LandstromCruise Posted January 4, 2019 Report Share Posted January 4, 2019 So I have decided to dip my toes into this live blogging thing. I have enjoyed reading so many others and learned so much I wanted to try and give back and hopefully do the same. I will admit up front I am no great writer or photographer, so please don't hold me to an @twangster level, but I will try my best. This will be my second cruise. First was back in March 2018 on Harmony of the Seas. This cruise was originally going to be a quick get away in November on Brilliance of the Seas for my wife and I for our anniversary. Dates weren't really working out with our schedules and then in my constant talking about cruising my Aunt and Uncle expressed interest in going. They have never been on a cruise so in trying to decide the best first cruise for them it brought us to Symphony of the Seas. They will be bringing their 15yo daughter and her friend along with. My wife and I are leaving the kids at home and getting away for some much needed time together. Itinerary: We will be flying from Chicago to Ft. Lauderdale this evening. My sister is going to pick us up from the airport and drive us down to Miami. Staying at Hyatt Centric Brickell Miami. Day 1 - Miami Day 2 - Sea Day Day 3 - Sea Day Day 4 - St Kitts Snuba underwater adventure excursion booked Day 5 - St Thomas Tree Limin Extreme Zip Line excursion booked Day 6 - Sea Day All access ship tour booked Day 7 - Nassau Blue Lagoon Island Segway excursion booked This cruise was booked about 30 days ago so as soon as we booked all shows, dinner, etc were booked. We plan to see each of the shows while on board. I think I am most looking forward to Hiro since on Harmony they cancelled all the water shows when we went. They did perform one during the day while we were in port and while it was still impressive, seeing it during the day and missing all the lighting had it lacking some. We have mytime dining and have booked reservations each night for 7:30pm. No specialty dining booked at this time. I have a few hours of work to do this morning before heading to the airport, so I guess since I can't sleep I might as well get up and get started on that. Hope you all enjoy the blog, and please feel free to ask any questions. I will try and update at least once daily and source out any pictures or answers to questions you have. JLMoran, Firemanswife2, Guy Gadwa and 9 others 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twangster Posted January 4, 2019 Report Share Posted January 4, 2019 Hopefully they don’t cancel any shows this time! and... Following! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diane.M Posted January 4, 2019 Report Share Posted January 4, 2019 I sail on Symphony March 23rd. Our first cruise! I will be following your blog. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susie Posted January 4, 2019 Report Share Posted January 4, 2019 I will sail on Symphony OTS in October. Following along Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ellcee Posted January 4, 2019 Report Share Posted January 4, 2019 Enjoy your trip! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted January 4, 2019 Report Share Posted January 4, 2019 Hope you have a great time! Looking forward to following along. 3 hours ago, LandstromCruise said: I will admit up front I am no great writer or photographer, so please don't hold me to an @twangster level, but I will try my best. I think the key to a great live blog is sharing as many photos as you can. They say a photo is worth a thousand words, and when it comes to these live blogs, I think we are as interested in seeing what's happening as reading about it. So feel free to lean on photos to tell your story! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Cruise Junkie Posted January 4, 2019 Report Share Posted January 4, 2019 Following Have A Great Time On Symphony Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lovetocruise2002 Posted January 4, 2019 Report Share Posted January 4, 2019 39 minutes ago, Matt said: I think the key to a great live blog is sharing as many photos as you can. +1 on that one! @LandstromCruise looking forward to following along! We're sailing Symphony in July so looking forward to hearing all about it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WannaCruise Posted January 4, 2019 Report Share Posted January 4, 2019 We'll be on Symphony in March. Ship looks amazing. Looking forward to following along. