Symphony of this seas cruising the med in 2018

[Aspidestra99]

I have just found out that Symphony of the Seas with her 9000 plus guests and crew will be cruising the Med after coming into service in March this year.

 

She will be cruising the Med from March until late October at which point she will set off from Barcelona for her home port in Miami.

 

The itineraries are on the internet so I've been checking her planned movements. Luckily our Med cruise doesn't seem to clash regarding port calls.

 

I can't imagine the effect disembarking up to 6000 people in one go has on the local environment.

 

At least forewarned is forewarned. So I thought I'd share with you too.

 

I wonder how the ten storey waterfall will hold up as she transits the Atlantic in November...

 

Sent from my SM-G950F using Forums mobile app

[mcatmcat]

Can’t wait to welcome her in Miami [emoji1][emoji1303]

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[darthvadrouw]

It will have the same impact that it does in Caribbean ports maybe less as she will be docking in much bigger cities that are full of tourists anyway.Some ports in the Caribbean like St Martin can have 6 big ships at a time with a total passenger count that is much more than what it will be for Symphony in the med (even with other ships in port). Besides Oasis, Allure and Harmony have all sailed on the med itinerary before without any issues. Regarding the TA; it will hold up just fine, the Oasis of the seas went through a big storm with hurricane force winds when it transited from Turku,Finland to Port Everglades and she handled brilliantly. You can watch captain Bill Wright talking about it on this video

Edited January 21, 2018 by darthvadrouw

[little britain]

Goodness, thank you for sharing that piece of news with us.

I don’t think anyone here knew that there was a new RCI ship coming out in under 3 months.

 

The ports will cope the same way as they did last year when Harmony was in the Med, with the local shopkeepers benefitting from the tourist $€.

Exactly the same way as when Oasis was in the Med a few years prior to that too.

 

The slide will hold up the same way as the Harmony slide did when she did her Transatlantic last year I guess......

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Aspidestra99]

It will have the same impact that it does in Caribbean ports maybe less as she will be docking in much bigger cities that are full of tourists anyway.Some ports in the Caribbean like St Martin can have 6 big ships at a time with a total passenger count that is much more than what it will be for Symphony in the med (even with other ships in port). Besides Oasis, Allure and Harmony have all sailed on the med itinerary before without any issues. Regarding the TA; it will hold up just fine, the Oasis of the seas went through a big storm with hurricane force winds when it transited from Turku,Finland to Port Everglades and she handled brilliantly. You can watch captain Bill Wright talking about it on this video

Only Brilliance Independence, Jewel and Navigator are shown as cruising the Med in 2018 on the UK Royal Caribbean website. No mention if Symphony.

 

Two of those ships have passenger capacities of around 2500 the other two around 4500.

 

So Symphony is quite a significant increase to the planned presence, or at least that published in the UK, for Royal Caribbean in the Mediterranean.

 

After a brief inspection she seems to be performing a loop of the Western Med from March until late October.

 

So although her sisters are only in the Med for specific periods Symphony will be a constant presence.

 

Symphony will be the world's largest cruise ship with potentially 1400 more passengers than Harmony of the seas.

 

Testing her embarcation and dis-embarcation process in ports not used to such a large ship may have an impact portside as well.

 

Que sera.

 

Sent from my SM-G950F using Forums mobile app

[darthvadrouw]

Regarding passenger counts, Harmony can handle 6780 passengers at max capacity, Symphony will have a max of 6870 passengers so 90 more witch is insignificant.

All of the ports that Symphony will be going to have already had to deal with oasis class ships in the past, they will be used to the process and have it down to a T.

If you look at the tourist side of it, Oasis class ships constantly sail to ports in the Caribbean like St Martin (island population : 80 000),Nassau (274 000), Cozumel (100 000) those destinations are able to handle the huge amounts of cruisers without any problem.

Symphony will be sailing the med to destinations that have huge numbers of tourists even without the cruise industry, if you look at Barcelona (1 604 555) it has something like 75 000 hotel beds available, it can handle about 150 000 tourists a day , Symphony's 6870 passengers will be barely noticed.

