Just got off Symphony today - any questions?

[kcbookworm]

I just got off a wonderful cruise on Symphony.  These boards were helpful to my planning so I wanted to offer assistance to others.  Any questions I can try to help with?

[vacationlover_mn]

In the Solarium, where they monitoring the chairs to make sure people didn’t hold them for hours with towels?

[xdanb22x]

I was on the same cruise and no, there was never any monitoring that we saw.  In fact, the majority of people did what RCL told them not to do.  They saved chairs for hours and left to go to breakfast or something else.  We were sitting on some chairs for atleast two hours before someone came to sit down on the chairs that had towels on them next to us.  RCL needs to be more strict on this.

[FionaLouise]

We are going on the Harmony at the end of march and i know the ship is very similar. Can I ask what was the queues like for activities like the slides and abyss? What was your favourite place to eat? Loads of questions coming your way if you got the time haha!

[stacieg1011]

Did anyone try Hookers? Is the food good. What are the free venues to eat at that are different from the other Oasis Class. Thanks

[Clarea]

9 minutes ago, stacieg1011 said:

Did anyone try Hookers? ...

 

I'm thinking you meant Hooked.

[stacieg1011]

Yes lol. If you tried the hookers that's your business 🙂

[PhoenixCruiser]

Was Valet Luggage available yet?

[Andy C]

51 minutes ago, stacieg1011 said:

Did anyone try Hookers? Is the food good. What are the free venues to eat at that are different from the other Oasis Class. Thanks

 

We will be sailing Symphony in December.  Looking forward to checking out Hookers!

[Ron Don]

Also interested in Luggage Valet?

[vacationlover_mn]

1 hour ago, stacieg1011 said:

Did anyone try Hookers? Is the food good. What are the free venues to eat at that are different from the other Oasis Class. Thanks

Lol- post of the day 🙂

[melted2002]

Following 

[er345]

Did you participate in any of the shipboard activities other than the main entertainment? We are on Symphony in March and I have my entertainment reserved as well as the Escape Room.  I’m interested to hear about anything from sports, wine or beer tastings, exercise classes, trivia, karaoke etc.  Anything you enjoyed or didn’t.  

 

Thank you so much.

 

 

[stacieg1011]

2 hours ago, vacationlover_mn said:

Lol- post of the day 🙂

Wonder how much the hookers are lol

[kcbookworm]

8 hours ago, vacationlover_mn said:

In the Solarium, where they monitoring the chairs to make sure people didn’t hold them for hours with towels?

Honestly no.  Lots of chairs reserved.  We always found a spot though and never sat at the other pools.  We really enjoyed the solarium. We were on Oasis 3 years ago and the solarium was so hot.  We heard they redesigned for Symphony and it was so much better.  We did see them enforce the no kids rule which was appreciated. 

[kcbookworm]

6 hours ago, FionaLouise said:

We are going on the Harmony at the end of march and i know the ship is very similar. Can I ask what was the queues like for activities like the slides and abyss? What was your favourite place to eat? Loads of questions coming your way if you got the time haha!

Hello!  Hardly any lines for the activities that needed lines like the Abyss, water slides, and zip line.  Flow rider always had a line but it takes a while for each person to ride.  We ate in the main dining room for dinner every night but we had lunch at Jamie’s and Hooked.  Both were excellent but Jamie’s was amazing!   We had El Loco Fresh for lunch and it was very good but I think it is new for Symphony.  Does Harmony have the Mexican restaurant on the Boardwalk like Oasis does?   If so we did that on Oasis and it was excellent!   Any other questions?

[kcbookworm]

6 hours ago, stacieg1011 said:

Did anyone try Hookers? Is the food good. What are the free venues to eat at that are different from the other Oasis Class. Thanks

Haha we had Hooked for lunch one day and it was very good. The drunken mussels were actually the best item I ate all week!  We ate at Jamie’s and Hooked for 2 lunches but otherwise we are all about the free venues!   We really enjoyed El Loco Fresh and Park Cafe.  Also the hotdogs on the Boardwalk are really good and we did that for lunch one day. 

[kcbookworm]

6 hours ago, PhoenixCruiser said:

Was Valet Luggage available yet?

I can’t answer that one.  Not sure what you mean by “valet luggage”?   As usual they take your luggage on and off the ship!

