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Symphony of the Seas - Apr 13 2019 - Eastern Caribbean


LindaN

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7 hours ago, Cruising to Retirement! said:

did you happen to notice if Diamond Plus had specialty seating for the shows in 270 or the theater?

I was on Anthem last October; I'm a lowly Gold, but when my wife and I went to Two70 for Spectra's Cabaret, and the theater for We Will Rock You, the only reserved seating we saw was for a group of Star Class passengers. Their genie placed marker mats over the seats being held for them.

To be honest, I thought they didn't get the best seats for Spectra. When you're in Two70 and looking at the stage, you have the lowest set of seats in front of the stage, then a walkway around the stage with high-back couches, and more seats behind those couches. The SC passengers got the last / highest row of seats in that closest section and certainly had a completely unimpeded view of the stage; but a lot of the action is aerial or on the robo-screens overhead, and folks like the musicians are on elevated platforms around the stage anyway. My wife and I sat in one of the couches since her back was hurting and she wanted the support, and we were treated to an extremely close-up view of Spectra (the MC) himself and all the cast as they paraded past at two different points in the show. Spectra even shook my hand and said hello as he walked by. I'd recommend trying to grab one of those couches if you plan to see that show, it's very worth it even with a slightly obstructed view of the lower stage area!

7 hours ago, Cruising to Retirement! said:

Also how full was the Coastal Kitchen for dinner

I can confirm @WAAAYTOOO's statement that CK was never busy at any point. We were in a Jr Suite and had dinner in CK every night but one; all but the last night, the place was practically empty at 6:30 PM; we typically didn't see any other diners closer than 2 or 3 tables away. Even on the last night, it was only marginally more busy; we still had a good two table clear radius around us, but the SC group was eating there that night and one other large group that made it a smidge more crowded.

If you are planning to eat in CK, you must go on night 1 if you're at all a fan of filet mignon. That's the only night it's served in CK and, IMNSHO, it was FAR better than the filet I had from Chops just two nights later. That's also the only night you'll get the smoked tomato soup they offer, which is to die for!

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11 hours ago, JLMoran said:

I was on Anthem last October; I'm a lowly Gold, but when my wife and I went to Two70 for Spectra's Cabaret, and the theater for We Will Rock You, the only reserved seating we saw was for a group of Star Class passengers. Their genie placed marker mats over the seats being held for them.

I can confirm @WAAAYTOOO's statement that CK was never busy at any point. We were in a Jr Suite and had dinner in CK every night but one; all but the last night, the place was practically empty at 6:30 PM; we typically didn't see any other diners closer than 2 or 3 tables away. ...

If you are planning to eat in CK, you must go on night 1 if you're at all a fan of filet mignon. That's the only night it's served in CK and, IMNSHO, it was FAR better than the filet I had from Chops just two nights later. That's also the only night you'll get the smoked tomato soup they offer, which is to die for!

Thank you so much Joe for all the info on the reserved seating and the availability in the Coastal Kitchen.  I would have guessed probably reserved seating for Suites only, but it sounds like only Star Class.  Wow!  Also it sure sounds great about CK availability!  That's terrific that you and your wife didn't have a difficult time getting reservations!  Fingers crossed that is the case for us too!  We will definitely eat in CK on night 1 for the filet mignon and the smoked tomato soup!  My husband LOVES tomato soup!  I'm already hungry!  We've enjoyed the Coastal Kitchen on 3 different Oasis class ships but never on Quantum Class.  Wanted to try Quantum class CK to compare before the wonderful Anthem leaves us!  I'm envious that you live so close to the port.  That's a huge, great plus!

 Were you by chance in a large Jr. Suite?  We are staying in that Jr. Suite this time.  All your info was valuable and helped alleviate some fears for sure!

Thanks Again!

Michelle

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52 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Joe, I could not agree with you more about the reserved seating for Star Class at 270.  I was constantly turning around to see someone popping up behind me.  Next time I'm going to sit back far enough that I can see all of the performers without having to swivel 360 degrees !

I’ve heard others mention that you can let your genie know where you’d prefer to sit if it’s not right in the front and they’ll save those seats. 

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On 4/18/2019 at 8:59 AM, LindaN said:

Finally got to Central Park today

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Good shots Linda...have a better feel of atmosphere & the ambiance of the place. Looks like the perfect location for it.

Jamie"s on Anthem seem isolated away from everything else, although it was next to Vintages & on the was towards 270, which I love(one of the best spots on the ship). It was obviously all indoors, & serve good food. I just thought the atmosphere was bland and as good the food was there, eerily surprise a lot of people didn't frequent the place during peak dinner hours. We ate there twice on a 9day.

My wife love to eat outside; so, she is going to love eating at Jamie's on this ship. Hopefully it not windy...Central Park on Oasis its tended to have a strong, whipping, draft in so areas.

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On 4/19/2019 at 8:50 AM, Cruising to Retirement! said:

Were you by chance in a large Jr. Suite?  We are staying in that Jr. Suite this time.  All your info was valuable and helped alleviate some fears for sure!

