Symphony Of The Seas REVIEW-- 9/20 from Rome

[TeamTrom]

Sorry for the delay, it has been a busy few days here at the Team Trom Household. Now that we're back lets get to it!!! Back to the fun!!!

 

After Visiting the bakery we caught a short ride to the Frascati Vineyard. It is this absolutely beautiful piece of land sitting on a hillside that overlooks the Fields they harvest Grapes at and you can see the surrounding areas and on a clear day you can see Rome in the distance.

 

 

We took some time to enjoy the areas of the vineyard and took in all of its beauty

 

 

They allowed us to get up close to the grapes and even taste them. They were different then your store bought grapes and the experience was cool to do

 

 

This is when I first got the glimpse of this house. Just a house that sits on the land but I absolutely loved it. Everything about this little building was beautiful to me.

 

 

They took us to the building where the magic happens. Everything about this place is so authentic and cool. Just loved this place.

 

 

You go through this building where they have the stills and equipment used to make their wine and you walk through this door. Next thing you know your walking through the caves to the areas that they store the wine to age.

 

 

You don't realize just how far down you are going but next thing you know your over 50 feet underground and we barely scratched the surface of this magnificent cave!!!

[TeamTrom]

They take us to the second floor of the building and let us sit around a table and enjoy three of their best wines with some home made pizza and breads.

 

 

 

With the Sweet White the offered us a tradition of their own. They will put a cookie inside the cup to soak up the wine and when you eat it you get to get try a "desert" of their own.

 

 

 

We took a few shots of the vineyard from the balcony and you see just what's so marvelous about this place.

 

 

 

We are starting to feel better from our "hangover" this morning and are really enjoying ourselves at this point. +

 

 

 

Following the tour they brought us to another local spot to enjoy a lunch with some more of their wine. It started to rain at this point and it was a perfect time to bring this tour indoors. They fed us some delicious roasted vegetables and some cured meats along with some pasta. Mhmmmm!!!

 

 

On the way back to our hotel while walking through the train station we found this book store that looked really cool. A 3 level book store surrounded in glass panels to see inside with all kinds of book. With Wifey being a published author it is a must to go into this store to explore and find something to bring home. She picked out a classic, Frankenstein, and of course it was in Italian!!!

 

[TeamTrom]

We made it back to the Hotel and relaxed a bit until dinner time. There is this restaurant that is just around the corner that was highly suggested to have the BEST pizza in Rome. We were so excited about this place so as soon as we knew it opened(only open for dinner) we made our way out to Li Rioni.

 

 

It is this absolutely cute little place that has the interior decorated like the exterior should be.

 

 

We had to knock another item off of our checklist with some Fritti's. These were little deep friend balls of goodness, some with cheese and some with rice stuffing. Cheese was definitely better!!!

 

 

This was the first(and maybe last time, Stacey had some more during the trip) I tried soda(pop?!?!) in Europe. It was so different with whatever sugar substitute they used that I didn't enjoy it at all. I'm not a big soda fan as it is but I certainly wasn't there lol. You may be surprised at our choice (trust me, we were as well) but we asked the server for a suggestion as to which pizza to get. After he gave us the typical options I asked him what his favorite was. He said the baked cod topped pizza and we decided to go with that. Boy was he right. Definitely the best pizza we had on this trip and quite possibly the best I have ever had. You may notice the look of hesitation on my face but I am so glad we went this route.

 

 

After that deliciousness it would be difficult to enjoy dessert but we gave it a try and why not, we needed to check something else off of our list!!!

 

 

By the way, the Tiramisu was amazing too. If we ever go back to Rome, Li Rioni is a must for us!!! We took a picture of the receipt for those looking at costs of food in Europe they know a little of what to expect. Know that whenever you eat at a restaurant they will ask for still or sparkling and then will give you a liter or so of your choice in water. There is a price tag for it, usually a couple of Euros. Most places have a Pizza for 10 Euros or less.

 

[TeamTrom]

It is really amazing how the entrance to our Hotel looks lit up at night. We were enjoyed this place.

 

 

 

Every opportunity we had we got gelato, lol. This time we chose custard. Also delicious.

 

 

Wifey and I had decided a tour of the Colosseum was not a choice but a necessity while in Rome and we decided to be different and visit it for a nighttime tour. It started a short walk from the monument at the Roman Column. This was built thousands of years after the Trojan war as a reminder of their tremendous victory.

 

 

Here stands the Piazza Venezia in honor of the president who united Italy as a whole. This monument is truly HUGE. You can see the entirety of it in one photo but you cannot see just how large it is. This was incredible to see in person. Nothing can compare.

