Symphony w/ three kids and in laws - oh my!

[danadi18]

6 hours ago, driftersdream said:

Sounds like you are having so much fun!!!  Enjoying your review!!

Thank you!

[RCLcruiser2012]

Hi!  LOVE reading your review.  We had a great experience at kids club two years ago with plenty of activities BUT now you have me worried....  Taking an almost 5 year old to now an almost 8 year old will be different....  Did they not group with the ages?!?!  I personally liked them grouped by ages with appropriate activities... Thank you for your review.

Edited June 11, 2019 by RCLcruiser2012

[danadi18]

Day 3 (another Sea Day!)

 

Yes, I chose this itinerary because of the amount of Sea Days.  They always end up being my fave because I don't have to get up early and rush around to get off the boat.

 

Day 3 was a lazy one.  Well, as lazy as you can be with three little females running around you at all times.  Enter husband.  After some more avocado toast and mimosas at the Windjammer, Mama wanted to just lay down at the pool and read her book so daddy stepped in to take the girls to the different activities they wanted to do.   After about an hour or so of relaxing with our whole crew, the girls saw some kids who had their faces painting so of course they wanted theirs done too.  So on they went.  And on the way back they did a game of mini golf.  All the while I sipped some frosty mud slides and finally got to read my book and listen to some music.

When they came back, the hubby and I decided to try out the water slides since we didn't get to the day before.  Tip - get there when they open!  I think we got on line at 12 or so and we ended up waiting over a half hour to get on the racing slides.  The toilet bowl slide line (I know that's not the actual name but I can't remember it and well - it reminds me of a toilet bowl) was even longer and moved even slower since they only allow one person at a time, so we raced the first time around.  He won.  Always does.  Damn him.  For some reason, there is a higher demand for the blue slide than the yellow but I think they're both the same.

 

Today's lunch was El Loco Fresh.  Listen, I'm not a foodie by any means but I thought it was just "ok" as far as Mexican food goes.  I love Tijiana Flats, Moes, and Chipotle and would eat any of those first.  Yes it's a great concept but I thought it could have been tastier.  The girls loved making their own nachos with all the toppings and I really liked the guacamole.  I told you, I love all things avocado.  The MIL did not like it one bit and I believe my father and uncle compared it to Alpo dog food. Now, it wasn't that bad!  They're harder to please than me.

 

After lunch,  my daughter ran into a friend of hers from school randomly at the pool, so they all decided to play together and go down the slides.  They had a blast! Finally someone to play with that's not related to them!  Totally a win/win for us since the girls were extra entertained now.  

 

While they were occupied, the husband and I ventured into the Solarium for some adult time.  We hung out in the hot tub for a bit although I don't know why- it was blazing how outside.  But it was nice not to have and kids splashing in our faces 🙂 We had reservations for just the two of us at Wonderland that night so we decided to go back to the room, get cleaned up and feed the kids before they went into the kids club.

 

Before we fed them, I noticed a gorgeous sunset outside and bribed my children with candy from Sugar Beach to go to the back of the boat for some pictures.   This was actually the only sunset I remember seeing because we were always busy doing something else as the sun was setting each night. Here are some from the back of the boat that night.

 

Gasp!  An actual picture of me!  LOL.  I'm always the one taking the pictures so there are always very few with me in them.  The youngest was obviously over it by then, but 2 out of three look good AND I'm in it, so I'll take it...

And one of the sun right before it dipped under the horizon.

 

 

When we got the central park, they were playing the Lego Movie 2 at the Aqua Theater so we decided to feed the kids Jonny Rockets while they sat outside and watched the movie.  Oh yeah, they rode the carousel a few times too.

 

The MIL met us at the theater and she stayed with them while they feasted on Jonny Rockets.  Did I mention that the milkshakes come with the beverage package too?!  So as the children were supervised, we left them there to finish and we were off to Wonderland.

 

Well of course we had to have a cocktail at the Wonderland Bar first!  So we each got a different drink this time.  I think there are four specialty cocktails on the menu total so by now we've had them all.  Alice the hostess called our name and we were whisked away to our tables and asked to paint our menus with water to make them come to life.  So here's the thing about Wonderland.  Don't come here to eat like it's your last meal on Earth and want to stuff yourself until you have to be rolled out of the restaurant like Violet from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  Don't come here if you're a meat and potatoes kind of person only and don't like trying new things.  Come here for the experience.  And definitely come here for the DESSERT.  that melting ball of chocolate was by far my favorite dessert of the trip.  Maybe even of my life - and I've eaten a lot of desserts 😉 We tried a little bit of everything and I highly recommend the short rib.  So delish!  

 

After dinner, we went back to check on the girlies.  They were of course sleeping.  Snoring actually. So we went back out for a nightcap.  We watched little karaoke, watched some amazing Latin dancers at Boleros, had some late night pizza again and called it a night.

 

Tomorrow -St. Maarten!

[danadi18]

3 hours ago, RCLcruiser2012 said:

Hi!  LOVE reading your review.  We had a great experience at kids club two years ago with plenty of activities BUT now you have me worried....  Taking an almost 5 year old to now an almost 8 year old will be different....  Did they not group with the ages?!?!  I personally liked them grouped by ages with appropriate activities... Thank you for your review.

They do group with ages, but I wanted to make sure that my girls stayed together since the younger two are shy and wouldn't go in on their own.  I think during the say they do science activities in the lab, but my girls only went in at night. Hope this helps!

[jjjhill]

25 minutes ago, danadi18 said:

Day 3 (another Sea Day!)

 

Yes, I chose this itinerary because of the amount of Sea Days.  They always end up being my fave because I don't have to get up early and rush around to get off the boat.

 

Day 3 was a lazy one.  Well, as lazy as you can be with three little females running around you at all times.  Enter husband.  After some more avocado toast and mimosas at the Windjammer, Mama wanted to just lay down at the pool and read her book so daddy stepped in to take the girls to the different activities they wanted to do.   After about an hour or so of relaxing with our whole crew, the girls saw some kids who had their faces painting so of course they wanted theirs done too.  So on they went.  And on the way back they did a game of mini golf.  All the while I sipped some frosty mud slides and finally got to read my book and listen to some music.

When they came back, the hubby and I decided to try out the water slides since we didn't get to the day before.  Tip - get there when they open!  I think we got on line at 12 or so and we ended up waiting over a half hour to get on the racing slides.  The toilet bowl slide line (I know that's not the actual name but I can't remember it and well - it reminds me of a toilet bowl) was even longer and moved even slower since they only allow one person at a time, so we raced the first time around.  He won.  Always does.  Damn him.  For some reason, there is a higher demand for the blue slide than the yellow but I think they're both the same.

 

Today's lunch was El Loco Fresh.  Listen, I'm not a foodie by any means but I thought it was just "ok" as far as Mexican food goes.  I love Tijiana Flats, Moes, and Chipotle and would eat any of those first.  Yes it's a great concept but I thought it could have been tastier.  The girls loved making their own nachos with all the toppings and I really liked the guacamole.  I told you, I love all things avocado.  The MIL did not like it one bit and I believe my father and uncle compared it to Alpo dog food. Now, it wasn't that bad!  They're harder to please than me.

 

After lunch,  my daughter ran into a friend of hers from school randomly at the pool, so they all decided to play together and go down the slides.  They had a blast! Finally someone to play with that's not related to them!  Totally a win/win for us since the girls were extra entertained now.  

 

While they were occupied, the husband and I ventured into the Solarium for some adult time.  We hung out in the hot tub for a bit although I don't know why- it was blazing how outside.  But it was nice not to have and kids splashing in our faces 🙂 We had reservations for just the two of us at Wonderland that night so we decided to go back to the room, get cleaned up and feed the kids before they went into the kids club.

 

Before we fed them, I noticed a gorgeous sunset outside and bribed my children with candy from Sugar Beach to go to the back of the boat for some pictures.   This was actually the only sunset I remember seeing because we were always busy doing something else as the sun was setting each night. Here are some from the back of the boat that night.

 

Gasp!  An actual picture of me!  LOL.  I'm always the one taking the pictures so there are always very few with me in them.  The youngest was obviously over it by then, but 2 out of three look good AND I'm in it, so I'll take it...

And one of the sun right before it dipped under the horizon.

 

 

When we got the central park, they were playing the Lego Movie 2 at the Aqua Theater so we decided to feed the kids Jonny Rockets while they sat outside and watched the movie.  Oh yeah, they rode the carousel a few times too.

 

The MIL met us at the theater and she stayed with them while they feasted on Jonny Rockets.  Did I mention that the milkshakes come with the beverage package too?!  So as the children were supervised, we left them there to finish and we were off to Wonderland.

 

Well of course we had to have a cocktail at the Wonderland Bar first!  So we each got a different drink this time.  I think there are four specialty cocktails on the menu total so by now we've had them all.  Alice the hostess called our name and we were whisked away to our tables and asked to paint our menus with water to make them come to life.  So here's the thing about Wonderland.  Don't come here to eat like it's your last meal on Earth and want to stuff yourself until you have to be rolled out of the restaurant like Violet from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  Don't come here if you're a meat and potatoes kind of person only and don't like trying new things.  Come here for the experience.  And definitely come here for the DESSERT.  that melting ball of chocolate was by far my favorite dessert of the trip.  Maybe even of my life - and I've eaten a lot of desserts 😉 We tried a little bit of everything and I highly recommend the short rib.  So delish!  

 

After dinner, we went back to check on the girlies.  They were of course sleeping.  Snoring actually. So we went back out for a nightcap.  We watched little karaoke, watched some amazing Latin dancers at Boleros, had some late night pizza again and called it a night.

 

Tomorrow -St. Maarten!

 

Your photos are stunning. Deets on your gear?

[danadi18]

14 minutes ago, jjjhill said:

 

Your photos are stunning. Deets on your gear?

Thank you!  These were shot with a 35 1.4 on a canon 5D Mark iii.  

[Lorey2007]

Great review look forward to more.  You and your daughters are beautiful!

[molsonschooner]

6 hours ago, RCLcruiser2012 said:

Hi!  LOVE reading your review.  We had a great experience at kids club two years ago with plenty of activities BUT now you have me worried....  Taking an almost 5 year old to now an almost 8 year old will be different....  Did they not group with the ages?!?!  I personally liked them grouped by ages with appropriate activities... Thank you for your review.

We had our almost 5 year old granddaughter on Harmony a few months ago. She loved the kids club. She went twice each port day. 

[brillohead]

On 6/10/2019 at 11:15 AM, danadi18 said:

As the week went on, I heard rumors from several people around the boat that a kid in the kids club had hit his head on the show rack badly and needed stitches or something else of the sort.  Remember how I told you that I thought the kid-to-adult ratio wasn't right?!  Yep.  This may have been a result of that.  They need more counselors in there.

I wouldn't necessarily believe what you heard.  For starters, the medical facility on board is MORE than capable of stitching up a wound. 

Also, rumors spread like wildfire, with no regard to the truth.  When I was on Symphony a few months ago, someone was evacuated in Roatan for a broken leg.  The story I heard from more than one person was that he broke his leg on a rivet in the toilet bowl slide.  That just didn't make any sense to me -- there are no exposed rough edges in the slide... anyone who has ever been on any kind of slide knows that, it's part of the whole design concept that you're supposed to slide, so why would there be a random rivet sticking up to get caught on???

So I went to someone who should know the truth -- the lifeguard working the bottom of the toilet bowl slide.  Turns out that the guy was a larger individual, and he lost momentum going around the bowl part of the slide, and instead of just scooting over to drop into the hole like an intelligent person would, he STOOD UP inside the slide, slipped, fell, and broke his leg.  

So just remember, what you hear from the grapevine isn't always the truth. 

[Cafedumonde]

WOW.  Amazing sunset photos!

[bobmacliberty]

On 6/11/2019 at 6:57 PM, danadi18 said:

Thank you!  These were shot with a 35 1.4 on a canon 5D Mark iii.  

 

Did you bring a tripod or was the merry go round shot hand held?  Impressive.  Love the shot of your 3 girls standing at the railing looking at the sunset.

[danadi18]

1 hour ago, bobmacliberty said:

 

Did you bring a tripod or was the merry go round shot hand held?  Impressive.  Love the shot of your 3 girls standing at the railing looking at the sunset.

Thank you! Hand held at 1/30 SS. I’m a photographer so I’ve done this shot a few times before and can be reallllly still when I need to! 

[Tess2326]

On 6/10/2019 at 11:27 PM, blueridgemama said:

Of course Disney would win😊 Its Disney for goodness sake. The problem with Disney is that you can take about 2 RCI cruises for one of theirs. They are a tad expensive! Enjoying your review and pictures.

Yes, I loved Disney Cruise as 5 times nowadays it is too expensive since 2014 last we went for 14 nights.   I asked my two kids which one Disney or RC Freedom of the Seas.. they said both and they said RC was best swimming pool but they love both but Kids club was not good with my deaf daughter and they don't know what to do and hand her paper with pencil.  my daughter have an cochlear implant and she can speak she feel negative with them.  Disney was awesome with her.  Anyway, My husband and I are going on this cruise in Oct and I am reading your feed back and its helpful and I enjoyed read it 

 

what a beautiful photos too

Edited July 12, 2019 by Tess2326