berkeleykel

Will do! 2 more days! What a strange thing. I’ll report back!

Oh no, has anyone elected lost a casino cash out slip and been able to recover the money?

Day 2 - Palma de Mallorca. Excursion: Easy Palma & Valldemossa Last year on this stop we took an RC bus to a beach for the day. This time we actually wanted to see some of Palma. Due to the heat (forecasted high of around 94F and sunny) we changed from a walking tour to this excursion at the last minute since this one would primarily let us sit comfortably on a bus. We ordered room service breakfast to arrive between 7:30 - 8:00 (we hung our order out on the door the night before). It arrived at 7:25. The kids were very happy with it and now want room service every day. The excursion was slated to start at 9:30 for 3.5 hours. We were told to meet at 9:00 at Studio B. There was a cart just outside Studio B where we were able to pick up bottles of water for free with our deluxe drinks package. We headed out to the buses at 9:10. The directions were not clear and we lost our group, but realised that regardless of group number everyone was heading down to the gangway on deck 3, through the port building, and to a cluster of buses waiting which had signs with the tour numbers. Our bus was a new modern coach with air conditioning. We had a tour guide who talked the whole time we were driving to give us the history and background to the locations we would be seeing. He used a microphone and was easy to hear (no headsets required). Our bus departed right at 9:30. The first stop was Bellver Castle which took around 20 mins to get to. We were given 20 mins there to get off the bus and take photos at a viewpoint. The castle itself was closed because it was a Monday and no toilets were available. The next stop was Valldemossa which was about a 30 min drive away, the second half of which was very scenic with mountains and fields of olive (?) trees. Valldemossa was founded in 1399 as a monastery. We were given 1 hr 15 mins here to explore on our own. There were free public toilets (women’s toilet were a bit on the side but good in a pinch) up a slight hill close to the main street and next to some gardens. We walked around the garden, had a rest and some cake and coffee in a cafe, then bought a few souvenirs. We drove back to Palma and parked down the road from the Cathedral and were given 20 mins to explore. 20 mins is not enough time to get all the way to the cathedral and back, but we were able to get close enough for a few photos before heading back. Anyone who wanted to could depart from the tour and this point and make their own way back (the spot where we were parked as right next to the shuttle buses that would take you back to the ship if you were exploring Palma on your own, I think it was €10). We were happy to return to the ship so hurried back to the bus. We were told to be back at 1:05. The bus pulled away at 1:07, leaving some of our group behind running for the bus. I’d rate the Palma part of the tour a 3/10. You couldn’t see much from the bus and it didn’t feel like we got to experience Palma at all. Valldemossa was nice and it would good to have free time there, so I’d rate that part an 8/10, for an overall tour rating of 6/10. If it hadn’t been so hot and we didn’t have a whining 7 year old, it would have been much better if we’d stayed in Palma after the tour to explore on our own. I think next time we’re in Palma we’ll just take the shuttle bus and plan to do a self-guided tour. Back on the ship, it was time to dress for formal night. We had sent out my husbands clothes for pressing in the morning. The prices were around $2-3 per item, but with a 50% increase for same day service. Clothes were promised by 5:30 pm. They arrived at 5:25! Husband changed quickly and we took some family photos in the promenade before dinner. Lines for all the photographers were short to non-existent at that time. Dinner was greatly improved the second night. They brought our fruit for the kids immediately upon arriving, remembered our drinks order from the day before, and the roast beef was really good. One the first day of boarding we had booked some slots are the nursery for A and tonight was his first time going. He was the only kid at the nursery when we dropped him off at 7:30 and when we picked him up at 9. He did okay but had been a bit fussy for us. The staff worked really hard to get him settled. While he was at nursery, M happily went to kids club. On Wonder last year all kids 6-12 were put together in one large room and M had mainly played the switch. On Symphony, the kids are divided into smaller groups based on age. He was with the other 6-8 year olds in Explorers. It was well attended and they played some group games. There was also a PS4 but no switch. M was very happy and stayed until we forced him to leave at 10pm (after which time we would have been charged an hourly fee). While the kids were both in AO, husband and I played slots in the casino. I was up $75 in the slots within 15 mins, ultimately left up $55. We grabbed some (forever free!) Sorrentos pizza, then off to bed.

I should add that the first night we had booked the main ice skating show, 1977. When we showed up it was announced that it was changed to iSkate 2.0 due to injury to two of the cast members. We liked it okay. M fell asleep about 2/3rd through but our two year old powered through and clapped his heart out. While waiting for the show to start we saw an extremely stressed genie who had reserved seats front row center for a family who did not show until the minute the show was starting. In the meantime he had to ask three different groups to vacate the reserved seats. When the family finally arrived, he put on a game face and didn’t display any of the stress to them. Moral of the story - don’t keep your genie waiting! They have a stressful job and may not always show it, but they do a lot of work behind the scenes to create a seamless experience.

