CraftyCat05

Thank you!

Updates, updates, updates! Calling American at the last minute while enroute to the airport to make a flight to Miami, an absolute miracle worker was able to get my whole trip rerouted so I could actually make to Barcelona on time! I will now go though Heathrow instead of Miami, for no extra charge! Everything seems to be going well.... Except my Macbook Pro has decided to make my "B" key to be very temperamental and only work when it wants to. If you see a lot of missing B's, then you know why. Will try to get this fixed, lol. Well, Yay for making flights!

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! Going to be calling a Uber to the airport in less than 2 hours! but... just got a text from American, saying that our flight to Miami has been delayed by 14 minutes, making our connection time a mere 59 minutes. Anything to do in Miami? Is the airport hotel good? I just don't think that we are going to make that flight to Barcelona... @accio7, it may commence, but not where it's going to be! lol, thanks for the well wishes.

Welcome Julie and Randall! Glad to have you aboard, you can get your welcome drink at the kiosk on the left! ?

Thanks for the video! Makes me want to get on there faster! ? Time to see if the RCL website will let me print my documents! (Should have done this earlier, ugh) (Update: It did!)

The Kraken in you must want some water...

I hear that the cast is very talented, but the story line for the ice shows are very disorganized and not together. Luckily, the twists and turns will distract me from it! I'm really excited about flight (aviation enthusiast here), and will be interesting how they can make the history of flight into an entertaining masterpiece. Thanks for the tips about the slides! Will help me beat all the others ?

Definitely looking forward most to the Abyss and Perfect Storm slides, and the shows. They were fantastic last time on Allure, and can't wait to see what the Symphony cast brings to the stage, ice, and water. Food as well! My mother and father are excited most for the ports and places we will see, but I bet they will also enjoy the food and activities on SY, just like last time on Allure. Thanks for the question!

Luckily, both of them are very fit and able to walk fast, but ill look at the Miami airport website or call them to see what they could do. Thanks for the idea! Fortunately, we planned to spend 4 days before in Barcelona, so we wouldn't miss the cruise, unless flights out of Miami are delayed for multiple days to international spots. The flight does have a 84% On-Time rate, which seems to be better than other flights that same day. And I feel you with the worst luck with American; we were delayed one time for 2 hours! Hasn't happened since though, but knock on wood! Thanks to everyone for the thoughts and advice, wish me luck tomorrow!

I will! You can follow the full trip (and my flight experience) at my SemiLive Blog, right here on Royal Caribbean Blog! Link is in my signature below. (and here: )

Thanks for the info, and I looked at some terminal maps and see that there looks to be a corridor allowing us to not have to go in and out of security, which would be walking on glass with fire under us. Not good! Luckily, if there is delay b/c of weather in Miami, there will be delays out of Miami too, but for how long? Unfortunately, I didn't use Air2Sea on this trip (mistake), but I may be able to call Chase Travel Concierge b/c of my Credit Card, but we are less than 48 hours from the flight, not much they could do I think. We also can't get there earlier (it's 2 hours away from Monday for a Tuesday flight), so that's a no go. Also took a leap of faith (looks like the parachute has failed on this one), and didn't get Travel Insurance... Oops. Yeah, this doesn't look good as I said above for moving the flight to Monday, and there are no earlier flights to Miami without keeping the same class of fare. I did contact American again, and said that I could get a earlier flight to Miami (the one I was booked for originally, but moved from ?), but not in First, which is what I originally booked with to add to the vacation experience. I *may* be able to get a refund for the lost costs, but wouldn't know the refund amount til back home from the whole trip. Could be $100, could be $8.50. As I said in the post above, things are not sounding good from American, or you, or me. Thanks for all of the well wishes though! Need some fast legs for the transfer time.

uh oh, things are not sounding good from you guys. Glad to see that others agree with me. Maybe we can march into American Airlines' HQ together, and get this moved, eh?

Let's hope there's no icicles shooting out stereos on this trip... ? Glad to have you aboard!

Hello Cruisers! I will be taking a flight soon to Barcelona for my cruise on Symphony of the Seas, and enroute have a connection in Miami. I noticed that American pushed my flight to Miami later, then making my connection time down to a shortish time of 1HR and 5MIN. I will also have to change terminals, from Concourse E to Concourse D. Unfortunately to add to the connection drama, I contacted American Airlines, and they weren't able to get a earlier flight for me. If I do miss the connection, then we will have to wait til the next day, losing one (very expensive) night at the hotel in Barcelona. So: Do you think that I will have enough time to get to my flight to Barcelona from the Miami flight gate? This seems to be awfully close to me, especially if we get delayed at my home airport! Curse you American!

