Newcruiser215

Oh, I have. Prices for a balcony & a suite aren't that far apart, which seems crazy to me. Here's an example.

We booked a suite for Icon but I'm having buyer's remorse.

I liked the convenience of being close to the Boardwalk & the promenade. We definitely felt the motion a lot more than our last cruise (cabin was mid-ship). No noise from Playmakers that we could hear from our room. We could hear noise walking in the hallway but it wasn't overbearing. We could also smell the food from Playmakers but I love onion rings & wings so it didn't bother me.

If I remember correctly, I paid $230 for two devices. I think it was $19.99/per day.

Thanks Mike! Did they have any pool side games on your sailing? Like the belly flop, sexiest man, etc.? I heard some other people complaining about it during our cruise. I overheard one passenger mentioning that Royal was really sued because someone broke a rib during the belly flop competition. Not sure how true that is.

Hello everyone. We are fresh off of the 7/2 sailing of the Wonder of the Seas and I wanted to share my experience with anyone who is interested. Just as the title states, this is our second RCL cruise. Our first was last summer on Symphony. See that review below. I'll try to keep this one as brief and to the point as possible. Hopefully I can answer any questions someone may have. Embarkation - We took an Uber from Disney ($68) and we arrived to the terminal a little after 11 since our check in time was 10:30-11:30am. No one bothered to check our check-in time so we just moved along. The entire process from curbside to ship took maybe 15 minutes. First Impressions - Being that we just did Symphony a year prior, we weren't blown away when we first boarded. Other than a couple changes, everything looked exactly the same, however, we were still very happy to be onboard. Our first stop was to the Windjammer since we were very hungry and as expected, it was packed. I will say our first experience with the Windjammer on Wonder was much better than our first experience on Symphony. The food was much better this time around. Not a great selection of food but it hit the spot for lunch. . Stateroom - We had a Oceanview balcony (6306) and the staterooms on our deck opened at 1:30. I don't want to compare everything to Symphony but we much preferred the lighter tone of the room versus the darker tone on Symphony. Like others have stated, the door for the bathroom & shower are magnetic and it's not quiet so we could hear when others around us were in & out of their bathrooms. For anyone curious, our bed was next to the balcony. Entertainment - We saw every show during the week including the adult comedy shows. The adult comedy show had two comedians and we only sat through the first one. I believe they performed every night. The second guy just wasn't funny to us. Tap factory was a solid show. It was like a cross between tap and STOMP with no storyline to follow. 365 (ice show) was probably my favorite show. Amazing production, music and it told a story. Intense was...intense. Lol. Great show. Better than Hiro? Not to me but it was still really well done. The Effectors was probably the most anticipated show for me because I'm a nerd for anything super hero related. Is it cheesy? Absolutely but I enjoyed it. This was shown on nights 6 & 7. The Love & Marriage game show was definitely our favorite. There was always some sort of live music band playing around the ship throughout the day. By the pool, central park, the music hall, the promenade, etc. We even ran into the piano guy one night on the elevator. Activities - There was always something happening around the ship for all ages. Trivia, escape room, flowrider, zipline, bingo, sales, etc. They offer a lot during the daytime & nighttime. No one should ever find themselves bored on this ship. Not sure if gambling counts as an activity but, I did participate in the Blackjack tournament. Buy-in was $25 with a $500 cash price. They give you $500 in chips, 6 hands per round. The top 6 with the most chips made it to the final table. A lot of participants and it took a long time since they were only using one table but it was still fun. Specialty Dining - This sailing we did Chops Grille, Gio's kitchen, Mason Jar (brunch, dinner & late night menu), 150 CP, Hooked & Playmakers, if you count that. Chops & Mason Jar were good. 150 was excellent. Playmakers was also a hit & yes, the cost of wings has gone up. Gio's and Hooked were disappointing. The taste was simply not there and the entire experience took a very long time. Complimentary Dining - Here's where we noticed the biggest difference between this cruise and our last one. The issue was not the taste of the food, it was the temperature and the variety. Food in the Windjammer and the Solarium bistro was never hot. On some instances the food was cold. From day to day, the options really never changed. The Windjammer is big but we still found it difficult finding seats at times. Our experience in the main dining room was more consistent than our specialty dining. Service was great, the food was actually hot and on some occasions, tasted better. Our only issue was the menu selections. Just not as many options as before and dinner would take long. Sorrento's & Boardwalk Dog House were solid options for a quick bite. Pools - CROWDED. Not crowded to the point where it wasn't enjoyable but, we got in and got out. We did witness a lot of moments where lifeguards or a crew member would speak to a kid for doing something they shouldn't be doing in the water. Waterslide lines were always long. World's biggest ship, we understand crowds are expected so we didn't let it ruin our experience. Finding seating wasn't too bad. There was only one day where we couldn't find anything by the pool but it wasn't a big deal since we easily found something in the solarium. One thing we really did enjoy was the lounger seats they have that sit in the water. Ports / Excursions - This sailing was Eastern Caribbean so we made stops in St. Maarten, St. Thomas and Perfect Day. For Perfect Day, we had nothing planned so we just hit the beach at Chill Island. We were back on board by 12. In St. Thomas we did the Magen's Bay Getaway excursion. It was very crowded since there was another cruise ship in port but still a good beach day. For St. Maarten we did the Afternoon at Orient Beach excursion. This was our first time at this beach and it is a very beautiful beach. Only a few vendors walking around and a lot of dining options in the area. Since we were on the French side of the island, the menus were in French (where we ate anyway) and the currency was listed in euros. There was also some confusion when my wife ordered steak frites and they brought her a plain hamburger patty. We laughed about it. Voom (WiFi) - Much, much, much better this time around. Speeds seemed to be the fastest in our staterooms but, I'm sure that's because they have routers in each room. We had no issue casting to the TV. Crew members/Staff - Nothing but positive things to say. These people work really hard to ensure you have a great experience on your cruise. Every staff member we walked past always greeted us with a quick hello, good morning or enjoy your day. A+ all around. Elevators - I say this jokingly. This was the worst part of our cruise. They took forever and most times when it would finally come, you had to squeeze in and out. Disembarkation - You never want it to end but it was a seamless process. It took us maybe 5 minutes to get off the ship. The nightmare was once we made it off the ship. So many people scrambling for an Uber/lyft, finding their shuttle or trying to purchase one and no clear signage of where to go. It was crazy but eventually we made our way to the airport. Final thoughts- Overall, this was a good experience. A lot of kids but that was expected given it's summer. I can’t say we enjoyed this sailing more than our previous one but, we still enjoyed ourselves tremendously. No major complaints. We are booked for Icon next summer so as of right now, that will be our next cruise and we are looking forward to that. Thanks for reading.

