‘It comes down to thrill and chill’: How Royal Caribbean redefines the perfect family vacay
Michael Bayley, CEO of Royal Caribbean cruise line, jokes that he has laser-like accuracy with a champagne gun. Visitors to the many enormous swim-up bars at Royal’s Perfect Day islands will be familiar with his sharpshooter skills, walking across the lengthy bar with a Brut gun in hand, ready to spray into the mouths of willing partygoers waist-deep in the Hideaway Beach swimming pool.
“It's taken me many, many times to reach this level of expertise and I'm proud,” he says during a press sit-down on the Star of the Seas, recently launched in Orlando, Florida. So proud, he says, that “I'm thinking about becoming like a champagne sniper. Sneak up on you, shoot you while you put a burger in your mouth and you get some champagne.”
It’s not unlike Royal Caribbean’s success at accurately pinpointing guest-satisfaction levels, hitting Net Promoter Scores in the mid-80s, which is very hard to do. Royal also recently crossed the 100-million passenger mark, another precise target met.
And here we are on Star of the Seas, Royal’s latest iteration of the Icon class, built to have even bigger, better attractions—like the massive indoor Aquadome where live aquatic show Torque unfolds, or the daring Crown’s Edge harnessed walk suspended outside the ship, or the Habitrail-like maze of colorful waterslides crisscrossing the top deck amid gleeful squeals of kiddie (and adult) pleasure. Not only that, but Star’s eight “neighborhoods” such as Central Park, offering specialty dining experiences of perfect 24-day aged beef at Chops Grille, or tasteful innovations such as the Lincoln Park Supper Club, offering a small room of high-end diners exquisite food in a refined chanteuse atmosphere.
This is all part of the plan, says Bayley, based on continual research into what customers want. Like when they designed the hugely popular land excursion Perfect Day: “We literally asked thousands of customers, ‘If you were going to have a perfect day in the Caribbean, what would it be?’ And they told us, and we just built it. And they love it. And really, it came down to thrill and chill. You know, the parents wanted to chill, beach, sand, burgers, Coronas, and they didn't want their kids bothering them, you know, so they wanted the kids to be super-happy in the thrill waterpark. And it's worked.”
The suite life
No matter how small or large your budget, Star of the Seas has a stateroom to fit your needs. The most affordable is Interior Plus, a cozy cabin that sleeps two with amenities like a vanity and easy chair, but no view. On the opposite end of the spectrum are the spectacularly appointed Loft Suites with panoramic ocean views, multiple bedrooms and flourishes like an all-white grand piano in the living room.
Since the ship is geared towards families, the most aspirational accommodation is the Ultimate Family Townhouse, a three-level dream that sleeps up to eight with an en-suite slide in case you want a speedier descent than stairs, wraparound terrace with hot tub, colorful bunk beds, and your very own cinema with shark-cushioned chairs and popcorn machine. The Swiss Family Robinson never had it so good.
We were perfectly happy situated somewhere in the middle of basic and luxury: our stateroom on Deck 7 had a queen-size bed with high-thread-count cotton sheets, a widescreen TV, a daybed, and balcony with a sunset ocean view.
Unli seafood and dry-aged steaks
One of the lures of the cruise is the all-you-can-eat complimentary buffets and free food on offer. Royal Caribbean’s iconic buffet is Windjammer, where you can eat whenever and whatever you want, whether it’s donuts for breakfast (as we saw a few doing) or the full Monty with eggs benedict, avocado toast, and all the pancakes, bacon and smoked salmon you desire. Both of us were in heaven with Windjammer’s seafood buffet, which offered groaning platters of lobster tail, scallops, shrimp cocktail, crab, and shellfish.
Aquadome Market was an attractive alternative, a food hall that features concepts from all over the world, from Caribbean to Thai to a stall dedicated to French crepes, and these concepts change with every cruise to keep the market fresh.
For snacks we would free-range the ship: one day it was pizza at Sorrento’s; another, hotdogs and soft-serve ice cream at Surfside; the next it was coffee and wraps at the Pearl, a mezzanine-level café that you access by ascending the stairs through Star of the Seas’ glittering round structure.
Then there are the specialty restaurants that you have to reserve and pay for, which are well worth it for a night to remember. (The percentage of complementary to specialty outlets onboard is 80-20.) Brand-new is the Lincoln Park Supper Club, a concept that merges fine dining with chanteuse singing and other forms of entertainment.
We had an exclusive dinner at Chops Grille, Royal Caribbean’s signature steakhouse that serves the only dry-aged steaks available at sea, in an inviting, wood-paneled Deco interior. The main event is Chops Grille’s hand-cut and -trimmed steaks that are seasoned, aged for 24 days then perfectly seared to lock in all the flavors. Scott went for the Bone-In Ribeye, 16 ounces of USDA Prime beef that was well-marbled and deliciously juicy. Therese had the Petite Filet, a smaller, six-ounce cut that was equally soft and flavorful. The dry aging results in meat that’s tender all the way through, completely free of gristle yet with a completely satisfying mouth feel.
