Yes, your cruise ship wants you to have fun
A cruise ship can seem like nothing more than an endless buffet and a floating people mover. However, decades of design work, learning from customers, and a touch of whimsy can be found on any good cruise ship nowadays. Those little touches of cruise ship design details not only made our first cruise more delightful. They also made our day-to-day cruise experience smoother and easier.
Our first cruise experience
Our family of four loves water recreation, but water transportation was a new one for us when we took our first cruise in 2024. During a 14-night repositioning cruise from Seattle, USA, to Yokohama/Tokyo, Japan, we crossed the Pacific Ocean on Royal Caribbean’s Quantum of the Seas.
First-time cruise tips are all about pointing out things that can help your first cruise go well. Here are some of the delightful, insightful, and whimsical cruise ship features that made our inaugural cruise experience so much fun.
1. The days of the week are on the elevator floor
I looked down and remembered it wasn’t Sunday, but Monday, and I was relieved.
On a shorter cruise, this might not seem like a big deal. After all, it’s the days of the week. Why do you need a reminder for what day it is?
Each cruise can be so different. Plus, being on board the ship can feel like you are removed from regular time and are in a special timeline devoted solely to the cruise ship. In fact, each day when our stateroom attendant tidied up our room, he left a little reminder card that said. “We’re time traveling. There’s a time change tonight, so don’t forget to turn your clocks one hour back to stay on ship’s time.”
Crossing the ocean, we changed time zones every day for about 8 days. Technically speaking, Day 7 of our cruise didn’t even exist. We crossed the International Date Line going west, and suddenly had jumped from today to tomorrow (that day, our attendant also left certificates of crossing the date line).
That’s why it’s a relief to have the days of the week on little panels in the elevator floor. Cruise ship insider tips like this are a simple reminder that keeps you moored to time outside the world of your cruise.
2. The cruise line made it easy to follow ship time
During our cruise, we were far and away from anything. After the first few days, we realized that we didn’t even see birds anymore. As for online services? Our phones were on airplane mode (though prior to our cruise we booked a one-device-at-a-time internet package, so we could get online now and again).
However, Royal Caribbean’s free app worked regardless of whether or not we were online. Not only could we use the app to plan our days, but “ship time” was always on display in the upper left corner of the app screen. During our sailing, my devices weren’t connecting enough to change time zones (and we found that due to our screen time settings for the kids, I couldn’t manually update my phone’s time zone).
Jumping to the app and checking ship time kept me on track. These cruise ship details made it always easy for us to know what time it was on board, and get to any activities we fancied during the day’s schedule.
3. Art was everywhere
On the tall central atrium that stretched from the lower to upper decks, butterflies roosted on the walls. Along the staircases, we could stop at every landing and admire framed artworks from a variety of artists. When heading aft on Deck 5 to the 270º presentation area at the very back of the ship, we passed by a dazzling, bright, pearly flowing structure of iridescent square tiles that seemed to float in air. It became one of our favorite spots on the ship.
Quantum of the Seas was like a serendipitous art gallery. Throughout each deck, from the turn in a corridor to a sculpture near a landing, art gave us opportunity to pause, engage our perspectives, and see the world a little differently.
Here’s the thing: It’s not like art had to be all over the ship. But it was. Royal Caribbean has invested nearly a quarter-billion dollars in art across its fleet. The presence of that art gave us respite, or sometimes even challenge. It added whimsy and a touch of the unexpected. After all, on a ship that could be like a work of art, it only made sense that art was everywhere.
4. Our cabin had so much more storage than we expected
No matter how grand, ship cabins only have but so much space, and that makes cruise ship design details all the more crucial. Our balcony cabin had to comfortably fit four humans and all our travel belongings.
And it did.
Now, it doesn’t hurt that we pack light. However, even if we had packed more, we would have been able to put to work the many well-designed, well-organized storage spaces in our cabin, such as:
- A long cubby under the TV: great for Aster’s cursive book, not to mention the various papers we had during our sailing, such as our Japanese immigration meeting letter and a scavenger hunt to learn the nationalities of the crew.
- Three small shelves in the back corner of the bathroom counter: perfect for toiletry bags.
- Closets on each side of the bed: My side was closer to the cabin door, so we also use the closet floor to store our shoes when we were in the room, keeping the floor uncluttered. The closet by Jodie’s side of the bed had two drawers for her clothes, shelves for some miscellany (such as our computer sleeves), and a small safe where we could keep our passports and other documents secure.
