Semi-live Pre-opening cruise Symphony of the Seas

[stp_mmh5]

They called this piece A guy who's not supposed to be onboard until November, yet here he is...

 

Breakfast in the park

 

The Easter display. There's chocolate bunnies every where now.

Compass is real and actually turns. Future cruisers be warned this may be the last time you see this as I walk away in a whole new direction

 

Loyalty Desk

 

Told the best joke ever to this window, and he cracked up

 

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[vadsras]

Thanks for taking the time to do this review. It’s looks amazing and can’t wait to board on Saturday. Ahh it’s Saturday and i haven’t even thought about packing. Look forward to more reviews.

 

 

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[stp_mmh5]

So I apparently suck at taking pictures of rooms on the cabin crawl. But we saw 2x Central Park Balconies, ours and one on 14, a junior suite, a boardwalk balcony, an ocean view balcony, and an owners suite. The family in the owners suite also took us up to the sundeck and the suite lounge/coastal kitchen.

 

Suite sundeck bar. With all the money you pay for suites and get this line at the bar, disgusting

 

All these chair hogs up here. Despicable

 

As they look down on us all

 

These look comfortable, if only there was space to try one

 

And they do get a great view, so I guess it might be worth the splurge and crowds

 

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[Barriaux]

Hello,

Is ROOM service breakfast FREE ?

Enjoy your Cruise, thanks for the report !

For us, depature in 12 days ;p

[Polperro]

Hi on 12229 in a few weeks on oasis is the balcony a lot bigger and have you been disturbed by staff as their is reported go be a staff area attached?

[stp_mmh5]

Hello,

Is ROOM service breakfast FREE ?

Enjoy your Cruise, thanks for the report !

For us, depature in 12 days ;p

Good afternoon Barriaux!

 

Continental breakfast room service is free!! American breakfast as room service has a few of $7.95 plus service fee. We have enjoyed continental breakfast on our CP balcony quite a bit.

 

 

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[stp_mmh5]

Hi on 12229 in a few weeks on oasis is the balcony a lot bigger and have you been disturbed by staff as their is reported go be a staff area attached?

Polperro,

 

We have not noticed any sort of disturbance from the crew area. The only exception is there was some noise from a loose item the first night when we had some decent side to side motion. The service area closest to us is an ice machine room. I'll check deck 12 today to see what is there. Presumably it would be the same on Oasis.

 

Looking towards the living wall

 

Looking rearward. We had our entire cabin crawl group of about 10 on here and everyone had plenty of elbow room. If we had more sun on our level I'd probably ask our room steward for a lounger or two

 

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[Polperro]

Polperro,

 

We have not noticed any sort of disturbance from the crew area. The only exception is there was some noise from a loose item the first night when we had some decent side to side motion. The service area closest to us is an ice machine room. I'll check deck 12 today to see what is there. Presumably it would be the same on Oasis.

 

Looking towards the living wall

 

Looking rearward. We had our entire cabin crawl group of about 10 on here and everyone had plenty of elbow room. If we had more sun on our level I'd probably ask our room steward for a lounger or two

 

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Thanks appreciate the response. Enjoy your cruise

[Clarea]

... Dinner Menu, not as versed if this a new menu or not, but it's new to me ...

I've not seen Barbeque Baby Ribs or Mushroom Risotto on any other RC MDR menu.

[stp_mmh5]

Hi on 12229 in a few weeks on oasis is the balcony a lot bigger and have you been disturbed by staff as their is reported go be a staff area attached?

Polperro I just stopped by 12229, and there is another cabin closest to the service area. Can't picture the deck plans of Oasis vs Symphony so I can't tell you for sure if O has it or not. Cabin in question was 12227.

 

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[Guest]

Happy Monday Glitterati!

 

The tier of "Royal Signatures" in not on any bar menu. Though, we have seen plenty of people order drinks that are not on the menus and receive them since most of the staff is prior RC employees. I don't know where it has gone, but did ask the staff at Boleros one visit why all the menus for each bar were essentially the exact same. They stated to keep it simple when rolling out the ship then they will start to separate them out.

 

As for the bottle of red, yes! It was a CP perk as was lunch at our choice of either Jamie's or Johnny Rockets! We have met many people in other CP balconies who all received the perks and many are UK based citizens.

 

I hope this helps you out!

 

Macon and Shane

 

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Morning!

 

Thank you so much for this info, its big help! I just dont want to be in a situation where i dont know what is included in the drinks package and what is not!

 

Fab, i was worried we would be missing out on the perks as my travel agent did not believe it was a thing! Lunch at JR's it is then! And a lovely bottle of red to sit and drink whilst people watching!

 

Enjoy the rest of your cruise! :D

[stp_mmh5]

I've not seen Barbeque Baby Ribs or Mushroom Risotto on any other RC MDR menu.

Thanks for the clarification. Pretty sure I was reading one of the updated threads on the mdr menus, but then couldn't remember if it was a new one or not.

 

I can say that mushroom risotto was good, but nothing to write home about. But then again I get spoiled with local risotto we can get closer to home.

 

So then this one would be presumably new as well?

 

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[Clarea]

... So then this one would be presumably new as well?

That one looks more familiar, though I'm not sure I've seen Osso Bucco on the MDR menu.

[micmacmissy]

Awesome! I have always though Royal ships lacked a sports bar. Where is that located?

[phabric]

 

Dinner Menu,

 

 

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We will be onboard in January, I have not been on a Royal ship for many years.

 

The dinner menu has a big selection to choose from. Is this the same menu selection each day?

 

Some cruise lines on embankment have a ship tour before Muster Drill. Is there a ship tour?

Edited April 2, 2018 by phabric

[Barriaux]

Thank you for the picture !

