lovesickmelodyx

This has been a great review! I'm really enjoying it. I hope you had an enjoyable final sea day and have a safe trip home.

 

 

 

When in Naples, we took the ferry to Capri rather than touring Naples proper and had a fantastic day, but we did not get to try the famous Naples pizza. That's my only real regret from our cruise. I've yet to hear anyone say that it was just OK.

 

 

 

I will offer to the person who asked about Cinque Terre trains...the train schedule meant very little on the day that we were there. Some trains were delayed for up to 45 minutes and the next scheduled train would sometimes arrive before the previously scheduled train. Our wait times ranged from 5 minutes to 30 minutes. Signs at the stations do a good job of keeping you up to date on the status. I'd suggest targeting to be at the station a few minutes before a train is scheduled to arrive but be prepared for delays. There are enough trains that you should not need to wait TOO long and Cinque Terra is well worth visiting.

Hi Bob thanks for your kind words.

It’s a shame you had such a long wait time at Cinque Terre stations but I do tend to agree with you. The trains are almost always a few minutes late so anyone reading, don’t worry about rushing to catch one. Hope you get to visit Naples again someday and try the pizza this time.

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Rachel--Thanks so much for the info on Palma de Mallorca. The online descriptions were too much alike. I think we'll do the shorter Palma City Sights, which won't include as much walking.

 

 

 

Your review is fun to read! Thanks for the time it takes, it helps the rest of us.

 

 

 

I'm down to less than 100 days--can't wait! We're flying into Rome to spend 3 nights there before the cruise.

 

 

 

Barb

You are welcome Barb. I hope you enjoy your Palma tour it is a very beautiful place. My family have a timeshare there and visit often I think you will enjoy it and Rome as well.

Countdown is on!

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Is the solarium bistro complimentary in the evening.When I looked it was only showing for booking between 11 -4.

Absolutely complimentary. We didn’t even reserve we just turned up and were seated instantly.

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Really enjoyed your live report. We are on Symphony on the 19th August and intend using the ship as a floating hotel as have been to all of the ports loads of times. Will however get the bus in La Spezia to Portovenere and like yourself will aim to walk into Naples for a traditional pizza.

We found we ended up doing the same. No tours just simple visits for a few hours. There is so much to see and do on the ship you won’t want to get off. Have a great time and wear lots of sunscreen.

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Good morning to you all,

Very sadly reporting live from Barcelona airport as we await our flight home back to the UK :(

We have had the best week ever. Here’s my Day 7 update.

We began our final day at sea with a little treat for us. Breakfast room service. We ordered the complimentary breakfast which involved breads and cereals to be delivered between 8 and 8.30am with the intention of having a long full day final day at sea as from 9am. We got a call around 7.50 telling us it was on its way and at 8am it was at our door. We ate quickly and fell asleep again until....noon! Don’t judge, we are on vacation and definitely needed it. We are feeling rejuvenated today.

We got ready for the day and headed to the Solarium Bistro for lunch where we kept on finding amazing things to eat. We intended on going to El Loco Fresh for lunch but thought we could just get some salad at the solarium then a quesadilla later. WRONG. The mashed potatoes, buttermilk fried chicken and cheesecake got to us and we found we couldn’t physically move once more. We dragged ourselves into the solarium hot tub and bubbled there a while and I managed to order a Labadoozie in the middle of the Mediterranean. Pretty nice.

We went to see the new aqua show, Aqua Nation at 3pm, which you didn’t need reservations for. The show had to stop a few minutes early as the ship was moving quite a lot but it was great up until then. It was deemed unsafe for the performers which was absolutely fair enough. Can’t get enough of the high dives and synchronised swimming though.

This was followed by numerous scrabble and uno games in the card room and the quiz at 5pm. We won it again! We received some luggage tags and Central Park pins. I mean who knew turtles could breathe out their butts? Rob apparently!

