Tiffeven

Day 7 continued:
Sunil told us to meet him in the suite lounge at 10:20am.  The genies had all of their guests do this, and then we priority elevatored down and pretty much got off the ship immediately.  There was one genie at the top elevator, one at bottom elevator,  and one right outside.  It was very quick and worked well since they could priority the elevator back and forth to get Star Class families without having to worry about it stopping on any other floor between.  Sunil said this is the first time they've done it this way, and because it worked so well, they would probably stick with it.
Coco Cay:

 

Day 7:
In the first few days of the cruise, we received a letter that we need to register for the kid's rapid antigen test for day 7.  We registered all of the kid's for the 8:30am appointment and were planning on having breakfast in our room at 9am before getting off the ship in Coco Cay.  What we didn't realize was how long the line would be.  We assumed 8:30am meant an 8:30am appointment, but the line was the longest one I have seen the entire trip.  I'm not sure about other times, but it seemed like 8am-9am was very busy.  One reason for this is we were supposed to get to Coco Cay at 10am, and kids are not allowed off the ship until they get their negative result.  It was only supposed to take about an hour for results, but we didn't get our email until almost three hours later.  It worked out ok for us though, because Steven and I were planning on getting off the ship in Coco Cay without the kids first so that we could ride the big waterslides, and then going back to get them and taking them to the waterpark.  I feel bad for anyone who was planning on taking their kids off the ship first thing though.  Keep this in mind when planning your testing.  If you are going into port and want to get off the ship early on day 7, I recommend planning your testing earlier than 8am.

Day 6 continued:
We picked up the kids and asked both of the older two if they wanted to go ride the waterslides, but they opted for pizza and video games instead, so Sunil had pizza, fries, and fruit delivered to the room for them.  I really don't know what they are going to do when they get home and can't have pizza for every meal.  
Steven and I had 150 Central Park reservations for the evening.  We always try to do 150 as our date night restaurant, so we brought the kids back to Adventure Ocean and Royal Babies and Tots after a few hours.  They were excited to be back.  We met Sunil at 150 Central Park where we had a nice conversation.   Our server was very nice, but it was  much different than the other restaurants.  At the other restaurants, we had our main server taking care of us, plus other servers, and the restaurant managers would come by numerous times asking if everything was to our liking during the meals.  We even had the Mad Hatter at Wonderland serving us food and continually bringing the kids cotton candy.  At 150, our server took care of us but we really didn't have any one else stopping by the table.  We did enjoy having everyone fawn all over us at the other restaurants especially since they kept the kids occupied, but it was kind of nice having a quiet meal since the kids weren't there.  
For our meal, I had ceasar salad, seared honey glazed scallops, roasted spiced pumpkin bisque, and lobster thermidor.  Steven had ceasar salad, crispy Berkshire pork belly, and pan-seared veal medallions.  We have always really enjoyed the food at 150, and this trip was no different.  It was delicious, and we ate so much that we didn't have room for dessert.  The presentation of the food was beautiful as well.  We even pulled up a picture to compare the presentation from when we were on Allure; and while it was delicious at both, Symphony definitely wins on presentation.
On the way to get the kids, I realized we hadn't had Baked Alaska on this trip, so I messaged Sunil and asked for some to be delivered after we picked up the kids.
After picking up the kids, we returned to our room to find a towel animal surprise.  We always keep all of the towel animals, so that we have a towel animal menagerie at the end of the trip.  After the first towel animal, I put it on the desk in the master bedroom, but the next day, the room attendant took it even though it was set to the side.  I was going to ask him not to take any more, but our paths didn't cross.  We had one towel animal (our 2nd towel animal) and were getting off in port.  I was still unable to find him, so I called Sunil and asked him if he could let him know not to take the towel animal that we like to have a zoo at the end of the trip.  Sunil made sure we had our zoo, because we returned to the room to find...

Sunil also called soon after we arrived to the room and asked if we were ready for our baked Alaska, which was yummy as always and a good end to the day.
150 Central Park:

Baked Alaska:

Thank you and oh yes!  They were pretty wired after all that icing.
They did.  Sunil was absolutely amazing.  Despite all the restriction, he still found a way to make the trip special for all of us.
Yes, they do!  Royal definitely chooses the best of the best when selecting their genies.  It is incredible how they make each guest feel so special and make each experience so unique.

