Interporting on Symphony

Currently onboard Symphony on the 6/14 sailing from Civitavecchia. This is the first time that Symphony picked up passengers there. Just some observations.

1 - Boarding was easy. We arrived on Thursday at 11:00 am and were the only people there. Huge amount of staff, brand new terminal building. Went right up to the counter, checked in and received SeaPass cards. Walked right on, went up to our room only to find it not ready (keep in mind it has been unoccupied since the ship left Barcelona on 6/10). Why wait so long?

2 - Muster drill. Everyone who boarded at Civitavecchia was sent to the Royal Theater for the drill whether it was your actual muster station or not. Seating by muster stations. At the completion you’re dismissed by stations so you can be escorted to your actual station. All the ship’s facilities (bars, restaurants, etc) remained open for the convenience of the Barcelona guests. On Sunday during the Barcelona muster drill, all those facilities were closed whether or not they were being used as muster locations, so fill up before it starts.

3 - Schedules and the Royal app. On previous Royal sailings (Explorer, Liberty, Anthem), you could access things like menus thru the in-room TV and the Royal IQ app (which also had my schedule on Anthem). On Symphony, all of that has been moved to the new Royal app. Unfortunately, the Royal app doesn’t work for the interporting cruises. It knows what cruise I’m on, but tells me to check back closer to my sailing date for more info. It’s Tuesday now - I’ve been onboard since Thursday and leave in two days. How much closer should I get?

4 - Reservations on-board. Purchased the 3 day specialty dining package on day one (should have purchased from home, but that’s a whole different story). Used one at Chops at Naples, one at Hooked at Barcelona and one at Wonderland at Majorca. Made the Hooked reservation on the sea day for the following night. Unfortunately, it disappeared with the cruise changeover in Barcelona. Luckily, the gentleman at the podium recognized us from the previous day, so we were seated without much of a problem. How do you do something like that?

5 - Stay Awhile program. Shortly after boarding we went to the Excursions desks to see if this would be available in Civitavecchia (it was not listed in the Cruise Planner for us, although I am told it did show for the Barcelona cruises). Tried to use the iPads with our SeaPass cards, but they didn’t work (still don’t- doesn’t recognize the sail date) so had to wait for the lone crew member. We were told that, while it would be available, we couldn’t book it until the ship left Barcelona, as it was an excursion for the next sailing. Just let that sink in.

All in all, while the cruise has been fantastic and the staff out of their friendly and helpful, I would not recommend interporting on Symphony until Royal gets its act together - which I figure will be sometime in late September, just before Symphony moves to the States. I would like to hear from others who have done this on other Royal ships, just to compare experiences.

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3 meal dining packages not available in my planner for Sept?

Let us know what happens with Stay Later programme!

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Appreciate the report, there have been several questions about the interporting process.

Thanks for the info.

We're boarding in Civitavecchia in early September, so hopefully they will have worked out a few of the kinks by then

Thank you

DH and I are also starting in Civi in September. We too have been unable to purchase any 3-5 night dining package and I have checked the cruise planner nearly every day. I called customer service and asked why is it if emabarking from Barcelona it’s offered but not from Civi? Was on hold for over 15 minutes and finally hung up. However, I found I could buy just a single night at one of the specialty restaurants which I did since we wanted to try Wonderland.

DH and I are also starting in Civi in September. We too have been unable to purchase any 3-5 night dining package and I have checked the cruise planner nearly every day. I called customer service and asked why is it if emabarking from Barcelona it’s offered but not from Civi? Was on hold for over 15 minutes and finally hung up. However, I found I could buy just a single night at one of the specialty restaurants which I did since we wanted to try Wonderland.

I’m getting on in Barcelona September and no meal deal packages on my planner....

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Great thread. Thanks for posting.

What time was your muster drill? We are sailing - same itinerary and departure port - in August.

Mark

I’m getting on in Barcelona September and no meal deal packages on my planner....

 

 

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Also there were the various “sales” earlier this year (Feb?) on dining and excursions, again not if starting in Civi. But read on the roll call thread where cruise starts earlier in BCN, they were receiving the sale prices. Seems like a glitch with the website just like we have confirmation above on their on-board app :rolleyes::rolleyes:

- which I figure will be sometime in late September, just before Symphony moves to the States.

I think that's a bit optimistic.

We boarded NCL in Rome a couple of years ago with the same issues...like a secondary cruise and nothing could be booked til after Barcelona for the end of the week.

Great thread. Thanks for posting.

 

 

 

What time was your muster drill? We are sailing - same itinerary and departure port - in August.

 

 

 

Mark

Muster drill was at 4:45pm. Lasted about 15 minutes.

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Thank you!

Thanks so much for posting this! We’re boarding in Civitavecchia too in July and it’s clear that most information is geared towards the Barcelona embarkation, leaving us in the dark.

I would really love to find out until what time guests can stay on board with Stay Awhile in Civitavecchia. Also wondering what the ship will be like on Barcelona morning - will it be another cruise day or more like you’re doing a back to back, so staying tuned for (hopefully) more updates.

