The Worlds Biggest Cruise Ships: 7 Days Onboard
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Published 2023-08-16
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I’ve just disembarked a cruise on one of the biggest cruise ships in the world that can hold well over 8000 people. The ship I was sailing on was Symphony of the Seas, she cost 1.3 billion dollars to build and is as long as 16 tennis courts.
I’ve been cruising since I was a child but this ship blew my mind in every single way possible, I saw and did things that I never knew could happen at sea. Even with all the time in the world, I couldn’t have dreamt up the things that happened on this ship.
Something about the megaships has always interested me. I was already a fan of cruising so I hoped that a really big ship would just be everything that I loved but on a grander scale. That said, I was worried that the ship would feel overwhelming and I didn’t know if it would be so busy that it’d be impossible to do the things that I wanted to do. Royal Caribbean are very much a family cruise line too so I knew there would be thousands of children onboard. Literally.
When I was that the ship was sailing from Barcelona which isn’t too far from my home in England I decided that this would be my chance to give it a go. The cruise wasn’t cheap but I hoped that I’d get what I paid for.
We boarded in Barcelona and set sail for a 7-night cruise cruising the Mediterranean. I’d heard about the ship having an ice skating rink, a zip line, waterslides, theatres and even a park in the middle before I boarded but nothing could have prepared me for when the bus pulled up alongside the ship.
For context, Symphony of the Seas is the same high as 18 buses standing on top of each other, and 30 buses stood in a line.
Embarkation was very fast and easy. Royal Caribbean are keen on their technology so they have an app where I’d already uploaded my security photo and attached my credit card before I got to the ship. All they had to do in the terminal was scan the QR code in the app and match it to my passport. From the door to the ship took a maximum of 10 minutes which I didn’t expect. You’d think that as over 6000 people were boarding the ship that it would take ages but I’ve been on ships that had less than a sixth of the passengers where embarkation took 2 or 3 hours. This was a great sign and it did put my mind at ease a little bit about the number of people on the ship.
We were boarding later than planned as our original flight was changed and then delayed but the positive of that was that our cabin was already ready when we boarded the ship. After a quick stop off at our muster drill we found our room up on deck 11 and I got my first look at what Royal Caribbean call a neighbourhood. The neighbourhood that my cabin looked over was called the boardwalk and I was blown away by this space. The two slides looked amazing and beyond that was an area called the aqua theatre. I was so excited to get to see a show here later in the cruise, I’d heard about people flying through the air and diving, I couldn’t quite believe things like that could happen on a cruise ship but that really was the theme of this cruise. I couldn’t believe something was possible and time and time again this ship surprised me.
It was a little after 2pm that we boarded the ship and having started our journey at 5am we were very hungry.
Cruise ships are all about the food so we headed up to the buffet on deck 16. It turned out that the buffet had closed at 2 which was a shame but I’m still glad we went up because it gave us our first look at the Central Park. When you hear that a cruise ship has a park you might be thinking a room with a few plants, but my goodness this area looked cooler than any park I know on land.
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All Comments (21)
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This is my vacation nightmare, but I can’t stop watching your videos. You are a great presenter. Keep up the great work.
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I put 'ON EARTH' in the title because well... we don't know, there might be bigger cruise ships on other planets. What do you think?! 😂
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For the Aquatheatre swimmers, there are scuba divers always in the water during the shows. So when the swimmers go underwater and stay underwater, they have breathing apparatus gear right there for everyone to breathe into. It’s really a neat setup.
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I'm not even interested in cruise ships, but your narration is so compelling and fluent that I kept watching. What a floating city you found yourself on.
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Sorry Emma, I've lived in Manhattan AND London and you are clearly the FIRST person I've come across who puts ketchup on her pizza. 😂
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I love this channel. I have never been on a cruise and I probably never will be on one! But it's comfy viewing and I'm weirdly fascinated by it all haha
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These are amazing ships, but I like the more "in touch with the ocean" approach that NCL and Carnival have taken with their new-builds. And having the main buffet close at 2 pm on embark day borders on criminal. :)
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The piano confined to the elevator was unintentionally hilarious
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You should try taking a National Geographic cruise. I’ve been researching them and they look like they go to some amazing destinations! I’d also love to see Disneys new island they are making if you ever get a good deal on Disney cruises again.
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40 to 80 THOUSAND DOLLARS for a week? What do these people do for a living? That's just crazy!
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Yay for onion rings! Great video as always. I haven't ever cruised, and am on a very limited budget, but you make me want to save the money! In the interim, I'm cruising vicariously through your videos.
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Awesome vlog on my favorite cruise ship. My first cruise ever was on Symphony and I fell in love with cruising on that ship. Our room was in Central Park, at night it was so beautiful hearing the live music and looking at the lights around the plants. This ship is amazing.
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Amazing video as always Emma. I don’t think I’ll ever cruise, and watching your videos feels like a mini vacation!❤
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Absolutely loved this video - I love when you cover a ship I’ve been on, because I think our heads work a really similar way at times! The aqua theatre totally blew my mind - completely unbelievable!
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Great video as always Emma. I know the effort you put into filming and editing. Keep doing what you do. Love how you met Chris Wong! Love it when Cruise YouTubers meet up with each other! 😊👍
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26:00 We received our Captain Hudson v2.0 yesterday! Absolutely delighted with the quality and details. Looking forward to taking him along on our future travels! Thanks Emma!
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I have been on that ship on its maiden voyage, a cruise on the Eastern Mediterranean, after that, it sailed to the US. Magnificent and HUGE.
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I'm so glad I found your channel Emma! I took my family on our first cruise this year and since we came back we've been watching your channel a LOT! I texted my husband at work today to tell him "Emma just posted a new vid!" Lol
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Great vlog Emma. I never thought i would want to cruise on such a large ship. You made me rethink it though. Perhaps one day. Cheers!
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Hudson was like “Hey mama I’m just walking through your video!” ❤❤❤
