Review of my FIRST cruise ever on Symphony of the Seas--I am converted!

[Blur]

More importantly did everyone you go with try that fatty pork belly?  😉

[baelor]

1 minute ago, Blur said:

More importantly did everyone you go with try that fatty pork belly?  😉

Patience, my friend...

[brillohead]

1 hour ago, CoolChange37 said:

Did you happen to take pics of the Dailies?   We are trying to plan our show times and specialty restaurants so when we get on board we can "get 'er done!"  Love reading your reviews!   

The show times and days aren't necessarily consistent from one week to the next, so seeing the schedule for last week won't necessarily help you plan for your cruise.

[brillohead]

23 hours ago, baelor said:

I got off Symphony of the Seas yesterday a new man--one who is definitely going to add cruising to my vacation/travel rotation. 

Now you finally understand why so many of us act like rabid dogs when it comes to cruising... it really is an amazing way to spend a vacation!!!!

[baelor]

Day 3

 

Breakfast--El Loco Fresh

We liked El Loco Fresh for breakfast.  I probably liked it the most, because I love Mexican food, do not eat much, and do not need a huge selection.  My breakfast burrito tasted excellent and was very well-crisped on the outside.  Again, the condiment bar really pushed the food from good to great.

 

Morning--Solarium

For today and most of the cruise when we were just relaxing, the Solarium was our base of operations.  We tried to find some seats in the shade.  We found some under a metal screen on the lower level, but the sun moved outside the protection of the screen at about noon and beat down on the chairs for several hours.  This ultimately led us to take shaded chairs near the Spa pools and then just go into the Solarium.  It was a mix of reading/lounging on the chairs, chilling/reading in the main Solarium pool, and chilling/reading in the hot tubs.  

 

Bar service was prompt and excellent.  The servers regularly solicited orders from those in the pool and in loungers, which was really nice.

 

I tried several drinks invented by the staff; each was excellent.  One was called the Juice Pussycat, which tasted like a Jolly Rancher.  The second was a Punani, which was like a mango frozen drink with floaters of Blue Curacao and a couple of other things.

 

Needless to say, I did NOT come up with those names.

 

Lunch--Windjammer

We though the Windjammer lunch was okay but preferred some other venues.  I had Indian food, including the lamb curry, rice, papadam, and dal.  All were good; the curry flavor on the dal was the most vibrant.  The lamb curry was good, but the curry spicing was a bit blander than I would have liked (like watered down in flavor if not consistency).  I also had the raita, which tasted fine but was a bit gelatinous in consistency--it was definitely not normal dahi/yogurt raita.

 

Afternoon--Solarium and more

We spent the afternoon relaxing, although people split up at various points (e.g., water slides, Ultimate Abyss, trivia).  

 

Three of our group preferred the water slides to the Ultimate Abyss; one liked the Ultimate Abyss better.  The latter seemed to have drastically different wait times based on the diligence of the supervising staff in bringing used matts up from the Promenade, which was perhaps understandable but a little annoying when we would consider using the slide as an actual means of transportation.

 

I went to Star Wars trivia at Dazzles in the afternoon as well.  It was fun and low-key, and the questions were actually good Star Wars trivia questions that touched on reasonable (rather than totally esoteric) subjects. 

 

We got there around 7 minutes late and the questions were over half over, so we had to team up with someone.  We teamed up with a middle-aged dude sitting alone next to us, since he had heard the questions that had come before.  We ended up realizing that he was super drunk and barely lucid, and his handwriting was quite literally scribbles lol.  I ended up transcribing his answers eventually, but it ran into the correct-the-neighboring-group's-answers time, so we were just playing for fun.  

 

I think the prize was a pen or something similarly...token.

 

Dinner--150 Central Park

We loved 150CP.  It was undoubtedly the best restaurant on the ship if you wanted a fine dining experience with very well-prepared food with solid ingredients/combinations.  Our server, Steven, was extremely diligent and attentive, walking us through his recommendations and keeping everything filled.  We had cocktails (cucumber martinis), wine, and port (ruby).  He put both the wine and port bottles on our table after pouring our glasses for us to enjoy at our pleasure.  And our cocktails were barely empty before he, without any prompting or solicitation, came to refill them using a batch he had just made for us, which we were not expecting lol.

