Neaxan

1 hour ago, cruiselife said:

My third question is about the drop off location for the rental car. I am assuming the closest location to drop off will be the Fort Lauderdale airport and we could take a short Uber ride from there? 

Depends on the rental company you use. We booked with Alamo, they have a station near Terminal 2 in Port Everglades and they run a shuttle service from the station to the ship. They also offer a shuttle service from Port of Miami to their station at MIA - that's quite convenient for us as we'll be arriving in Miami with Symphony. I'm aware that there are cheaper options than Alamo, but we prefer the convenience and the safety of a well known company. The prices are still ridiculously low compared to renting a car in Germany 

From what I've learned on the boards you're only charged with the difference.

Why exactly bother? Pro tip: If you fill out the Guest Special Needs Form and mark the CPAP/BIPAP option, Royal provides you with distilled water and an extension cord. No need to schlepp around a bottle 

I'm a bit late to the party but I figured a bit more pressure on me could only help. I don't do diets anymore, I changed my whole lifestyle. It's currently called "Project Zipline" because I really want to do Symphony's zipline on the TA... it's 275 pounds max so still 38 pounds to lose until October 28. Sounds impossible? Well, I started December 14th with 380 pounds... After riding the zipline all bets are off  I'm going to enjoy the cruise meals without any guilty feelings, but I'll do a lot of sports to compensate a bit. 1 hour of laps in the pool and at least 1 hour in the gym per day is a given. I know I'll still gain a few pounds but I don't care - my end game is reaching a healthy weight, this will take years anyway so a few weeks more or less don't matter to me.

Well, now I've made it official. You can all check my TA live blog to see if I got on that damned zipline. No chickening out anymore even though I'm a bit afraid of heights. Did I mention that I work best under pressure?  There's a German saying that describes me perfectly: I lack motivation up to the point when I'm running out of time.

On 8.4.2018 at 9:05 PM, puck49 said:

I am sailing of Symphony of the Seas this summer and don't see the option for a 2, 3 or 4 night dining package. Also, don't see the option for first night done right. Do you have any information on whether these will not be available on Symphony of the Seas or will they just not offer these?

2, 3, 4 and 5 night dining packages as well as the Ultimate Dining Package were available for the Symphony TA in the beginning. The 5 night was gone after a few weeks and the 4 night soon followed suit - I guess Royal reached their cap. I'm guessing your cruise is either too far out to see the packages or they might be sold out.

23 minutes ago, [email protected] said:

Can someone list the dining options on Symphony, and which ones are complimentary, and not?

Complimentary: MDR, Windjammer, Coastal Kitchen (suite guests only), Solarium Bistro, El Loco Fresh, Park Café, Boardwalk Dog House, Sorrentos, Café Promenade

not complimentary: Hooked, Wonderland, Jamie's Italian, Vintages, Chops Grille, 150 Central Park, Playmaker's, Johnny Rockets, Izumi & Izumi Hibachi

Not sure if Vitality Café and the Pub offer some kind of food, if so, I'm guessing it won't be complimentary.

Civitavecchia: If you have the chance, do Rome separately for a few days. I hate the hassle of trips from Civitavecchia - it takes ages to get to Rome so your time there is limited. If this is your only chance to see Rome in the foreseeable future, I'd recommend taking the train which is usually faster than the bus, so you have more time in Rome. Can't really give any recommendations for Rome because this is highly subjective. You might want to do a bus tour for an overview, or take the time to visit the Colosseum or Vatican...

Livorno: Personally, I think Pisa is overrated - ok maybe the tower is a "you have to see it once in your live" thing, but don't be too disappointed - a bit like the Amber Room in St. Petersburg. You might consider a trip to Lucca, it's a beautiful city and not as overrun with tourists as Pisa.

Marseille: I love trips to Avignon or Aix-en-Provence but both require some time on the bus, so it might be better to book it via Royal.

Barcelona: If you've never been to Barcelona, a hop on hop off tour might be a good way to get an overview of the city. I can also recommend walking Barri Gotic and Las Ramblas and maybe a Gaudi tour including Park Guell, Sagrada Familia and Casa Batllo. If you want to try some Gaudi attractions on your own be sure to book a time slot online to avoid queing for hours.

