TheHobbys

btw - if anyone is interested and traveling into Rome ...  I would highly recommend using Rome Cabs.  My dad recommended using them from their trip a few years back.  It was only $175 euro's to get from Rome to the cruise port and the same to get back to the Leonardo Div. airport.  

We booked reservations about a month before the cruise.  There was no payment due and we just paid the driver once they showed up, we did tip both drivers but it is not required.  Both drivers were on time, courteous and got all our bags and us loaded and to our destination.   

Stefano’s RomeCabs | Website: www.RomeCabs.com

Normally, I wouldn't post stuff like this - but have to say, it was very nice to have our own dedicated cab/driver and not have to wait in line or flag down someone who may not have been as affordable.  Just a piece of mind to have this part booked.

2 minutes ago, Mr.Cruiser said:

@TheHobbys

Thanks again for your blog! 

Since you got on in Rome, so Interport, there is one more thing that interests me: Did the app on the ship work for you and did your calendar show all the reservations that you had booked on the ship but also before the cruise?

In my case, I could see in the app all my reservations that I made on the website. However, for over 2 weeks the view under "my calendar" has been blank. I just hope that on the ship's WiFi all my reservations will show up again… 

Glad you enjoyed the blog.

The app actually worked pretty good.  We did have to set our phones to roaming and in airplane mode while on the ship.  We were able to turn notifications on for the app in order for us to text each other.  The calendar was for the most part up to date.  There were a few cases where we had JJ in the DL make a reservation for us that didn't show, but we knew what time we had for dinner in the Solarium.  

The weeks leading up to the cruise, some of our bookings / shows / dinner would be in there but it seemed to only be one whoever reserved it.  So, there was a few where my wife booked stuff that I couldn't see on my linked calendar - but it seemed to work better than our last cruise in 2019.

The other thing to watch for ... since we had two balconies, we had to make Giovanni's reservation for both rooms at the same time.  However, because it was two rooms - they thought it would be two separate tables with two people each ... not a reservation for four.  Make sure to swing by the restaurant, if that's your case, and have them combine the reservations into a single with everyone at the same table.  It worked out for us, since we ate at like 5:30 before the big crowd of reservations kicked in.

That first picture was our view from the balcony.    The cone of food was fried crab but there wasn't much crab in them.

Here's some pictures from La Spezia

13 minutes ago, cedricmr said:

The Hobbys are back. Several days without news...  thanks for the story of the trip

I totally spaced on my blogs - sorry about that.  I think there were times I was blogging in my head knowing I needed to sit down and write it out, but then the vacation brain took over.  I think I covered everything, but if ya'll see I missed something just let me know and I'll dig around in my virtual notes about that day.  

Day 13. Marseille France.  I have to admit we were a little excited about taking a tour of the city and wandering around.   That way we could try out some coffee and pastries.   Uh, that didn't happen.   Let me keep yall in suspense ... for a sec anyways. 

About 830 finally forced myself to get up and go get coffee.   It's kind of hard to walk the 15 miles in the morning just for coffee, but it called.  It was a really late night, think about 2am my roommate finally came back.   I let him hang out longer with some of his friends, since he was enjoying it.   After getting some coffee on the promenade, it was of to the diamond lounge for breakfast snacks.   BTW, the expresso machine in here doesn't actually use expresso beans but rather regular coffee.   It's still coffee. 

While hanging out and letting the kids sleep in, we started chatting with some folks about the stop.   So, Marseille is the second largest city after Paris here in France.   Thus, the downtown shopping and fighting traffic started to remind us of the states.  The more we talked the more we talked ourselves out of getting off the ship.  There is a shuttle that would take us into town but it's 20 euros per person.   So, there's about 100 bucks right there just to go for a few hours ... that turned into an expensive French cup of coffee.   (One of the things we wanted to get)

After we finally decided to make it another at sea day, we were off to wake the kids and tell them we were hanging on the ship.   

