Sort of Live from Symphony of the Seas.

[abbydancer2003]

Day -1. Packing day

 

On Sunday, we board the Symphony of the Seas for our very first Royal Caribbean cruise.  I’m traveling with DH (aka Glen) and we’re combining it with a 7 day on the Celebrity Apex.

 

I’d booked the Apex cruise earlier this year, and then decided I wanted to try Royal, and specifically one of the Oasis class ships(if I’m gonna do, I’m gonna go big).  I found that the Symphony was leaving 6 days before on a 6 day cruise, so that was perfect.  We live in California and I’m getting over going to Florida for just a 7 day cruise.  

 

So here we are, two grown ups with no kids or grandkids.  We did book a Crown Loft Suite, which apparently is a Sky class suite.  We’ve had a very small roll call on this cruise, but others on the Royal Caribbean board (and FB) who have helped me understand things like reserving shows, etc.  We are Diamond because of our Celebrity status, and light drinkers, so the included drinks and lounges should be enough that we would not need a drink package.  

 

We leave tomorrow on an 8:00 am flight, and will stay at our go to hotel, the Cruise Port Renaissance on 17th street.  Very convent to the port.  On Sunday, we start cruising.

 

This is my first ever RC live thread.  I hope you all will enjoy it, and I’ll try to give you my perspective as a regular Princess/Celebrity cruiser.  Back to packing.

 

[mafig]

Looking forward to reading your review.

 

We are on Symphony in April, also in a Crown Loft Suite.  Are you on the back or side?

 

 

[h20skibum]

Something to keep me occupied next week.  We get on, for an 8 night, when you get off.

 

Have a great cruise.

[abbydancer2003]

41 minutes ago, mafig said:

Looking forward to reading your review.

 

We are on Symphony in April, also in a Crown Loft Suite.  Are you on the back or side?

 

 

I think side.  Looking at the layout of the ship has been a bit overwhelming.

[MD_Dan]

We're RCL diamonds and considering some X sailings.  And we're very interested in reading your comparisons and contrasts.

[silentbob007]

12 hours ago, abbydancer said:

I think side.  Looking at the layout of the ship has been a bit overwhelming.

The flow is actually pretty easy to understand once you get onboard and orient yourself to the different neighborhoods. Only thing you will have to remember is that only the aft elevators (ones nearest guest services in the promenade) will go up to deck 18 and your cabin. 

[countess5]

Following!

Have sailed Symphony twice.

You made the right decision to sail in a suite. The ship can get over whelming with the crowds compared to X.

At least you have a private deck area, lounge/ restaurant ( they are combined).

We love Central Park and the trellis Bar! Dinner outside at night at Jamies is very nice with usually a solo guitar or violin player. 

 

Watch out for the $10 everything sales, where the Promenade because a mob scene! 😂

 

Cheers!  

[Destaw71835]

Looking forward to your review. I board Symphony in May.

[LisaLisa87]

I'm looking forward to reading your review! You're going to love the Crown Loft. We stayed in one for the first time on Harmony in September and are now hooked. We just booked one on Symphony in January 2025. It's going to be a long wait! Make sure you take full advantage of the suite lounge. They don't seem to advertise it anymore, but you can stop in there for beer/wine/Truly/soda/bottled water anytime between 11am and 11pm. And of course there is the cocktail "hour" when you can get mixed drinks as well. Have a great cruise!

[abbydancer2003]

Symphony/Apex - Day 0

 

Good morning from the United Club at SFO.  Unfortunately (or fortunately on the return) the time difference between the coasts means that to get to Florida in time to have a true dinner, and not something from a convenience store, you have to fly early in the day.  Of course the flip is that you can get on a plane home at noon, and be home well before dinner.

 

We have a private driver who is willing to pick us up at ridiculous hours, and he came through this time.  We were up at 5 and at 5:50 he texted that he’d arrived.  We finished closing up the house, and drove the 30 minutes to the airport.  Check in was easy, and not too long a line, although they first put us in the premier line for service, but then, after waiting a whopping 5 minutes, they told us to go to the bag check line, and that was quick.

 

Security was easy.  We were in the recheck line and as we were going through, they opened up a new station, so almost no waiting there.  The United Club was also surprisingly empty, although, now as I start to wrap up to go to the plane, it’s a lot more crowded.  I’m sure someone will appreciate our soon to be empty seats.

 

[BecciBoo]

1 hour ago, LisaLisa87 said:

I'm looking forward to reading your review! You're going to love the Crown Loft. We stayed in one for the first time on Harmony in September and are now hooked. 

My BFF did the same this summer on Allure and she now vows never to sail in anything less!  LOL  I said...Good, we'll party on your balcony from now on!  She said the service hooked her.

[BecciBoo]

Only one Symphony but one of my faves.  I LOVE LOVE LOVED the Ice drones!  Don't miss it!  We hope to sail her again very soon.