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WAAAYTOOO Posted January 4, 2019 Report Share Posted January 4, 2019 I think your decision to do the All Access Tour on Symphony is genius. What a GREAT ship to see all of the "inner workings". It is pricey, but I think it's worth it. We loved the one we did on Radiance a number of years ago. We actually got to go to the Captain's quarters but it was a special, one-time deal. LOTS of pix from that, please ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LandstromCruise Posted January 4, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2019 38 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said: I think your decision to do the All Access Tour on Symphony is genius. What a GREAT ship to see all of the "inner workings". It is pricey, but I think it's worth it. We loved the one we did on Radiance a number of years ago. We actually got to go to the Captain's quarters but it was a special, one-time deal. LOTS of pix from that, please ! Will do on the pictures. Yeah I am really excited to do this. I wanted to on Harmony and ended up not doing it, so not going to pass it up this time. WAAAYTOOO 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MotleyCruiser Posted January 4, 2019 Report Share Posted January 4, 2019 Doing this Itinerary in July. Looking forward to following along!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LandstromCruise Posted January 4, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2019 After a few hours of work this morning, picked up the wife and hit the road to head to Chicago. It was about a 2 hour drive, but no traffic this afternoon so pretty smooth. I wanted to arrive early to the airport since we had to check bags. I was expecting it to take awhile, but got bags checked and through security all in about 5 minutes! Now to sit at the airport for 1.5 hours to wait for boarding time. Symphony, here I come! Lovetocruise2002 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom2mybugs Posted January 4, 2019 Report Share Posted January 4, 2019 16 minutes ago, LandstromCruise said: After a few hours of work this morning, picked up the wife and hit the road to head to Chicago. It was about a 2 hour drive, but no traffic this afternoon so pretty smooth. I wanted to arrive early to the airport since we had to check bags. I was expecting it to take awhile, but got bags checked and through security all in about 5 minutes! Now to sit at the airport for 1.5 hours to wait for boarding time. Symphony, here I come! Weather is good today! Are you flying out of midway or O’Hare? Jane Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LandstromCruise Posted January 4, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2019 Just now, mom2mybugs said: Weather is good today! Are you flying out of midway or O’Hare? Jane Midway. Flying Southwest to Ft Lauderdale and then either getting an Uber to Miami or my sister is going to pick us up and take us. Don’t get in until about 9pm so not doing anything exciting in Miami tonight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom2mybugs Posted January 4, 2019 Report Share Posted January 4, 2019 Just now, LandstromCruise said: Midway. Flying Southwest to Ft Lauderdale and then either getting an Uber to Miami or my sister is going to pick us up and take us. Don’t get in until about 9pm so not doing anything exciting in Miami tonight. I really like flying southwest but we are just northwest of ohare so the drive down is a pain. Safe travels! Jane Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LandstromCruise Posted January 5, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 5, 2019 It’s cruise day!! Didn’t get much sleep last night. Got to the hotel around 11:45 and was just too excited for today. This is my first time in Miami and wish I had been able to come in earlier in the day to enjoy it more. We stayed at the Hyatt Centric Brickell. This hotel is gorgeous. I get a Hyatt employee discount so was able to book the room for $119 for the night. For the quality of the room it was a steal. Here are some photos. And here off in the distance you can see Symphony! Sorry kind of blurry: Time to get ready and go get some breakfast. My sister is coming down from Ft Lauderdale to meet us. mom2mybugs, Guy Gadwa, Traveler and 5 others 5 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lovetocruise2002 Posted January 5, 2019 Report Share Posted January 5, 2019 3 hours ago, LandstromCruise said: We stayed at the Hyatt Centric Brickell. This hotel is gorgeous. I get a Hyatt employee discount so was able to book the room for $119 Wow! That is a great rate for that property! I have looked several times at that one now and it's usually$300+/night. Thanks for showing the view of the ship from that hotel. I've always wondered if you could see the ship from there. We stayed at the Intercontinental Miami in July and we've booked it again for this July because I loved the Bay view. But Hyatt Miami Brickell has been on my radar too. Good info! Have a great cruise!