jbrinkm

On 3/26/2024 at 5:46 PM, bobroo said:

I've heard from diverted Labadee passengers that they have not received any additional port fees, taxes, or expenses because their sailing stopped in someplace other than Haiti.

We did not have any additional fees when we were diverted to Falmouth. We also got our Labadee excursions refunded to credit card very quickly, even though they made the decision to cancel the day after our planners closed (this was for a late March cruise). I really thought it would be OBC because it was two days before the sailing, but it was a direct refund. 

Hi @Fastfaller. I can't think of a single thing I would avoid. I really enjoyed our ports (although I would have preferred Labadee to Falmouth, that was obviously out of my hands), I enjoyed the ship, the food, the staff, and the entertainment! I guess I wish we had had more time to walk over the floating bridge and walk around the cute little neighborhood in Curacao but I wouldn't have given up my dive for it. And allot more time than you think you'll need for transportation in Aruba - we had a very long walk to get out of the port and traffic builds up in the downtown area. I'm glad we did Wonderland, it was really fun. I really tried to do as much as possible on the ship - the Escape room, the laser tag, the slides, the flowrider, etc. Our pickleball class was pretty fun with a great staff member, Ricardo. I really loved the Zumba classes. Our trip wasn't perfect, but the things that went badly for us weren't necessarily choices we made to suggest or not to suggest for others, like the problems we had on our Jamaica excursion or even getting to the port. I think you'll have a blast. Just plan ahead of time, whatever you want to do - like the show reservations and signing up for laser tag as soon as you are onboard. If you have specific questions, happy to answer them!

7 hours ago, WarrenYoung said:

Any update?

Yes, sorry! I answered @Ampurp85 in my live blog and forgot this was a separate thread. It was pretty good. Very moist, which is what I find missing in most of Royal's cakes. It tasted like a normal chocolate cake, although the chocolate decorations gave it a bit more "pop." We nibbled on it for about 4 days before it started to get stale. 

Not as impressive as those leveling up to Diamond or D+ or Pinnacle*, but I'm happy to see it anyway! Every great journey begins with the first step! (or second, as the case may be...)

15 hours ago, DoomSlayer said:

Just got back last night.  I assume you were talking about Wonderland for the restaurant.  Was not sure on the other clue to be honest, although I looked all over the rock-climbing wall, flow rider, and ice rink thinking that could be the family fun area.  Unfortunately, I could not find anything   Competition was fierce with all the kids on spring break looking.  We hid about 30 ducks ourselves on the trip.

It was the game room. We hid two inside of games - one was a murder mystery game (in a tube) and the other was mahjong in a case. In Wonderland, it was just inside the entrance, in the wall architecture, by the sheer curtain-y thing on the left. 

19 hours ago, OCSC Mike said:

The 6:10 mark shows the bathroom (I realized it was easier to find a random video than bug my wife).

Those look identical to Symphony's - although I don't remember having the old style drying line. I was looking for somewhere to drip dry and ended up using the metal hooks under the water controls. He talks about the banging of the door but that wasn't something that stood out to me at all. 

1 hour ago, AshleyDillo said:

Usually I keep it way on the cooler side but this time it has to be just over into the warmer side for me not to be shivering!

I noticed that on Symphony also. I was worried because I'd been hearing complaints about warm ships a few weeks ago but our sailing tended towards cold, common spaces and the room. 

5 minutes ago, OCSC Mike said:

My wife might, I'll get back to you. It was only a little bigger than the tube but the combo of the actual clear glass and door that swung out made it seem far less tube-like.

I agree that it felt like a significant improvement! We loved that the door swung out. 

On 3/21/2024 at 9:06 PM, Ryan79 said:

No more apple blossom for dinner

This is what was served to me as the "blossom" for lunch. Yes, it was called the Apple Blossom (NOT crumble) on the menu. I was extremely disappointed.

The MDR food was pretty good on Symphony last week. I had some issues the year before, just when they started the new menus, on Allure. I felt like the quality increased on almost everything I had both times. I'll clarify - for dinner. I had two lunches in the MDR and did not care for either. We are pescatarian so I can't comment on bad cuts of meat, but due to the limited options, we did end up having a lot of the same fish & vegetarian items both cruises. 

15 minutes ago, OCSC Mike said:

The new basic showers on Wonder have me spoiled. Never had a problem with that phone booth, space tube, whatever... but the actual glass doors that swing open are certainly an upgrade.

Do you have any pictures of this door? We had a door that swung open on Symphony rather than the slide open (moldy) on Allure and I really liked it - but it still felt like a space tube when you were inside.

1 hour ago, Ampurp85 said:

Wait why was Alaska avoiding you.

I missed this part of the story too!

Inquiring minds want to know...

9 minutes ago, Fastfaller said:

If it is by ship, symphony is only giving 1130 at this time 

Ditto this, at least at Port Everglades.

We just returned from a cruise on Symphony and we dove Aruba and Curacao. Aruba was a private boat dive and it was good - at a shipwreck - but we are brand new divers (did our OW dives in a quarry last October to finish the PADI certification) and we had to get ourselves to the boat and there were a lot of moving pieces so only ended up doing 1 shallow dive there. Saw lots of fish, a moray eel and a spiny lobster. We perhaps should have done an excursion offered by the ship instead as our first foray into actual diving.

We were able to get two dives in during our Curacao dive. We used Curious2Dive and they were phenomenal. Picked us up at port, had all the equipment for use to use (we have to fly in to cruise, plus small staterooms, plus we are new and haven't invested in our own equipment yet). Those were both shore dives, at two different locations. My parents went along and snorkeled at both locations. We just missed seeing a seahorse but did see four giant turtles, a small shark (we think - it was headed away in the distance), in addition to all of the many, many varieties of fish. 

