Stealthdog

Ranking of the Specialty Restaurants: 1) Central 150 2) Jaime's Italian 3) Chops Grille 4) Hooked Seafood 5) Wonderland Note rated - Izumi Some thoughts on other dining options: Playmakers - ala carte cost if you don't have the UDP. We loved playmakers and went twice. Had the hot wings, jalapeño poppers, and the nachos. They were all great. Located on the boardwalk, Playmakers is a nice place to go after a show. Playmakers (and the casino) are also the places to go if you want to watch sports. They had about a dozen TVs and showed alot of college football and NFL games. Also saw some baseball, soccer, and rugby on the TVs over the course of the week. If you are looking for a game, they will probably show it at Playmakers. For those who have sailed NCL, the food in Playmakers is very similar to O'Sheehan's Pub. Johnny Rockets - We went for breakfast one morning (its complimentary). It was nice to have a quiet table, where you can sit down and order off menu. The service was quick. I don't think most people knew Johnny Rockets was open for breakfast. We did not try the later meals (which would have been included with the UDP). Solarium Bistro - We tried to go there one morning for breakfast, and it was a mess. I didn't realize it was buffet style, and it looks like we are back to the old habits of cruising - people coughing into their hands and then handling the serving utensils, others not covering their nose/mouth when they sneeze. The reason we didn't go to Windjammers is because of poor hygiene people display on cruise ships....I was disappointed that the Bistro is essentially an extension of Windjammers, and we are back to customers self-serving at the buffets. After seeing the coughing and sneezing, we left and went to the Park Cafe instead. Main Dining Room - We only went there for one breakfast, so not sure how the lunch and dinner experience is. There are three different levels of the dining room - the compass and app will tell you which floor is open for which meal. For the breakfast we did go to, the service was slow and food was average. It took us over an hour to be seated, have our orders taken, and have the food delivered. All we ordered were omelets, so I'm guessing the kitchen was overwhelmed. Two other things we noticed was the breakfast hours start later than what we remember on other ships/cruise lines. There was also no one walking around with pastry plates - we had to ask the server for pastries. I don't know if that is typical for Royal Caribbean. El Loco Fresh - we never tried it. Just not enough time. Dog House - we stopped by there a couple of times when we were in the Boardwalk. They have four different types of dogs - ranging from traditional hotdogs to bratwursts. Nothing special, but it was nice to get something quick like that. Sorrento's - the best pizza on the seas. We only went once, but one thing Royal Caribbean does better than other cruise lines is the pizza. It seemed they had about 4-5 different types of pizza they give by the slice and then a section with additional toppings you can get to add to your slices. Park Cafe - our savoir from the MDR and Windjammers/Solarium. We only went for breakfasts, but they served lunch food too. They had fresh pastries, breakfast sandwiches, bagels with 3 different cream cheeses, and fresh coffee. The lines were never long and we never had a problem finding seating. It was a great option for people looking for a quick meal. Cafe Promenade - big tip for cruises - you can ask the crew for a to-go coffee cup and pour yourself a coffee at the self-serve station.

Chops Grille - Dinner Day 3, Lunch Day 6, Dinner Day 7 We went on the ship thinking Chops was going to be our favorite restaurant on the ship, but we found both Central 150 and Jaime's better. We almost switched our Day 7 Dinner from Chops to Jaime's, but I wanted a good filet after the Hooked experience. Overall, Chops was good, but not sensational. For lunch we got the Mushroom Soup appetizer and Steak Burger and the Filet entrees. The mushroom soup is one of the stars at Chops - the strong smell of the truffles was great and the taste was well done. I tried the Steak Burger to determine if it could beat Jaime's burger as the best burger on the Symphony.......and nope - Jaime's still wins! My partner got the filet and he wasn't as enthusiastic about it as I was. We did enjoy the Gruyere Tator Tots side. For the Dinners, we tried everything over the course of the two nights. The first night we ate inside the restaurant, the second night we sat outside so we could listen to the Spanish Guitarist again while we ate. The highlights: The black pepper bacon was outstanding (better than at 150 Central), the goat cheese salad was awesome, the wild mushroom soup (again) definitely better than the lobster bisque, and the filet was cooked great. The NY strip was fatty and chewy. If you go to Chops get the filet and bypass the NY strip. The Red Velvet Cake and cheesecake for dessert were both fairly good, but we found the desserts at 150 Central and Jaime's better. Our second night, our server was Adson and he was fantastic. If you eat at Chops on the Symphony, ask to be seated in his section.