First off, welcome to the boards! At the moment, the app does not have a on-board texting feature like on other cruise ship apps, but is still a work in progress, and texting is a feature that is hopefully to come soon. I will soon be on Symphony of the Seas, which offers the new Royal App, so stay tuned for a post about the app once I am finished with the adventure! You can also find information about it online, doing a quick google search of "Royal Caribbean new app" or "project excalibur". Hope this helps!

From my distant memory from Allure, I believe that the on-board Starbucks had most of the things you could get on shore. Doing a little search on the boards here, I was able to find the menu for the Harmony of the Seas Starbucks (may be different) which includes the creme drinks your daughter likes. (https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2016/06/01/first-look-starbucks-opens-royal-caribbeans-harmony-of-the-seas) As for the bed, looking online shows that the headboard is attached to the wall. So going with a desk fan may be your best bet. Enjoy the cruise and welcome to the boards!

Can check for you really quick!

My SemiLive Blog Wowzah! Only 3 more days until we are on a plane to Barcelona! Hard to believe, this past year has flown by so fast. So, let's get down to the nitty gritty and get this show on the road! (props to people who get that reference) Our Cruising History I am sailing with my mother and father who have both cruised 2 and 3 times, respectively. This will be our third family cruise together (which have all been on Royal), and our second time on an Oasis Class ship. We are all from Texas and excited to get away from the 100+°F summer heat as well! The last time we were on a cruise was in summer of 2016, so we are all excited to get back on the magnificent Royal ships. My mother enjoys the sun and pool, so we may be spending our down-time at the beaches in Barcelona, or the sports deck pool. This is also a partial celebration for my mother's birthday as well! Why Symphony? While being on Symphony for the inaugural season made this cruise very appealing, the itinerary in the Mediterranean (more on that later) for this cruise sealed the deal for all of us. None of us have ever been in the med for pleasure or sight seeing, and we have previously always cruised in the Caribbean, which after awhile gets to look like the same places and beaches. Hence, the idea to sail in Europe was born. All of us are excited to see the tourist traps sights, including the Vatican and Colosseum, which we will see on the excursions while in port. The Itinerary We are lucky enough to be doing a B2B Cruise and spend 4 days before the cruise in Barcelona! I plan to do a lighter blog on the first few days while in Barcelona, and do a mini-review on the flight and hotel. For this trip, we didn't book any non-Royal Caribbean shore excursions, due to the convenience and close time windows with the all-aboard call. Feel free to skip ahead to the next section (The Cabin), this is a lengthy one. This is the full itinerary of the trip, including the days before and hours after. July 24th Flight to Miami on American - Includes a wonderful 1h and 20min layover in MIA Flight to Barcelona - Arrive in Barcelona the next day July 25th Hotel check-in at the Hotel Arts Barcelona July 29th - Cruise Day! 6:00pm Departure from port! 6:30pm Chops Grille 8:30pm Hairspray - Broadway Show. Will be my first time seeing it live, and not on NBC's live show! July 30th - Palma de Mallorca, Spain 8:00am Arrival 9:20am Palma City Sights - RCL Shore Excursion 4:00pm Departure 8:00pm 1977 - Ice Show We also plan to eat at the Coastal Kitchen (more about that later) July 31st - Marseilles (Provence), France 9:00am Arrival 9:15am Panoramic Marseilles & Aix - RCL 6:00pm Departure 8:00pm Jamie's Italian - We have only tried Giovani's Italian on Allure, so it will be interesting to see the differences between the two Italian restaurants. August 1st - La Spezia (Florence/Piza), Italy 8:30am Arrival 8:35am Florence & Pisa - Cities Tour RCL 8:30pm Departure 9:00pm HiRO - AquaTheater Show We didn't plan any dinner reservations, as we may decide to eat in the MDR, Costal Kitchen or eat out in the city! August 2nd - Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy 7:00am Arrival 8:00am Exclusive: Best of Rome - City Tour RCL 8:00pm Departure We didn't plan any dinner reservations, as we may decide to eat in the MDR, Costal Kitchen or eat out in the city! August 3rd - Naples (Capi), Italy 7:00am Arrival 8:00am Amalfi Coast & Pompeii by Land and Sea - RCL 8:00pm Departure August 4th - Cruising 5:00pm Flight - RCL Theater Show 6:30pm Wonderland - The rabbit hole calls us from home.... August 5th - Deja Vu! 6:15pm Izumi: Hibachi - On our last cruise while on Allure, we really enjoyed the food and show that the hibachi offers, and hope that we see some new tricks from the chefs. August 6th 8:40pm Drach Caves - RCL Excursion August 7th 9:30am Biking in Provence - RCL. Have to burn the calories somewhere! August 8th We have no excursion booked and plan to explore on our own and enjoy the ship! August 9th We have no excursion booked and plan to explore on our own and enjoy the ship! August 10th 8:30am Capri on your Own - RCL. This should hopefully give us some freedom while touring Capri! August 12th - Where the PCD sets in... 5:00am Departure Flight to Charlotte for a layover to catch the plane home The Cabin Since there are three of us and we need all the space we can get, we decided to splurge and get a Grand Suite cabin on the seventh floor. This also gives us access to the Costal Kitchen, reserved show seats, and other Sky Class amenities. We even get our own bathtub, which is going to come in handy to soak the muscles after that bike ride! We also get some free Voom Internet @ Sea codes, which is how I will be updating you on all of the social medias! We also won't have to move cabins in-between the cruises; we got lucky on that. Expect cabin tour Periscopes and pictures. Social Media I plan on doing some Periscopes and posting things to my newly founded Flickr page. Periscope - CraftyCat05 - Plan on seeing the Cabin Tour, Embarkation, Docking and Undocking, and other things here. Flickr - CraftyCat05 / https://www.flickr.com/photos/155580610@N05/albums/72157693503806790/with/41744815340/ - Plan on seeing a full album of some of the photos I take here. (I don't change usernames ?) Miscellaneous We haven't gotten any drink, spa, or specialty dining packages, as we find that we never will get our money's worth out of these. I'm still debating on bringing my Nikon D7000 with me; seems like it won't be a great idea to bring it in port, and my iPhone camera is great for cruising candids. This will be my first time: Live blogging, scoping, and posting images to my gallery. Expect errors, hiccups, and newbie mistakes. (read: be patient, please:)) We loved the Costal Kitchen and it's staff on Allure, and hope the same experience is translated to Symphony. I am a tech nerd, and will also give updates on the new Royal app and the WOW bands (which we will get with our suite). I will be leaving my 26 pound Schnoodle at the Pet Resort in town. He will also be staying in 5 paw accommodations, which include a webcam for us to view him while traveling. Expect me to post pictures of Cruise Compasses and other documents. My laptop "N" key is starting to get sticky, lets hope it doesn't fail while on the cruise. Biggie One: I really hope that I can get some interaction from YOU! Ask any questions you have may have, give me some tips, or just comment on what you see here. wooh! Time to get my fingers soaked... Too much typing!

