Traveler

Napoli 

 

4 hours ago, Matt said:

"Is Symphony of the Seas still a good ship? It's like 3 weeks old, but I'm worried she's showing her age"

That's it no more updates at 2 am , where is the "not when you need it" 

Day4

 

Today port was La Spezia.

We slept late today until 8:30 am as we have not booked any tour.From all our stops in Italy La Spezia is my  favorite one as it’s a nice small city which you can tour around without any issues.

To go to the port gate, you must take a shuttle bus as ship passengers are not allowed to walk inside the port.

Las Spezia is also the gate to Pisa (45 minutes ride) and Florence (90 minutes ride) .If you never been to Florence I would highly recommend to take a tour to this renascence city with many amazing sites to visit.Pisa on the other hand have only one attraction, and yes it is the leaning tower of Pisa , you come , you take the photo (with thousands of other people) you pose as if you support the tower and create a face book picture exactly like million people before you ?

So I would go to Pisa only on the way to Florence.

Another excellent option would be visiting Cinque Terre , its actually  villages that are built on the cliff , they are very colorful and best view from the sea side although visiting one of them over the land is very nice.You can always take the tour from the ship but if you want to save some money you can find some tours operator in the port (There are many vendors inside the port building).The train station is 15-20 minutes from the port.

The best way to save money (for sure if you have 4 people in your group) will be to rent a car and drive were ever you want, for example you can drive to one of the small towns near by, park outside (parking available on the road side using parking tickets machines, make sure you bring enough euro coins) , please note some of the villages/towns are not allow cars inside. or even travel to Pisa (many parking near by). If you choose to rent a car please note , most of the cars that are offered in Italy (and in many other Europe countries)  has manual transmission , the automatic one are the more luxurious cars. Car rental with insurance (automatic transmission) will cost around 100$ per day. There are several rental cars in the city , I think the nearest one is the Avis which is 15 minute walk from the shuttle dropped.

I used this option last time I visit this port (We were group of four), I rented the car few month ahead, took the shuttle , walked to the renting facilities  and picked the car (do not expect to see US car renting like facilities , its actually travel agency with cars parked on the street). Once I picked the car I returned to the port to pick the rest of the group, It was quite easy. For sure it will be helpful if you will have access to Waze or other navigating application. If you just want to stay around the town you can walk and enjoy the seaside some parks and local restaurants There are many shopping option around (usually small shops)  , remember shops  can be closed between 1:30 PM To 3 or 4 PM for siesta time.

. There is also a mall in walking distance (1 mile from the shuttle drop). We walked in the city for a while and at the end we went to the mall to complete some of the must things in Italy :

Eat a pizza, drink espresso, eat a pasta and eat authentic Italian ice cream.

 There were many shops which offered mid session discounts ,My spouse bought some shoes and some T-shirts while I went to the supermarket (the local Walmart) and bought some aged balsamic vinegar and wine.

We eat a wired combo of pizza which come with soft drink and  espresso then went back to the ship (walking).

I love to be on the ship during port day , excellent time to relax and use the different facilities, its also a good option to take some pictures.

For dinner, we choose this time the WJ.

They had a lovely chocolate fountain, but I should have complained to someone that they located it in front of the window which facing the sun, it is bad for taking pictures, how inconsiderateness of them.

Later we went to sea the new ice show 1877, we came 10 minutes before and found some front seat , I must say they excel themselves , it was amazing , the effects is something out of the world although the level of skating was less than other shows over the different ships , maybe they need to run it for a while.

Here some pictures from the show , for better quality you will need to wait for @twangster  Trans Atlantic cruise in October 

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Some observations: 

Internet is fast all around the ship, 

We have only 5100 people on board which can explain how there are always tables available in the WJ (tip , try to go to the middle of the WJ)

The break room is not available yet.

The CD is Michelle , BB is on the ship but he is not doing the morning show or most of the activities .

The ship looks really well maintained and not  showing her age at all 

3 hours ago, tiny260 said:

Pinging @Traveler he is on there currently doing a semi-Live blog, attached below, I believe in the blog WJ is discussed.

 

Yes they have two egg stations which you can order them the way want .

As you can see it's not just rest and food

Typical day

 

 

The seagull is appreciating Michelangelo's art 

 

If to be accurate , it's the Vatican 

Rome 

 

Day 3

 

We waked up from the noises of the ship navigating to the Marseilles port.At this port you can take a shuttle to the city center (18 $ both ways kids ride for free).We eat a quick breakfast in the WJ , nothing really new here , same egg station, same lack of choices in breads and missing some fresh vegs but enough things to make almost everyone happy.