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LandstromCruise Posted January 5, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 5, 2019 45 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said: Wow! That is a great rate for that property! I have looked several times at that one now and it's usually$300+/night. Thanks for showing the view of the ship from that hotel. I've always wondered if you could see the ship from there. We stayed at the Intercontinental Miami in July and we've booked it again for this July because I loved the Bay view. But Hyatt Miami Brickell has been on my radar too. Good info! Have a great cruise!! @Lovetocruise2002 let me know when you are looking to book and I can get you the friends and family code. My family that came with used that and paid $149. Susie, Floski, bellemiche and 1 other 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guy Gadwa Posted January 7, 2019 Report Share Posted January 7, 2019 Following! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LandstromCruise Posted January 7, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 7, 2019 Day 1 Took an Uber from the hotel to the cruise port at 9:45. As many people have noted the new Terminal A is pretty efficient. We dropped our luggage to the porter, headed up the escalators and got checked in. Check in process took maybe 5 minutes. Any easy walk through security and we were seated waiting to board by 10:15. Boarding started a little later than when we were on Harmony last year. The seating area was getting pretty crowded and about 11:30 they called for Diamond Plus to board. We are gold so had to wait our turn, but it went pretty quickly. Once on board made a quick stop at Boleros to change out our Wow Bands and our first time travel partners purchased some for them. We then headed up to the sports deck, took a quick look around and headed to the windjammer around noon. Windjammer was pretty busy, but we were able to get seats without any issues. Sorry I totally forgot to get pictures here, but will do so later. After lunch we decided to just walk around and tour the ship a little. I will upload more photos later. Have to get them from my wife’s phone. She’s better at remembering to take pictures than I am. Rooms we ready right at 1pm. My family has an Oceanview Balcony on deck 12 Starboard side. Their luggage was at the room when they arrived. My wife an I booked an interior guarnateee. We are on the 9th floor with a Central Park view. Our luggage didn’t show up until just before Muster at 3:30. After muster it was up to the sail away party. Had a couple Carnival ships pass us as they left before us, and then shortly after 4:30 it was our turn. After sail away my cousin and her friend wanted to try out the flowrider. It was fun watching them wipe out several times, but they seemed to have a good time. Next up was get ready for dinner. We had 7:30 reservations in the MDR with MTD. Here was tonight’s menu: I went with the French onion soup for appetizer. Sorry it looked so amazing when I got it that I just dug right in and forgot the picture. Don’t worry, I will be getting it again and remember to take one. Main course I went with the Prime Rib. Sorry I’m not super adventurous with food so it might be a lot of the same. Again I forgot the picture. I promise I will get better at taking them as this blog goes along. And for dessert it was the cheesecake. I don’t know why but I remember to take a picture of it however it isn’t uploading so I will add it later. Everything tasted amazing, but service was Really slow We had several tables around us that got their later than us and were done way before us. We weren’t in any hurry so it wasn’t a big deal, it was just much slower than we experienced on Harmony last year After dinner we did late night comedy. We felt both comedians were pretty funny. After that we strolled up on the top deck just to take everything in. Had several other ships at sea pretty close to us. The internet must be struggling now though as I can’t get any other picture to load. We then watched the balloon drop at midnight, made a quick stop in Schooner bar for a few songs and then it was time to crash. Time now to get ready for breakfast and see what today brings. Plan to try and catch the Bears game this afternoon, but otherwise just see what comes up. I will upload more photos later, and if there is anything you want to see let me know. Firemanswife2, JLMoran, Guy Gadwa and 4 others 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LandstromCruise Posted January 7, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 7, 2019 Had a few issues this morning trying to post the post above. I thought I lost it and was going to put one together real quick here before bed, but then it showed up and let me post. Will post some more photos and details of day 2 tomorrow, but was a fun day at sea. Did some rock climbing, relaxed on sun deck, watched sexiest man alive, watched the Bears blow their playoffs, got all dressed up for formal night, and watched hairspray. My All Access Ship Tour was moved to tomorrow morning so have to get up early for that. More on day 2 tomorrow. Good night. cruiselife, mom2mybugs, Guy Gadwa and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LandstromCruise Posted January 12, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2019 So, lesson learned. If cruising with first time cruisers and also wanting to get a little relaxation in for yourself, don’t try a live blog. Instead this will end up as a liveish blog. Sorry for not keeping up, but just had so much going on. Have tons of photos and will be going through over the next few days and putting a day by day blog together. mom2mybugs, tdcackler, Firemanswife2 and 2 others 2 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sweety Posted January 12, 2019 Report Share Posted January 12, 2019 I am from Chicago. Loving your blog. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JLMoran Posted January 12, 2019 Report Share Posted January 12, 2019 14 minutes ago, LandstromCruise said: So, lesson learned. If cruising with first time cruisers and also wanting to get a little relaxation in for yourself, don’t try a live blog. Yup! Been there, done that. Dont sweat it. We’ll all be here when you find the time. Just focus on enjoying the trip and having a great time with everyone. Lovetocruise2002 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom2mybugs Posted January 13, 2019 Report Share Posted January 13, 2019 10 hours ago, Sweety said: I am from Chicago. Loving your blog. We need to form a winter need a cruise support group. The snow was pretty today but only because I have a cruise in March to look forward to! Jane Sweety, SpeedNoodles and tdcackler 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom2mybugs Posted January 13, 2019 Report Share Posted January 13, 2019 10 hours ago, LandstromCruise said: So, lesson learned. If cruising with first time cruisers and also wanting to get a little relaxation in for yourself, don’t try a live blog. Instead this will end up as a liveish blog. Sorry for not keeping up, but just had so much going on. Have tons of photos and will be going through over the next few days and putting a day by day blog together. Anything you post is great and appreciated. I will always be LIVEish as I deliberately don’t get Voom...it’s relaxation time! Welcome home to the snow! Jane Sweety 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sweety Posted January 13, 2019 Report Share Posted January 13, 2019 5 minutes ago, mom2mybugs said: We need to form a winter need a cruise support group. The snow was pretty today but only because I have a cruise in March to look forward to! Jane I just came back from Anthem and looking forward to Harmony in April. mom2mybugs 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom2mybugs Posted January 13, 2019 Report Share Posted January 13, 2019 38 minutes ago, Sweety said: I just came back from Anthem and looking forward to Harmony in April. Did anthem have red velvet cake? . Jane Sweety 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpeedNoodles Posted January 13, 2019 Report Share Posted January 13, 2019 4 hours ago, Sweety said: I just came back from Anthem and looking forward to Harmony in April. Count me in! (22 days until Mariner) Sweety 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sweety Posted January 13, 2019 Report Share Posted January 13, 2019 6 hours ago, mom2mybugs said: Did anthem have red velvet cake? . Jane Yes, they did. They even had red velvet cheesecake. mom2mybugs and WAAAYTOOO 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LandstromCruise Posted January 15, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 15, 2019 So here are a few of the pictures from night 1 that wouldn’t load before. We had a couple ships in close view. Here is the amazing Royal Cheesecake I had for dessert at dinner We actually somehow made it to the balloon drop at midnight. And before bed stopped by the schooner bar to listen to some music and have a drink. Had some pretty neat artifacts in there. Guy Gadwa, mom2mybugs, The Cruise Junkie and 1 other 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LandstromCruise Posted January 15, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 15, 2019 Day 2 - Sea Day since it was a late night we slept in a little. Went to the Windjammer for breakfast. Didn’t get any pictures as it was pretty busy. We then just toured the ship a little. Here is my favorite view and why I love to cruise We saw the Aqua show crew getting a workout in. It was amazing to watch how they prepare. They were climbing a rope probably at least 20 feet in a sitting position. The girls in our group then decided to do some rock climbing. My aunt at age 55 showed them how it’s done and made it all the way to the top Great view from the boardwalk And you can’t tour around the ship without stopping for a little soft serve ice cream! Then decided to catch some of the Bears game on the big screen in the aqua theater while the wife got ready for dinner. Night 2 was formal night so we got dressed up for dinner in the MDR. We had my time dining and booked a 7:30 dinner time. My wife really thought she was something sitting in this big chair waiting