berkeleykel

Authentic may be bad word choice, I found some of the food nearly inedible. Maybe we went on a bad night.

This may be an idiosyncratic take, but we greatly preferred the layout of On Air on Symphony over Spotlight Karaoke on Wonder. As we ended up there most days for karaoke, trivia, game shows etc it made a big difference to our quality of life. That plus the better entrainment on Symphony and the fact we found Mason Jar to miss the mark on authentic Southern food, Symphony wins for us hands down.

My husband and I have had this cruise booked for awhile but were 50/50 on cancelling until very recently. Just made the decision to stick with it yesterday and made the final payment today with hours to spare. This will be our first vacation without our kids (8 and 3) who will be looked after by my mother- and sister-in-law. We live London so for us it is a quick and ideal train ride away to Southampton. Looking forward to scenery and relaxation!

Prices in general are crazy but for some reason the UFS on Symphony seems to be immune. It was priced almost the exact same for Aug 2025 as we paid this past August 2023 in Europe. So after swearing up and down to my kids (and myself) that having a slide in our room was a one and done experience, we are now booked again for the UFS out of Bayonne in 2025. Given the rise in Star class prices more broadly, it was only like GBP 2k more for a family of 4 for the UFS than a 2 bedroom aqua suite, and with 2 kids under 10 I think the UFS is a no brainer at that price difference.

Day 4 - La Spezia. No excursion/did not leave the ship. This will be brief because I have almost no recollection of what we did this day between breakfast and dinner time. We slept in and had breakfast at Johnny Rockets because we wanted table service and it was open a bit later than Coastal Kitchen. The servers there were exceptional and gave A a toy when he was upset over something, probably being denied MORE JUICE. I think we probably stayed in the room all afternoon for video games, legos and air hockey. For dinner we have Jamie’s another shot but I was disappointed to see the menu was basically the same from lunch. The penne carbonara was slightly better than the arrabbiata had been. The kids pasta again remained untouched. After dinner we all went to see the magic show, which was the same as the one that had been in Wonder the year before. The magician was was Spain and did a bilingual show which is why I think they like him for this itinerary. We were sat very front row and the kids were super excited.

Day 3 - Marseille. No excursion/did not leave ship. One of the main benefits of the b2b and of having done the same itinerary the previous summer is that we didn’t feel the pressure to take full advantage of the ports, so we were able to spend more time in our room and around the ship. On Day 3 we played 3 rounds of trivia and peaked for the trip - we won twice and came in second once. To be fair though the sessions were more lightly attended than usual since it was a port day. In the afternoon we made a special request of the genie to help us skip the line for laser tag. I was never quite able to figure out the time that laser tag and ice skating sessions were made available to book in the app and missed out on both during week 1. During week 2 I managed to book ice skating for day 1 but didn’t manage laser tag for day 3. We set up a time in advance to meet up with the genie and he led us into a side door and worked it out with the event staff to have us slotted in. I don’t think this would have saved time over having a booking, but if you can’t get a booking this saves you from being subjected to the standby line. A is too young to play so he and I “watched” (you can see very little other than the outside walls) from the stands while husband and M played. When we returned to the room afternoon snacks were waiting for us. The genie had snacks sent to us every day around 3 pm (we had asked for fewer snacks than the day before to avoid food coma). For dinner we went to Wonderland. This was a highlight for us. We loved the atmosphere, food and presentation. The waiter was super attentive and the Mad Hatter even refilled our water! The only downside was that the cocktails tasted pretty meh, but they were 10/10 in style. The potted shrimp and the mushroom dessert were our favourites. The kids liked their fried mac and cheese. After dinner M went to kids club while husband, A and I saw Hiro again. It was great to see the show from the front/center seats that the genie had saved for us. Hiro is exceptional and I hope we’ll be back on Symphony at some point to see it again. We loved seeing and hearing it from our balcony throughout the sailing as well, including later that night.

