berkeleykel

The video games available. Please not I have not turned on either console so I don't know if more games are available as downloads without disks.

😂 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! 

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!

TERMS

Maybe just think of it as sharing the only available pool. Can't believe that some people think kids should swim in an outdoor pool when it's 50° out or not have any pool at all. The outdoor pool can be your quiet area when it's 50 degrees out. 

Day 8 – back in Barcelona
(6th of August 2023)
We started the day early. Maria had an excursion booked for Barcelona.
Something that was tricky without a Genie. The excursions for day 8 I was able to book on the app or online before the cruise all ended up at the airport, but that wasn’t really a place we wanted to go to.
I figured Coastal Kitchen would be busy in the morning so we ordered room service breakfast the day before for me and the girls, Maria didn’t want anything that early.
The girls and I went down to deck 5 where the exit is for our 9:30 appointment. There were some queues to leave the ship. But we didn’t really have to queue. A nice staff member took our three sea pass cards and scanned them to leave the ship.
Day 2.1 – still on Barcelona
The same person who scanned our cards for us to leave had an envelope with three new cards and new wow bands for us. She scanned us in again and our second week starts. All without having to actually leave the ship. Only a security guard looked at the pictures on the screen to confirm that we were the three people she scanned out and in.
She also gave us three new WOW bands. She asked us if we wanted to keep the old sea pass cards – I said no. Thinking back I’m not sure it was a good idea the old cards would have been nice to keep but then again even more junk to store at home.
Fun fact: As Maria left really early at 7:45 for the excursion that isn’t usually bookable by people attending this cruise. It is bookable only for people who get on in Italy she was too early for the B2B cruise meeting. So our Genie got her her new sea pass card almost 24 hours early. With the explicit instructions to not use the new one until she is back from the excursion and to leave the ship with the old one but scan the new one when returning.
The small devil in me would have loved to try, what happens if you use a sea pass card for a future cruise on the current one?
So I guess the surprise was we have a B2B cruise in the Ultimate Family Suite 🙂
As we didn’t change the state rooms or anything else like that we didn’t have to pack so all those app messages about luggage and when to leave were not important. Gloria our loft attendant was also happy as it meant one room less to deep clean for a guest change.
Lunch was at Coastal Kitchen. Initially it started as me and the girls as Maria was still somewhere in Barcelona. But she returned just as the girls were about to leave. So  I stayed longer with Maria.
In the afternoon we didn’t do much. We finally managed to all go to the Suite sundeck. For the two hours or so we were there the 4 of use more then doubled the number of guests up there. We had the hot tub to ourselves and plenty of seating everywhere 🙂
Dinner was at Jamie’s. As always very friendly staff and we all found something we like. Also we were not greeted with “Welcome aboard” but instead “Welcome back” – I guess they will miss us next week. (I can already reveal right now that there won’t be a third week in the Ultimate Family Suite for us or even anywhere else, we all miss our home, our work, our friends, ...)
After dinner Maria and the girls went to HIRO again – I guess at this point we have seen all the bigger shows.
And I used the time to catch up on writing the blog. I have now finally managed to catch up to right now, week: 2, day: 1, time: 23:14.
The only thing that I haven’t managed to sort out is the photos to upload but I have taken a lot of them so I will get around to that too – I promise.
The day is not finished. At midnight is the balloon drop on the Royal Promenade and both girls would like a balloon. The 6 year old ones would like a blue one and the other a yellow one. But they are both too tired to go so mum has to do it. I’ll report the next day if she managed to get the desired colours.
Oh and finally, if you are on board right now and your iPhone is called “tamik” I’m not giving you the code to connect to the TV in our cabin. I know you have tried it several times this evening but forget it, you won’t get the code from me!

