LindaN

He is awesome! I don’t have much to compare him to since it’s my second cruise. I see him at all sorts of events.

Finally got to Central Park today

Day 4 The night is young but today we stopped at St. Kitts. We did the dolphin experience and loved it. My daughter was scared of them at first but by the end loved them. She also loved the monkeys in the market place area. We were worried going into today because our excursion tickets said to meet at 9:30 but compass said the gangway opens at 9:30. We went at 9 to the gangway so we could be first out but they were already letting people out. The guy said they tell people it’s 9:30 but really you can get off at 9. We did some shopping and got back on the boat. There is an 80’s party tonight so they were teaching line dancing at 3 and my daughter and I went while my husband stayed in the room on our balcony and longed to have his fishing pole with him. He said next time he’s bringing it for sure.

Yes, here were the top 2. I’m usually taking pictures of my daughters reactions to things, but I did get the top 2.

Day 3 My daughter went to part of both AO sessions and loved it. Yesterday after lunch we watched the sexiest man contest at the pool so today after lunch my daughter wanted to run down to the pool to see if there was another contest. I was about to tell her there wasn’t but it turns out there was a belly flop contest. We sat on the edge of the pool and cheered people on. After that it was adventure ocean time and then finally relax time for an hour. At 4 we picked Delilah back up and went To use the private key hour to climb the rock wall. My daughter was the only one that wanted to try it and she got really high. She was too scared to come down though so the guy had to go up and get her to come down. She was too scared to just let go. We spent a lot of time walking from place to place. AO is on one end of the ship and food is on the other. We also spent a lot of time waiting at elevators. My husband discovered that there was no 13th floor so that helped the elevator waits. We’re on 12, AO is on 14, we just walk there now. We saw hairspray at night, it was amazing, my favorite show so far.

They are attached to metal hooks I brought. I bought packages of magnetic metal hooks and have them everywhere. 3 hold up each shoe thing and I am also using them for wet clothes, lanyards, and to hold up the compasses.

That’s a good idea.

So today we explored the ship. We ate breakfast at the windjammer and then took my daughter to adventure ocean. She is not always the most well behaved, especially when there are lots of kids and things don’t go the way she wants. We got a phone for from them when we dropped her off in case they needed to call us, or she wanted to leave. I’m very happy to report she loved it and wanted to go back for every session. When I picked her up I didn’t hear 1 bad thing. They must have amazingly fun stuff and very patient staff!! We saw Hiro tonight, I can’t believe what they can do in such a small space. The show started at 8:30 and we got there at 8. I was worried when I saw the long line but when I got in they said the key people could sit in any of 4 rows, and they were the best seats. We must have been one of the first key people in because we sat right in the center and most of the 4 rows they told us to sit in we’re empty. They took formal Picts of us but I think we get them at the end. I asked a table mate to take a pict but it came out a little blurry. After dinner and the show we played the game Majority Rules and my daughter won a key chain because they thought her answer was cute. They question was if you were on a sinking ship and could only take one thing what would it be? The 2 answers that tied for majority winners were phone and life jacket, her answer was “teddy”. After the game my daughter made a drink at the bionic bar and we went back to the room. We’ve had a great time so far. I do have 3 little things that could be better. First, we didn’t get the flyer on how to get onto the internet until after dinner. I went down right after we got unpacked in our room but guest services was closed for the muster drill. Luckily a guy down in the lobby told me how because when guest services opened the line was long. Second, we got 3 cups in our room for the refreshment package and they were all the same color. Come on, with 3 people in a room why not give them 3 diff colors. My last issue is we have a horrible view at our table in the main dining room. After eating at the windjammer watching the waves out the window at lunch, i’m staring at a lifeboat at dinner. These are not giant issues, and they first 2 are easy fixes that seem just like poor planning.

It didn’t look that packed before, more so after.

I took the Picts waiting in line to see Hiro at the Aqua theater, so around 8pm.

Have not seen Jamie’s yet but here is playmakers from lots of angles.

The Room We finished at chops at 12:50 and decided to see if the room was ready, it was. We passed our luggage in front of a room down the hall, so we picked it up on our way to the room. We have a ocean balcony on deck 12, right in the middle. Room 610. My biggest concern was it being too small with 3 of us, we tend to overpack. We have 3 large suitcases and 3 roller bags and 3 backpacks. I’m happy to report all our bags fit easily under the bed and all our stuff fit in the space provided. I listened to all the blogs and read up on other things to bring so I also brought 2 over the door shoe things for toiletries etc, a small laundry hamper, magnetic hooks, towel clips and a USB hub. There are 3 shelves in the bathroom so I ended up not using the over the door things in there, I used it for guess what, shoes!