[kcbookworm]

2 hours ago, er345 said:

Did you participate in any of the shipboard activities other than the main entertainment? We are on Symphony in March and I have my entertainment reserved as well as the Escape Room.  I’m interested to hear about anything from sports, wine or beer tastings, exercise classes, trivia, karaoke etc.  Anything you enjoyed or didn’t.  

 

Thank you so much.

 

 

Hello! No we did not pay to do any activities like the escape room or the tastings.  I will say the aqua show Hiro was AMAZING!   Flight and 1971 were also good.  I highly recommend iSkate which is an additional ice skating show that is offered without reservations.  I actually enjoyed it more than 1971.  The adult comedy show in The Attic was very good!  It showed as sold out before the cruise but we were able to easily get a reservation once we were onboard. We enjoy live jazz and caught the first set every night in Jazz on 4.  Oh and also Dazzles club!  The band in there was great and we enjoyed sitting on the top level so we could watch the band and dance floor!

[perfect match]

What time was the late seating in the MDR? Lately, the time once we are on board is different from what was in our reservation. That messes up our carefully planned show reservations. It's a first world problem for sure, but annoying when I've taken the time to book our shows in advance.

 

Also, what day and time was iSkate held? 

[MLB6]

we set sail in 2 weeks. A lot of people have said this ship feels overly crowded all the time. Did it feel that way to you? How was the food for  My time dining? What was your favorite drink? Did you do an excursion? What is a must do for this ship??

[PhoenixCruiser]

4 minutes ago, MLB6 said:

we set sail in 2 weeks. A lot of people have said this ship feels overly crowded all the time. Did it feel that way to you? How was the food for  My time dining? What was your favorite drink? Did you do an excursion? What is a must do for this ship??

 

We sailed Symphony last month and kids sail free was offered on our sailing.  To us it felt really crowded the first two and last day.  At times it was over the top loud.  We have never experienced so many kids running up and down the hallway the entire cruise as well as strollers parked in the hallway.

[kcbookworm]

On ‎1‎/‎14‎/‎2019 at 1:09 AM, perfect match said:

What time was the late seating in the MDR? Lately, the time once we are on board is different from what was in our reservation. That messes up our carefully planned show reservations. It's a first world problem for sure, but annoying when I've taken the time to book our shows in advance.

 

Also, what day and time was iSkate held? 

Late dining was 8:00 pm.  Early dining was at 5:30 pm - even though our docs said 6:00 pm. 

 

I believe iSkate was the last 2 nights.  I don't have the Compasses in front of me, but can check when I get home.

[kcbookworm]

59 minutes ago, MLB6 said:

we set sail in 2 weeks. A lot of people have said this ship feels overly crowded all the time. Did it feel that way to you? How was the food for  My time dining? What was your favorite drink? Did you do an excursion? What is a must do for this ship??

We sailed on Oasis 3 years ago and it is basically the same size as Symphony, but they have more guests on Symphony.  We thought it felt more crowded than Oasis did.  We were always shuffling around more people everywhere we went.  It didn't ruin our experience - we just noticed bigger crowds in many spots on the ship. 

 

We ate in the main dining room every night and we were very pleased with the food.  Some meals were better then others, but overall we were very happy with the food and especially the service. 

 

Our favorite drinks were pina colada, white Russian, long island ice tea, gin and tonic.  We also drank a lot of wine!   We really enjoy having the drink package so we can sample all kinds of drinks without worrying about finishing them if we don't like them. 

 

We did the "open air vehicle tour" in St Kitts and it was very good.  It was only about 2 hours and took us to several spots on the island.  We did the "fast cat snorkeling" in St Thomas and would not recommend it.   Tooooo many people snorkeling.  It was like a cattle call.  There were 6 boats snorkeling in the same spot.  Hundreds of people.  The second stop for the beach break was not enjoyable at all.  We just wanted to get back to the ship by then.

 

Here are some must dos ...

Happy Hour at the Wonderland Bar - the atmosphere is so cool and so are the drinks!

El Loco Fresh for lunch

Jamie's Italian for lunch - our best meal on the ship!

The Abyss - my husband and daughter didn't like it LOL, but you have to give it a try!

The adult comedy show in The Attic

The aqua show Hiro was amazing!

Jazz on 4 is our favorite place to listen to music and have a drink

 

[MLB6]

Thank you so much!!