Good morning! Day 5 already and it Looks like we’re going to have a beautiful sea day! 
We ended up eating in the cabin last night. The MDR was just a bit too overwhelming for the artist and the windjammer had already closed by the time we got back to the cabin. Anxiety sucks, but room service was yummy and we had a lovely time together! 
We have no plans today which is my preferred kind of schedule. Lol My work is nothing but deadlines so being able to NOT look at a clock is my favorite way to unwind and relax and one of the many reasons we like to book cruises with lots of sea days! 😉. There were a couple of activities that looked interesting so maybe we’ll check them out or we might just plant ourselves by a pool. We’ll keep you posted. 
 
 

😂 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! 

I wasn’t going to do this but sitting here this morning I figured why not? I’m a little late getting started but we’ve had such a nice time so far, I thought I’d share. Please forgive the million typos, I’m using my phone. Thanks in advance! 
 
This cruise is my middle child’s (We’ll call them the Artist) sweet 16 gift and our first opportunity for just the two of us to hang out and have experiences just between us. I’m pretty proud of the fact that my kid would even want to be stuck with me for 9 whole nights and not be embarrassed to be seen in captive public with me. I’d say I’m lucky! We only “kind of “ feel bad that we left Dad and the other two siblings at home. They’ll get their chance. 😉 It’s the artists time to shine. 

Day 1: We stayed at the McHenry Row Courtyard by Marriott right across the highway from the port. So convenient and a very nice place to stay. Dad dropped us at the port around 9:30am  we had an 11 am boarding time. We were the second group in line. They opened the doors for us at 10:15 and holy cow, we were checked in, on the ship and mustered by 10:48! 
We checked out the solarium and the artist took a dip then grabbed a snack in the windjammer to pass the time until the cabin was ready which turned out to be perfect timing. They were ready by 1:30.  

The windjammer was nice as buffets go. The usual fare. The crew was all smiles and very helpful.
The solarium was quiet for the first day. I thought it would be busier. It took the Artist 10 full minutes to get submerged because the water was so cold! Haha
I ordered a couple of surprises for the birthday kid for the cabin and they were there waiting for us! The artist was so happy and really felt like a star.  Goal achieved!!!! Points for mom! 
We got unpacked and had dinner again at the windjammer. Hung out on our balcony for a bit and called it a night. Slept like a baby knowing my baby had a great start to a special trip. 

Day 2 – Palma
 
Ok, it turns out holidays are stressful. A balloon drop at midnight doesn’t go too well with an early morning breakfast – at least not for my girls.
 
Maria is the only one of us four leaving the ship today. She had booked an excursion through Royal. She went to the “Flamenco Show at Son Amar”. Despite the name the excursion included more then just a flamenco show. It was also a small city sightseeing tour. Maria had fun and she really enjoyed the show.
The kids and I stayed on board but we also had fun. Most of the time without mum the kids went to “Splashaway Bay” the kids water play area. Something we really have to get used to is the level of presumed safety. 3 life guards for “Splashaway Bay” is a lot, one for each slide and one to wonder around. Don’t get me wrong, I think safety is important, but I think it is also possible to overdo it. My guess is this has something to do with the crazy US laws, you can sue anybody for everything. I’m more used to “use your brain” and kids will hurt themselves playing. - But ok, doesn’t really bother us so back to the blog.
 
While the kids were playing I relaxed in a hot tub and then spend some time watching the kids with a (non alcoholic) drink from the “Sand Bar”. Like the other venues I tried so far the bar staff was very friendly and fast. After the first drink I didn’t need to show my sea pass again for the rest of the morning.
 
We went for a late lunch to “Sorento’s”. Pizza always works. We each had a couple of slices – not too much as we had a big dinner planned. For around 6pm.
After the pizza we stopped at the “Vitality Cafe” for a smoothie. It was nice and I think I will get another one during the holidays. Next time I have to enquire if they can customize it and use more fruits of one type for example. Very strangely even my 6 year old liked it – usually she doesn’t like anything new.
 
We then returned to the room for a while. The 8 year old went out on her own to go down the “Ultimate Abyss Slide” twice. She proved that she can do it. So I feel comfortable to let her or both of them together wonder around alone for a limited time.
 