 

 

This was Roman Square. There is so much information to all of these places but you must experience them all first hand to truly get it.

 

 

And they described this to us as a modern day supermarket. This is where everyone would go to get all their foods and supplies for everyday living. You will see that it appears to be underground and that's because it is. This is one of the most interesting parts to Rome. Everything has been built on top of one another based on the time periods. After the earthquakes destroyed the city instead of tearing down and rebuilding something, in Rome it was always just built overtop of the ruble. They said the city itself is 30 feet(in some places more) above the elevation it was back during the actual Spartan Era.

 

[TeamTrom]

Here we have finally entered the Colosseum. You can see me pondering all of the things that went on in this building all those years ago. That or wondering if these ropes were up for them to go in single file lines back then as well lol

 

 

 

We thought it was important to do a tour of the underground dungeons to really understand the entirety of this monument. A couple years ago they built replica elevators to give an image of how the animals and warriors were elevated to the battlefield above.

 

 

 

Here you can see the small dungeons of where animals were held until forced to fight on the "stage" above.

 

 

 

Looking back on this photo it really hits me how different people felt standing where we were standing thousands of years ago.

 

 

 

And you can see what the areas looked like under the stage. Now just imagine there being almost no light because the stage that is now only partially there originally covered there entire dungeon. Of course that new wood you see is not original. They are rebuilding part of the stage to replicate what it looked like before it was destroyed.

 

 

 

And here you get a good look at the entire monument from one of the uppermost levels. Really a site to see in person to get the rush of emotions.

 

[TeamTrom]

Team Trom Travels has posted our next video of our Trip to Europe, click the link to watch it!!!

 

[ince4150]

Hi Sean and Stacey. We met on the Naples tour. So enjoying reading your memories and watching the videos. Looks like you enjoyed your Symphony experience as much as we did! I want to go back and do it all over again!!

[TeamTrom]

Sorry about the delay but unfortunately Cruise Critic did some update that took a week to complete and now all of my photos previously posted are no longer visible. I will carry on though assuming that the photos I upload in the future will show now. 

in the mean time here is a link to the 3rd video of this wonderful trip that takes us through the night of our Pub Crawl. This was so much fun!!! Click the link, watch the video, like it and subscribe to see more 😉

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUq8ImOJUqI&t=14s

[TeamTrom]

On ‎10‎/‎8‎/‎2018 at 5:11 PM, ince4150 said:

Hi Sean and Stacey. We met on the Naples tour. So enjoying reading your memories and watching the videos. Looks like you enjoyed your Symphony experience as much as we did! I want to go back and do it all over again!!

This trip was absolutely incredible as I assume you already know. We are continuously living through memories every day!!!

[TeamTrom]

After the Colosseum tour we headed back to the hotel because we had an exciting day coming up, for a few reasons. First it was the day that we would finally board Symphony of the Seas. We have been planning this for almost a year and to believe it is here was unreal. But another reason, and possibly more important(tell the Wifey I said it was) is because it is our 10 year anniversary. We went straight to bed and woke up bright and early. We had a few more things to do in Rome and only a couple hours to get them done. Italian Coffee was a must and we saw the perfect spot. This little street side shop that had tables to sit at and surprise surprise, you could see the Colosseum from your table. 

While there we got some breakfast as well. I ordered a sandwich with cured meats and cheese on a buttery crescent while Wifey got a crescent of her own with chocolate inside. We topped it all off with our first kiss as a married couple of 10 years!!!

And the last thing on our to do list is Book Drop # 3. Wifey, Stacey, Is a published author and something fun we have done lately is sign a copy of her book and leave it in a public place for someone to find. Then we record it and add it into our Vlog videos so someone can look back and see the story of us dropping off the book they found. We find it very fun. What better place then to leave it in front of the Colosseum!!! Of Course!!!

 

[TeamTrom]

Now that we got that taken care of it is time to get to our Lady Symphony who is waiting on our much anticipated arrival. We have a private driver pick us up from the Hotel and it takes a little over an hour to get to Port where we get our first glimpse of Her magnificence. 

We pull up front and get our checked bags taken away with no line in front of us. We make our way through the terminal and as we approach check in we find this....

NO LINES AT ALL!!! We had heard that in Rome there would be a quick boarding process but I never expected this. The ladies were fighting over which one would be able to serve us!!! I love it. While in line we looked at our check list to see what we completed while in our first of 3 visits to Italy, not too shabby...

We got to our rooms quickly and almost just as quickly our luggage was there. Seriously within 30 minutes all of our checked luggage was there for us so we unpacked to get that out of the way!!! We set these up on the shelf to look at while we patiently waited for dinner to put them on. 