Yes, I've seen at least two in the Windjammer and two in Sorrentos in a current walkaround video. Even better, they're already working although Symphony is still in Europe.

Here it is, nearly two hours of Symphony of the Seas in a complete walkthrough. Mind you, commentary is in German but if you are lucky you can already use English subtitles. Might be addictive you have been warned 

I'm currently watching a live video of my favourite Youtuber... he just left El Loco Fresh and food was complimentary.

1 hour ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Now I am curious...is this the same German youtuber that put together a complete Seaside video tour back in December.  He was wearing a longer gray jacket and a scarf.  I watched the whole thing even though I did not understand a word of it!

Yes, he did the Seaside tour - I just had to check what he was wearing in the video . For anyone who's interested: You can find him under 'Schiffstester Matthias Morr' on Youtube.

Personally, I don't like the Western Mediterranean itneraries, we'll only use them as a cheap way to try out new ships. I've been to the Med quite often, for us it's an easy getaway with our motorhome.

A cruise to Norway is definetely on our list, I've already been to Norway for a few weeks as a land vacation  and would love to see the fjords from a ship perspective. And we still have to get to the North Cape, which is also easier by ship.

Haven't checked Royals offers but a Baltic cruise might also be an option - our 14 nights cruise was the best vacation we ever had, but it depends on the ports you'll visit.

Can't wait for Easter Sunday. My favorite Youtuber will post a complete tour of Symphony then.  The one on Harmony was around 70 minutes long. I'll post the link as soon as it's up if anyone is interested - just be aware that commentary will be in German.

We booked deck 8 for two reasons - Central Park and being quite in the middle of the important decks as we're planning to avoid the elevators like the plague.

1 hour ago, Sabrinaklai said:

Calling all Alaska group cruisers!  This is your mission.

And if you fail to accomplish that, I'll give it another try on the Symphony TA. If Twangster manages to evade y'all on the group cruise, I'm determined to find an answer to the robot question. I've got a lot of sea days and nothing much planned to sidetrack me from the mission 

We'll be in arriving in Miami with Symphony on Friday and board Caribbean Princess on Sunday. What do we do in between? We've already booked a hotel in South Beach on Ocean Drive. Our plan for Friday was to stroll the Art Deco district & the boardwalk and wave Symphony goodbye from South Pointe Pier in the evening. We'd like to do some sightseeing on Saturday - do you know any tours that are worthwhile and give a good overview of Miami's highlights? I've already researched the Hop on Hop off buses, but the reviews are mixed - I'd be grateful for your opinions.

Also, how do we get from port to the hotel - and to Port Everglades on Sunday? I'm guessing Uber or Lyft would be the easiest? (We don't have those in Germany so I have no experience regarding this.) Guess we'd have to do UberXL or the equivalent - with 4 suitcases 

And on to a topic that's more fun: food. Considering we'll be cruising for 4 weeks, I'm not planning to visit any "real" restaurants. We're more thinking fast food and would like to try some options we don't have in Germany. (What you can tick off in Germany is easily listed: McD, Burger King, Subway, Pizza Hut.) I'm totally up for suggestions here - what is a must try?

Thanks in advance for your feedback. Can't wait to make good use of it - even though it'll mean we have left Symphony :(

1 hour ago, Floski said:

I lived in Germany for 7 1/2 years.  Have drank viele gluhwein!   That and some gulaschsuppe is the best thing for a bitter cold day (and perhaps some apfelkorn).

 

I miss Germany so badly.  We were considering going back last year for our 30th, but it's so expensive, and now that I've found cruising....well, you know.

Ah, that's why you know so much typical German food 

13 minutes ago, rjac said:

I spent a total of 9 years in Germany when I was in the Army. I totally agree with your menu items, not to mention the schwein hoxen! Yeah, it woould be nice to visit Germany again, but, the current political situation, mid-eastern immigrants and cost makes it not desirable. And yes, cruising is THE answer. 

