Jump to content

Symphony Of The Seas 14-21 April semi live blog


Traveler

Recommended Posts

1 hour ago, twangster said:

Agreed.  But if no lobster in Europe that left me wondering if my Australia cruise in January will have lobster.  It's Caribbean lobster tail (as opposed to Maine lobster), so if they aren't shipping them to Europe maybe they don't ship them to other regions too.

Huge difference in Caribbean lobster and New England lobster.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 4/14/2018 at 10:58 AM, Traveler said:

Thanks , 

Barcelona is a wonderful city , with wonderful food and  sites .

Regarding hotels , it depends what level of hotel you are looking for ,  If you are OK to use public transportation I would stay away from the La Ramblas hotels and by doing that you can save allot of money. This time I stayed at region 22 which was very nice and I think I would try it again next time , I was in the Sheraton four points Diagonal, it was clean, room was big enough and near by supermarkets, malls and restaurants. 

For cruise , the best hotel I guess will be the W but it is quite isolated from the city and very expensive. when we will come back from the cruise we will try another hotel and another area so I can report how it was. at the past we stayed in the Hilton which was also nice but quite far from the city center.

Barcelona has a good public transportation buses and subway which are easy to use even if you do not speak Spanish.

For restaurants there are many options , every mall has many small restaurants for a quick eats and tapas bars are spread around the city , I can just advise you to avoid  any resultant in the old port as they are mostly tourist traps . 

If it is you first time in Europe you are going to enjoy it very much as almost any ports has so many interesting things to see. 

When I will back home I can send you some more detailed recommendations for restaurants and hotels.

How many days your are planning in Barcelona ? base on that I can recommend on tours (the market , the church ,etc ...)  

 

I'm thinking we will stay 2 to 3 days before the cruise!  Thanks for your thoughts... the cruise is over a year away but I have so much fun planning!  Jane

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Day 5 Rome ,

Well there is  only one place to go here , do not even bother on the other tours ,Rome is a must and I think I do not need to explain why.Our tour today was “navigate  Rome”, its actually a guided transfer to Rome were you get a cell phone that has several applications to guide you around and help you find your way.With the device (Samsung note 3) you are getting also  earphones. The guide kept reminding us that its 500 $ fine if we lose the device (not a bad revenue for RC as you can get such devices for much less).The application also contains a way to communicate with the guide and ability to send photos to your email from the phone. The meeting time was 8 and around 8:30 AM we were on our way to Rome.The ride took  90 minutes so around 10 we were dropped near the Vatican. During the ride the guide offered to sell Vatican tickets which save you the time to stand in the ticket office lines or a panoramic bus tour with ability to hop on and off.

The cost for the Vatican tickets is 34 $ , the buss is 35 $ and both are going directly to your sea pass account which is very comfortable. We tool the bus tour although you can do without it and I will explain later.

If you plan to visit the Vatican museum take into consideration the way it is organized, it actually a linear maze which you can only go forward at the end after more than a mile you will find the Sistine chapel , it can take more than an hour until you get to it.

Also please mind air conditions are not that common in Rome , which mean most of the places missing them including public buses and small shops/restaurants.

Check before if the ST Paul is accessible or not,

While walking near the Vatican you will encounter many people trying to sell you Vatican tickets/tours, they can be annoying but just tell them that you already have tickets, its usually works. 

5ad9aef42b8ee_vatican2.thumb.jpg.c2cf3d6dcbb13efbc7abb7a3af7238ce.jpg

Vatican.thumb.jpg.45167f0d30f17482782875f5474949a5.jpg

fort.thumb.jpg.8fb3a468adc80734da04aacab11ee6a8.jpg

Tiber.thumb.jpg.c1ee7a31b551439ddda11d9cfd0a9ae4.jpg

We went to the bus station (around 0.5 mile from the Vatican), the bus came quite fast and we took it just until the next station , which is the famous fountain/Spanish stress.

Note , from the bus stop to the attractions you will need to walk around 0.25 miles.

The fountain was not working for some reason but we throw some coins in anyway, after all we suppose to come back at September.

foun.thumb.jpg.5f2c9cae0ce69345c36336a13ae73e0d.jpg

From the fountain we went into the Spanish stairs, tons of people around but still nice to see.

Spanish.thumb.jpg.9fef49b4bd4c4e9c7b2a51d95c0fd2f2.jpg

Next station was the Pantheon which is always impressive considering it was built almost 2000 years ago. Just remember if you are planning to go visit some churches make sure you have the proper outfit (no shorts, no cut sleeves).