On to day 1, no time to waste. We bought a few breakfast items (yoghurt, apples and muffins) at the grocery store directly across from our hotel the evening before, so the kids ate that for breakfast. We ordered our Sun Transfer van to arrive at 10:05 - he arrived at 9:55 with both the car seat and the booster seat as requested. It was again around €75. We could have gotten a taxi for cheaper but I like to have it booked in advance with a reliable company that will provide car seats. We arrived at terminal B at the port around 10:30 and were able to check in with no lines. We had a boarding time of 11 am (the earliest available to select) and were given boarding group 20. Th first groups were called around 10:50 and we were called right around 11. We headed straight to Playmakers to watch the WWC finals and were pleasantly surprised by how quiet it was. Rooms were ready around 1 pm and our luggage was just down the hall by the time we made it to our rooms around 1:30 pm. We ate at the MDR at 6 pm (early seating) and I have to say it was our worst MDR experience yet, and I’m an MDR apologist. They didn’t bring any food out for the kids (even starters) until after the adults’ mains were delivered, despite us inquiring twice. M was at a breaking point by the time his food was delivered. The kids mac and cheese and grilled cheese sandwiches were comically bad. They just half melted a square of cheese on the macaroni, and didn’t even half melt the cheese for the grilled cheese. Even our two year old turned his nose up at the food. The adult meals were better, but check out how many vegetable were included in our “seasonable vegetables” side!

It’s crazy to me that it’s already the evening of day 4. It feels like we boarded yesterday. Backtracking quickly, we flew from London to Barcelona this past Saturday, one day before embarkation. We like to fly from Gatwick because it’s a quick train ride from our flat. Our choices from Gatwick were EasyJet or Vueling. Last year we tried Vueling for first time and had a bad experience (see my previous blog), so this year we went back to EasyJet, which we’ve taken about 12-15 times before without major issues. Our flight ended up delayed over two hours due to a mechanical issue that required us changing planes. We had to cancel our dinner plans and deal with a whining 7 year old, but other than that it wasn’t a big hiccup. I was just glad that the flight landed on Saturday so we didn’t have to worry about missing the cruise. We pre-booked a van from Sun Transfers from the airport to our hotel in Las Ramblas. It was around €75 and included a car seat and booster seat for our 2 year old and 7 year old. We were in the van headed to our hotel within 35 minutes of landing and our transport was waiting despite the delay, with no extra cost. I was a bit worried whether we would fit in the van — the booking said we could fit five “medium” size suitcases and we had three 81” suitcases, a carry-on suitcase, a stroller and three bookbags, but it all fit easily. We stayed one night at Citadines Las Ramblas. Citadines is an apartment-style hotel chain in Europe. I like it because they sleep up to four, which can be hard to find in Europe, and include a kitchenette, which is good when traveling with young kids. The location in central Barcelona can’t be beat. The hotel is not luxury (I’d rate it at 3 stars), but it is convenient, so it is our go-to for Barcelona.

Hello! I failed miserably at my last blog, but why not try again? My family (me, my husband, and our sons M (7) and A (2)) are already on board Symphony for a week in adjoining ocean view balcony cabins on deck 6 midship. Later this week we will be moving into the Ultimate Family Suite, which my kids have no idea about. I think they are the perfect ages to take advantage of the suite and can’t wait to surprise them on Sunday! Last August we did a week on Wonder from Barcelona on the same Western Mediterranean itinerary in adjoining balcony staterooms. We learned a lot from that trip — the heat in August is miserable and will tear down our will to live, and it is so hard for me to extract myself from my job such that a 1-week vacation is more trouble than it is worth. Because we are limited to school vacation times and working around colleagues’ vacation schedules, August was unavoidable, but I thought a back to back would give us the flexibility to go at a slower pace and build in a lot of days where we’ll stay on the ship to break up the long, hot port days. The UFS was a dream of mine and it opened up for a relatively reasonable price for our dates. To balance out the still-absurd cost of the UFS, we saved money the first week by booking balcony cabins. We like connecting cabins for the extra space, bathroom, and privacy which is all at a premium on a week-long sailing. We also actually like Windjammer and the MDR, so the first week we are more or less eating there exclusively, whereas the second week will be all Coastal Kitchen and specialty dining. I am late starting the blog because I’ve been finishing up some urgent work matters, but I’ve kept notes and will try to catch up on the first few days of the first sailing tomorrow (we are currently finishing up day 3). Posting this now to force myself to commit! The goal of my blog is to be informative as possible about details specific to our itinerary, excursions, the UFS, and practical details related to sailing with young kids. I don’t plan to go into too much detail on the minutia of our day, but might for example give detailed recaps of our excursions, as it is hard to find reviews for a lot of the Western Mediterranean excursions.

