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Day 1 IT'S CRUISE DAY!!! I'm proud of myself... I actually slept last night. That was probably on account of not really sleeping on the flight over from NYC the night before. This morning I checked out the €15 hotel breakfast and decided to walk 2 minutes down the street to a local restaurant even though it was raining lightly. €6 for a cooked to order breakfast and real coffee. When it was time to pay in my best gringo accent I asked for the check but probably told my waiter "I can count sheep if it pleases you". Weather radar has us about to see heavy rain before it goes back to a light rain, then possibly a break in rain around noon before more rain right starting around 2:30pm. Hopefully that will move through and be gone around sail away. I'm all packed and ready to go. Symphony has arrived from Civitavecchia and she awaits us! With it's time to go!

Day 2 Seas are much calmer - the skies are much clearer. Here's my @twangster style balcony pic of the day I'm going to get dressed and grab some coffee - we've got NorthStar booked today at 11:30... looking forward to it! Dinner tonight will be in Chops, and we also reserved "The Gift" a bit later tonight.

T-1! After a very short night’s rest we got up at 4.15 am. Thankfully the hotel provided some tea, coffee and croissants. Well, tea for Michael – I usually don’t drink coffee or tea, but if hubby doesn’t get his regular fix he really is unbearable. Airport security was a breeze and we boarded the plane on time. Can’t tell you how the flight was, I slept away most of it ? The good news: all our suitcases made it to Barcelona (I had a bit of a panic over this) and we promptly got them. The bad news: apparently we are NOT the only ones with poison green suitcases, some others indeed had the same model. Well, we got that sorted and everybody left with the right suitcases even though the luggage handlers managed to lose one of our luggage tag covers (the ones that were recommended on this board) ? Luckily, we got one spare. Taxi to the hotel was 45 € (tip included) and I even got the chance to practice my long forgotten Spanish skills. Our hotel is Barcelona Catedral right in the middle of Barri Gótic. We arrived at 11 am, room would be ready at 2 pm so we went to explore the Disney store we saw coming in. Looks like it will be quite difficult to buy something for a baby boy if you don’t want it to be Marvel themed – maybe Miami has a better selection. On the way back we got soaked by torrential rain and decided to wait in our hotel’s lobby for the remaining hours. Thanks Eurowings for the priviledge – our original flight would have gotten us to Barcelona at the right time, but a few months back they decided to cancel it and book us on this 6.45 am flight – of course forgetting to mention this detail to us… it sometimes pays that I have travel OCD and religiously check everything countless times. 2 pm sharp we could finally check in and got a room on the 5th floor – great, I’m already being punished for my self-imposed no elevator rule. After dropping off the luggage we went to Santa Caterina market to get some softdrinks for the day. The market hall is smaller than la Boqueria but also less crowded and touristy. Unfortunately no pictures as they didn’t come out right with our old camera – didn’t want to risk the DLSR in the rain. As the weather was only getting worse we decided to cancel the walking tour and switch to appropiate acitivites – watching sports! German football (Borussia Dortmund) for Michael and eventing cross country in Pau for me. Who am I kidding? We both fell asleep while watching ? When we awoke, the weather seemed ok so out we went. Strolling through Barri Gótic and up and down Las Ramblas. On our way back to the cathedral we found a restaurant to our liking and got some tapas. I even remembered to take a picture! Not bad for someone who’s so forgetful that she forgets to breathe when sleeping ? The restaurant’s name is Colom and we can definetely recommend it – great food, nice atmosphere and reasonably priced. Now it’s off to bed, thankfully we get an additional hour of sleep as Europe is setting back the clocks tonight. Taxi is already booked for 10 am. Side notes: 14,5k steps today Need to get my sister to explain Whatsapp calling to my parents (again) – apparently our crash course on Friday didn’t stick No laps in the (rooftop) pool today – it was way too cold – and yes, I know I’m a wimp