After her trip to the flamenco’s Maria went to the thermal spa to relax for an hour and then met us all on time for Hibachi at Izumi. The kids were tired (the 8 year old actually dozed off for a good 15 minutes while sitting there. But apart from the youngest one we all enjoyed the food.
Two negative points – I should have guessed that, but the “show” doesn’t actually start until everybody at your table has arrived. We arrived about 5 minutes early and others about 10 minutes late. So we had to wait for 15 minutes – that’s somewhat boring not only for the kids.
But really the one thing I didn’t expect at all was the noise level. I think after the dinner an hour at an airport runway or an AC/DC concert would be really relaxing for the ears. The room is somewhat small with a low ceiling and the chef has to scream over the noise the other chef’s make and the other two tables. The girls didn’t like it at all especially the youngest one.
So my wife and I might go back later this week or next week but without the kids.
 
After dinner we went to 1977: “A Thrilling Adventure on Ice”. Our Genie met us at the door got us popcorn and drinks and nice seats front row near the middle. Oh and something I didn’t know, he had blankets so no need to worry about being underdressed for an ice show.
The show itself was good the plot or the story wasn’t the best but the performers were great. We wouldn’t have minded if the show would have been longer. And we look forward to the other ice show “iSkate 2.0” later this week.
 
Since it was fixed we had a working hot tub so late in the evening it was used 🙂
I think I agree with the comments online that the location of the Ultimate Family Suite is better on Wonder of the Seas. Here on Symphony the balcony is a little too public.
 
Maria went down to the silent disco for a while when I watched over the girls and ensured that they got to bed slightly earlier.
 
Maria and I were talking about the laundry bag that we filled early morning and that it sadly didn’t arrive the same day – not that we needed it that day. But when we went to get ready for bed we noticed it in the wardrobe. Shirts hanging up nicely and everything washed and returned on that day. Gloria did a fantastic job in not only returning it but hanging it up inside where it should be.
 
We had a little problem with the phones the night before as there were those annoying blinking lights indicating about a message. Gloria figured out how to listen to it. Only one of the three phones works for that – and that is the only phone I did not try.
The messaging system is strange. The automated voice prompts are in German (I guess since I’m German) but the message from shore excursions itself was in English. That also meant that Gloria couldn’t delete the message. She listened to it and understood that it was late, and not really necessary in the first place but, more a friendly reminder to be on time and bring the stuff you need to bring. But since the message “Press 1 to repeat, press 2 to delete, …” was in German she couldn’t do it. But she met us in the evening after the ice show and together we figured out how to delete the message – so no more blinking phones.
Is that automated message normal for the first excursion on the cruise? Since we didn’t get one for the day 3 excursion.
When we were about to go to bed an office from the technical team showed up to fix the phones – I was a little embarrassed that I couldn’t delete a simple voice message but really nobody told me to try all three phones.
 
So that’s it for today, we all 4 managed to be in bed just before midnight. Tomorrow we’ll be in Marseille
 
Random observation for today:
The background noise on a cruise ship is something I need to get used to. At home we here birds when it gets light outside and usually the first car around 6:05 (one of our neighbours going to work) and then only nature until around 6:30am. The advantage of living in a small village in the middle of nowhere. But here on board you constantly hear air-conditioning, elevators, engines, ...
 

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.
 
 

Wow you Americans certainly do like to tip LOL!

@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!

So, a promise is a promise, and now that I'm back from my cruise to the Norwegian fjords on Anthem of the Seas, here are some pics that may help you make a decision @berkeleykel.
 
First up is cabin 6560. This is officially classed as an obstructed balcony cabin but is one of the least obstructed ones. The first three are taken standing at the rail of the balcony while docking in Vigo. Looking towards the front of the ship and straight out there is virtually no obstruction; looking to the rear of the ship, the view is completely obstructed by the davit holding up the lifeboat. I have seen reports that the same cabin on the opposite side of the ship is also largely unobstructed (I'd guess a mirror image). While 6560 is a 2-berth cabin, its opposite number is a 3-berth.



