Symphony: Looking for Experience with Rome Embarkation - seems a disadvantage?

[Jcw64]

Hello. We are on a June 21 Symphony of the Seas cruise, embarking from Civitavecchia (Rome). When we booked the cruise over a year ago we didn't realize the "standard" cruise starts and ends in Barcelona, and we'd be effectively showing up on Day 5 of other passengers' cruise.

 

The RC app doesn't list our cruise, so we can only see onboard activities by looking at the cruises on either side of it (starting in Barcelona), basically combining the two. There don't seem to be any of the standard "Day 1" activities listed for Day 5 (club orientations, gaming lessons, etc.), which is disconcerting. I'm a bit worried about feeling like a second-class citizen.

 

Does anybody know how RC handles these "mid-cruise" embarkations? Has anybody here experienced this yet on Symphony? If so, could you please relay what you wish you had known when you embarked to make things go more smoothly? We have cruised before, but on other lines. Any tips would be helpful.

 

Thanks!

[alaskawdw12]

Hi, we’re also embarking from Civitavecchia, so would love to hear what people have to say.

What I can add in the meantime is that from googling the subject I found only positive comments about it. People wrote that because only 20% of the ship are boarding, it’s the easiest embarkation they ever did. People also mentioned the ship being pretty much empty, so there isn’t that rush you normally have and you can really enjoy the ship. Also, a few people wrote that they were able to go to their rooms to drop off their carry ons and roam the ship carefree.

 

I think you’re not finding compasses yet because I’m pretty sure they haven’t started the Civitavecia embarkations yet.

 

 

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[ckelly14]

Same here. Leaving on July 12. I’m hoping that Royal gets up to speed on the app prior to departure!

 

 

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[Jcw64]

Thanks. That's a good point about the Compasses, but I would think RC could get the app updated so it shows the cruises starting from Civ. We're only about a month out.