🚢 SYMPHONY LIVE -12/16-12/24 🚢 She’s sort of like a song. 🚢

[h20skibum]

1 minute ago, Arzeena said:

Which hotel are you staying at?

We are at the Springhill Suites on Sterling Road.  We have stayed here several times before. 
 

Getting laundry done from the last couple days, then heading out to the shopping areas near here. 

[bobmacliberty]

1 hour ago, h20skibum said:

Due to Daryl’s maniac driving, we arrived in Ft. Lauderdale ahead of schedule.  Since it is Friday, we had to stop at our favorite place for their lunch special. 
 

 

I was surprised to see they are open Christmas Day, so we may be there again for dinner. 
 

We had the shrimp, shrimp, and more shrimp special.  Forty two shrimp between the two of us, so we had some to take to the hotel for later. 
 

 

I found out that Daryl can’t pass up these things. 
 

 

Daryl needs his own Instagram account.  He could become Instafamous.

 

1 hour ago, h20skibum said:

I hope that I read correctly, that ezpass is accepted in the sun pass lanes down here now.  We ended up in them to bypass about twelve miles of bumper to bumper traffic.  I will have to log in to my account to check it, but it usually takes a while for things to show up.  
 

 

 

E-ZPass is supposed to work everywhere in Florida.  You should be fine.

[harryfat1]

On 12/14/2023 at 10:13 AM, h20skibum said:

How, and where we will spend our days, starting Saturday. 
 

 

And Daryl will come with us. 

Have a wonderful cruise.

 

We will be on the Odyssey sailing next weekend with a similar 8-day itinerary except we go to Curacao first it's from 8 AM to 8 PM and then Aruba is 8 AM to 10 PM.  Labadee is from 7 AM to 5 PM (not that I'll be getting off the ship at 7 AM)...

 

I would rather go to Perfect Day myself as I have never been there but for whatever reason, our sailing is the one exception of the Odyssey sailing that is going to Labadee.  All other sailings are going to Perfect Day for the next 4 months...

 

 

 

 

[h20skibum]

54 minutes ago, bobmacliberty said:

Daryl needs his own Instagram account.  He could become Instafamous.

He is insane.  We leave him alone for a minute, and he looks so innocent. 

 

Then you turn your back, and oh the trouble he gets into. 
 

 

 

 

 

[h20skibum]

29 minutes ago, harryfat1 said:

We will be on the Odyssey sailing next weekend with a similar 8-day itinerary except we go to Curacao first it's from 8 AM to 8 PM and then Aruba is 8 AM to 10 PM.  Labadee is from 7 AM to 5 PM (not that I'll be getting off the ship at 7 AM).

Harry, enjoy your cruise on Odyssey.  I think you will really like that ship. 

[h20skibum]

Just got my email from Royal, telling me I need to bid like a fool if I want one of those nice cabins. 
 

 

[h20skibum]

We walked around Dania Pointe tonight, and they have really expanded since we stayed in this area.  We will be here when we get off the ship, and there are some bars and restaurants that are calling me. 

 

The Tommy Bahama store with a bar and guitar music

 

The pointe has some nice lighting

 

 

and decorations

 

Edited December 15, 2023 by h20skibum

[bobmacliberty]

10 minutes ago, h20skibum said:

The Tommy Bahama store with a bar and guitar music

 

 

Be careful.  As I noted in my Hawaii cruise report, Tommy Bahama stores and Mai Tais are a dangerous combination.

[LATTELOVE]

Following.

Thank you for sharing with us all.

Super excited to be following.  We will be on Symphony

for our New Years cruise, 1 cruise after yours.

 

I loved those pictures of Dania Pointe, How far is that from

the Springhills Suites where you are staying?

 

Our hotel is not too far from yours and we would like to

visit when we go for our cruise.

Thank you!

 

[Jimbo]

15 minutes ago, LATTELOVE said:

Following.

Thank you for sharing with us all.

Super excited to be following.  We will be on Symphony

for our New Years cruise, 1 cruise after yours.

