Wonder of the Seas - Day 1

The day finally arrived! It's probably been about a year since I started thinking about doing a Royal Caribbean cruise. It's surreal that it actually happened today.

Around 11 am, I boarded Wonder of the Seas, currently the 4th largest cruise ship in the world (and the largest just until last year).

It's a very impressive ship indeed. Just a few quick stats:

- The ship can hold almost 10,000 people, including crew

- There are over 40 restaurants, bars, and lounges on board

- The 'Central Park' area has 20,000 real plants and trees

After boarding, I had a very nice lunch in the main dining room, one of the 'free' restaurants included in the cost of the trip.

I then explored the ship for a while and relaxed with a few drinks, before we sailed away from Miami. It's a pretty impressive sight to see the Miami skyline, as we slowly depart from the busiest cruise port in the world.

Before dinner, I went to the main theater on board (bigger than most theatres in Copenhagen or London) to see a show called "The Effectors II: Crash & Burn". It was a super impressive show with state-of-the-art effects and the latest technology. It also included some cool music, including an interesting cover of "Welcome To The Jungle" and even a brief snippet of a Slayer song! Hearing a cover of "Raining Blood" on a Royal Caribbean cruise was not on my bingo card.

I had dinner at the upscale restaurant 150 Central Park which was very nice. It's one of the specialty restaurants on board which you pay extra for, but it wasn't very expensive, and you can get as much food as you want. I opted to get two entrées just for the hell of it (lobster and duck), so after eating four courses, I could barely walk 😁

Following dinner, I watched the ice skating show "365 Seasons on Ice". Yup, there is an ice rink on the ship. Because ... Why not?

I don't have a lot of experience with ice skating, but the performers were extremely talented, and again we got some old rock classics in the soundtrack from names like Alice Cooper, AC/DC, and Green Day.

Very nice first day of cruisin'Read more