Bmederson

So that brings me to the end of our cruise. We had one sea day before it was all over and believe me we needed that time to rest! We toured so much and stayed up so late and tried to do all the things and just had a really amazing week. We were most definitely exhausted though. I had about a 20 hour travel day to get home including my 10 1/2 hour flight which was delayed by three hours. Glad to be home but really soaking in those memories. So glad I went. Symphony is also an amazing ship and I'm glad I got to be on board.
 
thanks to all who read my little review and liked and commented. My next cruise will make me diamond.... i'm not sure if that's going to mean a lot or not, but we'll see! This was an horizon-expanding cruise and I would recommend it to anybody.
 

Hi, all!
Just back from a three-week long adventure---a two week Transatlantic (other cruise line), followed immediately with a week on Symphony.
My dates were May 21-May 28.
 
I met my son in Barcelona, we did a little sightseeing and spent the night there, and then boarded Symphony the next day.
 
It was a fabulous cruise and I thought I'd share a few tips, insights, photos, for those going on this cruise in the future.
 
Side note, on my Transatlantic, I picked up what I think was norovirus. YIKES. I was SO SICK. Good grief. Fortunately, I was on the mend when we reached Symphony, but I barely ate the first few days.

So here we go on my recap:
 
 
 

You ever wake up and have stuff on your mind you want to get accomplished for the day?  You know, something like deciding whether or not to work on a live vacation blog.  That's been me for a while, trying to make the decision on if I wanted to blog our upcoming trip or not.  It's taken some time convince myself to start writing and I think I'll make the attempt to create some type of blog for our upcoming trip.  Oh, yeah - we leave this Friday.  #Late  I know I'm a little late starting this and probably have a ton of writing that needs to be done, but we'll see if I can't get this thing started.  I'm sure there are some new faces around here and some 'old' faces around here  @CruisingKat(Kathy) @Lovetocruise2002 @WAAAYTOOO
Our last cruise was in 2019 and we had one booked in 2020.  I don't think the year 2020 happened, so we moved our cruise to 2021.  That year didn't happen either, so we just got our cruise money back and waiting for 2022 to show up.  Ya'll know what I'm talking about for 2020/2021 - those years didn't even seem to exists.  Fast forward four years and here we are ... heading to Italy for two weeks.  Oh, I didn't mention that part huh?  Yeah, so we fly out Friday June 2nd heading to Venice, Italy, then to Rome and then the cruise for a week.
Let's see if I can get ya'll caught up to speed.  About five or six years ago (do I have to count 2020/2021?), the kids where in middle school.  They seemed a little jealous of the 'parent' cruising and we felt bad about not taking them, so we took them on two star class (SC) cruises and spoiled them.  Somewhere around here might be my old blogs about those.  Anyway, at that point we started talking about taking them on a cruise for their high school graduation.  Doesn't seem that bad, eh?  Yeah - look where we are now.  Our daughter just graduated from high school  o_0   I blame those 'years-we-don't-talk-about' for time going by so fast.  This trip has been in the planning and talking phases for the past 4-6 years.  Oh, yeah - our son graduates in 2 years - so, we'll be doing this again.  Funny to think that some of ya'll might be in the same boat - kids graduating high school and all.  Ok, we can reminisce about that later - back to this trip.
After some conversations within our little family group (my, wife, daughter, son) it was our daughters turn coming up to pick our what she wanted to do for her big high school graduation trip.  She picked Italy.  We wanted to make sure if we went on this trip, it would be worth it.  Thus, we blocked out a two-week vacation.  Part of that was traveling to different places followed by a week long cruise.  Just to give anyone planning this type of trip - start working on it WAY in advance.  It's a ton of planning and I credit my wife for doing the most of it.  
You'll have to bear with me as I try to get everyone up to speed on what it takes to plan a trip like this, so be prepared for multiple posts ... Yeah, I'm a little older now and a little slower - lol   I crossed the 'big' hill a couple years ago during the 'years-we-don't-talk-about'.  btw - let me just vent on that #GetOnSoapBox... that was going to the the kids 3rd SC cruise, my 50th and 10yr anniversary all on one cruise.  That didn't happen.  #GetOffSoapBox
So the summary goes something like this:  Fly to Venice (13hrs), take the train to Rome (4hrs) and then cruise the western Mediterranean (Rome, Naples, Barcelona, Palma, Marseille, La Spezia).
A couple of quick notes while I'm thinking about it.  If anyone has questions about some of these quick notes, I'll try to respond during this thread to give more information.
1) flights are stoopid expensive to get over there  (about $8k for the 4 of us)
2) you have to take EUROs with you (figure about 15% to get this converted from your bank due to fees/exchange rate)  It's better to pay in EUROs for things, rather than a credit card.  It's a different way of thinking compared to how we do it here in the US.  
3) prepay for whatever you can on your credit card (check with your card about foreign transaction fees - if you going over there, you'll have to grin-and-bear-it, unless your card doesn't charge for those)
4) find a good travel planning app  (I don't want to push any specific one, but we found one we like that we are using - if you want to know, DM me)
5) be prepared to add the international plan to your phone  (this was a little more unexpected - I figured $100 based on initial reading of our wireless carrier to have international during our trip.  Yeah, that turned out to be $100 PER LINE ... it took me a bit to 'really' understand how they have it instead of just reading it at first.  Oh well ... cheaper than just letting the kids run wild across the social platforms while in another country, eh?)
6) for those of you with those fruity phones, invest in the air tags  (funny, in our house the girls have the iphones and the boys have the galaxys.  The air tags will help you sorta keep track of your bags.  Just 'hid' it somewhere in your luggage.  No, don't mix it with your clothes but put it somewhere else.  Maybe even tape it to the inside.  Either way - worth the piece of mind)
I think one of the most important things for a trip like this is the budget - at least for me.  But, if you plan far enough in advance then things should be ok.  Oh, make sure to budget casino money in there ... #Disclaimer:  Only budget casino money on what you can afford to lose.  Have to put that in here  🙂  cause we all know how they work.
Um, let's see - since it's been some time since I blogged, trying to remember how to do this - right now just seems like a brain dump as I think of stuff.
The Cruise:  No SC for us this round - blame the flight costs, so we have two large balconies.  The girls and the boys.  It's sobering to not have SC and realize all the 'extras' you have to remember to book/pay for, right @Lovetocruise2002?  lol   Everything from drink packages, to the internet, to restaurant reservation and show reservations ... Yeah, I'm spoiled with the SC.  If you have never cruise using the SC (star class), you really need to try it once.  Check out my SC Anthem 2019:  
 