We went back to our stateroom for a shower and to change and were out back the door again to Hooked for a drink. Here the bartender was so nice her name was Charie and she went on a hunt to find me some cucumber for a martini. Had a couple and they were delicious. One of my Top 3 favourite drinks from the week for sure. We headed to the MDR for dinner and the highlight was definitely our desserts of creme brûlée and the soufflé. Big thumbs up from us. I am afraid I didn’t get to take a picture of the menu as the cucumber martinis made me a little bit forgetful.

We were so sad it was the last evening we decided to cheer ourselves up by going for a second dessert to the Windjammer. I had key lime pie and caramel panacotta and Rob had a lot of jello. We ate this on our balcony in the room whilst watching the football at the Aqua Theatre. Then we packed our bags and had an early night as it was a 5.30 start this morning.

Disembarkation morning was super easy with express departure. We went to the WJ around 6.15am for my final pancakes and were in a taxi heading to the airport at 7am. No fuss about luggage tags or waiting to be called or leaving your bags outside the night before. I will do express departure every-time from now on and recommend it to everyone who is able to carry their luggage off themselves and has a morning flight.

So this is where we depart friends. Thank you to all who have been reading and engaging. I will try and answer as many questions and possible and upload a few more pictures for your viewing pleasure.

Until next time,

Rachel

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Hello all, reporting live from Symphony of the Seas on my Day 6 adventures.

Our day 6 in Naples started off at the relatively reasonable time of 9.30am where we headed to Park Cafe for breakfast. We have been overindulging far too much and really just wanted a tea and some toast. I had a salmon and cream cheese bagel and Rob had a panini. It is even hard to say no to fancy bread with toppings! They were both very nice and much easier on us than our usual breakfast piled up with bacon and eggs. Here I saw some people from Gibraltar too which is rare as there are only 30,000 of us.

We headed into Naples around 10.30am. I have been following a Naples food page on Facebook so I already had a few places for pizza and gelato lined up. We walked straight off the ship into the town fairly quickly but beware in the port area there is a lot of construction work so mind your step. There are also a lot of people trying to sell you taxi tours and bus journeys and hats and sunglasses, just ignore and say no, they won’t bother you again.

So...Naples! I had visited Pompeii and Vesuvius as a child on a guided tour, I hadn’t been in the city centre before and wow it definitely surprised me. We thankfully had google maps to guide us around to the main square and pizza places but what google maps didn’t tell us is that we’d spend the majority of our time almost getting run over. The cars and motorcycles are the craziest thing I have ever seen. There is a complete disregard for traffic lights and any form of road markings and road safety. It just seems like pedestrians and cars have no patience and just walk and drive straight through anything. We were very hesitant at first and waited at all the lights because it was quite frightening but I quickly got the hang of looking in all directions and just going for it. It seems cars just stop for pedestrians, but it’s the bikes zooming out of nowhere you have to watch out for.

So we arrived at the oldest pizzeria in Naples and there was a queue of over 50 people. We promptly decided to try somewhere else on my list and that was so much better than waiting in a line. It was nice walking around and seeing all the city had to offer. Overall it looked pretty run down and dirty with litter everywhere but the architecture on buildings like the banks was marvellous. We stopped for lunch at Franco’s pizzeria and ristorante and Rob had a classic margarita and I had a lemon and anchovies pizza. Both incredible and the best pizzas we’ve ever had, will be sad not being able to eat pizza like that at home. After this it was roasting hot so we wandered around a little more and we were going to get the metro back to the station that was 5 minutes walk from the port. The station we were at was closed and we were sweating buckets so we opted to get a taxi back to the ship instead as the roads were also really stressing me out! Our taxi driver was a crazy driver but we felt a lot safer being with someone who knew what they were doing. The fare was 23 euros (pretty steep for sitting around in traffic if you ask me) but we were safely back in one piece in the air conditioned ship by 3pm.

Once back on the ship I went down the Abyss which was so so fast and really fun. Rob waited for me at the bottom at Playmakers where we had a drink and watched the football.

