Mediterranean Symphony of the seas May 7th cruise review

[dmrrn73]

Thanks for the review, looking forward to more. 

 

Lots of anniversaries here, LOL. DH and I are going on this cruise (from Rome) in October for our 20th. Our actual Anniversary is the 4th and the ship leaves on the 5th so it actually mimics our Honeymoon dates too which I thought was cool and one of the main reasons I booked this specific one. 

[dmrrn73]

On 5/15/2023 at 12:40 PM, ocean sounds said:

Thank you for doing the review.  Can’t wait to read more.

 

We’ll be on her in a month, but boarding in Rome.  
 

Pleased that the Royal app finally updated for us, even though we are interporting.  Calendar updated with all our excursions, and entertainment days and times showing.  I wasn’t expecting to see anything, boarding in Rome instead of Barcelona. 

Yes that was the same for mine. We are leaving from Rome too. (October 5th)

[cruisin73]

So sorry it’s taking me so long.  Life seems to be getting In The way.  Continuing on…

 

Its finally cruise day. 
 

The night before we asked the front desk to reserve a taxi for 10:15 we had a check in time for 11:00 for the cruise. Unfortunately that plan didn’t work out quite as well because there was a marathon that morning which delayed all the taxi’s. We finally got our taxi and we’re still at the cruise port at 11:00.  Took about 15 minutes and was about 15 Euros. Not so bad and I got there pretty much when I wanted to.  

Check in was super simple. we got out of the taxi and got our bags we walked over to the porters and they took them put them on the carts. We went to the suite doors to get inside. There is no line so we could put all our carry-on on the conveyor belt and then we walked over to a woman who had a a tablet and she checked us in right there. I haven’t been on  a cruise in five years but this is way simpler than It ever was in the past. Not sure if that’s because we were in Europe or if that’s just how they’re doing it now. 
 

I thought we were walking to a waiting area to get on the ship we were actually walking right onto the ship there was no wait at all. So there we were walking on the gangway I could not have been happier. As I said we haven’t cruised in quite a while so I felt like a new cruiser. We took our first steps onto symphony of the seas and we walked right to the bionic bar. Which unfortunately was broken at the time. It did work later so we were finally able to get those drinks from those adorable robots. 

 

Since we couldn’t get our drinks from the robots we decided to go to Central Park and go to the trellis bar. My husband got some sort of sunrise drink and I got a piña colada. Piña colada‘s are always my first drink of our cruise vacation. Then we’re off to chops to make all of our dining reservations. Usually when the concierge sends us our email I just have them make all the reservations for us but unfortunately this time we never got that email.
 

After making all over the reservations we walked up to the suite lounge and talked to the concierge explaining that we never did get her email and turns out they did send it but there was some sort of system glitch at least that’s what they told us. Honestly they really did make up for it during the entire cruise.

 

We sat in the suite lounge for a while just kind of people watched and then shortly after our room was ready so we walked down to our grand suite. Pretty much the exact same as any of the other oasis class grande suites the only difference is between the living room and the bedroom on Symphony there is a wall whereas an oasis it was just a curtain I think I actually like the curtains better because it makes the room more open.

 

After we put our stuff down and let our room steward Leo we just walked around the ship and kind of got the way of the land as you will. That night we were eating at chops which was amazing we both had steak and it was probably the best meal we had the entire cruise . After dinner we had reservations to see the Aqua theater show called Hiro. 
 

Royal Caribbean has definitely stepped up their game in the entertainment department. This was an absolutely amazing show and if we had time I would’ve gone to see it again. I’m so happy we saw this on the first night though because it was actually the warmest of the nights as the cruise went on the nights seem to get cooler and sitting out there in the cooler weather and sometimes even a little bit of rain would not have been as fun. After the show we just walked around a little bit and went up to bed since we knew we would have an early morning the next day in Mallorca . 

[cruisin73]

Views from the castle 

[cruisin73]

Day 2 of the cruise brought us to Mallorca.  Doing some research before the cruise I heard about Balneario beach club. You can get a taxi right there.  We did have reservations for lunch but we didn’t rent a sunbed.  The sunbeds  are $40 each and come with an umbrella and a welcome alcoholic drink. They looked nice but we decided to just sit on our towels we brought from the ship.  My husband swam in the Mediterranean Sea but for me it was freezing,  The water does look amazing though. 

For  lunch we had paella my new favorite dish.  My husband had the cheesecake for dessert and said it was the best cheesecake he has ever had.  

