[Live Blog] - A Symphony Awaits! 12/15 - 12/22 Eastern Caribbean

[romesauce]

Hi all! Myself and my husband will be sailing on the Symphony from December 15th to the 22nd through the eastern Caribbean. I thought I'd attempt to do a live blog about our sailing so you all can join us!

 

A little background:

We have booked an D6 Superior Oceanview Balcony room on Deck 11. Both myself and my husband are 32 years old and have no kids. We live in the Washington DC area. I'm Canadian (born and raised in Vancouver) and moved to the DC after marrying my husband almost five years ago. My husband likes to relax and enjoy our balcony on cruises whereas I like having lots of activities to do. We are also very easy-going folks. We don't fret over the small stuff and don't let minor inconveniences ruin a vacation. This will be our fifth cruise. Why Symphony this time around? In 2016, we sailed on the Harmony and this was our first exposure to RCCL and the Oasis class ships. We had so much fun on the Harmony, as you can see when I did a live blog about it here: 

 

In 2017, we went on Celebrity Infinity to travel to Alaska. While we loved this cruise as well, we realize we enjoy the mega ships! Alas, we decided to make our return to the Oasis class ships and why not return the newest and brightest of them all.

 

Dining:

During the Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale, we booked the Ultimate Dining Plan for $152/person. This includes dinner in a specialty dining venue every night and lunch on embarkation and at sea days. We will have three at sea days during this sailing so we thought this was too good of a deal to not buy since we both enjoy specialty dining quite a bit.

Ports:

This sailing is stopping in San Juan, Labadee and St. Maarten. For San Juan, we plan on exploring Old San Juan ourselves and to go have lunch and coffee in one of their many cafes. I love my Cafe Con Leches! This will be our second time there and we enjoyed just being able to walk around and explore on our own. In Labadee, we will book the zipline excursion on board. We received quite a bit of OBC through our TA but unfortunately cannot use it until we're on board. We decided to hold off and book the zipline when we're on board to utilize the OBC. In St. Maarten, we will just explore the port and go back on the ship. We will utilize a quiet ship to have fun in the pool and water slides. We've been to St. Maarten before.

Packages:

We purchased the two device VOOM Surf + Stream package at $18/day. We also purchased the Refreshment package for both my husband and I during the Black Friday sale at $16/day per person. My husband doesn't drink but I do once in a blue moon. If I do feel like having an alcoholic beverage, I will just purchase one but most likely I will go through the week without one. 

We fly to Miami on Friday via American Airlines and we're staying at the Kimpton Epic hotel that's in the Brickell area of Miami. I will try to update this thread as much as I can through out our cruise! Might as well take full advantage of our Voom package! If you're sailing with us, come say hi! We love meeting new folks on our cruises. We do stick out on cruises. My husband and I are Sikhs, however, as I cut my hair, my husband doesn't. My husband wears a turban and has a full grown beard! We won't be hard to spot so come by and say hi!

 

Current Vacation Status: Empty suitcase. Nails not manicured or pedicured. Laundry still needs to be done. Three more work days left, however am I actually doing any work? Don't tell my boss but I'm already in vacation mode. 🙂

[romesauce]

This is our current plan for Ultimate Dining. As we cannot make reservations until we're on board, I set out a plan so when we do go book our reservations on board, I can get it done quickly. Dinner times are based upon if we have any shows booked that night. For lunch, I already planned which restaurants I want to eat at during those days but for dinner, it's all up to what is available based upon the times we want to eat at.

