Symphony of the Seas - A First Time Cruiser’s Review 1/5/19-1/12/19

[parsec0298]

My wife and I just got back from sailing Symphony of the Seas last week, and I wanted to share our experiences, especially from the perspective of first time cruisers. This isn't going to be a photo review for a couple of reasons. First, there a quite a few others on this forum who have done that already, and they’ve done a far better job than I could ever hope to do. Second, I didn’t want to be “That guy” who spends his entire vacation lost behind the screen of his camera instead of being in the moment. I’m not say those who have done photo reviews are like that, but I know from past vacations I personally do turn into “That guy” if I’m not careful. I’m sorry if that means this turns into a giant wall of text, and I certainly understand if not everyone has the patience for that. I will try to include at least some photos when I can though.

 

Miami

We flew into Miami on Friday January 4th, one day before departure. Neither of us had been to Miami before, so we decided to splurge a bit and get a hotel in South Beach. Hindsight being 20-20, I think this was a mistake. We were so tired from having to wake up at 4:00AM to catch our flight (not to mention not being able to sleep due to the excitement) that by the time we got to the room we were exhausted and I was starving. If I were to do things over again I would plan an extra day to explore the departure city, or save on the hotel and just rest up for the excitement that was about to come. But we did get to try a great Cuban place on Collins Ave. for dinner called Morenos. The food was good, the live music was excellent, the mojito was legit. Just go there, you won’t be sorry.

I will mention though that we did stay in the Marseille Hotel, and we opted for the ocean view room. This property is set back from the beach a bit further than some of the other hotels in the area, but the make up for it by having a really nice backyard style pool area with lawn games, hammocks, a regular pool, and another pool area with floating style lounge beds. They also offered a happy hour with “free” drinks, meaning that the drink itself is free, but there was a mandatory $1 tip for the bartender. You could niggle with their marketing of this, but all in all I think it was more than fair.

Where things really disappointed me was the room itself. It seemed like it had been recently remodeled, but the floor tile was still dated (very 1980s feeling). Further the “ocean view” was through a tiny window in the far corner of the room, and you could only see the ocean if you were standing right in front of it. Overall I would say the room was “just fine,” but considering what we paid I expected a lot more. I would stay here again, but only for a third of what we actually paid.

 

Embarkation

The day of departure is one of those days that I’m not going to forget for a long, long time. Our scheduled boarding time was 11:00-11:30, but we needed to check out of the hotel around 10:00. So we figured we would just get up, check out, and call a Lyft to go straight to the port. That whole process was very smooth and before we knew it we were on our way.

Due to a quirk in the way the roads are laid out, from Miami Beach we actually had to go on MacArthur Causeway all the way across Biscayne Bay to Miami, turn around, and go back across on the Causeway. I wasn’t complaining though, since this gave us plenty of opportunity to see all the ships in port that day, including our first glimpse of the Symphony. We also saw the Norwegian Bliss, MSC Seaside, Carnival Liberty, and another Carnival ship whose name I never got to see. All I can say is that, at least on this day, Carnival was clearly outclassed and I was immediately happy that we had chosen the Symphony!

Once we actually pulled up to the terminal we got our first taste of what would be a recurring theme on this cruise, outstanding service (I have a whole section on this below). Our Lyft driver ended up going a little too far and overshot the drop-off area. The porter who greeted us told him off a little bit, but he treated us incredibly well. He immediately grabbed our bags (but only after asking if we wanted help) and told us to follow him. He took us to the bag drop area, deposited our luggage, and then walked us right up to the entrance doors. I fully expected, and would not have blamed him, to go right back and grab someone else’s bags once ours were dropped off and just left us to our own devices to find the entrance. I know the porters don’t work for Royal, but this was not the last time we would experience such great service, and I made sure to give him a generous tip.

Once inside the terminal building it was almost like we were transported somewhere else. While outside it was crowded and chaotic, inside it seemed like we were the only ones there. We didn’t see another person until we were up the escalator, passed the massive sculpture of the ship props, and to security. In the blink of an eye our passports had been examined, our bags screened, and we were having the obligatory photos taken in front of the phony-baloney back drops. Then off to the waiting area. From the time we walked in the doors to when we were through security had to be less than 5 minutes.

I’ve been discussing this a bit in another thread, but I was not impressed with this part of the embarkation process. We were just dumped into this massive room with literally thousands of people milling about. I’m wondering if the new terminal isn’t really fully finished yet, because all announcements were made through seemingly temporary speakers in the center of the room. I point this out because the announcements were difficult to understand clearly.

By this time it was about 11:00 and they hadn’t started boarding yet, so we took a seat and passed the time people watching. About 11:15 they finally started boarding Diamond+, and here’s the part that really left a bad taste in my mouth. I understand giving certain loyalty tiers priority boarding, and I’m completely fine that that. But they went through EVERY loyalty tier, one-by-one, all the way down to Gold. That’s 5 levels, waiting 10-15 minutes for each, before they called the first scheduled boarding group. Considering pretty much everyone gets Gold after just once cruise, that meant that more than 75% of the room was gone by the time we were allowed to board. Think about that for a second. What if United let everyone who had ever flown United before, in their lifetime, board the plane before you did? This really left me feeling like a second class citizen, and I think it makes for a bad first impression. I really think Royal needs to tighten this whole process up a bit. I have some ideas, but at this point I think I’m beating a dead horse, so I’ll move on.

Once we were finally allowed to board the excitement really started to build. Walking to and across the gangway I couldn’t go fast enough. I wanted to run, but I’m an adult and what would that look like? To give some context, my wife and I haven’t been on a full-blown vacation since our honeymoon 7 years ago (almost to the day). We had been talking about and planning to take a cruise for over 5 years now, but we kept having to put it off due to different life circumstances; some of them quite difficult and emotionally draining. I think we had about three false-starts in terms of planning this trip. To say we both needed this vacation would be a dramatic understatement. And FINALLY we were HERE! Our feet finally touched the deck for the first time. We were finally through the doors and seeing the Promenade with our own eyes. The scale of the massiveness of this ship was just beginning to sink in, the kid in the candy store feeling was starting to build – OUCH! With all her strength my wife punches my arm out of excitement. The bruise still hurts as I write this a week and a half later. Nothing will ever quite describe that feeling of finally being on the ship, especially after everything it took for us to get to that moment. That feeling alone was worth the entire trip.

 

The Ship

At this point I’m going to set aside the blow-by-blow, both figuratively and literally, and switch to highlighting my favorite parts of this cruise. Of course we explored the ship on the first day, took part in the muster drill, the sail away party, and all the other things everyone does on their first day. But I’ll leave it to others to describe that experience.

I want to start by talking about the size of this ship. I think it falls somewhere beyond the line of things that are difficult to imagine without seeing it for yourself. There were some interesting facts on display outside the On Air lounge. It is longer than three soccer fields and weighs more than 12,240 (I think that’s right) blue whales! It’s almost insulting to call it a ship I think. It’s a city…. that floats…. and moves… at 22 knots.

All that being said, motion sickness was a big concern of mine. Both my wife and I are prone to motion sickness in cars if we’re not in the front seat. In the months leading up to our sailing I read plenty of posts that were along the lines of “These Oasis class ships are so massive, you’ll never feel it moving.” That was the case for the first day and a half or so, but the ship did get to rocking. One night it was bad enough that I had some difficulty walking in straight lines, and they had to cancel the Aqua Nation show. Still, I had come prepared with every motion sickness remedy under the sun, including the skin patches (which I didn’t use). While I took Dramamine pre-emptively that one night, we were both just fine the entire time. The motion you feel on the ship most of the time is more like the gentle rocking you feel on an airplane in clear skies. It’s actually less than that, but that’s the closest analog I can think of.

