Kpak

The dates didn’t match our other commitments . 22nd was too early and 29 th too late. But maybe next time ?

So much information. Thank you so much.

I’m hoping we ve done that and glad to hear they seem to have what we enjoyed the most , just minus Central Park . I will read others reviews too. Thanks

Thanks I ll definitely look for twangsters review. And it’s just myself and the hubby so no little ones to entertain.

We have just come off Symphony 24th August Caribbean/ Bahamas sailing. And we absolutely loved it. So much that we have booked 2 more cruises. The 2 new cruises are on much smaller ships. We are sailing Enchantment for a New Year sailing , we needed to sail out of Galveston this time and this seemed the best one for us. I was a little worried that it may be too small a ship after Symphony but we went for it anyway. A few days later we realise we have cruise credit to use and flight credit too so we started looking again. This time the best port option for us was New York and we’ve always wanted to try New England so we are now booked on Empress the smallest ship of the lot. We are coming from the Uk so Port locations were probably the most important factor . I’m just hoping that we love these two ships as much as we loved Symphony. There were many things on Symphony we did not take advantage of so I’m hoping we won’t feel like there is too much missing. We didn’t use any speciality dining , we didn’t use any slides, casino. We only sat on pool deck once and found quieter places lower down like deck 5. We didn’t go on the boardwalk much but loved Central Park and did use flow rider and the climbing wall . I’m hoping that as long as both ships have some nice quiet out door space, good MDR and some nice cafes we should be ok. Does anyone have experience of going from the largest to the smallest ? Any thoughts ? Im still excited that we ve never cruised before and we ll have done 3 in a year ??

We recently had the key on Symphony. We were going to have voom surf and stream anyhow so decided it was worth the extra. I think we paid £24.99 a night. The early embarkation was not used as everyone who had printed off sea pass was straight on at 11 am when we got there. It was good to drop off our carry on knowing that would be in our room at 1pm. The chops grille lunch served in the main dining was fabulous . We attended 3 shows and thought the reserved key seating was ok and saved the worry of having to get there really early and queue but there were better seats. We used the reserved times on climbing and flow rider . The final day breakfast was nice but nothing to rave about. We were escorted straight out on debarkation day ( past a large queue ) and had no problem just asking a steward when we felt ready to leave . So all in all we thought it was a great experience for our first cruise however we have decided not to purchase it for our next one and see how it goes. Feel free to ask anything else and enjoy ?

I group and photograph all my clothes using Pinterest. I had a brain injury and can be forgetful and get tired so have to pack in stages . This meant I was forgetting what I was packing But now this really works for me. I use Pinterest to save it . And make notes in the description like “ can wear black heels with 4of8 dresses “ etc. I wish I’d read about packing cubes before I packed . They seem awesome but not really a UK think I don’t think. I will try them for my next trip though. This is my first cruise so I’m just hoping I’ve packed enough and I’ve packed the right stuff. We fly in 4 days so time will tell. Very excited though. My other half hasn’t even started packing yet an dit’s stressing me just a tad but I’ve made sure he does have everything when he finally decides to pack it !!!

My thoughts too re customer services but didn’t think about going directly to Chops. Thanks for that idea. We will try Chops and if no joy go to Jamie’s .

Thanks everyone. We have got the key showing on our pass so that’s good. We had Jamie’s reserved for us rather than chops but despite contacting customer services it seems we can’t change this as it’s a random allocation. We have been told to contact customer services on embarkation day to try and change to chops but we’re a little disappointed with this. Still very excited about our first cruise. Thanks for the help.

We are first time cruisers and decided to purchase “the key “ for our 7 night eastern Caribbean symphony of the seas cruise in August. We have checked in on line and the first time option it gave us was 12 o’clock. I thought I read that with the key we get early embarkation. Any ideas what we need to do? Do we just turn up early and point this out to someone or do we email about this before we arrive? TIA Keely and Bruce

Thanks everyone. I will contact viator and if in doubt I ll cancel . I will also stop watching videos that scare me . Too many people missing their ships ??. Still very excite and can’t wait till August x

We are first time cruisers and are cruising the Caribbean on symphony from Miami in August. We have booked an excursion with viator and I’ve just watched lots of you tube videos about people arriving back to ship too late and seeing it sail away. I have been able to find the time zones that all our island ports are in but can’t seem to find the time zone that the ship will be in , tomcheck wheteher the booked excursions will fit timewise? i have an option to cancel the trip and book with the cruise ship if I need to . What advice would you give us and does anyone know where we can find out the time zones of the ship? TIA Kpak?