Day 6 continued:
After decorating cupcakes, the kids went to Adventure Ocean and Royal Babies and Tots to burn out some energy while Steven and I rode the flowrider and all of the waterslide onboard.  The flowrider was a lot busier than it had been.  There were probably 20 people in line and another 15 or so watching when we got there. We asked the guy on one side of the flowrider where he wants us to stand or sit for Star Class priority, and he said we have to get in line with everyone else.  Of course, we knew this wasn't true, so we found a different employee who we knew was familiar with Star Class.  He said the other guy doesn't usually work there and is only there for Covid protocols.  He then went and spoke to the guy running the flowrider.  Before, they were doing 3 guests, 1 star class, 3 guests, 1 star class, etc.  This time they did 4 guests and then both Steven and me.  I guess they switch it up based on who is running the flowrider and how busy they are.  We also rode each of the waterslides.  The two enclosed waterslides called The Perfect Storm were ok.  They were pretty hot and muggy inside and not very fast.  The Supercell waterslide was our favorite on the ship, so we rode it twice.  The lines for the waterslides were way shorter than we expected especially for a sea day.  On some of the slides, there was no line at all and the longest waterslide line had maybe 3 people in it.  It seemed like the majority of people on the pool deck, were either lounging or in the pool.  Again, we didn't notice any limits for the amount of people in the pool.  We finally had a chance to try El Loco Fresh.  It was pretty standard.  If we didn't have all the specialty restaurants included, we would have probably spent more time there, but it really didn't compare to specialty dining or even the room service steak quesadillas.   It was good just not great.
El Loco Fresh:

 

Thank you and oh yes!  They were pretty wired after all that icing.
They did.  Sunil was absolutely amazing.  Despite all the restriction, he still found a way to make the trip special for all of us.
Yes, they do!  Royal definitely chooses the best of the best when selecting their genies.  It is incredible how they make each guest feel so special and make each experience so unique.

I'm really feeling Nyssa's pain.  When I told her we were getting off the ship to go home today, she very sadly said, "But why? I want to stay here!" 
Unfortunately,  all good things must come to an end.
 

I'm really feeling Nyssa's pain.  When I told her we were getting off the ship to go home today, she very sadly said, "But why? I want to stay here!" 
Unfortunately,  all good things must come to an end.
 

I'm really feeling Nyssa's pain.  When I told her we were getting off the ship to go home today, she very sadly said, "But why? I want to stay here!" 
Unfortunately,  all good things must come to an end.
 

I'm really feeling Nyssa's pain.  When I told her we were getting off the ship to go home today, she very sadly said, "But why? I want to stay here!" 
Unfortunately,  all good things must come to an end.
 

I'm really feeling Nyssa's pain.  When I told her we were getting off the ship to go home today, she very sadly said, "But why? I want to stay here!" 
Unfortunately,  all good things must come to an end.
 

The look so cute but I bet that sugar high....whoo!

Wow how awesome !  What a great Genie.  The kids look like they had a BALL !

This makes my heart smile! They take such good care of their guests and make the kids feel so special.

Day 6 continued:
When we got back to the room, Sunil had a surprise waiting.  Right now, they are not allowed to do the cupcake decorating class, and he told me he had tried his best but they aren't allowing it, so he did the next best thing and brought us the stuff to do cupcake decorating.  The kids were so excited, and they had a lot of fun decorating and eating cupcakes.  This was not something we asked for.  It was just yet another thing Sunil did to make the trip special.  He also got Steven and me a ship model, but he went one step further and had it signed by the Captain.  The kids have already told us they want to request Sunil when we go back on Symphony in April and we are in complete agreement with them.
Cupcake decorating:

Day 6 continued:
When we got back to the room, Sunil had a surprise waiting.  Right now, they are not allowed to do the cupcake decorating class, and he told me he had tried his best but they aren't allowing it, so he did the next best thing and brought us the stuff to do cupcake decorating.  The kids were so excited, and they had a lot of fun decorating and eating cupcakes.  This was not something we asked for.  It was just yet another thing Sunil did to make the trip special.  He also got Steven and me a ship model, but he went one step further and had it signed by the Captain.  The kids have already told us they want to request Sunil when we go back on Symphony in April and we are in complete agreement with them.
Cupcake decorating:

Wow!  Within 2 hours of sending Sunil my phone number, he already called.  He spent about 25 minutes on the phone coordinating everything.  He mentioned that he must have missed the pdf that we sent and asked us to resend it.  He told me that I can arrive earlier than the 1pm boarding time that he mentioned and go on and let the kids take their Covid tests, but we won't be able to board until the gangway is cleared from the previous sailing.  He informed us that sometimes there can be a delay with the previous sailing's disembarkation which is why he said 1pm as he doesn't want his guests having to wait around.  He also said he would make sure we have Adventure Ocean and Royal Baby and Tot hours, but they are working on a reduced capacity in those venues.  He informed us that laser tag is not being offered with everything going on and that they just reopened Escape the Rubicon (the escape room), but they are only allowing large groups of six traveling together.  Since Steven and I are only two people, and they won't group people with other traveling parties, we will have to miss it this time.  We understand this is beyond the genie's control, and we will just plan on doing it after it returns to normal.  He also told me that if I don't want to do Coastal Kitchen on filet night, he can have them make filet any night I want and have it delivered anywhere I want.  Of course, we are just going to stick with getting it on the first night at Coastal Kitchen.  He made reservations for us to have Playmakers for embarkation lunch as we requested.  We had asked for snacks during 1977 (ice skating show), but he let me know that during the "everyone" show, they do not even have bartenders go around.  The bartenders still serve drinks during the "vaccinated only" show but not the "everyone" show.  Sunil asked if the kids like candy and if we allowed it.  I told him that on vacation, we let the kids live it up.  He told us since he can't have snacks delivered at the show, he would have candy delivered to our room before the show.  Any disappointment I had is now gone, and I am quickly realizing why Sunil is so highly reviewed.

