Top 5 Must-Do Experiences on a Royal Caribbean Bahamian Cruise

In this episode of All Things Travel, Ryan and Julie recap their 3-night Royal Caribbean Bohemian cruise aboard Freedom of the Seas. From a perfect day at Coco Cay to an unforgettable dining experience at CHOPS, they share their top five cruise highlights and why you should consider these activities for your next trip.

Key Episode Highlights:

• A perfect day at Coco Cay with exclusive insights into the new Hideaway Beach for adults
• How upgrading to a signature dining experience like CHOPS can elevate your cruise
• Fun and laughter at the comedy show featuring Luis Ramey
• A wild time at the adult-only Crazy Quest event
• The joy of reconnecting with friends on a short, fun-filled cruise

Bonus content:

• A surprise visit to Sandals Royal Bahamian resort in Nassau
• A lucky win at the onboard casino

Join us as we break down these must-do experiences and give you the inside scoop on making the most of your next Royal Caribbean adventure!

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Transcript

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Hello and welcome to All Things Travel. Today we are going to talk about our top five experiences from our three night Bohemian cruise with Royal Caribbean on Freedom of the Seas. we went on this at the end of May, beginning of June, and we're really excited to share some of our favorite things from our trip. So listen in with travel advisors and destination experts, Ryan and Julie. He is your travel professor, teaching you everything you need to know to have a magical vacation. And I am a Disney loving Maryland mom of three and specialist in family travel. Whether we're discussing incredible destinations top vacation tips or sharing personal stories. It's always all things travel. I do want to preface this just saying that we are recording from the Miami airport as we wait for our flights. So you may hear a little bit extra background noise, so Julie, just to give everybody a little bit of background on this cruise, it was three of us, you and I, and our friend and, colleague, travel advisor, Michelle, who's been on the show several times, and we were on a three night Royal Caribbean cruise out of Miami. So the first day was in Miami. The second day was that perfect day at Coco Cay. The third day was at Nassau and in Nassau, we did a site visit of the Sandals Royal Bahamian Resort. That's how we spent our day. And we also, visited the updated straw market and saw the changes there. this morning we got back to Miami. very short cruise, but it's exactly what we wanted as far as being together, spending time together, learning more about cruises and all inclusive resorts. Our main motivation for this was we started saying, Hey, we want to see each other more than once a year. But also what can we do to learn a lot for our clients and to take back and share with you? These are the top five things you need to do on your next Royal Caribbean cruise. a lot of this stuff is common to Royal Caribbean cruises. So you'll be able to take away things and use them. our top experience is Coco Cay. Perfect day at Coco Cay was amazing, and specifically Hideaway Bay, which is their new adults only area. It is a paid experience, but for what you get, the price is absolutely phenomenal. Julie, this was not only your first time at Hideaway Beach, this was your first time at Coco Cay in general. Tell us your impressions. I loved Coco Cay. I went into this thinking, Ryan, we have to pay for everything we want to do at Coco Cay. And he was probably so annoyed with me. I really was. But I will say, I loved the island. There was so much to do. There was a great energy, a great vibe. And we did add the extra to go to Hideaway Beach, which was, 38 a person, but it was so great. And I mean, if you've listened to the podcast before, you know, I have three little children that I parent all day, every day. So this was lovely to go to an adults only area. So the idea to spend most of the day, cause we walked around since it was your and Michelle's first time. So we spent some time walking around the Island, but the idea of spending most of the day at an adults only area with food, with drinks, with a pool, with a beach. That was just right up your alley, wasn't it? It was great. I will also say, though, that if my kids were on this cruise, Perfect Day at Cook Okay would probably still be a top experience because they had a lot for kids. And I think that impressed me even more because everywhere I go when I travel, I'm thinking what would I do if my kids are with me or what is there to do for my kids? Yeah, when i'm planning your vacations I can say do this and don't do this royal caribbean makes it very easy if you want coco k to be part of your experience. In fact most of the time Perfect day at coco k is part of the title of the cruise as you're shopping through your cruises if this sounds good to you You and you're taking a Royal Caribbean cruise and even now a celebrity cruise in the Caribbean, just take a look there and see if it's on your itinerary. And if it is, you're going to spend a perfect day at Coco Cay. Absolutely. All right. So our second top experience from our cruise was we upgraded our second night, to a signature dining experience. We went to CHOPS, the first night we ate in the main dining room, which is what's included, that's what everyone gets. I did not love it. I knew the next night was going to be Italian night, and I am Italian. So I was like, this is not going to work for me, Ryan. It was solidly good, not great. The main dining room, the first night. It was not bad. The third night we absolutely loved because the menu was a lot better, in our eyes. Julie said, hey, Italian night. I want to do an upgrade. Would you guys be willing to go to a signature dining restaurant? I had been to a couple, so I talked about my experience and we landed on the steakhouse, which I had not been to before. Yeah. And Julie, what did you think? I loved it and so did our