Symphony 4/13 Live-ish review

[Lindanuf]

7 hours ago, Cel_cruise said:

 

Yes - I know we are on the same cruise - I am the one who asked you about this boarding experience in our roll call.

 

You are welcome to share experiences here as well about this cruise if you want!

 

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Thank you, I might share a few things too instead of a brand new thread. 

 

We have not attempted any of the special key times for stuff yet but are going to try the rock wall today from 4-5.  

 

 

[Lindanuf]

7 hours ago, Cel_cruise said:

Are you saying that they are not swiping your child’s seapass when they enter or exit AO?

My daughter is 8 (she would say almost 9!) but there are 6 other people on her pick up list besides me in our group. She would need her seapass when being picked up so unless the drop off and pick up person are the same - she won’t be able to get into our room to get a bathing suit or phone or change or to meet us in a show with reserved seating etc.

Right now she is using a lanyard like case that holds her phone and seapass together but she wouldn’t wear that in AO as I wouldn’t want the phone damaged. Regardless of there being work arounds - it’s mind boggling that you can use a WOW band EVERYWHERE on the ship except AO strictly because they don’t have a band reader!! That’s just being cheap.

 

We have needed our sea pass card to pick her up, not drop her off.   She can’t sign in our out by herself anyway so she has not even worn her band in.   It sounds like your 8 year old is way more mature than ours.   Ours is with 1 of us 24/7, she would never be walking back to the room alone, nor does she even change into her suit alone.  I could never trust her with a phone either. Ours is pretty immature for a first grader.

[Lindanuf]

My daughter loves Adventure Ocean so far and sugar beach, where the stuffed animals are all fat, and making drinks at the bionic arm.  She also loved the sexiest man contest and the belly flop contest.   I’m not sure what the appeal of those are to a 7 year old but she loves screaming and cheering on adult men doing silly things.  She also loves getting dressed up for formal night.

[Cel_cruise]

We have needed our sea pass card to pick her up, not drop her off.   She can’t sign in our out by herself anyway so she has not even worn her band in.   It sounds like your 8 year old is way more mature than ours.   Ours is with 1 of us 24/7, she would never be walking back to the room alone, nor does she even change into her suit alone.  I could never trust her with a phone either. Ours is pretty immature for a first grader.

Ha - My daughter is a 3rd grader and is 8 going on 15 for sure! In fact - when we leave the house with her and her ‘ responsible but makes bad choices when distracted by fortnite’ 12.5year old brother - we often leave her in charge! It’s a little crazy but she is super responsible - almost to a fault! Generally speaking - I’m pretty lucky to have her! But she is quickly transitioning to the ‘mom - I cant be seen with you’ tween!!!


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[Lindanuf]

Ours was adopted out of foster care last year with no experience with anything and no common sense.  When we got her she had not even been to a movie theater.   

[deedle7544]

42 minutes ago, Lindanuf said:

Ours was adopted out of foster care last year with no experience with anything and no common sense.  When we got her she had not even been to a movie theater.   

You're an amazing family, she is very blessed

[Glide_Path]

Enjoying your review.  Hope things only get better for you from this point on.  

[Cel_cruise]

Double post

[Cel_cruise]

You're an amazing family, she is very blessed

Ditto this! Foster and Adoptive families are heroes in my book! Wishing you all years of happy memories together!


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[knots4crewzing]

HI CEL_Cruiser

 

Following along!  We're on Symphony July 13Th. 

You had me laughing about Disney.  Were Disney freaks and will be doing Disney also before our cruise for the week before.  Not a fan of July HHH but well power through. 

In fact in 2 weeks we can make our FP+. 😁

 

Hoping to get FOP and Soaring Love gate B too LOL

So back to the cruise~~~ Do you have the show schedule that you might be able to post.  We're still waiting for the booking to open up🙃

 

I hope the Key is working out for you now.  Glad you nipped in the bud right at the start of the cruise.  Im sure it should smooth out.

 

Have a great time!!  Cant wait for more of your review

 

Liz💐

[Cel_cruise]

Today has been a fun relaxing day.

Started out with some work issues but thanks to VOOM - I was even able to call and talk to my customer this morning from my balcony while my kid was asleep (she sleeps like a teen too! I had to drag her out of bed at 9am today!).

Breakfast in the WJ, then Family Feud, then some pool time, toilet bowl slide, lunch at El Loco Fresh And Friends Trivia rounding out this afternoon so far..back outside for some sun.

We had great seats at the sports pool today but then there was ‘an incident’ - so we had 8 seats with a perfect view to watch them drain, scrub, clean, net the pool, and fill it again etc...

None of us really knows what they found in the pool but we can guess...it was shortly before the Belly Flop Contest which they moved to the main pool just before it started.

No photos from my El Loco Fresh lunch but the food was really good for what I was looking for! The Quesadilla was so fresh and cheesy! If I go back for Nachos - I will skip the cheese sauce though and stick with the pico, Guac and sour cream.

