Traveler

Day 2 – Palma
 
Ok, it turns out holidays are stressful. A balloon drop at midnight doesn’t go too well with an early morning breakfast – at least not for my girls.
 
Maria is the only one of us four leaving the ship today. She had booked an excursion through Royal. She went to the “Flamenco Show at Son Amar”. Despite the name the excursion included more then just a flamenco show. It was also a small city sightseeing tour. Maria had fun and she really enjoyed the show.
The kids and I stayed on board but we also had fun. Most of the time without mum the kids went to “Splashaway Bay” the kids water play area. Something we really have to get used to is the level of presumed safety. 3 life guards for “Splashaway Bay” is a lot, one for each slide and one to wonder around. Don’t get me wrong, I think safety is important, but I think it is also possible to overdo it. My guess is this has something to do with the crazy US laws, you can sue anybody for everything. I’m more used to “use your brain” and kids will hurt themselves playing. - But ok, doesn’t really bother us so back to the blog.
 
While the kids were playing I relaxed in a hot tub and then spend some time watching the kids with a (non alcoholic) drink from the “Sand Bar”. Like the other venues I tried so far the bar staff was very friendly and fast. After the first drink I didn’t need to show my sea pass again for the rest of the morning.
 
We went for a late lunch to “Sorento’s”. Pizza always works. We each had a couple of slices – not too much as we had a big dinner planned. For around 6pm.
After the pizza we stopped at the “Vitality Cafe” for a smoothie. It was nice and I think I will get another one during the holidays. Next time I have to enquire if they can customize it and use more fruits of one type for example. Very strangely even my 6 year old liked it – usually she doesn’t like anything new.
 
We then returned to the room for a while. The 8 year old went out on her own to go down the “Ultimate Abyss Slide” twice. She proved that she can do it. So I feel comfortable to let her or both of them together wonder around alone for a limited time.
 
After her trip to the flamenco’s Maria went to the thermal spa to relax for an hour and then met us all on time for Hibachi at Izumi. The kids were tired (the 8 year old actually dozed off for a good 15 minutes while sitting there. But apart from the youngest one we all enjoyed the food.
Two negative points – I should have guessed that, but the “show” doesn’t actually start until everybody at your table has arrived. We arrived about 5 minutes early and others about 10 minutes late. So we had to wait for 15 minutes – that’s somewhat boring not only for the kids.
But really the one thing I didn’t expect at all was the noise level. I think after the dinner an hour at an airport runway or an AC/DC concert would be really relaxing for the ears. The room is somewhat small with a low ceiling and the chef has to scream over the noise the other chef’s make and the other two tables. The girls didn’t like it at all especially the youngest one.
So my wife and I might go back later this week or next week but without the kids.
 
After dinner we went to 1977: “A Thrilling Adventure on Ice”. Our Genie met us at the door got us popcorn and drinks and nice seats front row near the middle. Oh and something I didn’t know, he had blankets so no need to worry about being underdressed for an ice show.
The show itself was good the plot or the story wasn’t the best but the performers were great. We wouldn’t have minded if the show would have been longer. And we look forward to the other ice show “iSkate 2.0” later this week.
 
Since it was fixed we had a working hot tub so late in the evening it was used 🙂
I think I agree with the comments online that the location of the Ultimate Family Suite is better on Wonder of the Seas. Here on Symphony the balcony is a little too public.
 
Maria went down to the silent disco for a while when I watched over the girls and ensured that they got to bed slightly earlier.
 
Maria and I were talking about the laundry bag that we filled early morning and that it sadly didn’t arrive the same day – not that we needed it that day. But when we went to get ready for bed we noticed it in the wardrobe. Shirts hanging up nicely and everything washed and returned on that day. Gloria did a fantastic job in not only returning it but hanging it up inside where it should be.
 
