Cruisingcouple22

Sorry it’s taken so long to get this out! There’s even less time when you are back from holiday than when you are on holiday! So as we said we had a one bedroom aqua-theatre suite, room 11334. Overall we found this room amazing! There were some pros and cons and we’ll go through all our thoughts about it! Pros: Size. This room was ENORMOUS, especially for just the two of us. There were no less than 5 double door wardrobes, along with endless drawers and other cupboards. There were small drawers underneath each of the desks which were perfect for storing cruise compasses and other documents. There was the double bed, a table with four chairs, a 3 seater sofa and two armchairs. There was plenty of room to move the furniture around as well Balcony. Now, this may be an obvious one, but the balcony is a big pro of this suite. Again, the size of it is one thing, but also the variety you get. If you want privacy and sea views, you have the section outside the bedroom which faces to sea with armchairs and foot stools, . If you want to eat breakfast or relax, you had the deep section right at the back with a table and loungers, or if you want to catch the aqua-theatre show you have the high stools and bar! Absolutely the best balcony i have ever seen on a ship. Suite perks. Again this goes without saying but the perks with a suite are amazing, especially on Wonder of the seas with it’s suite neighbourhood. The suite lounge is lovely, and has amazing views over the sports court and wake of the ship. Even watched a few of the flowrider sessions from up high. Also the included drinks, beer, wine and soda 11-11 and anything you like from 5-8, were incredible! The concierges were fantastic and able to arrange dining reservations at short notice and the reserved seating in the main theatre were very useful too. The suite sun deck was great, especially on sea day as there was always a space up here. Coffee. The nespresso coffee machine in the room was a great way to start the day, and then having freshly ground coffee in the suite lounge later on was perfection. But then again, i am a little addicted to my caffeine fix! Included room service. Technically a suite perk but having room service breakfast in the room or on the balcony was incredible. They bring a tablecloth and everything and it really sets it apart. We didn’t try lunch or dinner but really wish we had now! That’s the problem with the ship, too much to do and so little time. Cons: Pool on the sun deck. I showed some of the photos of the pool earlier on, and the maintenance levels were not great on such a new ship. The shape of the pool was pretty cool though Noise. There's no getting around it but the cabin was noisy. Most of the time it wasn’t an issue as we stayed up quite late, but when we wanted to go to bed early (before 11!) on those nights the show started at 11 it could still be heard in the bedroom with the doors shut. Something to consider if this could affect your stay and there were shows this late 4 nights of the week,. Bathroom. There were a couple of small, niggly issues with the bathroom. The bath was very narrow, to the point where it was a bit difficult to balance if the ship was moving and we had to remove the plug cover to be able to stand under the shower. The tap on the sink was very close to the edge of the sink and water split on to the surround each time you used it. Not too much of an issue you might think, but then when the ship rocked a little this all dribbled on to the floor. And there is nothing worse than unsuspectingly stepping into a puddle with a sock on and have a wet sock for formal night! Also there was poor shower pressure. Long corridor. I know this sounds petty, but the corridor to the room was really long! At the end of a long port day it really drains you! And if you have mobility problems this is something else to consider. Opinion: So would we book the room again? Absolutely, as long as the price was right. We got a really good deal on this room, and it was not much more than a grand suite when we booked it. The balcony is absolutely incredible and really sets this room apart from any other room on the ship, except the two bedroom ones which are even bigger! We loved that balcony and spent so much of our time out there. We would definitely recommend trying the room, as long as the noise isn’t a deal breaker for you.

Here’s a few of the random bits of paperwork you get given around the ship including: special offer if you attend the spa raffle onboard emerald perks onboard diamond perks and departure info 😟 the safe in the room had a light in which was a really neat feature!!

