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“Symphony No. 17: Celebration, Relaxation, Exploration, Reflection” – 07/27/19 – 08/03/19


Lovetocruise2002

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Day 4: St. Maarten

“The world is an orchestra, the universe is a Symphony.”

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Good morning from St. Maarten!  Having a quick breakfast now in CK and then the plan is to take the water taxi over to “That Yoda Guy”.  I am ready to go with 3 novels downloaded onto my phone already. ?

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27 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Day 4: St. Maarten

“The world is an orchestra, the universe is a Symphony.”

A37F4C2B-B6B1-4A95-969D-A84EB60B07A6.thumb.jpeg.a4dd09fc0337b79fd42baf9080c948ee.jpeg

Good morning from St. Maarten!  Having a quick breakfast now in CK and then the plan is to take the water taxi over to “That Yoda Guy”.  I am ready to go with 3 novels downloaded onto my phone already. ?

What a view..I cant wait to get there in Nov on Harmony..been a bucket list item for me. Every picture and review of it I see makes me want to get there more and more! Enjoy today there!

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11 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Also found this from our Concierge tonight. It was also on the front page of our cruise compass. 

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Not sure if this is new but I don’t recall seeing this on Anthem a few weeks ago. 

So what is this, exactly ?  How does "Fast Track Boarding" work ?  It mentions "ports of call" so it must have something to do with either getting off the ship or getting back on the ship or both.

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12 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

So what is this, exactly ?  How does "Fast Track Boarding" work ?  It mentions "ports of call" so it must have something to do with either getting off the ship or getting back on the ship or both.

I will let you know after I get back on board later today. I am curious as well.

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11 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Also found this from our Concierge tonight. It was also on the front page of our cruise compass. 

0E100D8D-2D6E-4201-9859-80B98A76DA2B.jpeg.1f4d38ce3f30b53c0987497896f1ffc9.jpeg

Not sure if this is new but I don’t recall seeing this on Anthem a few weeks ago. 

I'd be far more likely to buy The Key if this feature was implemented fleetwide.

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16 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Also found this from our Concierge tonight. It was also on the front page of our cruise compass. 

0E100D8D-2D6E-4201-9859-80B98A76DA2B.jpeg.1f4d38ce3f30b53c0987497896f1ffc9.jpeg

Not sure if this is new but I don’t recall seeing this on Anthem a few weeks ago. 

Great blog so far! I'm eagerly looking forward to finding out what in the world this is. If this becomes fleet wide, it will made the increased Key price on Oasis/Quantum class ships much easier to swallow. 

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Back now after what turned out to be a busy day!  Where should I start?  

We got off the ship around 10 am this morning and about 5 minutes after we walked off it started pouring!  Even with the umbrellas that we had brought out with us, we were drenched!  We ducked into one of the stores near the dock area to wait out the rain and then headed over to downtown St. Maarten where That Yoda Guy was.  

Happy to report that he was there today, and that Hubby did not purchase anything this time. The rain had cooled things down a bit so we decided to walk around Front Street. As luck would have it, we stumbled into an Effy store (I love that brand) and I came across a piece that I had my eye on and I thought had sold out long ago.  One thing lead to another, and before I knew it, because Hubby is awesome, and because they were willing to bargain, I now have a early birthday present ? ?

After visiting Effy, we decided to head back to the ship because it was getting really hot by this point and we had not had lunch yet. We were stopped by someone renting private jet skis and Hubby decided we should try it out. It was pretty late by this point and we did not have the right clothes on, so we hurried back to the ship to change.  By the time we got back to the rental area, they did not have any jet skis available and asked if we could wait 30-40 mins. This is the part where the clear differences in our personalities took over. If it were Hubby, he would have stayed. For myself, because I have watched too many pier runner videos, and not wanting to be one myself, I said forget it. In the end, we headed back and did not wait.  Instead, we now know for next time to head straight there and get that out of the way first. Lesson learned.   

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Fast Track Boarding

Warning:  Apologies first because I don’t really think that I am high maintenance but I believe that there should be a logical way of doing things.  This is going to turn into a rant because I did not like how this process was done at all. In fact, I am pretty sure that I will be giving my thoughts to the concierge later. 

As many of you know, Symphony has two gangways to enter/exit. Forward and aft. And she is a very large ship.  As we approached the ship to get back on, there was first of all, no signage about Fast Track Boarding. We looked for white flags and it was very hard to spot. If we did not look as hard as we did, we would not have noticed that they were tucked away (not very visible) way at the forward entrance. 

Here is my problem with this. And yes, this is first world problems. Fast Track Boarding is, as they advertise, supposed to be for suite guests, those with strollers, assistance needs, etc. Why on Earth would you put this at the forward gangway?!  So that those who have young children and need assistance can walk even further down a super hot pier?!  And it’s a significant distance from aft to forward gangway, especially if you are in those categories. Does not make sense at all. Add into the equation that most of your suites which qualify for this are located in the aft section of the ship too. It’s just not logical.  They achieved the “Fast” promise of this because no one wanted to walk all the way past the aft gangway to the forward gangway!  

Ok, rant over.  Back to nice Canadian.

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13 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Back now after what turned out to be a busy day!  Where should I start?  

We got off the ship around 10 am this morning and about 5 minutes after we walked off it started pouring!  Even with the umbrellas that we had brought out with us, we were drenched!  We ducked into one of the stores near the dock area to wait out the rain and then headed over to downtown St. Maarten where That Yoda Guy was.  

