Cruising on the Wonder of the Seas
In April I had the chance to sail on the newest Royal Caribbean ship, Wonder of the Seas. (In fact, she was so new she still had that new ship smell.) In case you didn’t know, she is the largest ship in the water today. With 18 passenger decks, 2867 total cabins, she can hold a whopping 6,988 passengers! In typical Royal fashion, The Wonder is equipped with multiple venues for groups of any size. If you need it, they can supply it…. small board meeting space, large conference rooms, stadium style seating for 1400 with all the electronic bells and whistles, cocktail parties, live music, space for product launches. It’s all there in one beautiful location.
This ship is the first that started the new concept of adding an additional neighborhood for suites. Depending on the level of suite you have access to a special pool area, dining room, lounge, and concierge service.
The top level suites also have a Royal Genie to help with all your needs. The suites are spacious and beautifully decorated with large bathrooms and plenty of storage. We stayed in an ocean view verandah which has a simplistic yet very functional design. I was pleasantly surprised at how much storage space was available while still leaving enough open floor to move around comfortably. There are also plenty of plug ins and USB ports for all your devices which can sometimes be an issue on ships.
We were on a 7-day sailing so it would be physically impossible to try every venue on the ship, we sure tried though! I’ll start with our favorite meal of the week, Hooked Seafood. As the name implied it’s a seafood restaurant, everything we ate that night was really good and exceeded our expectations. Wonderland was our second favorite. It’s an immersive dining experienced themed after Alice in Wonderland. Start the meal off with a cocktail and choose the red or blue pill then follow the rabbit down the rabbit hole for a unique experience. We opted to let our waiter and chef guide our experience which I highly recommend. The food and experience was great and had a really fun twist. There’s the staples for Royal: Izumi, Giovanni’s Italian Kitchen, Chops Grille, and 150 Central Park. All of which have buyout options available for a special group dinning event. One of their new creations, The Mason Jar debuted on this ship. The first southern food venue at sea. Admittedly, from the wife of a true southerner, the menu needs little fine tuning but the concept is great and the food is good. The best part though is the bourbon bar attached. In the evening it was a really fun location for live music and great drinks. There’s also plenty of cocktail party space. Music Hall is a great venue that can easily be used for a private function and holds up to 220 guests, among many others.
One of the unique aspects of Royal is their outside the norm activities that guests can enjoy. Think team building exercises of surfing, rock climbing, laser tag, escape room, etc. Go from the board room in the morning to exclusive surfing competitions in the afternoon then a private cocktail party in the afternoon and group dining for dinner. You can truly customize your guests experience.
-written by Tara Carpenter, June 2022.
