We did the 7 night West Caribbean cruise. Luggage tag and sea pass card holders are a definite need. Other items are wrinkle release spray, magnet for a sign or string to hang something on your door/room number sign(it’ll help spot your room easier). Maybe a rope or some way to hang bathing suits. We also packed way too much, next time we will pack half. We didn’t do any excursions in Labadee, just Nelly beach which is plenty. Aqua park is $24.95/kid for an hour didn’t seem worth it. In Falmouth we did the Resort for a day at Hilton RoseHall. $378 for four of us which included a large pool, lazy river, water slides, food, drinks, beach, non motorized water sports, and transportation. I booked through Resort for a day which is cheaper than Royal. If you book through Hilton you can get it cheaper but it doesn’t include transportation. In Cozumel we did Dolphinarus excursion through Royal. The experience was amazing, the food was ok, and the pics are where they make their money. It’s $39 for a picture, we negotiated to $195 for 77 digital pics, and 2 printed ones.

The ship never really seems packed, especially if you off your schedule a little bit and go to the outlying areas like the Solarium for drinks and lunch. The main dining room is the best for lunch on sea days along with Johnny Rockets for breakfast on Sea Days as well.

Being our first trip I would pay more attention to the daily planners we received the evening before. My kids 8, and 12 both loved it. We actually booked the Symphony in 2020. The service and cleanliness of the ship are top notch. Definitely wouldn’t do a smaller ship. The pools fill up quick on peak weeks during sea days, but if you schedule shows and visit other areas of the ship you’ll have these activities to yourself. I do wish they would move the smoking area to a different section. Looking at the front of the boat it’s on the left by the Windjammer and you do have to walk through it to get to the other pools, unless you want to walk all the way around to right. It didn’t smell, it was clean, and was not smoke just sitting there.