We headed down to Florida for Spring Break this year. In this post I’ll share a brief day-by-day, along with some learnings on cruising with Royal Caribbean this time as long-time Celebrity sailors.
Pre-Cruise: Orlando (March 26-28)
We flew Delta out of RDU on the 26th. A partial government shutdown had us bracing for airport chaos, but TSA Precheck was a breeze. We love our medium-sized airport: large enough for good connections, small enough that parking and security are easy.
At MCO we picked up a Chevy Traverse from Avis -- way more car than we needed, but it was the price of an "Explorer or similar." We checked into the Celebration Hotel (or, officially, The Inn at Celebration, Autograph Collection), our staging point for the next three nights before the cruise.
Discovery Cove (March 27) was our one big pre-cruise activity. If you’re not familiar, this is a Sea World-operated ‘water discovery’ (not sure what to call it) park. It differentiates itself by limiting the number of tickets sold so as not to be overcrowded, by providing all-inclusive food + beverage, and by offering unique marine encounters. The four of us arrived at 8:30am and stayed until 4pm. The park is smaller than expected but that works in its favor -- it's easy to figure out, basically one curved path. We had Day Bed #29 (for which we paid ~$150), which turned out to be in direct sun from open to close, somehow. The water temperatures ranged from tolerable (pool near monkey island, though we never actually saw the monkeys) to chilly (the reef with the manta rays). Complimentary wetsuits are offered. Rowan camped at the day beds most of the day and got his legs badly sunburnt despite repeated warnings from his parents. The lazy river was decent, but the family consensus was that Blizzard Beach's is better -- longer (2x), with tubes instead of only foam noodles. The food was… fine.
At roughly $250 per person for a one-day water park, even with food and beverage included, it felt steep. And I only realized afterward that admission also included day passes to SeaWorld and Aquatica. A huge miss on my part. Next time?
March 28 in Celebration was a rest and unwind day. We bummed around town. I took Siena and Rowan to the Town Tavern where I destroyed a turkey stacker, something that happened and that I'm not proud of.
That evening we had dinner with Leah Copeland and her Australian friend at The Columbia in Celebration, which was not coordinated in advance (we had no idea she’s be in FL at the same time as us) and was a great surprise. One disappointment: the Celebration Hotel filled in their pool a few years back and gave the space to the restaurant, which we only discovered on arrival. Plan accordingly if you're staying there.
On the morning of the 29th we checked out, made quick stops at Walgreens and Publix, and headed to MCO to catch the GoPort bus to Port Canaveral. From there, the cruise began.
The Cruise (March 29-April 5)
We spent spring break aboard Royal Caribbean's Star of the Seas, a 7-night Western Caribbean sailing out of Port Canaveral. Our group was twelve people from the neighborhood: our family of four, the Cunningham family, and the Wise family. We booked a Junior Suite on Deck 11, which gave us a nice-sized balcony with two chairs, a table, and a lounger.
Sleeping four in the room required some creative arrangements involving a pullout sofa that protested loudly whenever anyone shifted in their sleep. (I’ll always be annoyed that cruise lines have moved away from having upper berths on their newer ships.) We booked what was available.
The Star of the Seas is new and genuinely impressive. There are angles on this ship -- looking down through the Central Park atrium, peering from the top deck into the pool area at the stern, gazing straight down the Royal Promenade -- that show just how bold the original vision for this class was. It's interesting engineering.
That said, it's a different beast than the Celebrity ships we're used to. Louder, busier, and quiet spaces are hard to come by. The best I found was the 1400 Lobby Bar on port days and the Irish pub in the early afternoon. The Windjammer buffet always felt crowded even with open tables. Compare that to Celebrity, where the buffet feels larger despite carrying a fraction of the passengers.
Port Canaveral - embarkation (Day 1): the cruise lines all make a big stink about needing to arrive within your arrival window (e.g. 12:00-12:30). In reality, 1) oftentimes that’s tough to hit as you’re at the mercy of transportation providers like planes and buses, and 2) it hasn’t mattered in the slightest. We arrived to the port around 12:40 and were checked in, past security, and walking onboard in about 20 minutes.
