cruiseturbo

Thank you for the live review Andrew!  We leave in three days to go to Barcelona and then board the Symphony on Sunday to bring her to the US.  It is our first TA and we are really excited however these next few days will drag by so we are happy to have your review to keep us busy!!  Have a great cruise!

Other than price, what is the difference between the experience you have with a Beach Bungalow vs what you experience with Ocean View Deluxe Cabana. We are trying to decide between the two.

 

Thank you!

We had a Cabana in May and LOVED it!!!- The Cabanas have a roped off beach area for swimming and have their own upgraded buffet lunch with bar. The upgraded lunch has steaks, shrimp and other grilled items as well as other upgraded sides and ice cream. The only people who eat at that buffet are from the cabana area so the area never gets crowded. The bar is just for that area as well. The restrooms are a short walk away but are not in the same roped off area. We received 4 bottles of Evian water in a cooler in our cabana. We also had 2 floating mats and 2 sets of snorkeling gear that was included in the cabana price.

We have not had one, but have read many reviews about them so this information is second hand.- The Bungalows are back on what they call South Beach, a longer walk, but it is also kind of secluded. They are also in a roped off beach area but the swimming area can be accessed by everyone. There is not a buffet anywhere close but they do offer the bungalow guests a menu to order from and the food is delivered to you. There is also a bar on the beach and the swim up bar is located in that area as well. There is a restroom right behind the bungalow area. I am not sure if floating mats and snorkel gear are included with these.

You can also be taken to each of these areas by a golf cart when you get off the ship so the long walk to South Beach isn't a factor if you do that.

Does anyone have any questions?

When you are in playmakers enjoying your wings, can you ask if the ultimate dining package works there? I assume they would give a credit of up to $30 like they do Izumi but just want to confirm.

Thank you and enjoy! I am sooooo jealous!

Joe- Will you be showing pictures from your 2 days pre-cruise in Barcelona as well? We will be on the TA in October and will be in Barcelona for 2 days prior. This will be our first trip to Barcelona so we are watching lots of You tube videos, and blogs about it until then. We are so excited and can't get enough so I am hoping you will share your adventures with us for those 2 days as well!

Have a great trip and I can't wait to follow along!

I am loving your review!! Glad you guys are having such a great time and still have plenty of time to relax and enjoy the ship!

If you happen to go to Playmakers, can you ask them if food there is included in the Ultimate Dining Package?

Thank you!!

Unfortunately the Small Wonders that are on Oasis and Allure were not put onto Harmony or Symphony. We loved finding all of those on the first two Oasis class ships and wish they had continued with them!

You could eat at one of the for fee restaurants that day for lunch. We usually eat at Sabor on boarding day as very few people eat there that day, it is nice and relaxing, great seats to watch people on the boardwalk. I believe Chops and Jamie's are open as well. After lunch there are plenty of seats in the aquatheater to sit and wait until 1pm. Or if it is too hot then you could always sit inside in dazzles, champagne bar or the schooner bar area.

Or the Solarium Bistro is not very busy for lunch when you first board. Go grab a couple of chairs for them in the solarium, you can get food for them at the buffet and bring it to them there. Nice and relaxing there as well!

Enjoy the Allure!

We are also on the Symphony TA and all of the dining packages were available when the dining first opened up. We booked one of the 5 night packages right away and are glad we did as the 5 night disappeared pretty quickly followed shortly by the 4 night. So I don't know if they just allow a certain number to be sold and then they pull them off the site or how that works.

Looking forward to hearing about your time in Barcelona as well as on the Symphony! We will also have two nights in Barcelona prior to our Cruise in October. Can't wait to explore a new city!

Have a great trip!

Soooooo excited right now!! I started looking for this thread yesterday in hopes you would start early and give us some details on Barcelona or your trip over! Also happy to see The Squad and little ones are also on the sailing as we LOVE the videos!

Can't wait to follow along with all the shenanigans and get your perspective of the Symphony and all she has to offer! We will be on for the TA in October so we will just live vicariously thru you for now!

Have a great trip and safe travels!

Debra

Here comes part 1 of my "review". The other parts will follow but I can´t tell you whether I can publish another part today or whether you have to wait for tomorrow. It´s a deck by deck photo description (if you want to read the German text try google translate). Restaurants, bars, lounges will follow in separate parts as well as cabin and a the suites they had opened up (we did not tour all show cabins).

 

I saw a sign at El Loco Fresh that it´s open for breakfast too. Unfortunately I saw this later during the day and yesterday they had no breakfast up there. But as it´s open for breakfast I assume they will have the omlett station there as they do have on the other Oasis Class ships.

 

steamboats

The El Loco Fresh menu in the app shows a breakfast burrito and one other breakfast option with hash browns. Someone else that was touring said they have added a couple egg stations in windjammer so no egg station at el loco fresh.