We booked a tour called Scenic Marseille , it’s a three hours long which start by driving between different interesting points in  Marseille with one stop in the old city water tower  and one stop at the city old port for one hour of do what you wand time. If anyone wanted to have some extra time at the city there was a shuttle station near by which allow you to catch a ride back to the ship.The tour was ok but I think it’s not really the best tour to take, I was missing some more stops and maybe some extra time , but hey I had to read better about what is offered..

After we stopped at the old port we went to find some macrons to eat , after all we are in France.We did find some nice bakery that had fresh Macrons and excellent almond croissants.The Macrons were good but I can actually get better back at home. As the bakery did not had coffee to go with the pastries we went to find us some good original French coffee , we found one next door , a small local French coffee shop called La Starbucks, so went outside to drink our fresh local coffee and eating the pastries. At that time the sun went out and it became another wonderful day.

After an hour or so we took our bus back to the ship.

We went to eat something in the park café , the park café here has the same exact menu as all the other ships have , the main change here is that RC organized more space to seat inside.

Next we went to play the mystery puzzle, we joined one of the groups and it was quite fun to try and solve it while knowing new people. We solved most of the puzzles but fail to find  the right criminal, apparently none of the other groups came to the right answer either.

It was SPA time ,so we went to the thermal suite to use the heated chairs, my partner was listening  to some music while I , to another podcast ?.I must say this time the room was quite full but we found two spots.We had to go catch some rest before dinner (actually catching some rest its an excuse for me to return to the room and write the blog updates).Dinner tonight was in the MDR , we were seated near a nice Italian couple which did not speak a word in English which was nice as it let my spouse practice her Italian , I on the other hand had to communicate with my Taxi/restaurant Spanish, it was very funny as many words are almost the same but pronounce differently and some have other meanings.

We saw the comedy show which was what I was expecting, glad I did not missed it this time.The night was ended at the Casino with some more Mojitos  from the Casino bar (thank you sticker) , I got three of a kind in 3 card poker so it was nice ending to this long day.

1 hour ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Too bad about "Flight" not showing.  I would have to say that out of all the RC original productions, this is the one I am looking forward to the most. 

Agree, I hope that by September time when we will be again on the Symphony they will have it

Here are the showes we have this week , as you might observe , they still not showing the new RC original production , I will try to ask when they are planning to add it 

 

Day 2 part two.

 

So, after we finish with the C&A event (with some sparkling wine) we went up to get ready for the first official night.We had some spare time so we tour the ship again, I must say , the number of people that were dressed up to the official night looked to me much more than in  a Caribbean cruise.The dinner was set at Hooked(the second part of the BOGO deal) which is locate on the 16 floor with some view to the sea.

The restaurant looked very roomy with allot of space between the tables , it does not look too fancy but nice.We got the menu which does not include any extra payment items.The waiter came and recommended some dishes so we started to order , if we just knew how big the plates are we might order differently ?

We stated with baked oysters, some mussels in wine and cream , it come with some bread that you can dip in the sauce which I liked very much.

Followed by  green salad with shrimps , the shrimp was huge and excellent the rest of the salad not so much, some will say the two items does not  correspond with each other (ops , its seems I watch too much master chef) the greens could use some better sauce, something light like like citrus based vinegar.

The waiter asked if we want also some  raw oysters , we did not answer fast enough so he said “why not” and brought six, I did not protest , you know … for the research. Apparently, they get the oyster twice during this cruise, at Barcelona and in Rome, so better to try them or in the firs/second day or I guess in the fifth/six day.

For main dishes, we took the surf and turf which was  a lobster tail and a tenderloin steak, both were excellent, the stake was very tender.

My spouse ordered  the captain dish which includes : Jumbo shrimps, big lobster tail and some fish filet, each one of them could be a main course. The dish comes with some vegs and lobster mac & cheese.

Everything was very tasty , but too much for us (maybe if we did not eat a big lunch before could help).I must say the service was very fast and everything arrived promptly , we liked it but I heard one table complaining that it comes too fast, well you cannot make everyone happy.They have four dessert to choose from we took the Boston cream pie and something  called Whoopie pie we could both skip the dessert as we were very full but hey , research.I am happy that we did not skip it as the Whoopie pie  was very good and different from the regular RC dessert.