Our incredible dinner was made even more memorable by our server Miroslav, a young Ukrainian gent who made us feel so welcome and at home, always ready with a food or wine recommendation, attentive service and genuinely warm conversation.
Thrills, chills and spills
Scott is the waterslide enthusiast, so he decided to strap on a GoPro and check out Thrill Island on Deck 16, where you can sample six dizzying water rides. There’s the more kid-friendly Storm Surge and Hurricane Hunters, but the real challenges are on the upper tower, like the 46-foot-tall Frightening Bolt; Storm Chasers (facedown duo mat-racing slide), or Pressure Drop, nearly-vertical freefall plunge. Pick your comfort level and plunge away!
There’s also the ever-popular FlowRider, where you can master an above-deck surfing challenge (as randos video your occasional wipeout); or, if you seek even edgier thrills, you can float in a harness, suspended off the side of the ship, for Crown’s Edge, walking a gangplank 154 feet above the sea, straight off the edge into space.
That’s entertainment
“Where we’re going, we don’t need roads!” That’s Doc Brown’s famous line from the 1985 film Back to the Future, and somehow Star of the Seas manages to bring to life the current Broadway musical incarnation on its floating Royal Theater stage, DeLorean and all. The cast (Jacob Beresford as Marty McFly, Justin Holcomb as Doc Brown) are great at capturing the comic dialogue, but the DeLorean itself steals the show — spinning, careening through time, and somehow landing everyone back… to the future.
Royal Caribbean always one ups the entertainment package, with complimentary new productions such as Sol, a figure-skating showcase at Absolute Zero theater, featuring an array of international skaters spanning a day across America, jukebox hits intact, from New England to the Saint Monica Pier. Then there’s the new indoor Aquadome, where aerial water show Torque dazzles audiences with high-wire acrobatics and high-dive plunges.
A plethora of free options ups the ante—karaoke bars, blues clubs, ’80s rock revues, a Dueling Pianos club (passengers plunk down requests on the piano, which range from Whitney Houston to AC/DC to Who Let the Dogs Out?) and even a “Silent DJ” night, with passengers bopping around the Promenade in earphones while deejays spin jams that only they can hear.
Always perfect at Coco Cay
The “Perfect Day” Bahamas experience Bayley and his people envisioned converges in Coco Cay, a mid-journey island excursion that leads to excellent pools and beaches (places, even, where kids aren’t allowed), the world’s biggest swim-up bars, and the world’s highest waterslides in a single park. Take a tethered balloon ride, zipline across the island, or just kick back and chill with a cocktail and a bit of sun. It’s whatever your definition of “perfect” island fun is.
Royal Beach Clubs & a new Discovery Class
Royal Caribbean is bringing this winning formula to Perfect Day Mexico, a 200-acre destination on Mexico’s Caribbean coast set to open in Fall 2027. “Our mission is always to amplify local culture, leaning into what is awesome about Mexico: food, entertainment, colors, textures, the people, the service, and being very careful about how we do it,” says Jay Schneider, SVP and chief product innovation officer of Royal Caribbean International.
Schneider says their next product is the Royal Beach Club, opening on Paradise Island in the Bahamas on Dec. 27. It will feature three neighborhoods—family, party and chill—three of “what I think will be some of the most stunning pools on planet Earth, and two really great, amazing beaches,” he says. “And the creative conceit for the property is really this lost Bahamian Beach Club, and you'll see it in the architecture and design.”
Every pool will have a swim-up bar, there will be cabanas for guests, and a grill that blends Bahamian-inspired food with American classics.
“The center of the island is Party Cove that will be home to the world's largest swim-up bar,” Schneider says. “Upstairs is a VIP area with a DJ.”
While Star of the Seas boasts its Ultimate Family Townhouse, Royal Caribbean will introduce its first Ultimate Family Cabana on Paradise Island, an over-the-top, two-story cabana offering “unbelievably amazing” pool and beach access.
“We are super-proud of this development for a number of reasons,” says Schneider. “Number one is, it's a partnership with the Bahamas through a number of pillars that are very important to us. We are 51% owners, the Bahamian people are 49% owners. Through a series of different measures, we are pushing very hard to get close to 100% either third party operated by Bahamian operators, or all Bahamian owners and operators.”
Coming in 2026 is a Royal Beach Club in Cozumel, Mexico, featuring the same concept and an Ultimate Beach Day.
But as much as Royal Caribbean extends its winning formula to other products, it always circles back around to its cruise ships. A new Legend of the Seas will set sail in the summer of 2026, an Icon 4 ship is already under construction for 2027, Oasis 7 will come in 2028, and currently being dreamt up is a new Discovery Class that is being touted as the “boldest class” with the “boldest destinations.”
“It’s a smaller class than Icon Class,” Schneider teases, but we’re sure it will be even bigger in ideas and in pushing the frontiers of cruise travel.
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For additional information or to make reservations, visit RoyalCaribbean.com. Follow @RoyalCaribbean on IG and X, and check out #StaroftheSeas.