for our table Dinner menu for formal night 1 I decided on the Calamari and the French Onion soup for my appetizer. The Calamari was cold and I didn’t really care for it. The soup was good, but the cheese was a little darker than I like it. You will see a big difference from this picture and one from a dinner later on in the cheese on the soup I had the beef tenderloin for my main course. However, again I totally forgot about the picture and just started digging in. While I wouldn’t say it was great, it was fine and nothing to really complain about. For dessert I went with the Royal Cheesecake again as it is my favorite, and also the peach shortcake. My wife had the carrot cake and the creme brûlée Everyone loved all of their desserts. After dinner we went and watched hairspray. I’m not really sure what I was expecting with this show, but I wasn’t sure how much I would like it. Well I was wrong. I absolutely loved it, and loved it so much other than this 1 photo at the beginning I never thought to take my phone out and get pictures. It was then time for this old guy to get to bed. This was waiting for me in my room Skigoofy, SpeedNoodles, mom2mybugs and 4 others 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpeedNoodles Posted January 15, 2019 Report Share Posted January 15, 2019 5 hours ago, LandstromCruise said: Night 2 was formal night so we got dressed up for dinner in the MDR. We had my time dining and booked a 7:30 dinner time. My wife really thought she was something sitting in this big chair waiting for our table Dinner menu for formal night 1 Love, love, love the big smile! Thanks for taking the time to blog - it's so much fun to follow! tdcackler 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WAAAYTOOO Posted January 15, 2019 Report Share Posted January 15, 2019 Grand Marnier souffle. My favorite ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted January 15, 2019 Report Share Posted January 15, 2019 Love all the photos! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BTE Posted January 15, 2019 Report Share Posted January 15, 2019 Enjoying following along Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Van Niekerk Posted January 15, 2019 Report Share Posted January 15, 2019 Thanks for sharing! Love the photos. We are on a similar itinerary in 18 days but they changed Nassau to day 2, St Thomas day 4 and St Kitts day 5. Enjoy your cruise and I will enjoy your blog! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LandstromCruise Posted January 16, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 16, 2019 Day 3- Sea Day Had to get up early today as had the all access ship tour at 8am. Had a quick stop for breakfast in the windjammer. Saw this cool picture of a watermelon carved with good morning. Tatiana was our tour guide and she was awesome. She joked around quite a bit, but was also very informative and answered lots of questions. The tour started in the kitchen galley where they make all the soups and appetizers. We then headed to the engine room. The chief engineer was pretty entertaining. Someone asked him what his biggest fear was and he said having to do all access tours lol. We then headed to the galley where all the food is stored. It was massive. They have 19 different coolers or freezers for items. I asked about how much their weekly food bill was and he said over $600K. Me being in the restaurant business this part of the tour was interesting. They took us into where they store all the alcohol as well. They said that wasn’t usually included but we were special. Who knows if that was true or not. Was interesting to know that Corona is the most popular beer. Guess everyone gets into that Caribbean mode. After that it was to the garbage area. It was neat to hear about how they separated everything and what they did with it, but boy did it smell bad. They truly waste nothing. All the food that isn’t eaten gets ground up really fine and dumped to feed the fish. Then it was on to laundry. Probably the coolest part here was seeing the massive machine that dries, irons, and folds everything. Everyone needs one of them at home. Then it was on to the bridge. While it was neat to be up there and see the view, I was a little disappointed the captain wasn’t there to talk to us. a video was playing of the ship being built. I’m not sure why but they wouldn’t let me drive the ship Captain Rob and Captain Rick. We had Captain Rick. all the plaques from the different ports symphony has been to the lookout is looking the wrong direction. Luckily we are in the Caribbean so no icebergs! JLMoran, Al Horner, BTE and 6 others 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Horner Posted January 16, 2019 Report Share Posted January 16, 2019 We're going to be on the Symphony in May and we are also going to do the All Access Tour. Great review so far! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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