The Toilet Bowl slide...I’m still not sure what the optimal speed/angle is to get the full effect. There were a lot of folks who got ‘stuck’ in the toilet...and others who dumped out half way around...unsure what the intended swirl time is? It definitely puts you under water at the end though - so make sure you are prepared for that!

Tip for the day...if you are a fruity wine / sangria drinker...grab a cup of fruit from the WJ or El Loco Fresh And mix with the wine you brought on board for an added twist!


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[DISFANS3]

Good info, Thanks..

[Wrighty79]

Sugar Beach looks like it's worth a visit?

 

I'm on in May. What's the cost / selection like?

Edited April 16, 2019 by Wrighty79

[Cel_cruise]

Dinner....

So - earlier I vented about my dislike for early dinner...and today my traveling group decided they didn’t like it either. So we asked the dining team if there were any options. We absolutely LOVE our waitstaff - our waiter is Michael from Jamaica and he is funny, attentive, and personable - possibly the best we have had on a cruise.

In the end - we worked with our section head waiter (Lorena I believe?) who is also very attentive and personable - to see what we could do. MTD and Late Seating are full, but she said that we could arrive at 6pm instead of 5:30pm which we will happily take!

Tonight’s dinner had some highs and lows...
For Starters I tried the Seafood Voul-e-vent...mine had a shrimp tail/shell in it and too much salmon for my liking. So - I switched to the stand by Caesar salad which is always delish!
For the main - I had the Eggplant Parm - Folks - let me tell you - this was SOOO good! All 4 of my grandparents were born in Italy - you have to trust that I know eggplant parm - and this was just delish. The texture was excellent - the addition of the tomatoes and balsamic was great...I could have eaten it every night! My daughter had the lasagna from the adult menu - it had too much meat and not enough cheese / pasta layers for our tastes.
For Dessert...
I had the creme brûlée and others had the chocolate soufflés and standby brownie sundae ...but the winner in my book was the apple pie from the traditional menu!






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[Cel_cruise]

Trivia...

We went to the 2:45 ‘Friends’ trivia. It was pretty full! Our group includes some ‘friends’ addicts and this was pretty intense! There were 15 questions and 17 points available. What type of Monkey did Ross have? Do you remember? No cheating! Had we known this answer we would have made it to a lightening round tie breaker...we had 16/17, but 3 groups finished perfect! The lightening round was intense! Congrats to the winners and our near perfect scoring team for clearly spending too much time invested in that show!

Later we wanted to attend Music Trivia : Songs/Artists with Color. The compass said Schooner Bar but it was not there...eventually we found it in On Air just in the nick Of time! Didn’t win this one but had fun playing!


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[Cel_cruise]

The SOTS Key Update...(cross posted)..

After returning from dinner tonight - all 3 staterooms in our group had been gifted 2 bottles of Merlot from Adrian for our troubles with The Key. This is one of the things my traveling companion asked for (lots of red wine!) - and he certainly delivered in an attempt to make us feel better about the situation! And we will be feeling good with 6 bottles of wine to drink in the next 4 days!

Next up we had Hairspray at 9:30pm. We sent the first members of our group not doing trivia around 9:05 ‘just in case’. When they arrived - they found Katie had reserved us 8 seats in row 5 immediately behind the paid Insiders Tour Group. Thanks for delivering on this ‘feel better perk’ Katie! The view was great!






Overall - With the wine and the seats - I feel that we are being compensated well for our issues, but I’m not sure that either of these things will help make things better for those that join next week!



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[Cel_cruise]

Sugar Beach looks like it's worth a visit?
 
I'm on in May. What's the cost / selection like?

Good selection of sugary colorful candy and ice cream. We have not bought candy yet so maybe Linda has pricing on that!

I looked to see if I had a picture of the small ice cream that our group got - but it’s literally just one small round scoop for $3. (Med is $4.5 and large is $5.75). So cruise ship pricing in effect (same size cups as our fancy ice cream stands but much less ice cream in them!!).


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[Judyrem]

Wonderful info, please keep it coming!

[ZoeyVictoria]

21 minutes ago, Cel_cruise said:

 

Good selection of sugary colorful candy and ice cream. We have not bought candy yet so maybe Linda has pricing on that!

I looked to see if I had a picture of the small ice cream that our group got - but it’s literally just one small round scoop for $3. (Med is $4.5 and large is $5.75). So cruise ship pricing in effect (same size cups as our fancy ice cream stands but much less ice cream in them!!).


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I was surprised to find an 18% gratuity added to ice cream.

[blueridgemama]

Thanks for your updates on the Key and your cruise in general. Also thanks for including the MDR reviews and pictures as we are not doing any specialty dining on our cruise (except we will get Chops lunch with the Key and Jamie's lunch with our central park balcony)

[PopeyeDaSailor]

Wow, great LIVE review. 

 

I'm heading out on the same ship on May 11th with my two kids.  My daughter is almost 6 and my son will turn 12 during the cruise!