Today was one of those crew emergency test things where the sound the alarm.   My poor son was half asleep and didn't hear it was a test and only for the crew.  So I got afew text about what he was supposed to do.  He had waken abruptly and was trying to gather his important stuff lol.   It was all good for a short laugh. 

The girls headed to the pool for a few hours of sun with minimal people, while my son and I went to grab some froyo... that's frozen yogurt for yall.  Lol.   We found the ping pong tables empty so we played a few games.   He was then of to find his friends and me off to listen to some music and sit outside.   I can't sit for long, so after a few songs I got up to find the girls. 

I found them soaking up the sun and my wife having some new friends.   We hung out with them for a bit before heading out to clean up for the evening.  Down in the diamond lounge, guess yall know that by now, they have some really good crab cakes and some other pastry thing.  

We have reservations to see the show hairspray tonight, so that'll entertain us for a little bit. 

Tomorrow is la spezia or something like that.   We are actually planning to go do something this time.   There is a boat that'll take us around to see some different color houses and then we can jump on a train to get back to the ship.  More on that adventure tomorrow. 

I'll toss out afew pics from the ship here in Marseille shortly. 

Day 12, right?  Think so.  Today was Palma de Marcello or something like that.   We managed to get the kids up and moving, mostly.   Our son was dragging, lol. He's taking advantage of the 1am curfew I gave him ... well that and it's also the boat curfew for those under 18.

With towels in hand of we went.   So, when we booked these, we had to do it by room.   Girls got 2 tickets and the boys 2 tickets.  Now, when we got down to the main theater where we were meeting our group to get on the bus we got in line to get a group number.   Funny, the girls got group 23 and the boys got group 24.  It wasn't a problem, was just funny they split us like that.   Anyways, the beach was like most any normal beach, pictures to come in a bit.  A brief walk about and we found something to drop a few euros on.  We are trying to make sure we spend all we brought so as not to have to get it reconverted. Around 1 we were on the bus heading back.   About 4 hours there was enough.   The water was pretty chilly for us, not like caribbean water. 

Back on the ship and the kids went to find their friends, enough family time heh.  The wife went to enjoy a facial she won during some drawing.  And me?  Yeah, you probably know, it was nap time.   I don't think anything special for us tonight.   Tomorrow is a show, though.   Everyone is on their own for dinner.   Thinking we might meander up an try the El Loco fresh.

Tomorrow is Marseille France...another just hop off and go wandering. 

Ok, so where did I leave off.   Oh yeah, so we wandered down the tourist stretch watch people and window shopping.  Most of what we were seeing reminded me of the Caribbean Islands... same stuff different store.  We slowly made our way back to the bus to head back to the ship.  

I think we were all pretty tired, at least I was.   Once safely back on board, the girls went to lay by the pool whilst I crashed for a few hours.   We did dinner in the Solarium, I told ya about already.   Little wandering around the boat to waste time just so we didn't go to the casino to early.

We made some new friends while playing, but they were the ones winning.   Yeah, so one of them we were talking with got some minor jackpot like 4 times ... it wasn't a small one.   Good for her, but she was playing well outside our range.   We still have to work, so no major wins here.   It was late by the time we decided to call it a night, since we had to meet for our beach transfer around 845.

Day 11 .. if I counted right.   The days are starting to blend together and go by faster it seems.   Weird how a long vacation does that.  The last real two week vacation was our honeymoon for two weeks on back to back cruises.  My wife may correct me on that ..

Ok let's see, where did we leave off.?  Yesterday was Barcelona.  There were no excursions for us, just random roaming.  There was no time frame, so we slept in a little.   Our as much as we could.   Oh yeah, guess yall know because I was back down in the diamond lounge writing.  

