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Symphony 4/13 Live-ish review

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Ralphinsc

Ralphinsc

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Thanks for the review! We were on the cruise immediately proceeding yours and I think I've just about gotten my post-cruise depression over enough to pen my detailed review up. Had some similarities and some differences with our Key experience. Loved reading through this. 

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Lindanuf

Lindanuf

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Excursions

St Kitts, we did the dolphin experience.  Was awesome and we had time to shop after.

St Thomas, we did a sail and snorkel to Turtle Bay.  It was awesome too.  I wanted to see turtles and we did, they were all over.  A guy from a diff boat almost drowned though.  They had to rescue him on a raft and revive him.  I swam right by him and saw him hanging onto the boat line.  A few min’s later we heard the call for a rescue.  I kicked myself for not recognizing he was in trouble.  We had rum punch on the boat back and it was all around awesome.  We even had time to buy some souvenirs at the port before our excursion.  

Nassau, we did Atlantis.  I’m glad we did it but it was a rip off for that price.  By the time we got to Atlantis it was 11:30, and we were the first group off the boat.  The bus and directions and wristband were so disorganized.  We had to head back to get the 2pm bus at 1:30.  We basically had 2 hours there.  We did the rapid lazy river twice, had lunch and left.  It was basically $100 a lap around the river.

We we’re back on the boat by 3 and I watched for pier runners.  The boat left around 5:00 ish, even though all aboard was 3:30.  Not even the late people were not running.   If you want to watch for pier runners on the Eastern Caribbean get a room on the starboard side.  We watched for runners at all 3 ports.

 

 Limits on Things

One thing I did not like was the limits on things for my daughter.  Try telling a 7 year old she can’t do a zip line cuz she doesn’t weigh enough, or go on the flow rider cuz she’s not tall enough, or swim with dolphins because she’s not old enough.  She does zip lines all the time off the boat.  We took her to Theater of the Seas after the boat to get pushed and pulled by dolphins, so it wasn’t that big of a deal, but RC seems to have higher limits on things than other places.  Oh, and they said kids under 18 couldn’t even play some game at on air on night.  It was a finish the lyrics game and the host said kids wouldn’t know songs from the 70’s and 80’s, or something like that.  I thought it was pretty  lame because compass did not list the game as 18+.

 

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Zendeck

Zendeck

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Great review from both of you.  I couldn’t agree more on the Lack of time on Nassau.  We had owed my youngest a redo because the last time at Atlantis he was too small for many of the slides and had to sit out while his 2 big brothers did the crazy slides.  It killed me this year to pay so much for a couple of hours but I promised.  We did our own excursion and taxi so we got there as early as we could and headed back at 2:00....we actually ran out of time so didn’t do the lazy river due to long lines for the slides but he got to do the slides and that was the goal!  Now we NEVER have to go back again!  Honestly I recall going super early and staying late years ago on our Disney Cruise.. it’s Not worth it to go now with this 3:30 deadline!  

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Cel_cruise

Cel_cruise

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Great review from both of you.  I couldn’t agree more on the Lack of time on Nassau.  We had owed my youngest a redo because the last time at Atlantis he was too small for many of the slides and had to sit out while his 2 big brothers did the crazy slides.  It killed me this year to pay so much for a couple of hours but I promised.  We did our own excursion and taxi so we got there as early as we could and headed back at 2:00....we actually ran out of time so didn’t do the lazy river due to long lines for the slides but he got to do the slides and that was the goal!  Now we NEVER have to go back again!  Honestly I recall going super early and staying late years ago on our Disney Cruise.. it’s Not worth it to go now with this 3:30 deadline!  



Going on your own is sooo smart! The timeline for the cruise excursion was ridiculous! My friends were on it and they had to be at the meeting spot on board at 9:30 - to not get there until 11! Lame!!!

What was the cost for doing it on your own? Was there a full vs half day rate at Atlantis?



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Clarea

Clarea

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10 minutes ago, PopeyeDaSailor said:

My wife and I will be celebrating our 20th during our cruise on May 15th.  Any specialty restaurants people recommend?  She likes Italian.

 

Jamie's is the Italian restaurant on Symphony.

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Zendeck

Zendeck

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10 hours ago, Cel_cruise said:


Going on your own is sooo smart! The timeline for the cruise excursion was ridiculous! My friends were on it and they had to be at the meeting spot on board at 9:30 - to not get there until 11! Lame!!!

What was the cost for doing it on your own? Was there a full vs half day rate at Atlantis?
 

 

 

Well.... originally my approach was a great deal when we had a full day at Nassau.... but when the itinerary changed to a half day my value decreased ...however knowing from experience the value of grabbing a quick cab on our own.... I kept my deal.

 

We book a room at comfort suites and check in and out at the same time. It is much cheaper than the full day ship excursion.  Only works with 4... in the past we were 5 and did the Disney ship excursion and overpaid.  I considered canceling my rate when RC changed to the half day price but my pkg was still just below the ship excursion rate and we could cab on our terms.   As I indicated, we had to do for my youngest to do slides that he was previously to little for so we had to do Atlantis one last time.

 

I would not recommend the Atlantis excursion to anyone as it is being sold now as a half day..... the park is to big and crowded for such a short day.  I still don’t fully get why symphony’s timeslot at Nassau is only 10:30-3:30.

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Cel_cruise

Cel_cruise

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I would not recommend the Atlantis excursion to anyone as it is being sold now as a half day..... the park is to big and crowded for such a short day.  I still don’t fully get why symphony’s timeslot at Nassau is only 10:30-3:30.


When we booked our cruise it was the full day but my understanding from the letter we got about the change it’s that Symphony has to be back to Miami earlier due to a new process of getting the ships all turned around at the port or something like that? I think it stinks! I mean - if they have to leave at 3:30, fine - but at least get there by 9 am then!

What also blew my mind was the sheer amount of guests who got off the ship! It was like a ghost town!


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Cel_cruise

Cel_cruise

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Completely agree.... earlier arrival makes sense.
 
sorry I didn’t get to meet you as a fellow new englander! Did the meet and greet happen?  I missed if it did.


I got the invite but it was for 9:30 on Day 2 in Jazz on 4, and I wasn’t able to get there in time so bailed and just went to the Top Tier event at 10:30...




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PopeyeDaSailor

PopeyeDaSailor

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12 hours ago, Cel_cruise said:

 


When we booked our cruise it was the full day but my understanding from the letter we got about the change it’s that Symphony has to be back to Miami earlier due to a new process of getting the ships all turned around at the port or something like that? I think it stinks! I mean - if they have to leave at 3:30, fine - but at least get there by 9 am then!

What also blew my mind was the sheer amount of guests who got off the ship! It was like a ghost town!


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My boss just got back from STAYING at the Atlantis last week and he said it was incredibly crowded with long lines at every slide almost all day.  Imagine dropping $10K to stay there and having 2,000 people show up from a cruise ship?  LOL.

 

When I told him about this post he laughed at the amount of time and said they probably got on two slides at most.

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