Packing started a month or so ago.  Well, not the 'actual' packing but getting the suitcases down and all the shopping for Italy clothes.  Oh wait - that started after the first of the year.  Once the 'reality' of the trip started to hit, the shopping started.  Even us boys didn't realize we didn't have enough of the right kind of clothes to take on the trip.  Yeah, so shorts, pants, nicer shirts (not t-shirts with a Venom logo), shoes without holes ... yeah and the counting if we had enough socks and underwear, which we didn't - so off to the store we went.  The past couple of months seem to be a blur with a lot going on, primarily all the planning around the actual graduation for our daughter.  Part of all this also included the whole - she's going to college in New York.  That's a whole 'nuther 'trip' planning in itself that we have been juggling with this one.
Sorry, back to this trip.  Let's see.  Overview, check.  Itinerary, check.  Rambling, check.  Budget, yall-send-me-a-check (ha).  Cruise, check.  For those that were familiar with the Periscope app, sorry to have seen that close down back in 2021.  I don't know if there will be anything posted here from a live streaming process, but will toss some pictures out here and try to stay on top of the daily blogging.  Bear with me as I try to get back to remembering how to blog.  🙂
 
 

Day 7/8 
We went back to complete packing. At first we wanted to do self disembarking as we had an 1045 am flight but then we got our luggage number which was exactly for the same time we thought to go off the ship anyway. We also had one duffel bag which was quite heavy so we thought to do the regular process. After getting the luggage out we went to find some food to be stored for the early morning.  We got some sandwiches and pineapples and put the in the refrigerator,  it was very useful later. I went back to the Casino to make sure all the points are added including the table games , the host told me I am missing some points for the next instant offer so we went to do what usually I recommend people not do , played  to get reward points. Surprisingly it was working well (at least the end of it) but at the beginning of this session I thought I will give it up as it seems the money I will spend might be more than the benefits I will get. Once got to the required points I went to get the certificate. It was quite late so we went to sleep what left from the night. At 6:30 am the alarm clock went on and we started to get organized and eating the sandwich we stocked last night. Once we were ready and our number called we went down to terminal just to wait 15 more minutes for our luggage, why to call if it's not ready ?  We collect our luggage and went outside to catch a taxi, there were no lines for the taxi. At 7:45 we already in the airport which concluded another cruise.
Regards , Yuliya&Assaf
 

Day 2 , part 2
After the WJ horror we had to recover by taking some nap , med cruise is not easy on Symphony. Post the nap we went to some coffee in the Diamond club and to get ready for the first official night. Dinner plans was the second BOGO in Jaimee Italian. We had some starters (the Avocado salad , the truffle burrata cheese which was excellent and the meat board) 


For main we took the lasagna and spagiti carbonara. The lasagna was good the carbonate was so so but it was our fault as we forgot that no way they will use raw egg on the ship, there are things you should not order while you are on a ship ...