I had intended to do a semi-live review of the cruise but decided against due to ropey voom and time constraints of travelling with a 10 year old. I’m also aware that there was another live blog of the same cruise but it’s always nice to see things from two perspectives. This is my first review on here but I took so much good info prior to this cruise that I want to give a little back. I had had a 2.5 year break from cruising due to moving house and other reasons so felt a bit out of touch. So... the contents of this review may not be relevant to everyone as I travel alone with my 10 year old son. No drinks package (but we did the three night dining package), no late nights and not too much partying but lots of family fun. On this cruise we were meeting my parents on board as they had just taken the snowbird migration prior. This is our itinerary - Thursday 18th October - Fly London Gatwick to Fort Lauderdale with British Airways. Stay three nights in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea at Plunge Beach Hotel Sunday 21st October - Embark Adventure of the Seas Monday 22nd October - At Sea Tuesday 23rd October - Grand Cayman (tender) Wednesday 24th October - Costa Maya Thursday 25th October - Cozumel Friday 26th October - At Sea Saturday 27th October - Disembark and return flight to London Gatwick. A brief bit about our pre-cruise ... I rented a car from Thrifty (compact - Toyota Yaris) which did the two of us just fine to get to our hotel and an afternoon trip to sawgrass mills. I drive an automatic at home but stick shift (manual) is still very much the norm in the UK and there was a very confused family in the next row to us so UK travellers beware that almost all rentals in the US are automatic transmission. We collected and returned at the airport for ease and I used the Google Maps app on my phone rather than renting a GPS. It worked well and my roaming package was capped at 140 mins, 100 texts but unlimited data for £4.99 per day with my provider, O2. Next time, I’ll make sure and pack a screen mount bracket for my phone. Our hotel, Plunge Beach in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, was just perfect. A beach from property with a well kept pool area and a lovely beach bar. It is directly across from a Publix (fantastic supermarket - need this in the UK!) so we were able to buy several meals including breakfast every day here and keep costs down. It become our morning routine to hit Publix at 7am then eat breakfast on the beach watching the sunrise There is a resort charge of $30 a day at Plunge but I felt this was great value As it included valet, bike hire, use of beach loungers, umbrellas and games/toys.

There are so many blogs to read this week it is wonderful!!! Just wanted to say a quick thanks to all who are taking the time out of their vacations to help those of us stuck in dry dock!

Someone fell in the water at the jetties.. Rescue is underway. Hopefully they are okay.. They are holding off on Allure until this is done

Next up was Windjammer recon. Tonight was Mexican and Indian Night, action station was fresh made quesadillas, and dessert was "stuff in a cup". Finally the last hot bar station. Loved the touch of the lasagna in little single portion pots.

Embarkation day continued Apparently there was a lot of logistical issues today which made me glad that we were able to get to port so early. Muster drill was delayed until 3, and folks were still getting onboard at that point. We heard stories of the line of cars waiting to drop off just not moving at all. The weather was just nasty, so I know that wasn't helping. It was a suuuuper crowded day one, owing largely to the weather I'm sure. The elevators were a logistical nightmare, but as expected, that got better as the day progressed. I'm sure once we get into some warmer weather it will be even better. Our muster station was in Vintages, and after the drill we made our way to 270 and heard a reggae band setting up. We sat there for awhile and enjoyed some Bob Marley songs and sipped on some adult beverages. We all had a My Time reservation for 5:30 in the MDR, so we decided to explore a little more of decks 4 and 5, which means I needed to sample a drink from each bar along the way :D. The place to get your Wow bands, at least before the shops open, was Boleros. We all purchased wow bands - they're pretty darn convenient! No need to go rooting around for a sea pass card, and its much more convenient to open doors. Before we knew it, it was time for dinner. As we were getting ready to head out, we saw the Pilot boat coming in from our balcony... it was really struggling out there. We were sat at a table for 4 in Silk. Here's a horrible picture of the menu (lighting was tough in there!) I had the mushroom soup which was good, and steak which was... meh at best. My wife had the french onion soup chicken marsala, and I was a bit jealous, so she shared! G had the mushroom soup and fish of the day (I can't recall what it was - something tilapia-like) and C had french onion soup and the spaghetti which was pretty darn good. The head waiter asked if we wanted after dinner shots. Sure! I'm not sure what it was, but it was citrusy and pretty good. Here's a pic of my definitely not Chops steak. After dinner we decided to explore the ship a bit more and become a bit more familiar (most likely grabbing a drink along the way if my hand was empty). The ship was really rocking last night - it was getting harder and harder to walk a straight line... and it wasn't even due to the drinks that I had! I always enjoy that feeling though - sometimes you forget that you're actually on a ship, and what better to remind you? Here's a view of the conditions yesterday afternoon from our balcony - we were passing a cargo ship. My wife and I decided to try the hot tub in the solarium as it was pretty empty - it was definitely nice and relaxing. After the hot tub, we showered up and headed to bed. I'm not going to do this for every day, but to give you an idea of how beneficial the drink package is for me, here's a breakdown of day one: Rum punch x 2, Captain and diet x 5, a "What's Kraken" x1, a Kraken Lava Flow x 1, Some sort of citrusy shot x 1 Goslings and diet x 1, an IPA at the pub. I'm conservatively estimating a total of $110 for day 1 - about a third of the way for breaking even for the entire cruise. ?

