FionaMG

Yes! Ever since we started cruising my bedtime reading has always been the next day's compass. It's like a ritual, which is why I am loathe to give them up even though I do mostly use the app when we're roaming the ship.

It takes about an hour from the port to the airport so as long as there are no delays, and given that it's an intra-Schengen flight, it should be OK. Doesn't leave you much wiggle room if there are delays, though. I guess it depends on how big a difference there is in price and how high your risk tolerance is. I would prefer to get off the ship without having to rush and worry about potentially missing the flight but I have absolutely no risk tolerance .

Yes, as @CanHardlyWait says they are per day. I save mine and bring them home as a souvenir of the trip.

I noticed some 9-nighters on Symphony out of NJ. Very good prices for 30th April 2025...

Maybe I wasn't having a senior moment after all, then.

Yes! I forgot about that. There was also a card on the dresser with the QR code. It said something like "Cruise Compass goes green".

It is a printed planner that in the past would have been delivered daily to your room by your stateroom attendant. Nowadays, it is largely surpassed by the app but those who like the paper version can still get them. For day 1, you go to Guest Services and ask for it. Don't be put off if there's a long line as usually the person walking the line will have a bunch of them to hand out. Thereafter, you need to tell your stateroom attendant that you want one delivered every day and they will get it for you. You can see examples, including a very recent Symphony one, in the "Cruise Compass" section of this website, here: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/cruise-compass

Yes. Some are located right by the staircases but even the ones farthest away are still pretty close. The lifts aren't far away either. You should be able to cancel on board if you discover that it doesn't suit. When you cancel a cruise planner purchase on board the money is refunded as refundable on board credit. That means it posts to your onboard account and is automatically credited against your onboard expenses, including automatic gratuities if you've not pre-paid those. If you don't use it all up by the end of the cruise the remainder is refunded to your original form of payment.

We live in a global world, right?!

I hadn't had it before either precisely because it's offered on lobster night but I'm glad I chose it. What I might do going forward is order the teeny tiny lobster and the shrimp jalfrezi.

On the whole the ship did not seem overcrowded except perhaps on the first day when everyone was still lost and milling about trying to find their way. One thing that I did notice was that we would wait significantly longer for the lifts in the aft section than in the forward section. Since our room was quite close to the forward lifts we often used them even when we were heading aft because the extra distance was more than offset by the shorter wait time. They had lunch twice and brunch twice. I think the brunch was on the first and last sea days and the lunch was on the two middle sea days but I'm not 100% sure.

It will definitely show up in the app. Use that in conjunction with the compass. Some things show up on one but not the other. I'm not long off Symphony and remember seeing multiple open skating sessions in the app but only a very few made it onto the paper compass. Your teens can go along to those sessions as well as the dedicated teen sessions. As @barjpoe says, remember the long pants (or trousers as they're called in my part of the world ) and socks. You won't be allowed to participate without them.

I have posted a report of this excursion in my blog here: I hope it might help anyone else who is interested in doing this excursion.

That will be amazing. I hope you're able to find some good ones.

Day Nine - Cruise Day Six - At Sea Since this was another sea day and we didn't have anything pressing to do, we had our one and only MDR breakfast. We arrived just before 9 am and there was a very long line of people waiting for two-tops. We agreed we didn't mind sharing and so were seated pretty much immediately with seven other guests. We enjoyed chatting with all of them over the course of our lengthy breakfast. And it was LENGTHY. It took ages for our orders to be taken and then the food came out in dribs and drabs, with some items clearly being ready for the waiters to grab and others having to be made. The menu. DH ordered the Bagel and Lox with a side of sautéed mushrooms and hash browns. His bagel presumably was one of the grab and go items because it came out pretty quickly. His sides didn't come out until much later, along with the other cooked stuff, so you couldn't really call them "sides" by the time he actually got to eat them. I ordered the breakfast power wrap. I absolutely love this and it's why I always insist on going to the MDR for breakfast at least once because I've never found them anywhere else. Today's did not disappoint. Highly yummy stuff. The morning was spent doing typical day at sea activities (loosely translated as not a lot). Here a few pics from around the ship. As usual we had lunch in the WJ and today was the one and only time I took a lunchtime food pic. Only because a friend from home messaged me just as I sat down to ask if I was having any yummy food today. Chicken and mushroom pot pie. It's exactly the same as the one they serve on British night in the MDR. It was very good. As we wandered onto the Boardwalk after lunch we realised that there was a show going on, actually just ending, in the Aqua Theatre. This was NOT in the compass but when I checked I found it in the app, so that's something to bear in mind if, like me, you tend to prefer the paper compass. As it turned out, the show, which was called something like Aqua Nation was repeated again a couple of hours later so we were able to see it. No reservations needed. The pictures don't do it justice. It's every bit as good a show as the evening ones. This was Royal - aka Lobster - Night in the MDR. Avocado and melon salad, nice enough and refreshing: I decided not to bother with the lobster tail since we'd already had lobster at 150 CP and would be having it again at Hooked. DH did order it and by the time Stanley had shelled it for him there was practically nothing left. It was the teeniest tiniest lobster tail I have ever seen and did not even deserve to have its photo taken. I ordered the spicy shrimp jalfrezi. Like all of the Indian dishes it wasn't really spicy but it was tasty anyway. Desserts were Baked Alaska, one of DH's favourites And the warm chocolate cake, one of the better renderings of this that I've had on recent cruises. After dinner we went to the headliner showtime starring Finis Henderson. I had never heard of him but he appears to be quite well known. The show was OK but I found it a bit off-putting that he was only singing bits of songs. I would have much preferred him to perform the whole song. And that was another day done and dusted. Only two more to go before they made us get off their boat.

