Live Review- Symphony of the Seas 1/12/19; First Oasis Class in 7 Years!

[OTownNick]

Tonight we had dinner in the Main Dining Room since my wife wanted to go get Lobster. It was 2nd formal night and since we planned to go to see HIRO in the aqua theater, I just didn’t want to wear my tux so I went casual. We have My Time Dining and no reservations so we walked up and got in line. There would have been about 10-15 minute wait I estimated based on the line of people, but one of the hosts we recognized happened to see us and escorted us right up to the entrance for immediate seating. That was really nice!

 

Dinner was fine. Typical menu we see across the fleet for 2nd formal night. I don’t really care for Lobster and nothing on the menu appealed to me so I asked what the curry dish was.  It was curry shrimp. I don’t care for shrimp either so I opted for the classic horseradish crusted salmon which was fine. Service was great. Ricardo asked if we had a show to catch and he made sure we were out in an hours time. Dessert was Baked Alaska and it was perfect. 

 

Note- instead of happy hour we just brought one of our bottles of wine delivered to our room and drank that during dinner. We love the Arboleda Carmenere wine from Chile. It’s on the wine selection if you have 525 points or higher. 

 

After dinner we went straight to the Aqua theater for HIRO. They have reserved seating for D+, Suites, and Pinnacles which is nice to have. Main Theater has the same, up on Deck 5. We loved the aqua show. Best aqua show I’ve seen yet. After the show, we just called it an early night. 

 

Note/ I noticed a fair amount of people dressed up tonight. Saw a few tuxes, several suits, many dress shirts and ties.... and then sporadic casual clothes. As we were entering the dining room, I saw a couple walking up and the guy had a bathing suit, t shirt, and flip flops on with a pool towel draped over his shoulders!! Good grief. I never did see if he got seated but he should have been turned away!

[Yorkvillain]

Nick have you been to Playmakers yet? Your cardiologist just texted me. He said you’re allowed one order of wings.....and one plate of nachos. 

Edited January 18, 2019 by Yorkvillain

[PhoenixCruiser]

Ill get some information for you by tomorrow 

I wonder if VL is still not available on the Symphony? In the past we have received the forms earlier in the week.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

[Milwaukee Eight]

9 hours ago, PhoenixCruiser said:

I wonder if VL is still not available on the Symphony? In the past we have received the forms earlier in the week.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
 

What is “VL”?

[Lionesss]

24 minutes ago, Milwaukee Eight said:

What is “VL”?

 

 

 

Luggage valet??

 

dyslexic nick.

 

Sea Ya

[Milwaukee Eight]

9 hours ago, OTownNick said:

Tonight we had dinner in the Main Dining Room since my wife wanted to go get Lobster. It was 2nd formal night and since we planned to go to see HIRO in the aqua theater, I just didn’t want to wear my tux so I went casual. We have My Time Dining and no reservations so we walked up and got in line. There would have been about 10-15 minute wait I estimated based on the line of people, but one of the hosts we recognized happened to see us and escorted us right up to the entrance for immediate seating. That was really nice!

 

Dinner was fine. Typical menu we see across the fleet for 2nd formal night. I don’t really care for Lobster and nothing on the menu appealed to me so I asked what the curry dish was.  It was curry shrimp. I don’t care for shrimp either so I opted for the classic horseradish crusted salmon which was fine. Service was great. Ricardo asked if we had a show to catch and he made sure we were out in an hours time. Dessert was Baked Alaska and it was perfect. 

 

Note- instead of happy hour we just brought one of our bottles of wine delivered to our room and drank that during dinner. We love the Arboleda Carmenere wine from Chile. It’s on the wine selection if you have 525 points or higher. 

 

After dinner we went straight to the Aqua theater for HIRO. They have reserved seating for D+, Suites, and Pinnacles which is nice to have. Main Theater has the same, up on Deck 5. We loved the aqua show. Best aqua show I’ve seen yet. After the show, we just called it an early night. 

 

Note/ I noticed a fair amount of people dressed up tonight. Saw a few tuxes, several suits, many dress shirts and ties.... and then sporadic casual clothes. As we were entering the dining room, I saw a couple walking up and the guy had a bathing suit, t shirt, and flip flops on with a pool towel draped over his shoulders!! Good grief. I never did see if he got seated but he should have been turned away!

Nick. We have always had Lobster in the CK on Lobster night. It’s often prepared in a different way but has been awesome. They will even bring the tails just as in MDR if you ask. 

[ericgouyer]

Hi OtownNick

 

Can you share your CRUISE COMPASS with us ?

 

 

[Ogtubbx3]

10 hours ago, OTownNick said:

Tonight we had dinner in the Main Dining Room since my wife wanted to go get Lobster. It was 2nd formal night and since we planned to go to see HIRO in the aqua theater, I just didn’t want to wear my tux so I went casual. We have My Time Dining and no reservations so we walked up and got in line.

