Joe01

I've been waiting for a while. Sometimes, I wondered if I would ever get there. Watching everything about the Symphony launching while I was stuck doing a lot of work that I hate and working through the difficulties of life in miserable Scottish weather. Finally, it is nearly here. 10 days until I board the Symphony of the Seas!!!!!!

I am Joe. I have enjoyed following Royal Caribbean Blog for a while now and have been posting on the forum for around a year now. This is my first time doing a LIVE blog, having been inspired by CruiseLifeRick when he did his CC LIVE thread on Symphony's inaugural in April. I am also going LIVE on CC, but ultimately would love to share my adventures with the RC Blog as well, especially as many of you are US based and may wish to hear about either the Med or Symphony herself when she arrives to Miami in November.

I come to you from Glasgow, Scotland, a city well known for it's friendliness:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpnUurJvGWs (disclaimer: Don't watch if you have no sense of humor, take things too literally or hate any use of strong language). 

This will be my 13th & 14th cruise; my 6th & 7th Oasis Class cruise and 2nd B2B. This will also be my 5th & 6th cruise around the Med and my 4th & 5th from Barcelona. There will be one first - my first time on Symphony! Having sailed all 3 sister ships, I am very excited to see everything new that Symphony will have to offer. I am hoping to try both Playmakers (wings!) and El Loco Fresh which are new dining venues on SY. Please give any other suggestions of things to try. All welcome.

I'll be back with more soon!

Great. Will follow then. Was actually considering the July 28th Norwegian Fjords sailing, but 2 weeks on SY won out in the end.

I've been waiting for a while. Sometimes, I wondered if I would ever get there. Watching everything about the Symphony launching while I was stuck doing a lot of work that I hate and working through the difficulties of life in miserable Scottish weather. Finally, it is nearly here. 10 days until I board the Symphony of the Seas!!!!!!

I am Joe. I have enjoyed following Royal Caribbean Blog for a while now and have been posting on the forum for around a year now. This is my first time doing a LIVE blog, having been inspired by CruiseLifeRick when he did his CC LIVE thread on Symphony's inaugural in April. I am also going LIVE on CC, but ultimately would love to share my adventures with the RC Blog as well, especially as many of you are US based and may wish to hear about either the Med or Symphony herself when she arrives to Miami in November.

I come to you from Glasgow, Scotland, a city well known for it's friendliness:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpnUurJvGWs (disclaimer: Don't watch if you have no sense of humor, take things too literally or hate any use of strong language). 

This will be my 13th & 14th cruise; my 6th & 7th Oasis Class cruise and 2nd B2B. This will also be my 5th & 6th cruise around the Med and my 4th & 5th from Barcelona. There will be one first - my first time on Symphony! Having sailed all 3 sister ships, I am very excited to see everything new that Symphony will have to offer. I am hoping to try both Playmakers (wings!) and El Loco Fresh which are new dining venues on SY. Please give any other suggestions of things to try. All welcome.

I'll be back with more soon!

I can't wait either! Very excited. Would also love to see the refurbed Indy at some point as well.

I've been waiting for a while. Sometimes, I wondered if I would ever get there. Watching everything about the Symphony launching while I was stuck doing a lot of work that I hate and working through the difficulties of life in miserable Scottish weather. Finally, it is nearly here. 10 days until I board the Symphony of the Seas!!!!!!

I am Joe. I have enjoyed following Royal Caribbean Blog for a while now and have been posting on the forum for around a year now. This is my first time doing a LIVE blog, having been inspired by CruiseLifeRick when he did his CC LIVE thread on Symphony's inaugural in April. I am also going LIVE on CC, but ultimately would love to share my adventures with the RC Blog as well, especially as many of you are US based and may wish to hear about either the Med or Symphony herself when she arrives to Miami in November.

I come to you from Glasgow, Scotland, a city well known for it's friendliness:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpnUurJvGWs (disclaimer: Don't watch if you have no sense of humor, take things too literally or hate any use of strong language). 

This will be my 13th & 14th cruise; my 6th & 7th Oasis Class cruise and 2nd B2B. This will also be my 5th & 6th cruise around the Med and my 4th & 5th from Barcelona. There will be one first - my first time on Symphony! Having sailed all 3 sister ships, I am very excited to see everything new that Symphony will have to offer. I am hoping to try both Playmakers (wings!) and El Loco Fresh which are new dining venues on SY. Please give any other suggestions of things to try. All welcome.

I'll be back with more soon!