Getting back to my thoughts on the ship, there’s ALWAYS something to do, or something going on, somewhere. Don’t try to do everything. You’ll either fail or you’ll run so ragged that you won’t really have a vacation. And I’m not even going to try to cover every aspect of it. Instead, here are my favorites.

-The Solarium

Aside from our cabin, this is probably where we spent the most time. We just enjoyed the atmosphere here with the commanding views of the ocean, the ability to relax, hot tubs, a pool, and a bar just steps away. We wanted to unplug during this trip, and this was the best place to do it.

There is a “But” however, and that is that I would NOT call this area peaceful. While this area is kid-free, the sad reality is that I often find certain adults to be far more misbehaved. It’s quite difficult to relax when there’s a family (all adults) yelling in each other’s general direction in German behind you. Or someone thinks it’s a good idea to bring their portable speaker and blast music you hate at full volume. Not to mention that the Solarium Bistro also adds another element of noise to the area. All that, combined with the echo effect created by the large glass panes, and occasionally my wife and I had trouble hearing each other talk even when sitting right next to each other. Don’t get me wrong though, we loved the Solarium. It could just be all that much better if it were a little quieter.

-Central Park

With all the hustle and bustle that such a busy ship entails, you NEED a place to escape it all, and Central Park is that place. Yes, during the day you can hear the activity from the pool deck above. That never bothered me. When Central Park really shines though is at night. The lighting is soft and calming. The sounds are either of crickets and birds quietly chirping, or of live solo performances by classical guitarists or pianists. For my wife and I, this was our favorite spot. We came here every night at some point to just relax and let the ambiance embrace us and wash away the excitement of the day. Royal Caribbean really nailed this part of the ship. What more can I say?

 

-Royal Promenade

Everything that Central Park is the Royal Promenade is the opposite. At night this is the hub of the activity, and during the street parties it gets very crowded and VERY loud. At this point I probably sound like some old fart who needs to turn down his hearing aids or something. I promise, my wife and I aren’t THAT old. We’re in our 40’s. And don’t take me the wrong way, all the events were all quite fun, but they can also be overwhelming at times. Our favorite spot was probably the Copper & Kettle pub. I particularly enjoyed the Pub Quiz here was well as the Family Feud in On Air. I never caught the name of the guy who hosted these events; I always seemed to be running late or otherwise distracted when he was introducing himself. Hopefully someone else can help me with his name, but he had a catchphrase, “Too much? Too soon?” Regardless, he always seemed to be able to get people to let down their guard and get involved. We also particularly enjoyed the piano player in Schooner Bar, whose name I also forget. The standup comedy show was also something we both loved. His Trump impression as so spot on that if you closed your eyes you would swear he was in the room with you.

 

Room

I’m not going to dwell too much on our cabin. We had an ocean view balcony on deck 8, just around the corner from Central Park. There are plenty of room walk-throughs out there already, so I’ll just say that we really enjoyed our room. It only really felt small one or two times during the trip, and that was only when both of us were trying to get dressed and ready at the same time. We actually liked our room better than what we had at the Marseilles, despite it being less than half the size. Before booking we debated whether we should get the extended balcony or not, and now I’m glad we didn’t. The size of the balcony was just right for our needs.

 

Dining

Let me just start by saying that the food everywhere on the ship was really good. I had zero complaints whatsoever. But three is one wrinkle here that was unique for us that I want to touch on. My wife has some unique dietary needs, chief among which is a medical condition which limits the amount of food that she can eat. On top of that, she’s vegan. This means that she has to be very picky when it comes to what she eats, as getting enough protein in a day is a constant challenge for her. As a result, she did decide to bring several boxes of protein bars along for this trip. But as you’ll see, even with her needs, she always had what she needed and probably could have done without bringing the bars. Still, I think she would bring them again just for the ease and comfort of having that safety net they provide for her.