I’ve done my very best to have a drink or a snack in every venue on board (except speciality restaurants) one of the venues we hadn’t been to yet was Cafe Promenade, where I had a chai tea latte and some cookies. Rob had an alcoholic mint iced coffee and some cheesecake. Its always so busy in there at peak times you can never get a seat so perhaps opt for somewhere else for your coffee. I’ve only got a few more spots to visit on my sea day so let’s see if I can manage them all. We then headed to the Solarium for a dip to cool off and back to the stateroom to shower and change for dinner.

We had Flight booked at 8.30 and by this point it was around 7. We thought dinner in the MDR would take too long for us to make it in time for the show so we opted for the Solarium Bistro. I will now confidently say this is my favourite dining venue on board. We arrived without reservations and were seated almost immediately and there was still plenty of free space. The choice was very suited to us with lots of Mediterranean style options offered. I tried both soups (Tomato soup and Moroccan harira soup) some dip and pitta bread and plenty of the main options (fish, chicken etc) with salad. The desserts were also super delicious. The star of the show had to be the lamb moussaka which is in my top 5 favourite things I have eaten on board. Do visit the Solarium Bistro for dinner if you fancy feeling less bloated than usual. Just know you can avoid the heavy cream sauces and all the potatoes you get at the MDR!

We made it to Flight just as it was starting. Without sounding snobby, I live in London and see plenty of West End shows regularly. The singing and dancing in Flight was spectacular, the performers are so talented, but the production in itself was really confusing. It seems to be a theme across all the shows we’ve seen on board. There is a very loose storyline and one can never be too sure what’s going on. But regardless, it was entertaining and some bits were quite moving actually. It’s also nice that we have been seeing Michele our CD so often. On some cruises CDs have been harder to spot but he must have an identical twin as he is everywhere all the time! He was at Flight greeting guests after the show. His morning show with Margot is one of the things we will miss the most.

We finished our night with a wander all over the ship, and found ourselves in Central Park listening to Jabes Canon the guitarist. I had a chocolate martini at the trellis bar followed by a sangria at Vintages which were both surprisingly excellent. We were pretty tired after this and called it a night around 11.

It is our final day today and we are extremely sad!!! But lots of fun still to be had. Sorry no pics today as they don’t seem to be working. Will try upload some soon.

Rachel

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I am enjoying your live review of the Symphony.

 

Cinque Terre is one of our favorite vacation places. We stay in the old part of Monterosso in a Bed and Breakfast where they provide abundant complimentary wine and focaccia on their second floor terrace.

 

You didn’t go to Rome......it is difficult to wrap my mind around that but it is understandable. It is a long train ride in and back. We agree...much better to land vacation in Rome which we’ve done several times. Once when we were doing Rome from the cruise ship and trying to get back to the ship on our own, the train went underground and stopped when the workers went on strike. We almost missed the ship.:o

 

Keep those nice pictures coming. You are doing great!! We are also receiving text photos from friends who are on board with you....wish we had booked the SY.

Sounds like I need to go back to Cinque Terre and visit as a land vacation for that focaccia and wine. Definitely our favourite spot on the entire cruise. Another reason we opted to avoid Rome - the rail strikes! We will do a land vacation soon I have no doubt and not have to worry about missing the ship just as you did.

Thanks so much for the kind words, there is still time to book on the Symphony, it’s too good to resist!

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I have a question about the excursions to Palma de Mallorca:

 

the website gives a very abbreviated description, and I can't tell what the difference would be in these 3. Can you look at your excursion listing and give me a description?

 

 

 

City of Palma Guided Tour

 

 

 

Palma City Sights PJ10

 

 

 

City of Palma Excursion Plus PJD1

 

 

 

Thanks in advance if you are able to help.

 

Barb

That’s all the info I have for Palma. Hope it helps.

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Thanks for you Cinque Terre info... I have read so much info on how to do this I think I have confused myself!!!

 

Did you feel like you wasted time waiting for the train to get between the villages or did you have a timetable and arrived at the station just as the train was scheduled?.

How much time would you allocate in each place?

Can you walk between any village (I have read of a path but that had a landfall and not sure if it is open again)

 

Thanks for a great review!

LB

 

 

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You’re very welcome I hope it helps.

