
Ice Skating: Yes, ice skating is available onboard. Bet you didn’t expect that on a cruise vacation. We were surprised, too. It’s just another free activity offered by Royal Caribbean. Long pants are required to participate.
Mini Golf: What’s better than mini-golf with an ocean view? No reservation is necessary. Just grab a club and have fun.
But wait! There’s more: Depending on the ship, you might also have zip lining, bumper cars, sky diving and more!
Be sure to check out these activities. They’re included in your fare so why not push yourself to try something different on your cruise vacation?
Use a Travel Advisor to Save Money and Time
We booked our cruise through our travel advisor at Magic Family Getaways. Can you book the cruise by yourself? Of course! But a travel advisor can find you the best deals and the best cabins.
For our recent sailing, our advisor helped book two cabins for our family. It was just a little bit more money for two rooms, than the one cabin I found online. I wouldn’t have even considered the option had my travel advisor not suggested it. Cruise ship cabins are small, so it was nice to have double the space to spread out.
Using an advisor does not cost you anything extra. In fact, it might save you money. We recommend the services of Magic Family Getaways. Use KidTripster’s special link for a complimentary quote. Full disclosure, if you book through them, we do receive a small commission (but it comes at no extra charge to you).
Royal Caribbean provided the author a discounted rate for this cruise for purposes of this review.