Edited December 9, 2023 by BecciBoo

[DaKahuna]

@abbydancer Looking forward to your review.  We've sailed on her sister ships, Oasis and Harmony (my Harmony live review is linked in my signature).  Until the recent changes made for Celebrity Sky Suites, we have preferred Celebrity over RCL but may be coming back to RCL so am definitely interested in your comparison between Symphony and Celebrity experiences.

 

[depplep]

Long time RCL cruiser here. We just booked Beyond for next July. Can't wait to hear the compare/contrast. Have a great cruise. 

[cyntil8ing]

Bon voyage Abby. See you on Apex next week!

 

I think I mentioned that we did our first Oasis class cruise on Harmony over the summer, also in a CLS. We loved the cabin, especially as there were three of us (our teen son was along). He had his own bathroom and said the sofa bed was very comfortable. The ship felt very big and very crowded to me, 40-ish cruises and I have never before waited in a line to get into the buffet! I would definitely do it again in a suite, but unlikely in a regular cabin.

 

Have a great time! Looking forward to meeting you next week and following your adventures this week. What are the ports? Do you have plans?

[abbydancer2003]

4 hours ago, cyntil8ing said:

Bon voyage Abby. See you on Apex next week!

 

 

 

Have a great time! Looking forward to meeting you next week and following your adventures this week. What are the ports? Do you have plans?

Labadee - probably will go off, maybe have lunch and wander around.

Falmouth Jamaica - get off the ship and by some JBM coffee.

Nassau - just see the new terminal.

 

See you in a week!

[abbydancer2003]

We were able to board the plane quickly and settled into our seats.  Because we were in row 1, we had to put everything up.  We’ll see how many times I have to get up to get stuff (turns out twice).

 

The plane left on time, and we had a good tail wind, so the flight went quickly.  Since we were in first, three days before we left, we got a notice that we could preorder breakfast.  There were 5 choices.  I selected a frittata and Glen a shatsuka.  The flight attendant confirmed it and we got exactly what we ordered.

 

Yes, that is actually a frittata.  The egg itself was good, but the rest was meh.  Spinach tasted like frozen spinach (I’ve had better on dinner plates) and the potatoes were OK if after scraping the cheese sauce off.  Next time I’ll go with a waffle or French toast.

 

We arrived at Fort Lauderdale and pulled up to the gate about 20 minutes early.  Luggage was reasonably quick, and once we found the cab line, a cab was readily available.  We arrived at the hotel roughly 45 minutes after landing, and 15 after the official arrival time.  Yay!  We’re here!

 

I asked them about their shuttle to the ships (did we look like we were cruising?  I don’t know.  Luggage tags just went on), and the price is 8.00 per person.  We decided a cab would be about the same, and probably, once you add tip, Uber or Lyft similar, so I went downstairs and signed us up at 11.  Next week we’ll be very early for X, so no need to do that twice.

We hung out in the room until about 6:45 when our friends from our Caribbean Princess cruise in September came and collected us to go to dinner.  On that September cruise we’d hung out, toured and ate together a couple of times, so we’d agreed to have dinner.  

 

They’d made a reservation at an Italian restaurant that was about 5 minutes away, and we had a very nice dinner.  I had a traditional entree (Chicken Piccata) but my friend and I shared a corn salad.  Everyone else had pasta.  Our friends have been on Harmony of the Seas and gave us some suggestions on what to do, and where to eat outside of dining rooms.

 

After dinner, we took a walk through the shopping center across the street.  There are a couple of restaurants, nail salons, and a lot of yacht sellers, all with very similar title models.  I guess yachts are a big business here. Since it was night, I have no idea how much business they get.  Maybe I’ll look around again when I have a day here in February.

 

After that it was back to the room, I took care of some odds and ends, and now at 11:30 pm I’m going to bed, because it’s been a very long day.

 

[JamesEM]

Following along, sailed on this ship for a b-2-b earlier this year.

[Cruise a holic]

Following.  Sailing on the Symphony August 9th in 2 grand suites.  Son Spouse and 3 year old and my DH and I.  We are Diamond Plus members.

[TeeRick]

We are in a CL suite on Symphony this coming Feb.  Looking forward to your comments as we usually sail in the Retreat on Celebrity.  A few years ago we did a back to back on Edge (in a CS) and Harmony (in a CL).  We wrote a comparative review on it.

[DaKahuna]

20 hours ago, abbydancer said:

Labadee - probably will go off, maybe have lunch and wander around.

Falmouth Jamaica - get off the ship and by some JBM coffee.

Nassau - just see the new terminal.

 

See you in a week!

We like going to the suite area on Labadee.  Lots of shade and they usually have a nice buffet offering. 
 

We use to stock up on JBM, but unless you get away from the cruise port we found you could get JBM for very close to that same price via Amazon. 
 

[abbydancer2003]

Posting the first half of boarding day ... rest tomorrow, but we have an early start.

