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🎊⚓Shining, Shimmering, Splendid! NYE SY 12/31/22 – 01/07/23🎊⚓


Lovetocruise2002

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Shining, Shimmering, Splendid! NYE SY 12/31/22 – 01/07/23

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📸: Hubby July 2019

Here we go again with another one!

As I type this and think back over the last year, grateful and gratitude are the two words that come to mind. As I reflect on the last few years, to be able to say, “Here we go with another one!” is not something that I will ever take for granted again.

The journey to this sailing as been an interesting, and slightly disappointing one. Way back in March 2021, I got a message from @twangster telling me there was a star class deal that was too good to pass up on Oasis 12/18/2022. I got a hold of @WAAAYTOOO and together we all booked that sailing. Sadly, they went, I did not. About 9 months ago (April 2022), our school board decided to apply for permission to move our Winter break leaving me teaching up until December 23rd. Permission was granted, I tried to ask for an unpaid leave of absence, it was denied, and I had no other option but to cancel my sailing with my Bot Mentor and the OG Suite Snob. That left us with one major problem (other than having to cancel). I still had just under $4000 of FCCs leftover from the pandemic cancellations that I needed to use up before 12/31/2022.

Already late to the party with booking a NYE sailing at this point, we did not have many options that interested us. We knew we would need to book an Oasis class ship because moving the sailing meant bringing our two girls (bad parenting to leave them for New Year’s). I wanted to move to HM (it was the best pricing for star), but because our SY March 2023 sailing got moved to HM (due to early SY dry dock), there was no way Hubby and girls wanted to sail HM now, and then again in March. Oasis was another option, but we had just sailed that in March 2022, and Hubby and the girls were not too keen about that either. Allure is in Texas and sailing from Galveston is not something I want to take a chance with during the winter months. See what I mean? I am grateful that I can even say all of that and those options are there.

The obvious choice here was Symphony, mainly because the girls have never sailed Symphony, and they have been wanting to for a while. The only problem with this was that pricing at this point in the game (this was April 2022) was crazy, especially for star. But, knowing that our cruising days with the girls is passing quickly, we said, “YOLO! Move It!” and here we go again, ready to sail Symphony of the Seas for NYE!

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Who’s Going?

Hubby, D16, D14, and I on this one.

Flight

Delta from DTW-MIA. Ever since the March Break 2022 fiasco, I book through Air2Sea. Hubby works on the 29th so we are not able to leave until the 30th. That does leave me slightly nervous, you never know about the weather in the winter months, but fingers crossed for a smooth flight and no cancellations.

Pre-Cruise Stay

A bit more sad news here, my usual go-to hotel, Intercontinental Miami has blocked out 1-night stays close to December 31st. I even tried calling their loyalty number to take advantage of the “guaranteed room” benefit from our Platinum Elite status, but it was a no go. Because Hubby works until the 29th, we could not book this either. Venturing out of our comfort zone here and trying out a new hotel in Brickell Miami.

Itinerary

31 DEC MIAMI, FLORIDA

01 JAN CRUISING

02 JAN ROATAN, HONDURAS

03 JAN COZUMEL, MEXICO

04 JAN CRUISING

05 JAN NASSAU, BAHAMAS

06 JAN PERFECT DAY COCOCAY, BAHAMAS

07 JAN MIAMI, FLORIDA

Cabin

#teamDeck17 of course! This is the way.

Unless, as @Jax says, we get a “Festivus Miracle” and win one of our Royal Up bids.