We took espresso martini for dessert .

We were doing our way to the Casino were Sunil saw us near the studio B and said he have some empty seats if we want, best seats and saving some money how we could refuse for that ? 
Right after the ice show we had reservations for the comedy club , they let in anyone that wanted as there were  lots of space mainly with US crowd. The first comedian was very good and even did a full set without any pineapple jocks , I mean the upside down one not new Matt C&A level. The second comedian was OK , more like older jocks but then he done a final act juggling using tennis balls to a Beattie song , it was very  impressive  and unique alsi considering that he is over 70. Very recommended.
We went to contribute some money to RCl , the cassino was given a way a crown loft suite,  it was almost ours but then we thought on all the  repacking and gave it up, we just love our balcony :-). 
The cabin attended must heard that we missed Hooked so he left us this

Tomorrow Marseille.

Looking forward to taking this cruise in June-thank you for posting!

Day 7 - Sea Day
I may be three weeks late but I refuse to give up! However long it takes, this blog will be completed…
In our last full day of the cruise l spontaneously woke up around 7 am and spent a few hours on my own while the kids were still sleeping. I used this opportunity to check out the Solarium for the first time, which was pretty nice, and I took a few moments to relax and do some reading. However, towels were already laid out in most of the prime loungers with the forward view which was a bit baffling. Who are these people who wake up at 6am??? I also picked up a couple of extra tip envelopes from Guest Services and reserved our casita location for later in the day. 
Once back in the stateroom the kids were up and we headed to the Windjammer for breakfast around 10 am. We had been debating doing brunch in the MDR instead, but decided we’d rather have something quick so we could get to the pool deck before it was too crowded since it was the only sea day. 
Before heading to the pool we tried to catch the parade at 11:15 am on the promenade deck. We got there right at the start time, but by that point it was too crowded to see anything, especially for the kids (strangely it seemed like more adults were watching than kids), so we left for Splashaway Bay. 
When we got to the pool deck just before 11:30 am we didn’t see a single spare lounger, so we were glad to have the casita reserved even though we didn’t end up staying too long.  It was our third day spending time on the pool deck and the kids had a bit of a been-there-done-that attitude, so they were happy enough to leave after an hour or so. I should note that my 6 year old spent about half his time in the beach pool on our first day at the pool deck, but after that he only wanted to stick to Splashaway Bay because he didn’t like the salt water in the pool.  
We had lunch at El Loco Fresh which I thought was pretty good (at least compared to UK Mexican food), and it was convenient to be able to eat outside while still wet in our swimwear. 
We planned to spend the rest of the day doing our favourite things on cruises that we hadn’t had much time to get to yet: trivia, bingo and game shows.
First up was cartoon trivia where we got second place after a tiebreaker, driven 95% by my husband (I literally only knew one answer)! I then headed straight to bingo while my husband took the kids to play mini golf again and to finish up our arcade credits.  I paid $49 for six cards (three games each) plus one extra for having gold C&A level, which was an unexpected perk (the staff noticed this when I went to pay; I didn’t bring it up). The expected value of bingo was super low relative to jackpots in the $300-500 range, but I love bingo and the only time I ever get to play is on cruises so I was willing to eat the last investment. I also got a scratch card as part of the package and won $10, to be redeemed from the casino. I did not win at bingo sadly. 
What remained of the trip took a big turn at this point. I had woken up with a stomachache that got progressively worse throughout the day, until sitting through bingo, which went 20 minutes over schedule, became agony. Since bingo went over my husband had already started Trivia at 5 at Schooner’s, so I met him there. We did miserably bad again, as had been a trend for any of the general knowledge trivia sessions on this cruise. 
Afterwards we should have gone to dinner at 6 pm in the MDR, but I wasn’t up to it at all. I ended up in bed with bad chills. My husband took the kids to the windjammer for dinner but dropped off our tip envelopes with our MDR waiter staff first and explained our absence. We didn’t want them to think we were ditching them on the last night on purpose. I proceeded to sleep from 6 pm to roughly 3 am, when I got up in order to pack in a panic, despite feeling like death, with only the force of sheer adrenaline behind me (given we would be leaving the room within 5 hours at that point and hadn’t packed a thing). I took a a rapid antigen Covid test to be sure that wasn’t the root of my illness, but tested negative. I then crashed in bed again around 5 am for basically a nap before needing to get up in the morning to get everyone ready to leave the room by 8 am. 
That brings us to the end of Day 7. At some point in the near or distant future, I’ll update on Day 8 and overall thoughts on the trip. 