To be honest, I currently wouldn't advise anyone to visit the bigger cities or Metropolitan areas. The countryside is still quite unaffected - and is much more enjoyable anyway 

18 hours ago, RestingBirds said:

My wife got apple pie this past week as well, on Brilliance...same thing, raisins...totally weird for apple pie.

A word of warning if you ever find yourself in Germany or Austria... real apple pie and also apple strudel always have raisins 

On 5.3.2018 at 1:09 AM, JLMoran said:

I had asked about this several months back, and was advised to just do one for the day, even if the schedule indicated both could work. Since all RCI-hosted excursions depart from the ship, the last thing you want is to be held up getting back to the shop from your morning excursion and then end up missing the departure of the afternoon one. Also have to consider when to fit in lunch, since the excursions typically don’t offer any food if they aren’t all day.

We still haven't sailed Royal but we've done the 2 excursions in 1 day routine numerours times on TUI cruises. Yes, you'll likely miss lunch and it might be a bit stressful, but we prefer to get the most out of a port. You can always eat more for breakfast and dinner   We never missed an excursion, we only had to refrain from tendering back to the ship once in Visby becsause our first excursion returned late. We just told the shore excursions crew on the pier and they called it in - we met our second group when they got off their tender boat.

14 hours ago, J_Keeble said:

There is no Quantum class ship for the summer season from Southampton, there is however Independence and Explorer. Im hoping that Spectrum will head to Southampton before she goes to Asia.

Just remembered it's Quantum class for the UK in 2020 not 2019. Guess I'll have to hope for Spectrum sailings before she is repositioned to probably Asia.

7 hours ago, twangster said:

No word yet but I suspect they don't want to impact Symphony's time in the limelight.  If they start talking Spectrum then people nay avoid booking Symphony in order to sail on the newest not realizing they are distinctly different ships.

As long as the sailings are available for Symphony's TA... If we like Royal I'll drag hubby to the Next Cruise desk and book a Spectrum cruise - if all else fails it'll be whichever Quantum class ship will be in Southampton for 2019 summer season.

Hi Chris,

thank you for your blog, it was really enjoyable. In Germany we have a TV series called "Verrueckt nach Meer" (Crazy for Sea) that follows crew members on Phoenix Cruises, but most staff they feature works in the kitchen. It was interesting to read another perspective. 

1 hour ago, JLMoran said:

Nope. MSC is part of a larger Italian shipping company. Royal Caribbean Cruises International owns Royal Caribbean (mass market), Celebrity (premium), and Azamara (luxury).

They also own 50 % of TUI Cruises (German cruise line, premium) and 49 % of Pullmantur (Spanish cruise line, mass market). It's quite common for them to sell their ships back and forth between the cruise lines. Sovereign OTS & Monarch OTS as well as Celebrity Horizon & Celebrity Zenith are now with Pullmantur, the ex-Pullmantur ships Blue Dream & Blue Moon are now Azamara Journey & Azamara Quest, Celebrity Galaxy & Celebrity Mercury are now TUI Cruises' Mein Schiff 1 & Mein Schiff 2...

I guess the earlier the better - you can always cancel/rebook later. Specialty dining for Symphony's TA was available about 300 days out and the 5 night dining package was only available for a few weeks, the 4 night package was only available up to January.

While we've never cruised with MSC beforce, we plan to do a cruise on MSC Seaview (Seaside's sister in the Med) solely because we like the ship's concept. To make up for the problems that you have to expect when trying a lower fare and Italian cruise line, we'll definetely choose a YC suite although we usually sail in an inside cabin. Fortunately MSC's suites don't cost that much more than TUI's inside cabins. I'm curious to see how Royal's pricing will compare to TUI, as there's so much to calculate on top (gratuity, drinks etc.).

10 hours ago, twangster said:

"To blog or not to blog".  I've got 250 days to ponder. 

Everybody will be waiting for your pictures, I guess you'll have no choice  There's no way I can match them. I'm planning to do a blog from a first timer point of view - first time Royal, first TA.