 

The ambiance was quiet and intimate.

 

Food and drink:

• Bread--a garlic and cheese-topped pull-away bread.  It was the best bread we had on ship and some of the best dinner bread I have had in some time.  Very soft but full of garlic and cheese flavor.
• Pork Belly--delicious.  It was extremely crispy on top--probably the crispiest pork belly I have had--which I especially enjoyed.  Pork belly is often too fatty and heavy for me, but this pork belly was well-balance in thickness between fat and meat.  It was accompanied by parsnip puree (predictably good) and an apple-watermelon-radish slaw that added some bright acidity to the dish.  Fantastic.
• Short rib--braised, served with mascarpone polenta, roasted heirloom carrots, crispy onion, and the short rib's jus.  Exquisitely tender, and the roasted carrots were also great, with a bit of caramelization.  My friend ate all the polenta, so I cannot comment on that.
• Scallops--served with a corn salad of sorts.  Very good scallops with a traditional accompaniment.  Very tasty but probably the most standard and shallowest of the appetizers in terms of flavor profile.  But I always love scallops, so I enjoyed the dish.
• Chateaubriand--labeled Roasted Beef Tenderloin of Beef on the menu.  Served with truffle potato puree, roasted vegetables, a clove of black garlic, and both bearnaise and Bordelaise sauce.  The beef was cooked as we requested (medium rare) and absolutely juicy, tender, and delicious.  Truly a great steak.  The Bearnaise was solid, which was good enough for me, but not particularly unique (again, probably a plus unless you want every item on the plate to be unusual).  I actually preferred the bordelaise that evening just because I had not had it in a dish as recently.  The sides were quality, but pretty standard in taste/preparation (again, a plus for me since I did not need anything especially unusual that evening).
• Lamb Wellington--prepared pretty traditionally.  Good, with pasty that retained its flakiness over time.  But nothing really stood out, either.
• Lobster Thermidor--Good but a bit too heavy for me, which is why I had only a taste of my friend's.  I think he was a bit disappointed by the fact that there were more mushrooms than lobster meat in his serving, but he consoled himself with some of the Chateaubriand.
• Fried cheesecake--served as fried cheesecake balls with Nutella, whipped cream, and caramelized popcorn.  I am not a big cheesecake fan, so I had a bit, but I imagine cheesecake fans would love it.  My friend did.
• Peanut butter chocolate tart--served with walnuts and blackcurrant sorbet.  If you like peanut butter and chocolate, you will like this.  The sorbet provided nice temperature/texture contrast and provide a PB&J quality to the dish.  
• Cucumber martini--nothing to complain about.  I love martinis, and I love cucumber with either vodka or gin.  Quite refreshing.

 

In the future, if I have a dining package of any kind, 150CP will be one of the stops.

 

Hiro--AquaTheater

We went to Hiro as our evening entertainment.  It was great.  Obviously the theme is a little hokey, but it delivered on what I wanted--people swinging from wires, flips and spins, high dives, cool lighting, and an all-around good time.  The show is also not really something you can find many other places (I hesitate to say "any other" since who knows what is out there in the world).

 

Highly recommend.  Fun, different, well-performed, technically and technologically impressive.  If you can see it, see it.

[firefly333]

parsnip puree (predictably good) 

 

you can have my parsnip ... thanks. And my lamb. 

[Merion_Mom]

7 hours ago, Joebucks said:

Some people are just insufferable. Doesn't matter if they are on a cruise or not.

 

 

This, this, a million times this.

[cruisegal40]

Thanks for the review.  We will be on her 17th of next month.  RCCL just dropped test mandate so I am even more thrilled to be going on SOS.  Keep the review coming. Your doing an excellent job.

[baelor]

Day 4

Our first port day--St. Maarten.

 

Breakfast--MDR

We tried the MDR for breakfast.  The food was fine, but I liked El Loco Fresh better and the meal is obviously much shorter there, so I would probably not go back to the MDR unless I wanted a very specific thing on the menu or I was part of a group that wanted to the MDR.