Day 1 - Dec. 15	Day 2 - Dec. 16	Day 3 - Dec. 17	Day 4 - Dec. 18	Day 5 - Dec. 19	Day 6 - Dec. 20	Day 7 - Dec. 21	Day 8 - Dec. 22nd
Miami	At Sea	At Sea	St. Maarten	San Juan	Labadee	At Sea	Miami
Lunch: Jamies	Lunch: Playmakers	Lunch: Chops	8am to 6pm	7am to 2pm	9:30am to 6pm	Lunch: Hooked
UDP - 6pm to 8pm	UDP - Anytime 8 or before	UDP: 6pm	UDP: 6pm	UDP: Anytime	UDP: Anytime before 8	UDP: Anytime before 8
	Comedy 10:45 to 11:30pm	1977 8:15 to 9:35pm	HiRO 8:30pm to 9:50pm		Flight: 10:30 to 11:20pm	Comedy in Royal Theatre 10:30 to 11:20pm
			Walk port/Stay on Ship	Walk around Old San Juan	Ziplining - book on cruise		Restaurants: Chops Grille 150 Central Park Jamies Hooked Wonderland Izumi (sushi) Playmakers

[romesauce]

Of course, if you want to meet us, I should post a picture of us! 

Here's us on our balcony on Celebrity Infinity last year awaiting to sail off from Vancouver to Alaska!

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

Have a great cruise! Thanks so much for sharing and bringing us along! 

[romesauce]

Three more days left until we head off to Miami! It's hard to get through work when you have vacation on your mind.

 

Current Vacation Status: Suitcase still empty. Still need to do laundry BUT a pile of it is ready to be washed. Nails still not manicured or pedicured. Counting down the days until Friday!

[melted2002]

folowing

[LuCruise]

Following along.  We go on Symphony in March. I love your planning with the meals (I'm a planner myself).  Enjoy your cruise and safe flight.

[springbee]

I will have to read your blog and relive our cruise!  My husband and I are the same age as you, and we just got off the Symphony three days ago.  We sound very similar, loved our balcony for morning coffee, toured the forts and Old San Juan on our own, did Maho Beach on our own in St Maarten, got back on the ship around 3 and played on the slides, and enjoyed the jet skis in Labadee.  We had a blast and were blessed with perfect weather!  Awesome ship and crew.  Jamezy with the cruise director staff is hilarious, we enjoyed trivia and the game shows in On Air that he hosted.  We also enjoyed the specialty dining.  We walked into Chops on embarkation day and she was able to schedule all the restaurants/times we wanted.  Wonderland was good, and I recommend it, but a little too theatrical for us.  The mad hatter interrupted our dinner a number of times, the first time it was funny, and then it just got cheesy and weird.  But I'm sure others enjoy it and have different opinions.   Have so much fun and safe travels! 

[romesauce]

10 minutes ago, springbee said:

I will have to read your blog and relive our cruise!  My husband and I are the same age as you, and we just got off the Symphony three days ago.  We sound very similar, loved our balcony for morning coffee, toured the forts and Old San Juan on our own, did Maho Beach on our own in St Maarten, got back on the ship around 3 and played on the slides, and enjoyed the jet skis in Labadee.  We had a blast and were blessed with perfect weather!  Awesome ship and crew.  Jamezy with the cruise director staff is hilarious, we enjoyed trivia and the game shows in On Air that he hosted.  We also enjoyed the specialty dining.  We walked into Chops on embarkation day and she was able to schedule all the restaurants/times we wanted.  Wonderland was good, and I recommend it, but a little too theatrical for us.  The mad hatter interrupted our dinner a number of times, the first time it was funny, and then it just got cheesy and weird.  But I'm sure others enjoy it and have different opinions.   Have so much fun and safe travels! 

 

Thank you! I really enjoy trivia and the game shows too! We did go to Wonderland on Harmony and while we enjoyed it, it's on the bottom of our UDP list. We're giving preference to all of the other restaurants first and then Wonderland if available. 

[PrincessWarrior]

Following.  We will be on this ship in 17 days, 23 hours and 40 minutes...but who is counting?

[EeyoreRN]

I love live reviews and will be following!  You and your hubby are adorable and I love your spreadsheet.  I think I'm gonna "borrow" it.

 

Bon voyage!

[cruiser82]

Hi neighbor! I'm also in my 30s living in the DC area. My mom and I just got off Symphony and our plans for the ports were very similar to yours. I haven't done my review yet but if you have any last minute questions before you board I'll try to answer them for you. Enjoy Symphony!

