Symphony of the seas Live blog October 2018!!

Sorry about the delay between posts everyone. The sea day turned out a bit busier than I thought as there was so much to do! And been busy since we got home tidying up. Will hopefully get the last couple of days up over this week [emoji3]

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The Sistine chapel is amazing as you’d expect, but there were a number of other items in the museum which were just as impressive. We used rick Steve’s guide app on the iPhone, and his walking tour takes you around different parts of the museum in an hours talk, and it’s free!

Managed to get a sneaky picture of the Sistine chapel 🤫

View over Rome

It did get very busy at times, not a place to come if you don’t like crowds.

After the Vatican museum we caught the train back to the ship, and it was on time today!

Dinner today was in El Loco fresh and it was lovely, nice selection of tacos, nachos and burritos with a do it yourself toppings bar.

The Tres Leches dessert is delicious too. I ate it too fast to get a picture though ☹️

lovely sunset up by Ultimate Abyss

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On your recommendation we went back and tried the cookie, and you are right, it was delicious! Definitely enough to share between two

 

 

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Glad you enjoyed it as well! 👍

Hi everyone! Boards are back up and running now so I’m going to try and finish my blog now. Been back a week and a half now but seems like a lot longer! 

Its a new interface as well so sorry if there are any problems with the formatting, pictures etc. 

Anyway, here we go .....

Tonight was the aqua theatre show, Hiro. A really technologically and artistically impresssive show. However it did become a bit repetitive at times, but that is not to take anything away from the talent that’s on show though, which was all incredible.

This was a warm up to the show, started about 5-10 minutes before

The harness system they used was very impressive. They came out right over the crowd at a number of points!

some amazing tightrope walking!

and also on the slack rope, a bit closer to ground though 

After the aqua theatre show was a one off headliner show, hector is magic. And he really was, some impressive slight of hand and disappearing illusions. There were a couple of audience participation points too i you want that. Really recommend catching him if he is on you’re sailing. 

Then it was off the bed!

A lovely sunset today

Naples day 6

We’ve been to Naples a few times over the last few years so have been to Pompeii, Vesuvius and Herculaneum, all of which we highly recommend doing.

Mount Vesuvius, not a bad view to wake up to

We were having a slow start then heading to the archeological museum, where a lot of items from the above towns were taken to. I started off the day at 0930 on the flow rider and it was great fun, there was only one other person for the first half an hour so we both got plenty of practise. I recommend doing this on a port morning if you want some uninterrupted time on it. 

After that we walked off the ship and up the hill to the top of town, it took us about 30 minutes to make it to the museum. 

The entry cost was 12 euros and there was compulsory (but free) lockers for back packs. We used rick Steve’s guide again and it was very informative and took you around most of the museum, but not the Egyptian section. Just remember if that is something you are interested in. His descriptions of the other items were informative and amusing to listen to. The highlights are the Farnese statues and the mosaics from Pompeii.

The Farnese bull

Hercules and the golden apples

front a back of the ceremonial bowl

these are mosaics! I honestly though they were pointing to begin with. And the second one is huge, approximately 15 feet across

this is an amazing calendar. At midday everyday the sun will shine through a pin hole onto what month it is! Unfortunately we missed it this day

so many amazing things at the museum

Naples day 6

We’ve been to Naples a few times over the last few years so have been to Pompeii, Vesuvius and Herculaneum, all of which we highly recommend doing.

Mount Vesuvius, not a bad view to wake up to

We were having a slow start then heading to the archeological museum, where a lot of items from the above towns were taken to. I started off the day at 0930 on the flow rider and it was great fun, there was only one other person for the first half an hour so we both got plenty of practise. I recommend doing this on a port morning if you want some uninterrupted time on it. 

After that we walked off the ship and up the hill to the top of town, it took us about 30 minutes to make it to the museum. 

The entry cost was 12 euros and there was compulsory (but free) lockers for back packs. We used rick Steve’s guide again and it was very informative and took you around most of the museum, but not the Egyptian section. Just remember if that is something you are interested in. His descriptions of the other items were informative and amusing to listen to. The highlights are the Farnese statues and the mosaics from Pompeii.

