Symphony Star Class Review - 5 night sailing 31.3.18 2 Bed ATS

[TravelMadBrits]

Hi everyone

 

Please bear with me, have never done a review before but wanted to share some of our experience with you. I need to work out how to load the photos so any tips please let me know!

 

Background

There were 6 of us on this trip all from the UK - myself, husband and our 12 year old son together with our friends with their 17 year old daughter. We have all cruised with Royal before - this sailing made us to Diamond (whoop) but we have only been on Freedom and Voyager class ships before. Booked this last October while on Navigator.

 

About 3 weeks before sail we received the star class survey - not really sure if this made a big difference as 2 weeks before sail we received an email from our genie asking pretty much the same questions. Our genie was Marla.

 

We flew into Barcelona 2 days before, wanting to de-stress and miss the Easter traffic chaos. I booked us all in the Hilton Diagonal Mar hotel (booked just before Christmas) and got a great deal in a panoramic suite with breakfast and dinner. Did a lot of research into taxi companies and booked one that did all the journeys so everything was set and we were ready to go...

 

Bear with me, just sorting photos...

[LuCruise]

Looking forward to hearing more. We are sailing on her next March.

 

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk

[TravelMadBrits]

I'm working on the photos! Just practising, trying to condense them as they appear rather a bit big importing straight from my computer...

Edited April 8, 2018 by TravelMadBrits
photo issue

[TravelMadBrits]

Views from hotel of beach in Barcelona ... hopefully this will work!!

 

 

Hotel room

 

[Clarea]

I'm working on the photos! Just practising, trying to condense them as they appear rather a bit big importing straight from my computer...

Still seeing some Photobucket photos missing.

[TravelMadBrits]

So we spent two days in the hotel, I can really recommend. Never went into the City but did go to the shopping mall behind the hotel which was nice. The staff were amazing - so we felt this was a great start to the week away.

 

Cruise Day 1

Taxi arrived on time at 10am. I had already arranged with the genie that we would be arriving at 10.30am - this is terminal c for star class. First thing was that a porter went to take our bags - Marla had said do NOT let them go... so until the star class labels were on the bags and the porter/staff confirmed they were in the right place did we let go!

 

I think we were the first to arrive. We had already printed sea passes etc but for some reason mine had to be re-printed. We then sat in a waiting area for 10 minutes and a member of staff literally stood with us. Marla arrived (she had already sent her photo so we knew what she would look like) and off we went.

 

We had the usual photos taken and up the elevators and were whisked up to the ship's entrance to scan in our printed sea passes. It felt very strange not having the usual card at this point. And then we were in on the promenade deck. There were a few people already walking about, there were staff with sparkling wine being offered to everyone but we went straight up the lifts to deck 10.

 

Our room 10734 was nearly ready... no luggage but I think we were too quick for it but there was champagne on ice waiting.... but no glasses! Sheldon our room attendant introduced himself, he was great. The rooms were absolutely beautiful and the balcony area great but it was incredibly windy so we did not stay out long.

 

We waited a while for the glasses to come and soon went off to explore. I had downloaded the deck plans on to my mobile and that helped a lot. Went straight up to the flow rider deck to sign our waivers and all decided to come down via the Abyss slide. WOW... apparently it got quicker as the week went on but it was fast enough for me at that point. Zoomed off that straight to the Playmakers bar to catch our breath. Really loved the Broadwalk concept and actually found we only went there a couple of times during the 5 days although the kids did go to Johnny Rockets a few times.

 

Tried the hotdogs - unfortunately my husband is wheat intolerant and there were no gluten free options available. But they were very nice!

 

Photo of ship as we approached over bridge...

[TravelMadBrits]

Still seeing some Photobucket photos missing.

 

Thanks Bob - are you seeing the photos ok now?

 

Claudine

[Clarea]

Thanks Bob - are you seeing the photos ok now?

 

Claudine

No, I'm not seeing the photo in post #6.

 

You do know that Photobucket now wants money to link photos to another website?

[storknurse13]

Still no photos...only the photobucket symbol!

[Merion_Mom]

TravelMadBrits - when photobucket did that to me, I found this website for posting my pictures:

 

https://postimages.org

[TravelMadBrits]

Sorry! Trying to condense the files via MacBook - they do go as an attachment but then it appears that you will need to click on the image to see it. Think I am going to practice this again on the test page :loudcry:

[Clarea]

Sorry! Trying to condense the files via MacBook - they do go as an attachment but then it appears that you will need to click on the image to see it. Think I am going to practice this again on the test page :loudcry:

Unless you want to pay Photobucket $500 per year, you're probably going to want to use a different photo sharing site.

[TravelMadBrits]

TravelMadBrits - when photobucket did that to me, I found this website for posting my pictures:

 

https://postimages.org

 

 

Thank you will try now. I did make the photos smaller so they could be added as an attachment but you would have to click on each one to view it which I found strange. Probably why I've never done it before!

