ARandomTraveler

I didn't have this issue on Symphony last week. We ate at specialty restaurants 13 times in 7 days (would have been 15 but we cancelled 1 lunch and 1 dinner because we were too busy or tired to go). I ate at Izumi twice, and ate from the set menu both times. The first time I went by myself and received a receipt that showed $42+/- of food that was comped and given to me for $0 with the UDP. The second time I went with my daughter and I don't remember the dollar amount on the receipt (I feel like there wasn't one that time), but know that the bottom line was also $0. The physical menu had a note on it about ordering from the set menu, or using a $34.99 credit to order a la carte. I went to Playmakers twice, which is one of the restaurants you have to use the $20 credit at, and I asked the waiter what the current deal was because I had read that you could now only use the $20 credit once per day, and I wanted to know if you could come back later in the day to use the remaining credit if it wasn't fully used the first time. He said he hadn't been notified of any such rule and that as far as he knew, you could come back as many times as you wanted in the day, and use a new $20 credit each time. We also used the $20 credit at Johnny Rockets, but not on the same day that we went to Playmakers. We never used up the entire $40 that we had available between the two of us in one day, so I can't say from personal experience whether there was a system in place to stop you from using the $20 credit more than once. We did visit more than one specialty restaurant in a day (for example we used it for lunch and then again for dinner, and again for dessert). We also used it one day for 2 dinners (really it was more 1 dinner, and then an after-dinner whole lobster for my daughter later that night). No problems doing that either. We never ordered more than 1 entree a piece, but we were brought additional appetizers and main dishes without asking for them. We did order an additional appetizer without realizing it one night, and they gave it to us without charging us anything extra. The only issues we had using the UDP all week we're A) it was hard to get reservations at the times we wanted after day 1 because our ship had 6400 people and B) It was more food than we could eat, but we made our best attempt.

I wouldn't cancel it, Coastal kitchen is totally different than unlimited dining. If you're on an Oasis class ship, there are a ton of different dining options, with different menus and different atmospheres. Coastal kitchen is just a dedicated main dining room with (supposedly) upgraded menus from the regular main dining room, but it's certainly not the same as being able to visit different restaurants with different themes and food categories every night.

10:30am is the earliest. I had an 11am time last week and was through security and on the ship in 9 minutes. Make sure to book all your shows and dining (if you have a dining package) immediately when you get on. Some of the restaurants (wonderland and hibachi) were fully booked before 11:30, and others had minimal time slots left.

My next cruise is 7 months away and then only drink package available is the soda package with Voom internet.

Tell me about it! A junior suite is selling for $4200 PER PERSON for my Spectrum sailing next summer. Over $9000 per person for a "sky" junior suite, and over $8,000 per person for a "sky" balcony. Want a grand suite? $9,883 per person. Owner's suite? $12,648 per person. Ultimate family suite? $37,264 per person. And the ship is almost fully sold out 🤣😵‍💫. Granted, this isn't a typical 7 day Caribbean sailing, it's a 12-day Asia sailing, but still. I spent a lot of money on a regular balcony for this one, but it looks like I might be able to call for a Re-price because I see regular balcony rooms are available again (they were sold out before today), and they're only $2500/person now.

I'm not sure. Back when he left the boards, the explanation given by another member was something along the lines of him wanting to spend more time dedicated to his wife and family, or something along those lines. I haven't seen him back since.

Just got off Symphony yesterday, no hand sanitizer in the room, but there's hand sanitizer stations all over the place. We kept our hands clean and hand sanitized them every time we pushed an elevator button, and before and after we ate. Sometimes we had to walk outside the entrance of a restaurant to get the sanitizer if we forgot our own pocket sized one, but it was really easy and quick to do. I'd still bring a pocket sized one for when you're on the islands, but no need to bring more than that.

If the payment date comes and you haven't gotte me the refund, I would just pay the whole balance. When they refund the money, it'll show a negative balance, so you'll have a credit towards the next bill. If it's not a credit card you use often, then you can request a check from the credit card company.

I didn't think of that, given how long the delay seems to be, I think that would be fair. If it was just a couple hours I'd say 🙄 but now that I see it's basically the whole day, you guys should definitely be refunded a days worth of the "extras" (internet, dining, drinks).