On 3/28/2023 at 8:26 AM, andrew_amy said:

Update on this thread: I reached out to Sara (Client Relationship Manager) who recommended Jennifer Kelln and our experience to date has been outstanding. Thanks Sara and Jennifer!

We also use Jennifer Kelln and have had fantastic experiences with her!

43 minutes ago, SweetPea said:

I can't believe i missed this tidbit. 

Who else called Handcuffs and Scuba Boy hooking up?!

I can tell which of y'all enjoy watching reality TV...

On 1/25/2024 at 11:16 AM, HeWhoWaits said:

The advantage of reading this on a computer rather than on a phone is that the pop-up ads are a small portion of the bottom right corner of the screen. Although they are sometimes in the way of being able to click "submit reply."

I just did my live blog with my phone only and it was so hard to quote people to reply, using either method. When I tried to just select text to quote, I often did not get the little option or selecting the text I wanted was almost impossible - I'd get far more or far less than I wanted. When I did the full quote, the ad at the bottom covered the option to put the quoted text into the reply box. I also had problems inserting my pictures. Half of the time, they would delete instead of inserting. 

2 hours ago, PPPJJ-GCVAB said:

Thanks for the advice you provided for my questions.  I’m getting excited to step onto Symphony in just 46 days.  Check in is tomorrow so you know who will be awake around Midnight!
I truly loved your pictures and descriptions!  Glad you had such an enjoyable vacation.

You're welcome! Happy to answer any other questions that may pop up. I really loved Symphony!!!

I will try to do some wrap up in the next day or so, after I finish unpacking, catching up on mail and email and getting laundry going.

Getting out of the terminal today was a bit of a zoo; we usually don't leave until the end of disembarkation and crowds have cleared out, but we had an 11:30am flight from PBI so we got into the line around 8:20am which was the thick of it, and finally got into our ride around 9:10am. Because of the long ride and the early flight, I booked Blacklane and got charged for a few extra minutes of wait time because I had no signal in the terminal and my texts didn't go through.

It isn't worth arguing about it, but he arrived an hour earlier than I booked and bothered me a few times asking when we would get out when we were still trying to get a seat in the WJ for breakfast. I reminded him that we booked for 8:50 not 7:50, so he said to let him know when he should pull around. As soon as we got to our luggage, I texted him three times but there was no cell signal in the building so I had to call him when we got outside and those were the extra minutes we got charged for - because my texts didn't go through (so instead of being in the process of pulling up for us, he was still "waiting.")

We had no traffic getting to PBI but he started going to Miami accidentally and had to turn around.  And told us not to talk to him. But everything after that was very comfortable and smooth, timing was perfect, flight got in early and no traffic to get home (although AGAIN, there was a bad accident - 5 fire trucks - on the other side of the turnpike backing up everyone going the other direction).

We had parked at Value Parking which I recommend for Newark. It is a dumpy little lot, but the people are nice, the rates are decent for Newark, the shuttle comes quickly when you call, and our car was perfectly fine. Just got groceries for the week (that we have to cook ourselves ) and my husband went to pick up our Seeing Eye puppy from the sitter.

The one thing my mom said she wished I had mentioned because she would have enjoyed having on the ship (and in life)... a cup clip.

8 hours ago, WAYNO said:

We have also left wine and soda pop for the cabin attendants, and yes they have been appreciative.  Problem is, we had zero interaction with our cabin person on this cruise, in spite of him doing a great job.  We didn't  even know his name until he left his card at the end.

That was us on Allure last year. We saw him for a minute the first day but then barely again and I also didn't know his name until day 4 or 5. I think that is part of the reason I was so impressed with Frank on Symphony this week. He was always around, cheerful, thoughtful, etc. 

On 3/29/2024 at 4:47 PM, WAYNO said:

casino and C&A keeps us lavished with treats, including wine.  We try to be good, and abstain, often giving our wine to other passengers.  

We had a bottle left over and asked our cabin attendant if he wanted it. He got the biggest smile on his face and happily accepted.

39 minutes ago, DoomSlayer said:

We are getting ready to board in a few hours. I’ll have to go look to see what I can find

If you don't find them, I'll tell you exactly where so you don't waste your time looking for ducks that were already picked up. You'll know mine from the picture I posted here and my handwritten note

3 hours ago, Sweety said:

Safe travels home. Happy Easter!!!!

1 hour ago, FionaMG said:

Safe travels home @jbrinkm. Thanks for the ride.

Thank you! We are in our ride to the airport now. One little shenanigan this morning. We were in the long, snaking line that creeps to the scanner to exit the ship and two guys with their luggage just came off the elevator, started walking alongside the line and then just tried to squeeze in front of me. I asked - are you with them? Pointing to the people in front of us, the first guy said no, I'm with him and shrugged to his friend. I said - then the line is all the way back there and pushed myself back in front of them. I guess the people behind us didn't care if they cut the line because then they were still just behind us sniggering and generally being obnoxious. 

On 3/23/2024 at 11:10 AM, asquared17 said:

and terminal A at EWR is BRAND NEW how fancy is it!!!! i LOVE it

https://www.afar.com/magazine/newark-airports-terminal-a-ranked-one-of-best-in-the-world?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=032824ThisUSAirportTerminalHasBeenNamedOneoftheWorldsBest&utm_content=Final&utm_term=Daily Wander Newsletter Updated 1/23/24

Why don't my toiletries weigh less at the end of my vacation! I used them; there should be less of them, right? We're almost packed to put some suitcases out. 

We got a campfire cookie to go for our last evening snack.