When we ordered dessert we also asked them to call a cab for us. Lunch was delicious and the service was great.  We walked up to get the taxi. When the taxi arrived two guys got in the car we told them we think that’s our taxi but they were assured it was theirs. No big deal we just waited for the next one which came about 10 minutes later. 
 

When we got back to our room there were anniversary decorations everywhere. Nice touch royal. 
 

Tonight was formal night and we were celebrating our anniversary too. We ate at 150 Central Park.  I had the Cesar salad that was made table side.  It was very good.  I can’t remember what I had for dinner but I did have the fried cheesecake for dessert which  was delicious.

 

I also got my anniversary present from my hubby which was a beautiful aqua marine ring from the jewelry store Effy on the ship.  
 

we had a great day and we are now off to France…
 

[cruisin73]

Mallorca and anniversary celebration.  

[pasodancer]

What an amazing anniversary vacation/cruise!!!  Happy Anniversary!

 

We are considering this itinerary for 2026 so I sincerely appreciate you posting this review.

[ocean sounds]

Thanks for the info. Boarding her in Rome in A couple weeks.  
 

Extended family vacation,  happy to have connecting balconies. 

 

Edited May 23, 2023 by ocean sounds

[seba1]

18 hours ago, cruisin73 said:

Day 2 of the cruise brought us to Mallorca.  Doing some research before the cruise I heard about Balneario beach club. You can get a taxi right there.  We did have reservations for lunch but we didn’t rent a sunbed.  The sunbeds  are $40 each and come with an umbrella and a welcome alcoholic drink. They looked nice but we decided to just sit on our towels we brought from the ship.  My husband swam in the Mediterranean Sea but for me it was freezing,  The water does look amazing though. 

For  lunch we had paella my new favorite dish.  My husband had the cheesecake for dessert and said it was the best cheesecake he has ever had.  

When we ordered dessert we also asked them to call a cab for us. Lunch was delicious and the service was great.  We walked up to get the taxi. When the taxi arrived two guys got in the car we told them we think that’s our taxi but they were assured it was theirs. No big deal we just waited for the next one which came about 10 minutes later. 
 

When we got back to our room there were anniversary decorations everywhere. Nice touch royal. 
 

Tonight was formal night and we were celebrating our anniversary too. We ate at 150 Central Park.  I had the Cesar salad that was made table side.  It was very good.  I can’t remember what I had for dinner but I did have the fried cheesecake for dessert which  was delicious.

 

I also got my anniversary present from my hubby which was a beautiful aqua marine ring from the jewelry store Effy on the ship.  
 

we had a great day and we are now off to France…
 

Were you still able to use the amenities at the Beach Club since you ate lunch there? We have friends who rented chairs, but we are 4 people and don't want to spend the money for all four of us (kids wouldn't use it). Wondering if we can do what you did and eat there, but still hang out with our friends without the chairs.

 

Stephanie

[cruisin73]

18 minutes ago, seba1 said:

Were you still able to use the amenities at the Beach Club since you ate lunch there? We have friends who rented chairs, but we are 4 people and don't want to spend the money for all four of us (kids wouldn't use it). Wondering if we can do what you did and eat there, but still hang out with our friends without the chairs.

 

Stephanie

I'm sure it's no problem.  we walked right onto the beach and when it was time for lunch we just walked over the hostess told her we had reservations for lunch but the people infront of us didn't have reservations and were seated.  We didn't use any of the other amenities though.  

I hope that answered your question.  

[cruisin73]

Day 3 of the cruise brought us to Marseille France. We went on an excursion to Aix en Provence.  It was a bus tour and then walking tour in Aix.  After the walking tour we had about 2 hours to walk around on our own.  My only mistake with this tour was we didn't get to eat lunch because we did too much shopping. We did get some nice lavendar soap and a few other things from the small boutiques.  Side note bathrooms are not free to use unless you are eating in a restaurant.  We had to pay 1 Euro.  The excursion was only 4 hours so if we wanted we could have gone to Marseille and have lunch but we opted to have lunch on the ship instead.  

 

After lunch we hung out in the hot tub on the suite deck.  My husband also went on the waterslide which he said was alot of fun.  

 

We ate dinner at Coastal Kitchen and then went to see Hairspray.  They really did a great job.  Both of us really enjoyed it.  

 

[cruisin73]

Marseille 

 

[NewCruiser77]

Thanks for sharing!  I’ll be doing this itinerary next year so it’s great to hear about the ports.