Departure day meant another early morning. Our flight was at 1100 but ryanair recommended we get there 3 hours earlier, which meant leaving the ship about half 7. One quick last walk around the ship and then it was up to the suite lounge for a quick, light bite (it was too early to eat anymore and we were still full from the Mason Jar brunch!) before the suite concierge escorted us off the ship. This is a really nice service, however the departure process looked like it was going smoothly for everyone and we did not see a line anywhere! It was nice to get the lift all the way from 17 to 5 without stopping though! Luggage collected and we grab a taxi, a wait of about 2 minutes whilst the groups in front of us loaded up their cars. There was an enormous line of taxis so i wouldn’t worry about not catching one. Ride to the airport was about 20 minutes and we got there about 0800. Which it turns out is too early as despite Ryanair sending us a message to get there 3 hours early, they don’t open the bag drop until 2.5 before the flight! Once that was done though, security went smoothly and we were through and relaxing with coffee and breakfast. Overall we had an absolutely fantastic holiday, and if people are looking for a cruise ship with a lot to do on then i’d say this is the one for you. The only probably with doing this ship on a port intensive itinerary (only 1 sea day in a week) is there are sometimes activities you miss as you are in port. For example we like doing the ice skating but couldn’t fit it in, as between the ice shoes and the laser tag and nightclub the put on, it was only on one or two days in the middle of the day i believe. Other than that there are just so many options for you to choose from on this ship there is something for everyone, they even still have the card room which had some very comfy looking chairs. I would say i’d be interested to see how the ship does when it is back at full capacity, but they should also have more crew by that point too so that should help make any lines manageable, although it won’t create more space on the pool deck! Please let me know if you have any questions, i’ll be doing a short room review as well with our thoughts about it. Thanks very much for reading and all the interactions from everyone, and to little britain for their contributions from the ship. It’s really nice to know that people actually read and enjoy these! We are going on virgin valiant lady in july, and on NCL pride of america in september so keep an eye out as i’ll probably do a live-ish blog on those cruises too! Until then, happy cruising!

They did, I think it was on the sea day at 1030 but we weren’t able to make it there, not sure if anybody else reading did?

We are definitely big ship people and have been on all the other oasis class ships except oasis itself! We really enjoyed noticing all the changes from the other ships we’ve been on but there is too much to do in just one week. And certainly too many places to eat at 😂 Wish we’d been able to do a back to back!! Maybe next time

We really liked the music in there, and they had some different cocktails like the PB&J old fashioned which you can’t get anywhere else on the ship. I enjoyed sitting in the rocking chair watching sunset and the food menu was really good too. It’s just a bit different to any of the other places on the ship and I can definitely see Royal fitting into older ships like they did with playmakers

Sea day started with us having a last breakfast on our balcony and then heading up for a semi-private lesson on the flow rider. Setting up for the pirates parade There was myself and my wife then two other people for the hour long session and it cost $69 per person. We each got about 15-20 minutes of one on one tuition as it overan a little bit and I would say it was really helpful to get some more practice and specific tips. After that we had a warm up a bit, it gets a bit breezy on the back of the ship on a sea day, so we headed to the cantilevered hot tub to get the chill off. We had the tub to ourselves, it was 0930 on a sea day and we had a great time looking down straight into the sea. I really like the infinity pool style so you have the clear glass, it’s a shame there is only one of them now though. We then headed down to the thermal spa for our first trip of the day and had it to ourselves. The pass for the sea day was 29 USD + gratuities. I Think it cam to about $34 in total. There is something to be said for getting up early on a sea day if you like some quiet time in the public areas of the ship. That being said there were pool lounge ninjas about who managed to sneak out and peg out towels and then sneak back to bed without being seen! After the spa we headed up to the mason jar for brunch. There was a lot of food but it was all tasty, I really like the cornbread they give you, and my blueberry Johnny cakes with bbq pulled port were a really interesting combo of flavours. The chicken and waffle was tasty but a bit heavy, and the stuffed French toast was a bit too rich! They even served you dessert for brunch, but we could not fit it in. The band were playing a short set at lunch as well so was nice to listen to them. One thing to note is that we had pre-paid for brunch on the cruise planner and then later also booked the dining package, and the manager was able to refund us our money for the pre-booking. So if there is a reservation time that you absolutely must have and you are planning on getting a dining package, you can prebook it as long as you are happy with getting it back as onboard credit. Hope that makes sense to someone! . After brunch we took a few laps of various parts of the ship to try to burn off some calories and then headed down to the boardwalk as they had a family fun day on. The trip so far! It was a bit windy around the shop, you can just b make out the waves in the pool They had candyfloss, candy apples, hopp games, the big band playing and all sorts of other fun activities. Everybody seemed to be having a great time and it was an included event too! some of the candy in the shop looks like Lego! Whilst we were down on the boardwalk i did a bit more rock climbing, i really do love this wall! There are some easier and some really challenging climbs and its really tall. We then headed for our second spa of the day, trying to get the most out of the thermal pass, before getting changed for dinner. Before dinner we caught a bit of the international flow show on the flow rider. This is the first time i’ve seen something like this on a royal ship and if you see it on the planner i highly recommend going, everybody had a great time. The staff are incredibly talented and were doing human pyramids, flips and all sorts of other tricks on the flow rider. I struggle to just stay standing upright! IMG_6694.MOV IMG_6712.MOV IMG_6716.MOV IMG_6717.MOV IMG_6724.MOV IMG_6708.MOV After the show we headed down to grab dinner at playmakers, unfortunately we forgot that the UEFA final was on and the entirety of playmakers was booked out, not a table to be found. So we headed to Johnny Rockets instead for dinner, which was delicious as always. Apparently I was so hungry though I forgot to take any photos! We headed back to the room to pack up 😞 always a sad time, and then headed back to the Mason Jar for a final few drinks and to catch the last seat of the Country trio. It was a great time, really high energy and they played everyone's requests that they knew.And then that was it, the cruise was over and it was time for bed before waking up for our flight tomorrow morning.