Hooked Seafood - Day 2 Lunch & Day 5 Dinner. Hooked was one of our least favorite specialty dining restaurants on Symphony. I won't hold lunch against them because a trend in all 3 restaurants was the lunches were not as good as the dinners. The restaurant itself is fairly boring, except for the entrance. Upon entering you get to see an open area where a chef prepares some of the seafood, which was really nice. After passing through into the seating area, it felt like an open space cafe with a bunch of tables and almost no nautical decorations. There were a few model ships against the wall. Like Wonderland, Royal could really do some major updates with the restaurant decor, maybe with some fisherman netting, canoes and oars, something nautical themed to cover up the columns in the restaurant. For lunch we split the Soft Shell Crab and got the Maine Lobster Roll and Salmon, with the Cherry Pie and Lemon Tart for dessert. The appetizers and main meals were ok, nothing amazing. I'm not sure the meal was better than what was offered complimentary elsewhere on the ship. The desserts were pretty bad though - the cherry pie was really dry and did not seem fresh. Dinner was a big hit and a big miss. For appetizers we got the Crab Cake, Shrimp Cocktail, and Baked Oysters. The Crab and Shrimp were standard meals you get at most restaurants. The Oysters were exceptional - we ended up getting a 2nd order of them, which is a big compliment. Our entrees were the "2 lb" Maine Lobster and the Surf and Turf. The Lobster was HUUUUGE......more like a 3-4lb lobster and was fun to tear apart. I got lots of enjoyment watching my better half try to crack it open and pull out the lobster meat. The surf & turf was a huge disappointment. The first time it came out, the filet was well done (we asked for medium). We returned it and 2 minutes later another filet was brought out that was marginally better - something between medium well and well done (no pink to be seen anywhere). What made it worse was the server tried excuse the temperature issue by explaining how the filets are prepared there is different than the other restaurants....and then tried to shame us by noting the market value of the lobster was about $90 and we should be happy. I took a few bites and gave up on it, deciding we would go to Playmakers after the show to make up for it. Dessert was also a failure, with the Coconut Cream Pie and Chocolate Brownie. The pie was fine, but the brownie came out really dry. Overall, its a fun experience to tear apart lobster, but the quality really wasn't there for several of the items.

In the US it appears they did change the policy of getting OBC if the price drops after final payment. Now it seems they only offer upgrades if the price of a higher category is the same as what you paid (per my TA and his attempt to get me OBC with price drop after final payment).

When you book onboard, your TA is also added to your booking, so you get rates/promotions their company has running at that time as well. So you get OBC for next cruise + TA perks. Its awesome, especially if you already planned a future cruise. 😀

I get that perpective. I get alot of anxiety travelling and am always worried about missing flights. If I had my way Id be at an airport 6 hours before a flight. I get the same way on excursions - i even get worried when on the cruise excursion even though I know the ship will wait. If someone really had debarkation #5 and there was a long line to get off the ship, and I was 20 something, i would have shown those people compassion. Who knows how many people were even in line with a later number that wasnt even called yet. They were given #5 for a reason. Was the crew member also verifying other peoples departure number and kicking people out of the line if their number wasnt called yet? We just got off the symphony and the ship started debarking about 20 minutes late. Once they started, they called 1-22 together. So, its not always that simple.

Stopping a line cutter is fine. Thats not the issue. There is a professional way of doing that. Telling a line cutter they should have gotten up earlier is a poor choice of words from a customer service employee.

Crew members are not there to provide commentary or to tell the truth. They are not your friends. They are there to provide a service. Ridiculing or giving rude comments to paying customers is not a good business model.