Happy to report that he was there today, and that Hubby did not purchase anything this time. The rain had cooled things down a bit so we decided to walk around Front Street. As luck would have it, we stumbled into an Effy store (I love that brand) and I came across a piece that I had my eye on and I thought had sold out long ago.  One thing lead to another, and before I knew it, because Hubby is awesome, and because they were willing to bargain, I now have a early birthday present ? ?

After visiting Effy, we decided to head back to the ship because it was getting really hot by this point and we had not had lunch yet. We were stopped by someone renting private jet skis and Hubby decided we should try it out. It was pretty late by this point and we did not have the right clothes on, so we hurried back to the ship to change.  By the time we got back to the rental area, they did not have any jet skis available and asked if we could wait 30-40 mins. This is the part where the clear differences in our personalities took over. If it were Hubby, he would have stayed. For myself, because I have watched too many pier runner videos, and not wanting to be one myself, I said forget it. In the end, we headed back and did not wait.  Instead, we now know for next time to head straight there and get that out of the way first. Lesson learned.   

Think, you and hubby could have made the news as the latest pier runners! haha

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10 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Fast Track Boarding

Warning:  Apologies first because I don’t really think that I am high maintenance but I believe that there should be a logical way of doing things.  This is going to turn into a rant because I did not like how this process was done at all. In fact, I am pretty sure that I will be giving my thoughts to the concierge later. 

As many of you know, Symphony has two gangways to enter/exit. Forward and aft. And she is a very large ship.  As we approached the ship to get back on, there was first of all, no signage about Fast Track Boarding. We looked for white flags and it was very hard to spot. If we did not look as hard as we did, we would not have noticed that they were tucked away (not very visible) way at the forward entrance. 

Here is my problem with this. And yes, this is first world problems. Fast Track Boarding is, as they advertise, supposed to be for suite guests, those with strollers, assistance needs, etc. Why on Earth would you put this at the forward gangway?!  So that those who have young children and need assistance can walk even further down a super hot pier?!  And it’s a significant distance from aft to forward gangway, especially if you are in those categories. Does not make sense at all. Add into the equation that most of your suites which qualify for this are located in the aft section of the ship too. It’s just not logical.  They achieved the “Fast” promise of this because no one wanted to walk all the way past the aft gangway to the forward gangway!  

Ok, rant over.  Back to nice Canadian.

Sounds like they need to get their ducks in a row if expedited actually takes twice as long. 

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40 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Fast Track Boarding

I'ld be curious to see if the Fast Track Boarding changes throughout the cruise, it seems like maybe it was a initial running mishap? 

I've only ever had to wait in line to get on the ship once and it moved pretty quickly so i don't know if it would entice me to get the Key though (however that carry-on valet may)

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Dinner tonight at Jamie’s.

A few months ago, we received a complimentary specialty dining voucher from our TA.  The debate was between 150 CP, Hooked, and Jamie’s. Hubby and I took a close look at the Hooked menu along with pics from the Royal Caribbean dining FB page and decided against it. That left my vote for 150 and Hubby’s for Jamie’s. Well, you know who won that one. 

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Service was great tonight compared to on HM a few months ago. It was fast and attentive. Food was the same good quality as any other Jamie’s. 

Ultimate Garlic Bread

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Arancini

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Grilled Vegetables from the plank

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Penne Carbonara

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Truffle Tagliatelle 

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Dessert to go ?

 

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36 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Google is your friend

Just Googled him. Wow, pretty cool! My SIL and grands would really get a kick out of this place. Wish I had known about last April when we all were there on the Allure. Oh well, have to keep this i mind for a future cruise to St. Marteen. Thanks Sabrina.:27_sunglasses:

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1 hour ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

That left my vote for 150 and Hubby’s for Jamie’s. Well, you know who won that one. 

First time I've ever said this: Boo on Hubby. It's your anniversary cruise. How could he pass up the ambiance (not to mention the food and service) of 150 CP? He obviously didn't read my Symphony blog. ?

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1 hour ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

That left my vote for 150 and Hubby’s for Jamie’s. Well, you know who won that one.

27 minutes ago, Skid said:

First time I've ever said this: Boo on Hubby. It's your anniversary cruise. How could he pass up the ambiance (not to mention the food and service) of 150 CP? He obviously didn't read my Symphony blog. ?

And again, had it been my wife and I in this situation, it would have been the reverse of Sabrina and hubs-bot -- I'd have said 150 CP, she'd have said Jamie's, and I'd be eating Italian food that night. ?

That said, this...

1 hour ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

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would have totally made the "sacrifice" worth it, assuming it's the same garlic truffle tagliatelle that I had at Chef's Table on Freedom. And if I had room left after that, I'd have asked for a side portion of the carbonara. Because like @FloridaCruiseGirl1210, I live for carbonara. At least, as long as it isn't made with cream (or heaven help us, peas! ?)

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Just now, JLMoran said:

And again, had it been my wife and I in this situation, it would have been the reverse of Sabrina and hubs-bot -- I'd have said 150 CP, she'd have said Jamie's, and I'd be eating Italian food that night. ?

That said, this...

would have totally made the "sacrifice" worth it, assuming it's the same garlic truffle tagliatelle that I had at Chef's Table on Freedom. And if I had room left after that, I'd have asked for a side portion of the carbonara. Because like @FloridaCruiseGirl1210, I live for carbonara. At least, as long as it isn't made with cream (or heaven help us, peas! ?)

I knew I liked you Joe. 

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