These three are taken sitting on one of the chairs on the balcony (I didn't exactly pick the best port to shoot these ones, I'm afraid. If you just try and imagine a more picturesque port, you'll see that the water would be visible from this position).



And this last one is taken from deep inside the cabin.

On now to cabin 6654. This is also classed as an obstructed balcony cabin but it is one of the very few "square" cabins, along with 6658 and their opposite numbers on the other side of the ship, as well as the four immediately above them on deck 7, which are actually classed as large balcony cabins but which essentially have the same view, just being a little bit higher up above the lifeboats. We absolutely loved this cabin because of the layout; it felt more spacious than it actually was. Top bonus was the balcony, which was wider than your average balcony but not deeper, so to my mind, the view out from these cabins is excellent, except for if you're looking straight down. The con was that you only get an armchair rather than a sofa, which made no difference to us but might to others.




 


And, lastly, we have 7260, a large balcony cabin that I won through Royal Up (my original booking was an OV GTY).





One thing really worth bearing in mind with the large balcony cabins is the direction they are facing. Ours faced aft, so it was sheltered from the wind, but somebody from another forum that I met while cruising Odyssey last year had one that faced towards the front of the ship, so it effectively became a wind tunnel and was too windy for them to use when the ship was moving.
As to my personal opinion, I didn't feel that we had a particularly better view from the large balcony than we did from our other two so, to me, it would not be worth paying extra for a large balcony over a normal balcony on a scenic cruise. However, if you really do want a large balcony and assuming an armchair will do instead of a sofa, I would seriously consider one of the "square" cabins on deck 7: 7254, 7258, 7654 and 7658.
I hope you find this useful. If there's anything else you'd like to ask about the ship, please feel free and I'll do my best to answer. 😊
 
 

So, the big question: Do I write a live blog or do I not write one?
The problem, if I start, I have to finish it or it will look silly. But if I don’t even start nobody would notice it. ← That question is what has kept me busy the last couple of days.
I guess since you can read this I decided to write one (or at least start and then look silly if I abandon it).
Who is travelling? Me, my wife and our daughters (8 and 6 years old).

We arrived in Barcelona yesterday. Two days before our cruise but better safe than sorry. Our two flights were short and we would have plenty of other options to get here by Sunday. But we only ended up with a roughly 30 minute delay on arrival.
The trip started at home (a small village in Northern Germany). We drove to Billund (Denmark) on Thursday to spend a day in Legoland and then fly Friday morning from Billund to Barcelona (Spain) via Frankfurt (Germany). For anybody from the US – Europe is really small or the countries are. So we left our home country to go to another country to fly to Barcelona with a stop over in our home country. Have I managed to confuse you enough? If not, yes, Denmark is North of Germany and Barcelona is South. But we live so close to the border to Denmark that the closest bigger airport is actually Billund / Denmark for us. Oh and let’s not forget a day in Legoland is always fun.
OK, now to the actual cruise stuff or rather pre cruise stuff as we won’t start until tomorrow.
We asked our girls what they wanted to do today, so we ended up going to the zoo. Not a typical tourist thing I guess but the girls wanted to see animals so we did that. And it was fine. The zoo had nice animal enclosures and it seemed big enough for them and clean enough. I’m always sceptical if animals are kept in an animal friendly way, but the Barcelona zoo really looked nice (I’m not an expert on animal keeping (other then the 8 and 6 year old ones travelling with us).
We split up after that. My wife wanted to do lots of museums and touristy stuff – the girls and I didn’t, we wanted to relax.
On the way back to the hotel we stopped at a LEGO store. That raises the question how many more of them can we visit during the cruise. I’m a little annoyed about myself that I didn’t research that beforehand. But I still have time.
We finish of the day with some dinner later on and then after a nice relaxing breakfast we will be picked up at 10am to get to the cruise terminal tomorrow morning.
I guess since I started writing here on this forum, I will have to include something about the actual cruise too. So we are barding the Symphony of the seas tomorrow morning for a nice time on our first Royal Caribbean cruise through the western Mediterranean Sea. Our cabin will be 1733 – our girls have selected that cabin (at least that’s what I’m telling everyone) as yes, that is the Ultimate Family Suite.
Our Genie will be Stepan and from the communication so far he seems to be very friendly and we look forward to meeting him tomorrow. I have given his WhatsApp number not only to my wife but also to our 8 year old so he might get a little upset with me – if they have too many requests.
One final note:
While I said I will try to write a somewhat life blog I didn’t say that I would write daily. If I manage I will try to write at least something every day oh and if I find something interesting I might even include a picture or two. I’m just not 100% sure if it makes sense to include the same picture of a cheesecake or a water slide or … that you can find 1000 times on google or even on this website. I guess wait and see how many pictures I will include (yes, definitely some room pictures but again there are already so many on the internet).
 
