cruiselife Posted December 28, 2017 Report Share Posted December 28, 2017 Hello everyone. I was hoping to find out what, if any, the differences will be between Harmony and Symphony. Here is a little back story first. We have sailed on Rhapsody of the Seas, Navigator of the Seas, and Liberty of the Seas out of Galveston simply due to airfare making the vacation a little too expensive for us. We are actually about to try out Carnival (Lame, I know) in January on the Carnival Breeze simply because we had already been on Liberty and wanted to try something different. We haven't even gone on the Carnival cruise yet and we already miss Royal Caribbean so we decided to go ahead and plan out our dream cruise for 2019. We have been holding out in hopes that an Oasis class ship would come to Galveston one day, but I am starting to give up on that dream. We are finally going to fly into Florida to try an Oasis class ship. This is where you all come in. When I look at the prices for Harmony and Symphony sailings they are incredibly similar for the most part. Most of the variation in price seems to be related to the time of year and the itinerary, both are things that are not particularly important to us. They can take us anywhere in the Caribbean any time of the year and we'll have a blast. The only thing we really care about is the ship itself. For that reason we are looking into early 2019 because the prices are the lowest for that time frame. Are there any new features on Symphony that are significantly different from Harmony? We are currently leaning towards Harmony because we would prefer to see Grease over Hairspray and we love Sabor, particularly because of their avocado margaritas. Is there anything significant we are overlooking here? I know this is a tough question to answer right now due to the fact that some details about Symphony have not been released, but I figured I'd ask because we plan to book the cruise as soon as possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twangster Posted December 29, 2017 Report Share Posted December 29, 2017 Harmony is a wonderful ship! The two sisters will be very similar but there are subtle differences that we know of so far. What appears to be an awesome sports bar on Symphony. A seafood restaurant. Honestly until launch some differences are based on leaks, teases and tidbits. Harmony is great. Wow, what a ship. You can't go wrong booking her. My expectations are that Symphony will be equally a big Wow! Likely 99% more similar than different than Harmony. Much like Oasis is very similar to Allure with subtle differences but both equally fantastic. Symphony will home port in a brand new Miami based terminal. That looks to be an experience on its own. It's under construction right now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lovetocruise2002 Posted December 29, 2017 Report Share Posted December 29, 2017 I agree completely with @twangster above. All the Oasis class ships are wonderful and very similar. Sounds like you are already leaning towards Harmony....not sure when in 2019 you are sailing but perhaps airports might weigh into your decision making too. What I mean by that is Symphony sails out of Miami and Harmony from Fort Lauderdale, and personally for me, it is more of a pain to fly to MIA than FLL. It would cost me almost double and there are not as many flight times to choose from. So I would choose FLL any day over MIA. If you are looking into sailings after may 2019 then you might want to factor in the commute to port canaveral. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted December 29, 2017 Report Share Posted December 29, 2017 15 hours ago, #cruiselife said: Are there any new features on Symphony that are significantly different from Harmony? We are currently leaning towards Harmony because we would prefer to see Grease over Hairspray and we love Sabor, particularly because of their avocado margaritas. Is there anything significant we are overlooking here? I know this is a tough question to answer right now due to the fact that some details about Symphony have not been released, but I figured I'd ask because we plan to book the cruise as soon as possible. I think you're on the right track. In short, there will not be major differences based on what we know now. The fact Symphony is newer will also (likely) command a higher price tag. So you're considerations of minor things like entertainment or dining is exactly the kind of rationale needed to make the decision. We don't know of any major differences between the two at this point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psakid Posted January 3, 2018 Report Share Posted January 3, 2018 #cruiselife, My family and I will be sailing on the 5-day inaugural cruise out of Barcelona on March 31st. I plan to make it my job to search out those differences you mentioned and others (Matt, I could use your help with a list things you know of too) between the sister ships. We've booked two starboard oceanview connecting balconies about half way back from the aft stairs/elevators. Might switch to Boardwalk, but prices keep rising making our current situation more valuable. Chose starboard so as to see the Italian coast at night between Naples & Rome. Those are our only two ports along with two sea days. Wish it was longer, but it's over the Easter Break so it works well with my children's schedule. If you can't wait for early April to make a decision, I'd probably go with Harmony (price being the same) as it will also have the Mini Bites venue near the Basketball court on Deck 15. I went there every morning for 'made to order' omelets right before they switched over to lunch at 11am. Not a show stopper but it was consistently busy during the noon hours as a easy in and out snack venue instead of the Windjammer (which I also like). That area on the Symphony with be the new El Loco Fresh taking over for Sabor. I'll definitely be checking that place out. Not a big show person, but I'm looking forward to the Ice Skating show and a different Aqua Theatre production (sorry, didn't care for Harmony's take). With all of this said, I'm slowly working on my bucket list of sailing on everyone of RCI's ships, isn't everyone! :) Russell Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted January 3, 2018 Report Share Posted January 3, 2018 14 hours ago, psakid said: Matt, I could use your help with a list things you know of too) between the sister ships Will try my best. Based on Harmony, some of the changes were not really known until we got onboard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
constable145 Posted January 4, 2018 Report Share Posted January 4, 2018 Symphony will have a pool in the solarium, different ( potentially better dining ) options but will not have DreamWorks characters... Of course the shows will be different. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neaxan Posted January 19, 2018 Report Share Posted January 19, 2018 On 4.1.2018 at 10:34 AM, constable145 said: Symphony will have a pool in the solarium, different ( potentially better dining ) options but will not have DreamWorks characters... Of course the shows will be different I've also read this quite a few times but in my CP for the Symphony TA in October the Dreamworks Character Breakfast has just become available. Razorrayy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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