Dinner for Day 2 was at Chops. Our genie stopped by to chat, as he did every evening meal. The service was good. The food was okay (I’m not really a steak person so would have skipped it if left to myself, but my husband is). Our children were terrible. Maybe it’s just me but with staying in star class and especially such a special room I felt particularly self-conscious about their behaviour - I was worried bad behaviour would suggest they were spoiled and entitled more so than when we were in non-suite class with the masses - and their behaviour did get progressively worse during the 2 weeks so it became a constant stress. For example, we allowed my youngest, who rarely has juice back home, to have juice with his meals on the ship and he quickly turned into a diva, demanding JUICE JUICE JUICE like he was dying every time we sat down at a table. We also didn’t see many other kids in the specialty restaurants which made it feel like we were under a microscope more. After dinner M went to kids club and husband, A and I went to see 1977, which had not played during week 1 due to injury. It took me a while to follow the plot and I think I would like to see it again now that I think I’ll understand it better. We witnessed another near injury right next to us when the main star tripped and stumbled coming off the ice. He yelled out in shock but returned to the ice soon afterwards and seemed fine. I didn’t seem to take many photos that evening but he’s one I did take of our balcony. The biggest negative of the balcony for me was the lack of loungers. I understand the space was tight, but they could have at least added footstools for the chairs like they had in our regular ocean view balcony room. It felt like a step-down in that respect. We felt very sorry for the stateroom attendant having to climb up into the climbing structure to clean it regularly! Our kids actually didn’t make use of it much. The 2 year old was a bit too small and the 7 year old a bit too big. We played ping pong only once. On precisely the third serve we knocked the ball off the balcony and it landed way down in front of Playmakers! We eventually found it set aside waiting for our retrieval at the desk of the carousel attendant. You might not be shocked after seeing how close the table is to the edge of the balcony. Also there are huge gaps under and around the balcony dividers, so there are many ways to lose the balls easily. After our ball fail my son was too scared of hitting someone 11 decks below with a ping pong ball in the head to try to play again.

Week 2 Day 2 - Palma de Mallorca. Excursion: Mallorca Beach Transfer My husband and I had a discussion about excursions the day before and ended up doing a major reshuffling of excursions for the week. We had originally planned to stay on the ship in Palma, do an RC excursion to Cassis in Marseilles, and do an RC excursion to Pisa and a beach from La Spezia (in addition to a Pompei on your own excursion in Naples, which we kept). Due to weather in La Spezia looking rainy and slightly chilly and a desire to spend more time hanging in our wonderful suite, we decided to cancel the La Spezia and Marseille excursions, but added in a quick beach excursion in Palma so I could get my beach fix in (England is not renowned for its beaches, especially if you plan to actually get in the water). The RC excursion to a beach outside Palma (Playa de Palmanova) was a repeat from our trip on Wonder last summer so I already knew what to expect. I didn’t write down the specifics, but you can see my blog from Wonder last year for more details if you are interested. The main thing is to make sure you have euros to pay for the loungers/umbrella which I think cost us somewhere under €20 for the day. You are picked up and dropped off in front of the Hotel Tropico and there is an ATM in front if you are short on cash. There is a small section of the beach that is watched by lifeguards if that interests you. There is an outdoor shower further along the beach, as well as public toilets (cost I think is EUR 50 cents, coins only) although the toilets are not in the best shape. We spent around 1.5 hours in the water and then changed and had some ice cream and cocktails along the beach. The length of the excursion (4 hours) was plenty for us, although there is an extended option if you want to spend more time there. Based on the time stamps on our photos I think we arrived around 9:45 am and had to meet back at the bus around 1/1:15 pm. The weather was pretty good — around 80F — although it was a bit windy. We brought a small safe with us to store our cash, credit cards and phones while we were in the water, although it felt like a pretty safe area. The water was relatively clear and we saw several small fish. Waves were minimal. The beach seemed cleaner than it had the previous year, and is sandy so we brought a bucket and shovel with us. In sum I don’t think the beach is anything special, but has all the basics you need for a few fun hours with minimal fuss.

