My thoughts on Symphony of the Seas 1-29-2022 (and in general)

[NightOne]

I've been on some cruises and I've been on some newer ships on multiple lines. The January 29th, 2022 Symphony of the Seas cruise was my 3rd RCCL cruise and 1st on an Oasis class ship. My previous cruise RCCL was on Adventure of the Seas. I have Celiac Disease and must follow a gluten free diet so part of my experience on any cruise depends on the accommodations with the food.

 

We sailed from Miami (twice) on the same 7 day cruise and went to Roatan, Costa Maya, and Cozumel.

 

I'll be honest and say that I'm not loyal to Royal and haven't really been a fan. Although I did keep trying them from time to time I was never WOWed by anything on Royal Caribbean  ... UNTIL NOW.

 

Cut to the chase: Oasis Class was a game changer for me. I was finally WOWed by Royal. What follows are a few of my thoughts about Symphony of the Seas:

 

The Great:

 

Hiro - If there is a better show at see then I want to see it. I watched Hiro 3 times on this sailing and would still watch it again. Aquatheater is a game changer.

1977 and iSkate 2.0 ice shows - Love the ice shows

Food was excellent with only few exceptions

Deck 6 Cabin we had was awesome and in a great spot

Boardwalk: Love it

Casino was huge and well laid out

Sorrentos Gluten Free Pizza

Cafe Promenade

Park Cafe

Chops and Hooked

MDR and waitstaff (especially Head Waiter who took my GF pre-orders)

99% of crew was awesome

Accessibility in main theater

 

The Good:

 

I thought I would hate Central Park. I saw no point to it. I liked it once I got on board and experienced it.

Pools, Hot Tubs, and Solarium - I did not use them but visited the area several times to check it out and it was nice save a few times the cantilevered hot tubs were packed on a sea day

Playmakers and Jamie's Italian

Windjammer - Gluten Free Corner is small but at least they have one - they can also get you other food there

Cruise Director Dennis was better than the other RCCL CDs I had - Activities Manager was great

Dazzles

Gluten Free soft serve ice cream on Deck 15

Entertainment Overall - Comedians, etc.

 

Just OK:

 

Rising Tide bar seemed like one of those things that looked awesome on video but it was meh in person

No gluten free options at Boardwalk Dog

No Ben and Jerry's and no gluten free ice cream in Sugar Beach

Some of the activities staff didn't seem happy to be there. (mainly the aquatheater line people)

Schooner Bar seems underutilized on this ship

Don't see the ocean a lot except for your balcony and pool deck

The show "Flight" wasn't for me - I liked every other show

Logo Store on Promenade was too small and the Regalia stores were too big. General merchandise and sundries were scarce.

Solarium Bistro was only open 2 hours at a time on 3 days of the cruise - 6 total hours - Never got to see what was in there

 

The Bad:

 

We had 2938 guests and it felt a little crowded in some places at some times. If this ship had 2000-3000 more people on it I cannot possibly see how it would not be very crowded in places

Daytimes activities lacking if you don't go to the pool & outside decks

Even on Royal the day hours can be boring when looking for something like trivia, games, etc. - However, if you just want to relax during the day you might but this in the Good section 🙂

 

Overall I loved the cruise and would go on Symphony again. I would say 9 out of 10.

 

If anyone has any specific questions I will try my best to address.

 

I'm on Celebrity Edge next but have Allure in September and Harmony next January so definitely want more Oasis class experience. 🙂

[norm@nh]

Did anybody say why they aren't running the Hairspray production show? I've heard they won't have it on the 2/12 sailing either. If one of the cast had Covid, they should have recovered and been out of quarantine by now.

[brillohead]

7 hours ago, norm@nh said:

If one of the cast had Covid, they should have recovered and been out of quarantine by now.

It might be "rolling through" the entire cast and crew.  One person gets it and infects a few other people by the time Patient A gets diagnosed (especially since everyone is vaccinated and likely boostered, most cases are likely asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic and only detected from the weekly testing that is done for all employees).  

By the time Patient A gets diagnosed and isolated, Patients B, C, D, and E have been infected but not yet tested, and they already infected a few more people.  It would just kind of roll along like that for a couple weeks.

[NightOne]

15 hours ago, norm@nh said:

Did anybody say why they aren't running the Hairspray production show? I've heard they won't have it on the 2/12 sailing either. If one of the cast had Covid, they should have recovered and been out of quarantine by now.

 

It was not mentioned. Being the ship was out of service for 3 weeks it didn't make any sense to me either.

[hollon]

17 hours ago, NightOne said:

I've been on some cruises and I've been on some newer ships on multiple lines. The January 29th, 2022 Symphony of the Seas cruise was my 3rd RCCL cruise and 1st on an Oasis class ship. My previous cruise RCCL was on Adventure of the Seas. I have Celiac Disease and must follow a gluten free diet so part of my experience on any cruise depends on the accommodations with the food.

 

We sailed from Miami (twice) on the same 7 day cruise and went to Roatan, Costa Maya, and Cozumel.

 

I'll be honest and say that I'm not loyal to Royal and haven't really been a fan. Although I did keep trying them from time to time I was never WOWed by anything on Royal Caribbean  ... UNTIL NOW.

 

Cut to the chase: Oasis Class was a game changer for me. I was finally WOWed by Royal. What follows are a few of my thoughts about Symphony of the Seas:

 

The Great:

 

Hiro - If there is a better show at see then I want to see it. I watched Hiro 3 times on this sailing and would still watch it again. Aquatheater is a game changer.