Day 1 After waiting in the first room to board for maybe 30 mins we went to another area, on the other side of the glass, to wait with the Diamond and above people. We waited there maybe another 30 mins because they were doing “enhanced sanitation”, then we boarded. They tried to tell us we couldn’t go with the diamond people to wait, but I said we had they key, so they let us go too. First picture is us in the second room. We knew from reading here to drop our carry on luggage at the theater and then we went to chops for lunch. We got the steak and these 3 appetizers, all were awesome. We gave our daughter Dramamine for kids at the beginning of lunch and after just a few hours of sleep the night before, she fell asleep.

I have the answer now, and it did not involve me getting a code. Here is how a guy downstairs told me to do it. -Put your device in airplane mode - go to settings and connect to royal-wifi - click access internet and then when the voom screen comes up that asks you for a Username and Pin, click “create account” below that. I created the account by entering the info asked, which included my stateroom, first name and I made my own pin. i did the same on my husband and daughters and now all our internet is activated. Our internet was included with the key.

We just got in Symphony and have the key but I can’t find my voom code. There is a key letter in the room that says follow the instructions with this letter but there are no instructions???

She can’t do the zip line, she doesn’t weight enough.

Yes I know. I just wanted to make sure we always had it. It looked like a long walk to go get water somewhere if we forgot some. We drink a lot of water.

Our Symphony of the Seas cruise leaves tomorrow, Apr 13th, 2019. “Our” being my husband Mike and 7 year old daughter Delilah. This is Delilah’s first cruise, Mike and my second. Our first cruise was Freedom of the Seas in 2007. I’m hoping cruising will become our family thing, but it depends on how this cruise goes with my daughter. I printed my Set Sail pass, cruise docs, and luggage tags. I packed magnetic hooks, a USB hub and sea sick bands and pills. I am at the airport in Sacramento as I type. We fly Sac to Denver to FLL arrive in FLL tonight at 12:30am. We have our drink packages purchased, alcohol one for Mike and I, refreshment one for Delilah. We have ordered the picture package, the octopus stuffed animal for D, and water in the room. We got the key because at 19.99 is was only $3 more than the internet and with the chops lunch, it was a no brainer. I would have even paid 24.99, since you don’t have to wait in line for shows and to get off the boat. Waiting in any line with my ADHD daughter is a nightmare. I was going to also take advantage of the key for flow rider and zip line times but I read in the cruise docs my daughter is not old enough for those. Had I realized that I would have probably picked a boat with iFly instead and dreamworks characters. My daughter loves zip lining. We booked an ocean balcony, #12610. I’m kind of worried this room is going to be too far from an elevator. We tend to forget stuff a lot and I think it’s going to be a pain having to run that far to the room. To make it less painful I bought a Fitbit watch, so I can be happy getting so many steps. We made low bids for each RoyalUp category, but doubt we’ll get an upgrade since the ship is full. It would be nice to get a bigger cabin but I mostly bid in hopes of getting something closer to an elevator. We requested early dining and have all our shows booked. My daughters bedtime is usually between 7 and 8 so we’ll see if she can stay awake through the shows. We have all our excursions booked, Atlantis in Bahamas, dolphin encounter in St. Kitts, and Turtle island Sail and snorkel on St Thomas. Most of my posts will be more pictures than text but I thought I would make an introduction post here. I have read all the other Symphony blogs and got a lot of my questions and info from them. I had lots more questions on traveling with young kids, so I’ll try and include info on that too. I have no idea if my daughter will like Adventure Ocean or if she’ll be with us mostly. 25 to 1 ratio of adults to kids with 40 kids may not be her thing. If anyone wants pictures of anything or has any questions let me know.

A lot of kids in California have presidents week off, maybe other states too. That’s what you could be running into in Feb.

It wasn’t a coaster, it was one of those bungee thinks with a trampoline inter it, like they have at malls.

I think the Super Bowl is in Miami then

I noticed there is a bottled water package for $39. Isn’t bottled water free on board, or at least included with other drink packages?

I have the deluxe drink package and thought it included all drinks except Starbucks. Now I see this coffee package listed. Does this coffee package include Starbucks or is it for people who don’t have the deluxe drink package?

I don’t drink wine. You have to sugar up drinks for me to like them. I guess at least I’ll only have to pay $1 for them.

Is it common on all the RC ships to have a bunch of drinks $1 over what the drink package offers? I bought the dx drink package thinking it would cover all the drinks.