Our son had played dodge ball the previous night and had soar legs.   He's not much for just walking around looking at stuff, so he opted to stay on board.  Well off the trio of me and the girls went to explore.   There was a bus from the ship to the city, maybe 10 minute drive. It was only 4 euros per person for a round trip ticket.   Make sure to have euro and it's easier if you have exact .. #looksatotherpassengers

What little bit we saw was pretty cool.   Down a little alley we went and started to notice a little more unpleasant smells.  It started to distracted from looking around, although it was just buildings.  We at least wanted to say we ate there, on the hunt we went.   There was a little open square with six or seven restaurants to pick from.   We found one to try out.   The girls had a pasta dish and some rice thing filled with mushrooms.  I think we all grabbed a shovel and started digging out the shrooms, since my wife doesn't like them.   Me?  I was smart and ordered the fish and chips.   The fish was extremely good, we were surprised.   Chips=fries.  Oh yeah, we started with some nachos that were really good.   If I can remember the name I'll drop it out here. 

So, an app, three plates and a bottle of water ended up being about 75 euros.  Little steep for lunch for three, but it was still good.   We also didn't want to go to a place with a low rating.   Funny, after that our daughter seemed to want to head back.   We convinced her to walk down the main drag.   She quickly found some little elephant trinket and I grabbed a stuffed animal key chain for my son.   The girls stopped by a shop for a quick look at clothes.   I met another dude standing outside on the street like me, his girls were inside shopping. 

Oops, sorry for gotta pause and head up to wake the kids and get ready for the beach.   Back later to finish the story.   

We'll be back after these commercials - heh

Dinner options in the Solarium... what we had was good except the salmon was dry.  But much nicer than sitting in the WJ ... #spoiled 

3 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

I've quit getting massages for this very reason.  Actually, there is significant discomfort WHILE they are doing the massage as well as afterward.   Maybe I'm just a wimp.  ...but I've decided, after trying soooo many times, that deep tissue massages just aren't for me.

I think I'm with you on this now.   The past few have started to feel uncomfortable.   I blame mine on age lol.  

Think I'll stick to regular ones also from now on ....

4 hours ago, Mr.Cruiser said:

@TheHobbys
 

Thanks for your daily blogs !
I'm doing the same cruise this summer, so I find it interesting how things are currently going on the Symphony.

Are there places on the ship that you should definitely have seen and not miss? 
Have you been to the "King of the World" near the Solarium yet ? 

How is the food at MDR and Windjammer?
If the food has also gotten worse on my cruise I will have to look for alternatives where you can still eat well for dinner.

Thank you

Glad you enjoy them.   I find it kind of a therapy to take time and just write about the day.   

Haven't done the king on this cruise but will send my son to check it out.  

We haven't done the MDR since probably 2009.  The WJ ... um let's just say it seems good but we got spoiled to other places to eat.  Mainly the coastal kitchen because we had access ... this trip we don't.   We ate at the WJ once a few days ago and it was ok.   However, I think what I ate didn't agree with me but that's just me

if you are diamond you can hit up the club there for happy hour and snack on something like the below.  If not, sorry for the tease

oh, the little Irish pub on the boardwalk doesn't have food which sucks because on the anthem they do and it was pretty good. 

You may want to book dinner in the Solarium, well you have to if you want dinner in there.   Breakfast and lunch are open to all.  It's included but you get a little nicer atmosphere.  That's where we heading tonight ... oh on about 10 minutes lol

hope this helps, anything you want pics of or have other questions I'll try to post ya back

Some pics from dinner.  Looks good but didn't make us go wow.

Garlic dinner rolls .. very soft

Some crab dip appetizer

Fried risotto balls.  They could have been good but risotto needed a little more cooking.  My wife makes better ones

My lamb chops.. medium.  These were tasty

The salmon .. wife said it had bones, so careful 

And dessert ... cheesecake and a tirramasue . Uh . Teramassue .. hmm teriblemassur?  Crap, can't get spell check working.   Stupid phone.   Maybe it needs coffee.

I've had deep tissue massages before and I always end up really sore for the next few days. Weird, it's like you need a massage for the massage you just had. Yesterday was our couples massage which was really good but the 75 minutes went by way too fast.   

It was a semi lazy at sea day, which is good just as long as you avoid the casino.   It being open all day was tempting but we held off till the night. 

