My husband thought I was crazy in December 2023 when I said I was booking a cruise for September 2025. We had never booked a vacation that far out. But I assured him if he ever wanted to go on a brand new ship, that we needed to book the day the sailings opened. So we did! And then the waiting began...
Finally, after a year and 9 long months of waiting, it finally came time for us to go on our 7-day Eastern Caribbean Cruise on Star of the Seas. We surprised our kids the night before with the news that we were going on the largest ship in the world, and their jaws dropped to the floor. (I still can't believe we kept a secret from them that long!) We were all so excited, and what made this cruise even better was the fact that we had extended family coming with us!
Crossing the bridge to Port Canaveral, FL, we could see this monstrous ship from afar. It was bigger than anything I had ever seen, and the excitement kept building. When we got to the Royal Caribbean terminal, it was honestly the SMOOTHEST we've ever gotten onto a ship. They immediately took our bags, pointed us inside, and we were quickly checked in and our documents verified. We walked through a hallway where we got a family photo made, and then we boarded the ship. From the time we pulled up to the time we were onboard was probably less than 20 minutes.
Oh my gosh. This ship is beautiful. I've been on a LOT of cruises, and there's nothing else that compares. The Promenade deck had gorgeous high ceilings. The Pearl, which is both a design feature and a structural beam, was the showstopper in the Promenade and everyone stopped to get their photo taken. (Tip: Go later in the week. You'll have plenty of chances!) And every crew member was friendly and helpful.
Let's talk about crowds. This ship holds over 7,000 people. I expected it to feel busy and crowded all the time. IT WAS FAR FROM IT. The only time we ever felt crowded was at the buffet the very first day we boarded, which is where everyone goes for lunch. Aside from this, I never felt crowded. There were plenty of empty chairs everywhere we went, and we never waited long for an elevator. 
Our stateroom was an ocean view stateroom that held all 4 of us. It had a king bed and fold down couch. The main problem with this set-up (and it's across most every cruise line) is that because housekeeping only comes once a day, your couch stays folded down all the time and takes up so much of your space! So the room did feel small, but man, Royal has thought of everything as far as storage. There was storage everywhere! It even took us 3 days before we realized you could open the full-length mirror and find a huge wall of shelves behind it! So even though the room felt small, there were plenty of places to store your belongings. The room was pretty. The AC worked well. The window was great to have to help wake us up in the mornings and to see the ports we were in. And the shower was HUGE. I've never seen a shower so big on a cruise ship. It even had a huge bench in it! (And goodbye clingy shower curtains...hello glass showers with a door!)
The food on this ship was spectacular. And not only was it good, but it was everywhere! Almost every single deck had a buffet or restaurant somewhere, which is why nothing ever felt crowded. There were so many free places to eat that we never even stepped foot in the main dining room! (which I'm sure was fantastic, but there was just so much to do and not enough time!) The Aquadome Market was a favorite of mine. It had 5 or 6 stations of different types of food, and it was open until 2am. It had BBQ, Latin, Indian, Mediterranean, crepes, and more.
The Surfside Bites & Eatery were also a huge hit with us having a large group of kiddos. This snack window and buffet were geared toward families, having things like quesadillas, chicken nuggets, burgers and hot dogs, pizza, fruit skewers that looked like popsicles, mini churros, cookies, etc. When I say I gained 5 pounds on this cruise, I mean it. It was easy to do. And there were free ice cream machines everywhere. I lost track of how many ice cream cones the kids had.
Entertainment on this ship was so well done. The showstopper was "Back to the Future: The Musical." It's a 2-hour show, and every single one of our kids (down to age 4!) sat engaged and watched the entire thing. Several of us even went back and saw it a second time several days later! Star of the Seas also had a magician, a juggler, and shows in the aqua theater and ice skating rink. There was also a comedy club, but we never had a chance to go. Everything was just perfection. 10/10 for onboard entertainment.
Our itinerary went to Perfect Day at CocoCay (which was perfect!), St. Thomas, and St. Maarten. In St. Thomas, we booked an excursion called Secret Sands Beach & Skyline Exclusive through Royal Caribbean. We were taken to a private beach and only about 40 of us (maybe less!) were there. My son and cousins went snorkeling off the reef and even saw several sea turtles! On the way back, the guide stopped the bus on an overlook and let us take photos of St. Thomas. It was a perfect beach day, and honestly it wasn't that expensive of an excursion compared to others that were offered.
In St. Maarten we went to the taxi stand and got a taxi to Maho Beach, the famous beach where planes land over your head. Since my son is an aviation enthusiast, this was a bucket list item for him. It was $16/person (I think...) roundtrip to take the taxi to Maho, and it was about a 30 minute ride. The beach itself is meh. It's not very wide, has a large slant to it, and got incredibly busy later in the day. Thankfully we arrived very early before many people were there and were able to snag beach chairs and umbrellas (for a fee, cash only).
The water had some larger rocks/reef in it, but the water temperature felt fantastic, and I laid in the ocean as long as I could! There's also a great restaurant toward the end of Maho Beach that does carry-out orders, and the food was very good. The plane experience was super cool. There are many smaller planes come in, but the larger ones were so neat to see landing over your head. For me, it was a "one and done, I'm glad I saw this once" kind of place, but I have a feeling it may become a regular stop for us in St. Maarten with how much my son loves airplanes.
There were SO many activities onboard for kids. There was practically an entire waterpark full of slides. The Surfside neighborhood had a large splash pad, children's pool, playscape, and dry slide. There was rock climbing, laser tag, FlowRider, arcade, Crown's Edge ($), escape rooms, mini-golf, sports courts, and more. We spent all 7 days on the go and still didn't get to do everything. No one will be bored on this ship!
Disembarkation was the smoothest of any cruise ship I've been on. We got back to Port Canaveral around 4:30am (I just so happened to wake up as we were pulling into port.) They started letting people off around 6am, and my family was off by 7am. There were no overhead announcements that people could disembark, so I'm not sure if that helped with crowd control or what. Maybe people just casually made their way to the gangway. Maybe they didn't want to leave and stayed longer than we did. But we literally walked right off, no line at all. It was a first for me!
It's hard for me to compare Star of the Seas to Disney Cruise Line (which has always had the top place in my heart), but Star of the Seas has now become the favorite cruise for our family, and everyone in our party agreed. I don't even have anything else to compare it to...it was so good! I'm now looking at prices for future cruises on Star (or Icon or Legend, which are basically identical ships), and everything is much higher than I previously paid. Moral of the story: BOOK EARLY when a ship opens its schedule for the very first time. With Royal Caribbean, we can adjust pricing down if the price goes lower, up until final payment date. I ended up dropping the price of my cruise over $1,000 from the time I booked it until the time final payment was due.
Would you consider cruising on the largest ship in the world? From someone who was initially hesitant (I hate crowds!), DO IT. I promise you won't be disappointed. There was plenty of space for everyone and things to do for both people that like to relax and those that like activity. It's a cruise the entire multi-generational family will enjoy.
And the highlight of my trip, I FINALLY got the chance to meet Sailor, the Chief Dog Officer, on day 5 of the cruise, and she was just as lovable as I imagined! <3
