Retired couple need advice, please - Symphony of the Seas

[RobInMN]

In my opinion, if you like cruising, you should do an Oasis class at least once. I also think, if you can afford it, you should do a Disney cruise once (even if you don't have kids with you).

 

As for size, sure there's something like 8800 people on board (including crew), but the ship is that much larger for people to spread out. I never had any problems finding a nice quite place out of the way when I wanted. Did a European river cruise with my parents (who can't even fathom the idea of a large cruise ship). I calculated that, including crew, there is more square footage per person of air conditioned space on an Oasis class ship (all from the ship facts sheet) than the river cruise ship. But there was no convincing my parents. 

 

[LB_NJ]

On 3/15/2021 at 7:03 PM, Brissle said:

Thanks everyone - what a great selection of replies.

This will all be a great help to us.       

We will certainly enjoy trying the "upmarket" restaurants and i have 

 

Someone asked what our previous cruise experience is - we started when I retired in 1999 with P&O (a British cruise line, now owned by Carnival), then switched to Princess, tried one Cunard cruise, and lately have been with Seabourn and Oceania.  We always try to find cruises with a maximum number of sea days and few ports - we just love life on board. 

 

I have been on the QM2, Princess, and Oceania along with Royal.

 

Personally, I would put Royal at the bottom of those four and Oceania and QM2 at the top.  For cruises with maximum sea days (eg, TA) I would probably give the slight edge to QM2 as there is more to do then Oceania.