Day one - boarding day
Saturday night I could not go to sleep. I ended up going to sleep at 6:30 AM and I had to be in the lobby of the hotel by 11:00 AM. The nice thing is while I couldn't sleep, I repacked everything and I was ready to head out the door. When I got down to the lobby, I found something that was strange compared to what we have in the United states. We had to check out of the hotel. For years in the United states you give them a credit card when you check in and you just leave when you're done. At this hotel we had to stand in line and then we had to pull out our credit card and pay for the items charged to our room. After we were done with that process, we walked out outside the hotel doors and got in line for the shuttle out in front of the hotel. There was a very large crowd and they couldn't fit in the next bus that came so there was about 15 of us waiting for the next bus. Right before the bus came some people came walking up and asking us if that was the free bus to the cruise ship; we told them yes. When the bus came on up, they started getting on the bus in front of us. I nicely pointed out that there was a bunch of us that had been waiting a very long time and they thought I was being rude.
At the port it went extremely fast and smooth except for one item. We got in line to turn our bags in and they wouldn't take them; they said it was full. How can it be full?  Just line them up outside until there's room to put them on the conveyor. I don't understand what they were thinking. Instead they had us get in another line to go to a different conveyor. The bad thing is if you weren't checking any bags they were pulling people out of line and moving them in front of us which made our line even longer. After we got through the check-in bag fiasco, we went through a security scan and then straight up to the person checking us in. For me she checked my passport, my covid test and scanned my boarding pass. I heard it was slightly different for other people but it was just very fast. After you were done there we just walked on the ship was ready to go.
As always, the first thing I did on the ship was to go to chops and set all my dinner reservations. I am traveling alone and solo but I have a friend that I've cruised with a couple of times on this ship. I ended up booking reservations for me, her and a friend of hers that's traveling with her. All three of us have unlimited dining so I set specialty restaurants for the entire cruise. If I was just setting them for me I would be having dinner at 6:00 o'clock every evening. If my friend Corey Joe was travel alone she would be setting her dinner at 8:00 o'clock every evening. So as a compromise we tried to get as close as we could to 7:00 o'clock. Since we were at chops and had unlimited dining we ended up having lunch there. I ordered the chops hamburger without the bun. It was an excellent choice, a very good hamburger Patty.
You would think I could relax after that until the ship sailed away: not. After that we had to go to my room and drop off both of our luggage because Corey Joe could not get in her room. Then we had to go do my mustard drill which is on one end of the ship, then hers which was on the opposite end of the ship. We had a meet up with her roommate and then go to customer service because they did not print Cory Joe's ticket because her roommate had been in the same room the week before. If you join in somebody that did a back-to-back be ready to have problems with your room keys. After that I had just enough time to go to my room freshen up and then get to a meeting at 3:30 with the group coordinator and the bar manager.
I was afraid the bar manager was going to tell me where you were not going to be able to do the poker pub crawl because my group it's over 120 people and there's no way to fit that in a bar. To my surprise he was the complete opposite; he had really thought about it and had a plan for us to be able to move the people through. He was simply fantastic to work with.  As soon as this meeting was over it was time for the sell away party. Our Facebook / Cruise Critic group is almost 600 people. I think at any one time we had over 200 people at the meet and greet. I ended up spending the next two hours going from people to people answering questions, meeting people and get it thanks for everything I’ve done to organize things. The ship bar manager also came by to make sure everything was going smoothly. By the time we left the cell away is just enough time to shower and get to dinner.
Tonight, we had dinner at Giovanni’s. During the dinner I talked to the manager and he told me a normal first night for them is 30 to 40 people. On our cruise it was 60 people. Our ship is only about 50 to 60% capacity but most of them are diamond, diamond plus, and pinnacle. After a very good dinner, mine was mignon, we ended up going to the casino to do a little gambling. To my surprise I was playing the penny machines and walked away $10 ahead. The last thing I did this evening was went to the show in the theater. I made it through about the first three to four minutes before falling asleep. I ended up waking up after about 15 minutes and realized the show was very boring. It was a BMX rider, a bike rider. After doing a few tricks he tried to do some comedy but in my opinion wasn’t very good at it. After realizing I couldn’t stay awake, I got some pizza and headed back to my room.
I’m laying here half asleep, having computer trouble, and trying to dictate today’s information. I know if I don’t do it tonight, I’m going to have a busy day tomorrow and all the days were just blurred together, and I won’t be doing my job I volunteered to do; letting you know about my trip.
Tomorrow we’re at Norway. I’ll try not to be so wordy tomorrow a little more precise of what I did and seen.

