In one word, a Zumba cruise is everything! It's the ultimate cruise. Zumba partners with Royal Caribbean to give you non-stop music and Zumba if you want it, but also all the regular cruise activities everywhere on the ship or peace and quiet with ocean breeze on Deck 4! We even met non-Zumba people on the ship who only took the cruise because the dates worked out for them. Yet they even admitted that it was the funnest and most energetic cruise they had ever been on.
This was my 2nd Zumba cruise! On the 2017 cruise I met Rena, who has been on all 4 Zumba cruises! This time, I convinced my friend and former student, Angela, to come with us. We are a multi-generational clique; all of us were born in different decades. Rena is like our mom now. All in all, the trip turned out so great that we decided we are going to do the Zumba cruise every year. In fact, Rena said we will still do it when she is 85!
We took a redeye flight from California to Miami and started out with a bang! First Angela and I Uber'd to Miami Beach for a sunrise segway tour. We had our own private tour guide! Then we biked along the coast and up to the Museum of Erotic Art!
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The Zumba Cruise starts at the Port of Miami. You can check in anytime up until 4PM, so we chose 2:30PM. That's because I remembered that in 2017, you couldn't access your room till around 2PM anyway! This way, we could take a segway tour of Miami beach in the morning and bike around Miami Beach after that, rather than sitting with our luggage. I found the segway/bike deal on Groupon.
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| A Welcome Aboard from Beto was all we needed to get in the mood! |
We Uber'd from Miami Beach to the Port of Miami at 2PM. There was almost no line getting on at 2:30, so we were happy with our choice of check-in times! I was so excited when I saw the water slides. The 2017 cruise was on the same ship, the Royal Caribbean Navigator of the Seas, but the slides were just built this year! They are the longest water slides at sea! I was also excited to try the surfing and boogie boarding machine and rock climbing wall. I didn't get to do those in 2017 because I had been recovering from a sprained wrist. This time I told myself I would do everything!
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| Here is the main pool where concerts and the biggest Zumba classes would happen. Our favorite time to be there was when there was no class going on. If the DJ played, anyone could go up there and lead, and anyone could follow or do their own thing. We loved standing in the shallow pool and dancing free style in our swim suits. That was the best was to get a tan! |
When you first get on the ship, you realize there are so many things to do and see but then you remember you had a red eye flight and an 8AM Zumba class the next day, so you'd better schedule in a nap! The nap was almost impossible. Thirty minutes into our one hour scheduled map, the cruise director, whom I later learned to love for his humor,
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Our room! The eight floor is great because there is no dancing above or below you, so it's always quiet, unless you
have crazy neighbors! There are beds that fall out of the ceiling if you want to squeeze four people in! Angela slept on the loft bed and used her lower bed as an outfit organizer! |
announced on the loud speaker that everyone had to report to the dining room for emergency practice. Well at least we got 30 minutes of horizontal time in!
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Don't worry! The buffet is free and full of dessert, but you won't have much time
to eat it on a Zumba cruise! Maybe you can grab a piece between classes! With
all the famous instructors in the world on the ship, you feel like you can't miss a class,
and there are classes all day long from 8AM to 8PM! |
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our favorite French guitarist. Rena and I would grab tea
and a snack from the Promenade cafe and bring it over
to listen to him. |
Between dinner, a Welcome show, some guitar music and a Zumba Sail Away concert, the first night melted away quickly. At the bar on the main Promenade, we loved the French guitarist who played country music. We were the only 3 customers! Everyone was at the Zumba concert, to which we went an hour later. This is how the Zumba cruise throws the staff off a bit; I don't think he was used to having only 3 listeners, but we supported him with all our hearts. The break from Zumba music feels amazing, even to those us who love Zumba music! After dancing hard at the concert, we were able to wake up in time for our 8AM Zumba classes! You can reserve space in the classes of your favorite teachers before you get on the ship. Or you can choose based on times or locations. You might not want to choose a class at 1PM on the Sports Court; that could be deathly hot.
My first class was with Ricardo Marmitte. I have always loved his fun, easygoing personality and his authentic African moves! Next I went to Nick Logrea's class. He is from NYC, and he is amazing! I loved his varied playlist and creative choreo. Most of all, I loved his passionate presentation, which was realistic and not cheesy!
