On Day 3, we had a bright and early start at the FlowRider Surf Simulator on Deck 16 as the private time slot for Key guests was 9am to 10am. Note that the strongly recommended attire is swimwear that doesn’t come off easily as the force of the waves is powerful enough to disrobe a person. Consider wearing a dark-coloured t-shirt and shorts if you must don a bikini. No footwear or goggles are allowed but go-pro cameras are permitted.
We proceeded to the iFly counter on Deck 15 just below the FlowRider venue to register, get a wristband and watch an introductory video. Even though the queue for the activity looked short, the wait time ended up being quite long! As a result, the staff had to stop Key guests from joining the queue at about 9.30am (so come early if you don’t wanna risk getting bumped from the queue).
For those wanting to use the FlowRider during the advanced session, you need to participate in the general session first and get the go-ahead from instructors in the form of a dark blue wristband.
Our next activity (Bumper Cars) was held at the SeaPlex, a massive two-storey indoor activity complex on Deck 15. Most of the activities here are free, except for the Arcade section where you pay per game. Key guests were allocated the private Bumper Cars time slot from 11.30am to 12.30pm. However, we still had to queue for around 15 minutes for a mere 1 minute’s worth of play time.
Inside the SeaPlex, guests can grab a snack at Dog House. We could choose our preferred hot dog meat type (out of 3 options), as well as the toppings and sauces for it. I liked the overall flavour but the bread was plain and dry.
Right next to the FlowRider venue is the Sky Pad on Deck 15, a virtual reality bungee bouncing experience. However, it didn’t seem to be available during our sailing and the facility was mainly used for other activities.
While exploring this area, we spotted an overhanging glass-bottom walkway round the back of the Sky Pad, with the rushing seas right below us. My husband walked across without any hesitation while I did so with much fear and trepidation. A nice photo spot nonetheless!
We headed back in to the SeaPlex wanting to check out the other activities like table tennis, basketball and archery. Alas, the queues were so long that we only had time to try out archery. Laser Tag is also free-to-play here but a reservation is needed (we didn’t manage to make one) and players have to be wearing flat, closed-toed shoes.
At 5.30pm, a cake-cutting ceremony took place at the lower Royal Esplanade on Deck 4. It was basically a platform to introduce senior officers like the captain of the ship (Captain Wu), the hotel director, the director of beverages, the director of food, the executive chef and the cruise director. After that, they gave out slices of cake to those who were present.
In the evening around 6pm, my husband decided to give the Rock Climbing Wall a go. The queue was really short at this time compared to earlier in the day. As Key guests, we were actually allocated a dedicated time slot of 9am to 10am on Day 2, but we weren’t that motivated to get up so early for this.
For this activity, guests need be dressed in dry clothes, which includes shorts or pants and socks. Special shoes and harnesses will be provided at the venue itself. There are different tracks with varying levels of difficulty so let the staff know which one you’d be more comfortable with.
Instead of the usual Main Dining Room dinner routine tonight, we switched it up and tried the specialty dining restaurant, Izumi Teppanyaki, on Deck 14. From the set menu, we could select either the miso soup or salad, as well as our choice of meats (mix and match any two from the combo menu).
The entire experience was a vibrant and noisy affair – be prepared for lots of banging, clanging and shouting. Not my most preferred ambience but I guess it’s all part of the package. The chef, a very earnest guy, performed many tricks (one of which involved him tossing small bits of egg into everyone’s mouths one by one) and dished out a whole bunch of jokes (some funny, some you forgave him for).
In terms of the food, there were a couple of hits and misses. For instance, the miso soup, salad, fried vegetables and vegetable fried rice were pretty bland. Dessert was equally lacklustre – my husband remarked that the skin of the mochi tasted like the inside of a leathery luggage bag (lol don’t ask me how he knows).
Having said that, the meats were wonderfully executed! The texture of the scallops and lobster was perfect, and the beef and chicken breast were juicy and tender. We were super full and mostly entertained by the end of it.
We rounded up the night at the Royal Theatre watching The Effectors, a 45-minute performance that began at 9.45pm. This was the coolest show onboard in my opinion as the visual effects were super impressive, plus the coordination between the live performers and their digital counterparts was incredibly tight. There was even a segment with mini drones flying in sync overhead. Definitely not one to miss!
Day 4 marked the conclusion of our lovely time here. All guests needed to vacate their rooms by 8am and disembark by 9.30am at the latest. As Key guests, we were free to disembark anytime before 9.30am.
Another benefit was that we got to have a slower, quieter breakfast at the Main Dining Room (available between 6.30am and 8.30am). From the menu, we ordered the steak and eggs, crab eggs benedict, French toast and fresh grapefruit. Unfortunately, this was the least enjoyable of all the meals we had in the past 3 days. Most of it was tasteless and the French toast was overly dense too, but thankfully the petit steak filet itself was delicious as usual (you truly can’t go wrong ordering the steaks).
Anyway, the final Key perk was having a separate area to pick up our luggage from after passing through immigration. This made for a quick and fuss-free exit from the Cruise Centre.
My overall rating of the experience: 4 out of 5 stars. The first thing I noticed was that most areas of the ship felt extremely well-maintained, which made me actually want to use and be in those spaces (compared to a previous cruise we sailed on, where some areas were downright repulsive with stains and grime). In addition, these spaces were so intuitive and designed very much with the end users in mind, from the orientation of the furniture right down to the placement of the door buttons in the restrooms. Our room was generously spacious and hygienic, plus we also enjoyed many of the performances and live music onboard. I particularly appreciated the beautiful adults-only Solarium (: The general quality of food was largely decent, although there were some dishes that didn’t meet the mark. One issue we encountered was the immense difficulty in getting service at the Main Dining Room as the wait staff either seemed perpetually busy or weren’t even present in our area to be called on. But all in all, we had a great time and I hope against hope that Royal Caribbean brings their newer, larger ships to our shores soon!
As to whether The Key programme was worth the top-up, I felt that it was most useful in helping us have a more relaxed, unhurried start and end to our trip. Being able to board the ship early to explore the facilities, as well as relish a quieter lunch (embarkation) and breakfast (disembarkation) without the crowds, was great. The other benefits were less impactful for us, like the priority ship-to-shore departure (we had no plans to disembark at Penang) and the supposed private activity time slots that still involved quite a bit of queueing up. On hindsight, the Sea Class tier benefits that came with our Junior Suite would have somewhat met our needs already. Did we really need VIP show access and separate baggage handling? No. Did we really need a welcome steak lunch? Not really. But hey, these were real nice-to-haves while we had them (:
Recall what happened in Part 1! 🡰
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Dania Experiences 