 The chef and the restaurant manager came to ask how was it , they explained since it Is a new restaurant they still do some  fine tuning in the menu and to the size of the portions.All in all we liked it allot.

After dinner we somehow found are way to the room, to recovered and later continue the night by contributing some money to the casino and walk around between the different activities.

We thought to go to the silent party but the lines were huge so we skipped it and went to sleep.

6 minutes ago, JLMoran said:

Only if you're sitting in the heated seat in the thermal suite while listening to an episode about the thermal suite and how great the heated seats are. Then the meta might be a little overwhelming. 

I blame the speller and the Mojitos 

If I am using hi

heated seat in the thermal suite while listening to RC blog poodcasts do you think I need to seek help ?

Day 2 part 1

 

After a few hours of sleep (although I consider sleeping as waste of cruise time) we looked at the window and saw we already in Palma de Mallorca , second look  showed us that the forecast was not that accurate as instead of nice sunny day it looked quite gloomy, or so we thought

As we did not have special plans for Palma we decided to take it easy and postponed our travel to the city.We took the regular breakfast at the WJ , I order some eggs (sunny side up , hey at least I thought here I will have some signs of sun)    As the weather was not that nice yet and since we already visited last year the main attraction of the city we just turned it to a sea day and stayed on the ship.If it’s  your first visit to Palma , I will not skip it , after all it is a nice small city with some interesting building and a nice cathedral.First thing we done was to use our spa access (yes the one from the research) , we did a quick check in , got our scrub packages and of we went to the thermal suite.We used the wet sauna which felt very good, helped to ease some of the non-sleeping enough pains.We tried also the heated chairs which was very nice. We were the only one there.

As the spa team were kind enough to allow us to take the rube out  we decide to do another thing new. believe or not until this cruise (our sevens one) we still have not any of the Jacuzzi's  or the pools in any of ships. We do not feel that comfortable with the public Jacuzzi which are usually very crowded but as it is a very new ship and most of the people went to the city we thought it is a good opportunity to try it.

So quick shower in the spa and of we went to the pool deck, we choose one of the jacuzzies with a nice sea view that was empty (from people not from water, I am not that weirdo). By that time the sun came out and it became a very nice day. 

 

 

We spent some time in the water and went to enjoy some PinaColadas near by (10 $ each, not sure how they got to it but after gratitude it was 23 something for both).

We took  another quick shower, changed and went to try another activity we never done (and I am not talking about napkin folding class) , yes it was time to go down by the ultimate abyss. No lines at all (wired for a sea day no ?)  just two girls that went down screaming all the way which made us think if we are going to do the right thing but no way back.

We both went down the slides on the same time , I can tell you it is much scary to watch the boardwalk from the top of the glass floor than to do the ride itself. It not felt too fast and was fun, will do it again for sure.As we already nearby we thought to walk for a while on the running truck to accumulate some steps and burn some of the calories before heading to the WJ for lunch.After resting a while in the room we visit the C&A event which was conducted at the aqua theater.So around 1500 CA , 900 gold , 18 Pinnacle , the person with most points had 2180 cruising points.

End of day2 part one  

19 hours ago, Traveler said:

I will check it later on , but I think you are right , the put the tables and shuffle board over there

Well , sorry to tell you but beside 3 chairs which not sure if someone was dragging it from somewhere I did not notice any chairs on deck 5 running track (or near it)  

15 hours ago, twangster said:

Thank you @Traveler ! Great live blog!

Thanks , trying to  learn from the bests 

 

Just returned from Hooked , too much food , but good one , will share more info later but the good news everything on the menu is without extra cost 

 

56 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Did they put in that place where those extra loungers usually are on the other Oasis class ships?

If so, that would be a shame.  Some people love that quiet area along track.

I will check it later on , but I think you are right , the put the tables and shuffle board over there

1 hour ago, ABFrenchie said:

Have you been on a Carnival ship with the Blue Iguana Cantina? If so, how does El Loco Fresh compare? My husband is obsessed with the tacos from BI although I much prefer RC a cruise line overall. 

Never been on a Carnival so I can not compare. But I think its decent Tacos. Hope you will be able to convince him 

And here is the internet speed in the room

Day  1 – Part two.

