18 months in the making! Symphony of the Seas 7 Night Eastern Caribbean Review!

[danp2482]

1 hour ago, 37645 said:

 

That frozen drink looks delicious. What was it? Thanks

 

To be honest. A lot of the drinks roman made for us were off menu. This one was Pina colada mix, run, midori and blue curacao

[danp2482]

Day 6 continued:

 

Vintages is a really great venue for relaxing with a great wine and small plate.  I’ve been on 3 ships with a vintages but this is the first time I took advantage of it. We finished up at Vintages and headed back to the room to get ready for dinner. It was second formal night.

 

Dinner in the MDR was very chaotic this night. Night 6 was lobster night, the staff in the dining room said this is the busiest night of the cruise for them.  It looked like everyone chose to dine at the same time we did as well!  After the snafu with requesting the same server the night before we didn’t attempt it again.  We were moved to a different section and our new servers name was Alina. Unfortunately due to how busy it was, it was difficult to form any type of relationship with our servers this night.  I couldn’t blame them either, they were swamped. I will say that Alina seemed to have a few big tables that absolutely adored her. She was pleasant to us as well just busy!

 

I started with the vidalia onion tart and a Caesar salad. Both were good! Nichole started with a caprese salad which she thought was ok.  We both had lobster tails with butter.  Being from the northeast we’re spoiled when it comes to lobster but these were all very good. Not too chewy and decent sized.

 

 

Nichole finished with molten chocolate cake and I had baked Alaska both were excellent.

 

We finished up dinner and headed to the royal theatre for flight.  We have a friend that is a travel agent and she is fortunate enough to get onto all of the new ships during media events. She saw flight and said it was one of the best shows at sea so we were excited to see it.

 

 

Flight did not disappoint! I thought it was a very good production! It had a great theme, great cast and the technology was first class.  The only thing lacking was constant characters to connect with.

 

 

When we got out of flight, we headed over to cafe promenade to grab a cappuccino.  We noticed that guest services was a zoo! I was standing in front of GS in a suit so maybe this lady thought I worked on the ship but she came up to me and very aggressively said, “no water, no tv”.  I was very confused and like um…ok. She stomped away and got into the GS line.  People were very upset! I guess I understood the water issue but people were really mad about the TV! I thought we’re on the biggest and newest cruise liner in the Caribbean, TV? Really?  I guess the water issue was due to a broken pipe that they were repairing but the water for multiple floors need to be turned off.

 

 

Edited May 11, 2019 by danp2482

[danp2482]

Day 6 continued:

 

We headed up to Schooner to grab a few drinks before quest.  Gilbert was there and took care of us as always.  Even the staff seemed pumped about quest. There must be great stories that come out of the show. They were all asking everyone if they were going.  For those that don’t know, quest is a team scavenger hunt held in studio B. Instead of going out to find things, you have to produce them to the host. It is an adult show and things can get pretty suggestive and crazy but its hilarious show and something to not miss.  This show didn’t disappoint and the teams all played hard. Tons of laughs and I even participated a little but swore that I wasn’t taking my pants off like on the Allure!

 

We finished up quest and headed right next door to the attic for the silent party. As I mentioned earlier, we were excited about this and really wanted to check it out. After missing it on day 2, we made it a point to get to it on day 6. It was really cool and a great concept. Guests wear noise canceling headphones and 2 DJs play on 2 separate channels. Guests can choose which DJ to listen to and switch back and forth if they don’t like what they’re hearing.

 

 

 

The music can not be heard except through the headphones.  This is another event that can be made or broken by the music and the DJ.  Unfortunately for us, it was the same DJs that we’d seen at every other party. This was one of the points where I started wondering how these DJs got the gigs. The same hard mixes and lack of flow with the programing killed it for us but everyone was having fun.  As I said the concept is great and we’ll try it out again next time!

 

It was slammed in the attic and very hot. We hung out for awhile cause the headphone thing was cool but since we were both still in our formal attire, we were both really warm.  We headed back to the room and found another friend just hanging out!

 

[RG306]

7 hours ago, danp2482 said:

Oh! Here is the compass for Day 4!

 

Thank you!  

 

Is it just me or does it seem that most entertainment is scheduled for 8pm onwards?  What time have you been making dinner reservations?  I don't want to miss out on any of the shows!

[danp2482]

35 minutes ago, RG306 said:

Thank you!  

 

Is it just me or does it seem that most entertainment is scheduled for 8pm onwards?  What time have you been making dinner reservations?  I don't want to miss out on any of the shows!

Thats exactly what I said in some of my review. The entertainment was later on this ship then others. We ate dinner around 7 each night and it didn't interfere with much.

[danp2482]

Day 7:

 

Nassau

 

 

 

 

 

We ported in Nassau and I’m pretty sure the times changed from when we first booked the cruise.  The port times were now listed 10-3:30. I am pretty sure it was 7-4 before!

 

Since we’d been to Nassau a few times, the port day was short and any ship is awesome when everyone else gets off, we decided to stay on the ship.

 

We woke up a little later, caught a workout and saw Levy at the juice bar for the last time. We headed back to the room real quick to change and we finished packing, except for what we’d need for the day of course. We pack as we wear and go that way its not a rush at the end and we get to enjoy the last day.

 

Then we headed down to the promenade for coffee. It was almost 10:30 now so we headed to WJ to catch a late breakfast. We would have gone to solarium bistro but it closed at 10:30 and we didn’t want to be those people.  The ship was dead! Everyone must have gotten off. The promenade was empty, WJ was quiet and there were prime seats at any pool.

 

We finished up breakfast and headed back to the sports deck where the flow riders were.  This is also where the ultimate abyss is.

 

 

The sports staff had a flow rider going and I am not sure if they were training or just had some private time on it but we sat back and watched them do tons of tricks. We hung out there for a bit and then headed to the solarium for our last day at the pool.

 

We got to the solarium around 11:30 and it was almost empty. There was no one in the pool at all and like 2 people at the bar. I guess everyone really did get off!

 

We didn’t do too much this day. Alternated between chairs, pool and bar. Rinse and repeat. Drinks and more drinks! Our friends did the blue lagoon excursion which we had done before and they like it. They just said they wished they had more time.  We had a few more drinks with them and then headed back to the room to get ready for our final dinner.

 

Dinner our final night was in MDR. We had the same server as the night before but it was by chance as we didn’t request her one way or the other.  The MDR was way less chaotic but still very busy with a few large parties. Our waitress was nice but occupied by the larger parties.

 

We both had pork tacos for an appetizer which were awesome. They did had a bit of spice to them. I also had a Caesar salad. Nichole had chicken cordon bleu and I had steak Diane which I’m told is the same as the NY strip but it has sauce.

 

When Nichole took the first few bites, there was a piece of hard plastic in her food. Luckily she didn’t swallow it. The waitress and manager were nearby and witnessed it. They were very apologetic and dealt with the issue quickly.

 

Dinner was great after they replaced Nicholes meal and we finished with the doughnuts and tres leches cake. The cake was really good and the doughnuts were just ok.  We finished dinner but our waitress was too busy to say goodbye.

 

We headed to wonderland for Nichole to get an espresso martini. Wonderland is one of the only places to get an espresso martini on the ship and even then nobody knew about it. We just knew from word of mouth. Surprisingly, the bar was very busy! I forget what I ordered but both martinis were very good.  We finished up and headed down to studio B for 1977. We wanted to make sure we got there early to avoid a repeat of a few nights ago.

 

We got to studio B and checked in. A much different experience this time! In fact there were tons of seats at the 10:15 show and even after the show began, there were seats available.

 

1977 was good but at times felt slow even with the amazing skaters. The technology used was awesome! I won’t spoil it for those sailing on Symphony soon!

 

 

I wanted a quick picture of the cool sculpture in the solarium all lit up at night so we headed up there real quick! So cool!

 

 

Then we headed to rising tide to meet up with our friends for a few last drinks.  There were other couples that we had been friendly with as well and we actually all met on the rising tide.  We had a drink and then headed to Dazzles for the final party!

 

 

 

The party was ok. People still having fun despite the fact that we’d be heading back to reality in the morning. The DJ was good for a brief time but then took a turn for the worse. Everyone in the group decided to call it a night. We exchanged contact info and said goodbye to our new friends. We headed back to the room to find…no friends. The luggage tags they left us earlier were still there but we planned to do express walk off.  We turned in for the night. Our great times were over and we had a busy travel day tomorrow.

[danp2482]

Day 8:

 

Debarkation

 

We had our alarms set for 6:45 so we could get up, get cleaned up and grab breakfast before heading off the ship.

 

One thing I love about RCI is that they give you breakfast on debarkation day.  I think most lines do but its very limited choices. Kind of like, here you’ve been treated like a king all week but now its over so have some breakfast and get out.  It doesn’t feel that way on RCI. The WJ is the same buffet whether it’s day 2 or the day you leave. In SOTS case, the park cafe was also open and serving exactly what they had been serving all week!

 

We headed to park cafe for a quick bite which was good as always. By 8am we were exiting. We were off the ship and past customs in 15 mins.

 

Thanks for following along! Next post I’ll summarize with final thoughts. Also if there was a question that you may have and I didn’t cover it, please feel free to ask! I may have the answer.