Pre-Cruise thoughts

  •  This is our second NYE sailing. I loved our first one, four years ago on Indy. I cannot wait to see some of the little NYE touches that SY will have.
  • This is our first sailing back since the restart where we will not have to test! Yay! Such a relief.
  • As if the “cruise gods” are laughing at me, or Royal IT is just terrible (likely this lol), we never got our Star Class pre-cruise questionnaire for March 2022 or July 2022. However, this sailing we are not star, and in October, they sent me my pre-cruise questionnaire! I cannot make this stuff up!
  • Once again, in the spirit of a live blog, please do not hesitate to ask any questions.  I will do my best to find out whatever I can for you.
  • When responding to a post with a series of pictures, please do not include the pictures in your reply.  It just makes for easier scrolling.
  • Lastly, I will try to post videos and stories on Instagram.  You can follow me @lovetocruise2002
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8 hours ago, Jax said:

Haha this made me laugh. Lindsay, Reyd and Robert have just realized there is no Playmakers or Portside BBQ on Harmony. 🤦‍♀️🤣 

A few nights ago, Hubby and the girls were discussing where we should eat on boarding day.

Hubby:  “We’ll just get on board, drop off our bags, and head to El Loco.”

Me: “Umm..where are you planning to drop those bags off to? You know staterooms don’t open until after 1pm right?” 
 

Hubby: “But aren’t we staying on Deck 17?” 
 

Me: “Yes, but we are not in star this time. Usually the Genie opens the fire doors for us” 

Hubby: “I am sure we can just swing by and check. Maybe our room will be ready early.” 

SMH…

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45 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

where are you planning to drop those bags off

Bring 25 feet (2 polar bear lengths) of yellow caution/hazard  tape. Wrap each bag in this. Leave bags wherever you want on deck. They will not be touched.

This has worked for me 100% of the time.  
And by 100%, I mean it worked the one time I tried. 

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Lovetocruise, excited to see your review.  Am sorry your group cruise didn't work out.  I know exactly what you mean about the board changing the Christmas holiday dates.  We originally had the Dec 19th week one booked with our kids. It was just a back up in case we didn't make it last March so it was fine, but would have been the same issue.  So frustrating when they do that ( which doesn't happen often) and it really messed up your plan and coordinating with Royal Blog friends. Glad you were able to find a new plan though and you were able to get your room.  Symphony is an amazing ship and very modern.  Check out each staircase.  It's beautiful.  YOLO as you say, and I can totally related to wanting to get in what you can with your kids.  Our son is going off to university next year.  So instead of cruising March and summer with all of us, it will now just be 1x a year at xmas/new years and hoping even that works.  Enjoy!  Safe travels.

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44 minutes ago, WannaCruise said:

Symphony is an amazing ship and very modern.  Check out each staircase.

We sailed SY right before the pandemic. But the girls were not with us. The piano stairs is one of the main reasons why they want to sail SY.

45 minutes ago, WannaCruise said:

Our son is going off to university next year.  So instead of cruising March and summer with all of us, it will now just be 1x a year at xmas/new years and hoping even that works.

My daughter is just one year behind your son. With this round of new releases, I'll be booking March Break 2025 without her. It's a booking for 3. That makes me really sad. And the girls told me that by the time the younger one (she's in Gr. 9 right now) starts university, that should be the end of our xmas/NY sailings too. I told them that will save me some money lol, but it makes me sad. So yes, we are cruising all we can with them up until then.

2 hours ago, AlmondFarmer said:

Bring 25 feet (2 polar bear lengths) of yellow caution/hazard  tape. Wrap each bag in this. Leave bags wherever you want on deck. They will not be touched.

This has worked for me 100% of the time.  
And by 100%, I mean it worked the one time I tried. 

Well good thing Hubby never reads my blogs because he might actually think that is a perfectly good idea! lol

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23 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

We sailed SY right before the pandemic. But the girls were not with us. The piano stairs is one of the main reasons why they want to sail SY.

My daughter is just one year behind your son. With this round of new releases, I'll be booking March Break 2025 without her. It's a booking for 3. That makes me really sad. And the girls told me that by the time the younger one (she's in Gr. 9 right now) starts university, that should be the end of our xmas/NY sailings too. I told them that will save me some money lol, but it makes me sad. So yes, we are cruising all we can with them up until then.

Well good thing Hubby never reads my blogs because he might actually think that is a perfectly good idea! lol

Ah ok...well then as you know, your kids will LOVE Symphony!  The piano stairs are just one of the really cool touches on that ship!

