romesauce

Hi all, OP here. We decided to go on the Norway fjords cruise via Reflection in May instead since the dates for this Scandinavia cruise didn't work since we have a local wedding to attend during this sailing date. Thank you for all of the tips though! One day we'll do a Scandinavia/Russia sailing.

2 hours ago, mafig said:

 

Perfect choice.  Balcony is nice and big....with a lot of furniture (maybe a little too much if there's just two of you).

Right near the elevator but very quiet.

Nando was our room steward.  Hope he's yours too because he is very efficient, prompt and remembers any requests you might make.

Thank you! This is very helpful. 🙂

4 hours ago, mafig said:

 

Just jumping in here.  Just came back from Reflection.  Had a C2 balcony, first on the hump …. 1132.  We had two loungers, two chairs, two footstools and a table.  It was actually a little crowded.

Hi! We'll be staying in this exact room in 2.5 months while we sail the Norway fjords on the Reflection! How did you like the room? I booked it specifically because it was on the hump and we'd get the larger balcony.

Yeah, that was me that Allura_317 quoted. I sailed the Symphony in December and had the UDP. That was our experience at Playmakers in December. It's not included in the UDP according to the staff and manager there.

35 minutes ago, RG0592 said:

 

Thank you for your post!  This is exactly the information I was looking for!  I'm cruising in June on the Symphony - my first RCCL cruise.  Question:  At Hooked, Jamie's Italian, etc. is it still an "all you can eat" experience?  Like - ordering 2 appetizers if you can't decide etc.?  I'm not sure we're doing the Ultimate Dining Experience, but may purchase the 3 dinner package.

Yes it is! You can still order as much as you'd like including two appetizers for yourself or two desserts for yourself etc.

1 hour ago, rbschultz said:

Hi Rome... firstly, totally agree on the Indian food on many cruise ships...always EXCELLENT. The curries are delicious though some of the meat in them is sometimes way overcooked. Second... do you know if you can keep your early/late seating in the MDR AND get the UDP? I'm trying to do the math out for my cruise in August and we do enjoy spending time in the MDR in addition to the specialty meals.

 

Thanks in advance!

I'm sorry, I wouldn't know since we always choose the Anytime/My Time Dining.

8 hours ago, barb65 said:

Just curious, you said you purchased your UDP during a Black Friday special. How soon before your cruise did they offer this special, so I know when to start looking for it for our upcoming Symphony cruise?

Our cruise was in December and this deal was in November, so about three to four weeks before our cruise.

On 1/16/2019 at 2:19 PM, Cindy said:

I recommend City and Causeway Tours. Alister (the owner) was very easy to work with and our day was superb!

 

https://www.cityandcauseway.com/

 

 

Just wanted to let you know that we officially booked a tour with Alister! He seems super easy going and already gave us a super packed itinerary. The price was great too for a private excursion for just the two of us. Cheaper and A LOT more stops than a similar excursion Celebrity was offering too.

50 minutes ago, Cindy said:

I recommend City and Causeway Tours. Alister (the owner) was very easy to work with and our day was superb!

 

https://www.cityandcauseway.com/

 

 

Thank you! I'll check them out.

Hi there! My husband and I will be stopped in Belfast on June 2nd and we're looking for a Game of Thrones tour. I've emailed Irish Tour Tickets and it looks like the one they offer is no longer available. We're looking for one that stops at Giant's Causeway and the Dark Hedges. Also, a major plus if they supply costumes for picture opportunities. The tours I've found are longer than we're in port and the meeting point is far from the terminal. We'll be in port 9am to 5pm. Any suggestions?!

14 hours ago, Sunshine summertime said:

We are on Celebrity out of Dublin May 2019

We'll be on this sailing too!

Was on the Dec. 15th sailing and it wasn't available then. We really wish it was though since at the airport, just to get our bag tags and to drop off our bags at the baggage drop took almost an hour.

12 minutes ago, hallasm said:

Here som inspiration for Bergen, Ålesund, Geiranger and Olden. 

Ålesund

In addition to the excursion to Trollstigen you can also walk - Ålesund is very walkable. In 1904 a fire destroyed Ålesund's city center. It was rebuilt in  Art Nouveau style and is very picturesque. Also visit the Aksla Viewpoint with a cafe for a cup of coffee.

Bergen

The city is also very walkable and good for a DIY-day. Bryggen Wharf is on Unesco’s list of World Heritage - another popular attractions is the Fish Market

Also take a trip up to Mt. Fløyen with  Fløibanen funicular or to Mt. Ulriken with the cable car and enjoy the view of the city, the fjord and the ocean.

Geiranger

Sailing through the Storfjord and a Geirangerfjord to Geiranger has a fantastic view to the mountains  - just before arrival to Geiranger you’ll pass the Seven Sisters Waterfall. Take the panorama bus to the best viewing points: Geiranger Skywalk at Dalsnibba, Flydalsjuvet or Eagle Bend. Geirangerfjord is at the UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Sites

Olden 

Olden is a small pleasant village at the end of the scenic Nordfjord. A ten minutes walk from the quay will bring you to the centre of Olden. From here excursions to Briksdal Glacier, Loen Skylift, Kjenndal Glacier and boat trip on Olden Lake.

Thank you! Gives me plenty to research and plan.

