Royal Caribbean....it been awhile. Symphony of the Seas Questions

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So I started off my cruising journey with 5 Royal Caribbean cruises  It has been almost 7 years since we have cruised Royal. Nothing against them we tried Carnival and really liked there product so we have done 5 cruises with them and a couple NCL sprinkled in. My wife is a teacher so almost all of our cruises are during her summer break in August. My Father has offered to take us on a cruise in February during Presidents day week. This will be our first cruise taking are 3.5 year old son. With all the amenities for children figured this would be great first cruise for him and would normally be out of our price range. Little background on my wife and I. We are both in our mid thirty's, enjoying drinking and always get the beverage package. We love the comedy and Dive in movies on Carnival as well as going to shows. Love the option of guys burgers and blue iguana. We always eat in the main dining room with a few nights in specialties restaurants. 

 

Symphony looks like a great ship. We sailed allure on our honey moon and while the ship itself was awesome we felt like the night life was a little lacking. It looks like there are a ton of entertainment options on the ship. I see they now have comedy shows. Are there shows every night? is there several comedians they rotate through? 

 

I have done a little research and it seems like they will show a movie every once in awhile in the aqua theater on oasis class. Can anybody comment and give some info with Symphony's showings? 

 

Carnival has the alchemy bar, which is take on a speakeasy with crafted cocktails to your liking. We always love it and end up spending a lot of time there. Does Royal have an equivalent? NCL and Carnival have stepped there beer game, with pig and anchor and the district brew house, again anything like this on Royal? We are beer snobs lol

 

In the past it always seemed Royal shut down pretty early, is there any late night entertainment options? 

 

So this will be the first time taking our son on a cruise, he is in daycare and a very social kid. Can any parents contribute there experiences on symphony kids program? 

 

Thanks for the help. 

[Clarea]

Royal's ships do not have different comedy shows every night.  There is a comedy venue on board, but it's the largely the same material by the same two comedians for the entire cruise.  I believe they may offer a second comedy show in the Main Theater now and that one is different than the show in the comedy venue.

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Thanks for the info

 

One thing I forgot to ask is what kind of documentation will we need to bring for my son in order to board the boat? 

[Clarea]

2 minutes ago, tap_out said:

Thanks for the info

 

One thing I forgot to ask is what kind of documentation will we need to bring for my son in order to board the boat? 

 

Passport always works, but if he is a US citizen, they will accept a certified copy of his birth certificate.

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Thanks

 

We have always sailed with birth certificates and our license, just didn't know how that would work since he obviously doesn't have an id lol 

[Clarea]

4 minutes ago, tap_out said:

Thanks

 

We have always sailed with birth certificates and our license, just didn't know how that would work since he obviously doesn't have an id lol 

 

I believe children using a birth certificate only need a photo ID if they are 16 or older.

[Cel_cruise]

The kids club is great on Royal - you will have plenty of options to drop him off for hours at a time as well as there are MaNy family time activities too (they even have a science lab on a Symphony!)

 

Each night they will leave a kids compass with all of the details in your stateroom.   On sea days - the kids club is generally open 9-12, 1-5, 7-10.   I believe they also offer a program to pick your kids up from the MDR around 6:40 and bring them to the kids club.   We did this when on Liberty when my kids were 4 and 8 and it was great.  We worked with our waitstaff team and would do my time dining for 5:45 or 6, the kids would get their food really fast and eat fruit, salad, (fruit/salad were brought out at the table as soon as we arrived) entree, and dessert (kids menu - brownie sundae with a cookie on top..perfect!!) and be ready to go by 6:40...one of us would drop them off and then we would finish our entree (if we hadn’t already) and have dessert and coffee/cocktail without them...it was a win for everyone since they loved the experience but didn’t have the drawn out timeline. 

 

The one thing that I found about Symphony is that there is actually SOO much for kids to do that they are in AO much less during the day than on the smaller ships!  The pools, splash pad, carousel, shows, mini golf, watching the flowrider, ice skating, the slides etc...But AO was always hopping in the evening time!!    Plan some budget for some ‘late night’ in adventure ocean - even at that age you might find they want to hang out til 11 or midnight one day!  

 

You will probably be able to build a relationship with a good bartender that wants to help craft you drinks - but definitely hit up the bar at wonderland (happy hour!!) for some creative cocktails.

 

one last thing on nightlife - our symphony cruise the week before Easter offered ALOT of stuff - adult parties, silent disco, quest etc...but one thing that seemed to happen is that with so many kids on board,  the families all ended up retiring early.   It was one of the lowest attended weeks at Quest that they had ever seen!!  Still fun - but since nightlife is on your list - I wanted to mention this..it’s entirely possible that with a 3.5 year old this might happen to you as well...

 

The shows on Symphony are excellent...if there are still reservations available for any of them - GET THEM...If you can - bring your son to the Ice Show And Flight. There are 2 ice shows - 1977 has the amazing drone opening act and iSkate has more modern music he might know. There are 2 aquatheatre shows - Hiro and AquaNation.   They usually fo Aquanation at the end of the week if time permits a (all hiro performances have been held) and there is no reservations ... it’s a great show for kids - with diving, synchronized swimming, tightropes, lining, and an aerialist!   Practically the circus at sea without the animals! 

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Great information, Thank You