Day 5 Photos 
One thing they reminded me of that I meant to mention is that while the Coloseum was stroller accessible, I think you’d struggle with a stroller at the Roman Forum or Palatine Hill.  The road was too rocky so you’d have to carry it over long stretches. 

Day 3 - Marseille
Today we had a pool day planned and to hopefully make it extra relaxing I had booked a casita on the pool deck.  I couldn’t remember or find any details from my booking on when where and how to actually reserve the specific casita on the day, but from Googling it seemed like I was supposed to go to the Lime & Coconut on deck 16 at 9 am.  So I went ahead of my family while they were getting dressed for breakfast. It took until closer to 9:10 for someone to show up but they had a binder and put down my selection.   I chose #3 because it is closest to Splashaway Bay where we would be spending most of our time (the other cabana on the Splashaway Bay side is #4).  I then came back to the Lime & Coconut around 11 to check in once we had eaten breakfast.  At that point they took our order for our two welcome drinks.  The casita had a table with a cooler underneath filled with ice and 4 cans of water.  It was advertised as coming with storage and I saw a video of someone saying it came with a safe, but we had no storage or safe of any kind.  There was a USB plug. 
Having the casita with young kids on a port day is pretty much a waste I think. There were plenty of free loungers and since the kids couldn’t play unsupervised we couldn’t really spend any time lounging in it.  We had one again on the sea day though and that day I think was worth it because when we got to the pool deck after breakfast there were literally no loungers left. They are really comfy too so great if you think you can actually spend some time relaxing in them.  
We nearly had a meltdown because M, who is 6, was not quite tall enough to ride the water slides I’d been playing up to him. He’s been on rides that required 48” in the past so I never questioned him being tall enough, but I realised he always had shoes on for those. As it was, he missed the height by probably less than half an inch.  We didn’t try again to see if another operator would have been more lenient because he turned out happy enough to stick with the smaller slide in Splashaway Bay. 

I was also happy that Monster was perfectly content sticking to the under 3s section of Splashaway Bay. I had been worried he’d see the big kids section and throw a tantrum to go in. One annoying thing was that even though it was nearly empty, M wasn’t allowed to join Monster in playing in the younger kids section.  That meant both that the kids never got to play together without a wall in between and also that two parents were necessary to supervise both kids at all times. 
After we finished up at the pool we had lunch at El Loco Fresh which I thought was pretty good, but we had to waste awhile for it to open because it doesn’t open until 2 pm on port days apparently. But it was a good excuse to swing by the Lime & Coconut for another drink.  It was nice having an outdoor food option near the pool deck. 
We went to a general knowledge trivia session trivia session at Schooners in the afternoon. It was HARD. I think we got like 5 out of 15, maybe. 
We did try for Bingo at 5:30 pm but the line was too long so we just had a quick drink instead. We then headed to the Mason Jar for a 6 pm booking. We liked the food but the music was fairly obscure country which we are not into at all. Portion sizes were HUGE. Sorry to say but the fried chicken was just bad. We are from the south and it tasted like a person who had never been there imagining what fried chicken would taste like. I also love banana pudding with all of my being but the banana pudding was almost inedible. Everything else was pretty good though (cornbread, ribs, mac & cheese, cocktails).  One observation that proved true again a couple nights later was that the restaurant was more than half empty.  I’m not sure if this is typical or if people were just not as interested in the specialty dining for this cruise.
After dinner M went to kids Club.  Monster was supposed to go to nursery but again refused to we had to skip out on the adult comedy show we had booked. Instead we just had a drink in Central Park and caught some adult karaoke. 
Now onward to Day 5!  Whew, getting there. (In real life it’s Day 8 and I’m on the way home from the airport). 

You can try it as soon as you get connected to the wifi. I used the app to book a second dinner while I was at my first one night 😂
I didn't doing the whole week through the app since I was with my mother and she's had it all mapped out and preferred to deal with someone on the ship to book them.

Think the app only allows purchasing dining like the cruise planner. The app isn't aware if you have the UDP to book dining.   

Later I saw the clouds break and found the Milky Way in the sky.
Hours after sunset it's amazing how much the sun is revealed in a long exposure picture.


