Symphony OTS Live! - Transatlantic Oct. 28, 2018 "Coming to America"

[legendaryheck]

Just now, twangster said:

 

A handful. Like other Oasis class.

Great, thank you :) When my wife and I were on the Allure we kept forgetting to check them out. We wanted to make sure we were able to check them out next April :)

[twangster]

Day 6 - continued...

 

Tempted by the Hooked Happy Hour I headed there at 5pm.  

 

The deck 16 elevator lobby view towards Central Park.

 

 

 

 

Hooked has a bar in the center flanked by seating on port and starboard.

 

 

 

 

The bar is a full service bar and on this night it honored Diamond Happy Hour drinks but I was more intrigued by the Hooked Happy Hour offer.  For $10 you can have the nightly happy hour appetizer and a beer or glass of wine.  Tonight's appetizer was 6 raw oysters.  The happy hour appetizer changes from night to night.

 

 

 

 

Oysters aren't my thing so I passed.  

 

The bar is open to the public as any bar on the ship is.  Given the lack of bars that have an outside view on Oasis class in general this is great bar albeit a little on the small side once the masses find it.

 

Here is the regular Hooked dinner menu:

 

 

Wine list:

 

Edited November 2, 2018 by twangster

[twangster]

Finally a sunset worth taking pictures of.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What's better than a great sunset?  A great sunset the largest cruise ship in the world!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[twangster]

It was time to head to dinner and I always try to find an excuse to pass through Central Park.  Tonight was no different.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[twangster]

Day 6 - Dinner

 

My Time Dining

 

 

Greek Salad

 

 

Roasted Veal Medallions

 

 

Citrus Berries Cheesecake

 

 

Food and service were both great tonight.

[twangster]

Day 6 - Late

 

Some late night boardwalk pictures...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our progress...

 

 

Edited November 3, 2018 by twangster

[suzyluvs2cruise]

Thanks for taking us along on your cruise. Your pictures are amazing. 

[rjwinneberger]

My husband is curious what camera and lenses you are using for your pics. TIA!

[SF]

Great information and photos. Thanks for taking the time to post and for sharing your cruise with us. We can't wait to board. 😀

[twangster]

6 hours ago, rjwinneberger said:

My husband is curious what camera and lenses you are using for your pics. TIA!

 

Sony A7III 

Lens - most pictures are with a Sony 12 -24 wide angle.

[Sunseeker20]

How are you finding the My Time Dining? I will be trying it for the first time soon and am not sure what to expect. Any advice is helpful

Also I love the pictures!

Edited November 4, 2018 by Sunseeker20

[fielddreamer]

It appears that the web site has gone down from the ship. Their has been no messages from anyone on the ship since yesterday!

[Pratique]

23 minutes ago, fielddreamer said:

It appears that the web site has gone down from the ship. Their has been no messages from anyone on the ship since yesterday!

We’re still here on Symphony. Cruise Critic was down earlier though.

[twangster]

Like others I couldn't post, as if my account lost posting privileges.   Back on track soon.  

[Nunagoras]

CC has been down for posting on the last 24 hours or such. Returning well to live now!... 🙂 Have a nice day!... 🙂

[sh2738]

1 hour ago, Sunseeker20 said:

How are you finding the My Time Dining? I will be trying it for the first time soon and am not sure what to expect. Any advice is helpful

Also I love the pictures!

 

I personally love my time dining as I do cruises with just two of us. So doing this guarantees that we will have a table to ourselves and not have to sit with other people. 

 

Also you aren’t restricted to a certain time to eat and can change your reservations to whichever time you want. Or you can also not make reservations and just wait in the no reservation line but it might take a while. 

[Sunseeker20]

1 minute ago, sh2738 said:

 

I personally love my time dining as I do cruises with just two of us. So doing this guarantees that we will have a table to ourselves and not have to sit with other people. 

 

Also you aren’t restricted to a certain time to eat and can change your reservations to whichever time you want. Or you can also not make reservations and just wait in the no reservation line but it might take a while. 

Thank you for the info!!

[Lionesss]

I see where you posted Dazzles is the Pinnacle lounge during happy hour.

 

Is this because there are many Pinnacles on board?

 

Is there still a suite lounge?  If so can Pinnacles use that lounge.

