Our family took our first cruise over Christmas! We went on a Royal Caribbean cruise that was 8 days long. Our stops were St Maarten, St Lucia, and St Kitts & Nevis. We flew to the Fort Lauderdale (FLL) Airport and from there we took an Uber to the Cruise port. It was about a 10-15 minute drive and it cost around $20. The check in to get onto the cruise ship was smooth and did not take as long as I thought it would. We chose to leave our bags down below and had a crew member take the bags to our room. If you do this, I recommend keeping a backpack or small bag with you that has your essentials and a change of clothes or swimsuit because you won’t get your bags delivered to your room until around dinner time. Our bags got to our room around 6pm. The first day we just chilled around the ship and explored. The ship was huge, so we wanted to try to learn our way around. We took a red eye flight, so we didn’t sleep that much the night before, so we ended up napping and then just heading down to the restaurant for dinner. In our experience, we went to the main dining room the first night and a waiter asked if we wanted to just come at the same time each night and sit at the same table. We decided to do that and if you get the chance I highly recommend. We had the same waiter every night and sat by the same people. We ended up getting to know them and chatting with them each night which was fun and made us feel like we had friends! We saw them around the ship a few times too which is always fun to see a friendly face. Especially because the ship is huge, and it feels like its own city. Our waiters were amazing. They were so kind and thoughtful. They catered to our one-year-old and would bring him fruit and even walk him around the dining room and entertain him.
On our particular cruise we were cruising for 2 days, had 3 days of stops, and then another 2 days of cruising to get back to Florida. I was a little worried about cruising for so long and being bored. But, let me tell you, we did not run out of things to do. We went to shows, an art auction, ice skating (yes they have an ice skating rink on the ship!), swimming at the pool, worked out at the gym, tried out three different restaurants/ buffets, napped, played basketball, went mini golfing, watched people on the wave runner, and sat in the foyer people watching and looking at the beautiful Christmas tree. I’m telling you we were not bored one bit. In fact, I was feeling a bit worried when it was our first stop and we had to get off of the boat because I enjoyed being on it so much.
Speaking of stops I wanted to share what I thought about each of the three islands we stopped at. Our first stop was St Maarten. We spent the most time on the beach here. We did something dumb, and we forgot a debit card! So that meant we couldn’t get cash. That limited our options of what we could do on St Maarten. We initially wanted to take a boat around to a beach but instead we ended up walking about half a mile or so to a different beach. The walk was not hard and there were plenty of people walking there so we followed the crowd, and it was easy to find. I really enjoyed the beach and walking around the town. It was a chill day, and we spent it on the beach. The next day we stopped in St Lucia. I thought this was the prettiest island. We ported in Castries but the part we wanted to see was about an hour and a half drive away. We rented a car and drove around the island. There were tons of hills, and it took an hour and a half to go less than 30 miles. If you get car sick, I do not recommend. I know there are boats that take you to where we went to, and I assume they don’t take as long as driving. I think I would do chose a boat if I ever went back. We stopped at Tet Paul Nature trail and did a little hike that was truly more like a walk. It took maybe 20 minutes to get all the way to the top. At the top is a beautiful lookout and you get a great view of the Pitons. Our second and last stop of the day was Sugar Beach. This is where you could get to from the port on a boat. We saw people on our cruise who took a boat to this beach and I’m not going to lie, I was jealous that they didn’t have to drive back. This beach is amazing. I wish we had more time there. If I had to only chose one thing to do, I would definitely choose Sugar Beach. It is a resort but there is public access to the beach. On the beach there is a magnificent view of the Pitons- you are right below them and I was in awe the whole time. If you drive to Sugar Beach, then you have to tell the security guard that you are just there for the day to go to the beach. We didn’t have a problem, and they let us right through. We parked by the tennis courts (they told us where to park) and it’s free parking BTW. We then had to walk down a steep hill to make it to the beach. The way down took maybe 10 minutes. Coming back up the hill took at least 15. We then drove back to the port and returned our rental car. We rented a car through Sixt and they are located right outside of the port. It was super quick and easy to find. Our final stop was St Kitts and Nevis. We booked a tour through the cruise to swim with dolphins. Booking it was so easy we just did it through the Royal Caribbean app and the day of they told us where to meet and everything was easy. There was a group of us who got transferred to and from the port. The dolphin experience was amazing. We got to swim with Penelope and she was such a dream. The excursion took most of our day. Once we got back to the port we wandered around the town for a little while before making our way back to the ship. Something fun about walking around the town in St Kitts was all of the monkeys! There were monkeys everywhere. People would hold them and take pictures. We didn’t hold one, but we did have fun watching them. Overall, I thought we had a sufficient amount of time for each stop. I did wish we had more time in St Kitts & Nevis but that was because we spent the whole time with the dolphins, and I wish we could have seen more of the island and maybe went to a beach. However, the dolphin excursion was truly a once in a lifetime experience and I am so glad we could do it. Our one-year-old was even able to come and get into the water and interact with Penelope- the dolphin.
After our stops we spent the rest of our trip at sea cruising back to Florida. We decided not to get the Internet package because it was expensive like $400 for the week for just one device. It was nice to be able to unplug for the week, though, so I would actually recommend not buying the Internet. We also got an interior room- so no windows or anything. I didn’t mind an interior room. It was small but it was sufficient for our needs. We didn’t spend a whole lot of time in the room anyways, there’s so much to do. So, we really only just slept there at night or went there midday to take naps. We got to peak into some rooms with balconies and windows and they looked bigger and nicer, but I didn’t feel like I was missing out. Because if I wanted an ocean view, I could just go up to deck 4 or 11 and have a great view there.
In conclusion, we all LOVED our cruise experience. None of us got seasick, we had great stops, the food was great, we had a lot of food choices, the service was outstanding, and the ship activities were endless and fun. I personally loved the fact that we didn’t have to haul our luggage around. We just left it in our room for the whole week and didn’t have to unpack/ pack day to day. I loved that we were able to see new towns and countries without having to move our things every few days. I also loved not having to cook or search for a place to eat. A lot of times after a trip I’m exhausted and ready to come home. But, after the cruise I was feeling sad and missed the ship for probably a week after being home. We met a couple who had been on 60 cruises and honestly, I can see why. We had such a great time and I can’t wait to go on another cruise, hopefully in the near future!