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Thanks. I'll be trying this out soon.

Also on the website cruise planner all seems to be in order for my sailing, my calendar view accurately shows that my Day #1 is when we leave Civitavecchia

Also on the website cruise planner all seems to be in order for my sailing, my calendar view accurately shows that my Day #1 is when we leave Civitavecchia

Mine too. We’re sailing in July. But I think that’s separate from the problems OP is talking about. Our cruise doesn’t appear in the app either, nor is Stay Awhile offered as an excursion, except for in Barcelona.

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Too bad.

I was playing with the app just now, and you can manually select a cruise in the preview function (start with "more details on ships we support"), and access the daily planner, deck plans, etc. So I picked the one leaving 7/22 and was able to see all the activities for my embarkation day (day 5 of that week), menus, etc.

That could also be useful for those who love to plan ahead, as of today you can select all the way up to the 8/5 sailing.

Thanks so much for posting this! We’re boarding in Civitavecchia too in July and it’s clear that most information is geared towards the Barcelona embarkation, leaving us in the dark.

 

I would really love to find out until what time guests can stay on board with Stay Awhile in Civitavecchia. Also wondering what the ship will be like on Barcelona morning - will it be another cruise day or more like you’re doing a back to back, so staying tuned for (hopefully) more updates.

 

 

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We need to be off by 3:30 pm at the latest.

Barcelona morning is just like any other morning except for the announcements about luggage tag numbers being able to leave. We just walked off and took a taxi to our privately set up tour.

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Too bad.

 

I was playing with the app just now, and you can manually select a cruise in the preview function (start with "more details on ships we support"), and access the daily planner, deck plans, etc. So I picked the one leaving 7/22 and was able to see all the activities for my embarkation day (day 5 of that week), menus, etc.

 

That could also be useful for those who love to plan ahead, as of today you can select all the way up to the 8/5 sailing.

I’ve been doing the same thing :) still, the fact remains that our cruises don’t exist as cruises, which is weird and why all of these reported glitches are happening.

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We need to be off by 3:30 pm at the latest.

 

Barcelona morning is just like any other morning except for the announcements about luggage tag numbers being able to leave. We just walked off and took a taxi to our privately set up tour.

 

 

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Thank you!!! Mystery solved :) now we can figure out what we want to do on our last day.

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Just a follow-up now that we’re home.

Luggage tags and wristbands were delivered Wednesday night. Bags get left in hall just like normal. Departure morning you must leave the room by 9:00 am. We went to breakfast about 8:30 (which is the time all the paperwork for departures says breakfast will end) and joined those staying aboard (whose breakfast ends at the normal 11:00 am), then went to the pool deck for awhile. At about 10:15, announcements were made for people to report to the departure gangway. Imagine my confusion when my name was called. We went down and found there was a second couple on the same deck who shared our names (I’ve never found another LaBianca that I wasn’t related to - hard to believe there was a second Alexander LaBianca on the same deck as me for a week). Cleared that up, went to the Park Cafe for second breakfast and then to the Windjammer for lunch.

We walked off at 1:00pm found our luggage and got into the car we had reserved. At the airport by 2:15, plenty of time for our 6:00 flight.

A few notes:

Carry-ones could be left in the Card Room on Deck 14 for the duration of the Stay Awhile program. We opted to keep ours with us, which meant that after about 10:30, crew members were welcoming us on board , trying to sell us dinner packages, etc.

When we claimed our bags, there were two other sets of bags with them, so not a lot of people are taking advantage of this (or don’t know about it).

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Just a follow-up now that we’re home.

 

Luggage tags and wristbands were delivered Wednesday night. Bags get left in hall just like normal. Departure morning you must leave the room by 9:00 am. We went to breakfast about 8:30 (which is the time all the paperwork for departures says breakfast will end) and joined those staying aboard (whose breakfast ends at the normal 11:00 am), then went to the pool deck for awhile. At about 10:15, announcements were made for people to report to the departure gangway. Imagine my confusion when my name was called. We went down and found there was a second couple on the same deck who shared our names (I’ve never found another LaBianca that I wasn’t related to - hard to believe there was a second Alexander LaBianca on the same deck as me for a week). Cleared that up, went to the Park Cafe for second breakfast and then to the Windjammer for lunch.

 

We walked off at 1:00pm found our luggage and got into the car we had reserved. At the airport by 2:15, plenty of time for our 6:00 flight.

 

A few notes:

Carry-ones could be left in the Card Room on Deck 14 for the duration of the Stay Awhile program. We opted to keep ours with us, which meant that after about 10:30, crew members were welcoming us on board , trying to sell us dinner packages, etc.

When we claimed our bags, there were two other sets of bags with them, so not a lot of people are taking advantage of this (or don’t know about it).

 

 

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Thanks! This is great information to have. The card room is open, right? so no guarantee your stuff is safe?

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