friend Michelle we chose chops. it was lovely. let me tell you why this is one of the best experiences on the show. The upgrade was about 60 per person. It was so quiet. right, Ryan? You could count the number of tables that were in there and it was a much more relaxed pace for the meal. Yeah, it very much felt like you were going to a restaurant versus. A nice restaurant. versus the main dining where, you can eat at your pace, but they're really moving you through the entire process. And your tables were real close together in the main dining. it very much was set and at other specialty dining places you have an appetizer, a salad or soup, a main dish and a dessert included in your meal at CHOPS, one of the things I liked was the sides that came with your meat was actually shareable so all three of us Could get a different side and there was enough for everybody. and the one thing that I will point out on Royal Caribbean, and I'm sure it's this way on other cruise lines, if you have a drink package, that drink package carries over to Perfect Day at Coco Cay, to the main dining room, and to any specialty restaurant you go to. So you're not paying extra for drinks. for instance at Chops, even though the, specialty coffee, alcoholic coffee drinks weren't upcharge, if you ate there regularly, that was included in our drink package. So we were good to go there. And so not only did we just really love the environment and what was available. The food was phenomenal. Great food. We both got the fillet. We both got the nine ounce looking back should have got the petite fillet. I think the six ounce would have been better by the end of the meal. that night all of us We're just like roll me out of here, but the food was delicious. It would be like if I was in my hometown and I was going somewhere to celebrate something special. It was that level of food and I was really impressed. you think about what we got, we each got an appetizer, we each got a salad, we each got a steak, we got sides. And it would have cost well more than that outside of it. And that was my point, is even on a cruise, yes, it's an upcharge, but compared to doing that anywhere else, the upcharge is much lower. Absolutely, yeah. So, Ryan, tell us, what was our third top experience? Our third top experience was the comedy show that was the last night. We had such a great time. They had a comedian on board last night named Luis Ramey, who has been featured on the Tonight Show. Well, hold on, technically he was on board The whole cruise, not just last night. his shows were last night. We picked him up in the Bahamas. that does sometimes happen with entertainment. You do pick up people during a cruise, So, Louis Ramey, has been on the Tonight Show, has been on Last Comic Standing. He did two shows last night. a family friendly show, and an adult show later in the evening. both were hilarious. We had so much fun, seeing him. great comedian, great show. the Royal Theatre, is always a great place to see something. Loved it. That was hilarious. I've never been to a comedy show before. It was phenomenal. So speaking of shows Julie, what was one of our other favorite things of this cruise? the second night of the cruise, we went to the show called Crazy Quest. when you click on things on the app, sometimes it gives you a little bit of a description, but we were kind of like, I don't know what this is. I had kind of heard from other people that they really love Crazy Quest, but we had no idea what it was. So we looked at a couple blogs. Get a general idea and realize that we should sit in the back, in the middle, in an inconspicuous location so that we did not have to participate. Yeah, we didn't get picked for something. We didn't get asked to do something. So I'm not going to spill the beans on it. If you want to look up the blog for Crazy Quest, go right ahead. I will say it was a highlight of the trip. It happens on almost every Royal Caribbean cruise very adult only. Very adult focused, but just such a fun show. The best time. The best time. the last thing I'll say about Crazy Quest is pretty much, if you know, And if you don't know, go to the show, be prepared, sit in the middle, in the back. If you don't want to participate, come prepared. Okay, so. That's our top four so far. As we broke it down, as we talked this morning about this, we felt, we're three friends that work together, are in touch with each other, but live all over the country, Julie's in Maryland, I'm in Indiana, Michelle is in, New Orleans area, and we don't get to see each other very often, we just found that a short cruise like this was the perfect chance to be together. we didn't have to think about much, things were planned out, it had very much an all inclusive feel. We were able to see lots of different things and it was just great to spend time together. And that's really what a vacation in general, but a cruise specifically can offer you. thinking about not having to plan a lot, it's really just like. book the cruise and then open up your app later to see what you can do we actually had a zoom meeting the week of the cruise To say, hey, step by step, when do you come in? Where are we staying the night before? what activities? Who's interested in what? I would suggest doing that as far as getting an idea of what everyone wants to get out of the trip and what they want to do because that way we could board the ship and go. We knew where we were going. Well, we may not have known where we were going. We knew where we were trying to go. We did not know the location for that. So a couple of easy things with that is have that conversation and then put it in a note for your iPhone that you can share with everybody so it can be edited and looked at throughout the cruise, online and offline. Also, you can text each other in the app, but an easy thing to do is set up a text chain or WhatsApp, depending on what you have with Wi Fi, just so you're in touch with each other, Especially because we were in different rooms. So it's like, Hey, when