The Farnese bull

Hercules and the golden apples

front a back of the ceremonial bowl

these are mosaics! I honestly though they were pointing to begin with. And the second one is huge, approximately 15 feet across

this is an amazing calendar. At midday everyday the sun will shine through a pin hole onto what month it is! Unfortunately we missed it this day

so many amazing things at the museum

Maps of Pompeii excavations

After the museum which took about 2 hours, it was lunch time. We headed to a little pizzeria on the way back to the port and like most places it was very reasonable (5 euros for a marghrita!) and it was tasty and quick service. 

We took a slow wander back to the ship stopping in a beautiful arcade cafe and by the royal palace. 

We were in dock with Jewel and the size difference was incredible!

Back on the ship it was time for a drink, and they have a daily happy hour (5pm - 7pm, so two hours) at Wonderland and Hooked where it is buy one get one free! The smoke rings cocktail at wonderland is amazing. It’s whiskey mixed with maple syrup with some wood smoke on top!

Then it was time for dinner, and for the first time this cruise we ate at the main dining room! We didn’t have reservations, but turned up at 7pm and we were seated straight away. The service was good, the bread was waiting on the table when we arrived and they took drinks orders immediately. The food came out quickly and was very tasty, probably about the same as 150 Central Park in our opinion.

We would have eaten here more but there are just too many places to eat on Symphony!

Lol- I also have a sneaky, no flash pic of the chapel 😉

After dinner we end to see Royal Caribbean original show, Flight. The stage and sets they created for this were incredible, better quality than I’ve seen on some west end shows and the story was interesting, a look at the significant moments in the history of flight, going backwards from launching a shuttle to mars to the Wright brothers first flight finale! The dancers and singers were all talented but some of the pairings seemed a little off and they missed the harmonies. Worth a watch

though. After the show it was time for bed ready for a packed sea day!

Sea day

So here we are at our final day on ship. I wanted to get a bit more practise in on the flow rider so I headed up there at 9, there were a few people up there but the rotation time was pretty quick so I got quite a few goes. One thing to note is the first thirty minutes of stand up surfing 0900-0930 is very advanced surfers only, so you have to be able to launch yourself. One lady arrived and didn’t know this (it does say in the cruise compass) and got very annoyed with the staff. Body boarding is open on the other flowrider from 0900 though, the benefits of having two! After this we grabbed some windjammer breakfast and had no trouble finding seats and then sat in the hot tube watching Sardinia and Corsica pass by. A great way to spend a morning! We headed down to the thermal suite for a bit before our booking for the escape room, Escape the Rubicon! We booked this before our cruise as we love escape rooms, and it was 20 dollars. This was well worth it. We were in a group of about 10 people and we had a great time, especially as we saved the world with 6 and a half minutes to spare! 

After all the stress of escaping we grab a hot dog from the Boardwalk dog house and the Campfire cookie from Playmakers! As mentioned before this was so good! The hot dogs were good too and there are four varieties. We headed up to the Solarium for a bit of relaxing in the sun, and there were still plenty of seats available at 1330, although the hot tubs were quite busy. 

We wanted to do the laser tag but it wasn’t on today! So we had to make do with ice skating instead! There was also a speed climbing in the early evening which I managed to win! 

We went to Hooked for dinner. The food her wasvery tasty but there was so much of it! The decor is really cool though.

I think this was called captains platter

very tasty dessert! 

After that it was the same comedian from the comedy club, but he was doing family comedy - very funny, lot of word play but very good. Then it was time to pack and go to bed ☹️

On 10/4/2018 at 3:11 AM, Cruisingcouple22 said:

And then it was time for wonderland, we’ve been to this restaurant on harmony and anthem so knew roughly what to expect and it was excellent. The food is so interesting and tasty, with a massive variety of flavours. And the decor is very quirky!

 

You have to paint the menu with “magic water” to get it to reveal

 

They also have a mad hatter wandering around the restaurant saying hello to guests and chatting with you. 

 

 

The view over the boardwalk is beautiful too, especially at sunset.

Highly recommended this place even if you are not an adventurous eater as you “culinary guide” (no waiters here apparently!) will help you pick appropriate dishes. The cocktails are great too, and it was happy hour as we got there (5-7 everyday) so it was buy one get one free!

