FionaMG

Might have been heat stroke. I have no  explanation.
MDR Italian night was unexpectedly good. Arancini (forgot a pic) was crispy & tasty, lasagna actually had meat & wasn’t mushy, & even my wife loved the chocolate hazelnut cake. Neither of us tasted any hazelnut. It was very similar to the molten chocolate cake which she loved on Allure. Thanks for the recommendation @FionaMG !

Apologies for the missing bites.
Waiting for Name That Tune: 80’s and trying a “Metalliquor”

Day Five - (Cruise Day Two) - At Sea.
Today was a hugely significant day for us. This was the day we accumulated our 175th C&A point. After several anxious days of constantly refreshing my account page, the points have finally posted and we have now made it to the eagerly awaited milestone of D+. Woohoo! 😀 We were among those who really benefited from the post-pandemic double points promo; without it, we would still have been 22 points adrift of D+ at the present moment in time.

We really like when our first full day on a cruise is a sea day because you have time to explore the ship at leisure, so that is what we did, especially since it was our first sailing on Symphony.
We had breakfast in the Windjammer. I am not usually a fan, preferring the MDR, but DH likes the WJ because he can see what's on offer rather than having to imagine it from a description on the menu. And to be fair, on this cruise, we never found the WJ to be the seething mass of humanity we were expecting. Perhaps it was because we usually managed to go at off-peak times but we never had to really hunt for a table and we never once heard the recorded message asking people to leave to make room for others.
On the whole, we enjoyed pretty much everything we ate in the WJ, which was all but one breakfast and most lunches. I don't remember either of us disliking anything that we tried. I meant to make myself a  DIY chocolate chip cookie with vanilla ice cream like @OCSC Mike suggested, but I forgot. I am kicking myself over this and will have to remedy the oversight on a future cruise! 😂
First WJ breakfast. All subsequent WJ breakfasts were pretty much identical so I won't be boring you with any more pics of them. And, in fact, I didn't take any pics of our WJ lunches.

As you can tell from the breakfast pic, it was a sunny day but there was a very strong wind and this would be a constant throughout much of the cruise, making sunbathing not such a pleasant pastime unless you were lucky enough to be able to find a sunbed in a sheltered spot. That did not stop many of our fellow cruisers from catching some rays.


Although it does look quite busy we never had any real difficulty finding a spot to sit in. That said, we don't mind not being right beside the pool and we actually prefer the seats over the loungers.
There were a few takers for some of the casitas that can be seen in the pics. I was less than impressed with these. Because the sides are slatted, the wind blew right through them. Also, as the sun moved so did the shade. I did see some of them occupied, though, so clearly some people found value in them. The loungers did have nice, thick padded cushions on them, so I'm sure they were far more comfortable than the normal ones.
Given the weather, the solarium was very busy. I somehow managed not to take any pics of the solarium, which was very remiss of me, but we noticed that it had openings in the ceiling that let the air (and the wind!) in and because the wind was so strong on these days, it was whistling very loudly through those openings. I think that noise would have got to me after a bit. We don't usually spend much time in the solarium anyway but I would have to say I preferred the ones on Odyssey and Anthem, precisely because of that, although I imagine it wouldn't be an issue on a calm day.
There was a parade called "Anchors Aweigh" in the promenade today (it would subsequently be repeated on the last sea day, presumably to ensure more people had a chance to see it). It lasted about 15 minutes and was a lot of fun. Lots of folks staked out their spots well in advance, taking advantage of the chairs at Sorrento's, the pub and the Café. If you don't mind standing, the overlook at Focus, the photo place, affords a great view. Again, you do need to get there early to secure your spot.

Today was Super Bowl and the game was shown in a number of venues. We popped into the theatre just as they were playing the US national anthem and the atmosphere was electric. It was also shown in the Aqua Theatre, which was packed, and at Playmakers. The tables in Playmakers were all roped off; I think you had to book if you wanted to sit there as it said something about it in the app and there was a dollar sign.
Because of the event, tonight was not formal night as would normally be expected and the dinner menu was not the usual French menu. Instead it was a casual night and the dinner menu was the Italian menu.

