My View: A Symphony of Gratitude (Live Thanksgiving Week)

APDMOM · November 29, 2023

45 minutes ago, jcandjf said:

Very much enjoyed all of your posts! We will be on the same cruise in 2 weeks and this was very helpful!

7 hours ago, TeeRick said:

@APDMOM

Thanks for your live thread! We are on Symphony on this same itinerary this coming February!

Hope you have an AMAZING cruise! It is still the best vacation around - I just hope we can keep affording it. 😄

bonsai3s · November 29, 2023

28 minutes ago, gizbug said:

Here is a quick rundown of some issues/negatives from our voyage last week:

Found the Dinner Service in the dinning room to be a bit slow. The Assistant waiter rarely came to the table. Sometimes we did not get asked for wine until after appetizers. Water was not frequently filled in our glasses. Our table location for a table of 5, was a rectangle table with 1 chair on the end that was out in an aisle. No ideal. Having 2 young kids, and cruising on Royal Caribbean cruises since I was a kid (30+ years) I found that the lack of attention to the kids was surprising. In the past, waiter would cut the food up for my 3yr old. Found this didn't happen at all on this cruise. Food portions were a lot smaller than past years, and the new menu this year leaves a lot to be desired. Charging for an extra lobster tail when the last 3 years it was included is kind of ridiculous.

Would appreciate if the stateroom was attended to morning/night. Seems to have only happened once. In years past, mints and towel animals were the normal every night. This year was hit or miss on towel animals and never any mints.

Bars ran out of ice a few times during the day, causing my family to wait 10+ minutes to get a drink until ice was found. Not ideal for bar service.

The Aqua Park on Labadee was full of Jelly Fish. My son got stung 5 times, along with many others. Royal was kind enough to refund the excursion for us. Found the pizza slices to be 1/2 the size of what they were the last few years on the ship. Not sure why, but it's something our family noticed (along with frequent long lines at the pizza place).

The WOW band we found to be a complete waste of $10. It rarely worked. I had to get it reprogramed twice as it would not work at the bars 100% of the time. It also fell off very easily if it got caught on your clothes. Cheap material maybe.

Would like to see the Adult Karaoke in Dazzles at night. It is just too crowded in the current location On Air Club.

Been cruising on Royal since the Sun Viking / Song of Norway / Sovereign of the Seas days, so this isn't my first rodeo on their ships. Hope some of the constructive feedback in my review helps others.

PS. We used #GoneCaribe for a private excursion on Curacao, and couldn't be happier! I suggest you look into their services. They are highly spoke about on these boards, and their service/tours are A+

Gizbug, genuinely sorry to hear about all the issues...I am just politely asking if you spoke to anyone onboard regarding all your issues? Thanks.

* Our first RCCL ship was Song of America.

APDMOM · November 29, 2023

The Verdict on Symphony:

For perspective: Our last cruise on Royal Caribbean, prior to this one, was November 2019. Our most recent few cruises (post Covid) were with MSC and Celebrity.

Overall, it was truly a week of gratitude for us to be able to cruise. We did notice the cutbacks. Considering the economy and inflation, I prefer cutbacks (within limits) over hiking the price out of my reach. We love cruising so much, but this was one of the most expensive cruises we had booked. I will put in a chart later for comparison. If the value is still better than a land vacation, we will keep cruising.

We LOVED:

The friendly service - from fixing a charge at guest services to our room steward, to our Solarium dining service, to almost every bartender - it was clear to me that the Royal Caribbean crew members are much happier than those on MSC.

The diamond vouchers - This is a huge improvement to the program, in my opinion. It allowed us to enjoy non-alcoholic drinks, including specialty coffee and milkshakes! DH and DS do not drink alcohol, so this was a nice adaptation to the program. The fact that it is available all day is another plus. That couple of hours in the diamond lounge was never our cup of tea - especially with the location and lack of views in the diamond lounge on this class ship.

The itinerary - We love Aruba and Curaçao, and we always enjoy the fact that Labadee is so easy to access. Many sea days are not ideal on a sold out cruise, but we always found a fun and quiet spot, whether on our balcony, on deck 7 aft, on deck 5 aft, etc. There were always non-crowded spaces to be found on sea days.

The ship - This is still my all-time favorite class ship. After 43 cruises on a variety of cruiselines and classes, Oasis class tops the chart for us. Of course, I have my bucket list... 👀Keeping an eye out for dropped prices on Icon class!

The food - The soups were consistently good. Salad in the Park Cafe was amazing, except on one day when it was a bit limp. Salad in Solarium Bistro was excellent - all those Mediterranean options were very good (except the lamb). Ice cream from the soft serve, and vanilla milkshakes from Johnny Rockets were very creamy and good. Of course, the campfire cookie was a repeater. Curry dishes were great most of the time, especially the last night in Solarium Bistro. Those are the high points of food, but there were plenty of 'usuals' like the coconut cookie!

The shows - Royal Caribbean obviously continues to spend a lot of money on the shows. They were excellent!

What we did not like too much:

Lots of chair hogging, loud music (that I don't call music) at the pool, and the app occasionally not showing the correct time.

Thankfully, we did not run into too much rowdy behavior this cruise, but there were some kids sliding down the stair rails, including young children just supervised by older siblings. It seems like the ship did apply discipline warnings, as there were 3 cabins I walked by with a Discipline notification stuck on the door one morning. I was tempted to open it and read what it said, but I refrained 😇🤣

We did have loud teens in the cabin next to us - I think the adults allowed them to room together. After two nights, they quieted down, so another neighbor must have reported them. This can happen on almost any cruise, on almost any ship, so it is not related to this specific cruise.

In summary, we are very grateful that we can afford to cruise, that we are healthy to be able to take the stairs (elevators were BUSY!), that we have a family that gets along so well, and that we have another cruise booked! We will gladly go on Symphony again, if the opportunity arises - it is a great cruise experience.

If I think of anything else, I will add tips... I have MANY ship pictures.

gizbug · November 29, 2023

13 minutes ago, bonsai3s said:

Gizbug, genuinely sorry to hear about all the issues...I am just politely asking if you spoke to anyone onboard regarding all your issues? Thanks.

* Our first RCCL ship was Song of America.

Some of the issues, yes. Wife & Mother in Law did not want to make a huge issue of some of the things but felt I would bring them up in my survey/review to the cruise line.

APDMOM · November 29, 2023

Is anyone intersted in the MDR menu for each night? I have screenshots I could post. Just reply here. 🙂

APDMOM · November 30, 2023

Favorite Art on the Ship:

TIP: There are several pieces of interactive/experience art on the ship. We found these 3:

An auditory experience:

Another auditory experience:

TIP: Entrance to the MDR - if you stand in front of this screen you show up in the art:

APDMOM · November 30, 2023

Some other faborite art items... On each deck thre are these small icons that match the artistic photo. Hearts with the hear picture, Puzzle pieces with the puzzle picture, etc.: