Wonder of the Seas in Saint Martin
It’s not surprising that a cruise ship as big as Wonder of the Seas is divided up into what Royal Caribbean refers to as neighborhoods. Other than self-contained areas like the Boardwalk, Central Park, and the Royal Promenade, it’s not always obvious where one neighborhood ends and the next begins, or sometimes exactly which one a particular feature belongs to, but on paper it does give somewhat of a guide to what to find onboard and where to find it. The neighborhoods all refer to public spaces on the ship, not to the areas where passenger cabins are located. Strangely enough since food is a huge part of cruising there is not a Food Zone. Perhaps that is because there are eateries scattered about most of the public areas of the ship with the main dining room on decks 3, 4, & 5 and the buffet on deck 15.
ice show
Entertainment Place
Entertainment Place is found on deck 4. The theater sits at the front of the ship. It extends up to deck 5 and down to deck 3. This is where stage shows and singing & dancing production shows are found, similar to what most cruise ships have, but certainly not the only shows to be found on this ship. Deck 4 also has a comedy club called The Attic where comedians perform their act on a small stage. It’s home to the Diamond Club, a lounge reserved only for guests at the highest levels of Royal Caribbean’s loyalty program. Next door sits the Golden Room which was originally intended to be a high roller casino for the Chinese cruise ship market, but since the ship was not sailing in China it was used as a small non-smoking casino that most people onboard probably didn’t know existed instead. The ice-skating arena sits at the center of the ship, with an art gallery hallway running along one side outside of the ice area, linking the main casino to the rest of Entertainment Place. Besides ice shows the skating arena is sometimes used for things like glow-in-the-dark laser tag. It may sometimes have open skating sessions for passengers as the ice arena did on Explorer of the Seas, but there weren’t any during our cruise. Maybe that was a pre-covid thing or just for the smaller ships as there weren’t any during our cruise on Symphony of the Seas either. The large smokey casino is on the other side of the skating rink bordering the main dining room. There’s a set of elevators between the casino and dining room, and restrooms just outside of the casino. There is a music hall on deck 8 & 9, a card room on deck 14, and the AquaTheater is not in that area either so not all of the entertainment is located within the Entertainment Place area of deck 4.
Royal Promenade
Royal Promenade
The Royal Promenade located on deck 5 is designed to look somewhat like a city street with shops along the sides and apartments rising above, though in this case the “apartment” windows actually belong to promenade view inside cabins on the deck just above the Royal Promenade. Although there isn’t any actual car traffic, it does have a car sitting out in the middle of the promenade and some car-themed decor mainly centered around Route 66. One of the bars along the promenade called Boleros has a bench made from part of a car.
car on the promenade
The promenade is also home to guest services and some eateries as well as shops and the Bionic Bar – where the bartenders are robots. It is also sometimes home to the Rising Tide Bar, which is a bar on an open elevator that sometimes rises up to Central Park. Free food is available at Sorrentos Pizza and Cafe Promenade, though specialty coffee and tea at the cafe cost extra. The pizza place made gluten free pizza on request, but the cafe had nothing gluten free. It did not have any hot chocolate either, though that could be found down the way at Starbucks, who did have non-dairy options. There’s also a place called Spotlight Karaoke, which probably should be part of Entertainment Place, but apparently the promenade is where they had room for it.
the outside promenade deck on Royal’s Oasis class ships is the best cruise ship track ever
The outside promenade deck, which runs around the outside of deck 5, is set up as an awesome track. It is not part of the promenade neighborhood, but rather goes along with the gym for fitness.
spa treatment room
Vitality Spa & Fitness
Although spa and fitness are included in the same neighborhood, they are not on the same deck. Both are at the bow with the spa on deck 5 and the fitness center on deck 6 – other than the aforementioned track which runs along the outer edge of deck 5. The spa has a thermal suite as well as a variety of treatment rooms for things like massages, teeth whitening, seaweed body wraps, and acupuncture.
gym
There’s also a beauty salon where services include haircuts, up-doos, and manicures. While most spa treatments are a one-time thing, you can book use of the thermal suite for the entire cruise, though this one charged extra for use of the thermal suite’s hot tub. The fitness center has a plethora of fitness equipment and also offers classes including yoga and Pilates.
the ultimate abyss slides end on the boardwalk
Boardwalk
The Boardwalk is found at the back of deck 6. It is an outside area surrounded on three sides by the interior of the ship. The top is open to the sky and the back is mostly open, though it does have some structure surrounding the AquaTheater at the very back of the boardwalk. The entrance to the boardwalk is a set of giant sliding glass doors just behind the aft elevator bay. A series of stand-alone carousel horses in various states of completement lead the way to the carousel, which has some other animals besides horses. Passengers of all ages can ride the carousel for free whenever it is open. Shops, a bar, and eateries line the outer edges of the boardwalk, with staterooms rising above to the top of the ship, a few with windows on deck 7, and balconies from deck 8 and above.
water show
At the very back of the rows of rooms each side from deck 8 up has one suite with balconies that wrap around so they have views of both the AquaTheater and the ocean. Eateries on the boardwalk include the Dog House, which has hot dogs at no additional charge, and Johnny Rockets where the burgers and shakes cost extra, but breakfast is free. Between them are a couple shops, one of which is a candy store. The other entire side is taken up by Playmakers, a sports bar and arcade. Outside of Johnny Rockets there’s a colorful climbing area for small children. The landing for the 10-deck Ultimate Abyss dry slides sits at the center back of the Boardwalk, just in front of the AquaTheater. The AquaTheater puts on an impressive water show which includes aerialists as well as dancers and divers. The rock climbing walls tower above the back of the boardwalk, with their entry platforms on deck 7, though you can get there from this level by stairway.
garden and pathway in Central Park
Central Park
Central Park is another open area on the inside of the ship, located as the name indicates in the center. The park is on deck 8, and like the boardwalk it has inside balcony cabins rising above it on higher decks. We stayed in one of those cabins and liked it a lot more than we thought we would before we went on our cruise. There are gardens with live plants, and some plants growing on walls under an overhead walkway where there aren’t any cabins. Pathways wind between the gardens.
elephant sculpture in the garden
There are a couple of structures resembling greenhouses that are actually skylights to the Royal Promenade. The third greenhouse-like structure is where the Rising Tide Bar sits when it is at the garden level. Looking down on them from above the shape of the three structures together somewhat resembles a very large fish, eel, or perhaps sea monster undulating up and down through the deck. Here too the edges have shops and eateries. Most of the eateries at this level are pay-extra, other than the Park Cafe where the food is free. There’s also one small bar and some places to sit. Deck 9 has interior cabins with windows above the park and the balconies start on deck 10.
kids climbing thing on the boardwalk
Youth Zone
Youth Zone is where the kid’s club areas are on deck 14, which is really deck 13 since there is no deck numbered 13 on this ship, and on deck 16. Royal has separate programs for varying age groups starting at age 3. The age groups are 3-5, 6-8, and 9-11. There are also activities for teenagers divided by age to 12-14 and 15-17. The kids’ area called Adventure Ocean is located at the front of deck 14. The teen area called Social 100 is just back of center on the port side of deck 16. Children’s activities include things like crafts, art, science, scavenger hunts, games, stories, and themed parties. There’s an arcade not far from the teen area on the other side of the ship.
waterslides on the pool deck
Pool & Sports Zone
The pool and sports zone is mainly found at the front and back of deck 15 and the back of deck 16. The very front of deck 15 houses the glassed-in adults only solarium, which also has a bit extending down to deck 14. This area has its own hot tubs, bar, and even a free bistro, which is a great place to go for lunch as it tends not to be as crowded as some of the other food venues. There are of course many deck chairs in the area as well as a towel station. The forward elevator bay sits between the solarium and the open deck. The pool deck of course has even more deck chairs, some of which sit in the shallows of the beach pool on the starboard side of the ship.
beach pool
The entrance to the ship’s 3 waterslides lies near the beach pool. There’s a lot of stairs to climb to get to the top of the slides. There’s an open area in the center of the pool deck looking down on Central Park. On the port side there’s a splash park with waterslides for small children called Splashaway Bay. The outdoor movie screen sits at the front end of the open area over Central Park. Behind that you find the Lime & Coconut Bar, followed by main pools on both sides of the ship. Beyond the aft elevators there’s a pay-extra eatery called The Mason Jar on the starboard side, and the Windjammer Buffet on both sides. At the back of deck 15 there’s a flowrider on the port side and a playground for small children called Wonder Playscape starboard. A ramp alongside the playground leads to deck 16, though the kids can also get up to that deck inside the playground which is on both levels.
octopus at the mini golf
A mini-golf course called Wonder Dunes sits just forward of the playground on deck 16. It’s very well decorated with lots of whimsical features and a giant octopus that can be seen from shore, but they seem to have put more thought into how the course looks than they did into actual playability of the holes. The port side across from Wonder Dunes has a sports court, and in the center a zipline goes across the open area over the Boardwalk. The entrance to the zipline is near the stern, which also has a bar called the Wipe Out Bar – maybe people head there after unsuccessful tries on the flow rider? Behind that bar at the very back of the ship there’s a giant purple anglerfish with stairways inside that serves as the entrance to the 10-deck Ultimate Abyss dry slides.
suite sundeck (internet photo)
Suite Class Neighborhood
Oasis Class ships built prior to Wonder just have 7 neighborhoods, but Wonder added an 8th one with the Suite Class Neighborhood, which is of course only for people who are staying in suites – and junior suites don’t count. This area is located on decks 17 and 18, where suites are the only staterooms to be found. Suite guests can hang out there without having to associate with the peons from smaller quarters on the rest of the ship. They have their own bar, sundeck, and plunge pool at the front of deck 17. In the back section of that deck, along with the grand suites, there’s a lounge just for suite guests and their own private dining room called the Coastal Kitchen. The front and back sections of deck 17 are not connected because those decks don’t run the full length of the ship. Deck 18 is just over the back section of deck 17 and has another sundeck in the midst of some fancy suites including two one-of-a-kind enormous suites, the Ultimate Family Suite, which is two-decks high, sleeps up to 10 people, and has a slide from the upper to lower levels and other family-friendly amenities like its own air hockey and ping-pong tables, and the Royal Loft Suite, also two decks high. It has more square footage, but only sleeps 6. There are also crown loft suites and owners suites in that area, but none of them are one-of-a-kind.
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