 

After going back to the room we located our luggage , although it was not near our room I still recognize them, apparently they where  near a room number similar to us.So we started to organize our stuff  as quick as we could to be able and push the two suitcases under the bad.The muster drill was next , the same jokes , same spy movie and same can not wait for it to be over  , but it was over after 20  minutes which allow us 30 minutes to get organized for dinner.

For dinner we went to Wonderland , it was not the first time we were eating there , first was at Harmony OTC , we liked it then and we wanted to give it another try.The menu was the same , the food was still very good but the surprise effect was missing ?.Do not get me wrong I still liked the food , mainly the shrimp and the slow cooked short rib.

The desserts are better looking than taste , I call them Facebook desserts (oh well I know now days Facebook is not that poplar so I will call them Instagram desserts).

Still , I do recommend people to try Wonderland at least for one time.We did a quick visit at the Casino , saying hello  to the host and getting the free drink sticker , it was  time to go and enjoy hairspray.We successfully found a wonderful seats at row five just in front the stage, all the other rows in front of us was reserve to star class . There were many empty seat for this show, I guess this is the first day effect .the show was nice, good choreography and sound. The 90 minutes pass quite fast.After the show we re visit the Casino for a while , 

Later on we watched the welcome show which in the end they have tons of balloons drooping on everyone  

 

Some observation :

 

No CA letter in the room

No meet and mingle letter

Free style machines exist at Sorentos, WJ and El Loco.

The ping pong table are at deck 5 outside neat the running track.

More , later ?

 

 

Day 1 Barcelona  , part one

Wow that was a long day,

It started at 5 AM, hey who can sleep late during embarkation day, I started to browse the internet thanking someone that decided to wait with the fireworks until we arrived  Barcelona.

When my spouse finally waked up we organize our suitcases and the backpacks with the water and wine.

Quick breakfast ,some last minute shopping for some stuff  we found that we forgot and we did our way to the port.

The drive  took about 10 minutes and around 25 $ including the tip.

We arrive to the port around 10:30 AM , security and check in took about 10 minutes (just validating our CC) but the ship was not ready to board , they said it will be ready around 11:30AM but I knew better (I read this blog after all)  and waited in line. Funny thing about the terminal , once you pass security you arrive to a small mall with several shops , one of the shopssells wines and water, which mean you can bring to the ship  as much wine as you want unless they check the wine for you , I forgot to ask as I already had two bottles  (and 8 bottles  of water +4 Sodas)    , well will find out next time.

They open the gate to general boarding at 10:50 , so up we went.

On deck 5 they gave some free sparkling wine which was nice.

First thing we  done after we finished the first glass of wine was to go to the central park area to find an open restaurant so we can reserve the BOGO (again thank you RC blog).

CG was opened and I booked as planned Wonderland for first night and Hooked for the second one (you know , for the research)  , no issues and no extra cost was required for the BOGO deal.

Next thing we done was to eat something in the WJ , after all breakfast was a fade memory as it was two hours ago , one may call it second breakfast (Hobbits maybe)

WJ was quite empty, lots of open tables. Food was the regular WJ food, Hamburgers, some carving station, pasta station , vegs and even Indian food.

We went to take some pictures of the pool deck but since it was rainy we did not stayed there too much time and continue our tour inside.

At 1 PM we went to the room , I really wanted to get rid of our bags has for some reason carry 10 bottles  around the ship is not that comfortable.

 

The room is organized very nicely and feel bigger than the room we had few month ago on INDY.

It was time to try something new, so we went one floor up to studio B were they had the laser tag.

We had to wait few minutes until more people will arrive and started the session.

The way they set it up is using some inflatables dividers over the Studio B floor.

They divide us into two groups (aliens and robots) and a 10 minutes session started.

It was fun and full of energy but our team lost ☹ which made us decide we need to try it again ? .

I think it is a very nice addition to the ship. Like many other activities its better to try and do at the first day before everyone finds it.

To relax after running in the laser tag we went to the SPA to add our name to the raffle , they took us a to a tour in the thermal suite and it looked very nice so we decide to buy the pass for the week (200 $ for couple) you know , for the research …

We thought what to do next and it was time to check El Loco fresh , I took a beef Taco (the option are beef , chicken, pork , rice and beans) topped it with some guacamole and fresh cream.

I know we just were in WJ two hours ago but hey it was for the research …

It was quite ok , not Sabor level but still a nice free option.

, sorry not easy to post via the cellphone even without drinking package

 

And now the show after the dinner