We had a little problem with the phones the night before as there were those annoying blinking lights indicating about a message. Gloria figured out how to listen to it. Only one of the three phones works for that – and that is the only phone I did not try.
The messaging system is strange. The automated voice prompts are in German (I guess since I’m German) but the message from shore excursions itself was in English. That also meant that Gloria couldn’t delete the message. She listened to it and understood that it was late, and not really necessary in the first place but, more a friendly reminder to be on time and bring the stuff you need to bring. But since the message “Press 1 to repeat, press 2 to delete, …” was in German she couldn’t do it. But she met us in the evening after the ice show and together we figured out how to delete the message – so no more blinking phones.
Is that automated message normal for the first excursion on the cruise? Since we didn’t get one for the day 3 excursion.
When we were about to go to bed an office from the technical team showed up to fix the phones – I was a little embarrassed that I couldn’t delete a simple voice message but really nobody told me to try all three phones.
 
So that’s it for today, we all 4 managed to be in bed just before midnight. Tomorrow we’ll be in Marseille
 
Random observation for today:
The background noise on a cruise ship is something I need to get used to. At home we here birds when it gets light outside and usually the first car around 6:05 (one of our neighbours going to work) and then only nature until around 6:30am. The advantage of living in a small village in the middle of nowhere. But here on board you constantly hear air-conditioning, elevators, engines, ...
 

So, the big question: Do I write a live blog or do I not write one?
The problem, if I start, I have to finish it or it will look silly. But if I don’t even start nobody would notice it. ← That question is what has kept me busy the last couple of days.
I guess since you can read this I decided to write one (or at least start and then look silly if I abandon it).
Who is travelling? Me, my wife and our daughters (8 and 6 years old).

We arrived in Barcelona yesterday. Two days before our cruise but better safe than sorry. Our two flights were short and we would have plenty of other options to get here by Sunday. But we only ended up with a roughly 30 minute delay on arrival.
The trip started at home (a small village in Northern Germany). We drove to Billund (Denmark) on Thursday to spend a day in Legoland and then fly Friday morning from Billund to Barcelona (Spain) via Frankfurt (Germany). For anybody from the US – Europe is really small or the countries are. So we left our home country to go to another country to fly to Barcelona with a stop over in our home country. Have I managed to confuse you enough? If not, yes, Denmark is North of Germany and Barcelona is South. But we live so close to the border to Denmark that the closest bigger airport is actually Billund / Denmark for us. Oh and let’s not forget a day in Legoland is always fun.
OK, now to the actual cruise stuff or rather pre cruise stuff as we won’t start until tomorrow.
We asked our girls what they wanted to do today, so we ended up going to the zoo. Not a typical tourist thing I guess but the girls wanted to see animals so we did that. And it was fine. The zoo had nice animal enclosures and it seemed big enough for them and clean enough. I’m always sceptical if animals are kept in an animal friendly way, but the Barcelona zoo really looked nice (I’m not an expert on animal keeping (other then the 8 and 6 year old ones travelling with us).
We split up after that. My wife wanted to do lots of museums and touristy stuff – the girls and I didn’t, we wanted to relax.
On the way back to the hotel we stopped at a LEGO store. That raises the question how many more of them can we visit during the cruise. I’m a little annoyed about myself that I didn’t research that beforehand. But I still have time.
We finish of the day with some dinner later on and then after a nice relaxing breakfast we will be picked up at 10am to get to the cruise terminal tomorrow morning.
I guess since I started writing here on this forum, I will have to include something about the actual cruise too. So we are barding the Symphony of the seas tomorrow morning for a nice time on our first Royal Caribbean cruise through the western Mediterranean Sea. Our cabin will be 1733 – our girls have selected that cabin (at least that’s what I’m telling everyone) as yes, that is the Ultimate Family Suite.
Our Genie will be Stepan and from the communication so far he seems to be very friendly and we look forward to meeting him tomorrow. I have given his WhatsApp number not only to my wife but also to our 8 year old so he might get a little upset with me – if they have too many requests.
One final note:
While I said I will try to write a somewhat life blog I didn’t say that I would write daily. If I manage I will try to write at least something every day oh and if I find something interesting I might even include a picture or two. I’m just not 100% sure if it makes sense to include the same picture of a cheesecake or a water slide or … that you can find 1000 times on google or even on this website. I guess wait and see how many pictures I will include (yes, definitely some room pictures but again there are already so many on the internet).
 