-Windjammer

The number of options presented in the Windjammer is almost mind boggling. Each time I went I never knew where to start and loved everything on offer. Like they say, you’ll never go hungry on a cruise. When it comes to my wife and her needs, she was pleased to find that they had several fresh fruits, veggies, nuts, peanut butter and even plain tofu. Her only complaint was that one morning some thoughtless individual dropped a giant chunk of egg right in the tofu. This meant she couldn’t eat it. Now I’m sure if she had pointed this out to a crew member they would have brought her a fresh batch. But I’m sure you’re all familiar with how we can all be less than patient early in the morning, and this particular day she had plenty of other options and didn’t want to bother.

-MDR

This is where I’m going to really sing the praises for Royal Caribbean. We had the 5:30 seating on deck 5, and I just want to say that we fell in love with our waiter Diana and assistant waiter Ines. These are two of the most pleasant and wonderful young women we have ever met. We just fell in love with them. Our only real regret when it comes to the MDR was having to say goodbye to them on the last night!

But back to business. I had made sure to note my wife’s vegan requirements on our reservation months in advance. Diana and Ines knew about her needs from the moment we sat down, and made sure to point out on the menu that first night that the polenta was vegan. My wife had never had polenta before, but as soon as she tried it she loved it. She said so to Diana, and from that moment on there was a heaping bowl of polenta for my wife ready to go for the rest of the cruise. But the kitchen staff didn’t stop there. They made sure there was a new option for her to try each and every night that were all excellent. Stir fried tofu and vegetables with vegan noodles, vegetable tempura, and many other options. And all of it was made just for her (only the polenta actually appeared on the regular menu). To say the dining and kitchen staff bent over backwards to accommodate my wife’s unique needs would be a massive understatement. If you’re reading this wondering if your special dietary needs will prevent you from going on a cruise, worry no more! Royal Caribbean WILL take care of you and then some! I cannot praise them enough for this.

I hesitate to bring up any kind of negative for the MDR given how well they accommodated my wife, but there is one thing I will mention. If you really want that ocean view with your dinner, do whatever you can to avoid deck 5. We had a window seat, but it looked out onto the jogging track. That led to a few awkward moments. But I don’t even care about that. Diana and Ines were fantastic, and we were treated like family. I would encourage everyone to ask for them by name if you sail Symphony.

-Other

We didn’t do any specialty dining, and honestly I don’t feel like we really missed out at all. I guess only in the sense that Wonderland is such a unique experience. We did stop in one night for the happy hour, which was two cocktails for $15. Given they normally go for $13 each, that’s an incredibly good deal and I would encourage everyone to at the very least do this.

 

Service

If you couldn’t tell already, we were just blown away by the fantastic service we received from every single member of the crew. Not ONCE did we encounter a crew member who didn’t go beyond expectations whenever we asked for anything. I’ll just highlight one example, because if I went through all of them this review would be twice as long. In the first two days I had dropped the cup from my soda package a couple of times, which caused the outer part to crack. It was still fine and didn’t leak or anything, so I never said anything. On day 2 a small piece of plastic, probably half the size of a dime, broke off the bottom. I wanted a virgin daiquiri anyway, so I went to the Solarium bar, ordered my drink, and asked the bar tender to throw away the broken off piece for me. He gazed at it for a moment with a puzzled look, then asked me where it came from. Only then did I tell him about my broken cup, pulled it out of my backpack, and showed it to him. He immediately told me that he didn’t have any behind the bar at the moment, but to come back in 5 minutes and he would have a new cup for me. This is the kind of attention to detail and willingness to go the extra mile we experienced from the entire crew all week long!

 

Shows

All the shows were great, but I’m just going to dive right into each one.

-Hairspray

Musicals with catchy tunes are great and fun. But ones that also offer social commentary, especially ones that manage to do so in a timeless fashion, always stand out in my book. That’s Hairspray in a nut-shell. This was my favorite show, and now I want to go watch the movie.

