Diane.M

We used Go Airport Shuttle to go from Port Everglades to MIA on Thanksgiving Day.  We were a family of 6 plus luggage so didn't think an Uber XL would fit us.  It was more than an Uber XL but I wanted to prebook to make sure we'd have a ride since it was Thanksgiving Day.  We were happy with the service.  It was very easy as most of it was online.

So I have decided to dip my toes into this live blogging thing.  I have enjoyed reading so many others and learned so much I wanted to try and give back and hopefully do the same.  I will admit up front I am no great writer or photographer, so please don't hold me to an @twangster level, but I will try my best.  
This will be my second cruise.  First was back in March 2018 on Harmony of the Seas.  This cruise was originally going to be a quick get away in November on Brilliance of the Seas for my wife and I for our anniversary.  Dates weren't really working out with our schedules and then in my constant talking about cruising my Aunt and Uncle expressed interest in going.  They have never been on a cruise so in trying to decide the best first cruise for them it brought us to Symphony of the Seas.  They will be bringing their 15yo daughter and her friend along with.  My wife and I are leaving the kids at home and getting away for some much needed time together.  
Itinerary:
We will be flying from Chicago to Ft. Lauderdale this evening.  My sister is going to pick us up from the airport and drive us down to Miami.  Staying at Hyatt Centric Brickell Miami.  
Day 1 - Miami
Day 2 - Sea Day
Day 3 - Sea Day
Day 4 - St Kitts  Snuba underwater adventure excursion booked
Day 5 - St Thomas  Tree Limin Extreme Zip Line excursion booked
Day 6 - Sea Day  All access ship tour booked
Day 7 - Nassau  Blue Lagoon Island Segway excursion booked
This cruise was booked about 30 days ago so as soon as we booked all shows, dinner, etc were booked.  We plan to see each of the shows while on board.  I think I am most looking forward to Hiro since on Harmony they cancelled all the water shows when we went.  They did perform one during the day while we were in port and while it was still impressive, seeing it during the day and missing all the lighting had it lacking some.  We have mytime dining and have booked reservations each night for 7:30pm.  No specialty dining booked at this time.  
I have a few hours of work to do this morning before heading to the airport, so I guess since I can't sleep I might as well get up and get started on that.  Hope you all enjoy the blog, and please feel free to ask any questions.  I will try and update at least once daily and source out any pictures or answers to questions you have.  

Just back a few hours ago from our 5-night trip to Bermuda that @ellcee and @Broons77 were also on. I have a ton of photos to go through and edit, and I'm taking my older daughter to SUNY New Paltz tomorrow for a campus tour and maybe interview before she applies to transfer, so I probably won't be posting anything detailed before early next week or even next weekend. But here's a quick preamble of what, where, and why:
This was a double surprise cruise for my wife and me. First surprise was that I even booked the thing, as we had only booked our cruise on Freedom in December 2016, still had nearly a year to go to sail that cruise, and here I was going and booking another one! Why? My wife had mentioned a while back that she's never been to Bermuda, so when I saw this itinerary I figured I'd jump on it. While we were "officially" declaring the cruise on Freedom as our 20th anniversary celebration, I wanted something for just the two of us where we could have a chance to reconnect over a few days.
The second surprise, as most here have known for quite a long while now, is that when a BOGO 60 sale came along I upgraded us from a D2 Balcony cabin to a J4 Spa Junior Suite on deck 7. I managed to keep that secret until embarkation day, and I'll give the details about the reveal and reaction when I start making the real posts.
You all already know from @ellcee's great live blog that this was a single-stop cruise to just Bermuda, nowhere else, with an overnight stay that gave us basically two full days on the island. Since we had free rein of the island for that whole time, we'd worked out a plan for what mattered most to us and when we'd try and see it:
First port day – St. George, Crystal Cave and the nearby Swizzle Inn, and if time permitted, Hamilton Second port day – Horseshoe Bay Beach and the shops / sights around Royal Naval Dockyard In addition to our time in Bermuda, we made plans to check out the North Star and try out Ripcord by iFly, see all the on-board shows, and have dinner at Wonderland. We also wanted to buy the Thermal Spa package and have a chance to enjoy that throughout the trip. It was a pretty packed itinerary for a 5-night sailing; stay tuned to see how it all turned out!

I try to stress that it's not about numbers. I'm only interested in great folks who enjoy a lively conversation, rather than thousands of randos who do not speak.  
That being said, I'm so gratified so many people have joined.  Definitely a great sign!

