Ew, I could never be a cruise person. Or so I thought.
Then I had kids and realized my ideal vacation of wandering cobblestone streets, enjoying a cocktail at sunset, or booking an 8 p.m. dinner reservation at a restaurant that definitely doesn’t have a kids’ menu, is the opposite of relaxing when you’re going to have small children by your side. Honestly, we just need chicken fingers and a waterpark, and we’re good.
So when my friend texted asking if I wanted to take the kids on Royal Caribbean’s Star of the Seas, one of the world’s biggest cruise ships, over a school break, I was immediately in, and so was another friend. Our husbands all had to work and the kids were begging to go.
As someone who appreciates nice resorts, I was more than happy to shell out thousands (a room for four cost us $5,759, plus our flights from LA to Orlando) for a ship that actually lives up to the hype.
A modern mega-ship is the easiest way to travel with a big group of kids
Planning a week-long girls’ trip with two other moms and seven children between us is a lot to take on, but cruising eliminated much of the usual hassle.
Food and entertainment are included, so there are no bills to split, and you can book dinner reservations and shows together via the Royal Caribbean app. The ship is a moving hotel too, so you only unpack once. On this voyage, we visited St. Thomas, St. Maarten, and Royal Caribbean’s private island, CocoCay, in the Bahamas, which the kids were obsessed with.
Hot tip: Skip the Royal Caribbean excursions and DIY it. It’s cheaper, and you never know what mood the kids will be in. We decided to wing it for sanity’s sake, which turned out to be the right call since the kids could only handle one stop per island before melting down.
Grabbing a taxi at the port is easy and cheap, and we weren’t stuck exploring on someone else’s schedule. The one exception: the Thrill Waterpark tickets at CocoCay are worth booking in advance. Our 7- and 9-year-olds spent the entire day there and didn’t want to leave.
The rooms are modern and spacious, and the food and entertainment are surprisingly good
Star of the Seas is newer, cleaner, and frankly way nicer than I ever imagined a cruise ship could be. To me, it was good as, if not better than, some of the five-star, all-inclusive family resorts we’ve stayed at in Mexico. The rooms are modern and spacious, and Adventure Ocean, the kids’ club, is open and free until 10 p.m., so the other moms and I were able to actually enjoy a meal in the main dining room with some peace. I’m also still dreaming about the gooey chocolate dessert I had one night.
The food, in general, genuinely surprised us. The Aquadome Market, a food hall on the ship, has rotating international options that rival LA’s best food trucks, and there’s a solid self-serve Mexican buffet by the main pool. Because kid favorites are available to grab and go around the ship, we never had to force our often-exhausted kids into a nice sit-down meal. The convenience alone is worth it.
Between seven pools, ten hot tubs, six waterslides, a carousel, and soft-serve ice cream at nearly every turn, the kids were never bored. Neither were the moms. Torque, the aqua show, is a stunning Vegas-caliber production. We loved it so much we went twice and still talk about it.
We’re already looking at dates for next year
Vacationing with mom friends means you can tag team the parenting, and when the kids have friends and waterslides, they’re not busy bugging you.
We’re already planning next year’s trip and recruiting more moms to join us. One of my friends is even researching matching cruise bags for all of us to use. I guess we’re cruise people now.
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