Live Review Symphony Of The Seas 11/16-11/23 Lots of Pictures

[37645]

Hello Fellow Cruisers!

 

The time has finally arrived, my first Symphony Cruise and also first time on an Oasis Class ship 🙂 I will be doing a live review, as much live as I can, with plenty of pics, especially of Food and Drinks. This will be my first time doing a live review but I have enjoyed reading all the live reviews for Symphony over the past year since we booked this cruise so thought I would do my own 🙂

 

A little background of me. This cruise is a belated celebration of my turning 30 a couple of months ago. I can’t take time off during my actual birthday month so it’s a little belated. To celebrate I thought what better way than a cruise on a big new ship. Our party is just two of us, myself and my younger sister who is my traveling buddy. Together we have been on many trips together including a previous RCL cruise to the Caribbean on Freedom of the Seas and an Alaskan Cruise on Princess. Now my sister is a vegetarian so if anyone has questions over cruising this ship as a vegetarian then hopefully this review will be helpful. 

 

Our family are big cruisers, we have been on most of the mainstream cruise lines including RCL, NCL, Carnival, Princess, DISNEY, and even the Big Red Boat (Does anyone remember that name?). Our favorite was pretty much the Disney one as we were the perfect age and had a top end suite (it was a celebration as my same sister had at the time just gone into remission after battling Leukemia) so it was pretty awesome. But essentially our favorite line now and our go to is RCL. Great quality for a great price. 

 

Some information about our cruise. This is going to the Eastern Caribbean stopping in St. Kitts, St. Thomas, and CoCoCay. This will be our first time in St. Kitts, 2nd time in St. Thomas, and first time at CoCo Cay since Perfect Day was done so we are excited to see all of these changes. 

 

As a splurge, at least for us, we are in an ocean view balcony. And after heavy research, we chose to get the alcohol package.This will be our first time buying it so it anyone has any tips about using the package or some great off menu drinks to try , please feel free to share 🙂 We also have the internet package, have booked three specialty restaurants (although we had to book them separately instead of using the discounted package because of not being able to book specific places in advance). We are also just Gold level without any additional purchases such as The Key, so just regular boarding for us 🙂

 

Tomorrow is the day where we are traveling, myself from Texas and my sister from Washington so a long day of travel ahead and then we will arrive in Miami tomorrow at long last 🙂

 

I will post more info next on things that we have booked, what we have planned, etc. 

 

I like to take lots of pictures especially of food, drinks, menus, etc so I plan on posting a lot of those if I can as those are always my favorite parts of some of the live reviews I have followed.

 

Since the party doesn’t really get started until Saturday, please feel free to post any questions that you might have and I can see if I can answer them. Both my sister and myself are very type A so we have done a ton of research and planning for this trip. 

 

And of course if anyone has advice for first time Oasis Class and Symphony cruisers please feel free to share 🙂

 

Looking forward to sharing this trip with you and if there are specific things that you would like to see please post them and we will see if we can answer them.

 

Happy Cruising Y’All 

[37645]

We have booked Jaime’s, Wonderland and 150 CP as our three specialty restaurants. We wanted to do 3 but this was a bit tricky as most of the specialty restaurants aren’t vegetarian friendly such as Hooked and Chops. But Jaime’s we knew was a for sure one, and 150 CP was a good enough one. Wonderland is a pretty big gamble as the regular menus that we have seen are pretty limited but we are hoping that once we arrive and tell them that she is a vegetarian that they can make some modifications so that she can have more than a couple of things to try. But if not, then we might be stopping elsewhere for a little more later., But we wanted to try it mainly for Dessert (which looks fantastic) and drinks and just the overall experience to try it once. 

 

If anyone has any advice about eating here as a vegetarian please let us know 🙂

 

For excursions we have booked the Scenic Railway in St Kitts as a nice relaxing time with enough time to go exploring in town afterwards. More on St Kitts later. 

