FionaMG

We enjoyed her. Like you, we have also done Oasis and Harmony, twice each in fact, but this was our first time on Symphony.

Gone, I'm afraid. I liked the lamb chops too.

Can anyone say what the toiletry bag is like? We just made D+ so can look forward to one of these amenities on our next cruise but as non-drinkers most of the options have no value for us. At least the bag would be a (hopefully) nice souvenir.

Yes it has but I'm not sure if it's always been lumped together in the same section as the casino free play.

We didn't have Bonaire on this one. Despite being an 8-night cruise we only had three ports, the third being Labadee. But I will definitely be sharing details and pics of what we did in the other two.

Don't worry, it'll be fine. They can scan your passports and take your pics at the port if necessary and it'll add about 30 seconds to the time it takes to check in. Have an amazing time!

First of all, congratulations on your upcoming happy event. You should really put this question to your wife's doctor but both of those activities sound risky to me for an expecting mum. I don't think I would want to take that risk. What does the excursion description say?

It's been a while since I've done one of these and there doesn't seem to have been a recent one covering Symphony's current 8-night itineraries down to Aruba and Curaçao, so in the interests of a) being useful and b) reliving our recent cruise - just disembarked this past Sunday , I thought, why not? So, Day One - Travelling from Custard Tart Land (aka Portugal) to Miami, Florida. As per usual, our travel itinerary had us flying from Faro, our local airport in Southern Portugal, via Lisbon to Miami. Take off. The watery area below is a renowned wetland zone called the Ria Formosa, which translates to "beautiful estuary", and which is famed for its wildlife, especially birds. As usual, we were flying on the Portuguese flag carrier, TAP. Unusually, however, they had two flights going out on this day, so instead of flying up to Lisbon the night before and then out to Miami the next day, we saved on the hotel cost by "enduring" a five-hour layover in Lisbon. It actually wasn't too bad; Lisbon has some decent shops and restaurants to keep you occupied. We had lunch at our favourite eatery, the Cockpit. If you ever have a layover in Lisbon over a mealtime I recommend it. They have a small seating area with table service or you can order at the counter and eat in the food court. Our preferred choice is the "Prego com presunto e ovo estrelado" in the "Snacks" section of the menu. (They do have a menu available in English). This is a beefsteak sandwich, topped with dry-cured ham and a fried egg, and served with what they call "country" fries. Very yummy and very filling. However, if you still have room for dessert, there's a great pastry shop right next door... After lunch, we found a good spot to rest up until it was time for our flight. You do have to hunt a bit for these seats. They're located near the electronic passport gates, but before your go through them. There is also a coffee shop and a toilet that are not nearly as crowded as the main departure lounge area. Finally on board. We paid extra for emergency exit seats for some extra space and comfort (business class being well over our budget). Well worth it. TAP includes food on transatlantic flights. The timing of this flight meant we had dinner and a late-night snack just before arrival into Miami. The dinner (chicken stroganoff) looks pretty disgusting but it was actually quite nice. TAP economy catering is generally edible unlike some other airlines. The flight itself was uneventful and it landed just a little behind schedule, something of an achievement for TAP, who must have one of the worst punctuality records in the business. Immigration was the quickest we've ever had at Miami, thanks to the timing of the flight; landing around 10 pm, there were no other international flights arriving to that terminal. the luggage seemed to take forever to come through but to be fair it was probably only about 15 minutes and we were soon in a Lyft on our way to our hotel. I had previously linked my Hilton and Lyft accounts. This gets you Hilton points for each Lyft journey. We were staying for two nights at the Hampton Inn in Brickell. I had booked a standard king room but we were upgraded to a king studio. I don't really know why, possibly because I had cashed in some points in part payment. I'd checked in on the Hilton app ahead of time so I was able to choose our room and having stayed here before I knew which area would give us the best "view" if you can really call it that. By this time, we'd been up and on the go for 22 hours so we literally dropped our bags and fell into bed for a good night's sleep before a full day out and about in Miami the following day.