We received a paper timetable when we bought our tickets. The trains run every half hour or so between the towns so we just timed our visits well and made sure we weren’t waiting more than 10 minutes or so at the station to head over to the next village.

I would say we spent around one hour in each village and that was plenty of time to get a feel for the place.

You can walk between the villages but they were quite a distance apart and it was super duper hot. The trains are so easy it seems silly not to take advantage of them. There were some trails which were closed due to rockfalls. If you are a keen hiker I would go for the trails but if you are just the average person personally, I would stick with trains.

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Good afternoon everyone, here is my Day 5 update...

Today we arrived to Civitaveccia at around 8am. We had no idea because we were fast asleep! Honestly I have only felt the ship moving around once and that was on the night of Day 2.

As mentioned previously we decided to skip Rome today for several reasons, the main ones being that I have been to Rome three times before on land holidays, and we would also like to visit again in the future for more time as a land holiday. It is easy for us since it is cheap and a short flight.

We definitely picked a good day to stay on the ship as it was very empty as most people had left on tours. We began our day early with breakfast at Johnny Rockets around 9am. I had pancakes with bacon and Rob had eggs and bacon and sausages. It was yummy (big fan of American style pancakes) and it was also an advantage to just have one plate of food brought to you. If you’re anything like me and have eyes bigger than your stomach it is hard to resist the multitude of temptations of the buffet.

Post breakfast we headed to the beach pool and sat under the shade for a couple of hours, chilling with a couple of my ideal morning beverages like piña coladas and a love connection. Rob must have gone on the water slides about 10 times, he loved them so much. We didn’t swim in the beach pool very much as the salt water seemed to be VERY salty and was quite stingy in our eyes, mouth and nose. Happier bubbling away in the hot tub.

We followed up with lunch at the Solarium Bistro. Dare I say it but...

Solarium Bistro > Windjammer!!!

The area is much smaller and easier to navigate, and you are not overwhelmed by so much choice. The options available seem somewhat healthier as well. Avoiding burgers and pizza and other unhealthy options becomes easier if they’re not actually there. I definitely had the best dessert I’ve had all cruise and that was the dulce de leche cheesecake. So so so evil but sensational.

After that lunch we headed straight for a nap for a couple of hours. I have caught up on so much lost sleep on this cruise since the beds are so comfortable. Post napping we got ready for the evening and headed to the quiz at the pub. We came second once again, we need to up our game! We had a cool host called JP from Brazil. He has been my favourite from the entertainment staff so far. We also popped by the Loyalty Desk to sign Rob up for C&A and I found I have been boosted up to Emerald class. Yes!

We then went to dinner which was excellent as per usual but we were sadly not able to sit with DaVinci. However it did not impair the quality of our meal as we still enjoyed it. Food was nice of course but not as good as we have had other nights.

Following dinner we grabbed a drink at Bionic Bar and went to see the comedy show at The Attic. There were two comedians and they were super funny. The venue was really very empty which seemed a shame to play to an empty crowd but we had fun regardless. Post comedy show we saw a singing group called 4ever in the main theatre who were kind of reminiscent of Il Divo. They were very talented and maybe nice for an older crowd. We opted for a game of mini golf after this and Rob beat me :(

One of our favourite things to do is take a walk around the running track. It’s easy to forget you are at sea so heading out on Deck 5 for a lap around the track at night is beautiful and also helpfully aids digestion after dinner. After a walk we browsed some of the shops and we saw part of a game show at On Air (I participated and won a lanyard!) we finally grabbed a slice of pizza at Sorrento’s alongside a nightcap at the pub and headed to bed. Another awesome day.

Today we have visited Naples which I have plenty to write about. It is also our second last night and the sadness is setting in. Will update tomorrow and hopefully answer any questions you guys have.

Rachel

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Hi loving your live report.I'm on Symphony this September also on deck 9 boardwalk cabin.Never done this before always have an ocean view balcony.Enjoy the rest of your cruise.

Thanks so much. You will really enjoy the boardwalk cabin I think as you will still have a partial sea view and get to see all the boardwalk action. Just take earplugs if you plan on sleeping anytime before midnight as the Aqua Show can be kind of loud.

