What it's like to cruise on the world's 2nd largest ship, Utopia Of The Seas

Royal Caribbean's Utopia Of The Seas is the second largest ship in the world. — Royal Caribbean

Royal Caribbean’s got a whole lot of swag on the sea.

In December 2022, it launched the world’s largest cruise ship, the Icon Of The Seas. Less than two years later, the cruise company again created waves by introducing Utopia Of The Seas in July, making it the second largest cruise ship out there.

Utopia is 362m long and 64m wide with 18 decks, and can take as many as 5,668 passengers. There are 2,290 crew members onboard including the captain, the service team, housekeeping team and of course, the catering team.

Both ships sail out from Florida in the United States, and are among the mega vessels taking holidaymakers to Perfect Day At CocoCay, Royal Caribbean’s private island in the Bahamas.

While Icon takes to the sea for seven days, Utopia is on a three-night (weekends) and four-night (weekdays) sail schedule only.

The way Royal Caribbean sees it, those wanting to experience fun out at sea for the first time will appreciate the shorter days.

Like many of the mega ships out there, Utopia has its own “godmother” – US pop star Meghan Trainor. The All About That Bass and Made You Look singer is the perfect face for the ship – both work hard and have made splashes in their respective fields.

It is actually a naval tradition to have new ships “sponsored” by prominent people to bring good luck and protection to the vessel.

Trainor was invited to a preview sail in July, along with trade partners and friends of Royal Caribbean, as well as the media.

She brought along a few family members, including her husband, actor Daryl Sabara, and their young son.

As the godmother, Trainor had the privilege of christening the ship in a festive naming party before the ship set sail. On the third night, she took centre stage and entertained passengers who sang along and danced as she belted out her famous hits.

Utopia was her first cruise experience and she loved it. Trainor said the myriad of activities onboard gave everyone in the family, from grandparents to the kids, something to thoroughly enjoy.

A beast: Utopia Of The Seas (left) in comparison to another Royal Caribbean ship, the Vision Of The Seas, when both docked at Perfect Day At CocoCay. — Photos: LAU WEN ANNE

What to eat

How on Earth does one get to enjoy all the delicious food in a mere few days on board a cruise ship?

First of all, there are a whopping 21 dining options to tempt you. Some are complimentary, while others come with a fee. Food variety ranges from hotdogs to Japanese teppanyaki to high-end steaks.

The crowd tends to make a beeline for the Windjammer Marketplace, a dining mainstay serving international fare for breakfast, lunch and dinner. (A windjammer is a commercial sailing ship with multiple masts, I learned.)

My daughter and I love Windjammer, and we always try to get a table alongside the glass windows. This way, we have the majestic ocean as our view while we dine. It gave us that atas (rich) vibe.

The spread usually includes freshly roasted meat (the kind of meat changes everyday), hamburgers, hot dogs, curries, smoked salmon slices, grilled steaks, pastries, fruits of the day and a large option of drinks. The waiters, meanwhile, walk around offering lemonade, iced tea, orange juice and coffee, among others.

But not all on offer is to our liking, so we tend to take refills of the food items that we do love. For example, the stewed oxtail served for dinner one night was soft, flavourful and downright delicious. Took three plates. No regrets.

The speciality restaurants deserve a shout out too. Royal Caribbean feted the media to different restaurants during the preview trip.

The writer’s daughter, Wen Anne, posing for pictures on their private balcony. The ship has IG-worthy spots in almost every section!

The two Malaysian reporters and a few others from the Philippines and Indonesia were invited for dinner by our host, the ever bubbly eXther, at Izumi Hibachi & Sushi, an omakase-inspired private dining space. This is one of the restaurants where passengers would have to pay extra to dine in.

Here, family and friends can dine around the teppanyaki grilll table. Their chefs will cook up juicy beef cuts, big round scallops, or sweet lobster all while performing theatrics that will leave you in stitches.

Our table was laughing and clapping loudly, but our antics didn’t raise an eyebrow at all, because the dining group at the next table was just as rowdy! Kudos to the entertaining chefs.

Utopia is introducing a new speciality restaurant mimicking a “meal inside a train coach”. The Royal Railway – Utopia Station is said to offer an immersive experience, where the windows have moving scenes of the Wild West as you dine on short ribs and chocolate gold bars.

And oh, it comes complete with sound effects, too. The theme for the restaurant changes over time.

Thrills, shows and CocoCay

Of course, the 10 pools on the ship are a magnet for passengers. With the DJ setting the mood with curated beats, and drinking stations nearby, guests are constantly in the pools enjoying themselves or just chilling and relaxing on the pool loungers.

The upper decks house many of of Utopia’s outdoor attractions. And boy, are there many attractions. Itching to surf? No problem. Just hit the FlowRider, a popular surf simulator that’s perfect for folks of all surfing levels (and even for those with no surfing experience). The FlowRider is an iconic feature on many of Royal Caribbean’s ships.

The carousel at the carnival-style Boardwalk neighbourhood, where you can also get hot dogs, popcorn and lemonade.

Utopia also has the really wild Ultimate Abyss Slide, a monster of a contraption with two separate cylinders – the tallest dry slides at sea.

If you dare, ride all the way down twisting and turning in this dark tunnel, with LED lights blinking and music pumping to get the rush going.

Oh, one little thing to note – you are sliding down the equivalent of 10 storeys high. On a cruise ship.

These extreme adventures are located in the ship’s pools and sports zone, which also has a sports courts for basketball, volleyball, and mini-golf.

But if water thrills are really not your thing, don’t worry as there are plenty more to do on the ship, like watching a show or two or three. These colourful and original productions are complete with songs, fancy lights, music as well as aerial, water acrobatics and ice skating.