Some clarification on the 100 year old cruiser. Didn't initially hear it but this was her first cruise.

We got right on the ship as they opened the doors at around 11:15ish. Since we have the 3 night dinging package, we went directly to wonderland and changed our dining reservation tomorrow to Chops from the default assigned restaurant. Then we hit up the shockingly empty Windjammer for a bite to eat. I was immediately offered a rum punch when we walked in, so who am I to say no? They bartenders kept cruising by and offered me another. Why not? I’m on vacation now. We then explored the pool deck and solarium for a bit and right at 1:00 they announced that the rooms were ready. I’ll update more and add more pictures later when I’m not in my phone.

Just learned that Royal is including a transfer from Symphony to Mariner and Serenade for guests doing a side-to-side. I was just going to use Lyft and figured it would be ~$40-$50 so if this works out it should be pretty easy to move to Serenade after the TA.

Day -4 A year or so ago I had been thinking about Symphony and when I might be able to sail her. Prices, as expected for her first year were elevated over her sisters. That is until I came across the transatlantic sailing which at the time was priced close to many seven night Caribbean sailings on her. Twelve nights on what would become the largest cruise ship in the world for the price of seven? I was on Anthem when the light bulb went on and I booked it in a YOLO moment that only the drink package can induce. Itinerary is pretty light as ports go: Day 1 - Embark in Barcelona, Spain Day 2 - Sea Day Day 3 - Malaga, Spain Days 4 - 11 - Sea Day Day 12 - Port Canaveral Day 13 - Debark, Miami No excursions booked or planned. The ship is the destination. I'll be sailing in a Boardwalk balcony cabin almost as far aft as you can go on deck 8 right above Playmakers. My step count for this cruise should indeed also be elevated. I'm sailing solo as I often do since friends and family just can't keep up. I won't be alone exactly as there will be a decent contingency from the RCPeriscopers.live community sailing with me. Voom and satellite coverage permitting, there should be ample scopes from this sailing. A business commitment is keeping me stateside until Friday when I'll fly overnight to Barcelona arriving Saturday morning for a Sunday embarkation. Not ideal but I've got to pay for this cruising addiction somehow. Since I'll be in the cruise capital of the world when we disembark in Miami I couldn't let that opportunity go without jumping on another ship so I'll be sliding up the coast to Fort Lauderdale to board Serenade the day we arrive in Miami. That is a factor in my packing strategy since I'm not flying home between cruises. Speaking of packing, I should probably start, later today, ...or maybe tomorrow.

One activity that was done today was kind of interesting. For the kids in Adventure Ocean the did an egg drop contest. They had to build a holder to protect an egg when dropped. First round was a drop from deck 6 to deck 4 followed by a drop from 11 to 4. Tie breaker was trying to land the closest to a target. Now for some random photos...

Do you have any hotel affiliations for points/status? What’s your criteria (price, star rating, proximity to dining exc)? Everything in Fort Lauderdale is 15 minutes from port Everglades. Let me know what your looking for and I can help. Lovetocruise2002 got it right as far as two good recommendations but some of the others are located on SR84 which is not the greatest area in town and the mentioned hotel/motels are pretty run down.