 

We tried to find something to eat that is not in the middle of the tourist attraction in Rome its not an easy task but we found some bar that served lunch, it was full with local people (well at least the people inside seemed to speak Italian). The food was ok, not something to write home about but did the work.

5ad9afb815cbb_Romeres.thumb.jpg.bdbcb1d52155b8a27a36e1ed1fb888c6.jpg

After lunch we went to eat ice cream, do not miss it , you cannot go wrong with ice cream in Italy.

We continued to walk to Venice square to visit the capitolina hill where we later took the bus back to the Vatican area

5ad9afee80880_Vsq.thumb.jpg.a310d4936ff61a096816e17edb7f7d17.jpg

5ad9b010a27e3_Vsq2.thumb.jpg.e29899b3298a052fd748d8aa6ae0a949.jpg

, since we had some extra time until we had to catch the group we took another ice cream (just to test if the pistachio flavor is same everywhere , for the research nothing else)   and excellent espresso.

In Italy you can find many espresso bars where people are drinking coffee standing up (around 1 $) its like refueling station for people , they come , drink the espresso for 30 seconds and go. By the way no Starbucks around ?    

We started our way back, but before heading to the port the bus travel via some of Rome monuments.

All in all a nice tour. If you want to save some money, you can catch this tour or even just transfer to Rome and take the public bus to where you want to start your walking tour, most of the main sites are nearby (the colosseum, the Pantheon, the capitolina , Spanish stairs . (around 15 – 20 minutes).

We came back around 5:30 PMs , we tried to do again the laser tag but it was closed already although they published it will be closed at 6 PM.

Dinner again was in WJ, they had lots of cakes and tons of fruits.

wj1.thumb.jpg.27afc465299dfe44679800e9b0250935.jpg

Wj3.thumb.jpg.a8c6b9498fdc18041b10dcc7e648befa.jpg

Wj4.thumb.jpg.4606e968d551503624b846ee7aa30f03.jpg

We were too tired to go to a show today, so we called it off qu ite early, all in all very enjoyable day.

wj1.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Love the pics of Rome.  It had me take out my old photo albums and look at them again.  I was in Rome in 1977 on my last Navy Med Cruise.  I got some of the same pictures as you, nice to know things haven't changed that much.  Italy and Sicily and Palma were my favorites ports.  Now I want to go back...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, arebee said:

Love the pics of Rome.  It had me take out my old photo albums and look at them again.  I was in Rome in 1977 on my last Navy Med Cruise.  I got some of the same pictures as you, nice to know things haven't changed that much.  Italy and Sicily and Palma were my favorites ports.  Now I want to go back...

Rome is one large  outdoor museum , where ever you go in the city center there is something. History all around, love this city.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

37 minutes ago, Matt said:

That Windjammer dessert display is no joke!

WOW.  I haven't seen a display like that in years.  SOOOO nice to see.  I am so disappointed that Royal rarely has those beautiful and elaborate displays anymore.  Long gone (for the most part) are the days of ice sculptures and sculptured fruit.  I do realize that this often results in waste but it's really so traditional with cruising.  Glad to see that the art isn't completely gone.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Day 6 Napoli , One of the most interesting stop with many options ,

Many are going to Capri, a nice small island with breathtaking views, to go to Capri you take a 45 boat ride (or more than one hour if you are taking the slower boats), the cheapest way to get there will be to buy the tickets by yourself in port but the risk is lack of space in the boats.

The other popular attractions are visiting Pompeii, the old city which is impressive and about 20 minutes ride from the port , Sorento a nice town , Amalfi coast (one of the nicest landscape road in Europe) and some more.

Vesuvius in the background 

Ves.thumb.jpg.8a664079ec3e4f4c8aa8cb7fc95b497b.jpg

bay.thumb.jpg.2dafd8f1b9d93248d3ff1917b4216926.jpg

We decided not to take any of those as we have been to Pompeii, Sorento and Amalfi road previously  and we are planning to visit Capri next cruise. So we just went to visit Napoli, now if you will ask an Italian which leaves in north of  Italy what he thinks about Napoli (and to be more accurate about Napoli people) you might get interesting reaction which will make you think twice if you want visit the city. I, on the other hand say forget it , do not miss Napoli , it is a beautiful city with tons of character.