I've been waiting for a while. Sometimes, I wondered if I would ever get there. Watching everything about the Symphony launching while I was stuck doing a lot of work that I hate and working through the difficulties of life in miserable Scottish weather. Finally, it is nearly here. 10 days until I board the Symphony of the Seas!!!!!!

I am Joe. I have enjoyed following Royal Caribbean Blog for a while now and have been posting on the forum for around a year now. This is my first time doing a LIVE blog, having been inspired by CruiseLifeRick when he did his CC LIVE thread on Symphony's inaugural in April. I am also going LIVE on CC, but ultimately would love to share my adventures with the RC Blog as well, especially as many of you are US based and may wish to hear about either the Med or Symphony herself when she arrives to Miami in November.

I come to you from Glasgow, Scotland, a city well known for it's friendliness:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpnUurJvGWs (disclaimer: Don't watch if you have no sense of humor, take things too literally or hate any use of strong language). 

This will be my 13th & 14th cruise; my 6th & 7th Oasis Class cruise and 2nd B2B. This will also be my 5th & 6th cruise around the Med and my 4th & 5th from Barcelona. There will be one first - my first time on Symphony! Having sailed all 3 sister ships, I am very excited to see everything new that Symphony will have to offer. I am hoping to try both Playmakers (wings!) and El Loco Fresh which are new dining venues on SY. Please give any other suggestions of things to try. All welcome.

I'll be back with more soon!

Same itinerary both weeks: Barcelona, Palma, Marseilles, La Spezia, Civitavecchia, Naples, Sea Day and repeat. I've done it before on Allure and Harmony. On Allure, we got off everywhere except Civ (where we already got off on Indy and Serenade). On Harmony, I only got off at Naples and spent the rest of the week onboard. Serenade was the other one from BCN, but was a 12 nighter, so a different itinerary.
For this one, I plan to get off at Naples both times (love the pizza and plenty to do), possibly once at La Spezia (nice town, Cinque Terre nearby) and at least once at Marseilles to practice my semi-fluent French. Also getting off at Barcelona . Not planning to get off at Palma (been there, done that) or Civitavecchia (Rome is too far away and not a fan of Civ itself). I'm on for 2 weeks, so plenty of time to enjoy the ship. Not too fussed about the ports. 

I've been waiting for a while. Sometimes, I wondered if I would ever get there. Watching everything about the Symphony launching while I was stuck doing a lot of work that I hate and working through the difficulties of life in miserable Scottish weather. Finally, it is nearly here. 10 days until I board the Symphony of the Seas!!!!!!

I am Joe. I have enjoyed following Royal Caribbean Blog for a while now and have been posting on the forum for around a year now. This is my first time doing a LIVE blog, having been inspired by CruiseLifeRick when he did his CC LIVE thread on Symphony's inaugural in April. I am also going LIVE on CC, but ultimately would love to share my adventures with the RC Blog as well, especially as many of you are US based and may wish to hear about either the Med or Symphony herself when she arrives to Miami in November.

I come to you from Glasgow, Scotland, a city well known for it's friendliness:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpnUurJvGWs (disclaimer: Don't watch if you have no sense of humor, take things too literally or hate any use of strong language). 

This will be my 13th & 14th cruise; my 6th & 7th Oasis Class cruise and 2nd B2B. This will also be my 5th & 6th cruise around the Med and my 4th & 5th from Barcelona. There will be one first - my first time on Symphony! Having sailed all 3 sister ships, I am very excited to see everything new that Symphony will have to offer. I am hoping to try both Playmakers (wings!) and El Loco Fresh which are new dining venues on SY. Please give any other suggestions of things to try. All welcome.

I'll be back with more soon!

I've been waiting for a while. Sometimes, I wondered if I would ever get there. Watching everything about the Symphony launching while I was stuck doing a lot of work that I hate and working through the difficulties of life in miserable Scottish weather. Finally, it is nearly here. 10 days until I board the Symphony of the Seas!!!!!!

I am Joe. I have enjoyed following Royal Caribbean Blog for a while now and have been posting on the forum for around a year now. This is my first time doing a LIVE blog, having been inspired by CruiseLifeRick when he did his CC LIVE thread on Symphony's inaugural in April. I am also going LIVE on CC, but ultimately would love to share my adventures with the RC Blog as well, especially as many of you are US based and may wish to hear about either the Med or Symphony herself when she arrives to Miami in November.

I come to you from Glasgow, Scotland, a city well known for it's friendliness:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpnUurJvGWs (disclaimer: Don't watch if you have no sense of humor, take things too literally or hate any use of strong language). 

