Wonder of the Seas Mediterranean Cruise: 6 Lessons We Learned

Quick Verdict

Our first Mediterranean cruise was Wonder of the Seas in July 2022, a 7-night Barcelona round trip with Ashley and me. It was a great week, and it was also a week of mistakes we did not make twice. When we went back to the Med in 2024 on Oasis of the Seas with 14 people across four families, almost every good decision on that trip traced back to something Wonder taught us.

This post is those lessons. If you want the 2024 trip itself, that’s in our Oasis of the Seas Star Class review.

The Trip at a Glance

• Ship: Wonder of the Seas, in her first summer in Europe
• When: July 2022
• Itinerary: 7 nights round trip from Barcelona, with Palma de Mallorca, Provence (Marseille), Florence and Pisa (La Spezia), Rome (Civitavecchia) and Naples
• Who: Just Ashley and me
• Cabin: Junior Suite
• Before the cruise: Three days in Barcelona

A quick note: this post includes affiliate links to the Viator tours we actually booked in Barcelona. If you book through them, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you, and we only link to tours we did ourselves. See our affiliate disclosure.

What Sailing in Summer 2022 Was Like

Wonder had been sailing for a few months by the time we boarded, so she was past the brand-new-ship growing pains. The bigger factor was timing. That was the first real season back after COVID, and everything felt a little strange.

Back then, Royal still required a proctored COVID test to board. We did ours in our Barcelona hotel the morning of embarkation. On shore excursions, masks were still part of the routine on the tour buses. None of that applies today, but it’s part of why this trip felt like a learning experience for us.

Wonder 2022 vs. Oasis 2024 at a Glance

6 Lessons From Wonder That Made Our Next Med Cruise Better

1. Arrive early. Three days in Barcelona was the right call

This is the one thing we got right the first time. We got to Barcelona three days before embarkation, and it made the whole trip. We boarded rested, and Barcelona got real time instead of a rushed afternoon.

We filled those days with three tours, all booked through Viator:

• A paella cooking class. The Interactive Spanish Cooking Experience was one of our first nights in the city and one of the best things we did all week.
• A Park Guell and city tour. The Best of Barcelona tour took us to Sagrada Familia, Park Guell and the Gothic Quarter.
• A tapas and history evening tour. The Tapas and History of Barcelona tour is an easy way to eat your way through the old city.

What changed in 2024: we kept the early arrival and made it bigger. We started in Madrid, then took the Iryo high-speed train to Barcelona. That wasn’t a fix for anything Wonder got wrong. We had already seen Barcelona, so we had room to add a city we had always wanted to visit, plus the train ride as an experience of its own. More on that train in our Mediterranean cruise tips.

2. Book your excursions through third parties, not the cruise line

If I could change one thing about that first trip, it would be this. On Wonder we mixed Royal’s shore excursions with a single third-party day, and that single day saved us significant money.

That day was Rome. Instead of a ship tour, we hired a private driver for the day through LimousInRome. Civitavecchia is a long way from central Rome, and having our own driver meant we set the pace, saw the Colosseum and the Trevi Fountain, and never worried about a bus count.

Our other ports were Royal excursions, like the Tuscan farmhouse day out of La Spezia. Those were good days. They just cost more than they needed to, and you share them with a bus full of strangers.

What changed in 2024: we used the same Rome company again and got excellent service again. When something works in a port, book it again.

3. Don’t try to do Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast in one day

In Naples we did Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast on the same day. We saw both. We also came back to the ship completely done.

Amalfi was the part we remember: lemon everything, the harbor, the cliffs. Pompeii and a full coastal drive on the same day was too much for one port call.

What changed in 2024: we skipped Pompeii completely and gave the whole day to the Amalfi Coast. Same port, half the stress, and a much better day.

4. Five port days in a row will wear you out

This is the bigger version of lesson three. A Western Med itinerary is port after port after port, and on Wonder we treated every one like a full day. Too much go-go-go makes for an exhausting trip, even when every single day is great.

My advice now: pick one or two ports to go big, and keep the rest short. Get off the ship, see the one thing, have a long lunch, and get back on board with time to enjoy the ship you paid for.

What changed in 2024: our Oasis itinerary skipped the South of France and had a sea day instead. Losing Provence was a little unfortunate, but it was also a blessing. With kids in the group, that sea day was exactly what everyone needed.

5. What works for two can be even better for fourteen

Some of what we did on Wonder as a couple worked so well that we brought it back for the group.

The best example is the paella class. As a couple, we cooked alongside other travelers and loved it. In 2024 we booked the same class for all 14 of us, and with a group that size it basically became a private experience. That was one of the highlights of the whole trip.

The Rome driver was the same story. One trusted company that already knew what we liked made planning for four families a lot simpler.

If you’re planning a group trip, a “test run” as a couple or a small family is worth more than any review you’ll read. You find out what’s worth scaling up and what to skip.

6. The Junior Suite was plenty. Our Star Class suite came from RoyalUp

Nothing on Wonder pushed us to upgrade. The Junior Suite did the job for the two of us.

So how did we end up in the Ultimate Panoramic Suite with Star Class on Oasis two years later? We booked a Junior Suite again, and then bid on it through RoyalUp, Royal Caribbean’s upgrade bidding program.

We bid basically the minimum, $1,800 per person ($3,600 total), and we won. Star Class already includes the add-ons we had prepaid, so Royal refunded those, and the upgrade cost us about $1,800 in the end.

That almost never happens. Minimum bids change by sailing, and most bids don’t win. But it’s worth knowing two things: a minimum bid can win, and the refunds of packages you’ve already paid for can take a big bite out of the real cost. If you get a RoyalUp offer, it’s worth running the math before you ignore it.

Would We Sail Wonder in the Med Again?

Yes. I give Wonder of the Seas a 4.9 out of 5, only because nothing is perfect. She’s a great ship for a first Mediterranean cruise, especially out of Barcelona. The ship was never the problem. The lessons were all about how we planned our time off it.

Two things I loved on board:

• The enclosed Solarium. Wonder was the first Oasis-class ship with a fully enclosed, climate-controlled Solarium. The earlier ships in the class have open-air ones. In a Mediterranean July, that climate control was clutch.
• The ice show. One of the best shows on the ship, and the Game of Thrones section was my favorite part.

If you’re booking your first Med cruise, here’s the short version:

• Arrive at least two or three days early
• Book excursions with trusted third parties
• Keep most port days short and go big on one or two
• Don’t stack two major sites in one port day
• If you get a RoyalUp offer, do the math

Want more? Our Mediterranean cruise tips cover flights, hotels and the high-speed train, every ship we have reviewed is on our cruise reviews page, and our Royal Caribbean travel advisor page lists every Royal ship we’ve sailed. If you’d like help planning your own Med cruise, reach out and tell us who’s coming.