1977 and iSkate 2.0 ice shows - Love the ice shows

Food was excellent with only few exceptions

Deck 6 Cabin we had was awesome and in a great spot

Boardwalk: Love it

Casino was huge and well laid out

Sorrentos Gluten Free Pizza

Cafe Promenade

Park Cafe

Chops and Hooked

MDR and waitstaff (especially Head Waiter who took my GF pre-orders)

99% of crew was awesome

Accessibility in main theater

 

The Good:

 

I thought I would hate Central Park. I saw no point to it. I liked it once I got on board and experienced it.

Pools, Hot Tubs, and Solarium - I did not use them but visited the area several times to check it out and it was nice save a few times the cantilevered hot tubs were packed on a sea day

Playmakers and Jamie's Italian

Windjammer - Gluten Free Corner is small but at least they have one - they can also get you other food there

Cruise Director Dennis was better than the other RCCL CDs I had - Activities Manager was great

Dazzles

Gluten Free soft serve ice cream on Deck 15

Entertainment Overall - Comedians, etc.

 

Just OK:

 

Rising Tide bar seemed like one of those things that looked awesome on video but it was meh in person

No gluten free options at Boardwalk Dog

No Ben and Jerry's and no gluten free ice cream in Sugar Beach

Some of the activities staff didn't seem happy to be there. (mainly the aquatheater line people)

Schooner Bar seems underutilized on this ship

Don't see the ocean a lot except for your balcony and pool deck

The show "Flight" wasn't for me - I liked every other show

Logo Store on Promenade was too small and the Regalia stores were too big. General merchandise and sundries were scarce.

Solarium Bistro was only open 2 hours at a time on 3 days of the cruise - 6 total hours - Never got to see what was in there

 

The Bad:

 

We had 2938 guests and it felt a little crowded in some places at some times. If this ship had 2000-3000 more people on it I cannot possibly see how it would not be very crowded in places

Daytimes activities lacking if you don't go to the pool & outside decks

Even on Royal the day hours can be boring when looking for something like trivia, games, etc. - However, if you just want to relax during the day you might but this in the Good section 🙂

 

Overall I loved the cruise and would go on Symphony again. I would say 9 out of 10.

 

If anyone has any specific questions I will try my best to address.

 

I'm on Celebrity Edge next but have Allure in September and Harmony next January so definitely want more Oasis class experience. 🙂

We love trivia, did they have trivia, finish that lyric, family fued, love & marriage, etc. 

[NightOne]

6 minutes ago, hollon said:

We love trivia, did they have trivia, finish that lyric, family fued, love & marriage, etc. 

 

They had some trivia. It was mostly in Dazzles but not as frequent as I normally see on most ships.

 

No Love & Marriage. I think they had the Family Feud. They also had one called The Perfect Couple.

[Manning18]

When were the dress your best nights?

[jerseyjjs]

I was on Symphony right after Thanksgiving and the buffet was closed for dinner.   Did they have it opened for dinner on your sailing?

[NightOne]

8 minutes ago, jerseyjjs said:

I was on Symphony right after Thanksgiving and the buffet was closed for dinner.   Did they have it opened for dinner on your sailing?

 

Yes, it was open for dinner. We went one night as it was Tex-Mex night.

[NightOne]

22 minutes ago, Manning18 said:

When were the dress your best nights?

 

Day 2 and 6 to the best of my recollection

[Lyndsayc]

If you went in the casino, did you happen to notice minimum bid at the craps table?

[jean87510]

Thx for the feedback.  I have food allergy issues so I have to be careful.  Glad to see as always, RCCL takes care of you.  I'll be on the 26th and like you, it will be my 1st time on Oasis class.  We have a boardwalk balcony just because it's something we never experienced.  Also our 1st time at Coco Cay!

[wolfcathorse]

was Capt Rick the captain?

[NightOne]

16 minutes ago, Lyndsayc said:

If you went in the casino, did you happen to notice minimum bid at the craps table?

 

I did not. I only played slots.

[NightOne]

1 minute ago, wolfcathorse said:

was Capt Rick the captain?

 

Yes, Captain Rick was the captain.

[NightOne]

7 minutes ago, jean87510 said:

Thx for the feedback.  I have food allergy issues so I have to be careful.  Glad to see as always, RCCL takes care of you.  I'll be on the 26th and like you, it will be my 1st time on Oasis class.  We have a boardwalk balcony just because it's something we never experienced.  Also our 1st time at Coco Cay!

 

Boardwalk was very cool. We even rode the carousel and played the poster games from the Royal app.

 

We looked up at those boardwalk balconies and only seen someone on one a couple of times. I think a lot of people got upgraded to ocean view balconies. I don't think we ever saw anyone on a Central Park balcony (and we looked).

 

This was our 3rd time to Cococay and the water was a bit cold on our trip but we seen plenty of people in the water.

[CruiseLoverFromNorCal]

Thanks for the review. I love the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream onboard RCL ships. I always get the  Phish Food flavor. What’s your favorite flavor?

[NightOne]

5 hours ago, CruiseLoverFromNorCal said:

Thanks for the review. I love the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream onboard RCL ships. I always get the  Phish Food flavor. What’s your favorite flavor?

 

Cherry Garcia ;)