A crowd favourite is the Aqua80too, an upbeat performance on water with music from the 1980s. The show is dynamic and gets the crowd enthralled with high dives, the perfectly balanced slack liners and the synchronised swimming.

And, just as you are about to get a breather from the loads of activities onboard, one gets excited all over again as Perfect Day At CocoCay slowly sails into view.

CocoCay is sectioned into several parcels, so that the crowd can spread out and make the most of their time on the island. For example, there’s a waterpark for kids, and one for “big kids” (for which you’d have to pay extra). Of course, you can also choose to just frolic in the crystal clear waters, or lie on the beach loungers with a good book.

There are bars and food stations there too; it’s just one never-ending water party here.

The best thing about CocoCay is that it gives you the bragging rights of having swam and partied on a private island in the Bahamas, just like the celebrities always seem to do!

Sleeping arrangement

When you absolutely have to rest, then the rooms on this ship will keep you comfortable. Utopia has 2,834 staterooms, and of course, the ones with the balconies are a crowd favourite and usually get sold out earlier. There are also suites and ocean view rooms available.

The rooms on the ship are spacious and comfortable, with the balcony rooms being the most popular ones with guests. — Royal Caribbean

There have been a few reviews griping about how small the balcony room is, but my daughter and I do not agree as our balcony room had a queen size bed that could comfortably fit us both. There is a sofa (which comes with a single-sleeper bed that can be pulled out from underneath) next to the main bed, and a mirror, table and shelf on the opposite wall.

Basically, the room was big enough to accommodate the both of us comfortably without having to bump into each other at every corner.

We enjoyed the room. I loved sitting on the balcony at night, looking out at the dark expanse of the ocean. The rhythmic splashing of the waves against the ship is calming.

One night, after watching the ice skating show, my daughter and I took some iced latte and pizza to eat at our private balcony. Seeing my daughter having such a good time was precious to me.

With the sofa bed, the room can actually sleep a family of four. Two on the bed, one on the pullout bed and another on the sofa itself. Of course, if you choose to do that, then the space will be cramped and you will need to improvise where to put all your luggage.

The most luxurious room on the ship is the family suite that comes complete with a “royal genie” (your own butler of sorts) attending to your needs.

The double storey unit looks like a well-maintained condo in a posh neighbourhood. The suite has its own slide and an air hockey table, plus a table tennis err ... table on the balcony. It can accommodate up to 10 people, if you have a good mix of adults and children, that is.

Time to sail away

The Utopia is festive, fancy and friendly. Cruising on it feels like you are on a tiny self-contained beautiful island, or on board a floating five-star hotel, where the primary index is that of happiness.

Here, everyday is party day, with something fun happening round-the-clock.

Utopia Of The Seas wants its passengers to disembark exhausted but extremely happy. Seen here are the pools and play areas on the uppermost deck, while the middle glass structure is the Central Park neighbourhood, an open air spaced filled with thousands of live plants. On left and right are the decks of rooms.

There are people all over the mega ship, but everyone’s mostly smiling or laughing, or excited to be on their way to the restaurants or pools or shows.

Even the checking-in process at Port Canaveral in Florida is made to get you into the holiday mood. There are festive balloons, loud, upbeat music and dancers at the entry point. Shout out to Royal Caribbean for being inclusive by having many seniors as their front counter staff.

The crew on board is polite and the vessel, being new, has all the facilities in pristine condition. I believe it is the best time to enjoy the ship.

Time will definitely fly by on this ship, so, plan your itinerary well from the very first day. And that is where I went wrong.

After boarding, I decided to take a two-hour nap in the room. What a silly move. One has no time to waste on the ship!

My daughter was smarter. Once she laid out her things, she grabbed the daily planner provided to guests and within the hour, she was out of our room. She was on a mission to find out where the main attractions were and more importantly, the location of the restaurants. This efficient bunny got more things done this way.

As I chose to meander blindly on the ship, I would often be late to join my daughter for meals.

But the thing was, I was not at all upset about being lost. The ship, separated into eight zones called “neighbourhoods”, had so many different facades and decor to enjoy.

Take the zone aptly called Central Park. It has more than 2,000 live plants, trees and shrubs, as well as greenwalls, a little tranquil space where I love to sit and be lost in my thoughts.

Another section, Boardwalk, is a place where children will like. It has a carnival atmosphere where they can eat hot dogs, cotton candy and popcorn, and wash them all down with lemonade, right after they beg for a ride on the big carousel there.

But honestly, no matter how fancy Utopia is, it is hard to imagine Malaysians wanting to fly nearly 20 hours to Florida just for that few days of cruise time.

Rather, Utopia to me is like a “superlicious” add-on. As in, you have saved enough and got the family all hyped up with an ultimate holiday in Florida to visit all the famous theme parks (Walt Disney World Resort, Orlando Universal etc). Then, you secretly throw in a few days onboard Utopia as the big surprise your loved ones will never forget.

This way, you can also acclimatise to the time changes (jetlag!) better so that you don’t fall asleep on the ship minutes after checking in ...

Cruise holidays offer a different feel from vacations on land. If you’re done with going on tour after tour on land, a holiday at sea may offer something fresh and exciting.

No more having the hassle to pack and unpack your luggage everyday as you move from on place to another. No need to be confined to food pre-selected for you. Best of all, you have the freedom to do what you want and when you want to do it without having to worry about missing the tour coach.

But, don’t step into Utopia wanting to sip your cocktail and watch the sunset only. Utopia is a beast on water determined to make you move it! move it! from all the water thrills, parties, entertaining shows and a day at the beautiful CocoCay.

Royal Caribbean makes no apologies in wanting to leave you exhausted when you disembark.