Dinner at Jamie's... was good.   Unfortunately we weren't as impressed as the one on the Anthem.  Now the service was great, but the food was just ok.  We were going to try and get JJ out diamond lounge host to help get us another reservation but decided to pass.   I can't put my finger on what it was but last cruise it made us want to go back.   I know... last time we were star class so we got the better food .. this time, not so much. Ha

After dinner we had reservations to the main show, Flight.   The theater was mostly packed, not like some of the shows in our previous cruises, still a fair amount of people though.   The show was actual really good ... think of a show telling the story of aviation backwards.   Blast of towards Mars, then rewind to space shuttles,  then back to landing on the moon ... you get my drift. The music was cool but some of the songs needed a little musical 'help'.  

The night ended with us making another small donation to the casino.  Sadly, we just could find a steady machine.   Oh well, it was still fun.

The kids disappeared after dinner to go hang with friends.   It seems most of the friends they made are leaving today in Barcelona.   I guess this is a sorta weird concept for us.   Everyone gets on at a port, then you all hang for 7 days.  Well, seems over here a bunch get on in rome on Thursday then we make our way to Barcelona and kick some of and pickup new ones.  So, new friends may only hang around for a few days. 

I was actually surprised that my son managed to go to sleep at 2am and still roll out of the bed at 730 to go meet his friends for breakfast before they depart.   Of course, he was back at the cabin as I was heading to diamond lounge for my morning coffee and virtual blogging.  Im sure he's gone back to sleep ... wish I could.  But then again I try to power nap when I can.

Sad, you want to nap and rest and lay by pool ... but then I get that feeling I'm going to miss something or sleep my vacation away.   So, there will be some extra sleep when we get home next weekend.

Barcelona today ... at some point we'll get motivated and go walk around some.   Only a few hours cause there's some water slides on here i need to test out.   Maybe I should have done those before the massage.

BTW diamond lounge breakfast.

We got a balcony this round ... one for the girls and one for the boys.   I think ours is cleaner .. heh

If you can upgrade, it's well worth the extra space.  

Honestly it's not bad ... I'm just spoiled

Day 9 ... I think.   Let me count on my fingers.   Yeah, that's it.   It's 830am here and I'm down in the diamond lounge with my coffee and donuts.  My son was supposed to meet a new friend for breakfast in the main dining room, but evidently it is 9am and not 8am.  He overslept so just told him he was late to class if he was in college.  Oh guess it's like 130am over at home, so yall better be sleeping.

Last night saw some hanging in the casino .. no, I can't retire yet.  But someone on a machine behind us hit a 10k jackpot ... dammit.  I mean good for them.  

We walked around seeing what the shows were about and decided to hit up the battle for the sexes.  No, not to play we did that a few cruises ago.  I hate to say but there was hardly anyone in there.  We expected it to be packed but they were having a hard time getting enough just to play.  Off we went looking for something else.  Not finding much we ended back in the casino.  

For those who don't play, we have a daily budget.   If we run out early then we go home early,  so there's a lot of slow button pressing on 25cent bids lol.  It's entertaining.

Today is our massage, dinner at Jamie's Italian and the main show ... something called flight.   To bad or genie isn't around to hold our seats.   If you don't know what a genie is on a cruise then you may be better off.  Cause once you have one to take care of your family it's really hard to cruise again without staying in a Star class room ... sigh. 

Lemme find some ship pictures to toss out here.  Back later.

Pompeii. Most of this was covered with over 15 feet of dirt and stuff.

The pic with scaffolding is where they are doing new excavation.

Naples - Pompeii 

Today was our Pompeii trip.   We opted for the see it on your own transfer.   What we didn't realize was that there was still a cost to get in.   It was only$25 per person with kids under 12 or 16 free .. yeah that depends on who you asked.  Our transport guy had a sheet where we had him get the tickets and charge our room.  

Ok, I just have to say that place is huge and you can get lost very easy (not us of course  lol ).  You could spend a whole day just walking around but after a bit the rooms start looking the same.