[TravelMadBrits]

If this doesn't work then I will give up on the photos! Trying one last time via postimage, fingers crossed...

 

[TonyL128]

If this doesn't work then I will give up on the photos! Trying one last time via postimage, fingers crossed...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Genie Marla is great, can’t wait to see her again in October.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[TravelMadBrits]

OK working on the basis we are good... here's the hotel room and views. It really was great and set us up for the whole holiday.

 

 

 

view from the 20th floor lift/elevator

 

Please can someone confirm you are getting these ok? thanks

[SeeTheSeas18]

OK working on the basis we are good... here's the hotel room and views. It really was great and set us up for the whole holiday.

 

 

 

view from the 20th floor lift/elevator

 

Please can someone confirm you are getting these ok? thanks

I can see all these pictures, so you’re all good. Looking forward to your review, as we’re on the Symphony TA in October.

[TravelMadBrits]

;)YAY!

 

OK so back to day 1. We had already told Marla the restaurants we would like to try and some of the activities and she had printed off a schedule for us to go through and this could be changed at any point.

There were plenty of beers and soft drinks in the fridge and she was trying to get gluten free beer which she did a couple of days. We didn't drink a lot of alcohol in the room so requested a bottle of red and rose. Plus a kettle! There is a Nespresso coffee maker but we really like a cup of tea first thing.

 

Now this is where we sort of learnt what the genie is for... Marla had said 'anything you need, anything at all you must call me' and she gave us her number. We had previously been communicating via email and had been sent the loop but we didn't use this all week; we carried on with emails and direct calls.

 

So, when on the first night we wanted a cup of tea I dialled room service - but the phones were a nightmare not connecting. Eventually I used one of the bedroom phones and got straight through to the manager who had come earlier to the suite to introduce himself and within 10 minutes the tea arrived. Great. The next morning when we rang for tea again it took over half an hour. So when we caught up with Marla later on day 2 she was 'nooooo you don't use room service you use me' which we found really strange to get used to. But to be fair I wouldn't have called her late at night or early morning anyway. So the kettle came and made life a bit easier ;)

 

Another thing we learnt was that the star class cards had changed a bit, and at the beginning not all the staff recognised what it was. The kids had gone to Johnny Rockets for milkshakes and had to sign for them with a charge despite them explaining. It wasn't a problem for us as we knew it would get sorted and we had the same at a couple of bars to start but again Marla soon got this sorted.

 

So just in case you missed it.... the ship waiting for us

 

and this is what the card looks like

[TravelMadBrits]

So we spent a few hours just exploring the top decks, Broadwalk and the promenade.

 

We had some canapés delivered to the room to go with the champagne and there were also GF ones plus some fruit in the small bowls. We had Udi's GF cookies all week in the room too.

 

The ship as we walked through the terminal

 

Canapes...

 

Deck 10 is right where the man is on the climbing wall

[TravelMadBrits]

Sugar Beach wasn't open but they were handing out little pots of sweets

 

Hot dog was very nice, there are quite a few varieties of sausage and bread rolls

T

 

Then off to the Schooner Bar, its always been a favourite of ours on the smaller ships and it was very much the same on Symphony.

 

 

Nikki and Rex were part of the team and were FANTASTIC! We enjoyed G&T - there were more varieties on offer on this ship - we particularly enjoyed Aviation and The Botonist gins. Although the mojito was just as good!

 

[TravelMadBrits]

First go on the Abyss - you could hear the squeals all the way down!

 

And before you knew it, it was sail away

 

[TonyL128]

First go on the Abyss - you could hear the squeals all the way down!

 

 

 

 

And before you knew it, it was sail away

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Do they still have the cabanas on the Suite Sundeck?

 

 

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[TravelMadBrits]

First night was at Jamies, it was very nice and we had the sharing desert just to have a taste as we were pretty shattered. Ended up visiting Coastal Kitchen/Suite lounge just before 11pm and got a last drink of the evening while the bar was put away. What I didn't realise until we got there was that Coastal and the lounge were one venue, just slightly split into an eating area for Coastal and the lounge area to the right; but looking at the deck plans now, its easy to see! It is very beautifully decorated and we went there a couple of times before getting ready for dinner just to have a quick drink and enjoy the view. The staff were amazing. Raj (who I have read about on other posts) was there.

 

 

 

 

We didn't have any of the meat planks as we had some of those delivered to the room just before sailaway.

[TravelMadBrits]

Do they still have the cabanas on the Suite Sundeck?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

 

 

They had a lot of chairs, loungers and canopy beds but we didn't see any actual cabana areas that I've seen photos of on other ships. The suite sundeck was two parts - up the stairs and there was the bar with a row of chairs and jacuzzi. Walk around (passing the slides which was a great view) and on the other side was a big row of chairs and the canopy beds. That was all we found!

[TravelMadBrits]

OK last bit of food for day 1 - desert from Jamie's

 

Then the suite lounge

 

with the Coastal Kitchen part on the other side