Rome has a population of 2 876 000, again 6870 passengers will not make a difference. Just for the sake of it Marseille (1 831 000),Naples (975 000), Florence/Pisa (383 000/90 000).

 

I do appreciate and respect that you do not want to be in the same port as Symphony but even if you were it would not have an impact on your experience in the ports.

 

Her sisters were in the med for more or less the same period of time, Symphony will be there for just a bit longer due to her being finished 3 weeks ahead of scheduled. What's more RCI have already scheduled for the Oasis to be there in 2019 (May to November), if the ports were an issue I doubt that they would keep going back.

Edited January 21, 2018 by darthvadrouw

[little britain]

Only Brilliance Independence, Jewel and Navigator are shown as cruising the Med in 2018 on the UK Royal Caribbean website. No mention if Symphony.

 

Symphony will be the world's largest cruise ship with potentially 1400 more passengers than Harmony of the seas.

 

Testing her embarcation and dis-embarcation process in ports not used to such a large ship may have an impact portside as well.

 

Que sera.

 

Sent from my SM-G950F using Forums mobile app

 

Apart from this mention on the front of RCI uk website...

 

And as for testing embarkation etc, it will be exactly the same ports as Harmony visited last year and Oasis a few years prior... they will be well versed in able to handle her. It was a slick operation in both instances.

 

I think you need to check your data as to her capacity too..

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Dinglebert]

Must admit a bit confused by the thread. RCI have been plugging Symphony for the past 8 months at least as the best thing since sliced bread.

[Tapi]

As others have said, it’s not as much of an impact as you may think. Other Oasis ships have already sailed in the Mediterranean so Symphony won’t be the first one.

 

We sailed on the Allure (another Oasis class ship) and we’ve been in port aboard other ships when an Oasis class is present and it never feels considerably more crowded.

 

It may not be their cup of tea for those seeking a more intimate experience, but for those lured by the high energy, activity packed experience that these ships provide, it’s the perfect fit to combine them with a Mediterranean cruise.

 

And Symphony is not the only mega sized, high capacity ship that will be sailing in the Mediterranean. MSC is operating the MSC Meraviglia (the second largest class of ship in the world currently in service) in the Mediterranean. And other sister ships are currently being built and expected to join Meraviglia in the coming months.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[Damo74]

Only Brilliance Independence, Jewel and Navigator are shown as cruising the Med in 2018 on the UK Royal Caribbean website. No mention if Symphony.

 

Two of those ships have passenger capacities of around 2500 the other two around 4500.

 

So Symphony is quite a significant increase to the planned presence, or at least that published in the UK, for Royal Caribbean in the Mediterranean.

 

After a brief inspection she seems to be performing a loop of the Western Med from March until late October.

 

So although her sisters are only in the Med for specific periods Symphony will be a constant presence.

 

Symphony will be the world's largest cruise ship with potentially 1400 more passengers than Harmony of the seas.

 

Testing her embarcation and dis-embarcation process in ports not used to such a large ship may have an impact portside as well.

 

Que sera.

 

Sent from my SM-G950F using Forums mobile app

 

It had better be sailing this year, as we are booked up for June 10th from Barcelona :D

[Mim Lloyd]

Goodness, thank you for sharing that piece of news with us.

I don’t think anyone here knew that there was a new RCI ship coming out in under 3 months.

 

The ports will cope the same way as they did last year when Harmony was in the Med, with the local shopkeepers benefitting from the tourist $€.

Exactly the same way as when Oasis was in the Med a few years prior to that too.

 

Yes wow, a new super size ship is coming?! Why haven't RCI promoted it?! And I've just discovered that I've been booked on to a June sailing on it since June 2016, how did that happen?! lol

 

The ports will welcome it with open arms. Bigger ships mean more passengers, which means more money spent on local tour guides, shopping, restaurants and bars.