I recall the pre-revitalization naysayers all claiming doom and gloom before she went in for her dry dock.  With those seeds planted, glass-half-empty minded folks will find everything they were determined to find before they boarded.
In reality, it represents somewhere around a 5% difference.  All ships seem crowded during the muster drill, yet the naysayers will claim it was never like that before.  All ships have crowded elevators when the main theater lets out, yet the naysayers will claim it's only that way now.  All ships have lines at times, all bars (even on land) have a small wait at times, yet the naysayers...
In a recent 'Captain's Corner' where guests can ask questions one cruiser voiced his dismay they shrunk the cabins to fit more in.  He was convinced they moved all the walls and made existing cabins smaller.  You could not convince him otherwise.  They never did that.  In a few places that used to be open space they have added some new cabins and in so doing they raised the total cabin count.  Yet this man was convinced all cabins had shrunk.  They have welded metal walls, it would be impossible to do what he claimed, moving all the walls, electrical and plumbing would require gutting the whole ship.  It would be cheaper to build a new ship.
Years ago ships didn't sail full.  Years ago airplanes didn't fly full either.  That's all changed in this day and age.  There are a lot of unhappy cruisers who are convinced their negative review will cause the cruise lines to re-think everything they don't like, right or wrong.  Not long ago the internet and cruise ship reviews didn't exist.  Like watching the evening news it's easy to find the bad in things while there is plenty of good as well, but we have to look harder to find it despite it being right in front of us.
I have sailed all the Freedom class ships including including Indy just before her upgrades and very soon after Libery after she received new cabins (I stayed in one).  I didn't notice any difference despite "all those extra people on board"  (including me).
Seek and you will find, but that works both ways.  

Thank you!!  This does make sense now.  I enjoy all your posts Twangster.  I do not post often but devour the information  This will be my very first cruise
!

I guess it all makes sense..I just haven't heard or seen this happen before..perhaps the bigger ships are more affected too?

NOAA has a tidal predication webpage.  For Miami March 10 through 30:
https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/noaatidepredictions.html?id=8723170&units=standard&bdate=20190310&edate=20190330&timezone=LST/LDT&clock=12hour&datum=MLLW&interval=hilo&action=dailychart

You can see a distinct change in tides forecasted beginning Mar. 18 through the 26th.   Peak high/low is around Mar 21-23.
Smaller ships with less draft can likely remain with their safety margins but the largest cruise ship in the world has to be more careful and time it's approach to occur away from low tide.

Thanks for tracking this down, @Scatmanjack !
Pinging @FloridaCruiseGirl1210

You're pretty much doing everything I think any of us here do. Just missed the part about "wailing and gnashing of teeth when there is no more of any of the above to do for distraction, because you're all caught up!" ?
Oh, and of course, "Looking at available itineraries and making mock bookings for hours on end to see what might be the next cruise after this one."

The beach area is large, there are some areas that might get crowded but there are also a lot of places where you can rent a lounger an relax.
I really liked the beach! 

The class was held under a covered area next to a hotel.

I found some photos of the excursion. We really had a good time. After we finished with the dance lesson, we had time to walk along the beach and do some shopping.

Best Cruise Blog Moment
It's the last night of the cruise in the R Bar.  There are a handful of blog cruisers present.  The R Bar is shutting it down soon.  I've been drinking Kraken and diet cokes so I order one last drink before the bar closes.  Bottle near empty it's the last of the Kraken so I get a generous pour. 
Meanwhile and unknown to me, Matt has been saving his last punch on the drink card for one more... Kraken and Coke.  The bar tender apologizes and says "No more Kraken".  The look on his face said it all. Like a child who was told they can't have that shiny new bike I thought for a brief second he might cry.  
Cost of drink package: $347
Look on Matt's face: Priceless

Day 3 - Juneau
We had a noon arrival scheduled so we spent the morning sailing up the channel towards Juneau enjoying rain wrapped mountains on both sides of the ship.  The temperature in the mid-50s wasn't too bad but the light rain made it feel colder than it was.

We joined a number of ships already in port including Radiance of the Seas and a Silverseas ship (Silver Spirit) at the main pier with a Seabourne ship at anchor (tendering).  A Princess ship was in port.

Our excursion would depart shortly after the ship's arrival in Juneau so we visited the Windjammer when they opened at 11am then got ready to depart as soon as we were given the all clear.  
Today we would be doing a two part excursion.  The first part was whale watching by boat followed by a short hike in the rainforest to Mendenhall Glacier.  We boarded a bus for a 20 minute ride to Auke Bay. 
Here we boarded the Navigator!  No, not the Navigator of the Seas, but a small whale watching boat named Navigator.

