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The sweet firsts of Symphony--An as live as I can make it blog! March 2-9,2019


Karahvacatimes

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Recap Day 1

 We started our day off driving from Naples to Miami. The anticipation was killing me as we  made our way across the state and then to drop our rental car off at the airport. We took a Lyft which ended up being a shared ride to the Port. Side note- The couple we shared the ride with we’re heading out on the carnival sensation.   We saw the sensation in port today in Nassau ...holy old, not so nice looking, ship (boat ?)! 

 We arrived at terminal A around noon ...aaagghh.  I have never embarked a ship that late and I was getting very very antsy !

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 Beautiful terminal! She even still smelled new!   Curb to onboard was about 15 minutes.  

 First impression of the ship walking on was that she is big, beautiful, and yes, a little bad ass!   The art on this ship is precisely placed and just amazing!  (I’ll post much more as the week goes on)

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 My first stop was to set up our five night specialty dining and two lunches.  We received a lunch at Jimmy’s for booking a central park balcony state room.  Our other lunch was on embarkation day at chops because we have the key for this sailing   Side note- I will be doing a separate post in regards to why we have the key for this sailing and if in the end, it was worth it for us 

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(feel free to ask for any photos of any of our meals as I will be taking pictures of food and menus)   Our meal at Chops was fantastic!

 We decided to walk around the boardwalk area where I did a Periscope.  To catch the replay please feel free to follow me at @karahvacatimes on Peeiscope  and to look at any other Royal Caribbean periscopes search under #RCPeriscopers  in the app!

We had an early dinner last night at Hooked.   I was very curious as to how this meal would be after hearing quite a few different reviews.   I would absolutely go there again and it was overall a wonderful experience with great  food!

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 Hooked overlooks the solarium bistro and has panoramic views into the solarium.

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We decided to head over to the solarium after dinner  to relax a bit after we had indulged in a few cocktails throughout the day and were pretty full from dinner! 

The Big Wonder

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The “see through pool” 

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 I just love these chairs with the huge cushions but of course being this comfortable makes you quite sleepy  so we decided to head in early tonight and start fresh in the morning!

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 A couple views of Central Park from our double balcony before calling it a night.

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 We shall see you tomorrow for day two Where we will be in Nassau Bahamas! where we will be in Nassau Bahamas 

@Wilson  I have not forgotten about your request for photos of the state room and balcony.

 I take requests folks so if you want to see anything just let me know! 

 

 

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Recap Day 2

As on every first full day of a cruise, I woke up quite early and headed down to Paek Cafe for a large Caramel Latte!  I headed up to the pool deck to take a look around when I noticed we were headed into the port of Nassau!  No photos as I promptly put my mic on my phone and scope our arrival.  (You can catch the replay on PERISCOPE by following me, @kaeahvacatimes) 

We started our morning by eating breakfast at the solarium bistro which is a fantastic alternative to the Windjammer, if you are looking for one. You can also have breakfast at El Loco fresh, MDR, park café and Café promenade for smaller dishes and pastries, and Johnny Rockets offers breakfast at no additional charge on Oasis class ships.  

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We originally thought we would stay on board during the day in Nassau but at the last minute change our minds after the magnificent @PRCgave us a recommendation of something different to do onshore!  So another first for us was going to be GrayCliff hotel which has beautiful grounds,  a cigar company, chocolate company, and restaurant all on site.  If you have been to Nassau plenty of times like we have and have done all there is you’d like to do, this is certainly worth looking into if it is something that interests you.  It is about a 10 minute walk from Port and the last bit is up a pretty steep hill.  

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All aboard was 130 and we were probably back on the ship around 1 o’clock. 

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We headed over to Playmakers to have a quick lunch and a pint!  My husband says their wings have very good flavor and you’ll have to take his word for it because I am not a spicy girl, at least not in that way ??69FC8A0E-5131-4EF4-B3E9-6D1AEB37A25C.thumb.jpeg.77275e792522ee15f7815d3397b394cd.jpeg

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The pigskin and baller sliders

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12 Major League wings (hottest they offer)

For dinner we had another first at Wonderland. We very much enjoyed the cuisine and the experience. Our main dishes were the halibut and the short rib.  Our waitress chose the appetizers to go along with our main dishes. We would do Wonderland again although I know it is not for everyone!  I think everyone should experience it once even if it’s just for the experience.  If you aren’t full when you leave, just do what @Wilson does and go grab a couple hotdogs at the doghouse!

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Short rib

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Halibut steamed in a mushroom marinade with pearl potatoes and more mushrooms!

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After dinner we headed over to the aqua theater show. On symphony it is called HIRO.  Having the Key was “key” here (see what I did there?) as they have reserved seating for you and we sat with the diamond plus and pinnacle members right in the center of the Aqua Theater.  

This is an exhilarating and beautiful show that lasts about 50 minutes.

