Symphony September 21 Review - Newbie & Experienced Cruiser

[jakeil7]

I never post reviews, but I thought I would do so this time as I had the unique opportunity to cruise with a total newbie.  So, I thought I would present this from both perspectives.  So, please welcome my fellow reviewer PAWeatherGirl who is helping me out with this review.  We did sail in a Sky level suite to give this review some context (Crown Loft suite).  Anyways, here we go:

 

Pre cruise

Sky level suites get a pair of concierges to handle their requests.  A little over a week before the trip, we were contacted by Jackie and Rahul inquiring what they could setup for us.  I grabbed two things: a cabana on Labadee and a three night specialty dining package.  The concierge made both reservations for me which meant no waiting in line to make them on ship which was nice.  We made dinner reservations for 7pm which in retrospect was a little early; I should have checked the sunset times (something we both enjoy watching) before making the reservations as 7 is right at sunset time.  Note I did not make Coastal Kitchen reservations before getting on board.

 

One thing to note:  I was trying to surprise PAWeatherGirl with the suite.  The concierge email went to both of us.  Oh well 😁 

 

Arrival and Check In

The new Terminal A is pretty (she didn't think much of it as she does not like modern architecture).  Traffic was a bear, but what can you do with that many people getting on at once.  We got on at about 11am and things were efficient.  Up the suite elevator, a quick photo with a tablet wielding staff member and we were directed to the gangway.  Once onboard, we headed directly to the suite lounge as we wanted to throw our bags somewhere.  This was a big surprise and something I did not read on CC.  Coastal Kitchen served sit down lunch starting at noon and had a substantial buffet prior to that.  However, the big surprise is that the concierge sat down with each group of guests and explained the benefits of Sky class and asked what they can do right there and then.  By the time we had our meeting and ate a sit down lunch, our cabin was ready.

 

Checked bags arrived just before sail away.

 

Cabin

Wow.  We both loved the space and airyness of the suite.  The two story window gave amazing views of the sea/port/wherever.  The balcony was also great - it held two loungers and a small table and still had plenty of space.  For those of you planning to fill the room up, there was the advantage of having two bathrooms in this suite one on the loft with a tub shower combo and one on the main floor with just a standard ship shower (although it was tiled).  We used the bathrooms as his and hers - the trip downstairs could be a pain but the stairway lighting was all that was needed to get there.  There were two TVs in the room, one downstairs and one that could be pulled down from the ceiling using the remote (NOTE:  use the up down arrows near the top of the upstairs remote to expose/hide the TV upstairs).  There was a lot of closet and dresser storage with hanging closets both on the loft level and near the door and downstairs bathroom.

 

Cabin service was provided by a two person team, Neil and Ghani.  These two were always in the hall at service time watching as suites were vacated and moving to provide service as soon as they could.  Both were excellent attendants and provided superior service as (I) expected.  PAWeatherGirl also got a whole bunch of towel animals which she loved (newbies 😁)

 

Our only complaint were the buttons.  7 days and we still were pressing buttons until we found the one that did what we wanted.  Labels please!

 

Concierges

I have been in suites before both on RCCL and X (where a butler was provided).  I have had good service in the past, but the service here provided by Jackie and Rahul was beyond anything I have ever had previously.  Maybe I was just using them more (especially given the ports which I will discuss in a bit), but the only thing they were unable to do was change a reservation for Wonderland to the second formal night (which was not a big surprise).  Otherwise, they always found a way.

 

As it is close to noon here at the airport, I am going to grab something to eat.  I'll provide the second part of the review later.  I'll also let PAWeatherGirl provide some of her photos as she is the picture taker.   😉

[jakeil7]

Food

And now for everyone’s favorite topic, the food!  I will split this up by restaurant.

 

Coastal Kitchen

 

The main suite restaurant was very good serving all three meals as sit down experiences.  Being in a Crown Loft Suite, we ate quite a bit here just because it was easy.  Breakfast and lunch used fixed menus which was both good and a disappointment – I was hoping for at least a lunch special but I could always go elsewhere so no big deal.  Got to have dishes were the Baja Eggs for breakfast (I loved the sauces) and the herb chicken for lunch.  That being said, other dishes such as the flatbreads and the sandwiches were very good.

