Al Horner

Make sure to check prices in your cruise planner the day after Thanksgiving (Black Friday). I firmly believe that's the day with some of the best prices of the year.

Are the steam room and sauna on the Liberty of the Seas still included at no extra charge? I'm asking because I was just on the Symphony and I was surprised to learn that you had to pay extra to use the steam room. Thanks!

My wife and I always go to Nachi Cocum. Grabbing a cab at the port is easy and then it's about a fifteen minute (or so) ride. Once there, it's a relaxing stay right on the water with good food. For us, it's almost the highlight of the cruise.

My next cruise is in March 2021, so I feel your pain!

Liberty seems to have a gap in its schedule in 2021. There is a cruise for the first week of January 2021 and then the next cruise is February 14th 2021. I wonder how significant the upgrade will be for Liberty? Could it be done in that timeframe? If not, I wonder what Liberty will be doing then?

Does anyone know if or when the Liberty is scheduled to be refreshed?

I had the Key on my recent Symphony cruise. I don't think I would get it again. RCL seems to be smoothing out embarkation and now that we're Diamond, I think we would get on the ship fairly quickly any way. Lunch at Chops was nice the first day. We don't do rock climbing or the Flow Rider so that's not a plus for us. Normally, I like to put my cell phone in the safe for the duration of the cruise. Because Voom was included, I tried using the apps and found the whole thing really frustrating. It seemed signal strength was very hit or miss. (yes, I am a technological dinosaur) Not a plus for us. We did get nice seats at the shows but there were often many good seats still available. This was a plus. For us, the single biggest plus was on disembarkation day. The breakfast was nice but getting escorted off the ship, ahead of the lines, was really nice. One thing I found confusing was port days. It was not clear whether the Key gave you any benefit about getting off the ship and the crew certainly did not seem to know. That has to be better communicated. Overall, I think younger folks who use the sport facilities and anyone who really likes Voom might find the Key to be worthwhile.

While on the Symphony I booked a next cruise on the Liberty for March 2021. While the Symphony was very nice, one thing I didn't like was having to make a reservation for all the major shows. (Just me, old school, dinosaur - I get it) Does the Liberty still have first come, first served or have they also gone to the all reservations/all the time procedure? Also, it will be interesting to see what the Liberty offers for "The Key." I had it on the Symphony and had mixed feelings about it. I felt like the crew was still not trained well on the Key but I loved it when it was time to disembark. We'll have to see.

I have the four specialty dining plan for my cruise on the Symphony in three days. Once I'm on the ship, where's the best place to go to book the four meals? Thanks!

We don't drink a lot. On our last cruise (9 nights) we got the deluxe drink package and I may have possibly broken even but I'm sure we lost money on my wife. The problem we ran into is that we typically don't drink much. On the cruise we enjoyed the first few days of drinks but felt burnt out (on drinking) after the third or fourth day and were back to ice tea or water. On our next cruise, we ordered the refreshment package and will just order drinks when we are in the mood and pay for them as we go along.

We had a junior suite on the Epic when it was new. The bathroom layout helped push us to RCL. I would never sail on the Epic again.

We're going to be on the Symphony in May. I found this program to be really interesting! As a passenger, I get on the ship and wonder what I'm going to eat first (second and third!) and I don't think about what goes on behind the scenes. It is amazing! 12thman - thanks for the recommendation!

Vacationstogo.com has a section for ship specs. I found the information there.

Of the two ships, I was surprised to see that Spectrum is 47 feet shorter than Symphony and it's beam is 18 feet less resulting in 61,334 less overall tonnage than the Symphony. So, it's a smaller ship with 843 less crew members. Now, here's what really surprised me - The Spectrum is scheduled to carry 422 more passengers than the Symphony! So, smaller ship with less crew and a lot more passengers. Hard to imagine that it might not be a little crowded with less service. Please correct me if any of these figures are wrong.

I love cruising too! We'll be on the Symphony of the Seas in a few weeks and I can't wait! We always get a junior suite and I love sitting on the balcony and watching the waves go by. One thing I wonder about is how many folks like the promenade rooms that face inwards. You're on a ship but you can't see the water. Whatever floats your boat. (get it?)

Where do you go to find out the status of your bids?

On past cruises, in other RCL ships, access to the steam rooms was free. I think (?) I read somewhere that was not the case on the Symphony. Now, I just read about Thermal Suites on my Cruise Planner but there really was no details other than it was for 15 minutes. Can anyone tell me if there is a free steam room and, if not, what's included with the Thermal Suite and is it really for just 15 minutes? Thanks!

I think Shiner Bock is a very good beer. Here in Houston, it's my go-to beer.

I remember taking a cruise out of New York City quite a few years back. I thought I was pretty smart trying to find a cruise that didn't coincide with a bunch of student holidays. We got on the ship and it was packed with Canadian kids on their school holidays. I guess I wasn't so smart!

Yeah, that's what I thought. Of course, they don't have to notify you that you won the bid until 24 hours prior to the cruise.

I bid on an upgrade from Junior Suite to Grand Suite for my May Symphony cruise. It doesn't appear that there are any grand suites available so I don't really expect to "win" anything, BUT, if I did, I have purchased "The Key" for my junior suite cruise. It seems to duplicate many of the same benefits I'd get in the grand suite. Would I be able to (and should I) cancel "The Key" if I did get the grand suite? I know, it's kind of like talking about winning the Powerball.

Great review and pictures! We will be on the Symphony in May (58 days!) and we are excited!

I was thinking about booking Liberty in Jan. 2021. I wonder what happens if they move the ship?

Thanks! I did check it out and it was from 2016. There were a number of other blogs that followed from 2017. Given how often RCL changes their programs, I wondered if anyone had any recent personal experience. Right now, it doesn't sound like a lot of benefit and it appears that there is some confusion over how it interacts with the refundable vs non-refundable deposits.

Any recommendations for or votes against any particular trip insurance companies or plans? Thanks!