Not in sky class, we paid for our thermal suite access. It star class though, I imagine they get anything they ask for 😁

we left the ship about 0815, and there was no line at all to get off, straight through the terminal. We do walk relatively fast though so depending on you rapped you may want to adjust the time, it’s about a 2-2.5 km walk.

All good, thank you 😊 just found it hard to squeeze everything in whilst on the ship😂

Ours was 11334 on the port side, I’m assuming 11734 is the same as our one, but just flipped around. There are a couple of YouTube videos of one bedroom ATS but the both have different layouts! Very confusing!

There you go, should all be uploaded now. Enjoy the planning, it’s one of my favourite bits of a holiday!!

Day 7 sea day cruise compss

Day 6 Naples cruise compass

Sorry about the weird post with a load of photos in a row on, i was trying to upload photos whilst on the move and it didn't like it, and also wouldn't let me delete them! Also i can't seem to rotate photos once they are in so sorry if there are a couple of upside down ones dotted throughout. I would say it is much easier to upload photos now i am on my stable home wifi 🙂

After that we headed back to the ship for some lunch and cooling down. We had a burger at johnny rockets, included in the ultimate dining package, then headed upstairs to do the zip line, back down the ultimate abyss slide to the rock climbing wall then on to try laser tag. Laser tag may have been a mistake as it used up about two hours of our afternoon due to queuing and poor organisation. Suffice to say we won’t do it again on this trip, however it was a lot of fun. The inflatables are great fun to run around and the sound track makes everything seem more urgent. We headed up to the sun deck to relax after the stress of laser tag and enjoyed a glass of champagne in the hot tub whilst we sailed out of Naples. IMG_6580.MOV The view of Vesuvius in the background as we sailed away was incredible. Dinner tonight was in coastal kitchen (lobster night!) and we had a lovely table looking out the back of the ship. This has been one of my favourite things about eating in coastal kitchen, the views. You sometimes get good views in the main dining room but you have to request or be lucky enough to get a window whereas every seat here has a great view. We had onion soup and prawn cocktail to start, and then rack of lamb and lobster for main. We also had a small portion of the gnocchi which we didn’t enjoy. Dessert was baked Alaska and a honeycomb chocolate bar and it was all great, bar the gnocchi. We caught a bit of the voices show, and whilst it was a cool concept with the backing vocalists on screens and everyone was extremely talented there didn’t seemed to be a cohesion to the show, no flow from one set of songs to the other. IMG_6605.MOV IMG_6608.MOV We headed to Central Park for a relaxing drink and ended up watching a bit of the the Dune film. This wasn’t really a choice as the volume was up VERY loud so do hear this in mind. Having said that the soundproofing on the balconies is pretty good so it may not be an issue with the door closed. And then it was off to bed so we could get a jump on the sea day tomorrow! here is our towel animal menagerie