150 Central Park. Dinner Day 2 & Day 4. Hands down the best restaurant on the Symphony of the Seas. We had such a great experience, we almost cancelled our 2nd night at Chops to a do a 3rd night at 150 Central (In a very rare overrule with the better half, I pulled a trump card because I wanted a perfect filet our last night). We ate both nights in 150 Central inside. Their seating inside is really weird, but we had bucket seats (pictured below the first night). I don't know why their tables are all different, but didn't care - being sucked into these maroon huge seats was awesome. I think they had outside seating, but am not 100% positive. The 2nd night we weren't seated at the huge bucket seats. The ambience inside both 150 Central and Chops was very classy and well done. It felt like we were in a classy restaurant. The first night I think we had the pork belly and short rib appetizers. For us, they were not showstopping, but they were good. I do think the pork belly at Chops was better than 150 Central because I liked the BBQ taste better at Chops. The first dinner at 150 Central we got the Lamb Wellington and Lobster Thermador. The lamb wellington was amazing. I usually prefer the lamb medium rare and didn't even notice its temperature because of how good it was prepared. The Lamb Wellington and the Filet at Chops are the two best meals on the ship (in my opinion). The better half got the Lobster Thermador - he said it was good....but I think he liked the 2lb lobster at Hooked better. The 2nd dinner at 150 Central was the game changer. We ordered the Duck Duo, Seared Venison, and shared a small portion of the Tenderloin for two. All 3 were amazing and we would order them again if given the chance - tenderloin was best, followed by venison, then duck. Both nights we got the cheese board. It was awesome. They wheel a cart of cheese and fruit to you and slice off 5 different cheeses. Jaime's had the meat plank, 150 Central had the cheese plank. I think 150 Central's cheese plank was the best desert option on the ship - it was fantastic and we would order it any night we were there.

We always booked through a TA for 2 important reasons: 1) we get additional goodies from the TA in addition to whatever promotions the cruise has. Sometimes its a bottle of wine, chocolate strawberries, additional OBC. 2) If we encounter any problems or issues with the cruise, the TA deals with it. Sometimes its hours of calls with the cruise line to address or fix things. I'm happy with the TA getting his/her commission (the cruise price is still the same whether you book through a TA or direct), knowing that he/she spends the hours on hold or talking to customer service to resolve any issues we may have.

I was really impressed with Jaime's. We ordered the lamb chops medium rare. It seemed to come out medium to medium-well. We mentioned it to the server just to let them know, but it wasn't a huge deal because the lamb wasn't dry and didn't taste overcooked. But, I guess the server passed it on and one of the chefs came out to apologize, and we were able to discuss recipes with her, so it was a win-win. 🙂

Agree to disagree I guess.

The enforcement of the policies seem to depend port to port. We took 12 1-liter bottles and 2 1.5-liter bottles on our cruise out of Miami last week. Carry-ons went through the security scanners and no one asked us to open them. I'd recommend taking water on with you, especially if you are particular on brands. My better half is very particular about what water he likes, and the bottles offered on board appeared to be generic brands. We were happy to carry our own on board.

I hate line jumpers, but I'm not sure people potentially missing their flights would be my favorite experience. 😞 I don't know the whole situation you had, but if I was not in a rush and people had early flights, I probably would have offered them to jump in. If the crew member actually said they should have gotten up earlier, that crew member should be fired, or at best go through some remedial customer service training.

Wonderland - Dinner Day 1. This is probably going to be a controversial review, because Wonderland seems to be a favorite on Cruisecritic. It was ok, but definitely won't go again. The presentation of the food was outstanding and the service was good, but everything else about the restaurant was kind of meh. The concept is fun, but Royal Caribbean needs to go all in. They should go over the top with the design of the restaurant and make us feel like we are really in Wonderland (it is Wonderland after all - get crazy with it). Instead I felt like I was in a regular restaurant with a character walking around as the Mad Hatter and a server dressed as Alice. We spent about 2 hours in the restaurant. We started with coloring our menu with water so the words appear. We followed that with the recommendation of the server and received the first part of the meal tapas style - where she brought out a few waves of different foods to try. While you are eating, a crew member dressed as the Mad Hatter stops by your table with a stuffed rabbit, speaking for the rabbit. It was interesting the first time, but you hear him say the same exact thing to every table around you and it got very monotonous and boring. The presentation of the food was a 10 out of 10. Very interesting concepts and way of preparing and presenting food. The taste of the food was a 3 out of 10, which was very disappointing. We were expecting bold and contrasting flavors with things we have never tasted before. We didn't experience that - everything was kind of bland and boring, almost safe. The food itself (not including the presentation) was probably the worst we had in the specialty restaurants. I give RCL credit for the concept and really interesting and well done food presentation. They need to step up the culinary part and completely redo the restaurant and atmosphere to make people think they are actually in Wonderland. We have done similar kinds of eclectic or out of the box dining on Celebrity (the old Qsine and Le Petite Chef) and Disney (Animators Palate) and they were all better executed than Wonderland on the Symphony. We would like to acknowledge our server Queenie for taking great care of us while we were there. We also had a surprise when they brought out a cake at the end - we were celebrating our anniversary and were not expecting the cake. It was a very nice touch.