 

For St. Thomas, the last time that we were there we did the Sea Trek excursion which was amazing. So this time we decided to just skip doing any excursions and just plan on trying to take a taxi from the port into town, explore, shop and try some local place for lunch (if we can find one that is vegetarian friendly as this seems to be a little hard to find in the Caribbean). 

 

On CoCo Cay we decided to splurge again and we booked a Chill Island Cabana. We are hoping that we booked it far enough in advance that we are assigned one on the first row so that we are closest to the ocean but we will see. 

 

Think that’s all for now, but if anyone has any questions or anything, please feel free to post and I hope everyone enjoys this review 🙂

 

Good Day 😉

[Mikew0805]

Looking forward to your review and pics. Have a great time!! 

[Mitchie872]

Great start so far- following 

[jagsfan]

I hope you enjoy the St Kitts train ride as much as we did.

My DH still talks about my choosing to sit facing the water. 

Everyone else faced land. That’s probably the best way, but I can never see enough water. 

We liked sitting upstairs, where we had a delightful breeze. 

Simple alcohol drinks were served pretty much nonstop. They went down really easily!

[37645]

9 hours ago, Mikew0805 said:

Looking forward to your review and pics. Have a great time!! 

 

33 minutes ago, Mitchie872 said:

Great start so far- following 

Thanks 😊 

[37645]

6 minutes ago, jagsfan said:

I hope you enjoy the St Kitts train ride as much as we did.

My DH still talks about my choosing to sit facing the water. 

Everyone else faced land. That’s probably the best way, but I can never see enough water. 

We liked sitting upstairs, where we had a delightful breeze. 

Simple alcohol drinks were served pretty much nonstop. They went down really easily!

Great to hear that you enjoyed the train. We are looking forward to it and a relaxing view of the island. 🙂 

[kfs44]

Following and looking forward to your review.  I'll be on the SOTS and doing  the same itinerary in January.  Happy Cruising!

[37645]

4 minutes ago, kfs44 said:

Following and looking forward to your review.  I'll be on the SOTS and doing  the same itinerary in January.  Happy Cruising!

Thanks 😊 

[LuCruise]

What a wonderful birthday present...and so nice you are going with your sister.   We were on Symphony and loved it!  DH and i have the deluxe package for the first time next month (different ship) so interested in seeing drink ideas. Royal is pretty good with dietary restrictions and modifying so I'm sure you'll find vegetarian stuff (I don't eat beef or chicken myself).  Enjoy your cruise!

[37645]

Just now, LuCruise said:

What a wonderful birthday present...and so nice you are going with your sister.   We were on Symphony and loved it!  DH and i have the deluxe package for the first time next month (different ship) so interested in seeing drink ideas. Royal is pretty good with dietary restrictions and modifying so I'm sure you'll find vegetarian stuff (I don't eat beef or chicken myself).  Enjoy your cruise!

Thanks! We booked this over a year in advance so we have been waiting for it for a while and so happy it’s finally time 😉 

[suesnake2002]

With the package make sure you stock up on bottles of water before port day. 

Also at wonderland you can go to bar for just drinks. 

[Priszm]

11 hours ago, 37645 said:

Our family are big cruisers, we have been on most of the mainstream cruise lines including RCL, NCL, Carnival, Princess, DISNEY, and even the Big Red Boat (Does anyone remember that name?).

Premier was my first cruise ever!  And I'm really looking forward to this review.  My next cruise is on the Oasis with this same itinerary. 

Edited November 15, 2019 by Priszm

[Oakman]

Can't wait to follow your adventure!!! We too are vegan/vegetarians and enjoyed this restaurant in St. Thomas:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g147404-d1046663-Reviews-Gladys_Cafe-St_Thomas_U_S_Virgin_Islands.html

Having an AMAZING cruise!!! Just sailed the  Symphony in September and had a great time!!