Finishing up day 1, here are the snacks that were delivered soon after we made it into the room, as well as the champagne that was waiting for us, and a close up of the jacuzzi. You needed to ask the stateroom attendants to fill the jacuzzi (I started doing it myself the first day and they seemed a bit miffed). It takes around 2 hours to fill and they empty and sanitize it every 24 hours. It seemed like a bit of a faff so after the first day we didn’t ask for it to be filled again until around day 5. The controls were pretty slow and clunky but it got surprisingly hot and the jets were pretty powerful. For lunch we were told by the genie that no reservations were necessary for lunch at any of the specialty restaurants so we were free to go wherever we wanted that was open. We chose Jamie’s Italian. To be honest, we used to live within 2 blocks of a Jamie’s Italian in London for 3 years and ate there maybe twice. It’s not really my favourite — I find it dry and boring — but I was hoping it would be better on the ship. I thought the arrabbiata was pretty bland and the kids hardly touched their pasta. It was also kind of weird to see Jamie’s place plastered everywhere. The server was nice though and we ended up seeing her a lot around the ship throughout the week shilling for the specialty restaurants. For dinner we went to Coastal Kitchen for the infamous night 1 filet and it was absolutely amazing, best steak on the two weeks of the ship by far. I was not a huge fan out CK as a venue though. It’s hard to describe but it seemed to lack character. It had the downside of feeling too pretentious for rowdy children but without enough redeeming qualities to make the stress worth it, if that makes sense. That was the only night we ended up there for dinner, although we went back for breakfast a couple of times. The service was great. Eta: the weather for week 2 was way different than week 1. When we first boarded in Barcelona (and in all of the port stops) it was sunny and sweltering. Week 2 boarding was rainy and windy. I heard they paused boarding at one point due to the wind, and the genie later told us a big crate of supplies fell over and was destroyed while trying to load it onto the ship. Thankfully we had had our fill of nice weather already that it didn’t bother us much. It cleared up later and we had a beautiful rainbow and sunset in the evening.

Ah that makes sense. Given the 4:6 person to TV ratio I don’t think we ever even bothered to turn the TVs on in the kids room.

Now the upstairs. the kids bunk beds had these large thick orange sides you could add to prevent rolling off the side. My 7 year old still didn’t quite feel safe up there without anything between his head and the slide, so he ended up sleeping on the sofa which converts to a bed. We left it as a bed the full week since there wasn’t really a need for a sofa up there. The master bath has double rain shower heads. I swore I took a photo of the kids bathroom but apparently not. I liked the decor but it was a bit hard to give them a bath with the tub tucked into the corner. There was also a weird TV like thing in the mirror except it didn’t seem to play anything.

While the kids were trying to kill themselves on the slides and enjoying the legos and video games, I took some detailed photos around the room. First downstairs, including the downstairs bathroom when you first enter the room. Yes the fridge (which is across from the bathroom at the entrance) is no where near the mini bar; yes it’s really annoying. The Legos are a mix of small (normal size) and large (toddler size) so they worked great for our 7 and 2 year olds. The top of the dining table comes off to turn into an air hockey table, although the power is a bit weak and the table too was really heavy to lift and move. The controls for the blinds and lights deserve their own post. I had to have help from the stateroom attendants (whom l did not see for several hours, so we were stuck with closed blinds for a while). To open the blinds, you have to select and the unselect the blind you want to open/close. This only operated the long heavy blinds. The thin layer was manual, as were the blinds upstairs by the master bedroom. Chalk was provided for the chalkboard wall running behind the dining table.