That’s it for today. To everybody else who is on this cruise – see you tomorrow,
Christian

I didn’t notice any difference at all.

Just to say, I've not forgotten about posting pics but thought I'd wait till I get home as I'll be able to post comparative photos from our previous cruises on Anthem.
The cruise was so amazing we're thinking of going again next year.

Today I just did Stay Awhile on the Rhapsody out of Venice and wanted to report back on the details, as it seems like this program is a bit different depending on local authorities and ship. 
By the second to last day of the cruise, we had to go to excursions desk and tell them the number of “checked” bags we planned to have and paid $6 for each of them. We were given Stay Awhile tags for each and told to place these outside our stateroom by 11 pm the evening before disembarkation. The fee is apparently charged by the port of Venice to store the luggage throughout the day in the terminal.
On disembarkation day, we had to check in with the temporary Stay Awhile desk (set up in conf room C right off the Centrum on deck 4) by 8:30 am. We could leave any carry on luggage that we didn’t want to cart around stored in the conference room for free until we were ready to depart the ship.
Per the requirement of Italian customs/immigration, the only times you could leave the ship were 1 or 3.  You had to choose this time in advance.  Then 15 mins prior to our chosen time we had to meet back at the conference room and everyone with that time departed the ship together (we were 3 mins late and were paged over the intercom, so be on time!).  Once off the ship we picked up our checked luggage which had been roped off in a separate area of the terminal.
We were able to combine Stay Awhile with a bus transfer to the airport organised by Royal Caribbean (guest services rep told me this was not possible but I knew he was wrong so concierge worked it out for us). We left in the 1 pm Stay Awhile group and booked a transfer that left the port at 1:30, so the timing worked out well. 
We were allowed to go to any public places on the ship.  There were no periods where we had to leave from/go to a specific place because of cleaning or anything. I’d estimate there were about 30 or so people doing Stay Awhile.
It was a little weird at first because the crew was busy cleaning and all of the food/drink venues were closed. No entertainment, live music, etc.  The crew were working flat out cleaning and prepping so didn’t have time for formalities.  However, this was short lived because by 10:30 am everyone had their game faces on again as new guests were boarding (fyi, the last call for guests from our sailing to depart came at 9:40 am, so there was only a very small turnaround time before new guests boarded).  I was one of the first guests at the poolside bar with a lovely Tequila Sunrise around 10:30.
We mainly stayed in the pool area, benefitting from an empty pool and first choice of sun loungers. We then grabbed a Windjammer buffet lunch before departing (including some of the “welcome aboard” cake which we felt a little guilty about).  The main pool and hot tubs were closed in the early morning but opened up between 9:30 and 10.  Never more than 5 people in the pool (including us) from then until we left for the Windjammer at noon.
We had had a port intensive itinerary with only one at sea day, so it was nice to be able to take advantage of some extra relaxation around the pool deck, which had been hard to squeeze in during the cruise itself. I think it was a good choice and would do it again.  It was also nice to bookend the cruise with lunches at Windjammer.  lt felt like we came full circle on the trip rather than being rushed off first thing in the morning.
 