-Hiro

If this show has any kind of plot, it’s extremely loose. And in this case that’s a good thing! This show is a feast for the eyes in so many ways. The choreography is some of the best I’ve seen, and the acrobatics leave you speechless. This wasn’t just my wife’s favorite show, it was her favorite part of the entire trip!

-Flight

This show was also very good. It was just fun musically and visually. The plot is pretty loose, and maybe falls off the rails a bit in some sections, but the talent of the cast more than makes up for it.

-1977

I have to say, this show was probably the biggest disappointment of the entire trip. Yes, it’s neat that there’s an ice skating rink on this ship. But these days having something like that is pretty much table stakes in the cruise industry. It’s definitely a case where Royal is a victim of their own success. Still, the plot was thinner than the ice the cast was skating on, and at least when we saw it not a single skater landed any but the most simple of jumps. You could feel the motion of the ship this night, but just barely. This show was the only time this entire trip that left me wishing I could have the last 50 minutes back.

 

Ports

I’m only going to touch on these lightly.

-St. Kitts

We booked a snorkeling excursion through Royal this day, and the operator for our tour was Daddy D’s or something like that. The staff were excellent and I’m quite pleased with how well they ran things. My only complaint is that one of the areas they took us too had A LOT of fire coral and not very many fish. They should really skip this spot entirely. As for the port itself, my only complaint is that as you’re exiting the secure part of the port it really felt like a feeding frenzy. We were inundated with taxi drivers offering to take us on tours, or guys trying to sell us changes to take pictures with a monkey. Still, nobody really hounded us, and a single “No thanks” was all it took for them to move on. Still, nothing really special about St. Kitts really jumped out at us. In the absence of that we have no real desire to ever really go back.

-St. Thomas

St. Thomas was just simply beautiful. We booked an independent SNUBA excursion through visnuba.com. We took a cab to Coral World, where we met up with Tammy, the owner’s wife. My wife and I basically had a private lesson from her, as it was just the two of us this day. Tammy and her husband have been running this business, focusing exclusively on SNUBA since the mid-80s. In fact, nobody in the world has more SNUBA experience than they do, literally. Tammy was very patient with us, and allowed us to go at our own pace, and the result was an enjoyable experience for the both of us. I would HIGHLY recommend visnuba.com.

After our SNUBA session we rented a couple chairs on Coki beach and just relaxed. Coki beach is fantastic. If you want that beautiful beach with turquoise water and great snorkeling, go here.

-Nassau

I don’t have a lot to say about Nassau. We were going to do Junkanoo beach, but I read some pretty bad things about it in the last couple of months. So we booked a day pass at the Hilton instead. $80/person gets you access to the hotel’s private beach just past the waterfront, with free towels, snorkel gear, paddle boards, and kayaks. It also includes $40 of food and drink credit. Given my wife’s dietary needs, I basically had all $80 to myself. Let’s just say I was well fed and well “watered”.

 

Disembarkation

The disembarkation process on the last day was confusing to me. On the info channel and in the materials left in our cabin they made a big deal about going to your designated waiting area that morning (Royal Theater on deck 5 in our case). They specifically stated "Don't wait by Starbucks." As our scheduled time came we rolled into the theater and the place was a total ghost town. Where was everyone? By Starbucks. How did I know our number had been called? I overheard a crew member's radio state that all numbers had been called (we were 67, so some of the last ones). They had the numbers on the various screens throughout the ship, but they scrolled so slowly that it probably would have taken at least 10 minutes to get to the end of the list if you happened to catch it at the beginning. And since they know everyone would wait next to Starbucks (since they specifically said not to) did they have the numbers on the big screens outside On Air (right by Starbucks)? Nope.

Regardless, once we walked off the ship everything was a total breeze. We collected our luggage, had our faces scanned by a camera, and stepped right outside. The whole process took easily less than 10 minutes. No talking to immigration or customs officials, nothing. Thumbs up for that!