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We ended our night listening to Billy Pando in the Schooner Bar and scoped a few songs for his favorite fan and fellow RCBLOG insider @Big Dawg Ron!

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And we always love coming home to a new “pet”! 

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Loving this as I follow along...

 

The wings are good..I didn't go that hot though when I had them on Marnier...but I can smell them now and its making my mouth water.....

 

Noticed you flew into Naples....and your from NH...I usually fly out of Portland when I can...was there a good deal or flights into Naples out of somewhere in the North East?

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6 hours ago, Big Dawg Ron said:

I like that Billy too, oh wait, I mean Larissa!!! hahahahahahahaha

I'll always be second fiddle to Larissa, but that's alright.  It's something about 'arissas.  I mean, I know @Matt and I have never rolled our eyes together looking at Marissa, but Marissa and I at @Matt...

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18 hours ago, monctonguy said:

Loving this as I follow along...

 

The wings are good..I didn't go that hot though when I had them on Marnier...but I can smell them now and its making my mouth water.....

 

Noticed you flew into Naples....and your from NH...I usually fly out of Portland when I can...was there a good deal or flights into Naples out of somewhere in the North East?

Hi!  We actually flew into Ft Meyers and drove down to Naples.  We flew out of Portsmouth, NH on a discount airline (Allegiant). Frontier also flies from there.   We saved almost $500 flying with them and we’re still alive sooooo... it was worth it  hahaha!

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Recap Day 3 ( did I mention this was going to be a “as live as I can make it” blog..?? ??

Today is a Sea day, aka relaxation day!! I am not one to sleep in on a cruise or in life for that matter… So waking up today at almost 8 o’clock was completely foreign to me!  I think it had something to do with the fact that I was up until 3 AM channeling my inner @CruiseLifeRick dancing in the attic!  

So we eventually started our day by eating breakfast at an amazing alternative, Johnny Rockets. Breakfast is included in your cruise fare on oasis class ships! And it just might be our best breakfast thus far!

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We relaxed during the morning just walking around the ship until it was time for our All Acsess tour.  We stopped by the Trellis bar in Central Park for a quick Lava Flow!  Yum!!

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D48E96AA-409B-4BFD-9E73-516F0724E163.thumb.jpeg.3827f42adedb71678d93f14089672061.jpeg  This tour is 2 1/2 hours.  You go to the Galley, the engine room, the food lockers, down I95 which is basically the hallway that goes from forward all the way to aft on deck 2. You also get to go to the laundry room, the incinerator room, and the bridge!  Some of the areas you go to are underwater which is quite neat.  It is neat to see all these areas but really the crew makes this tour!  Our tour guide and the rest of the crew that showed us the different areas were fantastic, very personable and of course knowledgeable. The tour cost is $130 per person and I would highly recommend it!  It’s one of those tours you really only need to do once but is well worth it and for us it only made sense to do it on symphony, the largest cruise ship!  

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They give you champagne after the galley part of the tour03D71C3A-223D-457B-8741-3D730BAAEEDF.thumb.jpeg.6bb3d59a0f0e0dd2d958fdad9779e5af.jpeg

In the engine room 

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-40 degree food locker hubby walked into.  I walked in for 10 seconds and walked back out ?F355E381-8D14-48F8-8FB3-9EE261515B63.thumb.jpeg.cfe14b48b9c856bf28a04e5a374f3580.jpeg

Hubby helped in the laundry room.  He’s a keeper ❤️93E44AB5-5B10-466E-B75B-9A5F2710372C.thumb.jpeg.9037357cb54f382e9a6e2c1d6b62861c.jpeg

 

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This is George!  Everyone say Hi to George ?

4041ED90-3BC8-4092-ABFB-6D6672EFB685.thumb.jpeg.92983cee6092464ad080eb30d6aa6fb8.jpegHere is another piece of artwork that they placed in the Promenade. I believe all ships in the fleet have a vehicle of some sort on the promenade (if the ship has a promenade) and they decided to go in a different direction for the vehicle on Symphony.  It is a vehicle… But it’s more of a piece of art.  Pretty cool!

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Also if you use the Royal app they have this neat x-ray feature for a piece of artwork here on symphony. This is on deck 12 right outside of the aft elevator bank.  

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After the tour we headed up to El Loco Fresh for a nice, quick lunch.  The chicken burrito and chicken quesadilla hit the spot and the lime and scallion sour cream was fantastic!  We paired this with a Stella ?

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Tonight we had specialty dining reservations at chops. Another wonderful meal and instead of a dessert, as I was quite full, I opted for a dessert coffee instead. It hit the spot for sure!

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Once again we went and listened to Billy in the schooner bar for a while and then headed over to the pub to listen to some Guitar pop tunes before calling it a night. The gentleman in the pub was fantastic and the venue was packed!  

On to St. Thomas tomorrow!

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Edited by Karahvacatimes
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