[perfect match]

Thanks for a great review! I kept looking for us in your pictures, but no luck. We had a great week on Symphony, and I enjoyed the chance to re-live those memories. 😀

[RickinStl]

On 5/7/2019 at 8:09 PM, danp2482 said:

One thing we noted was that we didn’t love the piano player in schooner this cruise. Our other Royal cruises have always had a great piano man. The piano man wasn’t bad or not skilled, he just didn’t seem to have the same flair as all the others.  Didn’t keep us from going there or anything.

 

Derek Conlon was on Explorer in 2016, Had to be the best piano player I've ever seen..  Perfect mix of guest interaction and tunes everyone knew 

 

[Rundisney9613]

On 5/7/2019 at 10:50 PM, Beav1279 said:

I'm enjoying your review. Thanks for sharing! Also, my name is Nichole, too - with an H! I assume your wife has spent her life spelling her first name, just as I have. I very rarely run into people with the same spelling.

 I have spent my entire life spelling my name constantly! It used to drive me crazy when people spelled my name wrong but I guess I got over that! 😂

 

[Beav1279]

35 minutes ago, Rundisney9613 said:

 I have spent my entire life spelling my name constantly! It used to drive me crazy when people spelled my name wrong but I guess I got over that! 😂

 

My mom loves to tell the story of my 1st day of Kindergarten. The teacher had put a "Nicole" sticker on my desk and I refused to sit down until she changed it... now I don't care much, unless it's a family member!

[tcmagnum]

On ‎5‎/‎11‎/‎2019 at 4:36 PM, danp2482 said:

 

To be honest. A lot of the drinks roman made for us were off menu. This one was Pina colada mix, run, midori and blue curacao

 

That's a sign of a great bartender...Drinks made off menu that tasted good!!!
 

[tcmagnum]

On ‎5‎/‎11‎/‎2019 at 5:36 PM, danp2482 said:

Day 6 continued:

 

We finished up quest and headed right next door to the attic for the silent party. As I mentioned earlier, we were excited about this and really wanted to check it out. After missing it on day 2, we made it a point to get to it on day 6. It was really cool and a great concept. Guests wear noise canceling headphones and 2 DJs play on 2 separate channels. Guests can choose which DJ to listen to and switch back and forth if they don’t like what they’re hearing.

 

The music can not be heard except through the headphones.  This is another event that can be made or broken by the music and the DJ.  Unfortunately for us, it was the same DJs that we’d seen at every other party. This was one of the points where I started wondering how these DJs got the gigs. The same hard mixes and lack of flow with the programing killed it for us but everyone was having fun.  As I said the concept is great and we’ll try it out again next time!

 

 

 

Sorry to hear about the disappointment with the DJ's.

 

Last time I was on Celebrity we did the 'Silent Party' and LOVED it.  The was only 1 DJ but he did three types of music. 80's music on one channel, Oldies on one channel, and then music from 90's to now.  He would flip back and forth between the 3 channels and talk/joke.  He had everyone going.  Party was so popular, they ran out of head phones the first night.  The second night they had the party they brought extra headphones out and had to move the party to the pool deck - previous space was way too small.  

 

You have to try the Silent Party again if you can.  It really is a blast...

[FLACRUISER99]

On 5/6/2019 at 8:33 PM, danp2482 said:

Day 2:

 

Sea Day!!

 

Before I begin day 2, I forgot to mention something about SOS and sea passes. On previous crusies, we’ve always headed down to guest services and had a hole punched in our sea passes. We then attached the card to a wristlet that way we had a way to carry it other than our pocket or a lanyard which we’re not fans of. When we went to GS, the told us they no longer punch cards. On SOS the Sea Pass is an RFID card which will open the tap lock on your door. (no more sliding the card in) In fact, there are no magnetic stripes or barcodes on the car either. When you charge something, the crew member will tap the care to an RFID scanner (think magic bands if you’ve ever been to Disney) The reason GS gave was that the hole punch would mess up the RFID but I sure the whole card is not one big chip. Nichole’s working theory was that they’re trying to push you to buy a WOW band.  We did see a work around though, one couple had their cards in a plastic sleeve that would attach to a lanyard and then attached it to a wristlet instead. Since everything was tap activated, they didn’t have to take the card out to use it and it worked great.

 

On OV the cards were pre punched.

[karen_g]

Thanks so much for posting this review; I have enjoyed following along! I will be on Symphony next January with a very similar itinerary (CocoCay instead of Nassau), so it was fun to get a "sneak peak" of what to expect.

 

*If* you happened to save it, would you please post the Schedule of all the evening shows for the week?  It's usually on a 1-page insert with the Daily Compass on day 1, I think.

 

Thanks again!