Lovetocruise2002 Posted March 7, 2019 Report Posted March 7, 2019 3 minutes ago, Karahvacatimes said: I apologize for the duplicate photos! Tried to delete but they just keep popping up @Karahvacatimes between you and @Marc Van Niekerk, I really need to try that Johnny Rockets breakfast! We have been missing out. All these OA class cruises and I have not tried it once yet! Looks great compared to the cereal that I just had lol. About the duplicates, they might be stored twice in your attachments. That might be why they are coming up twice. That happened to me my first blog. I figured it out eventually that was the problem. Karahvacatimes 1 Quote
Marc Van Niekerk Posted March 7, 2019 Report Posted March 7, 2019 7 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said: @Karahvacatimes between you and @Marc Van Niekerk, I really need to try that Johnny Rockets breakfast! We have been missing out. All these OA class cruises and I have not tried it once yet! Looks great compared to the cereal that I just had lol. About the duplicates, they might be stored twice in your attachments. That might be why they are coming up twice. That happened to me my first blog. I figured it out eventually that was the problem. @Lovetocruise2002 You certainly do, one of the great features of Oasis class. Don't underestimate the breakfast at El Loco Fresh either. It was quite good. @Karahvacatimes Wonderful blog. brings back so many great memories for me of our time on Symphony. Karahvacatimes and Lovetocruise2002 1 1 Quote
VACruiser Posted March 7, 2019 Report Posted March 7, 2019 As a person who consumes these blogs I love the detail as it makes you feel like you are there. Karahvacatimes 1 Quote
Big Dawg Ron Posted March 7, 2019 Report Posted March 7, 2019 I do believe you’re enjoying your cruise Karahvacatimes 1 Quote
Karahvacatimes Posted March 7, 2019 Author Report Posted March 7, 2019 42 minutes ago, Garnet21 said: Karah, please "live blog" every cruise you go on!! I am really enjoying all the great photos and detail. You and Dusty know how to cruise and have a wonderful time. I hope we are on the same ship sometime soon! Marianna Thank you so much Mariana!! Quote
BugsyCruiser Posted March 7, 2019 Report Posted March 7, 2019 Great photos of the all access tour! I did it on Oasis and it was worth every penny! Karahvacatimes 1 Quote
Karahvacatimes Posted March 8, 2019 Author Report Posted March 8, 2019 Recap Day 4 Welcome, welcome to St. Thomas! It has been quite a few years since I have visited St Thomas Virgin Islands! Once again we decided to go out on our own and did not book a Royal excursion for this port. We decided to start out our day by eating some breakfast on our balcony. We opted for El Loco fresh and if you like breakfast burritos, I would highly recommend trying this on symphony at least once. We docked at Crown Bay which is further away from the downtown area. The Celebrity equinox was also in port with us. We decided to head to the Sky Ride (Gondola) to Paradise point. We took an open air shuttle that was six dollars per person. There is still quite a bit of devastation from the hurricane. The cost for the shkyride is $21 per person (I apologize that I did not ask if there was a children’s or senior fare). Once up top you are able to see a beautiful view of downtown and Port Haven. This is the view that you see on all Saint Thomas postcards. Here’s one for the running! There were four ships docked in Port Haven today. The MSC Seaside, the Carnival Sensation, the Carnival Horizon, and a Norwegian ship. The Norwegian ship was leaving as we arrived and the smaller Carnival ship was arriving about the same time. Once at the top they have a few shops and a restaurant/bar. We enjoyed a couple drinks and some nachos! After heading down we decided to walk to downtown Charlotte Amalie to do a little shopping and grab another drink before heading back to port. We may or may not have purchased something here... We sailed away from Saint Thomas at 7 o’clock local time. This was the first time I have done a sailaway at night. It was absolutely stunning! Tonight we had Izumi Hibachi for dinner. Our reservation was at 9 o’clock and we did not finish until about 10:30. It was a fantastic meal and our chef was very entertaining! You cannot choose hibachi with any specialty dining package so we purchased it for $49 per person once on board. Any sushi rolls you choose are extra. I believe we received some royal wow via the Key as they did not charge us for our sushi roll and took $10 off our check. The waitress also gave us individual attention throughout the meal. Baked snow crab Dynamite roll After all that walking today we decided to call it a night quite early and headed to bed right after dinner. A cat has joined our towel animal family I will leave you today with another piece of artwork in the stairwell here on symphony. Dreams Of cruising....... St.Kitts tomorrow! Skigoofy, SpeedNoodles, KathyC and 6 others 8 1 Quote
