Bittersweet Symphony - 3/9/19 Review

[ValerieJo]

So glad you finally made it home safely.  If I had known you were in Detroit, I could have come and picked you guys up and at least taken you to lunch or dinner or something!

 

I have to agree with you about Hooked.  It was not our favorite.  Kind of disappointing and overpriced.  

 

I also have to agree with your regarding Symphony as a whole. We liked it, but didn't love it.   We did Harmony the same exact week 2 years earlier and absolutely loved it.  It was why we booked Symphony.  Can't really put my finger on it, but we liked Harmony much better.  Seemed much less crowded and just sort of flowed better.

 

Hope we cruise together again in the future.

[CanadaCathi]

26 minutes ago, ValerieJo said:

I also have to agree with your regarding Symphony as a whole. We liked it, but didn't love it.   We did Harmony the same exact week 2 years earlier and absolutely loved it.  It was why we booked Symphony.  Can't really put my finger on it, but we liked Harmony much better.  Seemed much less crowded and just sort of flowed better.

 

Hope we cruise together again in the future.

 

Right? Jelly and I felt the same way. Like - we had a good time, everything was good - but nothing stood out for us as 'wow, we HAVE to do this ship again'. Which is ok!

 

And yes, I'd likewise love to see you on another sailing :-).

[CanadaCathi]

56 minutes ago, 2Long2NxtCrz said:

Thank you for such a wonderful, detailed review!  I really appreciated your humor and your ability to manage that horrible, awful flight home experience.  Airline service has degraded until it is positively abominable unless you pay a fortune for First Class or fly a bajillion miles with the same airline.  They just don't care about their customers.

 

Your daughter was a trooper, too.  I envy you that Thailand trip, but that's the kind of trip that will have to wait for us until DS finishes university (he starts in the fall) and I retire (since my company doesn't allow me to take off that many days consecutively).

 

I think that's what bothered me the most- the lack of care. The fact that at no time did anyone say, 'We're sorry and we're doing the best we can'. When we stood in that first 1.5 hour line up, no one came out from the counter to let us know what was going on; they didn't bring in extra people to help. American or Air Canada would've been rolling around drink and snack trolleys, and that small gesture would've made the world of difference. Oh, and I later found out that the poor family at the front of the line was trying to get to JAPAN - I saw them later and asked them what the heck was going on and why they took so long LOL. If you thought Jelly and I had troubles, you should have heard what they had to settle for; I think they ended up with 5-6 different hops and an arrival of Wednesday or Thursday. They were going to miss most of their trip, and a bunch of pre-paid scheduled tours, and I don't even know what else. 

 

Yes, Jelly is amazing. It's always funny when we fly and people are like, 'Awww, is this your first flight?' and she thinks for a minute and says, 'No, it's something like my 20th or 21st, I lost track'.  She's been flying since she was four months old, she's a great traveler. Part of what was so nerve-wracking as a mom was trying to hide my anxiety (and anger, and sadness, and stress, and...) to keep up a brave face for her, because she kept looking at me to see my reactions. And it could've been worse; at least we had smart phones and tablets and WiFi, so we weren't totally bored out of our minds. And we've been stuck on layovers before, so she knows that routine. But I'm lucky she's very go-with-the-flow. Because I AM NOT. I corner like the damn Titanic.

 

I'm super-excited about Thailand - Thai food is one of my favorite things to cook (Tom Kha Gai, Drunken Noodles, Larb, anything with sticky rice...). The tour I'm currently looking at includes a number of markets and cooking classes, that would be so epic! Thank you for the feedback!

Edited April 25, 2019 by CanadaCathi

[cruisequeen4ever]

Great blog; thank you for sharing, and I’m sorry it ended so miserably!

[Tess2326]

On 4/8/2019 at 6:46 PM, CanadaCathi said:

Ugh, I took too long to edit in all the pics and comments and stuff, so just pretend I didn't just lose all that. 

 

On 4/9/2019 at 9:06 PM, CanadaCathi said:

Day 5 – Cozumel

Temp – 81 degrees and windy, overcast

Excursion – El Cozumeleno Resort Beach Break

Money Spent - $40 taxis, $15 tips, $12 in-room movie rental, $80 excursion ($55 adult, $25 child)

 

We were a little late with de-embarkation this morning; it was closer to 7:50a than 7:30a. We took our time; Jelly had some leftover dessert for breakfast, and I grabbed Park Café (I was still a little woozy and not up to WJ). I had never been to PC for breakfast, and was surprised to find they had oatmeal, bagels, and almond croissants. No fresh juice, alas.

