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moonflower0906

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Everything posted by moonflower0906

  1. Interesting towels have always been an issue. Like I said, some kinks, like housekeeping, I could see some improvements happening throughout the cruise so hopefully they will keep coming. We definitely learned to not take anymore cruises in its first few sailings. About prior experiences, this was my second cruise. I’ve been on a Carnival Caribbean cruise before that. I know Carnival is considered lower end so I expected RC to be better and it wasn’t! Other than the spa, something we liked on Carnical was every night they would have dishes and drinks inspired by the next port. On Symphony, the food is generic throughout. I know something like Regent is higher end than RC. We hoped RC was going to be the perfect medium of luxury and budget for us but alas, this trip nixed that possibility. I’m hoping to try Celebrity cruises next since I heard they have the best food. I did voice my feelings to RC when I went to the front desk for the non working phone (when they gave us our credit), which was when they found a record of work orders to our room, and again when I called about the towels. And I shared this feedback in the email survey. @BigRTraveler, we did still have a good vacation. The cruise was just half of the Europe trip for us and so overall, it was still great. The cruise is also port intensive so the ship is just part of it. As far as the ports go, Barcelona was amazing. We stayed for a few days before the cruise, which I’d highly recommend, especially if you love seafood, wine and art!
  2. I just returned from Symphony of the Seas about a week ago and wanted to share my experience. I know it might not be what people are expecting to hear. This is, after all, a Royal Caribbean, fan blog and I get that a lot of people like them. I was so excited to sail on this ship and hoped Royal Caribbean would be a cruise line I would choose to stay with but perhaps, it's just not for me. Before I start, I'll give a little background on my cruising style: I might not be your typical cruiser. I don't go on with plans to drink a lot (we had a handful of cocktails) or spend a lot of money doing specialty dining. My first cruise (to the Caribbean), we focused more on the cruise. This time, the itinerary was port-intensive and we booked it with the intention of seeing a lot of Europe in a short amount of time. We knew we were going to get off in every port (which many on the ship did not do) and see the sights. We are serious about our food and wine but our emphasis was on eating and drinking local when we were at port. (We live in California and drink local wine at home so for us, traveling to another wine region is about trying their wine.) We considered booking a cheaper cruise with less activities since the trip was so port intensive but I had been wanting to sail this trip and try Symphony of the Seas for a long time so we went for it. We hoped to have great activities and eats on the ship when we got back in the evenings too (I was not intending to sleep) but as the cruise wore on, we realized we'd have to eat at port if we wanted to be satisfied. My review: I sailed on the April 14 sailing on Symphony of the Seas and it was one of my worst vacation experiences. I’ll start with the positives: The ship is beautiful. The artwork is beautiful, I love the whimsical feel and every room is classy. The staterooms are nice and the beds very comfortable. The shows are cool. Some of them are a bit high concept. I honestly think if the ice show was iSkate 2.0 expanded, audiences would be just as happy as trying to figure out that strange storyline in 1977 but overall, a talented team. I like the emphasis on cleanliness with hand sanitizer and sinks everywhere. Here are some of the problems we experienced on the ship: The food is not great. The breakfast at the Windjammer is cold in areas it shouldn’t be and the potatoes are dry. I assume it’s a given the scrambled eggs are a mix. In the Main Dining Room, I had to send back the tuna one day because it was rubbery. The Royal Chocolate Cake doesn’t taste like chocolate. In Park Central, we took some sandwiches with us on a temperate day. 2 hours later, we took them out to eat and parts of the sandwich changed color, stemmed from what we believe to be poor ingredients or improper temperature food storage. Beyond that, the dishes were inconsistent. Some were good but many were average to below average. The menus were not inspired by the local foods or ports. It was completely generic. The wine list contains generic wines you could get in any American restaurant or Costco (like Duckhorn and Francis Ford Coppola) and there’s no cocktail menu at the dining room. This is a Mediterranean cruise. Wines are made in every country we ported at. Why not celebrate the local flavors a little more? The service ranged from good to poor but really, it was inconsistent. Rooms are barely cleaned. When we moved the pillows off the bed to sleep, the staff would not pick them back up when making the bed. They would just make the bed AROUND strewn pillows. Cups were left around for days. I found a mug in my nightstand after THREE days! Eventually, this got better so I assume it’s a kink the team is working out. In the Solarium Bistro breakfast, tables would be covered in empty plates, giving the appearance of a trashed restaurant. Guests would have to shove plates around on the table to make room to eat and even when I asked they be cleared off, they were not always cleared off. When we called (from the hall) about our phone problems (more on that below), the operator tried to tell us it was late and could he just come tomorrow. We said no. They did fix it but then ANOTHER guy showed up later in the night to fix it again. Seems like poor miscommunication. We had a guest services officer tell us iSkate 2.0 was free skating time for passengers. It’s a show. Please educate