For some reason every time I try to post a picture or a document, it shows as a broken link or "forbidden."  Not sure what's going on so instead of posting my document of requests, I will just copy and paste below.  Sorry in advance for the bad formatting.  It reformatted everything when I pasted into this.
Requests for our wonderful genie:
1.      For breakfast, we will have breakfast on our balcony.
2.      For lunch:
·        Embarkation day lunch at Playmakers
·        Some days we will have lunch delivered to our room and some days we will eat at one of the specialty restaurants.  
3.      For dinner:
·        Dinner at Chops on the first night (if not Coastal Kitchen filet mignon night)
·        Coastal Kitchen on filet mignon night (with the kids)
·        Dinner at Izumi Hibachi (without the kids but Sophia, Kat, and Nyssa will probably want it delivered to the room as they love Izumi), Chops (first night with kids and once without), 150 Central Park (without the kids), Jaime’s Italian (with the kids), Wonderland (with the kids), and Hooked Seafood (delivered to the room for second dinner haha or we will go for lunch if it is not a reduced menu).
·        We do not want to go to Chef’s Table.
·        Please inform the restaurants that they do not need to wait between courses on bringing out the food.  We would like to order our meals before we arrive so that it is ready when we arrive.  The babies get fussy if we are in one place for too long, so we want the meals to be enjoyable but quicker than the usual cruise ship dining experience.  We had a bad experience on one of our other Star Class cruises when we were at a specialty restaurant where the babies got fussy after a long wait on food.  Since then, we always request our meals at a quicker pace and the dining experience is much more enjoyable.
4.      Shows:
·        We will probably go to the Quest and the Love and Marriage game shows, but it will depend on the day and time.
·        We would like to see the adult (not family friendly) comedy show, Hairspray, and most of the other shows without the kids.  If it is a show created with kids in mind such as the ice skating show, we will bring them.
·        We do not want to see the Headliner.
·        We will watch the aqua theater show from our balcony and would like snacks delivered during.
5.      Our favorite snacks:
·        We love food!  Christian and Sophia are like many other children their age and are not fond of new or exotic foods.  Their favorite foods are pepperoni pizza, ice cream, candy, salt and vinegar chips, chocolate chip and sugar cookies.  Kat and Nyssa also enjoy junk food as much as their older siblings do, but they are generally a lot less picky with food than Christian and Sophia.  We all love fruit (with the exception of Christian).  Steven and Tiffany enjoy many of the same things such as spicy foods, shrimp tempura rolls, pitas and hummus, and guacamole and chips.  Where their tastes differ is Steven loves hot wings with blue cheese and the fresh orange juice from Park Café while Tiffany prefers seafood (especially the lobster from Chops) and desserts.
6.      For drinks: Steven enjoys diet coke, Tiffany enjoys sprite zero (strawberry sprite zero is the favorite though), and the kids will drink almost anything but diet coke and sprite zero are favorites. 
7.      Random info about us:
·        We (with the exception of Christian) enjoy Starbucks very much.  Tiffany usually has a grande skinny blonde vanilla latte or a tall caramel ribbon crunch frappuccino made with fat free milk, light base, and whipped cream with extra of the crunchies on top (depending on if I want a cold or hot drink).  Steven has a tall caramel ribbon crunch frappuccino made with fat free milk, light base, and whipped cream with extra of the crunchies on top.  Kat, Nyssa, and Sophia like double chocolate chip frappuccinos made with white mocha instead of dark mocha and with whipped cream on top.
·        Steven does not drink alcohol but will drink virgin drinks.  Tiffany will occasionally drink alcohol (frozen, fruity drinks) but not very often.
·        On embarkation day, we would like to sign up for our nursery and Adventure Ocean hours as soon as possible before or directly after lunch.  We would like to get the same hours for all of the kids, so that we can enjoy some adult time.
·        We are concerned about how Kat will do in nursery as she has never been apart from Nyssa.  She is always with us, and has only ever been away from us while in the children’s program on cruises or at Club Med, but she has always been in the same class as Nyssa up until now (she is two and a half and Nyssa is three and a half).
·        We are homeschool parents and the kids are with us 24/7, so we would really like to have some adult only time to connect on this trip.  We still want to do stuff with the kids, but we have not had any adult only time since our last cruise in March 2020.
·        We have a waterpark cabana at Coco Cay.  For the first part of the day, we would like to put the kids in Adventure Ocean and it just be Steven and Tiffany at the waterpark.  Then, we will pick up the kids and take them to the waterpark.  We will probably be tired this evening and may opt to have dinner delivered to our room, but we will decide after we see how tired we are.
8.      Requests
·        We would like to do a lot of the activities such as the flow rider, zip line, waterslides, Ultimate Abyss, ice skating (with all four of the kids), and the rock wall.  If laser tag is included, we would like to do it with Christian and Sophia while the babies are in the nursery.  Also if it is included and we have time and it does not conflict with anything else, Steven and Tiffany would like to do the Escape Room.
·        We do not want to do the Bridge or Galley Tour.
·        We need the coffee table moved out of the living room, so it is not a fall hazard for the babies.
·         All six of us want to do the cupcake decorating class.
·        We are celebrating all of our birthdays on this cruise.  It was technically supposed to only be a birthday celebration for Steven and Tiffany who have summer birthdays, but all of the kid’s birthday cruises were canceled due to coronavirus.  We didn’t want them to miss out on celebrating their birthday on a cruise, so we are calling this a birthday celebration cruise for the entire family.  Not to mention, Sophia has been upset that her past two birthday cruises have been canceled and she has proceeded to remind us of that any chance she gets.
 

Day 5 continued:
Dinner tonight was at Wonderland.   It was our first time there, and it was a lot of fun.  We booked it for the experience not necessarily for the food.  The service was great, and the food wasn't nearly as bad as I expected.   It definitely was interesting and very different, but I did enjoy some of the food.  For the food alone, I doubt I'd book Wonderland; but between the food and the experience, I would go back.  I honestly couldn't tell you half of what we ate as we went with the server's recommendations.  At Wonderland, you choose an element or you let them pick and bring out the favorites or recommendations which ends up including foods from all of the elements.  They brought Steven's and my food out as they normally would and gave Steven extra sriracha when we told them the spicier the food the better for him.  For the kids, they left out any ingredients that would make it spicy.  We had the kids try a lot of the food, but they were not fans of Wonderland until they brought them cotton candy.  They also brought us an apple happy birthday cake and the kids got to blow out the candles.
We ran into @Traveler at dinner and then again at the casino after we dropped the kids off at Adventure Ocean.  After losing a little money, we were tired and decided to call it a night.
Wonderland:

Us with @Traveler:

 
 