 

Symphony/Apex Day 1

 

We’d set an alarm for 9:00.  Our plan was to have breakfast, and then pack up and head to the 11:00 am shuttle.  We had plenty of wiggle room, or so we thought ….

 

We headed to breakfast around 10:00.  Since we. Were last there, they’ve reopened the buffet, so we were given that (no more menu ordering for the freebie).  It was fine and I had a very light bacon, eggs, one pancake and some fruit.  At about 10:30 we went back to the room, packed up, and headed to the elevator at 10:44 for 11:00.  Why so early?  There’s one elevator out of service. 

 

We waited about 6 minutes, and the elevator came, but it was full of people and bags.  At that point, I called the front desk and asked for someone to come up to get us from the service elevator.   I waited by the regular elevator, and Glen by the service one, which came first.  There were two people in it, and we stopped at a couple more floors and it was full with people going to ships.  I guess this is high season.

 

We went to the front of the hotel, and one of the valet people called the shuttle and told us it was on the way.  What they didn’t tell us was that it doesn’t pull up to the front of the hotel (we’ve never taken it before).   At 11:01, a different valet person asked us what we were doing there.  When we said we were waiting for the shuttle, that’s when they told us we missed it.  He did find another one and said it would be 5-7 minutes.

 

The shuttle arrived, and several of us piled in.  We left about  11:15.  In the meantime, people in the Facebook group were reporting being onboard.

 

First stop was the Caribbean Princess.  There was a ton of traffic and it took about 10-15 to drop them off.  Then our driver took a bunch of shortcuts through parking lots, and about 5 minutes later we were pulling up to the RC pier.  Our luggage was quickly picked up, and we headed into the building.

 

Our security took a few minutes, because the people in front took forever to get the carryons up, etc.

 

Once past security it went well.  We found the suite area, and got checked in with no wait, then headed towards the ship.  There are escalators up to boarding level, and everyone going through went to the right, so we went to the left.  We had a scan of our boarding passes, and then were cleared to board.  I think we were the only people in the very long switchback gangway.  We entered the ship just at a very crowded guest services area.  

 

A crew member looked at our passes and told us how to get to our muster station.  Here’s Glen on the way:

 

Our muster is at the Aqua theater.  From there,  we were told we could go up the nearby (aft) elevators to the suite area.  So we did.  The elevators were full, but there were a lot of them.

 

We found the hallways to the rooms closed, (it was about 12:10, so we made good time after the shuttle) so we found the lounge.  We parked there and got lattes from the machine and hung out.  I met one of the concierges and took care of moving our Wonderland reservation, and letting her know about our special circumstances of debarkation.  

 

About 12:50, when finding the restroom I noticed the door to the rooms was open, so we grabbed our packs, and head out.  At the elevator bank, we had a discussion about which way to go, and our room number was even so we thought we’d head right.  And there were even numbers starting with room 2.    Ours was 54.  We went 3 quarters of the way around the suite area, and found our room because they are all even.  Now we know.

 

We opened the door, and wow! A crown loft suite is a two story suite, with a living room downstairs and bed in a loft upstairs.  And there’s a bathroom on each level (when I looked at the deck plans it wasn’t clear to me there was one upstairs).  Also, our luggage was in the room.  Here are some pictures.

 

 

The balcony from the bedroom area

 

 

The entrance from the living room.  The bathroom is on the right next to the door.

 

 

The room from the entrance.

 

I unpacked, and Glen started, but at about 1:15 we decided to go have lunch.  We went over to the suite restaurant, Coastal Kitchen, which is co-located with the lounge.  We waited a couple of minutes and then were seated at a window table with a nice view forward of one of the the kids pool area.  We both started with a Caesar salad.  I had short ribs, Glen had spicy spaghetti.  I finished with creme brûlée, and Glen did fruit.  (Good for him).  Service was good, although the assistant waiter seemed less involved than I’m used to on Celebrity.  

 

 

 

[LisaLisa87]

Sorry to hear about the shuttle hiccups, but glad the boarding experience was good! We’ll be in the same CL. It’s a great, side-facing location! You chose well!

[cruisinelmo]

Good review we are going on the Symphony of the Seas in March 2024 which is also a six day cruise. If at all possible could you publish/post the daily compass which would be very helpful in our planning ahead of time for the shows and dinner reservations. Thank you in advance I'm sure you will enjoy your cruise.

[Norwaylady]

Bon Voyage! 

 

We did SY when she was new in Europe. We had the last sailing before she was leaving for US. So we sailed a 9-n med cruise. Really was a great way to have time to enjoy the ship. 

We really enjoyed some of the things and saw other things we disliked by this ship size compared to X. 

The entertainment is really outstanding. We truly enjoyed that. 

 

We did specialty dining in Jamies, Wonderland and Teppanyaki. All was great. 

We had a Central Park balcony. 

 

Really looking forward of your sailing in the suite and costal kitchen🤩