symphony of the seas

This is Part 2 of our cruise on Symphony of the Seas by Royal Caribbean. You can find Part 1- all about Symphony of the Seas here. This post is about cruising with toddlers!

A lot of you messaged me and said I was brave for taking our kids with us. You’re right, I probably was but I’m so glad we took our kiddos. Honestly, it wasn’t as relaxing of a trip as it would be with just my husband and myself but we still did get to relax and we had a great time PLUS my kids had a great time!

SLEEPING

Royal Caribbean and other cruise lines are used to children and babies so they have staterooms that accommodate this whether that be a pull-out bed or bunk beds or cribs. Camden and Ella are still sleeping in cribs so we requested two cribs in our room. They placed two very clean with fresh linens in our room. It was just what we needed.

They also have staterooms such as the Ultimate Family Suite that is perfect for families!

DINING AND FOOD

Royal Caribbean has a TON of options for kids. From fruit and veggies to mac and cheese to yogurt, they have everything you can possibly imagine or need. We had no problem finding plenty of delicious and healthy foods for Camden and Ella. They even have a candy and ice-cream store which is so fun to go to!

My Family Time Dining – this program aims for children to complete dinner within 45 minutes, freeing parents to enjoy coffee and dessert at their leisure. Once seated, kids will enjoy expedited service and be immediately served. After eating, the kids will be met by an Adventure Ocean counselor to be escorted back to the Adventure Ocean spaces for ongoing evening activities, while parents can continue to enjoy their dinner.
Adventure Ocean Dining – allows young guests to eat dinner on several nights in the most popular dining areas with their favorite youth staff and new friends
Fountain Soda Package – allows children to enjoy as many soft drinks as they like for a fixed price for the duration of the cruise.

WHAT TO BRING FOR TODDLERS

Here are a few things I recommend bringing to make the trip easier:

A Stroller that is easy to fold (we kept ours right by the door in the room).
Hand wipes to clean the kids before and after meals
Sticker placemats for when you eat at a place that doesn’t have linen tablecloths. My kids throw plates right now so placemats are a must.
Tablets,whenever Judd and I wanted to do a fun activity, we could put the kids in the stroller and give them their tablets and they’d be entertained while we did something for a short time. This was also nice at dinner while we were waiting for food.

WHAT YOU DON’T NEED TO BRING

Diapers and wipes– Royal Caribbean has a new program calledBabies 2 Go which is a partnership with Huggies and will provide whatever you need. You just order this prior to the cruise online and everything will be your stateroom.
Baby food– You can also order organic baby food in the Babies 2 Go program prior to departure.
Milk– they have Whole Milk in all the restaurants and dining areas on the ship.
Highchairs– they have highchairs in every dining area.
Toys– Royal Caribbean has a Toy Lending Program, comprising a collection of developmental toys specifically created for infants and toddlers, ages 6 – 36 months. Parents can borrow and exchange toys for a new activity every day to help growing minds learn through play.

CHILDCARE PROGRAM- ADVENTURE OCEAN

I’m probably going to share too much information about this program but it’s such an important one because you can use this for entertainment for your child or children and it’s also great if you need some adult time. We had a great experience with Adventure Ocean on Symphony of the Seas. Note: I have never left my children at anything like this before, I’ve only left them with a few family members. I am a helicopter mom and I felt 100% comfortable leaving my children there. They asked a lot of questions about the kids and they even provided a phone in case they needed to reach us or we wanted to check in (I did this twice).

This complimentary (for 3 and up), year-round Adventure Ocean program is recognized as one of the industry’s leading youth programs. For children under 3 years of age there is an hourly nursery rate of $6 per hour per child from 9 am – 6 pm and $8 per hour per child from 6 pm – midnight.

All children’s activities are supervised by male or female youth staff that must have a four-year University degree or international equivalent in Education, Recreation or a related field. All staff also has at least three to five years qualified experience in working with children ages six months to 17 years.

Programs are offered by age group (I also included some sample activities they offer):

Royal Babies & Tots 6 months – 36 months: It offers parents a childcare drop-off options in the daytime and evening with a carefully maintained and optimum staff to child ratio (one staff to three children). Free-time play also will be offered daily, creating an interactive environment where parents and children can bond while playing with a variety of developmental toys in specially-designed programs. The Royal Tot Art program features unique developmentally-appropriate art activities designed for parents and children to enjoy precious creative moments together.
Aquanauts 3-5 years: Finger Painting * Camp Aquanaut * Building Blocks * Music Activities * Space  Night * Games – animal, color and shape BING
Explorers 6-8 years: Pirate Night * Nutty Nicknames * Pajama Night * Carnival games * Talent Show  
Voyagers 9-11 years: Karaoke * Sports Tournaments * GaGa Ball * List-o-Rama * Boys vs Girls * Scavenger Hunts * Crazy Tag
Teens 12-14 years: Sports Tournaments * Pool Parties * Scavenger Hunts *Karaoke * Themed Dance  Parties * Video Games * Nintendo© Wii *
Teens 15-17 years: Pool Parties * DJ Training * Battle of the Sexes * Karaoke * Casino Night * Themed Dance Parties * Nintendo© Wii-Guitar Hero * Movies

Here is also a great video that gives you a little glimpse at Adventure Ocean.

ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES OFFERED:

Adventure Science- makes learning fun through a blend of hands-on science experiments and wacky entertainment
Adventure Art- offers children the opportunity to exercise their creativity with crafts such as cultural masks and pottery, while learning about the art, history and culture of the regions they visit on vacation.
Adventure Theater- blends educational activities with on-your-feet fun. Adventure Theater participants get a first taste of the actor’s craft, in which entire worlds are created with just their bodies, voices and imaginations.
Sail into Story Time- sparks imaginations and entertains young vacationers with a story hour followed by creative, hands-on activities and projects.
Group Sitting and In-Stateroom Baby-Sitting Services
Late Night Party Zone – Group sitting is available for ages 3 – 11 from 10:00 pm to 2:00 am in the Adventure Ocean center. The cost for this service is $7/hour per child. Children attending must be at least 3 years old and fully toilet trained – no diapers or pull-ups allowed.
Sitters at Sea program is available through the Guest Relations Desk and must be booked at least 24 hours in advance and is based on availability of sitters. A Royal Caribbean staff-member will arrive equipped with age appropriate toys and games, to engage and entertain the young cruisers until their parents return. Children must be at least one year old. Upon their return, parents will be presented a log of the child’s activities with the babysitter, including books read, games enjoyed, food consumed, and when the child was put to bed.  The charge is $19 per hour for up to four children within the same family.
Movies for children – shown on stateroom televisions
Adventure Family Library – available in the ships library, this area offers classic and popular family friendly books.
Royal Bedtime Stories –Children are encouraged to dress in their pajamas, while an Adventure  Ocean counselor reads from one among a variety of popular storybooks
Shows- I talked about in my last post about all the shows we attended, all the ones we attended were kid friendly and very entertaining
Activities- Check the daily schedule because there are always fun family events going on.
Additional recreation– mini golf, slides, arcades, zip-line
Swimming-There are several pools for children and splash areas to check out.Symphony of the Seas had two specific children splash areas called Splashaway Bay.

Honestly, between Adventures Ocean and all the other entertainment on board, children and adults will never get bored.

COST FOR TODDLERS

Like most of the cruise industry, Royal Caribbean charges all of its guests the same regardless of age.

However,they have a program called Royal Caribbean’s Kids Sail Free. They offer this a couple of times a year so keep an eye out. Third guests and higher who are 12 years old or younger on select 4 nights or longer sailings are eligible for free cruise fare.

We recently had the honor of cruising on Royal Caribbean’s new ship, Symphony of the Seas. This first post is going to be all about the ship- what it offers and things we did. My next post will be about cruising with toddlers.

A HUGE thank you to Royal Caribbean for sponsoring our trip! We had the time of our lives and we owe it all to you!

I’ve received a ton of questions and I’m going to try my best to cover everything in this post and the next post but if I miss something, feel free to message me. 🙂

All About the Ship

Believe me when I say, Royal Caribbean outdid themselves. They literally thought of everything for this ship! I only have good things to say. It’s a dream ship and the ultimate family vacation!

After being a frequent cruiser, I was worried about doing too much walking (it’s the biggest ship in the world) from one place to another but they did a great job of making sure everything was centrally located and getting from one place to another was a breeze.

Symphony of the Seas is organized into seven unique neighborhoods:Boardwalk, Pool and Sports Zone, Central Park, Royal Promenade, Entertainment Place, Youth Zone and the Vitality Spa and Fitness.

Boardwalk- this was one of my favorite neighborhoods because there was so much to look at! They have a hand carved carousel in the center, two 43-foot rock climbing walls, Sugar Beach- an ice-cream and candy store, Playmakers Sports Bar and Arcade, and the amazing outdoor venue- the Aqua Theatre. Also, here you can watch people zip line from the top of the ship and come out of the 10-story slide- Ultimate Abyss! This is such a fun area and one that I took the most pictures.

Pool and Sports Zone- this is where you can find five different pools, the main entrance to the Ultimate Abyss, the slide that is ten stories above sea level that takes you to the Boardwalk in 13 seconds, the Perfect Storm (trio of waterslides), the zip line thats nine stories high, and Splashaway Bay- a water area for kids and toddlers, the adults only Solarium, as well as the surf simulators, miniature golf, and a large Sports Court offering several different sports

That’s me up there! 🙂

Central Park- this makes you feel like you’re in NYC and not on a ship, it’s beautiful! This open-air area has beautiful plants with several restaurants, shops, and entertainment.