 

 

We left the ship around 8:30a to discover that the taxi queue was MUCH better than the last time we were in port; there was no wait at all. Hmmm, maybe because we got off the ship a little later? The last time we had to walk up the street a few blocks to a nearby hotel and catch a cab from those waiting there.

This was our third time visiting El Cozumeleno Resort, and I was unhappy to find a number of changes in store for us. First of all, the guy working the front desk gave me a really hard time about being there early (9a ship time, 8a local time), and made us wait an hour in the lobby before he would check us in and give us our armbands. I have never had an issue with this before. I had booked through Island Marketing, which I’ve used before and really like; it’s actually a little cheaper than booking directly through the resort, and much easier. Note that the hotel would only give me pesos for change, and the taxi driver wanted US dollar bills and hassled me a bit. Grr!

 

 

So, we sat and waited an hour, and by the time we got outside all the chairs had been taken. Luckily a nice guy from Pickering saw my Canada t-shirt and gave us one of theirs. Shade, yes!

 

 

The beach area had changed quite a bit in two years; the shore coral was almost entirely gone, either from weather or tourists. This meant there were nowhere near as many fish to see, or as many varieties. There were still some interesting critters hanging out around the lava rock (there was a little crab, and lots of spiny urchins).

 

The drinks weren’t as good this trip either; they’re using some sort of drink mix with a really artificial-tasting sweetener. Even Jelly noticed it in her kiddie cocktails. Our second breakfast was pretty good, but we got there at the tail end. First lunch was blah. Second lunch was good. Our server, Gabriela, was great. We were back in port around 3p, and I didn’t feel like fighting the crowds for tequila or vanilla, so we were back on the ship by 3:30p. All aboard was 5:30p.

 

 

 

 

 

We went back to the room and I promptly fell asleep. We went to the MDR at 6:30p instead of our 6p MTD reservation time and it was the only time we had to wait for a table, about 15 minutes. I started with the beet and orange salad, which had sounded good but was lacking dressing (a nice light poppy seed would’ve been perfect). We shared the coconut shrimp, which was delicious. Jelly had chicken fingers and I had the turkey dinner entrée and didn’t like it. There were two desserts that I could eat that sounded good – the banana bread pudding and pavlova. DELICIOUS. I remembered liking their little baby pavlovas on previous ships.

 

We had a reservation for ‘Flight’ but missed it; it was PJ night at the kid’s club, and Jelly was planning to go, but we both decided to stay in the room and rent ‘Crimes of Grindewald’ since we hadn’t seen it yet, and it was Jelly’s turn to be sunburned and sore. I heard later that ‘Hiro’ had to be rescheduled due to wind that night.

 

Edited July 11, 2019 by Tess2326
mistake

[Tess2326]

14 minutes ago, Tess2326 said:

 

 

Thank you for your feedback and photos looked excellent.

 

 

[stompy]

On 3/25/2019 at 6:20 PM, brillohead said:

Regarding eating local. 

Visited London (England) back in the early 1990s (yes, I am old).  Our group consisted of my parents, my older brother and his now-ex-wife and me and my now-ex-husband.  

They ate at -- I kid you not -- McDonald's and Pizza Hut. 

 

We broke off from them one night and went to a really nasty area of Soho (my then-husband was solicited several times on the sidewalk as we walked by together) and had the BEST Italian meal of my life.  Trust me, I'm fat and old, and I've had a lot of Italian food, and this food from almost 30 years ago still holds the title in my brain.  

That was the night the rest of my family went to Pizza Hut.

 

We live in Dallas and took a Transatlantic from Galveston to Southhampton.  One of the ports was Cork and I really wanted Irish Stew so we stopped into a pub for lunch and all they had was Texas Brisket and Budweiser...  I kid you not...

 

[stompy]

On 3/25/2019 at 6:36 PM, 3monkeys4me said:

 

I will admit that I do love to get McDonalds when we travel. Just once, and I always get something that is local to the area. This year we had the Teriyaki chicken sandwich in Japan and the Bulgogi burger in South Korea. But we save that for a day when we are hanging out at the train station waiting for a train or a day we had a big lunch and we are just want something quick before heading to bed. Or even at the end of a trip when we have been gone for 2-3 weeks and are ready for a bit of a change in menu, even if it is fast food.

 

But I can not imagine traveling anywhere and not trying good local food! Even my picky kids will try foods wherever we are. Sometimes they find something the love. Other time, they pick at the rice or noodles or bread and we hit up a fast food place, grab them something at the hotel or even stop at a convenience store.

 

I am glad you ditched them! 

 

I must admit I loved the Irish bacon on the Egg McMuffin in Southhampton

[GetToLivin]

One of the best reviews I've read, incredibly enjoyable and humorous, thank you SO much for sharing your adventure!