Going on vacation is always a good idea. Regardless of the time of year, I love taking a girls trip. Amanda, Kristen & I travel together often and we were so excited to try something different this time…CRUISING!!

To be honest, my idea of cruising has always been kind of like…eh. Aside from a family disney cruise when we were really young, I had been on one cruise in my adult life that I actually remembered. My experience was nothing to talk about, so my expectations weren’t incredibly high. But after cruising with Royal Carribean I realized that this is why the cruise line you choose really does matter and that RC truly is the only way to go.

YOU GUYS…we had the BEST. TIME. EVER.

First of all, being on a ship with 2 of your best friends for 7 days with unlimited activities to do is amazing. The food was incredible, the new friends we met were awesome, and the activities available both on & off the ship were endless. I think we all agreed that we would’ve stayed on the ship for another couple weeks if they would’ve let us!

WHY ROYAL CARRIBEAN IS THE WAY TO GO

As I said previously, I have been on one cruise in my adult life and I wasn’t super impressed. Amanda brought a friend (Laura) that had been on 5 other cruises, so she was our cruise expert and gave us additional insight on how this cruise compared to others. What stood out the most for me personally on this Royal Carribean cruise was the service. From the welcome onto the ship, to our statesroom man, to the waiter we had for dinner every night…everyone was SO incredibly nice and the service was impeccable. They were very accommodating, friendly, and always going out of their way to make you feel like you’re on vacation.

 LIBERTY OF THE SEAS : ITINERARY + WHAT WE DID

• DAY 1 – Check-in & Embark!

Since we left out of Galveston, we were able to drive to the port and it only took us about 45 minutes from Houston! Our ship was leaving at 4:30pm so we were told to get there around 1pm in order to have plenty of time to get settled in. Once we arrived we parked in a lot and shuttled to the port. They took our luggage to have it sent to our rooms and the rest was a total breeze. We were so shocked at how easy the check-in process was! There’s nothing worse than starting your vacation by spending an hour going through security & customs at the airport just to deal with mean TSA agents….am I right? The people were so nice at security and it was really a non-stressful time getting on the ship. It only took about 20 mins total!

After we got on the ship we immediately signed up for the drink package (see more on this in the expert tips below). We made friends with the bar tender (Roman..if you go on Liberty of the Seas he’s at the main lobby bar across from the front desk — must meet him!), grabbed a drink, and started exploring the boat!

4 drinks later, we grabbed dinner and hit the cirque de soleil style show. We couldn’t believe they had something like this on the ship! The previous cruise I was on had a theatre, but nothing like a full production like this. After the show, we went to the ‘disco’ or club they had on the top floor and the rest of the night was history.

• DAY 2 & 3 – Two Days at Sea

I was worried the days at sea were going to be boring, but there was so much to do on the ship. We laid out in the sun, had drinks, and explored the promenade during the days. We actually met a group of people on the ship (our age) who were celebrating a 30th birthday with their friends. They were all from the Houston/Dallas area, so it was fun to connect with other people our age and we ended up hanging out with them the rest of the trip! If you guys followed along on Instagram stories, you probably saw me teasing Kristen about meeting her soulmate on the cruise 😉

We did dinner every night in the main dining area and loved going to the casino after dinner. One of these nights we hit the adult comedy show! I wasn’t expecting much because I guess I don’t have the greatest sense of humor when it comes to live comedy, but Y’ALL…this comedian was the funniest guy ever. Kristen and I were cracking up laughing out loud at his dirty jokes.

• DAY 4 – Roatan, Honduras

We arrived in Roatan, Honduras and spent the day on an excursion we booked with Royal Caribbean that took us on a tour around the island. The locals here were so so friendly!! I had never been, so I didn’t know what to expect but as you guys probably saw on Instagram this was arguably my favorite day of the trip! We got to HOLD A SLOTH AND PLAY WITH MONKEY’S!! My heart was so complete. We also got to zip-line all throughout the forest and that whole experience was truly amazing! To end the day we found a private beach we visited for a couple of hours before heading back to the ship.