BrandonOwen Posted March 8, 2019 Report Posted March 8, 2019 15 minutes ago, Karahvacatimes said: I will leave you today with another piece of artwork in the stairwell here on symphony. Dreams Of cruising....... Great blog Karah. Looks like a great time. Wonder why our friends Pippa & Marianna come to mind when I see this photo??? 15 minutes ago, Karahvacatimes said: Garnet21 and Karahvacatimes 2 Quote
WAAAYTOOO Posted March 8, 2019 Report Posted March 8, 2019 Nice score on the hibachi discounts ! YIPPEE !!! Karahvacatimes 1 Quote
Matt Posted March 8, 2019 Report Posted March 8, 2019 Great wrap up of your day. St Thomas + Hibachi! Karahvacatimes 1 Quote
Garnet21 Posted March 8, 2019 Report Posted March 8, 2019 Another great day! I ALMOST feel like I am there, too! Karahvacatimes 1 Quote
Sweety Posted March 8, 2019 Report Posted March 8, 2019 Wonderful. Just waiting until harmony next month. Karahvacatimes 1 Quote
Al Horner Posted March 8, 2019 Report Posted March 8, 2019 Great Blog! I continue to enjoy your review! Quote
KathyC Posted March 8, 2019 Report Posted March 8, 2019 Mochi! We love Mochi!! Karahvacatimes 1 Quote
Karahvacatimes Posted March 11, 2019 Author Report Posted March 11, 2019 Day 5 Recap - St Kitts/Nevis Captain Rob had us alongside in St. Kitts at 7:00 AM. We enjoyed watching the docking process this morning and I did a scope welcoming everyone! We decided to grab a bite to eat in Park Cafe which is located in Central Park. They have breakfast sandwiches, burritos, bagels with various toppings, pastries, etc for breakfast. On Symphony they do NOT have.a coffee bar with specialty coffee but do have regular coffee, tea, and juices. This is where you will find the famous roast beef sandwich as well. Once we disembarked, we headed to find a taxi to bing us to Timothy Hill which is where you can see the Atlantic Ocean on one side and the Caribbean on the other. Our taxi driver was Eunice Williams. He was a fantastic tour guide as well, giving us a history of the island, its economy, and pointing out various places along the way. It cost us $32 round trip and it took about 10-15 minutes to get there from the port. The views are breathtaking! They also have folks up there who try to have you interact with the monkeys but beware, you will be asked to give them some money if you partake. We did not. Once we were finished taking our thousands of photos, I asked Williams (this is what he told us to call him) if there was a beach nearby that had a bar and some shade. He told us about the Carambola Beach Club which was just down the other side of the hill. He brought us there and did not charge us extra for the ride. There is a large beach with umbrellas and beach beds. It was quite crowded on this particular day. We decided to just sit at the bar indoors and have a couple drinks. It also has a restaurant. It was very clean and nice. Williams waited for us there which was about an hour. We headed back to port, did a little shopping, and enjoyed the local festivities. “no paparazzi” he said The Coasta Pacifica was in port with us today. Once back on board I did a ship tour on Periscope (again if you have the periscope app, feel free to look back on my scopes. My Periscope name is @karahvacatimes) We decided to head to the Rising Tide bar afterwards. This is the bar that starts in the Promenade on deck 5 and brings you up to Central Park on Deck 8. When running it departs each location every 20-30 minutes. We headed up to Vintages where they were having Sangria hour. This was our first time at Vintages but the sangrias were tasty! We took a night off from Specialty dining and headed to the Windjammer for dinner. The one thing I love about the jammer is that you can have American, Mexican, and Chinese food all in one sitting! Our evening consisted of checking out the "Big Wonder" in the Solarium, taking in a set at Jazz on 4, and the Love and Marriage show which is always a favorite! Dusty went to bed a bit early so I headed to Red (the late night dance party) with a few wonderful folks I had met on this very cruise. And what better way to end the late night than with some yummy Sorrentos pizza! Two more days AND they are both Sea days! BrandonOwen, Garnet21, Guy Gadwa and 5 others 6 2 Quote