Exactly....March 2024 we booked Wonder for a room for 3 instead of doing a booking for 4.  It really feels empty....don't know how else to describe it.  Will really miss him.  Treasure these moments.  He did say though, that as long as we are paying, he'll still come with us...lol. It's like bribery, but it may just work.

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On 12/23/2022 at 11:50 AM, Cruiser4Life said:

awww... Did you try for Odyssey? We could have met! Leaving on 12/30, So excited!

We almost booked odyssey and I’m second guessing it!  We went with harmony…Hubby was too nervous to fly back sunday.  Hope you have a wonderful trip!  I’m bummed that I didn’t get to meet the amazing love to cruise too!      Jane. 

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On 12/24/2022 at 9:00 AM, WannaCruise said:

Lovetocruise, excited to see your review.  Am sorry your group cruise didn't work out.  I know exactly what you mean about the board changing the Christmas holiday dates.  We originally had the Dec 19th week one booked with our kids. It was just a back up in case we didn't make it last March so it was fine, but would have been the same issue.  So frustrating when they do that ( which doesn't happen often) and it really messed up your plan and coordinating with Royal Blog friends. Glad you were able to find a new plan though and you were able to get your room.  Symphony is an amazing ship and very modern.  Check out each staircase.  It's beautiful.  YOLO as you say, and I can totally related to wanting to get in what you can with your kids.  Our son is going off to university next year.  So instead of cruising March and summer with all of us, it will now just be 1x a year at xmas/new years and hoping even that works.  Enjoy!  Safe travels.

Our spring breaks have been all over the map.  I’m a teacher, husband is a teacher and we have 3 kids.  One year we had 4 different spring breaks 😢.  Jane

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I was so close to booking symphony…it came down to little cheaper on harmony and wanting to do a sea day on day 7.  Wish we could have met!  Have an amazing trip!  I look forward to comparing your posts on symphony with mine on harmony.  I’m already regretting no playmakers with university of Michigan playing on Dec 31!  Jane

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11 hours ago, mom2mybugs said:

I was so close to booking symphony…it came down to little cheaper on harmony and wanting to do a sea day on day 7.

And I was so close to booking Harmony! But those darn piano stairs won the kids over. That, and Hiro. It's Hubby's favourite. He would see if every night if he could.

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5 Days till Cruise Day

With work and Christmas family festivities wrapped up, I feel like I can finally focus on this trip now.  Sadly, Santa did not bring me a Royal Up, starting to lose hope on that front.

In other news, our concierge email did come in last night. So that makes it 6 days out.  It doesn't look like any changes have been made to the Sky Class benefits, not that I can see anyway. The only discrepancy I noticed is that it does say in the email that show reservations will be available once onboard, but we were able to book our show times a while back on the cruise planner.

Here is the basics from the email last night:

Dear Suite Guests ,

Our names are _________________we are your Sky Suite Concierges. We can’t wait to welcome you onboard Symphony of the Seas on December 31, 2022. We hope you’re ready for a wonderful cruise vacation with us.

If you’ve not already done so, please check in online and select your preferred arrival time using the Royal Caribbean App.

Suite guests can enjoy Flexible Arrival which allows you the freedom to check-in up to one hour before or after your scheduled check-in time while the terminal is open.

We also recommend that you plan ahead and make reservations for your dining, onboard activities, shore excursions and Vitality Spa services.

You may do so using your Cruise Planner or Royal App. Show reservations will be available to book once you’re onboard. If you require any assistance, we are happy to help you.

My desk is in the Suite Lounge, located on Deck 17 aft. Our hours are 8:00 am to 11:30 am and 4:30 pm until 8:00 pm. We are also reachable via email, or by dialing my phone ______________ from your Suite or any house phone.