Good, hot food. Lol.

I agree on Mason Jar. We tried it for brunch & dinner and we were pleasantly surprised.

Nothing extra. Just share like you would with airplay. We did find there was a 2-3 minute delay in the app finding the screen.

I used an iPhone. It wasn’t perfect by any means but we got it to work. I did find that it worked better with the Hulu app than Netflix.

I used an iPhone. It wasn’t perfect by any means but we got it to work. I did find that it worked better with the Hulu app than Netflix.

Simply put, the food was not good. The service was good, just not the food. For appetizers we had the meatball, Caesar salad and the meat & cheese platter. For our entrees we had the chicken parm, Osso Buco and the lasagna. The Osso Buco was the only thing we cared for.

We did Gio’s on our recent Wonder sailing and it was a major disappointment.

Worked great for our cruise this past week. We even streamed from our phones to the tv.

Just got off the Wonder this morning and we took advantage of this new feature all week. Worked really well for the most part.

Love it. I hate the smell of cigarette smoke.

I'm a little surprised Mason Jar didn't make the list.

I think we can agree this "sale" is a joke.

Somehow the UDP is more now.

I booked a gty oceanview balcony for my upcoming 7/2 Wonder sailing and I’ve had my room assignment for a couple of months now.

Do you feel the UDP was worth the price you paid?

If you work in PR, I can tell you’re really good at what you do. Lol.

I am really laughing at some of the excuses I'm reading and that somehow they're wrong for recording their experience. If the review was positive, no one would have an issue. Royal can do no wrong, right?!

Now I'm getting the same error with Chops.

Royal is having their "sale" so now it's $225. Still more than I'd like to pay. Lol.