Jaime's Italian. Lunch Day 1, Dinner Day 6. We loved Jaime's Italian - it was our 2nd favorite restaurant on the ship. Jaime's is one of the restaurants located in the Central Park. Most people ate inside, but we elected to sit outside for both lunch and dinner. For dinner, there was often a Spanish Guitarist playing in the Central Park, so it was nice to be able to listen and have a nice meal at the same time. There is alot of foot traffic that pass by outside, so if you are bothered by people walking by your table and prefer a more quiet dining experience, eat inside. They did do a good job of maintaining temperature in Central Park, even though it was outside, and it never felt uncomfortable eating out there. Lunch and Dinner menus for Jaimes are attached. We always ask for recommendations from the server at every restaurant we go to because they have a good feel for what people are liking or not liking. The server at Jaime's for Lunch told me to get the Burger and that it was the best burger on the ship. I took him up on that offer and it was outstanding. We tried a few other burgers on the ship (Chops, some lunches, and other places) and I can confirm that the best burger on Symphony of the Seas goes to Jaime's Italian! The other half got the lasagna (another recommendation from the server) and was happy with it - but I got the better deal with the burger. For appetizers, we got the Arancini and the Prawns. They were ok....nothing special. Dinner is where food really got good at Jaime's. We got the Meat Plank, Burrata, and Bruschetta (all the things Vintages said we couldn't get there). All three were very good - I think our favorite appetizers on the ship (not including playmakers) were at Jaime's. We would order all three again if we went back. For dinner, I got the short ribs and my partner got the lamb chops. Both were also fantastic. The lamb chops were a little overcooked, but not so bad that it ruined the taste. We also got a small plate of the carbonara - it was ok, but something you can get at just about any Italian restaurant. The lamb chops and short ribs were definitely the star for dinner. I don't have the desert menu, but I think we got some kind of lemon meringue cheesecake and the warm brownie. We were hesitant with the brownie because we got it elsewhere on the ship and it was dry. Both deserts at Jaime's were fantastic. We would definitely recommend trying Jaime's on the Symphony. Special shoutout to Server Felicisima - if you go to Jaime's Italian, ask to be seated in her section and she will take care of you. Edit - slight issue with the selfie - looks like with android all selfies get posted upside down...trying to figure it out 🙂

Dining reviews. We pre-purchased the Unlimited Dining Package when it was on sale for "50%" off. In total, for the two of us the package cost a little less than $500. We wanted to make the most of it and use it for every lunch and dinner we could. We have been to hibatchi so many times on land and on cruise ships, that we don't normally do it anymore on cruise ships (same with cruise lines that do the brazilian steakhouse). The better half is convinced the UDP is worth it, I am still on the fence. We skipped Lobster night in the MDR and there were a few other nights that the menu in MDR looked good. But, we got 40% of wine bottles in the restaurants and access to Playmakers without paying. We will be on the Odyssey in December, and we don't know if we will buy the UDP (partly because there seem to be fewer specialty restaurants on the Odyssey). We used the UDP for: Day 1: Lunch - Jaime's Italian Dinner- Wonderland Day 2: Lunch - Hooked Seafood Dinner - Central 150 Day 3: Dinner - Chops Day 4: Dinner - Central 150 Day 5: Dinner - Hooked Seafood Day 6: Lunch - Chops Dinner - Jaime's Italian Day 7: Dinner - Chops In addition, we used it at Playmakers on the Boardwalk a couple times after the late show. We did not use it at Johnny Rockets (we did try the complimentary breakfast there). We did try to use it at Vintages for the appetizers (they called it tapas, but it was the same appetizers from Jaime's Italian), but were told we could not use. It was really weird, and the Restaurant Manager stopped by my table one night to apologize about it. Vintages is listed on the compass as both a restaurant and bar. Confirming the absurdness with the Restaurant Manager, we could have ordered the meat plate and bruschetta at Jaimes, took it to Vintages and ate it there, but we could not order the same exact meat plate and bruschetta at Vintages. I am going to follow up with RCL on this one. Beyond the UDP, we had one breakfast at the Main Dining Room, one breakfast at Solarium Bistro, one at Johnny Rockets, and rest at the Park Cafe. We also tried the Dog House a few times on the boardwalk. We did not go to the Windjammers or the MDR for lunch or dinner. I'll go through each of the specialty restaurants and give some thoughts, menu pics, food pics, and other recommendations. Please keep in mind that this is just our opinions, and everyone has different tastes and likes, and don't take it personally by our reviews - this is only intended to be a critical review to give people things to think about.