Before leaving the marina area we were treated to dozens or Bald Eagles sitting, flying, fishing and just hanging out all around us.


Our guide tells us a lot of people get this next bird confused with something else but it is still a Bald Eagle, just a juvenile bird who will get it's white head after a few seasons.

Captain Jen and our guide Jamie took us out away from land where we saw more Eagles.


It didn't take long before Captain Jen spotted the first whale.



This is apparently Sasha.  Each whale has distinctive markings on their fluke and the boat carries a book with pictures of each fluke they use to identify them.

Both our guide and Captain spend the winters in Hawaii and summer in Alaska following the whales.  They breed and reproduce near Hawaii then migrate to Alaska each summer to feed.

We zoomed off on a 20 minute boat ride to another area, listening to radio chatter from various other whale watching boats.  In this next area the water is hundreds of feet deep and whales swim right next to the shore where it isn't shallow.  The mountains rise hundreds of feet above us so you can imagine the steep, shear cliff walls plunging down underwater into the depths.

There was a group of several whales swimming with each other, various spouts of water every time they came up for air.    There must have been six or seven in close proximity.  Possibly some juvenile whales and their family on their first trip to Alaska.

There are many types of whale watching boats.  This next one was similar to the size of boat I took last year. 

I spotted several Royal Caribbean jackets from the logo shop on board Explorer on this particular boat.  It was likely another RC excursion.  

With only a dozen on our small boat it made for better viewing oportinities and being smaller and more agile Captain Jen was able to quickly maneuver us for the best photo angles.

You must be an evil bot, too.  They always stick up for each other !
??

And I can confirm that Twangster is not a robot. He is a nice human.

WOW Chihuly Garden and Glass pictures are amazing!!  I have only been to Seattle once, but I have family there now.  I will be visiting soon and I must go to the Garden.  I'm looking forward to your blog!! 

Chihuly Garden and Glass
I booked this as a combo with the Space Needle online the day before.  It had me select a time for the Space Needle but Chihuly was available to walk in anytime.  During the purchasing process it appeared Chihuly by itself was sold out but it was available to book as a combo for $44 plus tax. 
The two are located right next to each other.

I had printed my ticket at home and it was a simple matter of following the signs and going straight to have it scanned without needing to stop at any ticket office.
I took a lot of photos and it's been hard to narrow it down.  It's getting late and I'm tired so I just going to dump the photos in this post and give it more thought another day.
Ticket scanned you are quickly presented with your first exhibit.

There are eight interior areas and then the outdoor gardens. 

This next section is the "Sea Room".

There is the main piece in the center with smaller pieces around the outside of the room, each with intricate details.


This leads to a whimsical corridor with a number of glass pieces overhead.  There were hundreds of pieces each with intricate detail.

The next room was incredible. 


What struck me was the detail in all aspects of every piece.





This leads to the boat room with two boats filled with more pieces.





Next up is the Chandelier Room.


Following this is the Macchia Forest.





Through the indoor sections it was time to move outdoors.









There is a "Glass House" that was closed on this day for a private event.

It's been hard to narrow down the 200 photos to these which is already more than I should have added.  It's just hard to capture and present it trying to do it justice without going overboard with photos.

I just wanted to give a shout out to @Matt for the recent YouTube videos he has been releasing. While I have always loved reading the blog online, the video/audio format is what I really prefer. If you haven't already checked out the videos and subscribed to the RC Blog YouTube channel I highly recommend it. The videos are like listening to a podcast with images and video depicting what is being discussed. I've really enjoyed them so far and hope to see more in the future and maybe some footage from some cruises as well. Good job Matt, keep them coming!
 

Thanks!!  I am a planner by nature. I love these boards. I’m very happy real cheesecake and I will try that red velvet one. 

HAA! Same with my Mother in Law - Every night her starter was French Onion Soup, and Dessert was Cheesecake. 

On Harmony they offered different cheesecakes in different places. Your SIL may need to try a couple to find one that suits her. My husband didn't care for the one served in the MDR (I think strawberry topped) and one of the chocolate ones at WJ. He likes dense cheesecake and these were lighter, fluffier. However, he tried one at either Cafe Promenade or Park Cafe that he said was pretty good. Have to admit, he's a cheesecake snob.

I LOVE cheesecake but often avoid it when eating at restaurants as it can often be disappointing compared to homemade. I'm looking forward to trying RC's cheesecakes after reading these posts though ?

They have it once in the WJ. Please get it. It's very good. I raved about it so, they brought me a small one.