Question regarding the 2nd formal night. I know that for 7 night cruises Royal states they have 2 but my app is not showing itenerary for the 2nd, only the first. Should I assume there will be 2 anyway? Sailing on Allure 

[Milwaukee Eight]

Nick. I watched you video on the Flowrider. Dang, your improving!!!  

[OTownNick]

1 hour ago, Milwaukee Eight said:

Nick. We have always had Lobster in the CK on Lobster night. It’s often prepared in a different way but has been awesome. They will even bring the tails just as in MDR if you ask. 

Darn I wish I knew. Next time on Oasis we will know.

[OTownNick]

30 minutes ago, Ogtubbx3 said:

Question regarding the 2nd formal night. I know that for 7 night cruises Royal states they have 2 but my app is not showing itenerary for the 2nd, only the first. Should I assume there will be 2 anyway? Sailing on Allure 

There are 2 formal nights on all 7 night sailings.  

[OTownNick]

1 hour ago, Lionesss said:

 

 

 

Luggage valet??

 

dyslexic nick.

 

Sea Ya

According to the Concierge Symphony does not offer luggage valet at this time. Some ships do offer it. Perhaps in the future they will. ?

[Milwaukee Eight]

2 minutes ago, OTownNick said:

Darn I wish I knew. Next time on Oasis we will know.

 

2 minutes ago, OTownNick said:

Darn I wish I knew. Next time on Oasis we will know.

Just make sure you ask the day before. They generally serve lobster in some type of dish that we have loved.  If you let them know, like we do, we get the tails also. 

[OTownNick]

1 hour ago, ericgouyer said:

Hi OtownNick

 

Can you share your CRUISE COMPASS with us ?

 

 

Sorry I didn’t keep all mine. Here is the one for today though. I hope it helps give you an idea. The RC App does a great job in place of this. 

[OTownNick]

Day 7. Last day. Docked in Nassau. We plan to stay onboard as will more than half the ship I estimate. I began with a sunrise photo op followed by a hot tub in the Solarium. The Solarium was empty and it is so nice there. That should be everyone’s go-to spot. The Solarium Bistro was open for breakfast. Again, it’s like a mini Windjammer but a nicer atmosphere. I went through the see the food offerings. It’s got the basics, including an omelette station. Some of the unique features I noticed were scrambled egg whites, a couple of different pre made omelettes, and a muesli Bar with lots of toppings. 

 

By the time I was done with my workout at the gym around 8:30, we tried to go in the Solarium Bistro but there was already a long line waiting to be seated. They have some outdoor seating in the Solarium that looks nice. We saw some guests eating out there. Looked nice. We didn’t get a chance to do that. 

 

We ended up at Coastal Kitchen for breakfast. It was a typical breakfast. 

 

Tonight the Coastal Kitchen is booked up until 8:00. We want to see the “Last Laugh” comedy show in the theater at 8:30, so we decided our dinner will just be Canapés and drinks in the Suites Lounge. Perfectly fine with us. 

 

Today’s plans- I’m going to do an hour worth of work, chill in cabin. Lunch at Coastal Kitchen for the yummy flat bread (and my salmon)... then 2:00 surf the Flow Rider (that’s when it opens today). At 3:30 there is a Sailaway party on the Helipad by invitation only (Suites and Pinnacles). I had no idea about this til Cheryl (“BeenSailing”) mentioned it to me. My invitation got lost in the mail. I checked with the Concierge and we are on the invite list so we will plan to attend.  My wife also wants to spend a little bit of time up at the Suites Sundeck. This is a beautiful private area. Plenty of comfortable padded chairs and your own bar. Drinks are NOT included (although at 11:00, the Suites Lounge DOES serve free beer and wine). I learned this the hard way. Ordered 2 beers up in the Suites Sundeck and the total was $17.98, including grats. Wow. 

 

 

[PhoenixCruiser]

What is “VL”?

I thought it was Valet luggage, not the other way around [emoji16]

It has been several years since we were able to use this on a Royal cruise.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

[melted2002]

Thank You for Checking on Luggage Valet

I hope they have it for our Cruise Early March

[OTownNick]

13 hours ago, Yorkvillain said:

Nick have you been to Playmakers yet? Your cardiologist just texted me. He said you’re allowed one order of wings.....and one plate of nachos. 

We haven’t on this ship. Yeah I had the wings and burger at Playmakers on Mariner and they’re amazing. Today they are having a wing eating contest at Playmakers. Not sure of details and if it costs anything. My man vs food days are over lol. However I have fallen off the wagon slightly this week. I have been eating just about anything I want. I’m staying away from red meat and too much bread, but I am trying desserts if they look good. Tomorrow I’m back on the wagon lol. 