Minestrone soup:

DH hated this and only ate a couple of spoonsful. He said it had a strong acidic taste to it. I reckon that would have been from the tomatoes. Any time I'm making sauces or soups with tomatoes I throw in some sugar to counteract the acidity. Anyway, since his tummy had been acting up a bit today, he decided just to have a cheese plate and leave it at that.
I had the arancini, which I really enjoyed:

The sole, which was fine, nothing to write home about.

And the Italian chocolate-hazelnut cake, which was better than I had been expecting, having been disappointed with it on a couple of previous cruises:

After dinner, we went to see the ice show, which was very good. We were too busy actually watching it to get much in the way of pictures but it is definitely a not-to-be-missed entertainment item.

This was followed by a few minutes (literally all the time it took!) in the casino for DH to make his nightly contribution and we then retired exhausted from our long day of doing not a lot and needing to rest up in preparation for repeating it all again the following day. 😂
 

Day Four - It's Cruise Day!
After breakfast, we called a Lyft to the port. It took about 10 minutes and cost just under $13 not including tip.
We arrived within our pre-booked time slot but there were some ladies ahead of us who asked if they could come in anyway even though their time was later and they were told yes. Just an FYI for those who may not be able to secure an earlier arrival time. 🙂
Boarding had already started and although I didn't time it, it probably took us about 20 minutes to get through security, check-in, photo stop and on to the ship.
After dealing with the muster drill, we grabbed a seat in Central Park (and a lemonade and some cookies) until it was time for our 1 pm lunch at Jamies. Actually, if I had been thinking straight at the time, I would have remembered about the Park Cafe and not bothered booking Jamies as that is really a strategy to avoid the WJ on boarding day.
The couple sitting next to us kindly agreed to take a pic for us. We're both hopeless at selfies. I'm so pleased with the one they took, I'm going to print it a frame it. 🥰

Lunch at Jamies:

Garlic buns. Very good.

Meat plank. Also very good.

Penne carbonara. DH said it was meh.

Super salmon. I loved this when I had it on Anthem and it was just as good here.

For dessert we split a banana split. I mentioned in another post on the boards that this was a big let-down. When I had it last, on Anthem, it had come with three large scoops of very high quality ice cream, but today it was three small scoops of normal ice cream. No pic as it did not deserve the space on my camera. ☹️
By this time, the rooms were open. We had booked a neighbourhood balcony guarantee and been assigned 11195, which we could actually see from our table in Jamies. This was our first time in this type of cabin and it was perfectly fine for us. We did find we missed the over-the-bed storage we had had on Anthem and Odyssey. I think a family with 3 or 4 people would struggle to find room for everyone's stuff. One nice thing was that there loads of hangers, some wooden and a lot of what looked like new plastic ones.
On this cruise, we used our balcony a bit more than we have done on previous trips. Comparing CP balcony, BW balcony and OV balcony, I think my favourite is the OV but DH said he really liked seeing CP and listening to the music that they often had playing there in the evening. We knew to keep our curtains closed and we were never bothered by noise so we were happy with our room.
The bed is by the door in this room:


 
Keep the curtains closed! 😳

The view by day:


And by night:


Given all of the horror stories I had read about My Time Dining on these bigger ships, we had opted for late traditional on this cruise. We were very disappointed with our table (381) which was stuck away in a hidden corner about as far from the beautiful central area as you could possibly get while still actually being in the same room. If I had remembered, I would have checked out the location ahead of time but having had MTD on all of our post-Covid cruises up till now I completely forgot.
The only redeeming factor and which stopped us for asking to change was our servers Sydney and Gendraj. They were just what we old hands expect of our dining room staff: friendly, helpful and attentive to all of our needs.
The Welcome Aboard dinner is one of the (IMHO) better ones of the cut-back menus:

We had the crab cake to start and it did not disappoint. I know it's not a "proper" Maryland crab cake (notice they've stopped calling it "Maryland style" in the menu?) but we like them.

Next came the prime rib. Since they usually overcook this, we asked for medium rare. It came out still kicking and mooing on our plates and we had to send it back for medium. However, either way, it definitely wasn't as good as we remembered.


For dessert we had the Boston cream pie and the cheesecake. I wasn't quick enough with the camera here but suffice to say both were very nice.

