drrich2

I scrolled through over 3 pages. Maybe this'll be repetitive, but my 2 cents, as they say. 1.) If 5 cruises were really good, and 1 lackluster, I think it's a bit early to ditch cruising, or Royal Caribbean. You see on Cruise Critic a number of positive recent trip reports on Royal ships, including mine from Symphony of the Seas. 2.) Familiarity may or may not breed contempt, but some of the magic passes as we get more familiar with a type of experience. Our first cruise (on Adventure of the Seas!) was magical; no other has quite matched that. 3.) This is a very strained time, particularly in manpower, not just for the cruise industry but for land operations. Don't be surprised if your land-based A.I. resort option also has difficulties. 4.) Did you pay list for specialty diving? Always book an advance, multi-night package for that. It can be quite good, but don't pay list. 5.) When there are shortages, such as of skilled staff, I suspect not all ships may be loved equally. I agree with others, try a bigger, newer ship. 6.) I agree on the soft serve frozen yogurt angle; saw no reason not to let us self-serve. I, too, wonder why there were pool closures during At Sea days on your cruise - maybe someone had an accident? 7.) If you want more places to get food, an Oasis class ship may be your friend. 8.) I liked MDR food just fine on our recent RCI cruise, but that wasn't on the same ship. It'll be interesting to see if you think a land A.I. resort has better included food, if you choose an A.I. that's not expensive. Every time I've priced Sandals or Beaches, I've been put off by price. Enjoyed Sunscapes Resort in Curacao, but food was okay/good, not great. 9.) I don't use room service. With all that food, I really needed to get moving and burn some calories. Plus I'm cheap. 10.) It's often possible to get more than one appetizer or even entree in the MDR. On our cruise, we had no trouble getting plenty to eat (and I eat big). 11.) Will all the different individuals, organizations and perspectives involved in pandemic mitigation, I've all but given up on things making sense. Just go with the flow.

You should get the same points and status if you did the same cruises. One difference; it's possible for a minor child to gain the status of a higher status parent if they both cruise Royal. Going into our last cruise, my wife and I were Emerald by points, our daughter Platinum...but she was given our Emerald status as our daughter. At the end of the cruise, my wife and I turned Diamond status, which our daughter will have gained, too. Wife and I have 87 points and kid has 56 points (she'd now be Emerald by her own points). This status sharing stops when the kid hits 18, but they get to keep the parent's status at that time (but only their own points, not the parent's). If I understand correctly, if my wife and I never cruise again, and our daughter goes on a Royal Caribbean cruise at age 25, for example, she will be Diamond, but have the points she got from her own cruising, not ours. So if she ever hits Diamond Plus, she'll have to build off her actual accrued points, not mine.

That's an impression I shared from a recent Symphony of the Seas cruise; it's a great ship with a lot of offer, but it offered more than we could do in a week. We didn't get to every last thing we'd have liked (and we didn't even do any specialty restaurants, to keep costs down and life simple), and while we did most of what I'd hoped, we didn't get all of it we wanted. Talk about first world problems... We were very blessed to enjoy it. Richard.

My one Celebrity cruise was aboard the Constellation back in 2008. Enjoyed it (though I missed the Royal Promenade and the entertainment learned toward talented vocalists who could imitate famous performers and catered to an older set; not the more 'athletic' performances we'd seen on Royal). 3 Things about this cruise: 1.) It was on Celebrity, a line associated with a somewhat older clientele. 2.) An 11-day cruise, so longer than the typical 7-day week cruise many families can get away for. 3.) In February, when school's 'in' and the kids already had a big 2-week break for Christmas and New Year not long ago. I recall seeing one little kid, a little girl in someone's arms, the entire week. I looked at her like someone had brought aboard a pet monkey. So if you want the dodge kids, there are some options (besides Virgin Voyages).

It's been awhile since I cruised with Dreamworks characters, when our 9-year old daughter was much younger, but having bought the digital photo package, were I to find they weren't included, I'd have been really ticked off. So what 'characters' are there these days? On a July Symphony of the Seas cruise I didn't see any sort of 'character.'

I don't know; we overnighted at a hotel and showed up in our time window. I didn't overhear anyone complain of any issues. UDP? I don't know about the unlimited drink package onboard (the 3 of us did the unlimited soda package), but it's been my experience Royal is quite happy to sell people things. If you meant unlimited dining package, I still don't know. We didn't do specialty dining since our daughter has no evident appreciation for it and we were happy with the 'free stuff.' Interestingly, maybe it was just luck + my introverted mental tunnel vision, when out and about onboard I didn't notice people trying to sell me dining plans and similar 'upscale' annoyances on this cruise (other than jumping through hoops to get Regalia to give me another one of those little metal charm bracelet things). I've seen that in the past, but this cruise I didn't find annoying upscales when walking around.

It is a quandary. I in my 50's, not like late 80s with multiple medical co-morbidities, so perhaps the old adage 'Where you stand on an issue depends on where you sit' comes into play. I'd prefer to ditch testing. To book a cruise, round trip flights, excursions and a photo package, wrestle with all those decisions and look forward to the cruise for several months, then not even know whether we're going until 2 days prior to the cruise, at which point a false positive or a legit positive with no serious illness issues in ourselves can shut it all down, in a country where vaccination is extraordinarily effective and widely available to those who want it... I'd rather just declare a free-for-all and go. Personal preference, not saying my position is clearly right and those who disagree are wrong. I'm fully vaccinated and I've had 2 boosters. I figure at some point we have to accept that SARS-CoV-2 is perpetually circulating and a fact of life. People will argue when that point is.

I did not notice such an option offered. I was told I'd get an e-mail in a time frame after getting home, and could download the pics that way. This worked out; I had the option even then to buy additional photos had I wished to (but I'm too cheap).

I haven't been on those; Harmony and Symphony should be a great deal alike. Haven't done a Royal Caribbean cruise on a vessel smaller than Voyager class, and I see Enchantment is Vision class. IIRC, Vision class don't have the Royal Promenade, and you wouldn't get Central Park or the Boardwalk neighborhoods, either. The ship I've been on most similar to how I envision that class to be was the Celebrity Constellation many years ago. It was a fun cruise, but I really like the Royal Promenade. We've done Voyager class, that have the RP but not Central Park or the Boardwalk, and that's okay (Adventure of the Seas did have water park-style offerings). From prior threads, I got the impression Vision class appeals to people who like cheaper cruises (yah!), a more traditional cruise experience (e.g.: not enthused with big rock climbing walls, giant water slides, etc...), and the option to hit some points huge ships don't. An Oasis class vacation demands more of you in terms of planning. Voyager class cruises, we'd eat at the Windjammer or Main Dining Room, then go to 'the show' playing that evening at a couple of times. Other than going out of my way to book us for a showing of the ice figure skating at Studio B, there was no juggling multiple shows offered at various times and days. Oasis class also have several speciality restaurants to choose from, and with a dining package to drive down the price, those can be quite good. The grilled octopus at Giovani's a few years back rocked. On the other hand, last I heard, Oasis class ships can only be accommodated at a select range of destinations, and given their passenger numbers they don't tender, so after a few cruises, if you want to hit new islands, you may have to scale down a bit.

I've seen various auto.s on the Royal Promenades of 5 other RCI ships, so I was a bit baffled to encounter this one on Symphony. I took the 1st photo; a crewman who saw me offered to take the 2nd. Regarding the show Flight, it started at some future point, then did segments in reverse sequential order back to the Wright brothers, hitting different parts of aviation history. For our 9-year old, I doubt it made a lot of sense. Adults with a bit of nostalgia for history would probably love it. Some inspirational quotes were included.

Well, just found out from RoyalCaribbeanBlog.com's page this blurb: "Pets at Sea Remember when Build A Bear was a really big deal? As a parent, I remember my kids always wanting to go get a new pet every time we went to the mall, and I guess that trend made it to Royal Caribbean as well. Royal Caribbean's first Oasis Class ships had a dedicated shop in the Boardwalk neighborhood where you could create your own stuffed animals, many with a nautical theme. Pets at Sea was a souvenir option where guests picked an animal and outfit, and then stuffed the pet with a fun machine before taking it home with them. Alas, the shops were replaced during ship refurbishments to make way for other retail experiences." Figured I'd better post, in case anyone assumed Allure of the Seas would have Build-A-Bear going forward (I don't know whether it still does) and get some kid's hopes up.

Photo courtesy of Royal Caribbean staff photographer; we bought the 100 digital photos package. I forgot to mention we didn't see a Build-A-Bear store on Symphony of the Seas (which means ol'Dad probably saved some money!). Here we see Kadence holding Rex, her dinosaur ship captain Build-A-Bear from our 2019 Allure of the Seas cruise (the photo is from our Symphony cruise). When I was a kid, when my parents wanted professional photos of me they hauled me (rarely) to Kmart (maybe elsewhere sometimes? Been too long to remember). A 100 digital photo package on Royal has repeatedly proven to be an excellent value for us in getting professional photos of our family, and in the setting of memorable vacations, not just posed portraits.

Just the evening, of course. Now you've got an image in my head of me going down a water slide in a suit. Oddly enough, one of my main memorable moments was when our 9-year old spotted a chicken roaming free and fixated on it, pointing it out like it was a big deal (despite my pointing out the sea gull standing nearby; oh, no, the chicken ruled!). Despite the fact my parents have chickens, and Kadence has been around them quite a bit in the past. One never knows what a kid may decide is important. At Chankanaab Park in Cozumel she became obsessed with breaking open a coconut, went around the grounds beating one on the ground, drug us into helping a bit, one of the staff saw her and cut off the exterior, she kept at it, and finally succeeded.

I'll throw in some photos for visual relief. Manatee photo courtesy of Dolphin Discovery photography at Chankanaab park in Cozumel; we purchased the digital photos package from them. Broslo 1983/1985, Norwegian. Dream. Lenticular panel.