 

Other

So by now you can tell that I have almost nothing but good things to say about our cruise and Royal Caribbean in general. My biggest complaint, which I have saved up until now is other people. I don’t know what it was, but it seems like the entire cruise we were surrounded by people who insisted on screaming at each other the entire time. For example, one night my wife and got in the elevator with four other people. That’s it, just the six of us in a single elevator. Yet this group were yelling at each other as if they were trying to talk across a room of crowded people. It was so bad that once we stepped out my ears were ringing. We had many, many experiences like this throughout the entire cruise. I don’t know what could explain it (cultural differences maybe), but it really wore us down.

Another example came on our snorkeling excursion. There was one family (of 6 or 7 or so) in particular that was annoying beyond belief, and I don’t think a single member of that family stopped talking for a single minute during the entire 3 hour trip. And, of course, they were yelling the entire time. It was so bad that when the boat crew were trying to get everyone to be quiet to do a quick demonstration of the life jackets the father of this family was still screaming into is phone. At one point the entire boat was glaring at him while trying to get him to shut up. His response? He yells the only three words of English who spoke the entire time “Let’s go dude!” About 15 minutes later we’re finally under way and everyone is taking pictures of the ship was we motor past. This same guy, now no longer wearing a shirt, stands in front of my wife and starts reaching over her to take pictures as if she’s not even there. So she’s sitting there with this guy’s gut hanging in her face, being treated like she’s invisible. I was about 2 seconds from giving this guy a piece of my mind when he finally stopped and returned to screaming at his family from his own seat.

This leads into another thing that really bothered me. Both of us being treated like we were invisible. Now my wife is pretty small, so it’s understandable that she can get lost in a crowd. But I’m a big guy, 6’3” and 275lbs. When I’m trying to exit an elevator and I’m saying “Excuse me please” I know people can see me. When they decide to act as if I don’t even exist, that bugs me. All that being said, people are rude no matter where you go, so I digress.

 

Conclusion

So what did we think of the cruise, Royal Caribbean, and the Symphony? Well this should tell you everything you need to know; we’ve already booked a trip on the Harmony for January next year. We absolutely loved it! This was easily the best vacation I’ve taken since I was 10, and the same applies for my wife as well. I already can’t wait for next year, and I’m starting the process of reading about or ports of call to get a sense of what we might want to do. My only regret is that we can’t do this more often.  If you've made it this far, thanks so much for reading!

Edited January 16, 2019 by parsec0298

[BobbyD]

Thanks for the review!  Glad you enjoyed your first cruise experience!  We are heading out on the Harmony in March and can't wait!

[amyhphoto]

good read, thank you! 

[mcgore83]

Enjoyed your review.  Thank you!

[Oakman]

Booked on Symphony September 2019 on Deck 8 also. Love this deck, especially cabins near the stairwells. Out of curiosity, what cabin did you choose? We love 8664. Our usual choice on Oasis Class ships. Excellent review by the way. Glad you enjoyed your trip!!!

[parsec0298]

12 minutes ago, Oakman said:

Booked on Symphony September 2019 on Deck 8 also. Love this deck, especially cabins near the stairwells. Out of curiosity, what cabin did you choose? We love 8664. Our usual choice on Oasis Class ships. Excellent review by the way. Glad you enjoyed your trip!!!

We were in 8178 and we thought the location was perfect.  At night you could still hear all the sound from the Promenade coming from the stair wells and elevator lobby, but our room was far enough down the hall that you could no longer hear it.  Yet we could still just pop around the corner and be in Central Park.  Our stop in St. Kitts was pretty early, so that morning I just went around the corner, grabbed some breakfast burritos from Park Cafe, and brought them back to the room to eat on the balcony.  Who needs room service?  At night we would unwind in Central Park, then pop around the corner and be in bed.  We liked the location so much we booked the exact same cabin on Harmony for next year.  I agree that deck 8 is an ideal spot for a quiet ocean view balcony cabin.

 

Edit to add:  Where we were was also on the opposite end from Dazzles, so there was no risk of sound coming from there either.