[Tippyton]

Living vicariously through others.  Thanks!

[Cruisingnew123]

Great report!

 

How did they know it was your anniversary?  We will also be celebrating our 25th onboard.

[Nithas]

On 5/23/2023 at 1:38 AM, cruisin73 said:

Tonight was formal night and we were celebrating our anniversary too. We ate at 150 Central Park.  I had the Cesar salad that was made table side.  It was very good.  I can’t remember what I had for dinner but I did have the fried cheesecake for dessert which  was delicious.

 

We ate at 150 Central Park on day 2 aswell. Don't know when you were there, but judging from your pictures we would have been on your right in the middle of the restaurant. Same waiter aswell. Tenderloin and Cheesecake was amazing.

[cruisin73]

8 hours ago, Cruisingnew123 said:

Great report!

 

How did they know it was your anniversary?  We will also be celebrating our 25th onboard.

Before we left my travel agent asked me when our anniversary was. 
 

3 hours ago, Nithas said:

We ate at 150 Central Park on day 2 aswell. Don't know when you were there, but judging from your pictures we would have been on your right in the middle of the restaurant. Same waiter aswell. Tenderloin and Cheesecake was amazing.

I remember there was another couple sitting there. We loved that waiter saw him a few times during the cruise. 

[cruisin73]

Day 4 of the cruise brought us to LeSpezia.  I did so much research on this port because I really wanted to go to Cinque Terre. When we woke up it was raining…hard…down pouring.  I said to my husband should we just stay on the ship?  He said this is the one port you have been talking non stop about there is no way we can stay on the ship.  
so off we went to breakfast and off the ship to get a taxi to the train station.  
 

There was some talk on here about whether the taxi drivers would drive a short distance to the train station but it wasn’t an issue at all. We got our tickets and just a few minutes later we were in Riomaggiore. When we got off the train it had stopped raining. So happy my husband pushed us to go. We walked around a bit and visited a few of the shops.  Then off to the  next village.  We also went to Verrazano and Monterosso. We had lunch on the beach in Monterrosso.   Best pizza and gelato. 
 

I highly recommend a trip to Cinque Terre.  Absolutely beautiful.  
 

We then went back to the train and when we got back to LeSpezia. Getting a taxi back was also easy. 
 

 

[cruisin73]

[jeanneful]

Love Love Love Cinque Terre!!!! Will  be there next May!! Love your review too!!

[cruisin73]

1 hour ago, jeanneful said:

Love Love Love Cinque Terre!!!! Will  be there next May!! Love your review too!!

Jealous!!! I need to go back just not sure when. 

[cruisin73]

Day 5 brings us to Rome. Well actually Civitavecchia.  We took an excursion through RCCL. Express train to Rome. It took about an hour to get to Rome by the train and then we had about 5 hours to walk around on our own.  We met up with a friend of a friend who took us all around.  We saw all the main sights.  We didn’t wait in the lines to go inside anywhere but we did walk around the outside. Places we saw were Vatican, colosseum, pantheon, Trevi fountain and piazza Adriana.   We took our guide out to lunch and had more pizza and spaghetti and meatballs.  Best pasta ever.  Of course we also had to get more gelato.  YUM!
DAY 5 we ate at coastal kitchen and watched the ice show.  Amazing the things they can do on such a small rink.  
We walked 22,000 steps so after the show it was off to bed. 

[cruisin73]

Rome

[cruisin73]

Sorry had to add one more of us.  

[cruisin73]

We are now in Naples and this day didn’t turn out as planned.  We were exhausted from all the walking in Rome so we slept in a little.  That turned out to be a big mistake.  The plan was to go to Capri but when we got to the ferry to buy our tickets there was a huge line and another huge line to get on the ferry.  We wouldn’t get to capri until Maybe noon and we didn’t think we would have enough time there and get back in time for the ship. We decided we would just walk around Naples for awhile and see what’s there. We did go to the tourist information but all the tours had already left. Walking around Naples is a big mistake in my opinion.  In this port you definitely need some kind of tour. 
 

After walking around we decided to just go back to the ship have lunch and just relax on the suite deck.  For dinner we went to wonderland. It was better then we expected and quite the experience. We had the waiter order for us.  My husband has a severe mushroom allergy and they were very cautious with what they brought to us.  I highly recommend it. 
 

It turned out to be a great day but next time we will be sure to get tot he ferry much earlier.