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Love the photos you’ve been posting! I can’t wait to see Symphony next March.

Really appreciate seeing the menus too.

Thanks so much. Hope you have a great cruise in March.

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I am a little confused by the pool in the solarium. I have seen pictures of what looks like a large hot tub with a picture window. Is that the pool or is that the hot tub? Is there an actual solarium pool? I and my wife really enjoy the solarium on different ships and we look forward to spending time at this one! Thanks for your great review!

Thanks so much for your kind comments. I will grab you some pictures today. There is an actual Solarium pool with the picture window but it is pretty small and I would say it is a similar size to a very large hot tub. There is also a separate hot tub too. We quite enjoy the pool but it is usually busy and you won’t get any actual swimming done like you might in a main pool. We enjoy it for the peace and tranquility.

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Hello all! Hope you are having a great day wherever it is you are. Here’s my Day 4 update from La Spezia.

We began our day relatively early heading to breakfast at the Solarium Bistro around 9am. We really enjoyed the breakfast here as we felt it was pretty similar affair to the Windjammer but slightly less overwhelming. For example, they still had cereals, but a choice of four instead of nine varieties. We’ve been eating and drinking so much the last few days we thought we’d take it down a notch. I had an omelette (made to order it was yummy) and some french toast for breakfast. We then set off pretty early into La Spezia via the port shuttle bus which dropped us off at the cruise terminal, about a 10 minute walk from the centre of La Spezia.

As I mentioned previously we intended on doing all stops on our own rather than going on a ship organised tour. Our plan was to visit the Cinque Terre villages which were indeed incredible. I became interested after seeing some YouTube videos by Jeven Dovey and a few others who were on the inaugural cruise and visited earlier in the year. The process of getting there was super simple and I would recommend it to everyone. We walked from the cruise terminal to La Spezia Céntrale train station which was just over 20 minutes walk. We then purchased our tickets from the Cinque Terre point in the station which were 16 euros each for unlimited travel between La Spezia and all five villages. Note: there was a very long queue and even though we got there early we still had to wait around 20 minutes to buy the tickets, when we left the queue had doubled in size. I’ve heard it’s worth buying your tickets online beforehand. I was very happy I got to practise my limited Italian at the very least but all the vendors spoke English. Trains between the villages run every 30 minutes or so, so we hopped on the train line to Levanto which had all the Cinque Terre stops and headed to the village furthest from La Spezia, Monterosso, and worked our way back. (Don’t forget to punch your ticket once at the validation machine before you board at La Spezia)

It was fast approaching midday and it was beginning to get very very hot. It actually reached around 33 degrees Celsius that afternoon so we opted to visit three of the villages instead of all five. Anyone visiting July or August please prepare yourselves because it’s only going to get hotter.

Monterosso was our first stop and this was a cute little spot with the most beautiful pebbly beaches. We wandered around the town centre and saw all the shops and church as well as a few street cats (I love cats so here’s a pic of me chasing some for pictures)

Rob also bought a hat as we definitely needed the protection from the scorching sun. There were at least lots of fountains around you could dip your hands in and put some water on your face and head to cool off. I don’t recommend it for drinking though as one can never be too sure.

We then waited a few more minutes for the train to Vernazza. This was the village I was the most interested in seeing as it looked so much like my home town of Gibraltar, and I was right! We grabbed some cool photos and a delicious gelato. I had a scoop of custard cream flavour and Nutella flavour. You could find gelaterias at every stop so just pick one and go for it. You’re in Italy, no such thing as bad gelato. After this we went back up to the Vernazza train station via all the back streets and headed on over to Riomaggiore, the biggest of the towns.

Just as a little note, the trains are super simple to navigate and there’s always space to sit down in the 5/10 travel time between the villages. But sometimes they are a few minutes late. Don’t worry, they will arrive.