Royal Promenade– the heart of the ship. It’s where you first step foot on board and it’s the center of all: parades, eateries, shops, and bars.

Entertainment Place- This is where a lot of your entertainment is from glow-in-the-dark laser tag battle to a full-scale ice skating rink, comedy shows, to the Royal Theater where you can watch the Broadway musical Hairspray and several other shows.

Youth Zone- This is the main hub for kids; the facility is phenomenal. The programs they offer are incredible. I’ll talk more about the kid’s program, Adventure Oceans later in the post and in my next blog post.

Vitality Spa and Fitness– This is where you can go to relax and get pampered or even workout by yourself or in group classes.

Food I’m a foodie and can be very opinionated about food… I can’t even tell you how many times I said to my husband, “This is quality food, not the normal cruise food!”. Everything we tried wasn’t just good, it was delicious and presented beautifully! This ship has 23, YES 23 specialty and complimentary dining options. From Mexican to seafood to a hibachi grill to Italian to a buffet of everything you could possibly imagine, they have it!

They even have a Bionic Bar with two robotic bartenders! It was really fun to watch.

Judd and I had the privilege of taking a behind the scenes food tour to see how they feed 8,000+ people every day. I was just amazed at the systems they have in place and how much food they make every single day.

Something random that I really liked about this cruise is they asked everyone to wash their hands or use hand sanitizer prior to entering dining areas. Being a germaphobe, I LOVED this.

Entertainment Trust me when I say it, YOU WILL NEVER GET BORED ON THIS SHIP! There is so much to see and so much to do! They have everything from zip lining across the ship, to swimming at the pool, seeing the Broadway show- Hairspray, shopping, relaxing at the Vitality Spa, surf simulators, riding the carousal, gambling in the casino, laser tag, mini golf, the tallest slide at sea (10 stories), waterslides, watching the high-flying aqua show- Hiro, and so much more!

Staterooms

This cruise ship offers a large variety of rooms. Every room I saw was decorated beautifully and felt very new and clean. From balcony staterooms that overlook the iconic Boardwalk neighborhood to The Ultimate Family Suite, they have it all. I received several questions about room sizes, cruise lines will only let you book staterooms that will hold the number of people in your party. While staterooms can sometimes be smaller than a hotel room, they are designed to have plenty of places to store your things and allow you to move around the room comfortably). The pictures below are from the Ultimate Family Suite, a 2 story suite with a slide and a separate master suite.

Adventure Ocean Programs (Kids Program) I plan to share more about traveling with kids and the kids program in my next post but wanted to give a general overview of this amazing program. It’s for ages 3-17. The program is “tailored to entertain, educate and inspire the youngest of adventurers with science, arts and crafts, theater, sports and parades that make imaginations run wild.”

It is organized by age groups: Royal Babies (ages 6-18 months), Royal Tots (ages 18-36 months), Aquanauts (ages 3-5); Explorers (ages 6 to 8), Voyagers (ages 9 to 11), and Tweens and Teens program (ages 12-17). Each age group had their own area plus some additional rooms for arts, science, etc. I will be posting a lot more about this program on my next post.

Excursions/Cruise Ports

We didn’t do any excursions this trip, we just walked around Nassau.

However, I did look at what they offered and they have tons of excursions for everyone. One really cool thing that they are opening in May 2019 is “A Perfect Day” in CocoCay in the Bahamas. This is their private island that just went through a $200 million transformation. For years they have asked cruisers what “their perfect day would be.” They designed this island based off of those answers. It will have the tallest waterslide in North America, the largest freshwater pool in the Caribbean, and so much more. I can’t wait to check this place out in the future!

Motion Sickness

Several readers asked about motion sickness on cruises. I do get seasick very easily so I always make sure I’m stocked on Dramamine and Seabands prior to leaving on a cruise. As long as I take the medicine daily I am always fine. I will say on this ship, I never once felt the ship move!

Overall Experience

I had the pleasure of meeting the CEO of Royal Caribbean while I was on the cruise and he said the goal is to make their cruises fun for multigenerational families and the company does a great job of this! They have entertainment, features, and food for everyone of all ages. If you can’t tell, we had the best time and we will definitely be back for another cruise in the future. You blew us away, Royal Caribbean! You were the ultimate family vacation for us and we will definitely be back!

Interested in Booking? I haven’t announced this yet but I am now certified to plan trips for families! I’d love to help you plan your next trip. Email me at BriannaLovesTraveling@gmail.com.

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