Currently booked on an 8 night Norway Fjords sailing via Celebrity Reflection for May 2019. This one goes out of Dublin and stops in Alesund, Bergen, Geiranger, Olden and then Belfast. Right now, I'm currently planning to book a fjords to trolls excursion for Alesund and a GOT tour in Belfast. Rest are up in the air right now. Always looking for suggestions or if any of the remaining ports can be DIY 🙂

1 hour ago, BigRoger said:

Interesting experience with Playmakers... I think there might be a wee bit of potential staff naughtiness and P&L management here... or a change in policy could have occurred for Caribbean season (unlikely but possible).

 

Reason for this is that we had the ultimate dining package for the symphony TA to Miami and got confirmation from RCI centrally that it was included in the package (which we took with us on board).

 

We went for lunch for an NFL game ourselves and checked with (Mark?) the Manager of Playmakers from Canada and he stated it wasn’t included... but was then very quick to say he’d honour it and not charge us when we showed him the central RCI confirmation that it was indeed included.

 

It left a bit of a bad taste (no pun) as we felt that he knew it should be included but the start default position was to try to state it wasn’t... then to back down.

 

Again things might have changed but the default 2 months ago was it’s included....

Yeah that was the same manager that we talked to as well. Even the two waiters we talked to said automatically it was not included. There really should be signage or something visible for patrons to know that it's not included if that is their official stance.

1 hour ago, smeck said:

I bet that won’t happen again. 

Yep! Never again. We knew we were extremely lucky that we got it back. The running joke on the cruise was every time we went to a restaurant or even sitting at Cafe Promenade, we'd ask each other if we have the CPAP with us or where it is. 

41 minutes ago, Grenouille21 said:

 

Enjoying your review!!  We sail on the Symphony in March.  Question about the above post.  Was the long line at the airport just for checking bags?  Was that at Miami or FLL?  We only do carry-on luggage, would we avoid that long line?  I am trying to decide between a 10:30 flight or a 4:30 flight, both out of Miami.  We have TSA pre-check.  

It was for Miami. The long lines was for American Airlines and it was for both, getting to a kiosk to print boarding passes/luggage tags and then another long line to drop your tagged bag off. So, if you only use carry-on you should be fine if you also do a mobile boarding pass or are able to print a boarding pass before you head to the airport. TSA pre-check line was fairly quick.

10 minutes ago, Plumbjim said:

 

Thanks for reply. I know better, but it almost makes me want to try for a 10 AM flight out of FLL. If not, I  have to wait until 4 pm to fly out.

Be warned. The line to check in and at security might be long in the morning. We waited for an hour just to get our bag tags and to drop off our bags at the airport. Thankfully, we have TSA Pre-check so security line wasn't long for us but regular security, the line was long. We got to the airport 3 hours before our flight so we had plenty of time, but there were folks in line that had a flight in an hour and they were really cutting it close.

8 minutes ago, Plumbjim said:

Nice review. Going in January. Question: did you do the self assist debarkation & what time you made it off the ship?

Thank you!!

Yes. We took off our suitcases ourselves. We went to breakfast in the MDR around 7am and we were able to leave our suitcases at the entrance. We then were off the ship around 7:45am. There was a line to scan your seapass to get off the ship but it went by quickly. This was actually longer than going through customs. Customs was literally 30 seconds.

On the schedule we received, they notified us that they allowed self-disembarkation between 6am and 8am.

56 minutes ago, MKESail said:

So the Refreshment Package IS accepted at the bionic bar, as long as it's a non-alcoholic drink? 

Yes. On the Harmony in 2016, I had the Refreshment package and was able to get non-alcoholic drink there. I just got off the Symphony, and this time we were able to design our own non-alcoholic drinks which was also included. They also had more non-alcoholic drinks to choose this time around.

12 minutes ago, Lmm79 said:

I have a question about this- we always tip extra as well in specialty restaurants but if the OP left her tips in place (which we do, and this is not a question about doing that) what happens to the portion of tips that are supposed to go to their servers at the MDR that they don’t use?  Does that also go into the tip pool for the specialty restaurants?  Or the CK servers if you have access to that location? 

Sorry, I don't know the answer to this. 

8 minutes ago, larrbehr said:

Thanks for the wonderful review.  We will be on the Symphony in January with the 3 dinner package.  We knew we wanted to do Hooked and Wonderland, but didn't know which one to chose for our third.  We decided on 150CP, thanks to your review.

No problem! Make sure to get the fried cheesecake! I also loved the tenderloin (it says it's for two but you can get it for one person). The bread at the beginning of the meal was amazing too!

10 minutes ago, taglovestocruise said:

One small point. What is included in the package is a .. service charge.. not gratuities.  We were made aware of this while onboard Symphony.  A service charge is put into the pool for all crew who share,  Our server in Jamie's told us she gets a few dollars from the  service charge, any tips that are left are for her alone to keep.  We always leave a extra $10.00 on the final bill. 

Yep! Thank you for that point. I should have added that to my original post. We always tipped as well. 🙂

7 minutes ago, lizzy911 said:

Did you use the 40% off bottles of wine? Is using that discount straightforward?

Unfortunately we didn't. My husband doesn't drink, however I do but not much. We did have the Refreshment package which we took full advantage of.

10 minutes ago, LuCruise said:

Great. Thank you.

Btw.. I know it's subjective but what was your favorite dinner?  We're debating what to book for BOGO

150CP! Both dinners we went to were phenomenal. It was our favorite restaurant the entire week. Not busy, quiet, phenomenal service and food. This restaurant also had our favorite dish of the week which was the fried cheesecake for dessert! Ah, I'm drooling just thinking about it now.