 
 
 

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!

Here's my review from a few years ago out of Venice.  I think the finer details differ depending on ship and port.  
 

My understanding is that the UK and other non-US booking sites already include gratuity in their prices.  However, on the US site, they do not.  Dining/Beverage packages will have 18% gratuity added during the checkout process when purchasing on the US site.  Therefore that $74.99 price you see will actually be $88.49 when purchased.  That matches pretty well with the $90 you get from the exchange rate.

Major blog fail, this cruise ended almost 10 months ago and I never finished up the last post.  It's been haunting me in my sleep!  For the sake of good order and to clear my conscience, here's a brief summary of debarkation and overall thoughts:
Day 8 - Disembarkion
-We left the room right around 8am with our own luggage.  We took it with us to the Windjammer for breakfast and then left the ship around 8:45/9.  It was crowded but mainly with Rome-Rome passengers so we were some of the only ones with luggage and were able to get a table pretty quickly.
-Getting off was super quick and our car we had pre-booked with Sun Transfer was waiting for us (around 15 minutes early!) with the car seat we had requested.  It as a quick drive to the airport.
-We flew home with Vueling and had priority family check-in (I forget the exact term).  There was a dedicated check-in area that was a bit hard to find but probably saved us 30 minutes over checking in at the main desks with the masses. After waiting at our gate and close to boarding time, the gate suddenly changed and everyone ran en masse about 10 minutes down the terminal to our new gate.  This gate was much less orderly - boarding was just a free-for-all and our priority boarding was not respected.  When we scanned our tickets, we were told our seats had changed and instead of the front row seats we have paid EUR 150 extra for, we were sent to random seats in the back of the plane. No explanation for why our seats were given away. I was told I would be refunded the cost if I filled in a form online.  Long story short, 10 months later and hours of my life wasted, I never got that EUR 150 back.  NEVER FLY VUELING.  
-The flight itself was fine and we landed back in London a few hours later. 
 
Overall thoughts
-I think the ship was perfect for kids, especially younger kids who can't do a lot of the more adventurous activities. My toddler could play in the splash pool and the indoor and outdoor playgrounds, ride the carousel, play mini-golf, watch the ice skating and aqua theater shows - so much age-appropriate things to do!
-However, we discovered that Oasis class ships are not what my husband and I would personally prefer.  We did not like that we couldn't tell we were even on a ship half the time -- many venues didn't have windows and the ship as a whole felt designed to be inward-facing (promenade, boardwalk, central park) rather than outward facing.  We really love soft entertainment like quiz shows, but the venues were too small for the amount of people so unless you got there super early you'd have to standard at the entrance and couldn't hear.  We felt like we were inside a mediocre mall rather than on a cruise and if we wanted to spend a week inside a mall we could do it much more cheaply back at home.  We will put up with Oasis class ships until my kids are older but then I think we'll head back to smaller simpler ships.  We did really like the Aqua show and the ice skating though.  
-August was way too hot for us to do much sight-seeing at the ports with young kids.  For us this was okay since we live in Europe and can come back fairly economically, but if you are flying from the states paying thousands on airfare and this is one of your only chances to see Europe, 0/10 I would not recommend.  Do a week by land and visit London (I may be slightly biased in this view)! Alternatively, I though the Greek Islands cruise we did from Venice a few years ago when my oldest son was 3 was much easier with kids as there was really only one long day (Athens).
-Don't fly Vueling.  They have now joined Ryanair on my do not fly list.  
-WOULD WE DO IT AGAIN?  Haha yes, we have the same itinerary booked for this August on Symphony.  To compensate for the heat and port-heavy itinerary, we've decided to do a B2B this time so we can do half the ports the first week and half the ports the second week.  I think this will be a huge luxury.  We are also surprising the kids by staying in the UFS for the second week.  They will find out once they enter the room!  I think this will help break up what might have become too monotonous of a trip for them.