I seem to remember seeing a couple that were oceanview, i.e. with their backs turned to the pool, but I could be having a senior moment or getting mixed up with another ship.

Yes, Symphony of the Seas. The picture was taken just last month. We were on board from 10 to 18 February.

I don't have a closer view of them but if you zoom in on this pic you can see some of them across the pool.

There are no poolside casitas; they are all on the deck above the pool. The vast majority do face the pool but some are set farther back and if I remember right only a couple are set a bit closer to the overlook. You need to go to the Mast Bar on deck 16, which is where the casitas are located, to select the one you want. I would suggest going up there as soon as you board to see which ones suit you best and then heading to the Mast Bar as soon as it opens to ask about selecting. I have read that you don't have to wait till the day of your actual booking to do this but don't have first-hand experience so can't say if it's correct. Also, just FYI, the sides of the casitas are slatted so they do let in the wind and the amount of shade they provide varies over the course of the day depending on the position of both the sun and the ship. The padded loungers looked very comfy.

Yes, it is very frustrating. That was the calculation I used too, expecting Caribbean night to be on the night we were in Aruba. And then in the end it was the night after that when we were in Curaçao. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to it. I missed the mark with both of our specialty bookings and had to change them both but I had no trouble doing that other than that you have to go to the actual restaurant to do it.

I think it showed up on another too, maybe the British night which we skipped to go to Hooked.

The colours were what particularly drew me to her work. So bright and cheerful. The prints I bought are mounted on what feels to be good quality card, size including the card is 20 cm x 25 cm. They cost $20 each. I also saw some posters at $10. I don't see either of these on the website so if you were looking for something small then I guess the shop would be your place. There were lots of other prints in varying sizes and formats but I didn't price them so don't know how they'd compare. On our cruise, the theme nights and menus were skewed by the fact that Super Bowl was on night two. That would normally have been the first formal night with the French menu and the Italian night would have been on night three. They switched these two around. White night was the Mexican night on night four when we were in Aruba. And the Caribbean night was on night five, when we were in Curaçao. However I can't be sure if white night is usually Mexican or if that was another switch caused by Super Bowl. Dress your best is indeed Royal Night with lobster. The lobster is TINY. I didn't have it but DH did and once it was shelled there was practically nothing of it. The meals in the app were all over the place before our cruise too. In theory, they're supposed to reflect the menus on the current cruise but I found that not to be the case. They were showing menus for a 7-night cruise rather than an 8-night. Between the Italian and the Caribbean menus, I would definitely skip the Italian one. However, on our cruise we also had Mexican and British, which we thought were the worst of all, so those were the ones we skipped when we did specialty.