To know what teen activities are on your ship, you can check the Cruise Compasses from your ship on prior cruises and some of them have the teen compass in them. You can't sign the waiver's online, but you can sign them on your stateroom television on at least the Oasis Class ships. Most of the time, the activities are first come first served, but you can also reserve the Flow Rider for groups or yourself online at a cost. I have never bought the arcade card, so I have no idea how it works, but I usually see them at a discounted price as you said. Enjoy your first family cruise on RCCL!

Looking at prior Freedom cruise compasses, it should allow you to self carry at 7am, allowing you to get at the San Juan Airport at about 2 hours before your flight. These days, customs at the port shouldn't take long and since you will be self carrying you won't have to deal with picking up your luggage at luggage claim. The airport is only 8 miles from the port, so transportation shouldn't take long, especially with you leaving so early with self carry. So to answer your question, I think that you will have enough time to get to the port. Others may have better insight about this though, so don't only listen to my opinion. Enjoy your cruise! Edit: Don't listen to me, look below at @princevaliantus post as he has been to Saint Juan port recently.

Please add me to the list! Symphony of the Seas - 29 July 2018 Symphony of the Seas- 5 August 2018 CraftyCat05 - Carson Thanks!

As long as you are enjoying the cruise, that's all that matters! Have fun on your last few days, and your on vacation; don't feel obligated to post here!

Depending on what ship you are on, there are some hacks to get access to iMessage for free without purchasing the internet package. Walkie Talkies can work sometimes, but on the bigger ships like Oasis and Ovation class ships they can loose connection and can be bulky to bring around with you at all times. On smaller ships, they may work better but haven't tried them on the smaller ships yet. Hope this helps!

Sounds like your having a great time! Only another 24 days before I will be stepping through the same areas as you on another B2B SY. Enjoying the live blog and can't wait to see where your adventures take you this week and next.

I'm a Nikon guy, I thought that they have the best cameras for photography, but looking at these pictures... I'm not so sure now! Glad you're liking it.