 

I loved those pictures of Dania Pointe, How far is that from

the Springhills Suites where you are staying?

 

Our hotel is not too far from yours and we would like to

visit when we go for our cruise.

Thank you!

 

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Dania+Pointe,+139+S+Compass+Wy,+Dania+Beach,+FL+33004/SpringHill+Suites+by+Marriott+Fort…/@26.051419,-80.1630082,1021m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x88d9ab634a817df5:0x5322c52d67f568eb!2m2!1d-80.1598428!2d26.0536775!1m5!1m1!1s0x88d9aa461723dd9b:0x740ff20d1d96451c!2m2!1d-80.161166!2d26.0489889!3e0?entry=ttu

[h20skibum]

1 hour ago, LATTELOVE said:

Following.

Thank you for sharing with us all.

Super excited to be following.  We will be on Symphony

for our New Years cruise, 1 cruise after yours.

 

I loved those pictures of Dania Pointe, How far is that from

the Springhills Suites where you are staying?

 

Our hotel is not too far from yours and we would like to

visit when we go for our cruise.

Thank you!

 

It is walking distance from the hotel. It starts only a block away, to the north of Sterling Road. 

[maggieq]

@h20skibum have a wonderful cruise.  We did a similar itinerary on harmony in January.   Hiro is amazing. Make sure you get to see it.  😊 

[Dan83]

On 12/14/2023 at 5:29 AM, h20skibum said:

By all means, feel free to post.  It may take some pressure off me.  Safe travels to you. 

I just wanted to share some of our excitement about tomorrow’s cruise. I’ve had a bad round of kidney stones these past few weeks that has threatened to put this trip in jeopardy. The doctor went in and got the stone Tuesday. And this morning I had the stent removed. Three hours later we boarded our flight to West Palm Beach. I’m not going to let a little 5mm chunk of calcium get in the way of this vacation. To say the last few days have been uncomfortable is a bit of an understatement. But when we board the Symphony in 12 hours, all will be forgotten. 

[harryfat1]

7 hours ago, h20skibum said:

Harry, enjoy your cruise on Odyssey.  I think you will really like that ship. 

Thanks, Mark.

 

After I compared the two ship's itinerary, I became curious on why the Symphony seems to be spending less time in port than the Odyssey and arriving at the next port at a slightly delayed time and coming back to Florida 45 minutes later even though both ships are leaving Labadee the same time.

 

If you get a chance, take some pictures of the cruise map while on board to see how fast the ship is sailing and I'll do the same for my cruise and we'll compare notes afterwards in this non scientific comparison. 

 

I'm wondering if RCI is slowing down the Oasis class ships compared to others due to its size and less fuel consumption in order to save money.

[h20skibum]

6 hours ago, maggieq said:

@h20skibum have a wonderful cruise.  We did a similar itinerary on harmony in January.   Hiro is amazing. Make sure you get to see it.  😊 

Thank you.  We are looking forward to all the shows.  We booked them as soon as booking became available, and got all our preferred times. 

[h20skibum]

4 hours ago, Dan83 said:

I just wanted to share some of our excitement about tomorrow’s cruise. I’ve had a bad round of kidney stones these past few weeks that has threatened to put this trip in jeopardy. The doctor went in and got the stone Tuesday. And this morning I had the stent removed. Three hours later we boarded our flight to West Palm Beach. I’m not going to let a little 5mm chunk of calcium get in the way of this vacation. To say the last few days have been uncomfortable is a bit of an understatement. But when we board the Symphony in 12 hours, all will be forgotten. 

That is some good news.  I am ready to be onboard now, and it is only 4:30am. 

[h20skibum]

2 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

Thanks, Mark.

 

After I compared the two ship's itinerary, I became curious on why the Symphony seems to be spending less time in port than the Odyssey and arriving at the next port at a slightly delayed time and coming back to Florida 45 minutes later even though both ships are leaving Labadee the same time.

