Winter Break 2023 found our family back on our second cruise, and honestly, it was a blast. The last time we took a cruise Callie had yet to have her second heart surgery and her endurance wasn’t quite where it is today. She was also much younger and I was excited to see how she would like a cruise as a teenager.
When it comes to booking an accessible vacation that works for everyone, a Royal Caribbean cruise was a great fit for our family. Here are some of the reasons we loved taking a Royal Caribbean Cruise.
Top Notch Customer Service + High Quality Everything
Royal Caribbean believes in quality service and it shows. It starts from the moment you walk on the ship, and you take in the grand promenade, and it only goes up from here. The food, entertainment, customer service and more. They don’t skimp on anything.
You will get to know the person who takes care of your room each day. They don’t just clean it up in the morning, they come multiple times a day including a nightly turn down service complete with a new towel animal on your bed each evening. Our attendant helped us secure tickets to things, took care of our dry cleaning and was also able to grab us a few odds and ends that we needed for our room.
There is always someone nearby to ask for assistance, and it seems like they never do the bare minimum, but always the maximum. And this isn’t a place that simply accommodates kids, it’s made to make sure that everyone in the family is having a good time.
The Food
The food. It’s good. Like, really good.
First, there is room service available 24/7, with some items that you can only get on the room service menu. We did room service for breakfast a few mornings and it was the perfect slow start to the day.
There is something for everyone–lots of different cultural foods available, not to mention food for people with dietary restrictions–and the food is so good and fresh! There is also the snack/lunch counters on the pool/sports deck which is a little quicker and even more casual than the dining room. They had a little bistro that had sandwiches + coffee + pastries for a quick snack, a NY pizzeria style restaurant and a Johnny Rockets on board along with multiple specialty dining options too.
There is the main dining room (it was three levels and was MASSIVE) where are you assigned to dine each evening on a rotating schedule. (You can also choose one of these locations for breakfast or lunch as well–but there is no assignment like there is for dinner. ) Because we had booked a suite, we had access to a private dining room for suite guests called Coastal Kitchen. Honestly, this was one of the most amazing parts of the dining experience for us! Coastal Kitchen served a “healthier” fare in a gorgeous setting–think floor to ceiling windows on the back of the ship at sunset. We skipped the main dining room most nights and chose to eat dinner at CK!
Lastly, there are even a couple of fine dining options on the cruise that we booked. These options cost extra, and you can book them for lunch and dinner if you want to try a little bit of everything on board. We ate at the steakhouse for NYE, booked lunch at Jamie Oliver’s Italian eatery, and then did the Japanese restaurant for dinner another night!
Active + Relaxing
I have done vacations where it’s nothing but go, go, go and do, do, do. I have also had vacations that involve laying around on a beach all day, doing as little as possible. Both types of vacations have their place. For our family on this trip, we wanted a lot of “do nothing” time to relax and recharge.
We all worked out nearly every day in the gym. There are also daily workout classes you can sign up for like yoga or you can hire a personal trainer if that’s your jam. There was a walking track that Callie and I loved and hit it almost daily. There was a basketball court and even a mini-golf course and multiple pools. There were 2 different water slides, multiple pools (one of them had beach front access), a splash pad as well as a separate 16+ yr old space with hot tubs. There was a spa and salon on board (extra charge of course) as well as bars and clubs for adults only. Each evening there’s entertainment whether in the theatre with Broadway style shows, the ice skating show, or the outdoor performance at the aquatic theater. James and I also snuck away for a date night and caught a show at the comedy club (18+) which was pretty hilarious.
We loved sleeping in almost every day, working out, then either going to the pool, doing a mini dance workout in the promenade, and then relaxing some more. I finished a book on the cruise, got in quality family time, and even got in several date nights with James.
We did one excursion this time, taking a catamaran to go snorkel in the coral reefs in the port of Roatan. We had beautiful weather and saw so many beautiful fish. Mama *might* have gotten a little seasick on the choppy water coming back but what’s a vacation without a good story right?
Accessibility + Ease
For a family with a child with a disability, accessibility is what Royal Caribbean over the top for us. It was just so easy.
Booking a vacation takes a lot of work for every family. There is research upon research–reading blogs, Trip Advisor, and watching millions of Youtube videos. When planning an accessible vacation all of this research takes 10 times longer.
A Royal Caribbean cruise is accessible. We booked it and voila–trip planned. (We did have to research excursions and it was the 5-star rating by another disabled user on Trip Advisor that sold us on the tour we booked). Pro tip–book an accessible state room which gives you plenty of space to maneuver (important for wheelchair users). We had a wonderful accessible bathroom as well. The bathroom came equipped with a bench for Callie and multiple bars for easy mobility. The suite’s balcony came equipped with a ramp and we were blown away by the sheer amount of room we had.
Every place on the ship is accessible–at least we had yet to discover a place that isn’t. There are many elevators to take you from floor to floor, as well as many ramps for places like the pool deck. We also appreciated that there was a pool that had a beach front entry which was easy for Callie to get into from the deck chair. The theaters also have accessible seating although they did have some room for improvement with the seating. I’d love for Royal Caribbean (and frankly all cruise lines) to do a better job at reserving the accessible seats AND the seats around them for the disabled person and their families. The able bodied cruisers have hundreds of options for seating in the theaters but our family had only about 4 options. Disabled families shouldn’t have to worry about getting to a show an hour ahead of time to ensure that non-disabled families don’t take the seats. I’d love to see some kind of “booking” option for those types of accessible seats in the future–maybe they could be automatically reserved for the people in the accessible rooms?
When it comes to ports and excursions accessibility can get a little trickier. We had a great experience with the excursion in Roatan–we booked the Jolly Roger catamaran and snorkeling after I did hours of research on Trip Advisor. There was a glowing review for them by another person that had a disability so I was sold. I reached out to the owner via email and he answered all of my questions and was great to work with. The crew was patient, accommodating, and made the experience great for Callie.
Something for Everyone
You want to relax? Royal can do that.
You want to go to the spa? Royal can do that.
You want to do a zipline across the ship? Royal can do that.
You want to play arcade games? Royal can do that.
You want to drop your kids off at the kids club and have some adult time? Royal can do that.
You want to gamble, see a Broadway style show, walk through an art gallery, shop, go on a culinary adventure, ride a wave runner, and so much more?
Royal Caribbean’s got you.
This goes hand in hand for me with accessibility but there is something for EVERYONE on the ship.
We had the best time making memories, relaxing, and recharging during Winter Break. Huge shout out to Royal Caribbean for making this experience one for the books!
Have any questions? I’m happy to answer or share any other insights in the comments below!