One thing is quite true , as the cruise director said (and he is from Napoli) traffic lights/signs in Napoli are just decorations.Yes , at the exit from the port you will have many taxi drivers try to solicited you some trips but not much more (even less) comparing to many other places like Jamaica.Once you pass the road to the city you can find many nice small streets, interesting buildings, small shops and restaurants.

5adb57afc9a6f_Nap3.thumb.jpg.389e5306b0750df71253805f8fc89c28.jpg

We just went between the streets without any certain direction, stopping from time to time to espresso shots  (and other type of coffees).

Cofee.thumb.jpg.2ff6a7007924ec8fcb3238c708d8acdb.jpg

 

5adb57e26a3ef_Napolimarket.thumb.jpg.21e440973f27a015b7108dd9f2c82de9.jpg

5adb57f597241_Napolist2.thumb.jpg.3b9882583d2c8ce1fc4debf641c4a653.jpg

5adb580b53921_Napolist3.thumb.jpg.6aeed201976927e9aa4fa78e91b1f6fb.jpg

5adb582730caf_Napolit.thumb.jpg.f471fafb0fe0a3aa1b430421989dfcb9.jpg

5adb5ad134f3d_Napolistat.thumb.jpg.329fd69975fdd7da30feef62ecbfcde0.jpg

NP.thumb.jpg.34d4ed9a544ab0195847bf77188f439e.jpg

We did came to a place with a street performer , well not exactly street as he perform from his home terrace and organize the crowds to sing with him , very funny.

5adb58c330d99_Napolisinger.thumb.jpg.c7a52a253d32cd6eca2fefc05ad39287.jpg

After few hours we went to find a good Pizza (which is an easy task in Napoli) , we found some small Pizzeria that served huge Pizzas , we split one between us as we did not thought we can finish two .

5adb58e967b5d_Napolipizza.thumb.jpg.11cb46332ac9787ecd4f3a1e37dbda9e.jpg

5adb590bae1ff_NapoliPizza2.thumb.jpg.176f06a63d4ca93f273708a93d49a776.jpg

Pizza cost around 9$ it was very very good (and not just because we compared it to Sorento’s).

Later we went to one of the small supermarkets to buy some Limoncello, prices are much better than the tourist stores.

We started our way back to the ship to catch another laser Tag session, we won this time.

5adb5983393c0_Symphonenapoli.thumb.jpg.36880d963ae5bc031f0ccff6859bff5a.jpg

Dinner was the MDR again, I must say the service was very quick , one hour including everything.

5adb592be854c_menu6.thumb.jpg.aacc11805e38d1deb345629515e9d086.jpg

I took the tenderloin, excellent, we paired the dishes with a Malbec wine I brought with me to the ship.

tender.thumb.jpg.8e7603c6cd9ef4eeae2fbbeccb140ed8.jpg

wine.thumb.jpg.05bca606d96515145104510c94181242.jpg

Another excellent day.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

50 minutes ago, JLMoran said:

Fantastic pictures of Napoli! Really liking this blog, you’re really making me think hard about doing Mediterranean before Norway / Iceland, instead of the other way around. 

 First of all thank you , 

Regarding the Mediterranean vs Norway/Island , one is all about history/culture and beautiful  landscapes the other is more nature , hard to choose.

The advantage of the med is by ability to serve the Oasis class (if you like this class) while Norway more tending to Vision/Voyager and from time to time freedom classes.We might try the fjords routs next year , always wanted to do it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 4/20/2018 at 10:05 AM, WAAAYTOOO said:
On 4/20/2018 at 9:25 AM, Matt said:

 

WOW.  I haven't seen a display like that in years.  SOOOO nice to see. 

And I wonder if it will cease once Symphony comes back here to the States. Now THAT's what I remember about cruising in the "old days"  People would just take pictures of the ice sculptures and carved fruit etc. It really is/was an art!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Boston Babe said:

And I wonder if it will cease once Symphony comes back here to the States. Now THAT's what I remember about cruising in the "old days"  People would just take pictures of the ice sculptures and carved fruit etc. It really is/was an art!

I sure hope it will stay the same, 

For sure they will do something for the first few cruises from Miami, For this first  month they brought many veteran workers from different ships just to make sure everything goes smooth .

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Boston Babe said:

And I wonder if it will cease once Symphony comes back here to the States. Now THAT's what I remember about cruising in the "old days"  People would just take pictures of the ice sculptures and carved fruit etc. It really is/was an art!