Clearly this has turned into a post-trip report rather than a live blog, but I’ll keep plugging away. Finally, Week 2, Day 1 - Welcome to Star Class Just in case someone else ever does a back to back in Barcelona non-star class —> Star Class I’m going to go into a lot of detail here on the process so please bear with me. We received a note in our room a couple of days before the end of Week 1 advising us how the process would work for moving rooms and going through immigration. We were told to vacate the balcony rooms by 9 am and to meet at Schooner Bar by 9:30 to receive our new sea pass cards. Windjammer supposedly finished up breakfast service at 8:30, but I knew that was a lie told to Barcelona disembarkers to hurry them off, so we strolled into Windjammer around 8:30, then arrived at Schooners close to 9:30. We had left our luggage packed up in our room before we left for breakfast and told our room attendant our new cabin number for him to have the bags moved. I’d estimate around 30 people were at Schooner Bar for the consecutive cruisers hand-off. We were handed our new sea pass cards as well as Star Class bands and around 9:45 am were led down to the gangway together as a group to have our old sea pass cards swiped to “exit” and new sea pass cards swiped to “enter,” although we never had to step outside the ship. The crew in charge of the consecutive cruisers processed us first since we were Star Class, but I don’t think this was official policy or anything. The ship was still very crowded at that point and deck 5 was a bit chaotic, but the process took all of 1 minute and we were free to go. Our genie had given us his WhatsApp info already so we had texted in advance that we’d let him know when our consecutive cruiser process was done so we could meet up. Here we hit a snag, however, as apparently our internet packages for week 1 ended at 9:30 am, but our new packages for week 2 didn’t let us log in until after 10 am. Not super well thought through. In the meantime I sat in Schooners cursing the Wi-Fi. I could also go on a rant here about Brexit and the fact that my UK data no longer works in the EU, but I’ll spare you. When we were back online I texted the genie and he was to Schooners within 10 mins to collect us and take us to the room! We made it just before 10:30 am, so early that they hadn’t delivered the welcome snack yet, although the spot for it had been set up. The room was a complete surprise to the kids and they went pretty crazy over the slide.

It was advertised specifically as being served with peas, I really was sad.

I left off in Naples, Day 6 of Week 1. Picking up with day 7, it was a sea day and our last day in the balcony rooms before our upgrade. The mood was super upbeat as we were able to take advantage of all of the sea day activities with no dread of imminent departure hanging over our heads. We started the saying spending an arm and a leg buying photos (2 prints and 20 digital photos was something like $325). Then we watched the parade from the photo gallery area. This wasn’t the best viewing spot because the stairway blocked most of the action. Probably better to be in front of the pub area. I lost at bingo with M while husband and A took at nap. M and I also went ice skating, which I’d booked on the app a few days prior. You need to book 30 min windows for ice skating and laser tag via the app. There didn’t seem to be much rhyme or reason to when the booking windows opened for that. Ice skating was well organised but because there were no skating aids a long of people held along to the side the whole time, M included, which was a but limiting. After a few falls M had enough and we headed out. Dinner was in the MDR again where we said goodbye to our servers since we planned all specialty dining for week 2. The vegetable portion was measly again, but besides that and some of the kinks in the first night, we enjoyed having dinner in the MDR each night for the first week and really liked our servers. In the evening we went to the 60 seconds or less and Friendly Feud game shows in On Air, then went back to the room to pack up all of our stuff in order to be ready to leave the room around 8 am the next morning.

If I try to catch up from where I left off we’ll be off the ship before I even post any photos of the room, so here are some views from the UFS on our sea day today.

I should add that around the time we were getting ready for dinner I realised I couldn’t find my Apple Watch. I checked the Find My Phone app to see the watch was currently located inside the Vatican. This was a bit of an issue because we were in Naples and the Vatican is in Rome (which my 7 year old helpfully pointed out). I emailed the Vatican and they responded quickly to say they had found a watch! I provided detailed info to establish proof of ownership. They now acknowledge the watch to be mine and are working with me to have it shipped back home to London (we will have to pay shipping fees). I’m hoping this works out. We’ll be back in Civitavecchia this week but I’m not looking forward to cancelling the massage I had planned and trekking all the way back to the Vatican.