This will be my 13th & 14th cruise; my 6th & 7th Oasis Class cruise and 2nd B2B. This will also be my 5th & 6th cruise around the Med and my 4th & 5th from Barcelona. There will be one first - my first time on Symphony! Having sailed all 3 sister ships, I am very excited to see everything new that Symphony will have to offer. I am hoping to try both Playmakers (wings!) and El Loco Fresh which are new dining venues on SY. Please give any other suggestions of things to try. All welcome.

I'll be back with more soon!

@CraftyCat05 I'm afraid that per a recent CC post, Michele is off at the end of July, meaning that Bobby will be your CD. Sorry about that. I'm certainly glad that he isn't there for my sailings. Hopefully Margot can make up for not having a good CD. I'll provide feedback on her when I am on SY in 10 days.

I've been waiting for a while. Sometimes, I wondered if I would ever get there. Watching everything about the Symphony launching while I was stuck doing a lot of work that I hate and working through the difficulties of life in miserable Scottish weather. Finally, it is nearly here. 10 days until I board the Symphony of the Seas!!!!!!

I am Joe. I have enjoyed following Royal Caribbean Blog for a while now and have been posting on the forum for around a year now. This is my first time doing a LIVE blog, having been inspired by CruiseLifeRick when he did his CC LIVE thread on Symphony's inaugural in April. I am also going LIVE on CC, but ultimately would love to share my adventures with the RC Blog as well, especially as many of you are US based and may wish to hear about either the Med or Symphony herself when she arrives to Miami in November.

I come to you from Glasgow, Scotland, a city well known for it's friendliness:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpnUurJvGWs (disclaimer: Don't watch if you have no sense of humor, take things too literally or hate any use of strong language). 

This will be my 13th & 14th cruise; my 6th & 7th Oasis Class cruise and 2nd B2B. This will also be my 5th & 6th cruise around the Med and my 4th & 5th from Barcelona. There will be one first - my first time on Symphony! Having sailed all 3 sister ships, I am very excited to see everything new that Symphony will have to offer. I am hoping to try both Playmakers (wings!) and El Loco Fresh which are new dining venues on SY. Please give any other suggestions of things to try. All welcome.

I'll be back with more soon!

Talk about torture !  I could never work somewhere that I could see a cruise ship leaving WITHOUT ME !

Every question I had in my mind before reading vanished when I read it was  British reality tv show.
It also mentions a show called Geordie shore! I would replace the S with a W 
A show where parents can sit and proudly watch their children having sex on tv.
Nowadays people have very little respect for themselves never mind anyone else 

Anybody got any updates? A few ships with unsolved info. Particularly Symphony with regards to the handover date. I can't wait to be on in 2 weeks but really hope it is Michele for another few months (I'm sure @CraftyCat05 would agree). Also hoping AM Margot and the Cruise Staff team are good.

I could do something on here as well. More people are CC members though.

Yes!

Fingers crossed for you. I just hope that the schedule has changed and he is not due back on SY either. Without saying too much, he just isn't what I feel is CD material and certainly not a style that I would emulate if I got on ships myself. On the other hand, Tim is fantastic and I hope to have the opportunity to sail with him in the future. He used to be Activities Manager to Joff (one of my favorite CD's) so I am confident that I would enjoy him.

Fingers crossed for you. I just hope that the schedule has changed and he is not due back on SY either. Without saying too much, he just isn't what I feel is CD material and certainly not a style that I would emulate if I got on ships myself. On the other hand, Tim is fantastic and I hope to have the opportunity to sail with him in the future. He used to be Activities Manager to Joff (one of my favorite CD's) so I am confident that I would enjoy him.

Marc's schedule has recently changed (not sure what yet), but currently the plan is that he is on HM Aug 4th until Oct 6th. Dru Pavlov has been rotating on HM recently, but he would probably be on vacation by March if he returns in October. Not sure who it will be. Possibly Tim? Marc will likely be your CD when you go on Symphony though.

Hoping Symphony of the Seas will offer a better managed Sailaway Party. The poster of the video was unimpressed, as was I.
Remember that the running of events like this come down to the Cruise Director & Activities Manager. Even if you say that they don't matter, they really do if you plan to go near any activities.

On a 3/4 night cruise there is isn't enough time to be bored ?

Couldn't have said it better myself! The reason why AN is so big is because she is tall, but those extra decks only consist of additional staterooms. Actually a very narrow ship. Voyager Class doesn't suffer from overcrowding much.