While onboard, you’ll have access to the following exclusive amenities and services:

· The Suite Lounge is exclusively for Suite guests and accessible with your SeaPass card.

        o The dress code in the Suite Lounge is smart casual, so please make sure you pack accordingly.

        o Coffee and tea are available in the Lounge throughout the day. Hors d'oeuvres, petit fours and complimentary wine, spirits, beer, and soft drinks are available for our Suite guests every evening from 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm.

        o Guests under 21 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian.

· As a Sky Suite guest, you’ll have exclusive access to the suites-only restaurant, Coastal Kitchen. Please refer to the Cruise Compass for the hours of operation or reach out to me for assistance. Reservations are required for dinner.

· Your suite is stocked with Malin & Goetz bath amenities, a Lavazza espresso coffee machine, bathrobes for your use onboard, and is furnished with a luxurious pillow-top mattress.

· Sky guests have will receive complementary VOOM Surf and Stream services for one device per person for the entire sailing.

   Attached in this email are detailed instructions on how to connect your device. These instructions will also be in your suite upon arrival.

· Enjoy the exclusive Suite Sun Deck on Deck 17 fwd. Lounge chairs are available to suite guests on a first come, first serve basis.

· Sky guests are entitled to a reserved seating section in the Main Theater. Reservations are available once you arrive onboard, which I will be happy to assist you with.

· We are happy to offer our Suite guests Priority Departure. I’ll explain the details to you when you arrive onboard.

. Please note that we will have our VIPs Venus for reservation for the New Year's Eve celebration onboard , we did placed the price  list below for the Rising Tide Bar & Schooner Bar ,Please if you would like us to provide with more details don't hesitate to let us know.

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I have not packed a single thing yet. I feel a bit behind schedule from my normal "cruise prep" schedule. I think this is because I worked right up until the 23rd this year, and then with Christmas over the weekend, we've been doing a ton of family stuff.

We are off to the Fisher Theatre (in Detroit) shortly to see Les Miz, and then I think the "cruise prep/packing" will start in earnest tomorrow.

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1 hour ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

I have not packed a single thing yet. I feel a bit behind schedule from my normal "cruise prep" schedule. I think this is because I worked right up until the 23rd this year, and then with Christmas over the weekend, we've been doing a ton of family stuff.

We are off to the Fisher Theatre (in Detroit) shortly to see Les Miz, and then I think the "cruise prep/packing" will start in earnest tomorrow.

Don't forget to remind the hubs to pack extra clothes. I'm sure he's forgotten you aren't star class this time around and there isn't any laundry🤣

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33 minutes ago, GregD said:

Don't forget to remind the hubs to pack extra clothes. I'm sure he's forgotten you aren't star class this time around and there isn't any laundry🤣

Oh, I've been telling him. Actually it's D14 who really needs the reminders. She is turning out to be huge fan of that perk. On Anthem, she used it more than any of us.

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5 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

NYE reservations (available to book):

I noticed those prices are listed as "per seat"...Yikes!

I think we'll just hang with the crowd in the promenade for free lol

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Rising Tide "Table Reservations Only" - so if a table seats 4 it's $4,000?  That's crazy.

What is a Schooner Bar balcony seat?  The seats overlooking the promenade?  Yikes.

What's the charge to walk down the promenade? 🎉

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5 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

I have not packed a single thing yet. I feel a bit behind schedule from my normal "cruise prep" schedule. I think this is because I worked right up until the 23rd this year, and then with Christmas over the weekend, we've been doing a ton of family stuff.

We are off to the Fisher Theatre (in Detroit) shortly to see Les Miz, and then I think the "cruise prep/packing" will start in earnest tomorrow.

I grew up going to the Fisher theater...Les miz will be great there!  

  I worked until the 22nd and I'm not packed at all either.  It was crazy teaching that late, but I know I will be very thankful to be on a cruise ship the whole week after New year's!!!  Jane

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6 hours ago, twangster said:

Rising Tide "Table Reservations Only" - so if a table seats 4 it's $4,000?  That's crazy.