• DAY 5 – Costa Maya, Mexico

We made it to to Costa Maya, Mexico just in time for Kristen’s birthday!! It was the perfect place to celebrate because this was definitely a party spot. She wanted to have a beach day that was relaxing but also fun environment, so we just grabbed a shuttle at the port to a local private beach and it was the perfect day. The water in Costa Maya was UNREAL. It was the perfect temperature and the prettiest color blue I’ve ever seen!

When we got back on the ship we did dinner and hit the disco again to continue Kristen’s bday celebrations 🙂

• DAY 6 – Cozumel, Mexico

I was feeling a little rough this day, not going to lie haha. 5 days straight of drinking non-stop and the day after celebrating your bff’s birthday will do that to you. I knew we would regret if we stayed on the ship though and didn’t go make the most of our last day porting. So I made Kristen get out of bed, we nursed our hangovers, and were off to the beach. Since we didn’t have a lot of energy we just booked another private beach excursion so we could take it easy! I’m so glad we did because this day was really relaxing, just soaking up the sun and enjoying the beautiful beaches.

My only regret is that we didn’t do the excursion to Tulum this day because I’ve been wanting to go there for so long now! Maybe next time 😉

• DAY 7 – A Day at Sea

Our last day at sea was like the Sunday scaries times a million. Thinking about going back to reality was depressing hah! We spent this day doing everything on the ship we hadn’t done yet, like riding the water slides and trying some of the cute food spots. They had a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream shop that was adorable and also a Johnny Rocketts! Kind of glad we didn’t go to these earlier because I probably would’ve gained a few more pounds than I already did on the trip!

FOOD

There are SO many options for food on the ship. A handful of speciality restaurants that you could pay extra for and a few restaurants that were all-inclusive that were just as delicious! I would say aside from the impeccable service, I was most blown away by how good the food was. When I used to think of cruises I couldn’t help but think of gross, cheap buffet food. Even the buffet was so dang good!!

We usually ate at the Windjammer buffet for breakfast everyday and also for lunch on all of the days we were at sea. The buffet food changed every day, but they also had a few sections with American food that was there consistently every day. I can’t say enough good things about the quality of this buffet!

There was a 24 hour cafe on the promenade where they served coffee, snacks, and sandwiches if you got hungry outside of service hours. We definitely made a few late night stops here at 2am after the disco! We also went here for ice coffee every morning (which was part of the all-inclusive).

For dinner everyone is assigned a specific dining area based on your room location, so we ate at the same place and around the same time each night. We even requested the same server (Nelson) because we loved him so much. If you’re on Liberty of the Seas you have to request him as your server because he was the sweetest ever!!

EXPERT CRUISE TIPS

During our time on the ship there were a few tips we learned during our experience and from Laura (our cruise expert lol) that I think are worth passing on…..

• Bring dramamine for motion sickness + any other necessary drugstore medicines
• Get the drink package! Totally worth it because drinks are $10-$12/drink
• Get the best wifi for good cell phone service on the ship
• If you’re going to sign up for excursions, make sure you book at least 1 day before because they DO book up and sell out!

HOW TO BOOK YOUR CRUISE

Obviously I can’t recommend going on this trip enough!! I had my reservations about cruises prior to going, but I’m seriously such a fan. The girls were even saying I should do my bachelorette trip on a cruise and I am honestly entertaining the idea because I think it would be a blast.

You can book a 7 day cruise for as little as $499 a person! How crazy is that?! With food included, you just can’t beat it. Royal Carribean is running a promo right now where you can get 50% off the second guest. See HERE for more!

We went on Liberty of the Seas (which takes out of Galveston) and there are so many options for places you can port at! THESE are some of the upcoming trips you can book.

There is also a brand new ship called Symphony of the Seas that travels to Europe and Amanda, Kristen & I are seriously already thinking about booking this one. THESE are some of the upcoming trips you can book.

Are you a fan of cruises? I would love to hear about your cruise experiences in the comments below! Any cruises I need to add to my list? xx