 

Can you two ladies please talk about signing them up for kids programs?  This will be our first cruise with kids (haven't been on a cruise since 2003) and I'm looking for any tips.  I know they will be in different age groups but I just want to know how/where/when we can sign them up. 

 

We plan on putting them in the program for days we are sailing and keeping them out when we're in port leaving the ship.

 

Oh and love the Disney thing but Grandmom/pop lives near there so my kids have been there so many times they have lost the spark (which is sad).

Edited April 16, 2019 by PopeyeDaSailor

[Cel_cruise]

Wow, great LIVE review. 
 
I'm heading out on the same ship on May 11th with my two kids.  My daughter is almost 6 and my son will turn 12 during the cruise!
 
Can you two ladies please talk about signing them up for kids programs?  This will be our first cruise with kids (haven't been on a cruise since 2003) and I'm looking for any tips.  I know they will be in different age groups but I just want to know how/where/when we can sign them up. 
 
We plan on putting them in the program for days we are sailing and keeping them out when we're in port leaving the ship.
 
Oh and love the Disney thing but Grandmom/pop lives near there so my kids have been there so many times they have lost the spark (which is sad).

On boarding day - head over to adventure ocean (14th floor
Forward Elevators) and sign up your 6 year old! You can start using AO Your 12 year old is part of the teen program. The most important thing for your 12yo will be to go to the meet and greet on the first night - I think it’s at 8:30. You want your kid to make friends to have someone to meet up with to do the teen programming. 12 year olds are really generally on their own though!

We work hard to keep Disney ‘fresh’ by trying something new or special each visit....and luckily Disney has made it easy for us to do that! New rides/attractions, a special dessert party or boat ride or meeting friends/family to add spice... so far it’s mostly working although we are lucky enough to go often enough that missing something (a broken ride, long lones etc) is not going to cause us too much heartache!

I’m waiting for the details on the full Star Wars land effort and 50 year birthday attractions to be more defined before we do too much more...trying to time out annual passes vs individual tickets and DVC point charts! I think we could end up with APs and make a few trips that year again.


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[PopeyeDaSailor]

18 minutes ago, Cel_cruise said:

 

On boarding day - head over to adventure ocean (14th floor
Forward Elevators) and sign up your 6 year old! You can start using AO Your 12 year old is part of the teen program. The most important thing for your 12yo will be to go to the meet and greet on the first night - I think it’s at 8:30. You want your kid to make friends to have someone to meet up with to do the teen programming. 12 year olds are really generally on their own though!

We work hard to keep Disney ‘fresh’ by trying something new or special each visit....and luckily Disney has made it easy for us to do that! New rides/attractions, a special dessert party or boat ride or meeting friends/family to add spice... so far it’s mostly working although we are lucky enough to go often enough that missing something (a broken ride, long lones etc) is not going to cause us too much heartache!

I’m waiting for the details on the full Star Wars land effort and 50 year birthday attractions to be more defined before we do too much more...trying to time out annual passes vs individual tickets and DVC point charts! I think we could end up with APs and make a few trips that year again.


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Thanks.  My son has been there like 12 times since he was 3.  It's tough to keep it fresh.  We have stayed at the Disney hotels to spice it up.  We're waiting for the Star Wars land to finish before going again.

[lilbunnygirl]

3 hours ago, PopeyeDaSailor said:

Wow, great LIVE review. 

 

I'm heading out on the same ship on May 11th with my two kids.  My daughter is almost 6 and my son will turn 12 during the cruise!

 

Can you two ladies please talk about signing them up for kids programs?  This will be our first cruise with kids (haven't been on a cruise since 2003) and I'm looking for any tips.  I know they will be in different age groups but I just want to know how/where/when we can sign them up. 

 

We plan on putting them in the program for days we are sailing and keeping them out when we're in port leaving the ship.

 

Oh and love the Disney thing but Grandmom/pop lives near there so my kids have been there so many times they have lost the spark (which is sad).

 

 

Hey, my kids were 7 & 10 on our last RCL cruise (their first) and Adventure Ocean was the best! They’re pretty shy and attached to us in new places, so I figured they would only want to be there a little bit at night so dad and I could have a break, but we almost never saw them! They wanted to go to AO every time it was open! The staff was incredible. 

 

Definitely go register as soon as they open up, and I’m not sure how far past their birthday your 12 year old is, so this may not apply to you, but when we sail next month my son will be only 4 weeks past his 12th birthday  and I’m not comfortable putting him in the teen program with older kids and minimal supervision, and RCL said I could register him for the 9-11 group as long as it’s not full. He doesn’t mind because he loved it so much last time & he’ll be with his 9 year old sister. So just an idea to think about, depending on how mature your 12 year old is 🙂

Edited April 16, 2019 by lilbunnygirl

[PopeyeDaSailor]

Thanks.  My son won't turn 12 until half way through our cruise and he's a bit immature (aren't all boys?) so we might sign him up with the 11 year olds.