your guest services team. The spa was small. The “lobby area” for the thermal suites connects to the aroma spa (which had no aroma), the tiny dry steam room and the rainforest shower so you can hear every door slamming and everyone struggling with the rainforest shower, which only lasts 10 seconds. The worst part is that the ceiling shook every time someone above in the gym lifted a weight, took a step on the stair master etc. Why would you not soundproof the spa?! Also, I really missed the floor to ceilings windows of the sea that Carnival had. The noise was too distracting and I had to get a refund. The nightly dance parties with the life-of-the-party cruise director are lacking. Oh and all the cool activities you advertised? The escape room was only open once at a port time. The skating rink is only open once for passengers. Things open and close at weird times and the hot tubs are not hot. The advertised activities, especially those in Studio B, were a gimmick. The technology on this ship is not good. First, a tech/service issue: The automatic door at Central Park malfunctioned and nearly slammed in my face and instead of noticing he should report it, the staff member laughed at me! A second time, it slammed me hard in the shoulder because the automatic doors in Central Park are slower than ALL the other automatic doors on the ship! Back to the phone: our room phone needed 3 work orders so we basically had to go to guest services or do it ourselves every time we need something. Why am I paying $14.50 a day for service? (To their credit, guest services originally offered us 10% off my next cruise because of this complaint. I declined saying I didn't want to sail Royal Caribbean again so then they gave us $50 onboard credit.) The app sucks. You can’t bookmark events, message other guests on the ship (I know you can on some ships but this isn't one of them), it listed incorrect times for trivia, listed an ice skating event and then we got there and it was iSkate 2.0 and it generally lacks info like “don’t bring any loose items to laser tag.” We missed events because of the app. FINALLY, the billing issues! First, I got billed twice for a spa pass and had to have it refunded. Then, on the last day, I was told I didn’t return towels and charged $50! First of all, we last used towels on day 5. We brought them back and the employee barely paid attention when we returned them. Or perhaps the technology malfunctioned again! We spent the last night at midnight at Guest Services (AGAIN) to clarify the towel billing. We were told they would take it off and it would reflect on our account in the morning. In the morning, on the tv, the towels were still there but on the paper invoice, it was gone (slow technology yet again!?). We figured that’s fine but then I got home and got billed for the towels AGAIN! I had to call and then had to explain yet again how I didn’t take the towels. I’ve been told the charge will be refunded in 7-10 days so only time will tell if it’ll finally happen. This cruise was an awful experience. To their credit, a Guest Services Officer did offer 10% off our next cruise but we declined (got $50 on board credit instead) because we will never sail Royal Caribbean again and will never recommend it to our friends.
  3. Thanks everyone. After pushing a bunch of random buttons I was able to get a 4N (4U? 4Something) Interior Mid-Ship with something like $300-400 onboard credit but yes, there was some Priceline fine print that annoyed us. We are still open to re-booking through a travel agent since all but $125 is refundable. I just wanted the cabin. lol.
  4. Thanks for the responses so far! Something else occurred to me: Central Park Interior looks like it's on the ground floor of Central Park....is it loud? I have a feeling we'll keep our window closed all the time for the sake of privacy. I also learned from reading these boards that we should go through a travel agent so I'm also going to see what the travel agent can do for us in terms of getting a cabin mid-ship!
  5. Hi there! I'm new to the forum and looking to book my first Royal Caribbean cruise and my second cruise overall. I am planning to book Symphony of the Seas, during its European run but we are having a bit of a hard time deciding on which cabin package to book. The concern is motion sickness. I often get sick on cars and planes but the Sea Bands have helped there (discovered those before the Carnival cruise and love them!). On my first cruise on Carnival in the Caribbean, we followed all the advice and booked a lower level, cabin in the middle. I took my ginger capsules daily and wore my Sea Bands and all was fine except for a few hours of extreme motion. However, there's a lot more cabin options on Royal Caribbean. We've explored the possibilities on the RC website, Expedia and Priceline to see what our best options are for choosing a cabin but have pretty much come to the conclusion we can't choose an Interior cabin on the 4/7 and 4/14 voyages. I looked into an Ocean View cabin but those are all on the end (at least what's left) so I've narrowed it down to two options: 1. Priceline Guaranteed Room: We'd take a chance on it and let them choose our room. My fear is getting a room on the end...will it make me sick? I've read it's not as bad with bigger ships and Symphony of the Seas IS going to be the biggest but I'm not sure what the risk is and what kind of rooms people end up with using this option. 2. Interior Central Park view: This is about $300 more expensive total for the two of us but research found this was the best way for us to get a room mid ship. We don't really care about the view. We could take it or leave it. It would just be to guarantee us a location. Research on the Mediterranean Sea and motion got us mixed info but we think generally it would be ok in the Spring? Can any experienced cruisers give us advice on selecting a cabin? Is it worth it to splurge for the Interior Central Park? Thank you!
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