We had to Dinner planned this night at Wonderland. Our 10 year anniversary so we had to go big. But first we had to go to Muster Drill. Best Muster Drill ever. Because so few people board in Rome we were all ushered to the Royal Theatre and watched an entertaining "James Bond" like video on safety. What else do you wear to an event like this then a dress and Suit/Tie...

Isn't Wifey just beautiful!!! 

[TeamTrom]

Once finished we rushed over to Wonderland to make sure we were seated as quickly as possible. We had a Sail Away Party to host only a couple hours away and wanted to enjoy everything about this meal. This is what you see as you approach the entrance...

Everything about this place was wonderful. A truly amazing experience. 

Everything we imagined and even more. Here is the example of the menu for the night. Oh there seems to be a problem, there is no words on this at all 😉

No worries, everything will become clear, but you will have to experience this for yourself... We were there early so we sat down at the bar which is already open to enjoy a few cocktails first. You see some of the ingredients they have on hand, one of which is cotton candy...

We take another super cheesy kissing photo of us at the bar. After all this is "our" day right lol

And finally, with our first drinks in hand we put our new rings on our fingers. This is the perfect way to start this vacation. 

[TeamTrom]

Those drinks are absolutely delicious. Really they are masterpieces. We had to try two more just to see what else they had to offer.

You have a choice, the red pill or the blue pill. What would you choose? Wifey ended up getting the red pill.

After a few drinks we sat down at our table and went through the whole Mad Hatter introduction which was fun. We told them to make the selections for us, we wanted to be surprised by what was brought to the table. Here was one of our dishes, their version of deviled eggs. This was SOOO good. Wish I had more than just one.

And this was a wrapped shrimp that came with a fluffy cream sauce that was a little spicy but delicious

And some kind of interesting cone with a wasabi filling. Not as delicious, more of an experience lol

[TeamTrom]

We did make one request. We had seen a dish that resembled some vegetables in some dirt and this had stuck with us the entire time we planned this trip. We told our server that we absolutely had to have that dish and she didn't disappoint. 

There is not many ways to describe this. It was... different lol I'm glad we tried it, in all honesty we HAD to try it but boy was it strange. We will probably leave this dish off our request list unless of course my father and his girlfriend join us lol. I don't want to give away all the details of the meal, like I said before you must try it for yourself but I will say this one last bit, get the Short Rib, you will NOT be disappointed... MHMMM

We finished up dinner and just made it to our Party. We hung out with quite a few people that we had been talking to online for months and had a good time playing a couple games, exchanging gifts from home and just enjoying each others company. We Booked "Hiro" the aqua show that is in the Aquatheatre at the rear of the ship, on the boardwalk on deck 6. We had seen the aqua show on Oasis of the Seas and had high expectations. We unfortunately left not as happy, not because of the level of intensity, because some of the stunts and things they were doing were cool but it was very repetitive, we never caught on to any storyline and they rarely did any dives which is what we find so fun, specifically from the uppermost diving boards. But that's okay. We had to get to our rooms to get some sleep. We had already been running on little sleep over the last few days and needed to be up really early tomorrow morning for our extremely busy day in Naples. But first we took a quick tour of a few spots. 

We spent a LOT of time in their many hot tubs. Practically every night actually lol

We have a 3 year old son, who up to this point has not yet been on a cruise. We want to wait for the right age but there was so many times we walked by this Splash Park and thought about how much fun he would have here. Surprisingly enough we convinced ourselves that he is almost there and probably for our next cruise. And here we around 3 weeks later, just booked our next sailing for February of 2020 on Harmony, a little more than a year away and we booked it for 3 😃 We are so excited for him to come along with us. He will be 5 and we think that is just right!!!

[FishOn55]

Love the attention to detail in your thread.  Congrats on your anniversary. How romantic to exchange new rings. Looking forward to boarding the Symphony on Nov. 24th (birthday cruise). Can't wait to read all about Naples.

[TeamTrom]

3 hours ago, FishOn55 said:

Love the attention to detail in your thread.  Congrats on your anniversary. How romantic to exchange new rings. Looking forward to boarding the Symphony on Nov. 24th (birthday cruise). Can't wait to read all about Naples.