 

[cruise wizard]

Speaking of vegetarian and vegan diet needs - Royal has added a vegan menu in the MDR and of course you can request special meals from your waiter for the next evenings meal. We are on a Thanksgiving week cruise on the Harmony and have made contact with RCCL already. Our family has 4 vegans and 2 carnivores - RCCL has always been great to work with on food requirements. 

[Lionesss]

Looking forward to your thread

 

 

Safe travels.

 

Happy belated Birthday

Edited November 15, 2019 by Lionesss

[37645]

5 minutes ago, cruise wizard said:

Speaking of vegetarian and vegan diet needs - Royal has added a vegan menu in the MDR and of course you can request special meals from your waiter for the next evenings meal. We are on a Thanksgiving week cruise on the Harmony and have made contact with RCCL already. Our family has 4 vegans and 2 carnivores - RCCL has always been great to work with on food requirements. 

Yes I have let them know that she is a vegetarian it haven’t heard back yet on any specific changes that can be made. But we did see last night the vegan menu items show up in the MDR menu in the App which was exciting for her. 
 

Do you know if she has to request to see that new vegan menu? Or is it given as part of the regular menu? Thanks 

[37645]

4 minutes ago, Lionesss said:

Looking forward to your thread

 

 

Safe travels.

 

Happy belated Birthday

Thanks 😊 

[cruise wizard]

3 minutes ago, 37645 said:

Yes I have let them know that she is a vegetarian it haven’t heard back yet on any specific changes that can be made. But we did see last night the vegan menu items show up in the MDR menu in the App which was exciting for her. 
 

Do you know if she has to request to see that new vegan menu? Or is it given as part of the regular menu? Thanks 

 

The regular MDR menu have vegetarian choices and are noted as such. You will need to request the new vegan menu.

[37645]

14 minutes ago, cruise wizard said:

 

The regular MDR menu have vegetarian choices and are noted as such. You will need to request the new vegan menu.

Thanks. Yea we know of the vegetarian entrees listed but they are always very limited, usually just one option and not always a great option. But the vegan menu looks real promising so we will be sure to ask for that. Thanks. 😉

[cruise wizard]

2 minutes ago, 37645 said:

Thanks. Yea we know of the vegetarian entrees listed but they are always very limited, usually just one option and not always a great option. But the vegan menu looks real promising so we will be sure to ask for that. Thanks. 😉

 

Have a wonderful cruise - wishing you calm seas, sunny days and safe travels.  I am looking forward to your pictures and commentary.

[37645]

18 minutes ago, cruise wizard said:

 

Have a wonderful cruise - wishing you calm seas, sunny days and safe travels.  I am looking forward to your pictures and commentary.

Thanks 😊 

[crewsweeper]

Following your review.  In St Kitts there are several Indian restaurants that have good vegetarian choices.  The best, IMO, is out in Frigate Bay, Tiranga.   But your train trip may not give you time out there.  In port there is Tamarind. they have a buffet recommended by Indian cruise ship personnel.

 

Hope your flights were on time today. 

[DesireeC03]

Happy 30th!!  How wonderful that you will make new memories with your sister.  I will be on the SOTS next weekend - really looking forward to your review.  My wife is a vegetarian and the head chef visits our table on night 1 where they talk about options - each evening they make choices for the next night.  We have had some amazing Indian food as well as yummy tofu stir fry; really the chef can whip anything up.  Will you please share themed parties - 80s or disco...

thank you!

[37645]

1 minute ago, DesireeC03 said:

Happy 30th!!  How wonderful that you will make new memories with your sister.  I will be on the SOTS next weekend - really looking forward to your review.  My wife is a vegetarian and the head chef visits our table on night 1 where they talk about options - each evening they make choices for the next night.  We have had some amazing Indian food as well as yummy tofu stir fry; really the chef can whip anything up.  Will you please share themed parties - 80s or disco...

thank you!

Thanks 🙂 Yes we are looking forward to it. We aren’t big into parties but we might stop by some of them. So if we do we will be sure to take some pics and upload them.