 

I ordered an omelet; one of my toppings was cheese.  The cheese was pretty sparse, so the omelet was a little bland, but I guess my fault for not requesting Sriracha.  

 

Our server was nice but a bit odd, and treated one of my group members with a sensory disability a little oddly (but I assume in good faith).

 

St. Maarten

Overall, we were all extremely disappointed in St. Maarten.  We unanimously came to the conclusion that we would be very reluctant to leave the ship on future cruise stops to the island.  There just was not that much to attract us.  The highlight of the day for me was the Yoda Guy Museum, discussed below.

 

We booked an excursion that was basically beach space with chairs and umbrellas.  Our excursion left around 15 minutes late, which bothered my generally punctual group since we were just baking in the exposed sun on the pier with the other excursion-goers.  It was also a bit surprising since RCI was so punctual in every other way.  All of our excursions started late, although they all arrived back on schedule.

 

The beach was nice, I guess.  The chairs were fine and the parasols did shade them.  The water was a nice temperature.  Various vendors and providers of services (braiding, massages, etc.) would circulate constantly, which I understand but was a bit irritating given that I just wanted to read in peace.

 

Part of the problem is that I do not like beaches--I dislike sand, and I cannot swim in salt water for more than about five minutes with my sensitive skin getting extremely irritated (resulting in basically raw red things from my swimsuit chafing my inner thighs).  If I am in saltwater, I would like to be scuba diving or snorkeling (more on that in the Day 5/St. Thomas write-up).

 

We had zero interest whatsoever in paying for food, drinks, or shopping, so the many recommendations of diamond stores, free trinkets, free tote bags, etc. fell on deaf ears but were still extremely irritating.  

 

Partway through the beach time, we decided to take a break.  I went to the Yoda Guy Museum, which was awesome and had tons of movie and historical memorabilia (including lifemasks of movie stars--for makeup purposes--and even Abraham Lincoln, and a deathmask of Oliver Cromwell).  Nick Maley, the operator and Yoda Guy, was happy to answer questions and talk about his experience.  His wife, who is the museum's cashier and gift shop operator, was adorable. 

 

The rest of my group walked around a couple boutiques.  My friend needed new sunglasses because his eyes are very photosensitive. so he bought $10 "Oakleys" (which I call Fauxkleys).  

 

 

Our conclusion was that there was basically no reason to get off the ship there in the future.  I would probably do it only if (1) I contacted Nick Maley in advance and he was able to meet at his museum or elsewhere; or (2) I booked a food tour that I could confirm was a historical tour expressed through food rather than a food tour that touched on history; or (3) I became scuba certified or something and found out that St. Maarten had good scuba spots.  

 

It was not like we hated St. Maarten or anything, it just felt pretty empty given that most things seemed geared toward stuff we had no interest in at all.

 

At around two, my friend and I returned to the ship and showered; the other two stayed on the beach for a bit.  Embarkation was very fast and easy.

 

Lunch (El Loco Fresh) and Afternoon

My friend and I had a quick lunch at El Loco Fresh, then we went on the water slides.  When the group reunited, we did a few more slide runs and then just relaxed in the Solarium.

 

Dinner--MDR

We had dinner in the MDR.  I had a late lunch and we had the early dinner time, so I was not very hungry.  I am also less able to gorge myself than some of my groupmates--when I feel full that's it for me food-wise, and I do not take long to get there.  Our servers seemed pretty weirded out by my just getting a salad, but I assured them that was all I wanted.

 

Food and drink:

• Garden salad--good; vegetables were crisp.
• Tagliatelle--I had a bite of my friend's.  It was tossed in a pesto sauce with cremini mushrooms, sundried tomatoes, and Parmesan cheese.  It was pretty light and the flavor was good.  I would have ordered it had I been more hungry.
• Creme brulee--My friend complained that it was too "burnt."  I had to explain to him was "brulee" meant.  He then asked what "creme" meant before realizing that he could figure that one out on his own lol.