- Under-bed storage: We stashed our backpacks in our two carry-on rolling suitcases, and tucked those under the bed, along with our folding yoga mat
- Desktop cubbies: Just right for charging cords and adapters
5. The main esplanade was an easy way to get forward, aft, or midship without having to walk along narrow cabin corridors
One of my favorite parts of the cruise were the many enrichment presentations. One day, I attended a talk on the history of Royal Caribbean itself, from its beginnings in the 1960s through the 1990s, when the company began launching its megaships that could hold more passengers than its original three ships combined.
As the company made the ships bigger though, they realized they needed to improve how intuitive it was for people to navigate the ship.
Part of that solution was to simply have subtle but ever-present signage. Another? In the middle of the ship, Royal Caribbean designed what they dubbed the “centrium,” a tall, airy central atrium. Functionally, it houses the elevators (and on Quantum of the Seas, butterfly sculptures cover the walls). It also marks the midpoint of the ship, helping guests go forward or aft.
We soon realized that from our midship cabin, it was easier for us to go to the centrium, head to the the main esplanade on decks 4 and 5, and use that to go forward and aft. That way we could wander in a bigger space, instead of going up or down the tighter cabin corridors. It made it much easier, and more fun, to get around the ship.
6. Crew can pack up some bread or fruit to take to your room when you want easy snacks on hand
Does your cabin offer room service? Yes. Though there’s typically a cost (during our cruise, $7.95 delivery charge per order).
But you know what you can also do? Another of those subtle cruise ship amenities is simply being nice to crew and asking for a little something.
At the buffet, or even at main dining, you can ask crew for some items you can take back to your room. We usually did this with bread or a few pieces of whole fruit, such as apples and bananas. That way, we could keep a stash of easy snacks on hand, especially if the sea was rough. We were told that a full belly could tamp down seasickness, and we were happy to comply with this therapeutic advice.
When you want a bit of food in your cabin between meals, or you simply don’t want to be out and about, having a few bites on hand can keep you in some simple nosh while saving a few bucks.
7. Yes, the tap water is fine to drink
During a chat with the captain one morning, he replied to a question about how the ship treats water. He explained that most water nowadays is done by desalination. Every day, the Quantum of the Seas would desalinate and treat about 1,000 tons of water.
That fresh, treated water that comes out of the tap in the cabin bathroom sink? Totally safe to drink. It’s the same water supply getting used all over the ship, from the hand-washing sinks to the water dispensers throughout the deck beverage areas.
On our sailing, ice was available by request. In our room, we asked our stateroom attendant to bring a bucket of ice in the morning and another in the evening. We kept our water bottles nice and full of ready-to-drink water this way, making it much easier to stay hydrated, especially in the drier air conditions of the ship.
So, if you’re wondering if it’s okay to drink the water, the answer is yes. Water is treated and safe. We drank it with plenty of confidence and zero worries. You can too.
8. Magnetic cabin walls mean you can really customize your space
When we settled into our room, one of the first things we did was pull out a set of four magnetic hooks.
Two went on the door, so we could hang the lanyards that held our SeaPasses.
Two more went on the wall next to the TV. That way, we could hang our One Piece straw hat jolly roger flag.
What we didn’t realize was that people also pack magnets to put on the outside face of their stateroom doors. Next time we cruise, we’ll have some magnets ready.
Here’s a cruise ship design tip: The doors and walls of your stateroom are metallic, and more importantly, magnetic. Packing things such as hooks and magnets can help you not only organize your stateroom, but customize it with your own personality and flair.
BONUS 9. Hidden ducks
Throughout Quantum of the Seas (and on other ships from our understanding), ducks stowed away on board. Including some we brought.
As Jodie dove into different Facebook groups for our Quantum of the Seas cruise, one of the things she learned about was a tradition of hiding ducks. Rubber ducks, teeny little plastic duck toys, duck stickers: If it’s duck-themed, there’s a chance you might find it hidden somewhere around the ship.
The ducks are one of our favorite touches of whimsy on board. It’s nothing official from Royal Caribbean. It’s simply part of cruise culture. As you wander the ship, if you happen to find a hidden duck, take it. It’s an easy little free souvenir that’ll always bring back memories of your cruise.
Easy fun awaits on your cruise, thanks to cruise ship design details
As a family, we look for things that make our travels with kids smoother and more fun. The folks designing cruise ships now have decades of experience with what works, what doesn’t, what customers suggest, and what reams of data and evidence suggests they should do (or not do).
Put together, that adds up to cruise ships designed with lots of big, small, apparent, and subtle touches, all of which are there to make your cruise smoother and more fun. These cruise ship design details certainly did so for our first family cruise.
Now, we just have to wonder how we’re going to bling up our door on our next cruise…