Major blog fail, this cruise ended almost 10 months ago and I never finished up the last post.  It's been haunting me in my sleep!  For the sake of good order and to clear my conscience, here's a brief summary of debarkation and overall thoughts:
Day 8 - Disembarkion
-We left the room right around 8am with our own luggage.  We took it with us to the Windjammer for breakfast and then left the ship around 8:45/9.  It was crowded but mainly with Rome-Rome passengers so we were some of the only ones with luggage and were able to get a table pretty quickly.
-Getting off was super quick and our car we had pre-booked with Sun Transfer was waiting for us (around 15 minutes early!) with the car seat we had requested.  It as a quick drive to the airport.
-We flew home with Vueling and had priority family check-in (I forget the exact term).  There was a dedicated check-in area that was a bit hard to find but probably saved us 30 minutes over checking in at the main desks with the masses. After waiting at our gate and close to boarding time, the gate suddenly changed and everyone ran en masse about 10 minutes down the terminal to our new gate.  This gate was much less orderly - boarding was just a free-for-all and our priority boarding was not respected.  When we scanned our tickets, we were told our seats had changed and instead of the front row seats we have paid EUR 150 extra for, we were sent to random seats in the back of the plane. No explanation for why our seats were given away. I was told I would be refunded the cost if I filled in a form online.  Long story short, 10 months later and hours of my life wasted, I never got that EUR 150 back.  NEVER FLY VUELING.  
-The flight itself was fine and we landed back in London a few hours later. 
 
Overall thoughts
-I think the ship was perfect for kids, especially younger kids who can't do a lot of the more adventurous activities. My toddler could play in the splash pool and the indoor and outdoor playgrounds, ride the carousel, play mini-golf, watch the ice skating and aqua theater shows - so much age-appropriate things to do!
-However, we discovered that Oasis class ships are not what my husband and I would personally prefer.  We did not like that we couldn't tell we were even on a ship half the time -- many venues didn't have windows and the ship as a whole felt designed to be inward-facing (promenade, boardwalk, central park) rather than outward facing.  We really love soft entertainment like quiz shows, but the venues were too small for the amount of people so unless you got there super early you'd have to standard at the entrance and couldn't hear.  We felt like we were inside a mediocre mall rather than on a cruise and if we wanted to spend a week inside a mall we could do it much more cheaply back at home.  We will put up with Oasis class ships until my kids are older but then I think we'll head back to smaller simpler ships.  We did really like the Aqua show and the ice skating though.  
-August was way too hot for us to do much sight-seeing at the ports with young kids.  For us this was okay since we live in Europe and can come back fairly economically, but if you are flying from the states paying thousands on airfare and this is one of your only chances to see Europe, 0/10 I would not recommend.  Do a week by land and visit London (I may be slightly biased in this view)! Alternatively, I though the Greek Islands cruise we did from Venice a few years ago when my oldest son was 3 was much easier with kids as there was really only one long day (Athens).
-Don't fly Vueling.  They have now joined Ryanair on my do not fly list.  
-WOULD WE DO IT AGAIN?  Haha yes, we have the same itinerary booked for this August on Symphony.  To compensate for the heat and port-heavy itinerary, we've decided to do a B2B this time so we can do half the ports the first week and half the ports the second week.  I think this will be a huge luxury.  We are also surprising the kids by staying in the UFS for the second week.  They will find out once they enter the room!  I think this will help break up what might have become too monotonous of a trip for them.

There is an excursion called "Explore Florence" that gives you 3 hours of independent touring.  I'd be wary of a tour that promised more time than that because of the length of the drive (I think it is like 2-3 hours each way).  If it is not a Royal excursion you'd want to leave a couple of hours to spare in case of delays.
I did not go to Florence because I think that much time on a bus sounds miserable even for an adult, let alone young kids.  I did La Spezia instead.  There are details in my blog below (we were on Wonder last year but the itinerary is the same on Symphony this year).   We also did the Coliseum on our own (fast train to and from Rome and a semi-guided tour of the Coliseum with a tour guide provided by the Coliseum).