Matt Posted March 12, 2019 Report Posted March 12, 2019 How did you find Eunice Williams? Just by chance? Quote
Karahvacatimes Posted March 12, 2019 Author Report Posted March 12, 2019 2 hours ago, Matt said: How did you find Eunice Williams? Just by chance? Yes, just by chance. Have you had him? I thought his name sounded familiar. I have his info if anyone would like it. I will definitely use him again! Quote
Matt Posted March 12, 2019 Report Posted March 12, 2019 44 minutes ago, Karahvacatimes said: Yes, just by chance. Have you had him? I thought his name sounded familiar. I have his info if anyone would like it. I will definitely use him again! Nope, just curious how you got a hold of him. Karahvacatimes 1 Quote
Karahvacatimes Posted March 13, 2019 Author Report Posted March 13, 2019 Recap Day 6! Sea Day!! We love us some sea days!! I rolled out of bed a little late this morning (6:40) as I didn't make it to bed until almost 3:00. Today we skipped breakfast as we had the Bottomless Galley brunch tour at 10:45 and at the end of the tour they provide us with brunch. We did of course have a couple cups of Seattles Best Coffee to hold us over from Cafe Promenade. They do have a free standing Starbucks onboard but their coffee is not included in the drink package. We lived in Seattle for nine years and actually prefer Seattles Best Before our tour I did a scope of the sports deck here on Symphony. It boasts a min golf course, two flow riders, the beginning of the Abyss slide, zipline, and basketball court. The Wipeout Bar is also up there. From the sports deck you can see the Ultimate family suite as well! I continued the scope into El Loco Fresh which is in front of the basketball court. We headed down to the Main Dining room for the tour and thought Dusty's Swedish chef shirt was appropriate lol! There were 19 of us on the tour. We had already seen parts of the galley from our All Access tour but they did go more in depth and we did see a couple additional areas like the bakery! I will be honest is saying we were not very impressed with the brunch itself although they did give you bottomless champagne. Side note: The champagne given on the All Access tour was much better IMHO. This tour is scheduled for two hours. The cost of this tour was $99 per person. We may have been more impressed had we not done the All Access tour as well but it is not really a tour that I would recommend for the cost. Additional photos of the tour and brunch We spent the better part of the afternoon at Playmakers, probably our favorite bar onboard. Lucian, a fantastic mixologist, who makes amazing drinks that aren't on the menu, has also become a favorite! Doesn't hurt that he kind of looks like a leprechaun ha ha! Tonight we dined in 150 Central Park and had the roasted tenderloin for two that they cut table side. This was in fact my favorite meal aboard Symphony! We coupled this with the Urban Garden Martini which is their signature drink. After dinner it was on to the Theatre to see Flight. Guests with the Key have reserved seating which is the same as Suite, Pinnacle, and Diamond Plus members. We really enjoyed this show! Then it was off to the Battle of the Sexes and The Crazy Quest, both in Studio B. We haven't laughed that hard in a long time!!! The second Silent Hush party was after that right next door in the Attic so we headed over there. These are all firsts for Dusty and he enjoyed them all! Such fun!! We hadn't gone into the hot tubs yet so we decided to at a little after 2AM. It was the best way to end this fun filled seaday. Came home to our last towel animal! On to our last day, also a sea day, tomorrow! JLMoran, tiny260, BrandonOwen and 5 others 8 Quote