This is a function that used to be available way back when. It would be good to see it return.

Many years ago, when DH was a crew member, he made regular stops in Victoria. Says it was one of his top favourite ports. We happened to be discussing favourites with another couple in the WJ on one of our cruises and the people at the next table piped up with, "We're from Victoria!". They were thrilled. This is going back 40 years now so I'm sure there have been big changes but I think that sounds like an amazing itinerary. I'd love to b2b it with a Panama Canal cruise.

I hear you! I'm counting down to that wonderful day. Only three and a half years to go!

Haven't done one of these from Bayonne but we regularly do them from Miami and Fort Lauderdale. They aren't cheap but, for us, the comfort and convenience factor makes them worth it. Note that they will not take chances on a late arrival at the airport. We, too, once had a late start, in our case caused by guests putting the wrong tags on their luggage, which resulted in part of the excursion being cut to ensure timely arrival at the airport.

The jumbo shrimp and the lamb in Chops are both good, better than the steak in my opinion. You'll be getting more value from your package by choosing Chops. That said, since Izumi has a la carte options, you could do a lunch or a dinner there (price is the same). I am absolutely not a sushi fan but still managed to find enough to eat (and enjoy) when I went there with DD on Anthem last summer. I can't remember exactly what we had but pretty sure teriyaki and/or kara age chicken and the fried rice. Note that the menus for Izumi vary from ship to ship so if you are looking in the app, be sure to look under Anthem and not any other ship.

Sorry to hear that. Our lunches at Jamies on Anthem were all good, both before and after they switched the menu. It was also good on the Symphony cruise we've just been on but with the caveat that the banana split I'd been so looking forward to was a disappointment. The three big scoops of high quality ice cream that I remembered from Anthem were three small scoops of normal ice cream on Symphony.

That's an interesting strategy that would never have occurred to me. I doubt we'll even get that far (only just hit D+ on our Symphony cruise that ended on Sunday, anxiously waiting for the points to post and see the status change) but am filing it away for the future anyway.

Yes, just did the lunch option, premier is no extra charge. The ticket says $0.00. Definitely worthwhile if you're fine doing lunch rather than dinner. Just don't have a big breakfast beforehand though.

The prices on the menu are the a la carte options. If you book through the cruise planner there's no more to pay and you can choose any of the protein options. Be aware that there will be an 18% gratuity added to the total when checking out in the cruise planner. No further tip required on board. Note that if it doesn't have to be dinner, you get the exact same menu at lunchtime for a much cheaper price.

Just off Symphony. They were calling the chocolate cherry tart "black forest tart" on their menu but it's the same thing.

They've hiked the price massively on this activity and on iFly. We did the North Star extended experience last year at $19 and iFly at $29. This year's prices are insane. It's definitely not worth it.

Not really. I live in Portugal and regularly book on the US website. I have also booked on the UK website in the past. However - and it's a big however - it means you are subject to that country's booking rules which may not be as attractive to you (e.g. no repricing, fees to make any changes such as names, etc.). Also, you won't be able to transfer your booking to a US travel agent, if that's something you might normally do. So be very sure you check all the ins and outs before going ahead.

So, keeping good on my promise, we ended up at the pizza place I mentioned. It's called Piola and it's literally a stone's throw from the hotel. The pizzas were good and reasonably priced but they were too big for us. We could have shared one with a side salad and that would have been the perfect amount. Also within the same stone's throw (turn right out of the hotel) there is a Vietnamese place, Sergio's Cuban, the Batch Gastro Pub and a place called Alma Rosa that looked to be Mexican or possibly Peruvian, from the menu. A stone's throw to the left you have Coyotaco and an upscale-looking place called Marion. Just beyond those there is a 7/11 if you need any last minute stuff from that kind of shop. Hope it helps.

Thanks for sharing @MaryS. I've enjoyed following along.

DH always liked those cherries too. They've done away with so many of the nice things.

I hope things don't get too uncomfortable for you @Karannk.

I liked that too!