We were quite hungry by the time we got to Riomaggiore, so we walked around a little and enjoyed people watching and stopped at a cafe. I was also overjoyed I got to practise my Italian again. Here I had a plate of pesto pasta and Rob had focaccia with pesto, goats cheese and sun dried tomato. We were in absolute food heaven. If you like pesto, this is the place to have it, can’t get more authentic than this spot where it originates from! We also finished our meal by sharing a slice of Nutella pizza. At this point I was on the verge of requiring a piggy back all the way back to the ship.

After spending around 4 hours out we decided to go back to the ship as our feet were hurting. I’ve just checked my steps for the day and we walked over 20,000 steps, around 13km. No need to worry about all that gelato. So I’ve seen both Pisa and Florence before and Pisa is such a quick stop and there isn’t huge amounts there apart from the tower. Florence is much more beautiful with more to see. Overall though, I would say the Cinque Terre villages is a unique day out but be prepared to wait for trains a lot and see a lot of tourists too. A welcome change from the usual.

In the evening we went to the MDR and finally got to try Deck 4. Our waiter Victor from Trinidad and Tobago made us laugh so much and we also had a chat with the head waiter and the chef. We probably had our best meal to date too.

I had the Moroccan tuna and Rob had the pork chop. I didn’t get pictures because we ate it in around 4.27 minutes flat. We could have had another but opted to take it easier today.

We finished our evening with a nightcap at the Schooner Bar (I had a tropical manhattan which was one of my fave drinks so far) then by jumping in our swim suits and heading to the main pool until 10pm.

We hadn’t had a chance yet to visit any of the pools apart from the solarium pool as its been pretty packed everyday, but we finally got a chance to enjoy the super quiet pool (only a couple of kids there) and watched from the pool with a lava flow as the ship left La Spezia. Following this we had a dip in the Solarium hot tub and a few drinks at the pool bar until late.

We were shattered from our busy day and fast asleep by midnight. On the plus side, I slept straight through until 9am today. Must be something about the deluxe beverage package and the motion of the boat helping me sleep.

I am writing this from the Beach Pool at midday on Day 5 in Rome. Having been three times in the past, we decided to skip it and give ourselves yet another sea day! Being European we can catch a two hour flight to Rome for a weekend in the future for €50 in off season. We’d much rather do that than try and cram everything into a few hours.

Now to try and find Rob, he’s been on the water slides around 7 times now and wants me to take a video as he comes out. Typical!

Rachel

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I’m following and loving your review. I’m also following you on IG!

 

It’s my dream go to Europe one day!

 

 

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Thank you so much. I hope you get to achieve it soon!

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It’s been very nice to follow your journey. Your writing is very useful and entertaining:)

I wonder if you explored the Cinque Terre villages by train?

Would like to know the distance from the boat to the train station in La Spezia, and how long time it takes to the villages by train? Only 18 days to my cruise:-)

Hello. Thank you so much! We did explore the Cinque Terre villages by train. It was 16 euros for the Cinque Terre pass which gives you unlimited train travel between La Spezia and all the villages. It is around a 25 minute walk to La Spezia train station and around a 25 minute journey to Monterosso which is the village furthest away. I will explain a little more in my post for La Spezia which will come very soon.

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Thank you to everyone who has replied and said they enjoy the review and are following along. I’ve been reading everyone’s comments and haven’t had the time to reply to every single one but I have read and listened so thank you for engaging. Please feel free to ask anything I’ll do my best to help out. I am also saving all the cruise compasses and will scan them when I am back home next week.

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If you get a minute can you look at the shops (particularly Michael Kors bags) and let me know how they compare to UK prices. Also do they add Spanish VAT to the price? Hope you have a great cruise we are on at the end of July and looking forward to it.

I did this for you yesterday. The large size Michael Kors bags are approx $330 with the Spanish VAT. The smaller ones were around $300 with the Spanish VAT. They had a huge selection though and I had to peel myself away before I attempted to buy one. Hard to resist!

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Will you try Escape the Rubicon?

 

 

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Probably not this time around. I have done plenty of escape rooms before and being stressed out trying to solve puzzles wasn’t quite on the agenda. Maybe next time!

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Good afternoon all, I must update you on our antics from yesterday...