 

1 minute ago, Traveler said:

I sure hope it will stay the same, 

For sure they will do something for the first few cruises from Miami, For this first  month they brought many veteran workers from different ships just to make sure everything goes smooth .

Second the comments in hope the glitz remains for the US sailings. Looking forward to seeing it in person 30 weeks from today.

 

The prior to that, looking forward to some more pre cruise hype with @twangster's posting on the TA.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Day 7 , 

As we went to sleep quite late the day before we waked only around 10:30 AM (which is achievement for us  now days) we went to the WJ to eat MP style breakfast , for some reason in the WJ they call it lunch.

The rest of the day was spent between deck 15, Laser Tag , Ice , puzzle solving (second round) and yes also casino (which was nice to us)

We decided to dedicate the last day to try and visit places we did not had time to check before on the ship and here some of it :

Dazzle 

Dazzel.thumb.jpg.5b8d592b70d10bdf8b8ab6d95ae218b6.jpg

It seems they had some more space to Sorento's 

Sp.thumb.jpg.c976296e599b1521956a518de31e8ae5.jpg

The since lab in the adventure ocean :

5adbe54d016b6_Sincelab.thumb.jpg.a60aead0dd97afa60807a0a4a3674474.jpg

They add vending machines on deck 15 , the only problem is (beside the price) is the operation hours which are very limited and contradicts the logic behind the vending concept.

V1.thumb.jpg.8ff14b1fe64757872326681b01105dd3.jpg

Vp2.thumb.jpg.6f1f38d027819b205842c135dc39c89b.jpg

Vp3.thumb.jpg.2e30b2e1969257bba1fb3fd90e4bbe49.jpg

 

On deck 15 they also added a charging station for cellphones , very useful I think.

Charge.thumb.jpg.b775cbe659283e39616a8212f2a5f468.jpg

Central park at night : 

5adbe6a9312a1_Centralpark.thumb.jpg.1f460d2492181762e7dc6f712b6fd915.jpg

 

Some arts : 

 

Art2.thumb.jpg.cdd54bed28b7518a4dd35f74c0fe15b7.jpg

5adbe70fd9ea1_Art1.thumb.jpg.42450e15e020f380ad8f356422eaf843.jpg

MDR dinner : 

 

Menue.thumb.jpg.5b939d546f3f6574fd87fdfaf4d6c497.jpg

5adbe764c1e58_WJfirst.thumb.jpg.b78b7e2789af5c6881d426d46593c5ff.jpg

5adbe77a5679f_WJmain.thumb.jpg.1042629e0727b59aae03281b9d20a9ca.jpg

And starting to prepare for the next cruise 

5adbe7a085d6e_Balonprep.thumb.jpg.970b09fd8120e1005ed784c8b5af3755.jpg

Menue.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Day 8 – departure

 

Lucky for us we went sleeping quite early for a last day (around 1 AM ) so we could catch few hours of  quality sleeping time.I found out the hard way that one of the departure day depression is lacking good sleep on the final day.

Our departure time was schedule to 9 am so we had time to organize things and catch some last breakfast in WJ , this was the first day I saw the WJ full but still we found some space to seat and eat a quick one.We left our room around 8:40 directly to the gangway, In Barcelona they have two terminal for Oasis class , terminal C and B , even tag numbers are sent to Terminal C and odds goes to terminal B , as I was not paying attention we found ourselves in the wrong terminal … so we had to do all the way back to the other terminal , the advantage was that we could take one last picture of the ship.

5adccbb47b688_Sympbar2.thumb.jpg.b2c1b971b272441a70f8a3c88eb7ac2c.jpg

As our flight was schedule only to be the next day (500 $ less) we waited for a taxi to take us to our hotel. Beware , taxies lines in Barcelona port can take up to 30 minutes (that’s the cases if you are not leaving the ship at 7 AM anyway).

We arrived the hotel (Crown Plaza 10 minutes ride from the port and 18 $) as no rooms were available yet we were given access to the launch were we had our second late breakfast  , rooms were available around 11 AM so we went up put our stuff and left to tour Barcelona for few hours.The hotel, although not in the main center, is located near Espania square (10-15 minutes walk) which has a metro , a very impressive fountain nearby and some museum/shops

5adccbde9396b_ftbet.thumb.jpg.8a6b872f3e03576d3f4a92593af90e01.jpg

FT1.thumb.jpg.d04d5762273ae534628ef75f1ed0d537.jpg

We took some picture and went to the Subway so we can catch a ride to boqueria food market and to La Rambla avenue.

