CraftyCat05

Following!

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!

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!

Thanks so much! Think I’ll go for a fan that doesn’t need to clip onto anything. 

Last evening my son and husband went trout fishing. After having caught their limit and cleaned their trout, they walked back to the truck to head home. My husband had thought he had stepped on a stick, breaking it, with part of it snapping and hitting his ankle. He never did see the stick. Just noticed the sharp pain and a little blood about 15 steps later. When they got in the truck, he examined his ankle further and saw two puncture marks. Yep, a snake bite. He went to the emergency room last night and got home around 4:30 AM (today). At that time they did not give him any anti-venom (recall he never saw the snake). Here in the Ozarks, we have many venomous snakes (Copperhead, Rattle snake, and Water Moccasin/Cotton Mouth, to name just a few), but rarely do people get bit by them. My husband is now back in the emergency room as I write this post, with further swelling and nausea.
We have our Alaska cruise and pre-cruise vacation exactly 365 days from today. The total cost of this YOLO trip approaches $20K. We insure every cruise trip we take with the "Cancel For Any Reason" added to the policy. Had this situation occurred even up to a week before our trip, we would cancel. If you can AFFORD to lose the cost of your trip, whatever the amount, the don't buy trip insurance. Or, if you can afford to lose the cost of your trip, you can afford trip insurance.  If you can't (or can't stand the thought of losing the money), BUY TRIP INSURANCE WITH CANCEL FOR ANY REASON TAGGED ON!
We need prayers and good thoughts sent our way. Hoping he keeps his leg and we move on from here. Tomorrow is another day. 

When the cruise is over (unless they just let us stay on LOL). ?
 

Thanks everyone - I had hoped this was the case. I suspect the lady in question has a case of cruise snobbery going on.
Now I can go back to looking forward to my cruise! And using all the excellent tips from everyone here to help me plan!
 

Following!

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!

Following!!! Excited for your trip, it's one of my bucket list trips.

Following!

Looking forward to it! Definitely will help with my PCD. Symphony is great - you will love her!

As expected, Sharla and her supervisor did their magic since my cruise cancellation, and put on hold the exact same room on Mariner. Same week, same port, just one day fewer. They are now talking with Royal to see about price matching back to when i booked my original cruise, as I shouldn't be paying more for one less day through no fault of my own.

Best case scenario it all works out, and we end up with an extra day before our cruise. Hopefully my girls will be as accepting of this result as I will be.

I've had 3 people request access to the sheet. Please like this post to confirm if you are one of them, just so I am sure that they are real accounts and connected to the blog.

Well, good night Symphony. What an enjoyable 2 weeks! Hope to see you again for my first Royal contract!  Fingers crossed that quitting CC may help me get there. Still planning to stay here though.
I've noticed a lot of love on this ship. Hopefully my gym efforts won't go to waste and my next cruise will be with a significant other.

You'll love it here! Will post a summary of the cruise and my overall options when at the airport tomorrow morning. Something to read if you are waiting to board. Overall, it has been great.

The graph depicted here is simply a comparison of rates over the year for the same cruise on different sailing dates.   For example, an interior cabin for a cruise in early December is going to be cheaper compared to the identical cruise on the same ship if the sail date is over the Christmas holiday or New Years, regardless when you book it.
In other words, when you sail versus when you book.  I suppose my choice of words for the title wasn't ideal.

I saved nearly $300 by repricing my October cruise on Brilliance.  Thanks Matt!  ?

Lets hope the IT Department of Royal doesn't merge with Silversea... ?

Funny how you mention "He will be Platinum in April" , but nothing about his age. Cute little fellow, great smile!

This my grand nephew after being told he's going on Anthem in December 2018 and Harmony in April 2019. He will be Platinum in April.

I've been a bit light on the reviewing, but I have seen both ice shows this week and can provide some thoughts.

1977 was fantastic. Great theming and some great uses of technology to enhance the show. I really liked it.

iSkate 2.0 was also good. It really showcased the excellent abilities of the skaters, however my one criticism of this show is that it didn't flow very well. It felt like several 1m30 numbers one after the other, some of which were completely different (e.g. Total Eclipse of the Heart followed by Heavy rock music). It just seemed to lack an easy to follow storyline. Not the fault of the skaters though - a very talented cast.

Also a bit annoyed at the inclusion of a song from the Greatest Showman. That movie seems to be shoved down people's throats these days. My favorite ever movie came out this year and has a soundtrack with a few songs that would have worked for an ice routine, but it is less well known than TGS. 

Typical toiletries will be a dispenser in the shower of body wash/shampoo all-in-one combo and I think a bar of soap on the counter. If staying in a Junior Suite or better you'll get the small size bottles of shampoo, body wash, and conditioner.

Yes, they do.  If you're staying in a JS and above on an Oasis or Quantum class ship, the toiletries are better (IMO).  They are from the L'Occitane line.  I'm pretty sure (from scopes and other reviews) that the rest of the fleet does not carry that line.