We had three reservations at Jaimie's as we dine at specialty restaurants every night. We went on the second evening, the only thing that was very good was the meat and vegetable plank then it all went downhill! We tried many items for appetizers and each of us had a different main course, we waited forever for our cocktails and service was not good, needless to say upon our way out we cancelled the remaining reservations and quickly walked to 150 Central Park and made additional nights reservations there as it is our most favorite specialty restaurant on the ship.

 

Jaimi's is "American Italian" the food is similar to Olive Garden and is on that level too! I also would so much prefer Giovanni's but I always thought Portofino's supersedes Giovanni's in a heartbeat. I like to see the old Portofino's back.

Honestly I would rather eat at Olive Garden than Jaime's! We did not enjoy Jaime's at all and definitely missed Giovannis! Hope they either change back or give us a new offering soon.

Thank you so much for the information. I think I have to decide if the whole gang want to be on a beach furtherest out or not.

FYI....Columbus cove is only a 2-3 minute walk from Nellies. So if those are the two you are looking at they are very close together. Also there is a food set up right behind the bungalows on Columbus and not one by Nellies. Just thought some of that info might help as well. Have fun no matter what you decide to do!!

Question in regards to bungalows. Which is better location Columbus or Nellie beach? We will be traveling with large party. Possibly 2 or 3 will be reserved. Is Columbus too far out from zip and other activities. I read that one poster was on Barefoot beach. This is not an option for us this cruise.

The bungalows are only in one spot on Columbus cove. Nellies beach has cabanas which are more expensive and are not in a private or roped off area. We have had cabanas at barefoot and a bungalow on columbus and prefer The Bungalow! It is easy to get to Columbus cove by either walking or taking the ferry from the pier.

Thank you for sharing your first hand knowledge. Exactly what I was hoping to hear.

Your Welcome! Enjoy your cruise and your bungalow!

Any advice on how early to get off to get a good location? We had one on barefoot beach last time, but it was specifically reserved. I understand these are allocaTed upon arrival. Are there any bad locations? I would hate to pay a bunch of money and be disappointed with it. I wish you could pick in advance.

We got off and headed over there around 9:30am. About half an hour after we docked. We were the first ones there and got our pick. However in my opinion there are not any bad ones! They are all in one row facing the water. Some are closer to the water than others but we chose the one closest to the roped off entrance and we loved it. Some other folks took the one that is practically two steps from the water and they had kids so that was perfect for them.

We rented a bungalow on Columbus Cove last time we were in Labadee and we absolutely loved it!! We have rented the cabanas on Barefoot beach many times before and we had access to Barefoot this time however we liked the Bungalows much better!

Please let me know if I can answer any questions for you.

We are sailing on the Majesty on May 4th and our final payment date was Feb 8th.

So you might want to just pay it now in case something was wrong with the Final payment date posted on the reservation. And yes I know this would be Royal's issue however it would become your issue and since it is so close to final payment anyways, why not just take care of it?

Just voted for Royal!!

Can you use your Ultimate Dining Plan at Izumi?

 

Thanks!

Unfortuately you can not use any of the dining plans or BOGO's at Izumi Hibachi. It is listed in the VERY small fine print under the packages.

You can use it at Izumi on the ala carte side and they give you $30 toward your meal(I believe that is the last amount I heard).

We always have the Hotel store our luggage if we arrive early for check-in. but be aware if the hotel have a room for you when you arrive early and you accept it make sure they do not charge you for another day, this was talked about on other forums.

Thank you, I will verify before accepting the early check in!

why would you want to hang around the airport with luggage?

 

Your hotel room may not be ready but the hotel will store your luggage till it is and you can then explore Barcelona

Glad to hear that about the hotel storing luggage. We also have an early flight and plan to explore that day until our room is ready. Our plan was to try to check in early or ask the hotel to hold our luggage but wasn’t sure how many do that?

I think it has. On Dec. 1st we were thru passport control very quickly. No lines at all. Waited a bit for luggage but that seems to be everywhere. Last years issues seem to be resolved. Quite happy about that. :):):)

Great to hear! Thank you for the update!

Thank you everyone for your responses! We will arrive around 8:30am as well so hopefully won’t be too long but we will be prepared just in case.

I am sorry to say, but this question -while I understand your reason to ask- it's quite useless, especially in airports like Barcelona`s, one of the busiest in Europe. For comparison, only a handful of US airports have more passenger traffic than BCN. I am a frequent flyer in this airport and the answer is: there's no way to anticipate. There are far too many variables to be able to give a meaningful answer. Sorry.

Thank you for your response! I understand it can and will be different each day but asked because most of these posts were awhile ago and there seemed to be a government or political issue going on at the time. That seemed to be causing unusually long delays up to 3 hours. So I was wondering if that issue had been resolved and now we just will deal with whatever the traffic that day is.

Thank you again