One of the cool parts was seeing some actual excavation going on.  We could have sat and watched that for awhile.  With kids leading, they were mainly looking for the bodies.  They are all stone but was humbling to see the people who got overtaken by the blast cloud.  I won't go into the history but yall should know .. volcano erupted and the city was buried in ash and cloud very quickly.  People were frozen in place because of the heat and speed.  If you haven't see the Pompeii movie ... it's well worth watching.

Our visit was only 4 hours which for us with the kids was plenty to see a lot.  The trip to and from the ship was only about 30 minutes or so depending on traffic.  Do the early tour so tour can chill back on the ship in the afternoon and avoid some of the potential sun.  

Back to the ship we went and back on board about 1.  We had a quick lunch at park cafe then parted ways.  Girls to the pool to lay out, my son to hunt for his new found friends and me to the cabin for a nap.  Yeah yeah ... I needed a nap.  Think I slept till almost 5 ... but feel a little more rested.

My wife won a 100 bucks in spa credit, so went down there to book her something.  Funny, there's not much to get for 100 bucks, so we just paid the difference for some facial treatment.  We've been to the diamond lounge a few times to get to know JJ .. the host.  She's great.

Tomorrow is at sea day so planning to try the slides and mill about.  Since we didn't get our 10yr anniversary cruise a few years ago, I'm treating us to a couples massage.  We had one on the last cruise and it was great...except for the sea weed wrap.  Little claustrophobic for us lol.   

Pompeii pictures to come in a bit.

3 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Just curious, how did the cost of this compare to booking a hotel instead? Did you use Airbnb?

Darn it!  I hate that feeling lol

It was a little cheaper since with a hotel we would have needed 2 hotel rooms.   This way we had three rooms.   Although still only one bathroom.   We went thru booking.com to find ours. 

Day 8 .. Naples and Pompeii.   Oh guess we haven't done those just yet. Days are blending together but that's just fine.   

We were all anxious to get on board yesterday so everyone was up early and all happy.   Oh wait, that wasn't the case just yet.   You should know teenagers aren't the best at getting going in the mornings, so we just had to get them motivated.  Our p private rome cab to the port was scheduled for 11 ... so we were all packed and ready to walk out the door at ... wait for it ... 930.  Ha. Yeah so we all packed most everything the night before just to make it easier. 

With a little over an hour to waste, we ventured out to a little street market hunting for a day bag.   Ok, so a good tip is to make sure you always bring a smaller bag than a backpack and a little larger than a purse.   This way you can have something a little easier to carry around.   We found a bag, great now just another hour before our taxi.  Ugh... when you want time to hurry, it doesn't ... but then you can't slow it down when you need.   

Oh well, of to get the kids some donuts and red bulls.  Well maybe not the bulls just yet. After snacking in a little park we ventured back to grab our luggage which thankfully we were able to leave in the apt.  By the time we got our stuff and walked outside our driver showed up.   Of to the port ... an hour drive, maybe little longer since traffic decided to slow us down. 

We got to the port and were dropped off almost in front of the ship.  Uh, where was everyone?  It was almost deserted.   Oh, @Lovetocruise2002 ... we got dropped off right next to another family meeting their geni.... think I felt a tear welling up.  No geni For us this time. 

Sorry, moving on.   We were greeted and dropped off our luggage then made out way up to finish checking in.   Still, hardly anyone around.   Check in was like 5 minutes, then we were told to go get on board.   Wait, what?? This was a first.   To be able to show up at a designated time and just walk right on ... we didn't complain and rushed aboard.   Happy to be there, finally. 

There were cruisers milling about already, so of we went to check out the ship.  It was a lazy day.   Our luggage came to the rooms about an hour or two later, thus the unpacking started. 

It has been a really long time since we did the wind hammer, I mean jammer.  You get spoiled by other places to eat ... like coastal kitchen.   But we don't have access this time around. 

Not much else other than wandering around until we called it quits about midnight since our tour starts early today. 

Back in the morning with Pompeii pictures.  At sea day tomorrow, so we all going to try and sleep in .. me at least till 6. .. sigh. 

Rome pictures