 

After dinner

Starting on Day 4, we generally went to the hot tubs (if after 8 pm) or to a cool-water pool and then the hot tubs (if before 8 pm) either right after dinner or after our evening entertainment.  We did it after dinner since our evening entertainment was the comedy show at 10:30 in the Attic.

 

Comedy show--the Attic

We went to the adults-only comedy show at the Attic (they performed in the larger Royal Theater on later days).  The most important thing to know is that we sat in front row. (!!!!!!)

 

The headliner was Rondell Sheridan.  I cannot remember the name of the opening act and cannot seem to find it anywhere, but his last name was Greek.  I liked both acts, but the rest of my group preferred the opening comedian.  

 

I will say that I am not a huge fan of stand-up comedy; my sense of humor is more in line with Veep, Arrested Development, Archer, Airplane!, Mean Girls, etc.  Those are pretty eclectic, but whatever.  The point is, I thought it would be fun but I am not a very knowledgeable critic.  I did think it would be more fun if I were a bit buzzed, so my DBP friend and I grabbed a couple drinks before the show.

 

Both sets involved mercilessly savaging my group and, more specifically, me lol.  A newlywed couple next to us and a family next to us on the other side also received some attention, but it was mostly our group and me in particular.  Sheridan was especially savage.  I thought it was funny, but there was a split among the audience members based on reactions after the show--most women seem to think it was unduly mean while most men liked it and thought I was a good sport.  I became a recognizable minor celebrity for the rest of the cruise among those that had been there that night.

 

We were really worn out after the show, so we went to bed right after in preparation for our early-morning excursion at St. Thomas.

[deliver42]

Thanks for the review. The Symphony is my favorite ship.

[brillohead]

St. Maarten hadn't recovered from the hurricane Irma in 2017, and then COVID struck.  

I heard that the French side got money from the mother country, but the Dutch side had to fend for itself.  

It used to be a great port, and hopefully will be able to finish rebuilding.

[Vacation...Yes]

We did the rhino boats in St. Maarten and it was our favorite excursion. It was interesting seeing the country from a waters view. There were very expensive yachts that have been damaged from the hurricane and just left there….the whole story of the hurricane was very interesting. 

[baelor]

1 hour ago, brillohead said:

St. Maarten hadn't recovered from the hurricane Irma in 2017, and then COVID struck.  

I heard that the French side got money from the mother country, but the Dutch side had to fend for itself.  

It used to be a great port, and hopefully will be able to finish rebuilding.

 

15 minutes ago, Vacation...Yes said:

We did the rhino boats in St. Maarten and it was our favorite excursion. It was interesting seeing the country from a waters view. There were very expensive yachts that have been damaged from the hurricane and just left there….the whole story of the hurricane was very interesting. 

I forgot to mention this--the bar near the beach we were at was constructed from flotsam and debris from Hurricane Irma, and it was really inspiring to hear how the community has worked to recover from the damage.

[kmel92]

Really enjoying reading about your experience and what Symphony offers as I will be on Symphony at the end of October. Really well done review so far. 

[Merion_Mom]

4 hours ago, brillohead said:

St. Maarten hadn't recovered from the hurricane Irma in 2017, and then COVID struck.  

I heard that the French side got money from the mother country, but the Dutch side had to fend for itself.  

It used to be a great port, and hopefully will be able to finish rebuilding.

 

The Dutch side recovered much more quickly than the French side.

[Bobbylah]

On 8/23/2022 at 12:44 AM, Merion_Mom said:

 

The Dutch side recovered much more quickly than the French side.

 

Possibly the French just gave up. 😂 

[baelor]

BTW, I have been in transit for the last couple of days, but I will finish my review today or tomorrow!

[4everAfamily]

On 8/22/2022 at 5:36 PM, baelor said:

I cannot remember the name of the opening act and cannot seem to find it anywhere, but his last name was Greek.

It’s Simeon Kirkiles. My favorite Royal comedian.

[baelor]

10 minutes ago, 4everAfamily said:

It’s Simeon Kirkiles. My favorite Royal comedian.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!  He was awesome!