Interesting. I’ve been communicating with a genie who is none of the above for my sailing in two weeks.

The majority of the passengers do embark and disembark at Barcelona, I think something like 2/3? It sounds like they've made improvements from last year though, in that Rome embarkers can now use the app and book things ahead of time. I think this had been wonky previously and put them at a disadvantage. And I have heard that the boarding process is smooth in Rome as there are fewer people to contend with. I will be joining in Barcelona and crashing your parade on Aug 20!

Someone on here said it took the Suez Canal. I never saw an official account.

Thanks! I was the one who had asked. Not going to lie I'm a bit annoyed by this, obviously kids who are young enough to enjoy the slide are probably only playing Nintento level (hell I only play Nintendo), and the PS5 came out like 3 years ago. Seems kind of cheap to not keep the video games updated. We'll have to bring our Switch with us. Do you think the room overall is in good condition?

a truth I know all too well. Happy birthday to your Artist. What a lovely experience you are providing. My 16 year old self of ages past is jealous!

My eyebrows were already raised at: I'd love some photos of the gaming area. Is there much of a selection of video games? Is there still a chalk board and Lego wall?

As another data point because I don't want you to think that $20 per day is necessarily the norm: for a 7 day cruise we typically tip the stateroom attendant $50 per cabin and $50 each to the head waiter and assistant waiter (we are a family of 4) in the MDR. We put it in an envelope and hand them out the last evening of the cruise. Disembarkation morning is a bit hectic.

@FionaMG thanks so much! It was so kind of you to take the time to do such a thorough review. The square cabins look intriguing and I had no idea they existed. Two of them on deck 7 are still available so I’m thinking about switching to one of them. The only thing holding me back is the proximity to the lifeboats when looking down. But we have a sailing in 3 weeks on Symphony similarly close to the lifeboats (we’re on deck 6) so I’ll see how we like that first.

You hid the ball with this being a sailing in the Ultimate Family Suite! I’m excited to follow along. My family will be in the UFS on Symphony next month and it’s been so hard to find recent trip reports about it. Would love some photos of the room. Yes there are thousands out there already, but a lot date back to when the suite was first introduced and I’m curious to see how well it has held up. Hope you have a wonderful time!

I have not done Stay Awhile in Barcelona but I am skeptical you would be allowed to rejoin the ship after getting off. The only reason I don't completely write it off the possibility is that it is a transporting cruise so they should have some means of allowing passengers continuing onward to Rome back on again, so maybe they could process you back on that way. My guess is they won't want to deal with the hassle and/or restrictions that are imposed by Spain or the specific port would prevent it. Because the cruise is a transporting one, there should be some activities because passengers continuing on to Rome will still be on the ship, plus they'll have activities for the new passengers boarding in Barcelona. If you select the current Rome to Rome Symphony itinerary in the app you should be able to get a general sense of the activities that might be available for that day (which would be Day 4).

No, June. I liked the July itineraries but with work commitments and Wimbledon (obsessed) the late June sailing worked better. Hope you have a lovely cruise!

Did you feel that you preferred the view from your cabin vs your parents’ cabin when inside the cabin or did you not notice a material difference? I’m thinking about times when we may be lounging in the room on the sofa or bed and whether the longer overhang due to the additional depth of a large balcony might make the view appreciably more restricted than a regular balcony. Understood that while actually outside on the balcony the views would be the same.

Hi all, I may be overthinking this but I have a large ocean view balcony room booked for a Norwegian fjords cruise next year on Anthem. I’m thinking that a regular balcony may by preferable in order to better see the scenery from the room without all the overhang blocking the view. Thoughts? Can I “downgrade” without an issue if I do decide to change cabin types? Based on current pricing a regular ocean view balcony would be a couple hundred dollars cheaper than the cabin type I have booked.

On Wonder last summer my 6 year old played a lot of Super Smash Bros. They also combined the 6-12 age group so I’m not sure if it would have been different if they kept them separate.

I'm trying to make reservations for my family of 2 adults 2 kids, but I get an error message (message itself is helpfully blank) when trying to add my 2 year old (will be nearly 3 on the cruise). Is he not allowed? Ideally we'd drop both kids off and have an adults only dinner, but I don't think the times will work out with A&O (reservations only available from 5:30 - 6:00 pm or from 9:00 - 9:30 pm, nothing in between) so I was planning to do any early time and bring the kids with us. We'll be star class if that matter, but I'm trying to book ahead to guarantee date and time.