Edited January 16, 2019 by parsec0298

[BecciBoo]

Be aware that the Solarium on Harmony has no pool, just hot tubs.

[taglovestocruise]

Next trip on Harmony try to arrive around 1pm.  Car to cabin will be 10 minutes.. happy cruising

[SAmome]

Wow, very nice review, thank you! 

 

And, wow, your first cruise was the newest Oasis class sailing?!  Manage your expectations but good you made an Oasis class ship your second cruise. It is my favorite class amoung RCCL ships; newer NCL also good. 😉

[LisaLisa87]

Thank you for posting your review. Your first-time cruiser enthusiasm was refreshing! I remember feeling the same way. 

[Missymo]

 Really enjoyed reading your review.  Through the review,  I actually felt your excitement.  It made me remember the first time I sailed on an Oasis class ship. It was a  wonderful, exciting, and relaxing time.     I am going on Symphony next week and hope to capture more of that  excitement again. 🍾😎

[hiddenpsi]

Thank you for the wonderful review now I can’t wait until I sail on symphony it’ll also be my first time on an oasis class ship, from your experience I feel reassured that even with over 6000 guests it won’t feel overcrowded 

[gowensricks]

We were on Symphony this past summer in the Mediterranean and we will be on her again this June. I am so glad that you enjoyed your first cruise experience!!

[perfect match]

I enjoyed your review very much! Thank you for sharing. 

[Trinam2]

Thanks for sharing! I actually love reading reviews that are mostly text. Enjoy planning your next cruise, that’s one of my favorite things to do.

[brillohead]

I'm so glad that you had a mostly amazing experience for your first cruise!!!

Definitely explore your ports in depth to get the best bang for your buck, and if you haven't already, join your Roll Call.  

I've been cruising since the early 1980s, and I always tell everyone it's the best possible vacation - if you want to do a ton of activities, there's always something going on, and if you just want to chillax in a lounger, you can do that too!  

[parsec0298]

Thanks so much for the kind words everyone!  I really enjoyed writing everything up, and I'm glad so many enjoyed reading it.

 

15 hours ago, BecciBoo said:

Be aware that the Solarium on Harmony has no pool, just hot tubs.

That's actually fine by me.  I got in the pool in the Solarium just once for about 10 minutes anyway.  I enjoyed the hot tubs much more.  This time of year, with the wind while under way, the regular pools were just a touch too chilly for my taste anyway.  Daily highs were from the mid-70's to low-80's, which isn't exactly ideal pool weather.  It's perfect though for relaxing in a lounge chair or a hot tub with a frozen drink in your hand!

[misty57]

Wonderful review! We've cruised over 20 times and find it to be one of the best types of vacation for us "old farts". The loud conversations bother us as well, but I am especially sensitive since I work in an area where we speak only just above a whisper. We take noise canceling earphones to the solarium but that doesn't help in other venues. We're on Symphony in Februrary and we are eagerly anticipating ! The quantum class is really nice too, but Oasis class is our favorite.

[Marbel69]

I enjoyed your review as well.  My son and I will be first time cruisers as well this coming November on Symphony.

[37645]

19 minutes ago, Marbel69 said:

I enjoyed your review as well.  My son and I will be first time cruisers as well this coming November on Symphony.

My sister and I will be sailing on Symphony in November as well 🙂

[iluvit!]

People tend to yell when they are drunk, probably making good use of the drink pkg. We were recently on the Allure, and our main complaint was rude passengers at the elevators, dashing in before the elderly and handicapped who had been waiting. My husband started actually blocking people when they tried this. We are from Texas, and the lack of commen courtesy was appalling.

[Marbel69]

56 minutes ago, 37645 said:

My sister and I will be sailing on Symphony in November as well 🙂

Nov 16-23

[davekathy]

Thanks for taking us along on your cruise. 

[37645]

11 minutes ago, Marbel69 said:

Nov 16-23

 

Yep that’s the one. Downside is it seems so far away lol. 😉