We stayed in a J4 (Spa Jr Suite), which is smaller than the J1 / Large JS. I think the only real “complaint” you may have that is that the view aft from the balcony will be somewhat obstructed due to the “bump-out” starting at that spot. But you’ll have a much larger balcony than we had along with even better cabin space. I seem to recall that @Lovetocruise2002 stayed in a J1 with her family. (or maybe is going to  this July for the GC?)

Glad to be able to help and allay some of your concerns!

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5 minutes ago, JLMoran said:

I seem to recall that @Lovetocruise2002 stayed in a J1 with her family. (or maybe is going to  this July for the GC?)

It was a J3 at the time that we booked it or FS (family junior suite). I don’t know what it is officially called now after recategorization. We had that room on Anthem in March 2018 and the same thing for the Anthem GC this July. We like that room because it has the additional Pullman. 

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Our cruise is over, boo.  I’ll summarize the rest of the cruise in a few summary posts. 

Things I would do different next Time

1) Next cruise I would fly in a day early.  We got to our hotel this time at 3:30 am and you the time we got on the boat we were so tired we missed to much that first day, and we were still tired day 2.

2) book a room closer to the elevator, although it wasn’t that bad in the middle because when we walked out the door we always had to go to the far right to take our daughter to adventure ocean, but always had to go to the left for food.  

Things we learned by day 2 that helped

1) Boat layout, something obvious if you have cruised before.  If you have not been on a cruise before I’ll save you some time walking to the ends of the halls over and over.   Every hall has 2 lobby’s you exit the hall from, those take you to elevators.  You get to everything through the elevators (or stairs).  Day 1 and 2 we kept going to the end of halls thinking there was exit at the end.  

2) We didn’t really understand how the drink cups worked until day 2.  The cups are in your room and you have to carry them to places on the boat to get sodas.  I know it probably is obvious to anyone whose cruised before but trying to get soda in the windjammer you have to carry your cup.  I only drink alcohol, water and ice tea but my husband and daughter figured out the cup thing by day 2.

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Things we loved

We loved all the shows (Hair Spray was my fav), the pool contests (sexy man, belly flop), line dancing at boleros, and the adult games we went to.  I loved that they took pictures at night around dinner and that there were so many backgrounds and photographers.  I loved that some of them had little steps my daughter could stand on.  I loved all the frozen drinks had alcoholic and non alcoholic.  Even the bionic bar had non alcohol drinks my daughter could try.

We loved all the games at On Air every night.  We played Majority rules, Rock the Room, several music ones and we even sang family karaoke, although they need more Toby Keith songs to choose from.  We sang Courtesy of the Red White and Blue (probably not as appropriate on an international cruise as say How Do You Like Me Now or Red Solo Cup would have been).  We had a blast at the selfie scavenger hunt.  We loved all the parties on the promenade.

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Adventure Ocean

My daughter loved it and wanted to go there the min we were not doing something fun.  I thought she would want to be at the pool 24/7 but she had so much fun at AO. She is 7 and not can be a handful.  When you register your kid they ask if they are on any meds and I said Ritilan.  Because she is hyper they immediately flagged me for getting a phone and they handed me one every time I dropped her off.  They said if she was more than they could control they would have me pick her up.   The people that work there are saints,  I didn’t hear complaints or get calls.   They did want to call me one day but they had written the wrong phone number down, but they got her to settle down.

AO info

On Sea days the sessions are 9-12, 5-7, and 7-10.  There is also a 10-2 session but you pay $7 an hour for that.  Your kid can go in with a diff age group but once they switch they have to stay in the new group.  My daughter was in the 6-8 group but she made friends with a 9 year old and so she wanted to move groups.  They let her try the 9-11 group (with a trial pass) to be with her friend, but told her after that session she had to decide which group.  She was almost in tears when I picked her up and said she wanted to stay with 6-8.

I really wish they had a 12-2 session.  RC scheduled adult only things during the 12-2 session that my husband and I would have gone too if we could have left her at AO.  For example, Martini seminar, Next Cruise presentation, adult scrapbooking, and slot tournaments were all around 1pm.  Hello RC???? You would have gotten more money from me if I could have put my kid somewhere!!!  Another scheduling oversight was the Easter Festival stuff.  Why would they put that at 5:15?  Most parents with young kids probably have 5:30 dinner.  Put the Easter stuff from 12-2 on a sea day and put the adult stuff when AO is avail.

Anyway, I was very pleased with the entire AO staff.  They must be exhausted when they get off.  When I pick my kid up from stuff I always hear about problems, and have to give a long explanation of why she’s that way, why she’s not socialized as well as other kids her age, and beg places to let her stay.  

One last comment, my daughter kept coming back from AO with a British accent, probably nothing they can do about that.  Could not take pictures in there.

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1 hour ago, JLMoran said:

We stayed in a J4 (Spa Jr Suite), which is smaller than the J1 / Large JS.

WOW  The Spa Jr Suite sounds very nice.  We are in the hump area on deck 9.  We upgraded to the J1 for $70 so jumped at it from the regular JS.  The balcony definitely looks large and the room sq. footage and pics inside the room makes it look quite larger than our original JS.  Thanks again for the info.

