This year we have a highly anticipated vacation coming up soon. Our family and another family will travel (fingers crossed) aboard the Harmony of the Seas. Cruising on one of Royal Caribbean’s largest ships has been a dream of ours since departing the Freedom of the Seas in 2013.
We’ve Been Waiting…
The Freedom of the Seas has been, by far, the best cruise ship we have ever sailed on. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into but when we walked down the center mall area of that boat and participated in all of the activities that cruise had to offer we were completely hooked into large ship vacations. Our dear friends have wanted to cruise with us for a while too. Our kids love each other and will have a blast playing together on this vacation.
Pre-Booking Activities
Since we’re traveling with another family, we wanted to book all of our shows at the same time, so we put our calendars together and discovered a date when both of our families could gather to plan out the details. But because I’m this crazy, theme mom, I started running with the idea of how to make this a special event for the kids as well.
Luckily, I have had some experience with cruising and even with kids so I started thinking about how I could prepare all of our children for this exciting adventure. (By the way, let me just throw out there right now, that even though I can be a perfectionist crazy mom at times, I totally fail so many times too! It’s just real life.)
The Inspiration Behind Creating a Cruise Book for Kids
Last year, we checked another item off of our bucket list. We hopped aboard the Disney Dream. As I was checking in for this cruise online, I discovered the Disney Cruise Adventure Book for Kids. It was amazing! I loved it SO much! It was even helpful to me and I was so impressed with the awareness my daughter had about this cruise ship when we boarded because of everything we had discussed prior. So it was my mission to recreate a book similar to this for our upcoming Royal Caribbean Cruise. I had such a blast doing this and you’ll find the link to this wonderful resource down below for free because I’m just so excited to share!
A Pre-Cruise Party Guide
Okay, but then, I started adding more details to this pre-cruise event. So, this is how the party went…
- Our friends arrived at our door and I hung leis around their necks while Jamaican music was playing on our Alexa device.
- Then, I served the kids popcorn in Dollar Tree popcorn bags.
- While the kids were munching on their snack, they ran around the house playing.
- When the adults were ready, we all sat down in front of the TV and we watched a one minute video about the cruise ship, Harmony of the Seas, the one we will be sailing on. This video was a super quick snapshot of all the fun aboard Harmony of the Seas. After the video was done, the kids shared the activities they saw and what they were most excited about.
- I had an envelope strategically placed near our TV. When we were done talking about the video, we opened up the envelope to discover the first clue of our treasure hunt. We went around the house searching for all the clues and ended up in our travel-themed nursery. I have a vintage suitcase that I tucked some Under the Ocean Wikki Stix Books (purchased from the Dollar Tree) in for each of the kids, as well as, the Royal Caribbean Voyage Books I created and printed for our oldest children to take the lead on.
- The kiddos then brought their Under the Ocean Wikki Stix books and popcorn to our kitchen table. We handed them some juice boxes and they worked on their activity while the adults sat down to book showtimes.
For 24 hours after this blog post is published, you can visit my @teachermomtalks Instagram stories to see our pre-cruise party in action.
Now, I think I’ve said enough and told you all you really need to know for now. The last thing I really want to share is this awesome free resource…
The Royal Caribbean Voyage Book for Kids
I really hope you and your children enjoy completing these books together. It is full of preparation, manners, knowledge, geography, activities, fun, something you can use before your trip, during your trip, and after to keep all of your precious memories in too. Please, please, please, comment below and let me know what you think. Feel free to offer suggestions, ideas, corrections, etc. to make this book the absolute best it can be.
If you have found me here, thank you! What a joy it is to be able to share something I have created and to be able to positively impact your children’s lives and family’s future vacations by turning it into a fun yet quality hands-on learning experience. I wish you the best vacation, holiday, and travels.
Talk About It: Tell me what you think about this book. Give me feedback and suggestions. I'd love to know how this has worked for you and your family.
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