First, we cruised with Royal Caribbean cruiseline. Most people asked why we chose Royal over Caribbean and really because TikTok made it sound more prestigious lol. Now I’ve been on Carnival for a girls trip and a baecation, and I think Carnival is perfect for those types of vacations. I’ll give my opinion of the two cruise lines at the end of this so keep reading.
We did a 5 day 4 night out of Galveston with a stop in Cozumel Mexico. I think we overpacked with 2 large suitcases, 2 carry ons, 1 kid suitcase, and a diaper bag. When you’re traveling as a family of 5, you gotta have everything. From matching swimsuits to an outfit for different times of the day, you would think we would be staying for a week. But our nanny is a super packer and she got us squared away.
We got 2 rooms – one for the boys and one for the girls. It was cheaper to go that route than get a suite that can hold 5 (silly right?) But it gave us enough space to be spread out and comfortable. I also purchased door hangers from Dollar Tree (saw this on a Pinterest post) to make it easy to identify our staterooms. I didn’t want a situation where any of my kids went to the wrong door for any reason. I didn’t want to be mama bear if someone got crazy 
We did utilize the childcare available to get some grown up time. They cared for infants 6 months and above so all the kids got dropped of mkaay?! We took that time to hang out with the Myries and play Bingo lol.
If you can get a passport for EVERYONE, please do. The birth certificate line is soooo long when you disembark, so if you can avoid that line, please do!
Bring cash to tip your room attendant and to pay in Mexico. If you have a credit card that waives, international fees, that’s also an alternate to not bringing cash. But check your card program to make sure.
PROS:
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- Unlimited pizza and ice cream – a child’s dream!
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- Our attendant – he was super nice and left animal towels for the kids. They loved that!
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- Child care available – the sweetest ladies and made you feel comfortable leaving your children. If you’re ok with it, use it!
CONS:
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- No dedicated kid play area or pools
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- Food options were plenty but not tasty. We pretty much did buffet and stuck to a handful of selections
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- Water and watered down lemonade were the only free drink options
Things we packed:
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- Handheld fans
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- SNACKS
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- Sunscreen
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- Multioutlet charger (staterooms had 2 outlets and we had electronics to charge)
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- Medicine (I had a whole hospital but TUMS, Benedryl (oral & topical), Motrin, Tylenol were crucial)
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- Watershoes
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- Sanitizer spray (And sprayed down everything once we got in)
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- Water bottles
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- Walkie Talkies (to communicate with the Myries and if we ever split up)
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- Flip flops
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- Floaties
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- (I may or may not have smuggled some Crown Apple drinks with our Sprite case)
Overall this trip cost $4,500 and as you may know, it was all inclusive. I lowkey hate that my infant costs the same as a full adult but whatever. Kids under 2 should be free. They don’t eat or use half of the ship amenities. We didn’t spend much on the boat besides a few drinks, childcare, and food during our stop at the beach resort in Cozumel.
Would we cruise again? Absolutely but I would pick Carnival over Royal. There were a TON more things to do and more restaurant options on Carnival than Royal. The Royal Staterooms may have been a bit bigger but doesn’t really matter when the goal isn’t to be shacked up in the rooms. The goal was to have fun and give our kids fun summer experiences while they’re young. And we did just that!