Karahvacatimes Posted March 14, 2019 Author Report Posted March 14, 2019 We have made it to day 7....a sad day as our vacation on this amazing ship is coming to a close. It was a nice, relaxing, fun day at sea! We started our late morning by eating breakfast in the Windjammer. We didn't get up there until about 9:00 so it wasn't too busy and there was still plenty of food to go around. Right outside the windjammer is a model of Symphony with TV screens explaining many features of her as well as her stats! Pretty cool! Once we finished we headed down to Next Cruise for our appointment and YOLO booked a Jr Suite on Allure for November 2020. This was actually the first time my husband has booked a cruise all by himself. I was just there for a little guidance and support. GO Dusty! This will also be a sailing for just he and I. We had a little time to kill before our lunch at Jamies Italian at noon so we headed over to Central Park and the Trellis bar for a quick Lava flow (with Kraken of course)! We also asked a passerby to take a photo of us in our BLOG shirts under the Trellis. The lunch at Jamies was included in our cruise fare as you get it, along with a bottle of wine, for booking a Central Park Balcony stateroom. The Meat plank was the best part of our meal for sure! The view of Central Park is wonderful out the window. From Jamies we walked around the ship where we ran into the stowaway piano player near the main dining room and checked out some more fabulous artwork around the ship. This has to be my favorite and reminds me of my daughter as she LOVES lollipops!! This afternoon we had reserved times for the Zip line and the Ultimate Abyss. When you are a Key guest, they set aside an hour for each of them on a sea day. Suites, Pinnacles, and Diamond Plus members are also part of this reserved time. There were no lines so it was great! The zip line was fun! Short, but fun and I did it twice in a row. I could have gone many more times within that hour if I had wanted to. Just a reminder that you need to be wearing closed toed lace up shoes. They do have some shoes available to use if you are like me and only had Keene close toed sandals....oops! I was a little anxious while waiting my turn for the Ultimate Abyss dry slide! I thought it was going to be a lot faster than it was. The lights are really cool in it as well! We decided to go hang out on the pool deck afterwards with a nice drink while hubby enjoyed a cigar in the designated section. Pina Colada and Lava Flow Then it was off to trivia in the Schooner Bar! General knowledge and we brought in our "message a friend" @Laurac22 We did great but did not come home with the coveted RCL keychain or highlighter. For our last night we decided to try the ever so popular Playmakers Burger (we have heard from many folks that it is better than the burgers in Johnny Rockets). Ok, we totally could have shared this thing! Its huge and the cheese fries are plentiful as well as amazing! It IS an awesome burger! We spent the rest of the night at Playmakers with our favorite bartender Lucian! We ended our night walking around the boardwalk area and taking a ride on the carousel! Sad Sad to see.... Upcoming additions to this blog in the upcoming days... Review of The Key Food Porn---All the food we had around the ship with menus Drinks--by popular demand I will post photos of most, if not all the different drinks we had onboard with the names. Venues around Symphony Anything else I might think of that may be of interest WannaCruise, JohnK6404, KathyC and 7 others 7 3 Quote
BrandonOwen Posted March 14, 2019 Report Posted March 14, 2019 Awesome blog Karah! SO much to do on an Oasis Class ship! Karahvacatimes 1 Quote
Karahvacatimes Posted March 14, 2019 Author Report Posted March 14, 2019 14 minutes ago, BrandonOwen said: Awesome blog Karah! SO much to do on an Oasis Class ship! Thanks so much @BrandonOwen and thanks for following along! Quote
Sweety Posted March 14, 2019 Report Posted March 14, 2019 Jamie's food looks good. I am surprising hubby on our cruise. I was thinking about the meat plank. It looks awesome. Quote
Garnet21 Posted March 14, 2019 Report Posted March 14, 2019 Karah, this has been such an awesome blog. The detail, the great photos, and all the alcohol!! Thank you for sharing your cruise with us!! Quote
Frogfanatic Posted March 14, 2019 Report Posted March 14, 2019 Amazing job Karah! Thank you very much for taking the time to share your experiences. It looked like an amazing time, which is good because the family and I are headed out on Symphony at the end of the month. Your blog gives us a really good head start. Quote
Big Dawg Ron Posted March 14, 2019 Report Posted March 14, 2019 Were you ever in your room? Awesome blog! Matt 1 Quote
JLMoran Posted March 14, 2019 Report Posted March 14, 2019 Thanks for the great live blog, @Karahvacatimes! Quote
pepperandchips Posted March 20, 2019 Report Posted March 20, 2019 Bring on the photos!!! What a wonderful trip. Thanks for taking us along on your sailing! Quote
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