 

If you get a chance, take some pictures of the cruise map while on board to see how fast the ship is sailing and I'll do the same for my cruise and we'll compare notes afterwards in this non scientific comparison. 

 

I'm wondering if RCI is slowing down the Oasis class ships compared to others due to its size and less fuel consumption in order to save money.

You got me curious also, so I did a little researching.  I think Odyssey may just be a sleeker, faster ship.  How fast a ship is sailing depends on many factors, like wind speed, sea conditions, and if they have time to make up.  It could also vary if they are trying to avoid a storm.  Or, maybe the captain’s wife is yelling at him to slow down (which happens to me sometimes when out on our boat)

 

So I looked at data on both ships on marine traffic dot com. This morning, Symphony was sailing at 14.9kn, but is almost back to port

 

 

Odyssey, on the other hand,  was sailing at 21.7kn down in the Caribbean Sea 

 

 

The maximum during the last voyage for Symphony was 18.2 knots with an average speed of 13.1 knots.

 

 

While that hot rod Odyssey was maxing at 23 knots and averaging 20.3 knots. 
 

 

I may have a daily picture, but it would just b a snapshot in time.  

[h20skibum]

Since we were talking about booking shows, that is one thing I wish Royal was consistent with. For those who don’t know, you need to book the day and time for the shows you want to see on the Oasis Class ships. It can be a real juggling act, trying to get days and times to work with any specialty dining reservations you may want to make.  Then to make things more interesting, some shows you want to see, that do not need to be prebooked, may conflict with one of the above.  Then, to make things interesting, Royal will not show a realistic schedule of activities on the app, until boarding day.

 

Now, when does booking shows open?  Who knows how they arrive at that. For this cruise, we were able to book shows on October 25th, or about 53 days out.   However, for our upcoming January 5th sailing on Allure, we could not book shows until December 1st, or about 36 days out.

 

So I guess my advice is to check early and often. 

[h20skibum]

Well, look who showed up in port this morning. 
 

 

Looks like we will be boarding on the starboard side.  

[h20skibum]

Today is. 
 

 

With some luck, the rain will not be too heavy when we get to the port.  It will be windy.  I hope Daryl behaves and doesn’t get blown overboard. 
 

 

As Marvin Gaye would say …..Let’s get it on. 
 

 

I am not sure if that song is strictly appropriate, but it works for me. 😂

 

 

[Cruise a holic]

Following   Will be on Symphony in August with family.  We just have about a one hour drive from our home on Long Island NY.  We will all be in grand suites.

Edited December 16, 2023 by Cruise a holic

[h20skibum]

1 hour ago, Cruise a holic said:

Following   Will be on Symphony in August with family.  We just have about a one hour drive from our home on Long Island NY.  We will all be in grand suites.

That will be nice.  Although we don’t have that long of a drive from home to Cape Liberty, we still haven’t managed to sail from there.  A few booked there, but all were cancelled for one reason or another.  
 

Our August cruise, we are flying the family to Florida for a cruise on Utopia. 

[h20skibum]

I like the easy way to do your safety briefing on the app.  It sure beats the old way of going to your cabin , grabbing the life vests, and dragging them to the muster station with thousands of other people, all while trying to not spill your drink. 😂

 

You can complete the app section at 8am on boarding day. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

[Cruise a holic]

26 minutes ago, h20skibum said:

That will be nice.  Although we don’t have that long of a drive from home to Cape Liberty, we still haven’t managed to sail from there.  A few booked there, but all were cancelled for one reason or another.  
 

Our August cruise, we are flying the family to Florida for a cruise on Utopia. 

We try to cruise every season.  But in the summer, prefer a no fly cruise-  While I think the fares slightly higher, no hotel the night before or airfare- so not more expensive.  It is so simple for us.  Icon in March- from Miami

 

  Enjoy your cruises.

Edited December 16, 2023 by Cruise a holic

[Jimbo]

@h20skibum  Any itinerary change notice thus far? because of storms?

 

Be glad you aren't get any that looks like this:

 

Edited December 16, 2023 by Jimbo