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

[romesauce]

Today is the day! We're heading to the airport in about two hours. We just dropped off our dog at his dogsitter's place where he'll be staying for the week. We're using Rover for the first time.

 

Current Vacation Status: My bags are packed. My husband's bags are not. I'm already ready to go to the airport. My husband hasn't showered yet. My nails are manicured and pedicured. My husband still needs to cut his nails. So can you tell now who's the relaxer and who's the planner in this relationship? 🙂

[romesauce]

My husband got me a pre-cruise gift which was a luggage tag for my suitcase. He knows me so well. 🙂

5 points if you know where the quote is from. Hint: We're big wrestling fans.

 

My suitcase came to weigh 39lbs. My makeup which tends to take a lot of weight since I'm a Makeupaholic and pack a lot of it is going into our carryon. Otherwise my suitcase would be nearing 50lbs!

Edited December 14, 2018 by romesauce

[romesauce]

Boarded our flight to Miami! Ready for some warmth. 

 

 

[Ralphinsc]

10 hours ago, romesauce said:

My husband got me a pre-cruise gift which was a luggage tag for my suitcase. He knows me so well. 🙂

5 points if you know where the quote is from. Hint: We're big wrestling fans.

 

My suitcase came to weigh 39lbs. My makeup which tends to take a lot of weight since I'm a Makeupaholic and pack a lot of it is going into our carryon. Otherwise my suitcase would be nearing 50lbs!

 

Sacha Banks! hehehe

 

P.S. Love the Deadpool sweater!

 

Enjoying your posts and reading along. We are going on the Symphony in April.

Edited December 15, 2018 by Ralphinsc

[MalteseMama2]

You look like a happy couple! I would love to meet you sometime! 

We just got off Oasis, our first mega ship, and loved it. I look forward to reading about your experiences on Symphony. We have Liberty booked for March and then Harmony next December. 

[knots4crewzing]

Today's the day!!  Enjoy your cruise!!  Bon voyage!!🛳️

 

I will be anxiously waiting for your updates and thank you so much for taking us along!

 

We're sailing on Symphony July13th~~ only 6 months 28 days away😩

 

Happy Birthday to your husband! 🎂

 

Liz🌷

[romesauce]

Today is the day! We stayed at the epic kimpton hotel and had a wonderful time. We had quite the adventure yesterday though. So now it's story time:

 

My husband and I had an uneventful flight to Miami. Once we received our bags, we decided to get a cab instead of an Uber. We get into a cab, ride was uneventful as well, and arrive at our hotel. We check in, get to our room, notice that there's a big balcony but then my husband realizes he left his cpap machine in the cab! Now, he just got his a few weeks ago and it was our first time traveling with it. He is obviously upset. We head down to the lobby and start calling the cab company, but wait, do we know the cab number? Do we know the driver's name? We don't know anything. We call the cab company and they were no help, of course. They need a cab number. So we go to the front desk and see if they can do anything. The wonderful front desk lady calls security asking for a favor and gets security to go back in their footage to when we arrived and got the cab number! 

We call back to the cab company and they are still no help. We have the cab number now but they cant radio into this guy's cab because he only does airport rides apparently and he is not in the system. They do suggest us going to the airport and try there. So off we went to the airport, this time via Uber. We get to arrivals and the nicest taxi stand guy understood what our situation was and told us to go to the office where all the taxis idle and wait to be called upon to the airport. We walk there and get to the security office. This is where we met the most helpful officer. His name is Michael. Michael got the cab number from us and radios out to the parking lot for the driver to come to the office but no avail. So then Michael went out and asked a few drivers if they knew the driver of cab 1366. Right away, one guy pulled out his phone and said this is the guy. Michael calls the driver and insisted he should come back and drop off our  cpap machine. 45 mins later, the taxi driver came back and we have our machine back! Michael was wonderful and let us stay in the office and talked about his job and life. Because of his and the kimpton staff, we were able to retrieve our cpap. 

 

Anyways, here are a few pictures of our balcony and view at the kimpton! 

[LBumb]

bon voyage

[romesauce]

Miss photogenic right here:

 

[romesauce]

A few pictures of the new terminal and getting on the ship! Check in and security was a breeze! Terminal is beautiful. 

 

[countess5]

 

Your sail Away was fantastic! 