Day 6 continued:
When we got back to the room, Sunil had a surprise waiting.  Right now, they are not allowed to do the cupcake decorating class, and he told me he had tried his best but they aren't allowing it, so he did the next best thing and brought us the stuff to do cupcake decorating.  The kids were so excited, and they had a lot of fun decorating and eating cupcakes.  This was not something we asked for.  It was just yet another thing Sunil did to make the trip special.  He also got Steven and me a ship model, but he went one step further and had it signed by the Captain.  The kids have already told us they want to request Sunil when we go back on Symphony in April and we are in complete agreement with them.
Cupcake decorating:

Day 6 continued:
When we got back to the room, Sunil had a surprise waiting.  Right now, they are not allowed to do the cupcake decorating class, and he told me he had tried his best but they aren't allowing it, so he did the next best thing and brought us the stuff to do cupcake decorating.  The kids were so excited, and they had a lot of fun decorating and eating cupcakes.  This was not something we asked for.  It was just yet another thing Sunil did to make the trip special.  He also got Steven and me a ship model, but he went one step further and had it signed by the Captain.  The kids have already told us they want to request Sunil when we go back on Symphony in April and we are in complete agreement with them.
Cupcake decorating:

I was worried about the testing as well, but they have done great.  We only have had to do it three times though: three days before, at the terminal before boarding, and then on day 7 (tomorrow morning).  It is really fast so I would not let the testing alone be your determining factor.  After this experience, I am 100% doing my Star Class cruise in November.  I had contemplating doing this one with all of the restrictions and testing requirements, and I'm so glad I did.  We have had so much fun, and our genie, Sunil, has been amazing and has quickly resolved any issues we've had.  All of the kids have had a complete blast.  The older kids miss some of the stuff from before, but are still having a wonderful time.  The little ones are going to be so sad when they find out we have to get off the ship on Saturday as they are loving every minute of the cruise.  In fact, Kat (2 year old) keeps drawing us pictures of the cruise, and she always draws us her favorite things.
Honestly,  my recommendation would be to wait until the protocols for your sailing are released and decide then if you still want to cruise.  Even on this cruise, the rules are changing every day.  Many of them have gotten way more lax.  As I mentioned in my earlier blog posts, a few days ago, they were only allowing 5 people in the pool at a time, and then, today I passed the pool and there were 33 people in it (31 at another time, and there's a picture below of the third time we passed by).  Also, on day one, genies were not allowed to sign your kids in and out of Adventure Ocean,  but now with parent's permission, they can.  Things are constantly changing, and as annoying as the wait and see approach is, right now, it's for the best.
One of the times I walked past the pool today and it's much different than just a few day ago:

Day 6 continued:
When we got back to the room, Sunil had a surprise waiting.  Right now, they are not allowed to do the cupcake decorating class, and he told me he had tried his best but they aren't allowing it, so he did the next best thing and brought us the stuff to do cupcake decorating.  The kids were so excited, and they had a lot of fun decorating and eating cupcakes.  This was not something we asked for.  It was just yet another thing Sunil did to make the trip special.  He also got Steven and me a ship model, but he went one step further and had it signed by the Captain.  The kids have already told us they want to request Sunil when we go back on Symphony in April and we are in complete agreement with them.
Cupcake decorating:

Day 6 continued:
When we got back to the room, Sunil had a surprise waiting.  Right now, they are not allowed to do the cupcake decorating class, and he told me he had tried his best but they aren't allowing it, so he did the next best thing and brought us the stuff to do cupcake decorating.  The kids were so excited, and they had a lot of fun decorating and eating cupcakes.  This was not something we asked for.  It was just yet another thing Sunil did to make the trip special.  He also got Steven and me a ship model, but he went one step further and had it signed by the Captain.  The kids have already told us they want to request Sunil when we go back on Symphony in April and we are in complete agreement with them.
Cupcake decorating:

Day 6 continued:
When we got back to the room, Sunil had a surprise waiting.  Right now, they are not allowed to do the cupcake decorating class, and he told me he had tried his best but they aren't allowing it, so he did the next best thing and brought us the stuff to do cupcake decorating.  The kids were so excited, and they had a lot of fun decorating and eating cupcakes.  This was not something we asked for.  It was just yet another thing Sunil did to make the trip special.  He also got Steven and me a ship model, but he went one step further and had it signed by the Captain.  The kids have already told us they want to request Sunil when we go back on Symphony in April and we are in complete agreement with them.
Cupcake decorating: