Tommy3putts

46 minutes ago, SteelMagnolia9 said:

That’s disappointing. I’m on the 4 night cruise leaving Miami on Nov. 9th. Is the Solarium dining open in the evenings? I have a reservation there the first evening.

I believe they are constructing a roof or cover over the bar itself.  Word is this will be completed by Miami. 

The Solarium Bistro is open at night. 

Cheer

Tom

Overall great cruise so far!  Great ship!!!

Hits so far:

Voom. Amazing so far.  Streaming and fast internet.  Was able to watch el Classico in my iPhone. I was a popular guy.  See below. 

Royal App: a minor hiccup on day 2 but a great tool.  Love it. Needs tweaks tho. 

Playmakers.  My favorite spot so far!  Great spot to watch sports.  

Specialty dining. Great venues but slow service

Misses so far:

Solarium (see above post)

Playmakers broadcasting rights, it’s a corporate issue, but not figured out yet. They could broadcast Barca v Real Madrid el Classico even though we were in Barcelona!

Ultimate Dining Package Reservations.  Policy reminds me of the overselling by the airlines. Forced us to wait until we boarded to mak reservations for all 12 nights and now I have three nights where I cannot get reservations at any restaurant.  I presume they’ll accommodate us at some point, but clearly there is a preference for the full price sales. 🤬😡

So I try not to be a complainer , and it won’t ruin my vacation, but the Solarium, “Thing” still isn’t fixed. Six months and still haven’t figured it out. No solarium bar and no use of stairs or pool.  Wow. 😡🤬

Good morning.  Sun!!!

23 hours ago, Teeara said:

Are you saving your Compasses?  I would love to see them when the cruise is over.

 

I would recommend downloading the app and choosing our cruise.  You ca follow along. The ship is relying on the app more and more. The paper compasses are only two and three pages. 

Malaga today.  Our one and only stop.  Chilly and rainy.  We have plans to take a cab to Castillo Gibralfaro and walk down to old Malaga.  May cancel those and either do a short trip into town or stay on ship.  

Saw Hairspray last night, as one who’s not a huge broadway show fan, I particularly enjoyed the show.  Tip, make your reservation in advance, few if any extra seats open at show time. 

When we hit our sea days I’ll catch up with pics. 

Tom

Cruise day.  Showers this morning. We thinking positive for a dry sail away.  We had a fun pub crawl Saturday during the rain.  Will post pics later. 

We’re heading over to the ship around 10.  

Pub Crawl Day.  Rain. 

Hitting various pubs and watching futbol. Not a bad day so far.  

Finished off the day with pub crawl 

Powered through our first full day yesterday. Gorgeous weather.  Did the Ho-Ho with a stop at Montjuic.  

We are checked in and settled at the airport and at the bar getting our early FC Barca Champions League fix. 

Today is travel day.  We leave for Barcelona later this afternoon to board the Symphony of the Seas for her October 28th 12 night transatlantic crossing to Miami.  Two ports of call on  the cruise; Malaga Spain and Port Canaveral.  This is our second TA.  We loved our first on Celebrity Reflection. 
 

I certainly do hope our fellow passengers on this adventure to share their experiences here.  It’d be great to have various perspectives on everyone’s vacation and their thoughts on the Symphony.

I’ll post my experiences (with pics) but I’m not a pro at these “Live” thingys.   Most importantly I’m easily distracted by beer.  I’ll leave the real stuff to a seasoned “live blogger.” 

I know that there are several “periscopers” on the cruise and internet permitting will be broadcasting frequently. So if you are in to that keep an eye on your periscope app. 

Cheers and enjoy the ride.

Tom





Sent from my iPad

Looking forward to meeting JC on the cruise.  I discovered on the Roll Call that we have a mutual administration for. sports

Just finished my last day at work. We fly to Barcelona tomorrow afternoon.  My entry will be in the morning. 

He needs a support group Live, aka a Symphony!   I’m in.  I just don’t want to do the heavy lifting.  

Yep.  One big one would be better....and more fun. That 4 headed monster thread was epic. 

43 minutes ago, swoopy2110 said:

An entire 73 pages of people have joined in here:

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/topic/2561430-symphony-of-the-seas-the-first-transatlantic-10-28-18-part-two/

 

That’s the roll call not visible on the main RCI page where the posts usually associated with “live” blogs/trip reports/reviews are located.

Cheers

Tom

Hope so!  We leave for Barca tomorrow.  I was hoping someone would start a “Symphony” full of live reports from the TA.

It no longer works.  You need to go through your phone’s web browser

Thanks as always. Another great live review. Looking forward to your report card on MSC.

Cheers

Tom

Hi Chris

First of all thanks for another great live review. I love your reviews. I’m especially enjoying following along on the MSC adventure as this is a line that peaks our interest.

I’ll be interested to hear your thoughts on the hurricane recovery. We were there on the Equinox in February and there was a lot of work to be done.

Cheers

Tom

This page was abandoned a year ago. Here is the link to the current forum for the TA.

The administrators should lock this thread.

Symphony of the Seas - The First Transatlantic - 10-28-18 [Part Two]

https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?share_fid=24703&share_tid=2653788&url=https%3A%2F%2Fboards%2Ecruisecritic%2Ecom%2Fshowthread%2Ephp%3Ft%3D2653788&share_type=t

We did the walk from Sagrada Familia back to La Rambla 2 years ago. The previous posters are correct, its longer than it seems and mostly unremarkable, especially if one is in a hurry. However, for us we stopped along the way for lunch and enjoyed it tremendously. Good beer and food. We also then walked down La Rambla back to the port area bus stop. For us the walk was more enjoyable than the previous posts. If you are pressed for time then a cab or metro may be the way to go.

We like the Barcelona cabs. Clean and reasonably priced.

Cheers

Tom

All European hotels that I have stayed in have been willing let you drop off luggage early and then return later to check in when your room is ready. I even got lucky once and found my room ready upon early morning arrival so I was able to get a shower as soon as I arrived -- that helped make it thru the day a lot. But that is not normally the situation. However, be aware, if they store your luggage for a few hours it may or may not be in a secure area. In one hotel I stayed at, my bag really was just put in a corner of the lobby with a few others near the front desk. It could easily have taken if the front desk person was out of sight for a few minutes. I would not leave valuables in the luggage left behind unless it is secured. I think the smaller hotels have less space to offer this service, but they will figure out a way. They are used to travelers arriving on these overnight flights.

FWIW, I’d note (request) on your reservation of your early morning arrival. We’ve had great luck in Europe with early checkin at our hotels. On our last 5 trips our room has been available at or within an hour of our morning arrival. No guarantees tho

Welcome home.

We aren’t picky, we still love Celebrity. IMHO, nothing much has changed. The only problem is work keeps getting in the way.

Cheers

Tom