 

I've had an opportunity to cruise a few cruise lines during this 2021 cruise restart.  All of them have been with reduced capacity.
Having recently encountered two terrible boarding day procedures I've got give credit to Royal Caribbean for implementing the best boarding day process I've experienced.
On those other lines it took hours for me to board the ship.  Neither of them improved the muster drill routine to a notable extent.  For both the other cruise lines their boarding day process cast a dark cloud on the start of my cruise vacation and in both cases it took a few hours after finally getting on board before it felt like I was on vacation.  Even then I felt exhausted and didn't feel like doing very much on the first night.
Contrast that with Royal where I was car to cabin in 20 minutes.  Upon boarding I was free to grab a bite to eat and a beverage then I could visit my muster station at my convenience for a one-on-one safety briefing that took less than 60 seconds.   
Upon boarding Royal I immediately felt like I was on a cruise vacation.  It was like I got an extra cruise day to enjoy.  I was quickly into vacation mode and it was all stress free.  
I will say people arriving before their appointed time is a problem on all cruise lines.   Don't be that person.  If you arrive before your time you are part of the problem and you deserve the long wait times you will encounter.  However once you are allowed inside the terminal there is no excuse for the other cruise lines to make boarding such a stressful and lengthy process.  
Hat's off to Royal for creating the best boarding day process.

We have done Chill island cabanas a few times and decided a few months ago to purchase a floating cabana for the day.
Prior to getting on the ship we had contacted Derick asking him if we could reserve Cabana 16 for us. We had looked at a map and figured since it was the furthest out, the water would be deeper at low tide and there would be a better breeze. Derick worked his Genie magic and had that cabana assigned to us.
We had a late night last night so decided to get off around 9 instead of any earlier. We took the Tram with Derick to the cabanas and all I can say is wow!
The slide was so much fun too!

Today was a very full day by our standards.  It included:
Sunrise coffee and tea from the balcony - Our first thermal spa session ever -Breakfast in central park - A manicure for her and a run on the deck 5 track for me - Laying out on the sun deck with a trip to the Windjammer for take out back to the loungers. (Vegan alert that the WJ always has made to order veggie burgers so just ask) - A drink in the Solarium -Reading on our balcony -A formal night meal right off the vegan menu and a relaxing after dinner walk around the ship. 
What I love about cruising is that on any given ship there are many ways to total happiness. That's the amazing part of the experience. From inside rooms to Sky suites, from gamblers to art actions. To spa and workouts to belly flop contests. 
I am happy to share our slice of Symphony this week and let me know if you have any questions.  

Jamie was opened for lunch for everyone during embarkation.

Perspective is the word of the day. My cruise was a luxury. A break from life and the daily grind. It's a bummer I have to reschedule, and have to cancel my PTO request.....but ......I have an awesome family, I have my health, and....now.....I get to pick out, and plan another cruise to replace the one we just lost!  So....as upset we are at losing a vacation, and the hassle of canceling hotels and excursions and such....just ask yourself......

Before bed I wanted to see what the rooftop pool area of my hotel would look like at night.  Not bad.

We are sitting in room waiting on bell hop. When we get to lobby we will call Uber. Not going to make it by 10:30. We are on vacation. As little M says “It will be fine”

Oh , almost forgot ,to whoever celebrating - Happy New year , "Shana Tova" , a year of as many cruises you wish for  yourselfs  to ever you want with who ever you want ?

Home is Tel Aviv , Israel

Ok , lets talk about the elephant in the room.
When we just thought on taking a cruise from China we started to read around, well lets say , you can find better reviews for Nassau  ? 
I think many people expects such cruise will be just exactly the same as any other RCL cruise without taking into consideration that different places has different culture and different  customs. 
Some of the things I have read :
1. Food , not enough western food - Well I Think its a good time to try other things , western food I have everywhere
2. The Chinese food is not that good - I think when most of us think about Chinese food  we think about restaurants as PF Changs or fast food like Panda express (which I admit I like) but that is western Chinese food not really Chinese food ... I also like authentic Chinese food  which I experience mainly in Singapore Chinese street food.
3. The messages are always first in Chinese - Well what do you expect when at least 90% are people from China , I do not mind as long as the important announcement will also be in English .
4. People are pushing in queues and into elevators - Oh you mean like most of the cruises I have been in the Caribbean during rush time ? 
5. People do not respect people personal space - For this one I do not have any answer .
6, Not enough Trivia - Not a showstopper for us.
7. Shows story lines is not clear - The Gift anyone ? 
8. Shows are boring  - mm , Cats anyone ?  
Let me tell you story ,  17 years ago (when I was young and handsome) I worked on a prove of concept that we had to present to a Japanese company , we worked like crazy to meet the time line , 20 + hours per day. Few days before we had to go to Tokyo someone arranged us culture differences lecture  to prepare  for the travel . We have been told we must come with a suite to the meetings, we must bow when presenting ourselves , never to show our shoe sole , never cross our legs when seating  and many other things. AS I did not had a normal suit with me I had to find time to go and buy one at the last minute and find someone that will do the require  alters  on the spot. The flight day arrived (the good thing no WIFI during the flight so I could sleep few hours), we landed checked that everything still working (it was not , we had to spend another sleepless night to fix it) and run to the hotel to get prepare. We all came to the meeting location  with our best suits, ties and shoes just to see our customer coming without suits , some with sandals and jeans. Yes we all bow and exchange business cards holding it with our two hands but later I notice people were seating almost the opposite from what we have been told.
After few days when we already had some off the record small talks I asked one of the people for the difference ,first he told me that what we have been told is true mainly for older generation and second , that they also got a lecture on the  culture difference before our meeting .... 
So I hope for the  good , we will come  with opened mind ,  I am going to participate in many activities as I can and to have fun.