 

Boueria became a very touristic place although still there many stores which sells fresh food for locals.

If you can avoid it during weekend it is best as the place is  very crowded. Still I would not miss it .

We took some small mixed Jamon plate and fresh exotic fruits cups.

Off we went to walk at  Rambla  until we decided to add back to the hotel.

Rambla.thumb.jpg.002d997d28155c3ea77a93d0e677a1c9.jpg

Later we went to a Supermarkets to buy some Jamon and Cava to bring back home (remember we promised some Jamon to the cat ? ).

Flight back was 6 am so we went to sleep early,  during the cruise I found out that I will come back home , do my laundry and fly day after to South America for some meetings. 

So some thoughts about the ship :

First , it is wonderful ship , I am so happy we will be on it again on September.

We discussed with some crew member which told us that RC brought many people from other ships for few weeks , I do hope they will continue with the excellent service.

The same crew member told us that the new bar, Playmaker was a big success, I could so that every day it was full of people.

Internet was excellent in the entire ship , when we wanted to work on another device we just had to login on this device without logout the other (which is good but can also create some internet wars, sure  I need to buy the travel router for next time as suggested by @twangster  , will do it next week when I will catch my connection flight in EWR)

We brought two bottles of wines and open them one in Hooked and one in the MDR , we were not charged for any fees.

The laser tag is fun, I would recommend to try it, if you come as family maybe even try to be on opposite teams.

The ice show is not to be missed.

Hairspray is very nice, well performed.

We did not took the drinking package  as there was only one sea day so with two bottles of wines , three paid drinks and some very drinks in the Casino we managed to handle it.

RC were very generous with the sparkling wine, almost every day they gave it free in the WJ.

Going on one of the first cruise prove itself to be very good, the ship for sure was ready with 98% of her features.

Another cruise came to its end, thanks whoever followed, as always it was enjoyable to write it , let me know if you have any question on the ship or the ports, would happy to answer.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bonus post :1_grinning:

So during the flight back yesterday I had few hours (its a short flight) to review some old pictures.

During this semi live blog I described many  other tour options  that can be done from the  ports , so here are pictures from tours we done while we were on the Harmony of the seas during October 16 sell at the same itinerary.

 

Marseille - The tour was to Cassis , a small city with wonderful view , the pictures are from the near by cliffs :

 

Cas1.thumb.jpg.577ededd560138a57a3d3003e8802ff1.jpg

cas2.thumb.jpg.0bc929c8dc44022cf1aef0572e4d34a6.jpg

cas3.thumb.jpg.1d7d059605f27c10327ef0e875c66f5f.jpg

 

In La Speza we rented a car a drove first to a viewpoint over the port and later to one of the old towns near by.

5addab7d0292c_LaSpe1.thumb.jpg.59316d76d73c85112f2d92c84d155fd3.jpg

5addab97ed9fa_Laspe2.thumb.jpg.596daded9f948ae12b0c19b2f7c73b66.jpg

5addabab5633f_Lespe3.thumb.jpg.9685c33d601a298eccc505513253abd8.jpg

Here some picture from the area :

5addac2a1d5b2_LeV1.thumb.jpg.11850d6c4e20077a9f178e2b3c084f3f.jpg

5addac391ea4f_Lev2.thumb.jpg.aead4a2746bfcb4575ee7a21e65c78eb.jpg

5addac672410f_Lve3.thumb.jpg.5b481fff25bd533373cc018dca72399a.jpg

5addac7c39dd5_Lev4.thumb.jpg.513fbe03fa959922bb292e659304d910.jpg

5addac8b7a47a_Lev5.thumb.jpg.6d38543d9143be546fc80f1fcef65785.jpg

5addaca311321_Lv6.thumb.jpg.d3f625db8dac5302d04e5df1a300f39e.jpg

5addacb30ffb0_Lev7.thumb.jpg.5e4bea4fa89ce1b763f9eb4bb7adfc3d.jpg

5addacc3aed30_Lve8.thumb.jpg.a8138993bf3887d887d5c7ed4087b516.jpg

In Napoli we to ok a tour to Sorento (with making pizza) and in the way to the city we stop near Amalfi coast :

5addacdeb598c_Amf1.thumb.jpg.8442b501a03cf86caad934af2dd114c1.jpg

Amf2.thumb.jpg.e5643a253b84a16e41439efce20c2112.jpg

amf3.thumb.jpg.337497d43e749b66568aa9c47e585da0.jpg

L ve 3.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...