 

Thanks

 

Enjoy

[twangster]

2 hours ago, Lionesss said:

I see where you posted Dazzles is the Pinnacle lounge during happy hour.

 

Is this because there are many Pinnacles on board?

 

Is there still a suite lounge?  If so can Pinnacles use that lounge.

 

Thanks

 

Enjoy

 

Correct.  Due to 227 Pinnacles on board they are dedicating Dazzles to be the Pinnacle Happy Hour club.  

 

I do not have SL access and can't confirm if Pinnacles retain access given Dazzles.  

[twangster]

Now that I can post again, it's time to catch up...

 

Day 7 - Sea Day

 

Another beautiful sunny day at sea.

 

 

The Captain mentioned the idea of swell and how it can come across the ocean from thousands of miles away.  On this day the remnants of Hurricane Oscar are over 1,200 nm away but the source of our swell today.  Wind and waves are from the East behind us, the swell from Oscar is come from the West and North in front of us.  The ship is pitching slightly and pools have been drained to avoid water sloshing around.  It's a subtle movement today where occasionally one movement might be a little stronger than most.

 

The swell is best seen when video is sped up or in this case a time lapse:

 

 

The Solarium is popular today.

 

 

 

 

They must be working on the new Solarium Bar cover in the overnight hours as each day a little bit more is done.  They now have four glass panels in place:

 

 

The Solarium Bistro:

 

Edited November 4, 2018 by twangster

[twangster]

The ship is busy with lots going on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[twangster]

Day 7 - Lunch

 

Since I was in the neighborhood... El Loco Fresh for lunch

 

 

 

Quite popular, I sense Royal Caribbean has a hit here.

 

 

There are three primary stations and the first offers soft tacos with different meats.

 

 

Pre-made Burritos are available

 

 

Finally some Quesadilla 

 

 

Lots of toppings

 

 

A lot of toppings...

 

 

 

My observations...

 

If you are a Mexican food Connoisseur then you'll you need to remember you are on a ship likely very far from Mexico.  Having said that it wasn't bad and I'll be eating here again.  In fact I have to give Royal credit for giving a strong alternative to another Windjammer lunch option.  The Guac isn't exactly how I like it, but they need to make it for the many, not just my taste buds.  That's not to say it's bad, just not exactly as it's made in my home.

 

 

My only gripe was lack of seating.  Many people during this noon lunch hour had parked themselves here to play dominoes, watch a game on their phone, read a book or otherwise... not eat.  That left few seats for those that actually wanted to... eat.  In essence, the same issue any Oasis class Windjammer has - not enough seats for the passengers on board.

[sh2738]

1 minute ago, twangster said:

Now that I can post again, it's time to catch up...

 

Day 7 - Sea Day

 

Another beautiful sunny day at sea.

 

 

 

The Captain mentioned the idea of swell and how it can come across the ocean from thousands of miles away.  On this day the remnants of Hurricane Oscar are over 1,200 nm away but the source of our swell today.  Wind and waves are from the East behind us, the swell from Oscar is come from the West and North in front of us.  The ship is pitching slightly and pools have been drained to avoid water sloshing around.  It's a subtle movement today where occasionally one movement might be a little stronger than most.

 

The swell is best seen when video is sped up or in this case a time lapse:

 

 

 

The Solarium is popular today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They must be working on the new Solarium Bar cover in the overnight hours as each day a little bit more is done.  They now have four glass panels in place:

 

 

 

The Solarium Bistro:

 

 

 

I haven't sailed on a cruise with the Solarium Bistro on it before. What kind of dining is it? And do they have any vegetarian options that you could see?

 

Thanks 🙂

[twangster]

I haven't really addressed our cruise director on this sailing - Bobby Brown.

 

I have to say a CD doesn't make or break a cruise for me.  I like some more than others but it's not a deal breaker for me.  I had Bobby as a CD on Harmony (I think).  To be honest he didn't leave a great impression on that cruise.  

 

However in the "always keep your mind open" department he has been better than I anticipated on this cruise.  I've actually watched the Morning Show more than I usually do. 

 

One thing he added to this sailing was a unique special - "How Do You Maintain An Ice Skating Rink On A Cruise Ship?".  

 

As a cruise geek this was really cool.  Ice cool.  Just kidding, but really informative.  

 

We enter Studio B to see someone.. watering the ice.

 

 

Joining Bobby in this presentation is Rubin, the stage manager who looks after Studio B.