This review is long over due.  Once I got home, life got in the way.  This review is not very detailed.  As I warned before I left, I am a relax and read sort of girl on vacation.   Warning, you may find this boring-I did not do much and I did not take any pictures.  
We met at the Orlando airport, rented a car and headed to Canaveral.  We drove straight to the port area to watch the Saturday ships sail off.  The upper deck at Fishlips was perfect.  We were about level with the upper decks of the two ships: Carnival Breeze and Disney Fantasy.  It was obvious from our vantage point that the Breeze was in need of some maintenance.  Afterwards, we purchased sunscreen and checked into the Radisson at the Port.  It was fine, but I would not recommend it.  The rooms open onto a breezeway and the only elevator we found was very inconvenient.  Our suitcases did not roll well over the uneven pavement of the breezeways.  In addition, when we checked out the next morning, the lobby was jammed with people waiting for the shuttle.  It did not appear to be very organized. 
We drove the beach looking for a place for dinner.  We went to Banos-a truly amazing Italian restaurant.  If you are in Cocoa Beach and want Italian, I highly recommend it.  We had different dishes: chicken picatta and chicken parmesan-both were excellent.
The next morning, we checked out the hotel breakfast and realized that it was really expensive.  We went to the McDonald’s across the street to grab something light and some coffee.  We knew that we’d be getting plenty to eat during the coming week. 
We returned our rental car to Alamo around 9:30.  There was some confusion about the shuttle.  The front desk told us we could go on the next shuttle.  The driver told us that he had to leave right away and could not wait for us to turn in the keys and load our luggage.  He said that company policy was to only pick up from the port until 10:30 and not to take any passengers to board the ship until that time.  While he was explaining this, I was loading our luggage into the van and my friend was enlisting the aid of the front desk.  We got on the shuttle and got to the port at a little before 10.  Check in was quick and easy.  There was no line at all for the suites check in.  We were in the suites waiting area within 10 minutes of getting out of the shuttle at the port and were on board the ship by around 10:30.
We had decided that we would get a drink at the first bar we saw-we planned to take full advantage of the drink package.  We walked in right at the Rising Tide bar and grabbed a glass of champagne to celebrate.  They were still setting up the bar area but were very kind to us. 
We wandered around the ship for a while, enjoying exploring, then headed up to the suites lounge and grabbed another drink there.  I did use the drink package in the suites lounge because my favorite sparkling wine is only in the MDR, but I requested that they stock in the suites lounge.  We had fun people watching, then had lunch in the CK.  I know the general opinion is that the lunch menu is not great, but we both had a wonderful meal.  I had herb encrusted chicken and my friend got salmon.  We shared the margarita flat bread for an appetizer and I had something chocolate for desert.   For you foodies out there, I am sorry, this is the only meal I remember what I ate.
After lunch, our room was ready.  We checked it out and then further explored the ship (and the bars).  We got a drink at the robot bar, and both of them were so awful, we didn’t finish them.  When we got back our luggage was there, so we unpacked and got ready for dinner. 
We ate each night in the CK.  Our reservations were between 6 and 6:15 both nights.  We usually headed to the lounge around 5 and had cocktails with a delightful family that we met up there the first night.  I had requested a table by the window and that request was honored almost every night.  The main thing we had not wanted was one of us with our back to the window, and that was never an issue.  We quickly discovered our favorite servers and were in their section each night.  We had either breakfast or lunch in the CK every day and dinner each night.  Three meals a day there would have been too much, so we varied it.  For breakfast, I loved both the French toast and the waffles.   For those that are wondering, I know that Junior suite guests were able to eat in the CK at least part of the time because we met one couple in there who were in a junior suite.  We saw them at least three different evenings.
I will also post details in the dining section, but we were able to have desert in Wonderland one evening, even though we did not have the dining package.  
The ship is large. We certainly did not experience all that it has to offer. I did go to the fitness center most mornings; it was very nice and I never had an issue finding a selection of equipment to use, even on sea days.