 

Dinner in costal kitchen was good, but I would not say amazing (because PAWeatherGirl would hit me if I did 😁).  There were a couple exceptions:  the short rib appetizer with pan fried gnocchi and the filet mignon they served the first night.  YUMMY.  The biggest thing we liked about CK was the portion size – enough to fill us up, but reasonable sizes.

 

Which brings me to the service.  The servers themselves (and the bartenders and the hostess) were all great.  However, the entire place felt like it was understaffed.  On cruises, I am used to almost immediate service.  We had to wait to a point where we noticed.  Again, this was not the servers themselves – they were always pleasant and competent not to mention busy.  I just felt like they needed another waiter or two.  This is, sadly, a continuing thread throughout the food part of the review and may just be a factor of sailing on a megaship.

 

Solarium Bistro

We ate here one night for dinner.  Very happy with the venue.  It is like an upscale buffet with a limited selection of pre-portioned dishes, each of which were Mediterranean in nature, mostly Greek with a pasta-to-order station thrown in.  The dishes I had varied from good to very good.  The only complaints were that some of the food that should be consumed immediately (fired calamari, for example) were kept out a bit too long on the hot grills that were used to keep food hot and that the square serving plates did not fit well on the circular platters used for carrying your food back to the table.  Not a big deal if the plates were not rocket hot.  Also, I saw a couple turned away from the venue without reservations; when seated inside, there were plenty of empty tables.  Seems to be further indication that the restaurants were understaffed.  It was a beautiful venue appropriate for a special night if you didn’t want to pay for a specialty venue.

 

El Loco Fresh

 

How do you screw up TexMex basics?  Quesadillas, burritos, and tacos from a buffet with an associated toppings bar.  Its like a home taco night without the cleanup.  My only possible criticism is that the quesadillas were pretty soft so I would suggest sticking to the burritos, the nacho bar, and the custom tacos.  Also, on sea days, expect a crowd.  PAWeatherGirl also wants me to point out that the runny sour cream on the toppings bar was unappetizing – but keep in mind she eats sour cream by the barrel.

 

150 Central Park

 

The food here was very good if a touch less adventurous than what I was expecting.  Caesar salads, a sauced scallop dish, lamb wellington, and veal medallions were all tasty and the fried cheesecake dessert was something you have to try, even if you, like me, don’t like cheesecake.  However, this did not feel anywhere to the premium, get dressed up for a special night venue that I was expecting.  They did offer a couple of tableside dishes, but the Caesar salad preparation only consisted of “do you want anchovies in this?” and not the short show I was expecting.  For the main tableside dish, the waiter even tried to get us just to order the dish from the kitchen.  I think it was mostly because of staffing, but I was expecting more.

 

Jamie’s Italian

 

This was one venue I was a little worried about as even fellow cruisers complained about what they got.  However, in this venue we received the service I expected and the food was, to this point, the best we had on the ship.  They did seem to do a slight redo of the menu recently, but it was good.  Fried calamari for me and the Arancini balls for PAWeatherGirl and then we made a mistake.  We “allowed” the server to bring both a half serving of pasta and main dishes.  No desert was had as we had WAY to much to eat by the end of the meal.  Summary:

 

During the meal: 🤤

 

After the meal: 🐋

 

It might be noted that the complaints we heard about Jamie’s were from the lunch crowd, so maybe some fine tuning of that menu is required.

 

Wonderland

 

As good as advertised.  Adventurous and new tastes I had not had before.  Service was excellent with the waiter explaining everything as it was served.  I had the beef shortrib, which looked like a brownie (but was oohhh soooo good) and PAWeatherGirl had the halibut in a bag with the mushroom sauce; if you like mushrooms you need to try this.  I will leave out any further explanations – check out the various online videos if you want to see more.

 

Ports

 

 Its hurricane season!  Yay!  Of course, that means we were rerouted from our original St. Maarten -> San Juan -> Labadee trip.  The new itinerary was Labadee -> Cozumel -> Coco Cay. <Sigh Emoji>  So, here are my thoughts on each stop.

 

Labadee

 

I have always wanted to try and pickup a cabana here.  We ended up with H6 which is a very private hilltop cabana on Barefoot Beach (the suite area).  It came with floating mats and an attendant.  PAWeatherGirl will provide photos.  The attendant was around on a regular basis and even the concierge staff came by to see how things were going.  It was comfy any away from the chaos, although it was still as noisy as you would expect a beach to be.  Worth the price?  Probably not unless you had 6-8 people sharing it, but I really enjoyed the experience.

 

Overall, I really liked the island.  It had an adult feel to it without sacrificing attractions for the kids (roller coaster, water slide, and an inflatable water park).  It reminds me of summer camp when I was a kid in the Boy Scouts.  I thought the buffet food was just OK; PAWeatherGirl thought it was really good.

 

Cozumel

 

If you have ever cruised, you have been to Cozumel.  It is as touristy as tourist ports get.  We shopped a little here at the port but that was it.  Tulum was the only excursion I was interested in and as I had been there before and it was really hot and sticky outside, I wanted to stay away.  Tulum, for prior experience, is usually worse for heat.

 

Coco Cay

 

Ah…um…Coco Cay.  Royal’s other way to extract as much money from you as possible.  As much as I like Labadee for being a port where you get a slightly different, laid-back beach experience from the ship, Coco Cay seems to be an extension of the ship.  If Labadee is an designed park meant to look like it wasn’t engineered, Coco Cay is pure plastic.  This is hard for me to express properly.  Everything on Labadee is earth tones punctuated by a couple of bright structures that blend in.  Coco Cay is all bright colors meant to overwhelm the senses.  Keeping all that in mind, this seems like a great place for kids and they are really going to have a great time (spending your money) here.  For me though, I thought everything was too loud and not varied enough.  This may change as they continue building the place.  Also, at the moment, everything is FAR too expensive.  I loved the touch of the drum band playing as we left the port.  They were talented and enthusiastic.

[jakeil7]

Conclusions

 

The Symphony of the Seas is an amazing ship that can certainly entertain for a week regardless of your age.  But, you might want to have a look at the schedule.  Some ports are better than others.  Also, if you have ever considered springing for a suite, you should.  Im not saying the value is there, but it certainly makes for an amazing trip if you can swing it.  Of course, if you feel like dialing back on the costs, there are plenty of other options available - but that is another review that I do not have the experience to give.

 

Questions

 

Have you found service lacking because of number of staff on Royal's megaships?

 

If you have been able to use the concierge service, are they all equally good on this class of ship?

 

Is there anyone out there who actually likes Jamie's?

 

Am I wrong about Coco Cay?

 

Please let me know below. 

[Merion_Mom]

Never had a suite since Royal Caribbean started the "Royal Suite" program.

 

I like Jamie's.

 

I was very pleasantly surprised by CocoCay.  I didn't spend an extra penny and had a lovely day there.

 

[lovescats5]

We really like the suite program, especially Star Class.

We also like Jamie's.

CocoCay has a wonderful beach and we enjoyed it.  We will enjoy it again in November, without paying for the extras.  We will have an umbrella and chairs which is what my granddaughter wants, she has no desire to do the slides or any of that stuff. 

[brillohead]

On 9/29/2019 at 12:20 AM, Merion_Mom said:

I was very pleasantly surprised by CocoCay.  I didn't spend an extra penny and had a lovely day there.

Ditto what Carol said.  Was there twice last week (B2B on Mariner) and did the pool one day and the beach the other day.  Didn't go hungry or thirsty, plenty of loungers, plenty of umbrellas, never spent a dime.  Will be even less crowded (and it wasn't even crowded at all) after the South Beach area opens with the over-the-water cabanas and the beach club.

[mac_tlc]

We have found that Sky and Star Class are addictive, but we ask very little of the concierge—- mainly specialty restaurant reservations. 

 

We liked Jamie’s on Harmony . We had 6 of us, and our waiter brought us just about everything. 

 

We liked the changes to CoCoCay. Not being big beach/ocean people, we loved the Oasis Lagoon.

 

mac_tlc

[jakeil7]

10 hours ago, mac_tlc said:

We have found that Sky and Star Class are addictive, but we ask very little of the concierge—- mainly specialty restaurant reservations. 

I am actually the same way as you usually. However, this time they got more use from us. Not sure if that was the fact I was traveling with a newbie, the schedule change, the new to me ship, or the outgoing nature of this specific staff but I did seem to make a little more use of their services this time.