After that and ONLY because I mentioned it to them, Sydney, Gendraj and the up until then completely MIA headwaiter, whose name I never did get because he was so rarely seen, brought me my birthday slice of cake with candle. This is a rather disappointing development on Royal's part. In the past, when we had a birthday or anniversary on board, we would always receive this treatment without prompting. I know it was specified on the booking because our lovely MEI agent @michelle put it on and I saw it on the invoice. But our servers didn't know, the HW never came to ask if anyone had a special occasion (someone at the next table also had a birthday during the week) and if I hadn't made a point of mentioning it it would have gone uncelebrated.
In comparison, our DD is currently working as a Guest Services agent on MSC and a member of her team is always tasked with ensuring that everyone celebrating a birthday on board gets a birthday card delivered to their room. It's only a very small gesture but it makes you feel special and I feel Royal have perhaps lost their way a bit in this regard, which is a pity.
That said, when we went to the casino after dinner and I tapped my card to get my free $6 play, the slot machine acknowledged the occasion by flashing up "Happy Birthday!" That did make me laugh. 😂 I still didn't win anything with my free play though.
And then it was time for our ritual bedtime tea and cookies from the Promenade Cafe before turning in for the night.
 
 
 

Day Three - Fort Lauderdale
Partly because our ship was leaving from Port Everglades and mostly because hotel prices in Miami on that Friday night jumped substantially, we moved to Fort Lauderdale for our third pre-cruise night.
After enjoying another Hampton breakfast we got our stuff together and called a Lyft to go to Fort Lauderdale. It took about 45 minutes and cost just under $40 not including tip.
In Fort Lauderdale, we were returning to the Best Western Plus Oceanside Inn on Seabreeze. We have stayed here twice before and it ticks our boxes in terms of price, location and amenities, this last essentially meaning the included breakfast, which is usually a deal breaker for us when choosing a hotel. However, there is also a bar that serves both drinks and food. The food menu is below. We did not eat there so can't attest as to the quality.
Two queens with balcony. The balcony overlooked the pool area of the B Ocean next door.

 
Food menu.

 
We were lucky in that there was a room available and we able to check in straight away.
After putting our things in our room we headed out to spend the rest of the day wandering up and down the seafront, punctuated by a couple of eating stops. Sorry, this particular post seems to be almost exclusively about food! 😳
Lunch was eaten at the Cafe del Mar.
Menu:

Chicken BLT: 

Caprese sandwich:

These sandwiches were very nice but so big we couldn't finish them and we were still stuffed later when we went to Bubba Gump for dinner. We usually do BG when we are in Fort Lauderdale. I know it's not very exciting to most folks reading this but we don't have that chain here and we enjoy it. I forgot to take a pic of the menu but we opted for lighter fare since we were only really eating because it was dinner time and not because we were hungry.
Lobster mac & cheese (appetizer size):

And I think this was mahi mahi:

We went for a long after dinner walk to help with the digestion and then headed back to the hotel for our last pre-cruise sleep.
Fort Lauderdale by night from the Las Olas Bridge:

Day Two - Miami
We started the day with the Hampton's usual included breakfast. The last time we stayed here (pre-Covid), they had a wonderful fruit salad at breakfast but, sadly, that was missing this time around. That did not stop us from enjoying fuelling up, though. The coffee was very good. They had a dark roast and a light roast as well as decaf, so we took full advantage of it, knowing that we would be unlikely to get any decent coffee on board the ship. There are all the usual continental items, with cold meats and cheeses, cereal, fresh fruit and various types of bread. Plus hot items that change daily; DH said his omelette was very good. I looked for them the next day and it was scrambled eggs instead, so I missed out. And there is a make-your-own waffle station too.
Just in case it matters to anyone, the plates and cutlery are the disposable type.

We had a full day today in Miami and we had decided to do the ho-ho bus to try and see some stuff we hadn't got round to or had only had a fleeting glance at on our previous visit, most notably Wynwood Walls and Little Havana.
The weather was looking rather unfriendly first thing in the morning and someone (hint: wasn't me!) thought he should dress for a cooler day... By the time we arrived at Bayside, the sun was out and it was pretty warm and that someone realised he hadn't made the best of wardrobe choices! 😂

In the interests of comfort, given that he had a thick long-sleeved t-shirt on underneath all that stuff, we ended up going back to the hotel so he could change. We reckoned this would cost us maybe 45 minutes tops. Wrong. This was where we fell foul of the changes in the metromover schedule. By the time we'd figured out what was going on, changed trains twice and waited for a then delayed inner loop train, it was 90 minutes before we got back to Bayside and onto the bus. This would subsequently impact the rest of the day.
First stop was Miami Beach where we had a nice wander with a few rest stops in shady spots, eventually followed by an instantly forgettable hot dog with fries that were UNforgettable, not to mention inedible, because of how salty they were. The place was called Redhead Burger. I wouldn't recommend it.
Rest stop with the beach gym equipment. I did not use it, other than as a backdrop.