Good idea. The wind generated power could probably net them some energy offsets too 🤔

Compensate you for the weather? 😂 C'mon now. If you really want to make sure you can be compensated for inconveniences during your trip, you can buy travel insurance that covers delays.

I wasn't pissing or moaning, just responding to the post about my experience and my preference based on that experience.

Just got off Symphony this morning. They didn't decorate for xmas yesterday.

I actually found it more confusing NOT to switch to local time. We had 2 days in a row where we were at ports in the central time zone (an hour behind ship time). Our phone clocks continued to pick up the local time for several hours after leaving port, making it so we constantly had to check the RC app to see what the ship time was (because we weren't sure at what point we would cross over to the eastern time zone again. When you have dining and show reservations it's annoying not to be able to look at your phone and see what time it is, and to have to check the app to make sure you get places on time. That leads me to another realization that I confirmed about myself, which is that I really dislike being on a schedule on vacation. Having to revolve my day around dining and show reservations I made on the first day was really annoying. I wish it was easier to decide what restaurants and shows to attend on the day-of without risking not being able to go at all. I just got off Symphony and had to make all my reservations the minute I boarded the ship. I was annoyed every day that I had to go to dinner when I wasn't hungry yet, or that I had to wait to go to dinner when I was hungry now (I had the dining package).

I think you could do it by just ordering the filet, which comes with the dining package (or with your paid dinner fee), and then add the paid lobster. Chops was the only restaurant that charged people with the dining plan for lobster. After getting it free all week I was kind of surprised.

She was on symphony elevator this week. Only saw her on thanksgiving, which was day 6 (formal night). It was fun, we had a sing along on our way to the next floor and most people participated as they got on and off.

On Symphony now

I started reading this and saw Bob (Clarea) was posting and was like "No way, Bob's back!"...whomp whomp

Finishing up the last 2 days on the Symphony. We have the dining package, and I will say that the food is great, but plan for meals to dictate your whole day if you want to eat at specialty restaurants. Once you book your reservations they're very hard to change (at least if the ship is full) because there won't be any availability after day 1, and you'll have to get on wait lists or go at the very end of the day (9pm) to see if people finished early and you can get a table. Dinners are looooooong. One and a half to 2 hours. We were able to get out of Jamie's in 45 min once, only because we had a very tight window before having a show reservation. We had to skip dessert. Because we had to book meals on day 1, we're now stuck having to plan all of our days around reservations that have not yet been at a time we really wanted to eat. And it's a lot of food. 4 courses every night. We're just not very big people and we can't ingest that much food all at once. We don't finish any of the courses, and we're constantly having to reassure waiters that it's not because we don't like the food, but because we only way 120 pounds and we can't eat this much. For the people who are wondering if it's worth getting the dining plan if they're planning to go to coastal kitchen every night for dinner, I would say no. Going to coastal kitchen is basically choosing to eat at the main dining room every night, and it would be a waste to pay for the dining plan if you won't use it every day.

I'm happy to report that we're currently on day 6, having made it to Costa Maya, Roatan and Cozumel so far with nothing but sunshine and good weather. Zero rain except one night on the ship around 9pm for less than an hour, which I didn't even notice until I went to the aqua theater and the boardwalk was wet. Currently lounging in the solarium on a sea day, 84 degrees and sunny. Perfect.

No. Boarded on Saturday, didn't need it (My state provides a digital copy in case it was needed). I was asked if I was vaccinated, and when I said yes, I was asked if I had the booster. I wasn't asked for the card though.

On the symphony now and LOVING it!!!

Oh wow, I'm so sorry to hear this. What a tragic story, and so frustrating that it was likely avoidable had her medical care been better for the prior year. I'm glad you guys had a fun travel experience as one of your final good memories.

Then you'll have more than enough money to spend at playmakers. The cookie only costs $6

The Izumi sushi isn't part of the same daily credit. Izumi sushi has a set menu that is part of the UDP, or, you can also use a $35 credit to order outside of the set menu. Playmakers (and Johnny rockets) are basically considered specialty restaurants. They don't have set menus, so these are the places you can use your daily $20 Credit at.