CocoCay (Day 2): Cancelled due to wind and seas. We were looking forward to seeing how Royal Caribbean's private island compared to Disney's Castaway Cay -- we've been to Castaway Cay seven times at this point as a family -- but instead got an unplanned sea day. In Royal’s defense, it was abnormally windy and rocky for the overnight of day 1, so I understand the decision.
Cozumel (Day 4): No excursion, just exploration on foot. Sherri and I walked the waterfront from the ship at Punta Langosta all the way north to the lighthouse and the ferry terminal, then looped back. We caught a rehearsal of the water show in the Aquadome afterward. Siena and I did a second walk later in the afternoon. I logged 17,000 steps by 2:30pm.
Roatan (Day 5): Again, no planned excursion. Sherri and I walked the port area and Main St, dealt with the usual aggressive taxi solicitation (though once you said no, they left you alone), and I eventually found my way to Kabanas 1101 -- a restaurant about 20 minutes west of the port with good ceviche, clean bathrooms, and a spot where I could sit and watch life go by. After reboarding the ship I swam in The Hideaway's infinity pool as we sailed away, which was a definite highlight.
Costa Maya (Day 6): Didn't leave the ship. We slept in and the ship was only in port until 1:30, so it didn’t work for us.
Port Canaveral - disembarkation (Day 8): always the worst day of the cruise. Slept like garbage; par for the course for the last night. Our flight wasn’t until 3:30 so we took our time vacating our room and having breakfast up in the Windjammer buffet, then left the ship and boarded our GoPort bus around 8:45.
Learnings
Cruising with others > cruising alone: we were lucky to have awesome neighbors to cruise with! Our daytime activities between families varied, since there’s a wide age split between all the kids, but we made it a point to have dinner together every night. It’s challenging for us to plan cruises with others, as we tend to favor longer (8-13 nights) cruises which not everyone can schedule around.
Dinners: On the first night, the dining room manager was able to swing a miracle: in the middle of prime time seating chaos, he conjured a 12-person table for us and locked it in for the entire voyage. Having all three families dine together in the main dining room each night was a highlight of the trip. Each night we recapped our days and learned a bit more about each other. By mid-week it felt like we'd been traveling together for much longer than a few
days.
GoPort: this was our first time using an airport transfer not through the cruise line, and it worked just fine. Our transfers were $35 per person, per way, and I believe the cruise line offers $45pp each way. That’s an $80 savings for a family of four.
Service: speaking generally, the overall service on this newer Royal Caribbean ship exceeded what we usually encounter on the Celebrity ships we’ve been on (even the newer Celebrity Apex). I know there’s a bit of randomless/luck to this in who gets assigned as your stateroom attendant and main dining room server and assistant, but things just felt like they were firing on all cylinders on this voyage.
Celebrity vs Royal
It truly depends on what kind of experience you’re looking to have, the itinerary, and the specific ship.
The service in the main dining room (MDR) on this cruise was the best we’ve had across the 8 cruises with Royal/Celebrity, by a decent margin. There’s a nice variety of areas (“neighborhoods”) and activities on the Star, though we didn’t partake in many of them. Bars and clubs are much more lively on this ship than any Celebrity cruise we’ve been on.
The experience depends as much on the ship as the line; it’s not exactly apples-to-apples to compare a 16 year old Celebrity Eclipse to a 6 month old Star of the Seas.
I’d say that if we were cruising with other couples, I might be slightly more inclined towards a Royal cruise given the higher energy levels and variety of activities. Celebrity ships are less in-your-face, with ample quiet areas to sit, read, talk. The average Royal cruise will have a lot more kids than the average Celebrity cruise. Take that as a pro or a con, depending on your situation.
By the way, our next booked cruise is this one over the end of year holiday, in case you’re interested in joining. 🙂