Right?! I wasn’t even sure if I was reading that correctly. But it sounds a bit much. I remember in past years you would reserve the “table” but the wording is “seats” now. 🤷🏻‍♀️

6 hours ago, twangster said:

What's the charge to walk down the promenade? 🎉

I will let you know cause that is exactly what we plan to do lol. Hopefully we can afford that. 😂

6 hours ago, mom2mybugs said:

I grew up going to the Fisher theater...Les miz will be great there!  

We saw Hamilton there last month and now Les Miz. It’s great for us because it’s so close and allows us to catch some Broadway shows without going to NYC. Hubby and D16 love Les Miz, and we missed it in the West End when we went to London in the summer so this was the next best thing. I still want to see the Broadway version of Hamilton though, but no one wants to go with me lol

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38 minutes ago, ellcee said:

How fun!!!! I've always wanted to sail on NYE!

 

We were surprised back in December 2018 by how much we enjoyed it. This is only our second NYE sailing but I am curious at how this one will differ from Indy since it’s an Oasis class ship. Moving forward, with D16 finishing high school soon, NYE sailings might become our norm for a while since we will lose spring break with her.

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10 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

I still want to see the Broadway version of Hamilton though, but no one wants to go with me lol

I have still only seen Hamilton at our touring theatre here in San Diego (although I did go 3 times) and would love to go with you! The ambience has gotta be better when they don't have to haul in and out every few days.

PS Does Miami not have a Fairmont?! So sad about the Intercontinental! 

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3 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Moving forward, with D16 finishing high school soon, NYE sailings might become our norm for a while since we will lose spring break with her.

The spring break thing is a pain.  Jeff's district is different than mine roughly 4 years in a row, then 1 district shifts because of the way the dates fall and we are the same for a few years.  When we had 2 in college, we had 2 years of all 4 different, and now with the 3rd kid the only one in, we still have 3 this year!!  Jane

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42 minutes ago, DDaley said:

I have still only seen Hamilton at our touring theatre here in San Diego (although I did go 3 times) and would love to go with you! The ambience has gotta be better when they don't have to haul in and out every few days.

PS Does Miami not have a Fairmont?! So sad about the Intercontinental! 

The Chicago version was amazing...we saw it the second week it got there years ago.  I think it's a less complicated stage set fortunately.  Nothing beats actual NYC though...   Jane

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3 hours ago, DDaley said:

I have still only seen Hamilton at our touring theatre here in San Diego

We saw the Philip Tour last month. I was bit disappointed by the sound, but that could have been the Fisher Theatre as well. That's why I said to Hubby we need to go see it in NYC to compare lol

3 hours ago, DDaley said:

PS Does Miami not have a Fairmont?! So sad about the Intercontinental! 

No Fairmont either 😔

2 hours ago, mom2mybugs said:

Nothing beats actual NYC though... 

Totally agree! That's why I regret not seeing Les Miz in the West End this past summer.

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Taking a break from packing and look what I discovered! A room became available for Friday night. Only about half the price for 4 seats at the Rising Tide bar for NYE! 😂 This is the same suite we got upgraded to back in July when we sailed Freedom. We only paid 15% of that cost lol

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1 hour ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

When I first read this I thought someone in SC had cancelled !  Lol

I wish!  I'm afraid that I am struggling with no Genie on this one. lol

All my RU bids still say submitted so I'm not really holding my breath. Besides, not only have I never won anything, but I would have some major explaining to do with Hubby if I actually won.

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5 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

I wish!  I'm afraid that I am struggling with no Genie on this one. lol

All my RU bids still say submitted so I'm not really holding my breath. Besides, not only have I never won anything, but I would have some major explaining to do with Hubby if I actually won.

I just got the “your bid will be still reviewed onboard” for our nye sailing. I am debating just cancelling it… I like to unpack and door decorate asap… then there’s the guilt because since this sailing is obviously full, some poor family either had airline trouble or someone fell ill in order for the room to become available… and lastly @Neesa ‘s issues of important tickets and perks still being delivered to her old stateroom is fresh in my mind… this may be too much for this unfortunately neurotic type A to deal with. But I’m rooting for yours to come through! 🤣

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