Some of the tunnels are very narrow, as in have to take your rucksack off and side step narrow, but there are alternate paths if you don’t want to do these. There are 40 metres worth of steps to access the tunnels, and 15 metres to do on the way back up so bear that in mind if you fancy doing this one! Our tour guide was called Simone and he did an excellent job. His english was great and he cracked quite a few jokes as well as telling the other tour groups to be quiet! After the tour we took a wander around Naples, headed through the historic district and stop for some Tiramasu and a pistachio espresso which was delicious. As we walked around we saw some signs for a number of other undeground tours. We’ve been to Naples four times, this was the first time we had heard of an underground tour and we saw three of them, they are like buses! toilets! Not still working one of the wells where people used to get water Some rich, entitled people demanded their own quarters in the bomb shelter pistachio cream espresso The ship kind of dominates the skyline A slightly disturbing looking Mickey Mouse 😳 it looks like the mannequin on the right has been naughty and told to face the wall 😂 Tour number 2 Tour number 3! Amazing coffee art back to the ship for a rest!

Our final port day was in Naples. The ship docks very close to town and our tour wasn’t booked until midday so we had a slow start to the day and went to coastal kitchen for breakfast. It was pancakes again and they were similar to the ones you get in room service but a little better as they were hot. I had a chorizo and egg flat bread and it was very tasty too. Celebrity beyond was in port too, very interesting looking ship We took a leisurely stroll into town and immediately regretted our choice of clothing it as it was already very warm! As we were going underground and didn’t want to carry too much stuff we definitely did not dress for the weather! It was quite overcast but very humid. We had a slow walk around town and popped into a few shops. It’s interesting comparing the size of other ships. That’s one of the Viking ocean cruise ships in the foreground and it’s a LOT closer! We walked past all the high end fashion shops and avoided going in, but did enjoy the blasts of air con we got as we walked by. When it was time for our tour we headed across. We then discovered we had booked the Italian tour but fortunately they were kind enough to switch us across to the english one. Must check more closely when making bookings on viator in the future! The tour was very interesting and he explained all about how the greeks built the original aqueduct system to bring water to naples and it was used up until 1880 for this purpose. There were a lot of wells around Naples and some residences had their own private wells. There was a chapel down there too, and people even got married during the war here! this is the view back up! some of the graffiti you can just make out We also told us about the “Little monks” who were the people that maintain the aqueducts in the greek times and were blamed for all the little going ons around town. If you lost your keys, it was the little monks. If a young single lady became unexpectedly with child, it was the little monks! After 1880 they modernised the water system so stopped using the aqueduct and it was forgotten about until world war 2 when it was used as a bomb shelter. The soldiers had to clear out some rubbish and make it habitable, widening tunnels so they could be walked through and levelling out the floors, and they put toilets in as well as electricity. They even put a back up system in so that it was never dark in the tunnels. The handholds the little monks used to climb down and carry out repair works. there was a number of bits of graffiti around the tunnels, but it didn’t come out too well in the photos. Naples was one of the most bombed cities in Europe, and as you can imagine there was a lot of rubbish and rubble so when rebuilding they used the conviniently placed wells to through all the rubbish into. After 10 years of this the entire system was full! In the 1980s volunteer societies started to clear out some of the rubbish and highlight the historical importance, and so far have managed approximately 8% as they have very limited funding and have to do everything by hand. This inclused winching up the rubbish by hand 40 metres!!

Hi all, sorry about the delay in getting the next instalment out! We had a busy sea day, then an early flight and are still travelling home at the moment after picking up our cat from my mother in law, who very kindly looks after her whilst we are away! This means though that you’ll get two instalments in shorter succession! woo!