Don't you just hate when work interferes with important stuff like cruise blogging? I am so glad it's the weekend so I can catch up. Day Eight - Cruise Day Five - Curaçao Here is our Symphony parked in Curação. We were at the pier farthest from the town. I think it was a P&O ship at the closer pier but I'm can't remember for sure. We were doing another cruise line excursion today, although to be fair it was more of a beach transfer than an actual excursion. I knew this when I booked but there was method in my madness. Firstly, it included a stop at Curaçao artist Nena Sanchez's gallery. I had wanted to go here on our previous two visits to the island but had never managed to make it work for us. And secondly, we wanted to try one of the beaches a bit farther from the port so the cost of the excursion for the two of us was more or less the same as the taxi fare would have been but without the hassle of having to ensure we could get a taxi back to the port afterwards. The beach we went to today was called Cas Abao. So this was the "Cas Abao Beach and Scenic Drive excursion". There were two departure times, 8.45 am and 11.45 am. We chose the earlier time, partly so it wouldn't run over lunchtime and partly so we would be able to go back out into town afterwards if we wanted to. The weather was looking very unfriendly when we set off but at least it wasn't cold and I'm glad to say it eventually cleared up. First stop at the gallery. There was a nice expansive view from the top of the staircase leading to the gallery entrance. Note the little white building in the foreground of this one. Bathrooms! It's tucked away on your right as you approach the gallery entrance so not everyone notices it at first. Ladies, there's only ONE for us, so go there before heading into the gallery to avoid the worst of the queuing once others realise it's there! I had not realised that the artist had passed away; I kind of assumed she was still alive and working but apparently she died back in 2017 (the guide found out the year for me). The gallery is run by the artist's older sister, who survived her. It's mostly just a shop that sells prints of her work but that's what I was looking for. What more genuine souvenir could you get than a picture created by a local artist? In the end I bought two prints set in stiff card that are now gracing a shelf at home. I think if you wanted to buy something bigger or less transportable they would ship it for you but these two fit nicely into my bag. I'm very pleased with them. After a stop of about 20 minutes at the gallery we headed to the beach, where we would stay for about 3 hours. The excursion included a lounger in a dedicated space, a non-alcoholic drink voucher and a shower token. The space set aside for us was roped off and had enough loungers for everyone in the group. Some had full shade, some partial and some were out in the sun so it's best to try to be at the front of the group as you head onto the sand in order to get the best choice of spot. This is the third beach we've visited in Curaçao and it is the one I liked best (the others were Mambo Beach and Blue Bay Beach). It's a bit rocky underfoot when you go into the water though, so if you do have water shoes it would be a good idea to bring them. At the beach there is a bar/snack bar where you can buy drinks and food. We didn't so I can't say what the prices or quality were like but we did see some people in the loungers behind us happily digging in to some generously sized burgers. Next to that is a smaller bar that only has the included waters/sodas, which is where you pick up your included drink. Then you have the bathrooms and showers. The showers are outside and are only really meant for you to rinse off. There was a lady on duty by the showers to turn on the water for you and turn it off again after about 30 seconds so there's no point in taking shampoo and shower gel! And there is also what appeared to be a very well equipped dive shop. Details are available on the beach's website. https://casabaobeach.com/facilities/ WiFi is available free in the vicinity of the beach bar and the password was displayed on a poster at the counter. The signal was strong enough that it worked at our loungers, which weren't right next to the bar. The amount of time we had here - about 3 hours - felt perfect to us. Long enough to actually get settled, relax and go for a dip or two, but not so long that we were bored or getting too hot and frazzled. On the way back we had a bit of a drama. Smoke starting billowing out around our feet in the bus, accompanied by an electrical burning smell. We and others around us called out to the guide and the driver pulled over. The guide told everyone to get out of the bus and it was good to see that nobody panicked and everyone exited in an orderly fashion. The guide had us all move well away from the bus while the driver investigated. It turned out to be a short circuit in the wiring of the safety lighting and it was deemed safe for us to continue our journey as long as he kept the lights switched off. So we all got back on but had only gone a short distance when the guide told us the company operating the tour (FBTT Travel) was sending out another bus to meet us as they didn't want to take any chances. After we had changed buses everything went smoothly. We stopped on the way to the port to drop people off who wanted to stay in town and who would later make their own way back. We stayed on the bus as we didn't fancy traipsing around town with all our beach stuff. Plus we were hungry! With these delays we only just made it to the WJ in time for lunch. I heard the maître d' in charge telling the staff at the counters "As soon as these last people (us!) have served themselves, clear everything away!" Although we did not go back out again after lunch, there would have been time if we had wanted to, so that's worth bearing in mind if you're not sure whether to get off the bus in town or head back to the ship first. Tonight's dinner was the Caribbean menu. We think it's an OK one. It wouldn't be our first choice to skip for specialty dining. Coconut shrimp. Has never disappointed. DH's pork chop which he said was good but was too big for him to finish. He really liked the plantains although he mistook them for sweet potatoes at first. Garlic herb-buttered tiger shrimp. One of my favourites. It never looks the same from ship to ship and sailing to sailing but I always enjoy it. DH's pineapple cake, which he didn't really like, although he didn't say why. And my all-time favourite classic, the Royal Chocolate Cake. In the past, I would have had this almost every night. I was devastated when they took the classics away in the menu reshuffle. Most of the other desserts I had during the week were second best to this one. This being Valentine's Day, they had the Love and Marriage Game Show on in the theatre so we went along to that after dinner. It was quite funny but I've seen much better ones. I don't know what it was, I just felt the CD wasn't really interacting very well with the couples. And after that, and our usual casino and tea & cookies ritual, it was time to head off to bed in readiness for the next day, which would be another sea day.

Not every ship populates at the same time. I’ve had occasions where it's been several weeks in advance and others where it's been days. You wouldn't see the soda package in the app, just on the cruise planner so you don't need to be concerned about that.

I may be looking at this wrong but it seems to me like you have two different directions here? One is from Anchorage to Seward, whereas the other is Seward to Anchorage?