After lunch we headed back to the bus. The traffic was horrendous and we realised we weren't going to be able to make it to both Wynwood Walls and Little Havana, so we opted to leave Wynwood for a future visit because at least we could see some of the street murals from the bus as we were driving through the area. I think next time I will book us a hotel in the Wynwood area to make sure we don't miss out again.
We enjoyed wandering up and down the main street in Little Havana, cheekily popped into the domino club to use their bathrooms and then indulged in an ice cream from the place with a giant ice cream cone on the wall outside. It was too early for dinner (for us, anyway) so we headed back to the hotel for a pre-dinner rest.
I posted recently here on the boards about restaurants near the Hampton Inn Brickell but I'll just add the information here too, in case it might be useful to anyone who didn't see that thread.
There are several restaurants in immediate walking distance even if you are not very mobile. Turn right out of the main door and there is a Vietnamese place right next door, although it looked like a kind of fast-food place, then there is Sergio's Cuban, the Batch Gastro Pub that @AshleyDillo likes and, on the corner, a place called Alma Rosa which, from the menu, might have been Mexican or Peruvian. It looked quite nice. Just past there was where we ended up, an Italian place called Piola. 
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. We sat outside on the covered terrace and it was very pleasant. There was a saxophonist playing for part of the time we were there. We were at the far end of the terrace from him so the music wasn't too loud, but it wasn't gentle either; I think if we'd been closer to him, it might have been uncomfortable. At least he played well!

Capricciosa pizza:

And Como pizza:

For information's sake, there are also some eating places if you turn left out of the hotel: Coyotaco and an upscale-looking place with valet parking called Marion. Just beyond that there was another (I think Mexican) whose name escapes me and a 7/11 store for last-minute essentials.
By now, jet-lag and the day's exploring had taken their toll so like the well-behaved pre-vintages that we are, we toddled off back to the hotel for another night's rest before moving to Fort Lauderdale the next day for our final pre-cruise night.

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.
 
 

Following! Hope you have a really amazing time. 😊

We leave on Friday for our 8-night Southern Caribbean cruise. I will be very busy Thursday - Saturday of this week, so I'm starting now in hopes that it will be easier to keep up with some smaller posts as we begin our travel. 
This will be our first time on Symphony - I'm super excited to cruise on this ship! There will be six of us: me, DH, DD (just turned 17) and DS (14) plus my parents (more below).
Our itinerary is -
Day 1 Cruising from Fort Lauderdale/Port Everglades
Day 3 Labadee (I'm fairly sure we won't stop here, but haven't heard yet what we'll have instead)
Day 5 Aruba
Day 6 Curacao
I'm bummed about Labadee. The last time we were here was in 2014 (kids were 4 & 7) so we were very excited to do all of the adventure activities this year - superman zip line, coaster and jet skis - and bought them all on Black Friday special. Hopefully we'll have some sort of stop since they've had two weeks to figure it out. With an eight night, spring break (crowded) ship, I'd prefer for 3 of the days to be in port.
We're flying from Newark, which is not our home airport - it is about 2 hours away - but was half the price. We also have a mix & match flight: JetBlue to FLL on Friday night and United back from PBI on Sunday. I've prebooked a parking space at a private location.
My parents are cruising with us for the first time. The company my Dad works for used to charter ships in the 80s so they have cruised before, but nothing like what they'll experience on Symphony. They are retired so got a good flight deal by going down on Wednesday. They are renting a car and have a great price for the three nights for a room in a condo complex (offered as an add on to their Southwest flight). They will be picking up a bottle of wine, some bottled water and maybe a few other things since they'll have so much time. We don't get in until 9pm so essentially just sleeping, breakfast and an Uber to the port. We have an 11:30am check in but plan to get there around 11am. 
They originally booked a GTY ocean view, which was the same price as an interior at the time. I caught a sale and upgraded them to a GTY ocean balcony, they were assigned 6th floor really early, and then our fabulous TA moved them two doors down from us on the 8th floor.
On our last cruise, we did a Discover Scuba for the first time and loved it. So we decided to do our PADI cert over the summer and our OW dives in a quarry in October - that was not fun at all - but we're fully certified and have a dive planned for both Aruba and Curacao. We also rented a car in Aruba. We have a very late day there (9 or 10pm) so we'll dive in the morning and then plan to drive around sightseeing for the rest of the afternoon. We rented from Top Drive and added on the chairs/snorkel/cooler package so my parents will hang out at Eagle or Palm Beach while my family dives. 
On Curacao, we will dive, my parents will snorkel, we'll change and grab lunch back on the ship and then we plan to just do a self-guided walking trip to the bridge, etc. I also want to check out the artist that @FionaMG mentioned and maybe pick up a print or two. 
We have all the shows reserved, Escape room booked, specialty lunch at Giovanni's on boarding day, and a meal at Wonderland booked to celebrate my daughter's birthday. I also got the birthday package for her, with the room decorations and cake. 
Have to run, but more to come!