 

 

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I am going on the Symphony in 2019 and it will be my first time on an Oasis ship or one with Wonderland. 

It looks really cool but do you or anyone else that has eaten at it have any idea about catering to vegetarians? I am traveling with my sister who is a vegetarians and some of the Wonderland menus don't look too vegetarian friendly. So wondering if anyone else has any experience with them making modifications for vegetarians here?

Could you please also say what the cover charge is for it? Dinig isn't available for my cruise yet as its in late 2019. 

Thanks for this great review. 🙂

 I know  varying degrees of vegetarians. Is she one that will eat seafood? 

No, she is a standard vegetarian with no meat or fish. Thanks. 

 I would then suggest writing an email to RCCL dining, and directing the questions to them. They are generally very responsive.   Rcldining@rccl.com

Can you please tell me who your Hotel Director is and your Loyalty Ambassador.

Thanks

On 10/27/2018 at 4:51 AM, sh2738 said:

I am going on the Symphony in 2019 and it will be my first time on an Oasis ship or one with Wonderland. 

 

It looks really cool but do you or anyone else that has eaten at it have any idea about catering to vegetarians? I am traveling with my sister who is a vegetarians and some of the Wonderland menus don't look too vegetarian friendly. So wondering if anyone else has any experience with them making modifications for vegetarians here?

 

Could you please also say what the cover charge is for it? Dinig isn't available for my cruise yet as its in late 2019. 

 

Thanks for this great review. 🙂

You are going to love Symphony, she’s such an amazing ship!

unfortunately I’m not sure how it would be for vegetarians, there were definitely some starters that would suit but not sure about the mains. As someone else said it’s probably worth emailing RCCL to check

And I think the cost is 45 USD per person, we’ll worth it

On 10/27/2018 at 7:47 PM, DP said:

Can you please tell me who your Hotel Director is and your Loyalty Ambassador.

 

Thanks

Sorry, I didn’t see who they were ☹️

47 minutes ago, Cruisingcouple22 said:

 

You are going to love Symphony, she’s such an amazing ship!

unfortunately I’m not sure how it would be for vegetarians, there were definitely some starters that would suit but not sure about the mains. As someone else said it’s probably worth emailing RCCL to check

And I think the cost is 45 USD per person, we’ll worth it

Does anyone happen to know the contact email at RCCL for dining that has had to deal with this before? Thanks. 

10 minutes ago, sh2738 said:

 

Does anyone happen to know the contact email at RCCL for dining that has had to deal with this before? Thanks. 

Contact special_needs@rccl.com about dietary restrictions.

28 minutes ago, Host Clarea said:

 

Contact special_needs@rccl.com about dietary restrictions.

Thanks!

On 10/6/2018 at 11:07 AM, Cruisingcouple22 said:

Dinner this evening was in playmakers, we got there signature burger and some popcorn shrimp and the portion sizes were huge! This was easily enough for two to share. The shrimp is great and you have a choice of toppings and sauce and the burger was very well made, probably a bit better than Johnny rockets over the other side of the boardwalk

 

 

After dinner there was another ice show, iSlate 2.0. This was a selection of dances set to different pop songs and was really fun. No drones in this one, but the ice skating cast had all changed! A new cast was in to do the next few months on the ship, we felt really lucky we managed to see both. The show was amazing again, and this time I managed to get a photo of the back flip!

 

Lastly this evening they had the red carpet experience at the main theatre. They set up a “premiere” (the greatest showman) and have an interviewer and cameramen on the red carpet.

You can dodge past them if you want or you can play along, it was fun being interviewed, until you realise they are putting up on the big screen in the theatre!! Still it was an interesting experience. After that it was off to sleep for our Rome day tomorrow!

We found a little towel animal in our room today 🦅

 

Really enjoying your pictures and review.  Looks like you were getting good seats at ice skating.  I've never been on the huge ships.  Is there any tips to reserving these seats at shows so we are not in the nose bleed section?

 

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Great review and photos.  Thanks so much for taking the time to share your cruise.  😎

do you know if they allow you to use the ultimate dining package at playmakers?