Continuing on with Cozumel I could believe how clear it was on the water. Could see just about perfectly Playa del Carmen. Once again I was blessed with a brilliant sunset. After watching the sunset I headed over to Top Tier Party in the Colony Club. Other than the stats previously posted nothing more to report. Icon class was mentioned, but nothing noteworthy. Did have this great view...

The closest you will get with the water taxi is the Hilton Marina stop which is a decent walk or a 5 min Uber ride away from Lago Mar.

Ok, lots of people rent cars and try to park. Here is the way to go, you can thank me later. PS: don’t walk through the lobby.

Yes the rock jetty extends out East from the point of America’s property. The rocks are actually not too difficult to get up on at all. They do offer the best view of the ships leaving port (as evidence by the 50+ people who gather on the weekends every weekend to watch). * if you don’t have mobility issues and you are even moderately athletic I would suggest you take an Uber (or cab) to Lago Mar. Walk through to the back of Lago Mar and get on the beach. Head South to the rock jetty around 4:00pm and enjoy the show. Don’t try to drive to Lago Mar & park as you will get towed, this is a private resort area and a private neighborhood so the tow trucks are always looking to make $. If you are looking for a good walk and staying on 17th street just walk over the causeway and when you see fork on the road at the Church (turn right) and follow it back to Lago Mar. Enjoy!

Have fun in your cruise , If you want to try the laser tag , try it today , most of the chances you will have less lines than in any other times. Same for many of the other activities.

So.....what the hell was she waiting for? Some very serious OBC (on board credit)?

Seriously, "ships on the rocks to the East at the inlet point".

Hey lovecuising, Welcome to our message boards! There's your answer above, time to make some friends and contacts.

This is private property. I actually live next door to this. This is located in Fort Lauderdale’s Harbor Inlet neighborhood. You can get some of the best views of the ships on the rocks to East at the Inlet point.

Sorry to hear that.

Thanks for all the kind words, love to do this kind of interactive. Actually, the blogging is fun and not a burden. Will be nice ro relive this once post-cruise depression kicks in. Currently waiting for hubby to upload the pictures on the laptop. I'm way too clumsy to type the whole thing on the phone ?

I feel extra spoiled as there are a few Anthem reviews and I leave for her in a month. It’s almost like you all planned this just for me! So kind ?

My AC Hotel Soms room: Power ports by the deck area: It's a very nice room by North American standards and there are two guest elevators. The staff have been very friendly. I didn't take a lot of picture while walking around since it was raining. I was surprised to see palm trees here:

I assume you booked directly with RC (and not with a travel agent)? If so, I'd call back and ask to speak to the resolutions team/department. If you are not satisfied with the outcome of the problem on their end (and it's on their end if they said there was a glitch in their system), then escalate it a few times. Be civil, but firm about your insistence they remedy the situation more than it has. And next time you book a cruise, use a travel agent so that in a situation like this, they can fight on your behalf.

You don't miss out on much in Barcelona, it has been raining the whole day. Predicted to lessen around 8 pm. The forecast for Malaga is even worse. Hope to meet you on board.

This one? https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2018/08/28/royal-caribbean-now-allowing-guests-bring-non-alcoholic-beverages-onboard

All packed up and ready to get to the port bright and early tomorrow! I think Annie knows that we're going on vacation without her... Last minute change of logistics: G's work does some business with the cruise port and through some of his work connections, he's netted us free parking at the port -now we won't need to Uber over! Also, I've read that captain Henrik has decided to bring the Anthem into port early due to the nasty weather coming in tonight/tomorrow morning... hopefully it won't be so terrible getting there. Either way, next time I post, I'll be onboard! Soooo excited!!

Day -2 I've made it to New York! One more flight! Uneventful trip to JFK, I watched two movies on the flight from Denver. I'm sitting Delta's Skyclub writing this. They used to be called 'Crown Room' but having flown a bunch back in those days I used to call them the 'Crowd Room'. The terminal 4 Skyclub is living up to that legacy. Curious how our weather will be on this crossing. It is what it is. On a recent cruise down the U.S. East coast I didn't lose the jacket until we were almost off the Florida coast. My flight is delayed an hour. Just received noticed my bag was loaded on the Barcelona flight. That's always a welcome sign. Forecast is rain tomorrow. I would have liked to stay longer and explore Barcelona but my schedule didn't cooperate. The ship is the destination.