NCL prices are out of control right now. I have 4 Cruise Next certificates with them and I am having a hard time finding a NCL sailing worth it. I see cruises on Azama and Oceana with similar prices to NCL. I think NCL has jacked up the prices because of the certificates and future cruise credits out there and people feel obligated to spend the cost because their certificates/credits are expiring. I expect their prices will drop next year. Keep in mind though that the NCL prices with Free at Sea may be giving more value than a RCL cruise only fare.

One of the biggest decisions we had to make pre-cruise was To Beverage Package or Not To Beverage Package? We elected to go without a beverage package and it worked out for us. Before boarding we stopped at Whole Foods (299 SE 3rd Ave, Miami, FL 33131) and picked up 4 bottles of wine, 12 one-liter bottles of water, and two 1.5 liters of bottled water. The price for that was about $90. On board, we bought 3 bottles of wine at specialty dining restaurants for ~ $90. With the UDP, we were able to buy bottles of wine at the restaurants at 40% off. We kept these at the restaurants. Our TA also gifted us a bottle of wine to our cabin. In addition to that we spent about $250 on drinks over the 7 days (ports, mixed drinks, wine by glass, espresso, and frozen drinks), so our total cost for drinks came out to about $430 for the two of us, and we averaged about 4 alcoholic drinks per day per person. For us, we saved significantly by not paying for the package, which gave us more disposable spending for the casino. I'd recommend everyone do the math before buying a beverage package. If it makes sense, go for it. It can add up quickly if you do Bloody Mary/Mimosas during breakfast, something with lunch, drinks during dinner, frozen drinks at the pool, and some at the bars after dinner.

Upon boarding the ship on the 17th (around 1030ish), we immediately went to book dining reservations. We booked all 7 nights and 3 at sea lunches at the same time. The reservations they gave for lunches were all 1200, which is when the restaurants open. The lunch times seemed really flexible and the host who was booking our reservations said they were just placeholders and we could go whenever we wanted. The dinner times were all very undesirable times (most were 5-530 or 830-9), so we just booked the crappiest timeslot we could. After dining reservations, we went to the Attic to book the entertainment. Like the dining, we booked something each night and we found the timing was a challenge because of conflicts with the dinner reservations. The reservations for the entertainment are done on the royal app. The crew who was assisting with the entertainment was able to override some of the dining/entertainment conflicts - if the show was withing 2 (sometimes 3) hours of your dining reservations, it required an override. Next we did our obligatory muster drill training and sign and was off to Jaime's for lunch. After going through the dining and entertainment experiences and seeing the status of the restaurants during the evening and the long lines of people trying to get into shows they didn't have reservations for, I highly recommend booking the Entertainment First, then the Dining Second. The reason for this is: 1) The restaurants were often only 1/2 - 2/3rd full during the peak dining times, with some exceptions. We were able to change our dining times to better slots during the week and were able to show up early and/or late most nights without any problem. It felt like they blocked off tables between 600-800 from reservations for most restaurants. We probably could have gone to the restaurants between 600-800 without reservations as walk-ins if we wanted. 2) Every show seemed to have a very long line of people (from the looks 50+) who were trying to get in and did not have reservations. Even if they did eventually get in, they probably got very poor seating. So based on this, get all your shows booked right away to make sure you are reserved for what you want to see, then work dinner around those. Seating in the shows were all first come, first serve (with exceptions for blocked off seating for suite (and key?) guests. So as long as you are booked, you can get to the venue early for good seats if you want. After Jaime's we did our walks around the ship. The Symphony, and probably Oasis Class in general, is the easiest ship to learn and get around. Once you remember which decks the Boardwalk, Promenade, and Central Park are located, you pretty much have the ship down. The way the ship is organized is very well done. Attached are some ship pics from the first day. One last note - avoid guest services the first day if possible - everyone on the ship seemed to be there at the same time and it was a hot mess.

Yes - no issues at playmakers. Went there a few times and loved it.

Crew on Symphony told me there are currently 5 ships where masks are optional for crew. It looks like they will phase that to all over time.

I am already getting withdrawal! Thanks for continuing your pics and reviews. 😉

We can confirm this for the Symphony this week - blackjack was hit on soft 17. For the other question, Symphony had 1 deck tables and 8 deck tables. I assume Harmony is similar unless someone recently on has a different experience.

150 was by far our favorite restaurant on Symphony as well. We will post our reviews tomorrow.