[romesauce]

Current vacation status: all udp reservations complete. Today: jamies for lunch and 150CP for dinner. Jamies was good (the garlic bread was amazing) but service was a bit slow. We chalked it up to be that it was embarkation day. 150CP was amazing food and service wise. We had a super delicious meal. If you go there, you better get the fried cheesecake bites. If you don't, I'll come by and make you order them. They're THAT good. I don't care if you're lactose intolerant. There are pills to help with that. We have booked our excursion for labadee. Our bags are unpacked. Currently laying in bed for a quick recharge and then going to explore the ship some more. 

[romesauce]

Pictures! 

 

[JamesEM]

Travel tip: take a photo of the taxi/uber before getting starting your ride, just in case anything should happen.

[Magster1987]

Or just take uber and have the name, licence plate and phonenumber right on your uber app 🙂

Edited December 16, 2018 by Magster1987

[DoctorWhoGirl]

Following along. We just booked Symphony for an eastern Caribbean itinerary with different ports, but we have to wait until April 2020....too long! Looks like a great start to your cruise after the cab ordeal was resolved. Enjoy your vacation, looking forward to your live review!

[romesauce]

6 hours ago, Magster1987 said:

Or just take uber and have the name, licence plate and phonenumber right on your uber app 🙂

Yep! We learned our lesson. When the driver dropped off our cpap, he offered to drive us back to our hotel. We said a "friend" was picking us up. That friend? Uber. 😂

[romesauce]

Current vacation status: watched the balloon drop last night. Pro tip: grab seats by the balcony at the schooner bar for a great view about 30 mins before the drop. That's what we did. While we didn't get to grab any balloons, we got a great view of the action. Today's UDP is playmaker's for lunch since it's football Sunday. Chops for dinner tonight. Husband is still sleeping. I'm going to get dressed and head down to grab a latte. Great vacation so far! 

 

 

[agentcorona]

How exciting! Definitely following 🙂

[bobmacliberty]

10 hours ago, Magster1987 said:

Or just take uber and have the name, licence plate and phonenumber right on your uber app 🙂

As well as the ability to say that you left an item in the car right from the app.

 

romesauce - looks like you are off to a great start.  Enjoy the rest of your cruise!

[GottaRequalify]

I’m on this cruise as well. 

 

Does anyone on the cruise know why they called for blood donors late last night? They asked for 5 O neg donors. Call came into the rooms. Looking at the cruise path, it looked like we got close to a port, maybe to drop someone off? 

 

Mix and Mingle was this morning at 9:30am, had about 30-40 people there. The Top Teir event was suppose to be at 10:30, but was postponed until tomorrow as it had rained this morning and all the aqua theatre seats were wet.

[romesauce]

1 hour ago, GottaRequalify said:

I’m on this cruise as well. 

 

Does anyone on the cruise know why they called for blood donors late last night? They asked for 5 O neg donors. Call came into the rooms. Looking at the cruise path, it looked like we got close to a port, maybe to drop someone off? 

 

Mix and Mingle was this morning at 9:30am, had about 30-40 people there. The Top Teir event was suppose to be at 10:30, but was postponed until tomorrow as it had rained this morning and all the aqua theatre seats were wet.

 We were stopped in Nassau to drop off the sick person from yesterday. This is the person that needed the blood. Not sure what was wrong but it had to be serious enough if they needed five guys to donate the blood. Abe did announce before the balloon drop that a lot of people volunteered right away and they received enough blood. Hopefully this person is okay. 

[romesauce]

One minor hiccup today. We were not told nor is it advertised anywhere that playmaker's is not part of UDP for lunch. We talked to the manager about a separate issue (we wanted to see if we could have audio for the football game we were watching) and just mentioned that we were charged for lunch even though we have UDP. He mentioned that this has been happening a lot and he graciously said he'll take off our charge and our meal was on the house. Very nice of him! Not sure why playmaker's is not included. I may ask guest services during the week when there's no line. 

[romesauce]

Food wise for playmakers: wings = delicious. Nachos with chili = didn't realize how much we'd get. Burger = a little dry but husband said it was good however he's had better. We're gonna go back for dessert sometime in the week. 

[Pat'sSeaHag]

Hi. I'm enjoying your review so far! Question....we will be on Symphony in March. (Can't wait!!) For the first time ever, we have purchased the UDP. Where did you go to make your reservations? Also, did you have any problem getting the nights and times you wanted for any of the restaurants? TIA

 

Enjoy the rest of your cruise!! 😎