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Ricardo Marmitte's class on the ice arena floor. Yes, the ship has
an ice arena! Feel the cold floor! Some people are dancing in the
stadium seating! You can see a little bitter there and don't need a reservation. |
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What I love about cruises is coming back to your room and
finding your steward has left you a towel animal: this time a bat! |
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| Nick Logrea, my new favorite instructor, posing with me. |
Day 2 of the cruise and you're already in Freeport, Bahamas! The three of us had reserved the VIP Yacht Cruise: sailing on a 50 ft yacht with free drinks, lunch and snorkeling.
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| Relaxing on the breezy VIP yacht cruise with Rena and Angela! |
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| The attendant danced with the Zumba patrons on the yacht cruise! They also served us mimosas and a conch salad lunch with sandwiches. |
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| After the yacht cruise, you can enjoy shopping at the cruise port or dancing on a beach. Zumba cruises always have lots of beach dancing at any stop! Any random teacher starts leading, and anyone can start following. There's nothing like Zumba on a beach! Some cruisers stay at the beach parties all day, in lieu of another excursion. That would be fun too! |
Day 3 was at sea! That is when we did the water slides and took lots of classes. We even shopped at the Zumba store, where Angela had a shirt cut up. But after watching the surfers for a minute, I chickened out! When they fall, they fall fast! I also saw every show that Royal Caribbean presented: comedy, salsa, ballroom, musical theater, juggling, an ice show and more! I love all their shows! And we pressed our luck at the casino, wore lace to 80's night and danced with Pacman, danced salsa at the Boleros Club, and danced in the Cosmopolitan Club till past midnight. But our favorite attraction was Andy the piano man at the Schooner Bar! Passion emanated from his face, and he could play and sing anything anyone requested. However, he wouldn't play "Shallow" because he said he was "deeper than that."
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| free t-shirt cutting in the Zumba store! |
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| Salsa at Boleros Club on Formal Night! |
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| 80's Night: Wear Leather or Lace! |
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| Andy the piano man. I miss him! |
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| Look at our beautiful ship docked at Labadee! |
Then we came to Labadee, Haiti on Day 4! The sun was hot, so it was fortunate that we got on a breezy boat right away and saw the Haitian shoreline until we came to a private beach called Pirate's Cove. There we kayaked and had some tropical drinks before being taken on a guided tour through a Haitian teaching village. It wasn't a real village, but just set up so we could learn some Haitian culture. My favorite part was the cassava flour bread and holding a moray eel!
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| The Haitians weave lobster traps! We saw lobsters while on the snorkel safari excursion later that afternoon! |
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| They make fresh peanut butter- spicy! |
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| We went kayaking in the cove, held an eel and bought souvenirs from the locals, who convinced me to buy because they were "broken" and I would be "bless." |
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Pirate's Cove in Labadee, Haiti This is the boat that brought us here.
Day 5 was at Sea. We were a little burnt out from classes, so we freestyled at the pool and while I was listening to my audio book on peaceful deck 4, Beto, the founder of Zumba, set his stereo right next to me and proceeded to teach two girls a new routine and shoot a new video for social media promoting the upcoming choreography. I also ran into him getting ice cream!
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| Beto can't go anywhere on the Zumba cruise without being mobbed! He just wanted an ice cream! |
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Beto shooting a new video on Deck 4, right in front of me.
Perhaps what I love most about the Zumba Cruise is connections is makes for you, whether between other people or just allowing you to reconnect to yourself. I love this door decoration. I don't know these people, but obviously they got engaged on the previous Zumba Cruise and celebrated their honeymoon on the 2019 Zumba Cruise! That's so amazing!
On the last day we did take the Miami bus tour excursion so that they could hold our luggage while we saw new parts of Miami. Our favorite place was Little Havana, but we saw other areas that we'll hit next time, such as Wynwood Walls.
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| We ate a tasty Mexican lunch at the Ball & Chain in Little Havana |
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Fresh Mojitos at the Ball & Chain Angela is sporting her new Zumba Strong jacket that
she bought on the ship. |
The bus company also took us to the airport at the end of the day. Even though we are home now, we are still in vacay mode! Zumba is always a vacation! We are waiting for the Zumba Cruise 2020 announcement!
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