Day 3 in Marseille was a super relaxed day for us as we decided not to go into port and instead gave ourselves a sea day and stayed on board. We began our day super late at around noon! (very rare for us) with lunch at El Loco Fresh. We’re both Mexican fans and I was hoping this lived up to the hype and it truly did. Delicious make your own tacos and burritos. The cheese quesadilla was awesome. The best part of El Loco Fresh was the salsa station where you could add every single topping imaginable to your food. Our nachos were swimming in queso and guac and they were divine. Desserts were fine but I thought that personally, I make a better flan! After lunch we took a walk around the ship’s running track (to aid the digestion) and also went to explore the gym and spa and had a quick session of table tennis. (I won but I’m told it’s beginners luck) Thanks to the deluxe drinks package we indulged in a fresh juice. Mine had carrots, oranges, ginger and apples.

After the eventful lunch I decided I needed to lie down as moving was a little too difficult lol. We came back to the room and watched some tv before heading to the Solarium, our favourite spot, for even more chill time. Rob tried the water slides (not my cup of tea) and said they went super fast and wants to do them again today. Good signs.

After the Solarium and in between all the cocktails we did a quiz. We came second this time around! The entertainment staff on board have been really fun and we love our CD Michele and Activities Manager, Margot. They have only been working together for a couple of weeks but the chemistry is great and we can’t help but smile when we spot them around the ship.

After our quiz we got ready for dinner and headed to the MDR around 7pm. We’ve been going for dinner between 6.30pm and 7.30pm and we have been put at a table with Davinci who is a great waiter. We will request to be sat with him again tonight as he is so funny. Always singing and yesterday he did a cool magic trick (small things amuse small minds like mine!) I didn’t manage to get a picture of the menu but I do remember I had consommé, chicken, and a warm cookie but the highlight was the rack of lamb!

Davinci has me and Rob pretty sussed out. Being big eaters we love to clean our plates and are often indecisive between dishes as we love all foods. Davinci saw we were thinking what dishes to choose and brought out an extra main course (the rack of lamb) for us to share as we couldn’t quite decide, which was incredible. This also meant however, I once again could not move.

We shuffled around the shops in the evening then watched 1977, the ice show. Definitely go see this show as it was really exciting, even if the storyline was a little questionable. We ended our night with a drink and a quick karaoke at On Air and a chat with or Scottish friends before crashing at around midnight. Another day done and dusted.

Sorry there have not been many pictures in today’s update. We were enjoying the day too much! I will update tomorrow on what we’ve done this morning and what we end up doing tonight. Expect lots of Cinque Terre pics.

Rachel

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Hello again all.

It is 10am on Day 3 in Marseille. Our Day 2 was even better than Day 1 and I thought that was going to be hard to top.

Our day started with a late start and a visit to the Windjammer for breakfast. It seemed pretty busy around 10.30am but we found a table really easily. Had some pancakes with maple syrup. I really love American style pancakes you don’t find often in Britain.

We then headed off the ship and decided we were going to venture into Palma. For some unknown reason I was under the impression I could walk to the centre of Palma from where we had docked but it was over an hours walk and pretty warm already. We decided to opt for the shuttle which was offered at the terminal, 10 euros each both ways and it dropped us right at the Cathedral. We didn’t stay for long, just wandered around for a while getting a feel for the place, it was really very pretty and we will be back to visit.

Once back on board the ship we headed to Guest Services to check a charge on our card (was fixed within 2 minutes- awesome) then to Sorrentos for some pizza. Now I know this is a huge topic of debate, but I really thought the pizza was...fine? It wasn’t the worst I’ve ever had, nor was it the best. Was perfect as a quick snack. If you’re British, to me it tasted like one of those posh pizzas from supermarkets finest ranges. Rob also needed a hot dog afterwards which has said was pretty good too. We decided after this to attempt the trivia at the pub and we won! Very pleased with our new highlighters.

