Scott and I decided to spend Thanksgiving weekend cruising to the Bahamas on the Royal Caribbean Cruise Ship. This was our first time on a major cruise ship. Back in 2019, we did take the Star Clipper ship through the Leeward Islands, but it only held 135 people. Not having cruised before, we had no idea what to expect or if we would like it. We booked a balcony room and added the unlimited beverage package.
This trip departed from Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale on Friday at 4:30pm and headed to Nassau, Bahamas (arriving in the morning.) Ironically, that is only about a 120 nm trip, so the cruise ship must have traveled at a very slow speed through the night. The second night it traveled to Royal Caribbean’s private island, Coco Cay and then headed back to Fort Lauderdale on Sunday night, arriving at 5:30am (just in time for us to go to work).
Pre-departure Preparations
About a week before our departure, Royal Caribbean had us download their app and the app included our daily planner (by the hour), a map and shore excursions. During this time, you also select your boarding time, which starts as early as 12pm. Since this was all new to us, we decided to book the first window, so we could explore the cruise ship for a few hours before we left port.
About a month before we left, we booked two excursions including a day at Pearl Island in Nassau and the Beach Club in Coco Cay. Unfortunately two days before we left , Pearl Island was cancelled. Luckily, we found a snorkeling trip at the last minute.
The ship did not require any kind of testing and in fact, you don’t need a passport. You can use your state ID and birth certificate.
Departure Day
Port Everglades is about 20 minutes from our home, so we planned on taking Uber around 11:15am, just to give us plenty of time. Well, it’s a good thing we did. Scott entered the Royal Caribbean address on our ticket for the Uber driver and it took us to their corporate office! Soon we realized we didn’t know what terminal we were leaving from and you have to tell the guard at the gate what terminal you are traveling too. Luckily, when we told him “Liberty of the Seas”, he knew what terminal we needed. We were shocked to see that no where on our app or ticket, does it tell us what terminal.
There was a bit of a traffic jam leading to terminal 29 and finally we arrived at the ship around 11:45am. We hopped out of the Uber and instantly a porter grabbed our bags and hauled them off. God, I hope we see our luggage again! (You do have the option to carry on your own bags as well).
Going through security and customs
Scott and I followed the crowd into the welcome building (hoping we were headed the right way). If you want more details about all of this, be sure to watch our YouTube video (link below).
We’re not sure if it is normally packed with people, but when we went through security, we walked through the entire building in less than 15 minutes.
As soon as you board the cruise ship, you must go to your muster station and show the attendant that you took the safety course. After we checked off our muster station, we then headed up to the 11th deck to get our beverage package bracelets (per our app). However, when we got up there, we learned we didn’t need any bracelets.
By now it was 12:30pm and we couldn’t check into our room until 1pm, so we decided to walk around the ship and get the lay of the land.
We were also starving, but unfortunately none of the restaurants were open except a pizza by the slice restaurant. (Seemed odd to us….) There were plenty of bars that were open though. While we were enjoying a slice of pizza, the server offered us a dining package at 40% off. Confused, we asked “what is that?!”. Turns out, if you want to eat anywhere except the buffet or main dining room, you have to pay extra. Since it was 40% off, we caved in and bought it. We also made our dinner reservations (Steak Restaurant and Italian Restaurant) for the next two evenings.
Your room key is also called your “Sea Pass” . This is what you use for the drink package and it also has your main dining room table number on it. We decided we would at least eat in the main dining room our first night. While we were checking out the ship, we decided to hunt for our table.
Turns out that no one showed up for dinner with us and we had the entire table to ourselves. They serve a pre-set menu and I will say, the food must come from a kitchen far away. Don’t expect the food to be hot at all.
Finding our Room
As we walked around the ship, we were trying to figure out where the hallway was to our room. We soon realized, that they keep the doors locked to the hallway until check-in time. At 1:15pm, they made an announcement and the doors opened. Turns out, your room keys are left in a pocket on your door (strange, but okay). When we got to our room, I saw one suitcase, but not the other two. Luckily, Scott found them a ways down the hall.
Our room was bigger than I expected. Since we had only been on the Star Clipper, we didn’t know what to expect. The Star Clipper room barely had room for both of us! LOL.
Finally Leaving for Nassau, Bahamas
We were the last cruise ship to leave Port Everglades. I loved that Scott was able to take this journey with me, so he could see what my cruise to the Bahamas this summer was sort of like. The sunset was amazing and we enjoyed it until it went below the horizon.
Tune in next week, as we take you to the Bahamas and share our excursions with you. As always, thank you for following our blog. Please be sure to subscribe to both our blog and channel (see video below). You can also follow us on social media @BoatingJourney #BoatingJourney. Cheers, Scott and Ally