Serious lack of eating today. Heat is one thing that kills my appetite & I was too hot to stuff myself at CocoCay. I didn’t even have a funnel cake. That’s unheard of for me.
We got back on the ship, showered, cooled off (the a/c is insanely strong in our cabin), & destroyed a small crowd at cartoon theme song trivia (it was nearly all 80s/90s stuff). We gave away one of the highlighters we won to a young boy & went back to the cabin to relax. I planned to hit up ELF but dozed off instead. I needed it but now I’ll be making up for lack of food with CL snacks, MDR Italian night, WJ & Sorrentos… I’d rather have ELF tbh but we’ll see what I find.
Nothing really planned after dinner. Still have plenty of vouchers to use.

If you haven't seen it already, you might like to take a look at my recent recap blog from our Symphony cruise last month. I cover our evening meals in there, with pics. I hope it helps and you have a wonderful cruise. 😊
 
 
 

That's exactly how it works.

You just use whatsapp or another app that works through wifi, such as FB messenger.
 

Off the ship not long after the gangway opened & it’s empty by the Oasis pool. This is not an early morning crowd & we’re the only ship here. Will use my Bezos holder for something frozen later.

Random food/drink pics…
Chicken Saag (MDR)

Key Lime Pie

Desert Pear Margarita with black salt from Schooner Bar (Patron in @Lovetocruise2002’s honor)

 
Goalpost Margarita from Playmakers (one of my go-to’s)

Ranger Cookie stash for the cabin

Pool deck is nucking futs. Out here cause kids want to do slides. Oh lawd help me! 

For the record, I also went to Park Cafe but didn’t get anything. And I had a ranger cookie on my way out of WJ.
Cabins were ready at exactly 1:00 and our luggage was waiting for us! We also met our cabin attendant within minutes. He quickly introduced himself & said he’d be back at 3:00. We told him no rush but asked if he could bring us extra hangers when he returned. He knocked on our door 5 mins later with a dozen hangers. Great first impression!

You’ve already been to the WJ AND ELF ?  OMG….youre going to explode before the ship leaves the dock !  😱😵😂

Just stayed in 6286 on Odyssey, and the view was horrible. Also, starboard side aft on 6th floor is right over a restaurant, you get no sleep.

It all looks amazing 🤩. Keep it coming 😄

It all looks amazing 🤩. Keep it coming 😄

See ya during the week @GatorCruiser!
First meal from empty WJ as it just opened. Beef curry that was actually spicy & fried rice. Went back for more curry. Not sure why the Indian food in the MDR is so mild compared to WJ.
 

Incredibly already met @OCSC Mike and his lovely bride during boarding. I can confirm car to bar in 15 mins 

Easy drive (aside from the car fire we passed, hope everyone was ok).
Through check-in in less than 10 minutes as usual. Just waiting for boarding to begin.

Have fun!!!! 😄

Insane clown duo ready to cruise !! They have their embarkation gear on as well.