Day 6 - Naples - No excursion booked/walked into Naples for pizza Last year we didn’t get off in Naples because it was too hot. This was day was even hotter, maybe 103F? But we didn’t want to pass up the opportunity to finally get a good Italian meal off the ship. A few months in advance I had researched pizza places within walking distance of the port and settled on Pizzeria Speranzella, a little place on a side street in the Spanish Quarter about a 20/25 min walk from the ship. We left the ship just before 12:30 to make our 1:00 pm reservations. I found the port of Naples to be confusing and we probably asked for directions twice to figure out how to get headed in the right direction. It was something like downstairs and outside, then around the corner and back inside and upstairs, down a long hallway, then finally downstairs and outside again?? I wish I could be of better help. I’d heard a lot of negative things about Naples, including from a native, but I found once we were a 5/10 min walk away from the port into the Spanish Quarter area it was very nice. We were sat quickly at the restaurant (they hadn’t held a table open for us, but gave us the first one to empty up with priority over others waiting without reservations, which I think was reasonable given it’s a tiny restaurant and a lot of people probably no-show their reservations). The pizzas took around 20 mins to arrive once ordered. We ordered 3 pizzas for our family, but probably could have gotten away with 2. They were relatively cheap though (maybe around €8-9 each) and we liked trying a couple different varieties. I’d rate them as pretty good. I liked the atmosphere of the restaurant as well, although it is not for everyone. Our table was outside on a narrow street and mopeds drove by regularly, and even some cars squeezed past. To me it gave the place character, but some might not like the exhaust fumes mixing with their lunch. There also wasn’t any wine on the menu and it’s not the type of place you’d go for a slow leisurely lunch, but that’s not what we were looking for at the time so we were happy to be in and out. Overall I was happy with the choice and would be willing to go back again. After lunch we stopped for dessert at a little cafe inside the Galleria Umberto, which I think is worth a peak into if you’re in the area. Then due to the heat we headed straight back onto the ship and straight to the showers to get ready for Dress Your Best Night. We had dinner in the MDR, then took A to see Flight while M went to kids club (once again our attempt to drop A at the nursery failed). Flight was…something else. I certainly recommend seeing it once. We probably won’t see it a second time. Some parts were spectacular and others were head scratching. Inventive for sure.

Day 5 - Civitavecchia- Vatican/Sistine Chapel on our own (pre-booked private tour directly via the Vatican) Last time we were in a Rome we saw the Coliseum, and this time my husband really wanted to see the Sistine Chapel. We ordered a room service breakfast for 7:30 am and left the ship at 8:15. Once outside the ship we followed the signs to the buses and took the shuttle bus that would drop us off at the Civitavecchia train station. The bus was EUR 6 per adult (kids free), cash only. We were on the bus and leaving the cruise terminal by 8:35. It is around a 10 min ride to the train station. We had pre-booked tickets for the fast train from Civitavecchia to Roma Termini departing at 9:16 (arriving at 10:03) so had some time to wait in the extreme heat (100F), but I’d rather be way early than rushed. We had booked the tickets directly with the train provider, Trenitalia, maybe 2 months in advance and it was only around €25 total for 4 round trip seats in first class. I was able to select the specific seats at the time of purchase as well so we were all around a table. Once in Roma Termini we had a bit of a hiccup because I had planned to take the metro from Roma Termini to the stop closest to the Vatican Museums entrance (Ottoviano), but the whole line was closed for maintenance. Instead we trekked about 20 mins to the taxi rank at the front of Roma Termini station and got a taxi right away. It cost €13 and travel time was around 20 mins by car. It was around 10:45 at this point and our tour was schedule for 11:30, so we grabbed some pizza at a cafe close by called Giselda. It was lovely and air conditioned and only a 5 min walk from the Vatican Museums. I definitely recommend it for a quick snack in the area. They also had sandwiches, fresh juice, coffee, pastries and cocktails. We were told to be at the security entrance 15 mins before our start time. The line for people with tickets was almost non-existent and we were inside within 5 mins. The area for people with pre-booked tours was clearly marked. There were vending machines inside with water and soft drinks; coins only. I had booked a private guided tour of the Vatican Museums/Sistine Chapel directly through the Vatican’s website around 3 months before the trip. The cost was €340 euros for us (2 adults/2 children). This was hands down the best decision of the entire trip. We had the loveliest, most knowledgeable and passionate tour guide you can imagine. She was an archaeologist and had worked at the Vatican for 11 years. The place was so packed and hot so having the attention of an individual guide was invaluable in getting the most out of the experience. She was not allowed into the Sistine Chapel itself with us, but talked us through everything we would see in advance. The tour was around 2 hours and ended at the Sistine Chapel. After that we were free to spend as much time in the Vatican museums as we wanted, but we just had some ice cream at the cafe attached to the museum and headed back to the train station. There is a little food court inside the Vatican Museum next to the cafe. I’ll post a photo of the menu. We didn’t see any taxis when we left so we took the replacement metro buses from outside the Ottoviano station back to Roma Termini, then stopped for juice and coffee at a cafe inside the station until it was time to board our return train at 3:57 pm. Note there is a baby change station in the toilet closest to the family car (in our case it was around car 4). There were also plenty of regular toilets and some vending machines. Once back in Civitavecchia around 4:45 we again took the €6 shuttle back to the ship. Be sure to check with the driver which ship the shuttle would be heading to. An NCL ship was also in port and the shuttles to that ship were identical to the ones heading to Symphony. They only way to distinguish was by asking. I’ll post photos below. We made it back to the room at 5:20pm and were greeted with some cute towel animals. We quickly showered (it had been sticky hot all day) and changed for dinner. No recollection whatsoever of what we did after dinner. Probably involved karaoke in On Air at some point and kids club for M.