That’s it for today. To everybody else who is on this cruise – see you tomorrow,
Christian

That was my spouse favorite part of the ATS when we did our cruise in Symphony , apparently many use it as the snoring room  🙂 

That was my spouse favorite part of the ATS when we did our cruise in Symphony , apparently many use it as the snoring room  🙂 

That was my spouse favorite part of the ATS when we did our cruise in Symphony , apparently many use it as the snoring room  🙂 

That was my spouse favorite part of the ATS when we did our cruise in Symphony , apparently many use it as the snoring room  🙂 

That was my spouse favorite part of the ATS when we did our cruise in Symphony , apparently many use it as the snoring room  🙂 

That was my spouse favorite part of the ATS when we did our cruise in Symphony , apparently many use it as the snoring room  🙂 

That was my spouse favorite part of the ATS when we did our cruise in Symphony , apparently many use it as the snoring room  🙂 

Final onboard account:

This, combined with our $0.77 win from our casino free play and we walk off the ship $1.82 richer! Darn! We really need to keep our day jobs. 😂

So true.  To the new cruiser they'll be tickled the room is cleaned once recognizing that hotels have pretty much ditched daily housekeeping service

Still one of my favourite Star Class perks. One more load before we pack for home…

After dinner we saw the Effectors: Crash and Burn. I was worried that this would not make sense as much as @JohnK6404 had said a while ago that this show is the sequel to what is on Odyssey. Well, it was perfectly fine watching it out of order. 
This show is amazing! The vocals are so strong (but we already knew that from Voices), the special effects so awesome, and the drone work I cannot even put into words, especially that set with Lume. There are technical elements from Symphony (Flight) and Harmony (Columbus) that I recognized here but overall Royal went over the top with this show. Hubby was saying if they sold Effectors merch after the show, it would probably sell like hotcakes. 


We had no idea this was going to happen, but after the show, the cast stays on to take pics with the kids in the audience. Such a nice surprise. Hubby made his way down to the front with the kids for a photo op. So yes @Jax, my husband is my oldest child 😂

I will upload video clips to Instagram tomorrow 😴

Happy anniversary. 
The secret with Hooked is to eat there at the day they get fresh supplies . I always try to find out what is the port which they are restocking. 

Happy anniversary. 
The secret with Hooked is to eat there at the day they get fresh supplies . I always try to find out what is the port which they are restocking. 

Happy anniversary. 
The secret with Hooked is to eat there at the day they get fresh supplies . I always try to find out what is the port which they are restocking. 

Happy anniversary. 
The secret with Hooked is to eat there at the day they get fresh supplies . I always try to find out what is the port which they are restocking. 

We returned to our cabin to find some treats from Hannah. 
@Sweety that is the Chops red velvet cake in the shape of a heart 😋

You can view your photos on the app now. @Matt not sure how new this is.
 

21 years today ❤️
(Our kids who are at home will cringe at this photo but I don’t care 😁)

Woke up this morning to a whole lot of noise outside; talking/yelling, blaring announcements. It was only 7:30am at the time. Upon investigating, this was the source of the noise….

Another fantastic and relaxing afternoon! I am starting to think this live blog might become too boring for all of you but Hubby and I are truly having the best time doing a whole lot of nothing. It is such a nice change from the business of home. I am starting to miss my girls though. The house is still in one piece, my plants are still alive, and the pool doesn’t look green, but as much as I love my alone time, I miss them. 
 
After lunch at El Loco we spent the rest of the afternoon just chilling. Hubby went to the Flowrider again and I spent most of my afternoon napping on the balcony. 
 
Currently in the Suite Lounge enjoying @Neesa’s recommendation. 

 

Dinner at Giovanni’s Kitchen 

We first tried this on Freedom last July and really liked it. Here on Wonder it is just as good. Service and quality of food perfect here tonight. Hubby and I both had pastas, the tiramisu was super rich, and I love the pizza crust here. 

Securing the door to open only with sea pass will help but not enough as people can easily piggyback when one is opening the door. What they may do is maybe to locate a sundeck concierge near the door as part of the towel station.

Securing the door to open only with sea pass will help but not enough as people can easily piggyback when one is opening the door. What they may do is maybe to locate a sundeck concierge near the door as part of the towel station.