[mom2t&j]

On 9/28/2019 at 11:53 PM, jakeil7 said:

Conclusions

 

The Symphony of the Seas is an amazing ship that can certainly entertain for a week regardless of your age.  But, you might want to have a look at the schedule.  Some ports are better than others.  Also, if you have ever considered springing for a suite, you should.  Im not saying the value is there, but it certainly makes for an amazing trip if you can swing it.  Of course, if you feel like dialing back on the costs, there are plenty of other options available - but that is another review that I do not have the experience to give.

 

Questions

 

Have you found service lacking because of number of staff on Royal's megaships?

 

If you have been able to use the concierge service, are they all equally good on this class of ship?

 

Is there anyone out there who actually likes Jamie's?

 

Am I wrong about Coco Cay?

 

Please let me know below. 

Thank you for your review!  We were initially booked on this cruise, but had to reschedule to October.  We’re staying in a CLS for the first time and am curios which one you were in.  We’re in 1704.  How big was your balcony?  Was there room for 2 loungers or any other furniture on the balcony?  Thanks!

[jakeil7]

5 hours ago, mom2t&j said:

Thank you for your review!  We were initially booked on this cruise, but had to reschedule to October.  We’re staying in a CLS for the first time and am curios which one you were in.  We’re in 1704.  How big was your balcony?  Was there room for 2 loungers or any other furniture on the balcony?  Thanks!

 

1716 which is an oceanview in in middle of the deck.  There was plenty of room for two loungers and a small table with plenty to spare.  Theses balconies are pretty deep although this suite may have had a slightly bigger one. 
 

This might help a little although it isn’t a great overview. 
 

 

Edited October 5, 2019 by jakeil7

[mom2t&j]

22 hours ago, jakeil7 said:

 

1716 which is an oceanview in in middle of the deck.  There was plenty of room for two loungers and a small table with plenty to spare.  Theses balconies are pretty deep although this suite may have had a slightly bigger one. 
 

This might help a little although it isn’t a great overview. 
 

 

Great, thank you!

[PAWeatherGirl]

I apologize for not posting any photos before now...I have had a crazy week since returning from our trip 😩. But without further ado, here are a variety of photos that will hopefully help convey our experience.

 

In order from top to bottom:

-The Suite Lounge

-View from Suite Lounge

-View from CLS 1716 (pic taken from loft)

-Plenty of room on the balcony for two loungers and a small table.

[PAWeatherGirl]

-Some plates from my dinners at Coastal Kitchen: Smoked salmon appetizer, salmon sashimi, easily one of the best beef tenderloins I’ve had, and chocolate bar with raspberries. Next up: Wonderland.

[PAWeatherGirl]

(Duplicate post, couldn’t delete)

Edited October 6, 2019 by PAWeatherGirl
Duplicate post

[PAWeatherGirl]

-From Wonderland: Smoked eggs in a nest appetizer (so unique and delicious, and requires a movie clip!), halibut and mushroom sauce in a bag (so much umami going on!), and “Chocolate World” dessert (I’ll withhold my somewhat risqué description of its deliciousness, but it suffices to say it was gooood 😝).

 

It’s late and time for bed, but I’ll make another post with some photos from our ports tomorrow.

[Ron Don]

On 9/28/2019 at 10:53 PM, jakeil7 said:

Have you found service lacking because of number of staff on Royal's megaships?

 

If you have been able to use the concierge service, are they all equally good on this class of ship?

 

Is there anyone out there who actually likes Jamie's?

 

Am I wrong about Coco Cay?

 

Please let me know below. 

We are like you in many ways, found the lack of service just a few staff members short of what was really needed both in the bar staff, restaurant staff, and pool staff.

We were not in a Sky Level suite but in a Star Level suite so cannot answer to the concierge service.

We did not like Jamie's at all, actually left before dessert.  Really liked the Solarium Bistro, 150 Central Park, but thought Wonderland was a bit "over the top". 

I believe you are "right on" about Coco Cay, however we did enjoy our time there.  We grabbed some lounge chairs around the Chill Island Pool (we were with 3 other couples) and spent the day there.  Since we had bought a drink package, our expense for the day on the island, other than a few dollars for tips.....$0.  We were also on Labadee in February and booked a cabana, had a fabulous day there, spent a few more bucks but it was a very relaxing day, more "island like".  We were in a Grand Suite at that time and had a concierge so was able to take advantage of that service but the ship was one of the smaller ones, so no comparison to the Symphony.