And just like that I’m a week behind. I’ll try to summarize the rest of the first week quickly to get on to the good stuff. Day 4 - La Spezia - no excursion booked/not getting off ship. We wanted to break up our days getting off the ship so planned to stay on the ship today. I had a facial in the morning. The facial itself was good and there wasn't really a hard upsell on products or services, but I was subjected to an intense interrogation about my skin care routine which was a bit over the top (what do you mean you don’t exfoliate? You can’t find 5 minutes in your day to exfoliate? Why not? ). We might go back for massages at some point. Later while A and husband were taking an afternoon nap, I took M for rock climbing. The wait was very short, maybe 5 mins. Then we played some games in the arcade on Deck 15 and in Playmakers. The arcades are a little embarrassing for Royal I think. Like at least 1/3 of the games, if not 1/2, are broken. I’ll post photos below so you can see the games available and which are labeled as out of order. Even several that don’t have signs weren’t actually working though. But probably for the best because we could easily waste $50 at a time in the arcade if it were fully functional. the rest of the day was pretty bland. We dressed up for Hawaiian night and took some family photos before dinner. Then we had dinner in the MDR as usual and it was pretty good. We tried to drop A at nursery in order to see the adult comedy show, but they called us back to get him after 15 mins because he was fully distraught. So we just saw some karaoke and tried to make use of our drinks package while M was in kids club.

Day 3 - Marseille - Excursion: Scenic Marseille Last year we didn’t get off the ship at Marseille so this time we wanted to make sure to do a tour of the city. Similar to the Palma excursion, we chose this one because it was mostly on an air conditioned bus with little walking. I think the temperature was around 95F. It was scheduled as a 3.5 hour tour beginning at 9:30 am. We were told to meet at 9 am at the Royal Theater. The ship was a little late being cleared so we ended up starting around 9:45. Similar to the Palma tour, we were in a modern air conditioned coach with a tour guide who spoke through a microphone as we drove around Marseille. This tour made two stops, the Palais Longchamp for 15 mins and the Vieux Port for about 1 hour (40 mins of which was free time, first 20 mins was a guided tour). We also drove by the Notre Dame cathedral and along the sea front (sit on the right side for better views of the sea). We ended back at the ship right around the scheduled time of 1:00 pm. I think this tour was much better than the Palma tour for getting a sense of Marseille and seeing the main areas and sites. The tour guide was also very informative and I learned a lot about the city and culture. However, I felt that the Vieux Port was a bit of a tourist trap and not really worth the time. Also the bus parked a 10 min walk from the port and a few people go lost getting back as instructions were extremely unclear, so definitely mark on the map where the bus is before you get off. My oldest had a tough time holding his bladder until the Vieux Port stop, which was at the very end of the tour, and we ended up buying a soda from a cafe I order to use the toilet as the public toilets were not close. There is a carousel in the port area, although we did not try it. I’d rate this a 7.5/10. It is great if you want a taste of Marseille and have limited mobility/kids/can’t face a long walk in terrible heat. Once back on the ship we had a quick Windjammer lunch, then Husband and A took a nap while I took M for mini golf and some arcade games. I’ll do a separate report on the arcades on the ship. We went back to the MDR for dinner which was pretty good, then dropped off M at Explorers and took A with us to see Hairspray. A was enthralled. I was impressed and would liken it to a touring-level quality of a Broadway/West End musical, but my husband the critic thought the acting was poor (the actors seemed not to understand some jokes so the delivery was wrong) and thought parts were approaching high school theatre level. Cleary reasonable minds may differ here. White night was very impressively attended, as have most theme nights so far.