 

 

They discuss thing like where the dance floor used during "RED" or Laser tag is stored (hint, it's under the center section and it slides out from under the seats). That's different from other ship in different classes.

 

As it turns out sailings like a 12 night transatlantic are an opportunity for some maintenance activities.  The ship has been in service for several months and while things like the ice surface could go on, once the ship enter routine seven night sailings it would be much more disruptive to perform certain essential maintenance including replacing the ice in Studio B later on, so they took advantage of this 12 night sailing to melt Studio B.  To. The. Floor.  They melted it down to the bare floor.  Like defrosting a freezer at home, once in a while it just has to be done.  

 

They began melting it down right after (ok, during) the last ice skating show.  That took overnight, then they had to clean it all up and get ready to make new ice.

 

They have since been building the ice up, millimeter by millimeter, by hand, watering each layer every 15 minutes or so, around the clock, since.  In fact as we listened to the presentation, the crew came out to repeat the watering process we saw when we first arrived.

 

 

Then again.

 

 

The water is special filtered water.  This will continue for the three days, around the clock, until the ice approximately 3.5 cm thick (1 1/2").  But that's not all.  

 

If anyone follows Nick Weir, VP of Entertainment for Royal he has been touting how they have AMPED up the projection technology on Symphony over Harmony.  That in part starts in the ice.

 

Within the ice is embedded a membrane that enhances the resolution of the surface as a projection technology.  That membrane was just replaced here on Symphony and you can see it now only because this new ice is crystal clear.

 

At a distance you don't even see it.

 

 

Zoom in closer and you do. 

 

 

Symphony is the first to employ this projection surface embedded within the ice, not even Harmony has it.  Not yet.  

Studio B has it's own mini-Zamboni used to dress the ice surface each day.

 

 

The projection technology consists of six side mounted projectors that project onto this surface.

 

 

Each projector costs around $100k.  Combining the six projectors, three port, three starboard into what appears to be a complete image requires precision.  The manufacturer is based in Japan and when they need to re-align them (it's a moving ship in seas, stuff moves) they need to fly the engineer in from Japan to align them occasionally.  

 

Next they talk about drones.  Very interesting.  Forty eight drones with twelve spares on hand.   Very special technology because within Studio B there is no regular GPS signal like a consumer drone might use.  They have to create a reference 'cube' within Studio B for the drones to fly within.  That's where these black boxes hanging from the ceiling come in.

 

 

There are several of them mounted around the perimeter of the ice.  Combined with some floor mounted reference points and two portable white cubes placed on the ice surface they create a 3D GPS-like environment for the drones to operate in.  Now that they told us this, I recall seeing two white cubes sitting in the middle of the ice floor at the start of the show '1977'.

 

Before the show starts, while we are all waiting outside in line, the drones have to be checked to ensure they are happy with this reference cube.  If they aren't it has to be recalculated.  This is very new technology in use and with 48 drones operating in synchronicity, it's very precise.

 

The drone batteries are very special and they can't be flown due to HazMat laws.  That means when they need new batteries, they'll need to be shipped to America now that Symphony is on her way to Miami.  

 

As we listen on, two more crew come out to "grow" the ice.  Another few millimeters accomplished.

 

 

It turns out these are two of the Ice Skating cast.  Even they get into the act.  It's a team effort, four times an hour, around the clock, for three days.

 

You know how they don't seem to open the doors soon enough?  I certainly felt this on Adventure of the Seas recently when the Ice Skating show had long lines.  It turns they can't.  The room is temperature controlled and letting all that air conditioning out affects the ice surface.  They have to keep the doors closed as long as they can.  Lesson learned, be patient.  

 

It was a very interesting presentation unlike others I've seen on a ship and I thank Bobby for putting it on.  It gives me a greater appreciation for the level of effort that Royal puts into their entertainment.

 

One last note.  On the way out I saw these coins embedded in the ice.

 

 

Seems to be a tradition for the current cast who just changed over.  The previous ice skating cast, their first contract complete, has just headed home for a short vacation.

[twangster]

Just now, sh2738 said:

 

I haven't sailed on a cruise with the Solarium Bistro on it before. What kind of dining is it? And do they have any vegetarian options that you could see?

 

Thanks 🙂

 

I have a day 10 reservation.  I'll post more then.