are we going to meet you here? Where are you at? that just makes the group process easier throughout a cruise. Yeah, I definitely think it was a perfect solution. enough time for us to spend together to have a good time and not be completely sick of each other, or disruptive to our individual lives, because, I have to get back to my three little kids, Michelle has kids, Jude, we have work, So those are our top five experiences on this cruise. Bye. We are going to give you two extra bonuses that we did on this trip. for me, it was going to Sandals Royal Bahamian. Because we're all travel advisors, we were able to get a day pass that includes a site visit tour for the resort. when we got to Nassau, we spent a little bit of time in the straw market. then we made our way to Royal Bahamian. Very easy. Just got a taxi. It's probably a 15 minute drive from the straw market. And the resort was gorgeous. It was at full capacity and it felt so chill and relaxing. it was just an amazing location. the highlight or specialty of Royal Bahamian is they have a private Island that you can go out to that has. a beach dining and relaxation areas. the problem with yesterday was it was too windy to go out and see that. But we were still very much able to enjoy the pool, enjoy the beach, enjoy the food. We had a wonderful lunch. we had some nice drinks at One of the bars, met some good folks from Canada and Georgia and spent time talking with them. And you may not be able to do this at Royal Bahamian, but if you search resort, passes for a you could do the same type of thing that we did. in Nassau, some of the other great options that we have had clients book would be a day pass to Atlantis Resort Baja Mar or Margaritaville, where they have water parks for kids, We wanted to check out sandals and Ryan is right. It was absolutely gorgeous. you could have left me there. I would have been fine. I have been to other sandals properties and enjoyed all of them. I didn't know a lot about this one, so I wasn't quite As excited about it, I think, as I should have been. And I just came there blown away. In fact, one of my friends last night said, well, would you ever think of going back? And I was like, absolutely. This would be because of how easy it is to get to Nassau. This would be a place that I could see myself vacation. And Ryan mentioned that it was at capacity. It's a fairly small resort. at capacity, it's not going to be, super crowded but the resort did a great job with their layout we were at the quieter pool. We could, and the moment you walk towards it was a full on party, but we didn't, we had no idea about that because we were right next door to the quiet pool. they do a good job of separating if you want separation or if you want to spend half your day at more of the party area, half your day at the relaxing area, that's easy to do too. I loved it. Now, You will not believe this last bonus, that happened last night as we were finishing up our cruise. I don't know that we believe this last bonus that happens. So, let me set the stage a little bit, I'm a very Disney person, very family oriented. Ryan, you know, I don't know if Ryan's ever been in a cruise. A casino before. Oh, I, Brian doesn't really gain at all. I, I've been in casinos before. I've gone to Las Vegas. numerous casinos. but I don't gamble. That's just not something that interests me. but Michelle does, she really enjoys that as part of cruising. So we said, you know what? Why don't you teach us how to place lots, Michelle? Yeah. we both said we are going to, spend 20 bucks. And just see what kind of fun we can have. trying to even load 20 onto our card at the slot machine was a hurdle. we had no idea what we were doing. We're just pressing buttons. so let's give the two experiences here. I lost my 20 within Five minutes, which is my usual gambling experience. It's not just that Ryan lost his 20. It's number one, that I don't even know that he was losing the 20 as he was losing it, because he's just playing. Julie, on the other hand, did not lose 20. What happened to you instead, Julie? I, so, I'm hitting random buttons, bet this, bet that, bet max, bet max is 3. So I had done it a couple times and all of a sudden I hit it and I win. And Ryan's as the numbers on my machine are just going up, up, up, up, up, up, up. I don't think I'll ever forget it. It was phenomenal. It was great. So I came home with, a little prize. Well, let's just put it this way. We're not going to divulge the amount, but we will say there was a comma involved in that prize. So Ryan's face was about it. Also not realize that the, What it was counting was pennies. They were penny slots. So the number is rising and rising and Ryan things. I have like, you know, one enough to buy a house, but that wasn't true. Well, anyway, what a cool way to cap off our experience. So I guess the lesson there is try new things. Yes, absolutely. Well, Julie, this was so much fun to go on this cruise with you and Michelle that I would love to do it again. So what do you think? Should we do another trip next year? Yeah, we're going to do another trip next year. Alright, that sounds great. And hey, any way that you can get together with your friends, friends of yours, Whether it's a big friends group, a couples group, next weekend I'm actually, I've got an Airbnb with my college roommates. Any way that you can do that, I highly recommend it. It's a great way to connect with folks and just spend time together. And not only relive the memories, but make new memories along the way. You want to plan a trip to an amazing destination, but you don't know how to get started? As your travel advisor, we work with you to create a customized itinerary for your vacation and take the stress of planning away so you can focus on the fun and creating the memories. You can reach me at Ryan at CreatingMagicVacations. com And you can reach me at Julie at CreatingMagicVacations. com We look forward to talking to you next week on All Things Travel where we discuss a great travel topic.