We had the drink package and managed to try out most of the bars, at least once. My only "complaint" was the heavy pours. I had to specifically tell the bar tenders to put less alcohol in my drinks. They routinely put a double shot in all mixed drinks-a single shot is plenty for me! Others may find that a positive.

I had breakfast in the Vitality Cafe twice, before working out. It was a very good, light breakfast. We also had lunch in the Park Cafe one day-very good, at Mini-Bites one afternoon-less good but not terrible and Sorenttos. The pizza was much better than expected. I really liked it, although I like most anything that I don't have to cook. We also went to the MDR for lunch one day. It was good, but it was very crowded and the atmosphere was hectic.


We saw Grease-very good, The Fine Line-a little odd, but we enjoyed it and both ice shows. My favorite show was I-Skate, but I enjoyed them all.  We liked the suite seating for all of the shows.  At the Fine Line, they tried to turn us away after scanning our sea passes because we did not have a reservation.  I politely explained that we were told that we did not need them since we were sky class.  He immediately pointed us in the right direction.  I mention this merely to let you know that there can be a disconnect between the pass and scanning it. 
We did not do any excursions.  We sat on the beach at Coco Cay for a while, but it was VERY hot.  We then went to the pool area, which seemed more comfortable, although it was still really hot. 
At St. Maartens, we took the water taxi to the beach and grabbed two chairs, an umbrella and a bucket of 6 Heinekens for $20.  It was more pleasant there than at Coco Cay.
In San Juan, we explored both forts on our own.  It was very hot, and we rested a while in the lobby of a very neat hotel across the street from a church.  The hotel used to be a convent, and has a serene bar area right in the middle of the courtyard.  We were tired that day-we walked over 9 miles.

Other than that, we generally just sat on the suite sun deck or in the suite lounge and watched people and read. A big advantage of the suite lounge and deck is that we really got to know some of our fellow passengers, which I really enjoyed. With one or two exceptions, everyone was warm and friendly. The concierges, Jeremias and Mohammed were fabulous, as was the CK manager, Ace and our waiter, Laurence.

The pools were exceptionally crowded. We never really went near them, but could see the crowds. We did enjoy the hot tub on the suite deck.
We did not have any issue with crowds, perhaps because we only took the elevator once the entire week. We were on deck 7 and found that walking up to deck 17 was a good way to get hungry for the great meals we enjoyed!  We might have found the crowds more intrusive had we not had access to the suite areas or if we had not been fit enough to take the stairs. The suite areas were very quiet and relaxing.
For most of the trip, Central Park was too hot to really enjoy-not unexpected in August.  The Boardwalk area had more of a breeze.  Our balcony was pleasant when the ship was moving and it was shady.  When the sun was shining our way or the ship was still, it was very hot.  I know I have mentioned being hot a lot-it was August, and I expected it.  I am not complaining, just sharing information for others.  I am from NC, so I am very used to heat and humidity.  If that bothers you, August might not be the best time for you to cruise.

I have heard other people comment about the cruise director, Dennis.  I did not really interact with him-I thought he was a little overboard at some of the shows, but it didn’t bother me.  I did find him very offensive at the suite sail away party.  I might not have mentioned here had several other passengers not also commented on it.  He began speaking about how suite guests and pinnacle members are the top 1% of all cruisers and are the crème of the crop for the cruise industry.  Then he asked us if we didn’t feel sorry for all of the poor people down below.  I found this comment to be in exceptionally bad taste, and I was not the only one.  The woman beside me asked if she had heard it correctly.  The couple behind me was appalled as well.  In the suite lounge later, two other people mentioned how much it bothered them.  First of all, I don’t feel sorry for anyone on a cruise ship (except maybe the crew sometimes).  Secondly, all of us on the ship were spending what we could afford.  I would not have been in a suite had I not gotten an incredibly good deal, very close to the sail date. I did tell him that his comment bothered me because I don't think it is fair to complain about something that someone does unless you are willing to say it to them directly.  He apologized.
Couple of notes on sky class: beach towels are provided on the suite sun deck, but they make you scan your card at other places-a major pain.  The suite lounge is awesome, and I loved having the reserved seating for the shows. 
All in all, we had a wonderful time!   If you have any questions, I will gladly try to answer them.