Symphony of the Seas - Western Mediterranean

[asquared17]

On 8/1/2023 at 12:01 PM, SweetPea said:

Sacrilege!

You are off to an excellent start! Thanks for blogging and taking us with you. 

TRUFFLES. I'VE BEEN SUMMONED (ps: i too, will be in this suite when you bring your nieces + nephews. i can sleep in one of those swiss cheese holes in the wall )

On 8/1/2023 at 1:21 PM, Lovetocruise2002 said:

+1 lol

I could eat a ton of truffle fries!

me too!!

On 7/31/2023 at 3:52 PM, ckruetze said:

Yes, I did read that and we are looking forward to it next year around Easter time

i am delighted that you're doing a B2B onboard symphony -- thus far (despite our rocky beginning) -- she is our favorite ship in the fleet. your family sounds like they are having a blast and making great use of the fantastic accommodations and crew it will be cool to contrast your current sailing with the easter sailing next year and warmer weather. looking forward to your PDCC experience!

would love to see pictures of the cabin (if you feel comfortable sharing), the view, the balcony, etc. whatever you might feel like sharing, feel free! and if not -- no worries! we are happy to live vicariously through you.

have a wonderful cruise!

[SweetPea]

On 8/9/2023 at 9:19 PM, asquared17 said:

i too, will be in this suite when you bring your nieces + nephews. i can sleep in one of those swiss cheese holes in the wall

No need for sleeping in the wall. My soon-to-be 7-year-old niece, however, will want to know that you can speak in "Bonjour" when the Genie serves us 3 our tea. 

This involves literally saying "Bonjour" over and over in various affectations and carrying a full conversation with literally that single word.  If you can handle that, you're in. 

[ckruetze]

Day 2.2 – Palma

 

Hm, I don’t remember much about the day - doesn't really help to wait so long in writing it down. Let’s do it in reverse order, with the things I do remember.

It was a Monday and we were in Palma.

In the evening my 8 year old and I went to see “Hairspray! The Broadway Musical”.

Fun incident, a Genie (not Stepan our Genie) knocked over my daughters popcorn (half of it fell out) and then about a minute later he knocked it over a second time to completely empty them.

He apologised and called our Genie to bring a new one. Since that event it is sort of a running joke with my kids to always say “hide your popcorn” when they see him.

We have met all three Genies on the Symphony and all three are very friendly and greet us when we meet – I guess it helps to stay on for two weeks so the crew gets to know you better.

 

Back to Hairspray, the show was great again with great performers. We really enjoyed watching it. The show was somewhat late starting at 22:30 but a nice benefit of that is at half past midnight there aren’t too many other people wanting to use the elevators.

 

Dinner on day 2.2 was a little different. Maria and I wanted to do Izumi Hibachi but the girls didn’t enjoy it the first time, the noise level was really high.

So I got the girls some pizza from Sorento’s and later they got some room service strawberry ice cream.

Hibachi was nice for Maria and myself, our table started roughly 10 to 15 minutes before the other two tables so our chef didn’t have to shout so loud and there was no shouting from the other tables for most of our meal.

 

 

The afternoon we spent on the suite sundeck, it was very empty that day. Great bar tender up there and plenty of places to relax.

 

For lunch we decided on Coastal Kitchen and we had an early. The girls wanted to sleep in so we skipped breakfast. We have never been in Coastal Kitchen when it was full and we have never been disappointed. Same was true for Palma. We had great staff and great food again.

 

During the morning I worked a little and the others slept in, until a test alarm.

Not sure if it is supposed to be like that, but the message that a test alarm will follow was played everywhere except the cabins. I was on the balcony so I heard it. But the actual test alarm was also played in the cabin. So Maria and kids woke up and were asking what’s going on.

It might make sense to play the announcements before a test through the same speakers where the actual test would be played…

 

OK, I think I managed to remember most of the day in the end.

 

 

[ckruetze]

Day 2.3 – Marseille

This one will be a short one as we didn’t do much.

Breakfast was more or less as usual in Coastal Kitchen. After that Maria went to Marseille to walk around the town and look for a museum or two – she found some plus a French supermarket to buy some French sweets.
For lunch the girls and I were adventurous, we went to Windjammer. We didn’t try everything but what we tried was ok.

After that we went to the Suite sundeck to relax and really not do much of anything at all.

Dinner was at Coastal Kitchen. This was our first ever dinner at Coastal Kitchen. We all found something to eat. Our 6 year old more or less eats spaghetti bolognaise for lunch and dinner whenever possible. That is on this cruise and not at home. But ok, that’s better then sweets only.
I do like the atmosphere in Costal Kitchen. It also helps that we don’t have to use the elevator from the room to get there. Plus the view is really good.
As always we had very friendly waiters and really good food.

After dinner Maria and I went to the Casino – we lost about $20 but I gained 11 casino points. Together with the 15 or so from last week, I’m now at 26 and I only need another 2.474 until April of next year to earn a free cruise. I’ll try my best but somehow I don’t think that will happen.

The girls watched HIRO from the balcony, we got the time wrong for the start if the show, thought it was 9.30PM but it was 9.15PM, the girls weren’t happy Maria and I were ten minutes late, they had carefully arranged the chairs on the balcony for us 4 so that we could all sit and see it from up here.

 

[ckruetze]

Day 2.4 – La Spezia

We had an (for us) early breakfast at Coastal Kitchen as we had to be at the Studio B at 9:45.
Our Genie had arranged a private ice skating lesson for our girls with one of the cast members from the ice shows. The girls absolutely loved it. Both of them had never skated before our Symphony trip, but they both have inline skates at home. They had a full 60 minutes on the ice. They learned a lot and were exhausted after it for the rest of the day.
I had a brief look at the catacombs under the seating area. Without skates I had to duck at places to walk through there and the cast members run through there with skates on during the show.

Maria and I wisely took jumpers to the ice ring for us as sitting in the cold for an hour while dressed for a Mediterranean summer isn’t nice. But Maria left after about 45 minutes anyway.

Maria got the free shuttle bus from the ship to the terminal building. It only takes 5 minutes and it’s right opposite the city. She went to the Naval Museum and wandered around the streets.

The girls and I had lunch in Coastal Kitchen. Pizza for the 8 year old and spaghetti for the other one. As always great food in a great location.

After that we relaxed outside somewhere in the shade and did more or less nothing

Chops Grill was the choice for dinner on day 4 of the second week. Finally our 8 year old decided to try something other then pizza or spaghetti again and she liked it. She finished her whole plate of shrimps.

After skating in the morning the girls had to see the ice show again so we went to 1977: “A Thrilling Adventure on ice” again. I think we have now seen it 3 or 4 times within two weeks.
It is really nice but I prefer “iSkate 2.0” sadly that one is only on on day 7 and it is shorter then 1977.
Oh and I did something for me embarrassing, I got the start time of the show wrong. I thought it was 21:30 but it started at 21:15. Yes, I am Germany and I like to be on time or rather 10 minutes early so this is really nothing that I enjoy. Luckily our Genie knows us by now and at 21:10 he called me wondering where we are. We had to walk faster and got to our seats at 21:20.

[ckruetze]

The general ice skating sessions that you can book are never too full. I guess they limit the number of people on the ice to make it not too full.
This is a picture from the skating session on day one in Barcelona. It wasn't too full.

But still the private skating lesson was something else.

[Lovetocruise2002]

6 hours ago, ckruetze said:

We have met all three Genies on the Symphony and all three are very friendly and greet us when we meet

Who are the Genies on Symphony right now? Stepan, Reyno, and Sunil? or Is it Stepan, Reyno, Andrei?

[ckruetze]

On 8/11/2023 at 5:20 PM, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Who are the Genies on Symphony right now? Stepan, Reyno, and Sunil? or Is it Stepan, Reyno, Andrei?

Stepan, Sunil and Reno are currently on Symphony

[ckruetze]

Day 2.5 – Civitavecchia

We had room service breakfast. I ordered it through the Genie the night before and somewhere along the line there was some communication breakdown. I ordered for Maria 2 eggs benedict with toast. She got two plates with two eggs benedict each and the eggs already on some sort of toast. In addition she got a big plate full of toast.
For myself I ordered 2 eggs over easy, so I got two plates with two eggs each. The girls order wasn’t doubled

After breakfast Maria used the bus to the town and walked around for a while. She found some museums to check out and generally had fun.

Me and the girls relaxed even more and then went to the suite sundeck again to do more relaxing
After Maria joined us, we went back to the cabin to enjoy today's selection of canapés, chocolate strawberries and other goodies.
Maria went to the spa for an hour or so to use the steam room.

Dinner was at 150 Central Park again. We liked it the first time so we went again. As usual for our early dinner time we had the restaurant more or less to ourself.

After dinner we went to our last HIRO show for the cruise. I lost count how often we have seen it, but it is a nice show and the girls love it. So we went there for the last time.

Late ate night Maria and I relaxed in the hot tub for a while. It showed again that the location of the room for a hot tub is not perfect. It sometimes feels that you are on display and a lot of people are taking pictures of the balcony with you in the hot tub.

 

I have a feeling my posts get shorter and shorter. Sorry for that, but a lot of things repeat after one week. However we are having a great day and really enjoying the 2nd week. All 4 of us think 2 weeks is perfect. One week is just too short but we wouldn't want to stay any longer now. We all want to go home - even if that means no Genie and no loft attended and now canapés.

 

 

[SweetPea]

3 hours ago, ckruetze said:

All 4 of us think 2 weeks is perfect. One week is just too short but we wouldn't want to stay any longer now. We all want to go home - even if that means no Genie and no loft attended and now canapés.

I hear you. A week long vacation is over in the blink of an eye, and we no longer fly for only a week long cruise. Between 10-12 nights is our sweet spot, but I've loved all our 2 week cruises too. Glad you're relaxing and having fun, and the second week definitely allows you to do that!

[WAAAYTOOO]

5 hours ago, ckruetze said:

really enjoying the 2nd week. All 4 of us think 2 weeks is perfect. One week is just too short but we wouldn't want to stay any longer now. 

I completely agree with you on 2 weeks being perfect for SC.  We have only done B2B SC once (2 X 8 = 16 days total) and that was on Anthem in 2019.  When you have 2 weeks to hit the highlights you don't feel so compelled to cram everything into what seems like just a couple of days.  Even though we repeated our exact itinerary on both of our Anthem cruises, it was perfect.  I think having a Genie is more important on the Quantum class ships than it is on the Oasis class....especially if you have kids (which we do not) who enjoy the bumper cars, sky diving simulator and north star plus all of the other activities.

[berkeleykel]

15 hours ago, ckruetze said:

Stepan, Sunil and Allan are currently on Symphony

Interesting. I’ve been communicating with a genie who is none of the above for my sailing in two weeks. 

[ckruetze]

4 hours ago, berkeleykel said:

Interesting. I’ve been communicating with a genie who is none of the above for my sailing in two weeks. 

I'm so sorry, I got the name wrong.

Stepan, Sunil and Reno (the guy who is on a lot of Star Class advertisings).

[Lovetocruise2002]

12 hours ago, ckruetze said:

Stepan, Sunil and Reno

That's what I thought. There are 2 genies named Allan/Alan and neither on is on Symphony. I thought maybe there was a new Allan lol

17 hours ago, berkeleykel said:

Interesting. I’ve been communicating with a genie who is none of the above for my sailing in two weeks.

Might be whoever is coming in for Sunil. I think he leaves for vacation shortly.

[asquared17]

On 8/11/2023 at 12:50 AM, SweetPea said:

My soon-to-be 7-year-old niece, however, will want to know that you can speak in "Bonjour" when the Genie serves us 3 our tea. 

This involves literally saying "Bonjour" over and over in various affectations and carrying a full conversation with literally that single word.  If you can handle that, you're in. 

oh, the WAY I CAN DO THIS!! i love that she loves this, she is too sweet for this world.

On 8/11/2023 at 5:11 AM, ckruetze said:

Dinner was at Coastal Kitchen. This was our first ever dinner at Coastal Kitchen. We all found something to eat.
I do like the atmosphere in Costal Kitchen. It also helps that we don’t have to use the elevator from the room to get there. Plus the view is really good.
As always we had very friendly waiters and really good food.

agree with you here -- the ambience and crew are excellent in CK -- easily our biggest perk of the suite life, and staying away from gen pop/bigger crowds always makes for a more peaceful dining experience. like her sisters (oasis, allure and harmony), we thought the CK/suite lounge on symphony was beautiful and you can't beat the views.

happy to hear your time aboard has been so lovely!

[ckruetze]

OK, I'm sorry, I didn't finish the second week.

But it more or less went like the first one - it was great.

I have learned something about writing a live blog - do it on the day itself or you will forget half of it.

Departure day I didn't like - not because it was the end of the holiday but rather because it was a busy, early day and with the luggage packing the day before it meant that even the evening before departure day was a little annoying.

I think it was mentioned before but I think it could be a nice option to have both departure and arrival later in the day. Departure just after lunch would be nice and I would be ok to arrive just before dinner time.

 

So let me close with my personal summary.

The cruise was fantastic. For me and my girls the destination was the ship and not the ports we visited. Apart from arrival and departure my daughters and I left the ship only ones. Maria was on land way more often I think 8 times but that's why we decided on a cruise we hoped and were not disappointed with us being able to go on holiday together but still do individual things.

Adventure Ocean wasn't that much fun for my kids but they were ok with doing things by themself. They walked of and did whatever they felt like together. The 6 year old was a little too young to walk around alone, also she doesn't have a mobile so she couldn't message us if she gets lost or needs something else. For the next cruise I definitely put a $ 0 limit on my daughters cards, they don't need to spend that much time in the arcades.

The cabin itself. It was just perfect. The kids also had fun playing there alone for hours on end. So when Maria and I went to a show the girls stayed in the cabin (with some room service ice cream). I have mentioned it before, the technology could use an update. A smart home that was planed 10 years ago isn't that smart today. Also in some areas the smart home limited the use. It wasn't possible to turn individual lights on or of.
As the Wonder of the seas is newer, I hope this will be a smarter experience when we try it next year.

It was our first cruise as a family and we had done extensive research before it mainly on YouTube and here. But the one thing we didn't expect was the noise level. I was talking to other European guests with a lot of cruise experience and they all confirmed. Royal Caribbean  is an American cruise line that means they don't only build the best and biggest ships but sadly also the loudest ones.

I enjoyed all the shows I saw but I don't think I saw a single one where the sound couldn't have been turned down at least 10%. Or walking through the promenade with live music - it's nice, but I think it was too loud. And the only reason why my girls didn't like Izumi Hibachi was because the noise level hurt there ears.

I really don't know why everything must be so loud but I hope there is a good reason as the loudest is not always the best.

Finally if there is anything you would like a picture of, let me know and I check if I took one.

Christian

PS Next time I write shorter reports but daily. And I include more pictures.

 

[SweetPea]

Thanks for coming back to finish! I know it's time consuming to share your cruise, and many of us appreciate the effort!

Thanks for the heads up on the noise level. I know I'll be on lookout more.  Ok, lookout is not the right word since you don't exactly see with your ears, but you know what i mean!

[ckruetze]

On 8/17/2023 at 5:01 PM, SweetPea said:

Thanks for coming back to finish! I know it's time consuming to share your cruise, and many of us appreciate the effort!

Thanks for the heads up on the noise level. I know I'll be on lookout more.  Ok, lookout is not the right word since you don't exactly listen with your ears, but you know what i mean!

Yes I really underestimated the time it takes to write something useful. I will try again as the next cruise is already booked for next year.

Regarding the noise, I don't think I have read anything about that anywhere. Maybe it is normal for cruise ships or maybe it is an American thing. next year I'll go to an US theme park then I can compare that to Europe with regards to the noise.