Afterwards we headed to the Solarium for chilling and watching us sail away from Palma. Being a school teacher, I really do love kids. I also love escaping from kids when I am on vacation. The solarium is so quiet and peaceful we haven’t even been to any of the main pools yet. Maybe today will change that! At 5pm I was supposed to attend the meet and mingle but the motion of the boat and the mudslides got to me and I fell fast asleep...oopsies! Hope to see some others on board regardless.

We quickly got ready for formal night and headed to Wonderland for a pre dinner drink. Marius at the bar there was fantastic, great chat and service. He had only been working at Wonderland since Sunday but it looked like he had been there for the last 5 years. We really enjoyed the theatrics of the drinks at Wonderland. This was followed by our evening meal on Deck 5. We have MTD but we have yet to have dinner on Deck 4! It’s pretty cool that you have the possibility to be placed anywhere all over the three decks. We were at a window seat and served by Davinci last night who was so funny! He was singing away all evening and everything was spot on. I mentioned to Rob I wasn’t sure how much I liked my soup and maybe should have got the bisque, but carried on eating it anyways and literally 10 seconds later Davinci brought me a bisque! Amazing! This is exactly why I cruise on Royal.

After dinner we headed to The Aqua Theatre to watch Hiro and I could write a whole post about this show. We sat there with our mouths open the whole time, completely bewildered. Cirque du Soleil is nothing compared to this. Easily the best entertainment I have ever seen on a ship. Go and watch this.

After Hiro we went to Rockaokie which is karaoke with the live band. I sang Zombie by The Cranberries and it was super cool. Great Ideas were so fun and their singers were helpful backing me up. We took a walk around the ship after this and went back to the bionic bar to create more concoctions. One of our favourite things to do. We also found piano guy and did a few rounds in the lift with him!

We ended our night at the silent disco in the Attic which was crazy cool. Great atmosphere, loads of young people and the drinks were flowing. We made friends with a couple from Scotland who we chatted to all night until we called it at 3am with some more pizza from Sorrentos. The whole day was non stop perfection.

Today in Marseille we are giving ourselves a Sea Day to enjoy all the ship has to offer. See you down the Abyss!

Rachel

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Great to hear you were too busy having fun to post on your first day. :-) Bionic bar looks neat...something different and for Royal to show off their technology. Can't wait. Would love to hear what you think of your Boardwalk Balcony (and general location you are at). We will be in one on Symphony next year and always good to hear what others think. They look like lots of fun. Looking forward to hearing more.

Hello LuCruise,

Bet you are looking forward to next year!

I am very pleased with the Boardwalk balcony cabin. We are on deck 9 so everything is easily reached a few decks up or down.

I was concerned initially with the noise as I am very sensitive to sound but upon arriving I have found it hasn’t been an issue at all when the balcony door is closed, even with the World Cup being shown at Playmakers all day. The only time I have heard any noise was during the Aqua show when the music was pretty loud but it was at 9pm so not a bother to us at all. I have a pretty decent sea view too and it’s great seeing lots of people up and down the boardwalk. Only thing is remembering to keep curtains closed when you are changing as you can see in from the staterooms opposite pretty easily!

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Great review! We will be on the Symphony next May. Do you know what the daily price of the drink package is on the ship? I look forward to the rest of your review!

$60 for the deluxe package. Seeing it advertised shipwide. It is cheaper to buy beforehand online for sure.

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Rachel:

 

Awesome posts so far, thank you!

 

We are traveling in 3 weeks, embarking in Rome. Traveling with my kids and parents (wish me luck).

 

2 years ago we all cruised on the Radiance and splurged for the dining package since it was well worth it. However, I've been reluctant to book us all for dining ahead of time since it is currently so expensive.

 

Can you let me know what they were offering for the dining packages? This is the first I am hearing of dining packages being offered this summer.

 

Thanks again!

 

Chuck

Hi Chuck thanks so much for your comments. I hope you have a great cruise with your family. Symphony is so amazing you won’t be disappointed. I managed to snap this picture of what is being offered on board. Hope it helps

Rachel

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Thanks for this report. If you think about it, can you please find out if they offer late debarkation in Rome? Thanks.

Asked Guest Services today and I was told it was definitely offered, just visit them to book.

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