 

We have skipped one meal every day because there’s just a lot of food. I can’t eat as much as I used to. We really love the flat breads at Coastal Kitchen. They’re actually pretty healthy for you. No Sorrentos pizza. I’ve seen it and it looks like the improved recipe. Still not “great” the last I tried this same improved version but it’s edible. 

Edited January 18, 2019 by OTownNick

[BEENSAILING]

4 hours ago, Milwaukee Eight said:

Nick. We have always had Lobster in the CK on Lobster night. It’s often prepared in a different way but has been awesome. They will even bring the tails just as in MDR if you ask. 

When I saw Nick and Barb this morning in CK at breakfast I told them I had read his mdr lobster night experience. And I told them the preparation of the lobster is not just in the shell but pieced and in an exquisite sauce. - Cheryl

Edited January 18, 2019 by BEENSAILING

[Milwaukee Eight]

3 hours ago, BEENSAILING said:

When I saw Nick and Barb this morning in CK at breakfast I told them I had read his mdr lobster night experience. And I told them the preparation of the lobster is not just in the shell but pieced and in an exquisite sauce. - Cheryl

Yes yes. We enjoyed the change in Lobster presentation in the CK. Was quite good. 

[OTownNick]

This afternoon I did one run on the Flow Rider than we played mini golf. It’s the same basic course as Mariner. It’s really good. Next I sampled El Loco Fresh for a late lunch. I really enjoyed the pork carnitas. Made my own soft shell taco. I tried a pre made chicken burrito. It was nice and warm and soft and tasted fresh. It had a little too much cheese and was a little bland. Otherwise it wasn’t bad. 

 

Next we took a little nap  and then started packing.  Tonight the Coastal Kitchen was fully booked until 8:00, but we wanted to be in the theater by 8, so we decided to just have Canapés for dinner in the Suites Lounge. With the drinks flowing, it was plenty for us. 

 

Tonighrs show was a family comedy show with the 2 comedians who performed all week in the comedy club. There also is an adult show at 10:30 that we will try to stay up for. 

Edited January 19, 2019 by OTownNick

[OTownNick]

The last night we saw the 8:30 comedy show starring the 2 comics who performed all

week in the comedy club. They were both very good. We got our photos after that and decided to call it an early night. The adult comedy show at 10:30 would have probably been similar to the shows they do in the club so we skipped it. 

 

The last morning we had breakfast in the Coastal Kitchen at 7:00. The ship began disembarking at 6:45. We know people had early flights (8:30) out of Miami and these are very doable. We’ve had flights out of FLL at 9:30 and we were early.

 

We will wait in the Suites Lounge for escort off the ship at 9:00, which is the last escort. 

 

Later ill post my final overall review 

[OTownNick]

Overall Comments:

 The ship is amazing. Elegant. So much to see and do. We were only off the ship one day for 4 hours and we still had a lot we didn’t do or see. 2 weeks would have been so nice. My advice on this subject- you can relax and miss a lot or run run run and try to squeeze in as much as you can. 

 

We had a Boardwalk Balcony cabin. We thought the cabin itself wasn’t adequate with enough closet and storage space. We didn’t care for the balcony overlooking the boardwalk. There was lots of noise at

timea. We spent less time on this balcony than with an ocean view . Next time we will be in an ocean view balcony. It was nice getting the soda package (especially for my wife who loves her Diet Coke), and we were supposed to get free lunch at Johnny Rockets but we never saw any “coupon” in our cabin but we didn’t care to eat there anyway. 

 

The food was excellent all

around. Solarium Bistro space as well as the Solarium were gorgeous. I’d plan to spend more time there. We made a comment that it would be better if they could serve the entrees and leave the appetizers and sides and desserts as buffet style. 

 

Entertainment was exdellent. A+. Don’t miss any of the shows!

 

We really really loved the perks that came with Suites/Pinnacle. If you can splurge for a suite, this is the class of ship to do it on. For us, the ship was the destination. We would definitely do this itinerary again. We thought Roatan was really nice over at the West End area. We didn’t get off at Costa Maya due to rain so I’d like my wife to get another chance to go. 

 

Thanks to all for following along. I have another Oasis Class ship (or 2) comomg up soon so it will interesting to compare. 

[blueridgemama]

Thank you for your live review. We will be on The Symphony in Sept and it will be our first cruise on one of these mega ships. I am intimidated by the shear size and the process of reservations for shows etc. so I am reading as many reviews as possible. We will be on The Mariner at Christmas and I was wondering if you had any reviews on that ship and where I could find them. Look forward to your wrap up thoughts on the Symphony.

[vacationlover_mn]

I’m assuming that if you had the drink package, the beer at the suite deck bar would have been “free”?  We haven’t done a suite on RCI yet, but would love to someday 🙂