Thanks a bunch, I am about to get started on Naples right now 😉

[TeamTrom]

We arrived in Naples, Italy and yet again it was another early morning for TeamTrom… lol. We booked a tour in Naples host by Taxi Mister Cab Driver of Naples & Amalfi, if your in Naples look him up. He is on Facebook and has fantastic reviews. What had originally started as a tour for the two of us turned into a WHOPPING 24. All gathered from Facebook and Cruise Critic. A large portion of us agreed to meet up at Windjammer for breakfast before getting off the ship to meet our tour guides. There was a large variety and I was not disappointed. I always go big

While Wifey always goes small... haha

This was our first glimpse of the city from on board the ship. Great view from the Windjammer because they back in.

After we finished stuffing our faces those of us who met up for breakfast headed down to get off the ship. We followed our way through the terminal and to the location we agreed to meet. I will be honest that I was nervous about this. I was the leader, I organized a very large group of people I don't know to go on a tour where you don't pay until the tour is over. While you expect everyone to show up you just never know and I was worried what might happen to the cost if a few couples decided to sleep in and how long do we wait for said couple in case they were running late. But to my surprise once we got to the meet up the entire group was accounted for AND on time... WHAT?!?! I cant Believe it. Thank you to each of you for showing up... We played follow the leader to the Vans

And looked back for one final look at Symphony before the long tour. She has a beautiful booty, don't you agree?

We load up and head out. Here is Ciro, the man who runs this whole thing.

[TeamTrom]

Our first stop was going to be Ravello, but first we had to drive by Mt Vesuvius. Our tour guide told us all about this active volcano and went into great detail about the destruction that It has caused.

Its amazing how something so beautiful can be so destructive. 

As we start putting the Volcano in the rear view we take a look back at all of it.

And we look ahead to the mountains of Valle delle Ferriere. There is only this road to get from Naples to Ravello and it is amazing to see. Somewhat terrifying to watch the drivers go so quickly up and down the cliffside roads but incredible nonetheless.

We had so many different opportunities throughout this day for fantastic shots. I will never forget how never ending this all felt.

Had to take this one to prove we were there

 

[TeamTrom]

Everything about this place was so amazing. Just the view from the Van going down the road made you believe it was leading somewhere you unreal

We finally made it to the town of Ravello and it did not disappoint. This was a from atop the cliffs looking down at the incredible Amalfi Coast. This was absolutely stunning and it didn't stop here...

Just a few of the people in our group all enjoying the view

Wifey looking good as always!

I love to play with some of the filters, as if it is needed

And me taking it all in(this is currently our photo with the most likes on Instagram find us @TeamTromTravels

[TeamTrom]

I like to take photos of people as they hold hands and it just so happens a newly wed couple in our group happened to be our first victims! They still don't know about this lol

We enjoyed a couple deserts from a local bakery in this small town. We also bought some Italian chocolate to bring back home but sill me forgot them in the stateroom fridge. I hope someone was able to enjoy them.

We never realized just how popular lemons are here until we started seeing them everywhere. I guess it explains the Limoncello thing huh lol

I just really enjoyed how the entire town was in these small cities. You just go around a corner and pass under this small bridge and you approach these really cool shops followed by a winding staircase that has to be nearly a century old. Just how the city folds everything into each other to use up every but of precious space is beautiful

Some of the buildings are just neat too

And how about being able to say you work here everyday... 😲 Yes Please!!!

[TeamTrom]

Just a few more shots from Ravello

[TeamTrom]

We took another ride from Ravello down to the Amalfi Coast. Here we were able to explore the town. We got a look at this church perched up high on this hill. 

Next we took a walk to the beach to check out the coast.

[TeamTrom]

Every angle is another unbelievable view. 

Here we are taking our selfie from the pier.

Followed by our smoochie smooch!!! 😘

We could climb on the rocks nestled in the water to dip our feet in the Mediterranean for the first time 😍

And here I am taking ownership of my land 😉

[TeamTrom]

We had a few extra minutes before we had to leave town and it has been hot out most of the afternoon so we stopped off at the nearest restaurant for a refreshing drink. 

Our next stop is Smeraldo Cave. It is a cave that is near the ocean level that you take a boat ride in to see some underwater statues. Here we are approaching the cave.

Here is Ciro, our fearless leader pointing at which direction not to go!!!

And a couple shots from inside the cave. You cannot tell but we are in a row boat and its nearly pitch black in here besides for the lights stationed in corners to show off this age old cave.

 

It was pretty neat. The row boat "Captain" was singing us an Italian song while we took a short ride. There was completely clear water that you could see down under the water to some underwater statues that have spent hundreds of years there. There was an underwater opening the led to the ocean that lit up the water a bright blue color so you could see the statues. No good photos so I took a screenshot from some GoPro video but it is still hard to see.

[CRUIS4ME]

Would like to know about on board entertainment?   Shows there are?  Any special events like murder mystery or prohibition party?   Thx