Thank god it’s Friday! Only two nights and we’ll board Symphony – it’s finally getting real! The day started early for us as we had to drop off the boys at the cat hotel. Luckily, everything went way better than expected. Four of them have never been there but instead of hiding under an armchair, they just went and explored the rooms and sometimes passed by to get some cuddles in between. We shouldn’t have worried, they’ll also have a great vacation. After rushing home and loading the suitcases in the car, we were back on the road and vacation mode really started to kick in – true German style – getting all annoyed with other drivers because the motorway was packed. Turns out Southern Germany had their last school day before the autumn holidays – and a few other federal states had their last day of autumn holidays today. Not the best conditions for 400 km (249 miles) to get to my parents, but what can you do? Slowly crawl, I guess – at least in comparison as Germany doesn’t have a general speed limit for motorways. 4 hours later we did the required pre-cruise family visits and then went to the airport with my parents. Cue another hour of – you guessed it – packed roads and traffic jams. Finally, my parents dropped us off at the airport and took the car home with them – instead of us paying the astronomical parking fees, we prefer to spend the money on some speciality dining ? Evening check-in was painless – we got rid of the suitcases in 5 minutes and walked to the Maritim airport hotel. After dropping our carry-ons off in our room, we went back to the airport for dinner. Mussels for me and pizza for Michael at L‘Osteria. Sorry, forgot to take pictures (I’m new to this blogging thingy) – but the food wasn’t something to write home about anyway. We also had our first beer as a warm up for the ultimate beverage package – an original Bavarian Franziskaner. The other option would have been Duesseldorf’s alt bier and as a born Cologne girl I’d rather die from thirst than drink that. I’m sure there are similar animosities between neighbouring cities in the US? ? After dinner we went to the spa – Michael for the sauna and me for an hour in the pool to burn off the alcoholic calories. Now it’s off to bed as boarding starts 6.15 am tomorrow.

Yes, the taxes and fees are not revenue to RCI they are pass through to the governments involved. I almost think it is a mandatory refund and you don't have to ask (I am sure they submit an official manifest along with $X per person to each government) but I would ask at guest services to make sure they process it.

If they will let RC about only two people in the room after boarding will they still get the tax and ports fee back (+ gratitude) ?

It is a thing that cabins for triple/quad occupancy are not (usually) offered for double occupancy and that if you are changing your reservation to double occupancy from triple occupancy they MAY make you change cabin and MAY also reprice the cabin to current rates. Some people (including me) have been told that by RCL when inquiring. In my case I ended up keeping the reservation as a triple since the price for two of us in a double was going to be more than for three of us in a triple, ultimately my wife ended up joining us so no harm no foul. On a separate occasion I didn't call to ask about it but at the last minute my wife wasn't able to go, so son and I showed up at the pier and checked in with no issue. They refunded her taxes and port fees after the cruise. Unless you will save significantly by cancelling the third person, just don't say anything until you check in at the pier. At that point they will not be able to move you to a new cabin and you will get the small refund of taxes&fees still.

If the third person isnt going and you aren't interested in a price change, just leave things as they are. RC does not care if the people booked actually show up or not.

I have seen in the past where the booking engine will not offer up cabins that sleep 3 as available to book if you only select 2 in the cabin. I don't know it this is still the case.

The number per cabin is usually stated as a maximum not a minimum. Normal occupancy is viewed as two per stateroom. Usually the only “penalty” is if you are one. The third person in a cabin is usually a lower rate. It should be possible to drop the third person and keep the stateroom. It sounds suspicious that they will move you to another stateroom if you have at least two. There must be more to this story.

Thank you for posting these. I will be on a 3 day but these are still helpful. I've read that the Bamboo room has different drinks there that are not premixed. have you found that to be true and if so can you list some of their special drinks? Thank you again