From March 24th – 31st my family (mom, dad, sister, brother-in-law, aunt, and uncle) embarked on a cruise vacation on the Royal Caribbean ship with Princess Cruises.

However, our trip started two days before this. We decided to fly down to Fort Lauderdale a couple of days before the ship left so we knew we would make it (flying from Toronto can be a bit dicey with the weather), and to just extend our vacation by a couple of days.

We landed in Fort Lauderdale and were instantly greeted with flood and tornado warnings, but this didn’t put a damper on our first day since our plan regardless was to spend some time in the hotel relaxing and walk around the area. We found a delicious Italian restaurant to have dinner at and I got my favourite, mussels (anytime I see mussels on a menu I order them and completely space out for the time it takes me to finish). Our plan for the next day was to head to Target and some outlet shops. We did some shopping and the weather ended up turning around and got quite nice so we decided to have lunch on a patio. We returned to the hotel to unpack our bags and relax for the evening before heading to the ship the next day.

Before this trip, I hadn’t been on a cruise since 2012 so I was excited to see the difference from then to now. In my opinion, though, the most notable difference was the organization regarding ‘room keys’. As opposed to having a physical key all passengers were given a medallion, which they could either wear on their neck or as a bracelet. This medallion was your lifeline for the week – it’s how you got into your room, and back onto the ship, and it’s just one way you could order drinks and food. It was so convenient.

The food is what I was most looking forward to – both on the ship and off, and I was not disappointed. Options were endless on the Royal Caribbean, but my favourite item had to be the pasta I had on the first night and the veggie burgers I discovered on one of our sea days. All of our meals were fresh, and the presentation was next-level.

The ports we stopped at were the Bahamas, Jamaica, Cayman Islands, and Cozumel.

As you may expect, they were all wonderful, but my favourite had to be the Cayman Islands. This is where we went to a turtle sanctuary, went on a bus tour, and swam with stingrays – this proved to be more nerve-wracking than I thought (the whole time I was paranoid I was going to accidentally step on a ray … so I was being pretty cautious).

The island itself was very calming and peaceful.

We had two sea days which were mainly spent laying by the pool, getting some sun, and reading (I finished two and a half books over the week). There were a ton of activities to participate in if you wanted though. On both of our sea days, I attended shark information sessions all about shark conversation and why they are important to our environment. One evening I went to the ‘Movies Under the Stars’ screening of Wonka. If neither of these things tickle your fancy though, fear not because the Princess Cruise app allowed you to customize your daily schedule based on your interests.

All in all, it was a fabulous week filled with good food, family time, and some amazing beaches and scenery.

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