[romesauce]

45 minutes ago, cruiser82 said:

Hi neighbor! I'm also in my 30s living in the DC area. My mom and I just got off Symphony and our plans for the ports were very similar to yours. I haven't done my review yet but if you have any last minute questions before you board I'll try to answer them for you. Enjoy Symphony!

 

The only question I have is did you enjoy the ship?! What was your favorite part?

[romesauce]

The husband and I happened to meet Santa the other day. He asked us what we wanted for Christmas and we said for this week to go by as quickly as possible and for awesome weather next week! Not sure if Santa has connections with the weather folks in the Caribbean or if he has a time machine we can use, but doesn't hurt to ask. He made no promises 😞

 

 

 

My husband is also a big fan of Deadpool as you can see.

[cruiser82]

6 hours ago, romesauce said:

 

The only question I have is did you enjoy the ship?! What was your favorite part?

 

I did enjoy it. I ran into some issues due to the size of it (or more specifically the number of passengers it carries) but I would absolutely sail on Symphony again. My favorite part was probably going on the Ultimate Abyss because I'm a scaredy cat and typically don't do scary things but I went on the Ultimate Abyss twice and loved it.

[MrFunInTheSun]

Thanks for bringing us along on this amazing ship. 

[romesauce]

Two days left until we leave for Miami! I also noticed that in my first post, I stated we bought the Refreshment package for 16/day but it was actually 15/day. I believe we'll totally get our money's worth since everyday, I'll probably have a morning latte, afternoon tea and an evening hot chocolate along with numerous virgin caesars and frozen virgin daiquiris. As a Canadian living in America, a bloody mary does not satisfy my craving for caesars. Clamato juice > Tomato juice, hands down. On the Harmony in 2016, I was a frequent visitor of Boleros so after a day or two, the bartender knew what I'd order right away so once he saw me approaching the bar, he started making my virgin caesar right away every. single. time!

Edited December 12, 2018 by romesauce

[romesauce]

Current Vacation Status: Two days till Miami! Laundry currently being washed. Suitcase is still empty. Nails still not manicured or pedicured. Brain already on vacation mode. Been working from home all week and that's not helping the vacation brain. Don't tell my manager! 🙂

[romesauce]

My suitcase is now almost packed! I just have toiletries and makeup to pack. One more work day left. However, today is my husband's last work day till vacation time. Tomorrow is his birthday and he takes his birthday off every year.

[FMZ]

Happy birthday to your hubby!!! And happy cruise to both of you!!!

[jimbri]

Looking forward to your review and photos! 

[romesauce]

One more day until our vacation begins! Today is also my husband's birthday so he is currently relaxing as he took the day off from work and adding movies/tv shows to his tablet so he has plenty to watch on the ship. One of his favorite things on cruises is sitting on the balcony with his latte and watching a tv show or movie on his tablet. Like I said, he's the relaxed one in this relationship! 

My suitcase is packed but his is not. He's a day of packer. Currently waiting for my last meeting of the day and then after that it's manicure and pedicure time! Tomorrow is when the fun starts with this thread and watch for lots of pictures!

Current forecast for Miami is rain on and off throughout the day tomorrow and Saturday. Hopefully this won't affect our flight though. We do have an afternoon flight tomorrow. Hopefully there's no rain during sail away on Saturday too!

[sunsoaked218]

Following Have a great cruise 

[JamesEM]

Following along.

[BecciBoo]

19 hours ago, romesauce said:

One more day until our vacation begins! Today is also my husband's birthday so he is currently relaxing as he took the day off from work and adding movies/tv shows to his tablet so he has plenty to watch on the ship. One of his favorite things on cruises is sitting on the balcony with his latte and watching a tv show or movie on his tablet. Like I said, he's the relaxed one in this relationship! 

 

My kinda guy!  Same here, just gotta run upstairs for the latte and back down to lounge on the balc.  Ewwww, I can feel it now, the wind in my face and the sea air nurturing my skin...boy do I wish I was there! Gotta long time to go to our next one! Lucky girl!  Following.........

Edited December 14, 2018 by BecciBoo