1 hour ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

It was a J3 at the time that we booked it or FS (family junior suite). I don’t know what it is officially called now after recategorization. 

So glad you liked your room.  I didn't notice the pullman in pic but wasn't looking really.  I'll let you know about the CK!

Happy Easter All!  I've got to get ready for Mass!

Michelle

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Food

We did the main dining room every night and Windjammer for breakfast.  We tried a few places for lunch.  Our staff in the main dining room was amazing, we loved them. I wish we we were not on the 5th level.  We watched joggers and a life boat every mean.  I was pretty upset by the view, I wanted to be watching the ocean.  I will check our dining room view and table first thing for every cruise from now on, when I first get on the boat.  I requested a big table, was hoping for 2 other families with kids at our table.  We were at a table for 6 and our table mates were not there half the nights.  Our MDT was my biggest problem with the cruise.  The WJ view was what I wanted to see in the MDR.

We tried playmakers one afternoon and it took 30 mins just to get waited on and another 30 before getting an appetizer.  We left before my husbands sandwich even came.  The potato skins cheese was runny and gross.  We sat down at Jonny Rockets one afternoon to get shakes but no one waited on us so we just left after 30 min’s.

Sorrento’s had the best fast food pizza ever.  They needed to put the all meat pizza out. They had it one night then not again.   The cafe in Central Park had the best creme puffs I have ever had in my life.

I wish there had been a late night small cafe for desserts, like 10-1.  Our daughter did the 5-7 dinner with AO 2 nights and they don’t let the kids get desserts.  We picked her up and WJ was closed.   Some nights we wanted sweets after On Air games and nothing was open but the candy store.

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3 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

It was a J3 at the time that we booked it or FS (family junior suite). I don’t know what it is officially called now after recategorization. We had that room on Anthem in March 2018 and the same thing for the Anthem GC this July. We like that room because it has the additional Pullman. 

We loved that room style on harmony as well. Even though there was only three of us, my daughter still always used the Pullman bed instead of the sofa bed. We were on deck 8 right behind chops. It also makes that Hallway quiet as there’s not rooms on the other side of the hallway. 

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Excursions

St Kitts, we did the dolphin experience.  Was awesome and we had time to shop after.

St Thomas, we did a sail and snorkel to Turtle Bay.  It was awesome too.  I wanted to see turtles and we did, they were all over.  A guy from a diff boat almost drowned though.  They had to rescue him on a raft and revive him.  I swam right by him and saw him hanging onto the boat line.  A few min’s later we heard the call for a rescue.  I kicked myself for not recognizing he was in trouble.  We had rum punch on the boat back and it was all around awesome.  We even had time to buy some souvenirs at the port before our excursion.  

Nassau, we did Atlantis.  I’m glad we did it but it was a rip off for that price.  By the time we got to Atlantis it was 11:30, and we were the first group off the boat.  The bus and directions and wristband were so disorganized.  We had to head back to get the 2pm bus at 1:30.  We basically had 2 hours there.  We did the rapid lazy river twice, had lunch and left.  It was basically $100 a lap around the river.

We we’re back on the boat by 3 and I watched for pier runners.  The boat left around 5:00 ish, even though all aboard was 3:30.  Not even the late people were not running.   If you want to watch for pier runners on the Eastern Caribbean get a room on the starboard side.  We watched for runners at all 3 ports.

 

Limits on Things

One thing I did not like was the limits on things for my daughter.  Try telling a 7 year old she can’t do a zip line cuz she doesn’t weigh enough, or go on the flow rider cuz she’s not tall enough, or swim with dolphins because she’s not old enough.  She does zip lines all the time off the boat.  We took her to Theater of the Seas after the boat to get pushed and pulled by dolphins, so it wasn’t that big of a deal, but RC seems to have higher limits on things than other places.  Oh, and they said kids under 18 couldn’t even play some game at on air on night.  It was a finish the lyrics game and the host said kids wouldn’t know songs from the 70’s and 80’s, or something like that.  I thought it was pretty  lame because compass did not list the game as 18+.

 

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  • 1 month later...
On 4/21/2019 at 8:00 PM, LindaN said:

 

Limits on Things

One thing I did not like was the limits on things for my daughter.  Try telling a 7 year old she can’t do a zip line cuz she doesn’t weigh enough, or go on the flow rider cuz she’s not tall enough, or swim with dolphins because she’s not old enough.  She does zip lines all the time off the boat.  We took her to Theater of the Seas after the boat to get pushed and pulled by dolphins, so it wasn’t that big of a deal, but RC seems to have higher limits on things than other places.  Oh, and they said kids under 18 couldn’t even play some game at on air on night.  It was a finish the lyrics game and the host said kids wouldn’t know songs from the 70’s and 80’s, or something like that.  I thought it was pretty  lame because compass did not list the game as 18+.

 

 

 

 

These limits are something that worries me. Even for something simple like the slides on the ship at splashaway bay. Minimum height is 42 inches. By the time we sail my daughter will be about 40 inches so wont be able to partake. And she goes on slides that look much bigger then those at the park all the time. I anticipate a sad conversation telling her she isnt big enough.

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