2 years ago, américan breakfast was free ...

[leslierx]

We just paid our final payment for July 1st sailing as well. 3 months to go - so excited!

 

I have a few general questions. This is our first time on a "big new ship". I wondered if the activities have a fee? Things like rock wall, miniature golf, flow rider, laser tag, zip line, ice skating, the big slide that has the monster mouth - lol.

 

One question about the beverage package. Does everyone in room have to get the alcohol package and can you purchase later in the cruise. Our last day is a day at sea and would be nice to have but most days we will be gone off the ship and don't think the package would be worth it. We are also in a 2 bedroom grand suite and get to go to coastal kitchen where I read we get free beer and wine with dinner and I believe they also have a lounge with complementary drinks for a few hours each day. Anyone have experience with coastal kitchen? Thank you and sorry for all the random questions.

[stp_mmh5]

We just paid our final payment for July 1st sailing as well. 3 months to go - so excited!

 

I have a few general questions. This is our first time on a "big new ship". I wondered if the activities have a fee? Things like rock wall, miniature golf, flow rider, laser tag, zip line, ice skating, the big slide that has the monster mouth - lol.

 

One question about the beverage package. Does everyone in room have to get the alcohol package and can you purchase later in the cruise. Our last day is a day at sea and would be nice to have but most days we will be gone off the ship and don't think the package would be worth it. We are also in a 2 bedroom grand suite and get to go to coastal kitchen where I read we get free beer and wine with dinner and I believe they also have a lounge with complementary drinks for a few hours each day. Anyone have experience with coastal kitchen? Thank you and sorry for all the random questions.

 

So all the major attractions you listed there are indeed free. The only one I have seen so far that is an upcharge is the escape room, which is unavailable for our cruise so I can't comment on price. If I recall, the price on other ships is $15 or $20. I'm sure someone who has done one can clarify.

 

As far as beverage packages, everyone over 21 must have a deluxe package if one person buys one, however the royal replenish and the soda packages can be bought for individuals. The royal replenish is like the deluxe package minus alcohol, and you can not pay the difference to add alcohol. Although we are not in a suite, when we visited the lounge/kitchen on deck 17, the concierge, Raj, explained to us that from 11-11 beer, wine and sodas are complementary and they do a nightly open bar from 5:30 to 8. I heard that coastal kitchen was kind of slow on the first morning, but it was busy and the crew is still learning the ropes.

 

And for a bonus I'll throw in some pictures of the lounge area

 

Coastal Kitchen area

 

More dining area

 

Suite lounge

 

Continental breakfast area, also 24 hour self serve espresso machine and snacks throughout the day

 

Suite bar

 

And the center view

 

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[stp_mmh5]

We will be onboard in January, I have not been on a Royal ship for many years.

 

The dinner menu has a big selection to choose from. Is this the same menu selection each day?

 

Some cruise lines on embankment have a ship tour before Muster Drill. Is there a ship tour?

 

Dinner menu has a selection of rotating appetizers, main courses and deserts and the bottom four options on each column are the ones that repeat.

 

I am not sure if there was an official tour, but there was plenty of staff wearing yellow "Ask Me" shirts, so I presume they would either give an actual tour, or a guide map based tour. While she is massive, she is well later out and is very easy to navigate, with plenty of maps and street signs to guide you.

Amazingly I don't have a single picture of one, so thats getting added to my to do list

 

 

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[stp_mmh5]

Awesome! I have always though Royal ships lacked a sports bar. Where is that located?

Playmakers is on the boardwalk, in place of where Sabor is on the other three, and stretches down the length of the boardwalk. There's a good number of tvs, fun little games like Jenga, Connect four and a table top bean bag toss. There's also a small arcade down there with. All the games were priced around a $1.50 and you use the seapass card. Except for the shuffleboard tables, those take dollars.

 

Jenga. I eventually sent the tower tumbling

 

I ordered a chicken sandwich which was delicious. It comes with Playmakers fries, which have Parmesan cheese and what they said was a Cesar dressing. I still think it was mayo.

 

Macon had the 12 BBQ wings. We actually got 10, but we were pretty full so didn't mind. And they were better than ones I had at Buffalo wild wings. I'm sure that's blasphemy to some, but oh well.

 

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[Cruiserbruiser58]

Thank you, looking forward to your reviews, we board 19th August & are in a Central Park balcony room.

[jerseyjjs]

Thanks for the all the info and pictures!! One of many questions I have for Playmakers.....do they have a schedule or listing of the day's/night's games that they'll be televising?....and do they have sports packages that show more than 1 game at a time? TIA.

[phabric]

Is there a charge for the food you had at Playmakers?

[stp_mmh5]

Thanks for the all the info and pictures!! One of many questions I have for Playmakers.....do they have a schedule or listing of the day's/night's games that they'll be televising?....and do they have sports packages that show more than 1 game at a time? TIA.

They do show what major games they'll be showing that day posted on one of the tvs. They show mostly European soccer during the day, and they have shown the NCAA basketball games. Usually we get the highlights or a replay because the live game is after midnight. I did see them also show nba games. They do have some sort of package as different tvs will play different games and ESPN.

 

Phabric,

 

The food at Playmakers is additional, my sandwich and fries was $9 and the 12 wings was $8

 

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[stp_mmh5]

We are sailing away from Naples now, so just a few more pictures from yesterday and today

 

The volcano in twilight

 

Catch up on the games of the day while taking a dip in the hot tub. Plus mood lighting...

 

This piece is coming along nicely

 

We think it'll look great when it's done, especially at night

 

The Cacophony of the Stairs

 

It'll shatter glass, eardrums, and small children

 

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