There was a cool exhibition set up in the church in the forum showing what the art work used to look like IMG_6401.MOV

We’ve been to Hooked on other ships before and really enjoy it, although the tiredness and heat meant nether of us were very hungry. The food was really tasty though, and my steak was cooked excellently. We didn’t even manage dessert! After dinner we took a quick look around the shops, bought our christmas ornament from the ship and then headed to bed. Completed knackered, but i guess its not too surprising with the 33 degree heat, high humidity and 28000 steps! Heres to a nice long sleep and we’ll see you tomorrow for our last port day in Naples. Ciao! Biscuits, partially eaten! Soft shell crab Crab cake Surf and turf Lobster Mac and cheese. Super cheesy! Lobster roll

Did anyone else see the construction progress on Icon of the seas? Very strange looking sphere being installed at the moment! no idea what it’ll be but very excited. And apparently Icon is going to be bigger than the oasis class too!

After finishing at the forum we needed caffeine (and shade) so popped into a little cafe for a break. It was quiet when we got there but must have been a favourtie with the locals as it was heaving when we left. We had a quick wander around the cat sanctuary, but as it was so hot we only saw the one who was searching for some shade. We took a walk along to the pantheon, grabbing some delicious bubble tea on the way, and then walked along to the trevi fountain. Bubble tea! Bubble tea all gone! We walked past a Venchi chocolate shop and the had a waterfall of chocolate flowing down behind their counter, yummy! IMG_6417.MOV Very interesting looking sweet shop After the fountain we took a walk back to the centre of room and the altar of the fatherland before deciding that the heat had taken it’s toll on us and we needed to head back. We caught the train from Roma Termini, and decided on the faster train that was a little more expenses, 11.60 euros, but was 30 minutes quicker than the other train. It was also a mum nicer and quieter train and i had a little nap to try and recharge. Back in Civitavecchia we took a wander along the waterfront before heading back to the ship. We thought this was Charlie Chaplin and Walt Disney, turns out it wasn’t! Be careful in the cantilevered hot tubs, people can see right in!! We grabbed some Sorrentos pizza before heading back to teh room for a much needed freshen up. And then it was to the suite lounge for an Aviation gin and tonic before our dinner reservation at Hooked.

Time to get up bright and early for our day in Rome! Chased in by Costa with Celebrity already in! As you may have guessed by now, breakfast was room service again! This time we sat out on the balcony and enjoyed some very warm weather for so early. This should have been a warning of how hot it would get later in the day🥵 We decided to walk to the train station, it took about 20 minutes or so. As Littlebritain noted, the entrance to the port has been reconfigured, which works out very well for people walking. There is a clearly marked and segregated path all the way from the ship to the castle by the entrance to the port. You also don’t have to run the gauntlet of taxis and tour sellers that you previously had to walk through. No train dramas today, the train was running on time! We got the 0842 and it got to Roma Ostiense at 0936. There were plenty of seats when we got on but by the next stop it was standing only. The train ride was nice enough, especially as it only cost 4.60 euros. I wish our trains in england were this cheap! We got off and had a leisurely walk to the circus maximus and then onto the palantine hill and Roman forum. We passed by this, who knew that Rome had pyramids too! If you are going to the Colliseaum your ticket includes entry here, but they also do separate tickets if you aren’t visiting elsewhere that can be bought online. Highly recommend that you prebook any tickets online. Circus maximus! This site is quite large, hilly and lots of uneven/slippery pavements so be careful if you do decide to visit. There are some beautiful views though and the history here is incredible. You can look down on what were the emperors private rooms overlooking the circus maximus. And there are some areas of the site that date back over 2600 years! There are a number of free water fountains around the site as well as restrooms. Emperor’s private rooms!! IMG_6361.MOV Emperor’s private fountain too At least the lizards were enjoying the heat Just make out the Vatican in the distance It’s crazy to see what time does to the flooring At this point the fountain looked VERY refreshing Some of the buildings are absolutely colossal I think they said this church dates from the 5th Century and the icon is one of the oldest in existence. This isn’t the original of course Spare marble for when they have to make repairs This is what the church looked when the found it. Amazing the work they have done