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Med. Symphony B2B - July 24th to August 12th


CraftyCat05

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My SemiLive Blog
Wowzah! Only 3 more days until we are on a plane to Barcelona! Hard to believe, this past year has flown by so fast. So, let's get down to the nitty gritty and get this show on the road! (props to people who get that reference)

Our Cruising History

I am sailing with my mother and father who have both cruised 2 and 3 times, respectively. This will be our third family cruise together (which have all been on Royal), and our second time on an Oasis Class ship. We are all from Texas and excited to get away from the 100+°F summer heat as well! The last time we were on a cruise was in summer of 2016, so we are all excited to get back on the magnificent Royal ships. My mother enjoys the sun and pool, so we may be spending our down-time at the beaches in Barcelona, or the sports deck pool. This is also a partial celebration for my mother's birthday as well! 

Why Symphony?

While being on Symphony for the inaugural season made this cruise very appealing, the itinerary in the Mediterranean (more on that later) for this cruise sealed the deal for all of us. None of us have ever been in the med for pleasure or sight seeing, and we have previously always cruised in the Caribbean, which after awhile gets to look like the same places and beaches. Hence, the idea to sail in Europe was born. All of us are excited to see the tourist traps sights, including the Vatican and Colosseum, which we will see on the excursions while in port.

The Itinerary

We are lucky enough to be doing a B2B Cruise and spend 4 days before the cruise in Barcelona! I plan to do a lighter blog on the first few days while in Barcelona, and do a mini-review on the flight and hotel. For this trip, we didn't book any non-Royal Caribbean shore excursions, due to the convenience and close time windows with the all-aboard call. Feel free to skip ahead to the next section (The Cabin), this is a lengthy one. This is the full itinerary of the trip, including the days before and hours after.

July 24th

  • Flight to Miami on American - Includes a wonderful 1h and 20min layover in MIA
  • Flight to Barcelona -  Arrive in Barcelona the next day

July 25th

  • Hotel check-in at the Hotel Arts Barcelona

July 29th - Cruise Day!

  • 6:00pm Departure from port!
  • 6:30pm Chops Grille
  • 8:30pm Hairspray - Broadway Show. Will be my first time seeing it live, and not on NBC's live show!

July 30th Palma de Mallorca, Spain

  • 8:00am Arrival
  • 9:20am Palma City Sights - RCL Shore Excursion
  • 4:00pm Departure
  • 8:00pm 1977 - Ice Show
  • We also plan to eat at the Coastal Kitchen (more about that later)

July 31st Marseilles (Provence), France 

  • 9:00am Arrival
  • 9:15am Panoramic Marseilles & Aix - RCL
  • 6:00pm Departure
  • 8:00pm Jamie's Italian - We have only tried Giovani's Italian on Allure, so it will be interesting to see the differences between the two Italian restaurants.

August 1st La Spezia (Florence/Piza), Italy

  • 8:30am Arrival
  • 8:35am Florence & Pisa - Cities Tour RCL
  • 8:30pm Departure
  • 9:00pm HiRO - AquaTheater Show 
  • We didn't plan any dinner reservations, as we may decide to eat in the MDR, Costal Kitchen or eat out in the city!

August 2nd - Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy

  • 7:00am Arrival
  • 8:00am Exclusive: Best of Rome - City Tour RCL
  • 8:00pm Departure
  • We didn't plan any dinner reservations, as we may decide to eat in the MDR, Costal Kitchen or eat out in the city!

August 3rd - Naples (Capi), Italy

  • 7:00am Arrival
  • 8:00am Amalfi Coast & Pompeii by Land and Sea - RCL
  • 8:00pm Departure

August 4th - Cruising

  • 5:00pm Flight - RCL Theater Show
  • 6:30pm Wonderland - The rabbit hole calls us from home....

August 5th Deja Vu!

  • 6:15pm Izumi: Hibachi - On our last cruise while on Allure, we really enjoyed the food and show that the hibachi offers, and hope that we see some new tricks from the chefs.

August 6th

  • 8:40pm Drach Caves - RCL Excursion

August 7th

  • 9:30am Biking in Provence - RCL. Have to burn the calories somewhere! 

August 8th 

  • We have no excursion booked and plan to explore on our own and enjoy the ship!

August 9th

  • We have no excursion booked and plan to explore on our own and enjoy the ship!

August 10th

  • 8:30am Capri on your Own - RCL. This should hopefully give us some freedom while touring Capri!

August 12th - Where the PCD sets in...

  • 5:00am Departure
  • Flight to Charlotte for a layover to catch the plane home

The Cabin

Since there are three of us and we need all the space we can get, we decided to splurge and get a Grand Suite cabin on the seventh floor. This also gives us access to the Costal Kitchen, reserved show seats, and other Sky Class amenities. We even get our own bathtub, which is going to come in handy to soak the muscles after that bike ride! We also get some free Voom Internet @ Sea codes, which is how I will be updating you on all of the social medias! We also won't have to move cabins in-between the cruises; we got lucky on that. Expect cabin tour Periscopes and pictures.

Social Media

I plan on doing some Periscopes and posting things to my newly founded Flickr page.

PeriscopeCraftyCat05 - Plan on seeing the Cabin Tour, Embarkation, Docking and Undocking, and other things here.

Flickr - CraftyCat05https://www.flickr.com/photos/155580610@N05/albums/72157693503806790/with/41744815340/ - Plan on seeing a full album of some of the photos I take here.
(I don't change usernames ?)

Miscellaneous

  • We haven't gotten any drink, spa, or specialty dining packages, as we find that we never will get our money's worth out of these. 
  • I'm still debating on bringing my Nikon D7000 with me; seems like it won't be a great idea to bring it in port, and my iPhone camera is great for cruising candids.
  • This will be my first time: Live blogging, scoping, and posting images to my gallery. Expect errors, hiccups, and newbie mistakes. (read: be patient, please:))
  • We loved the Costal Kitchen and it's staff on Allure, and hope the same experience is translated to Symphony.
  • I am a tech nerd, and will also give updates on the new Royal app and the WOW bands (which we will get with our suite).
  • I will be leaving my 26 pound Schnoodle at the Pet Resort in town. He will also be staying in 5 paw accommodations, which include a webcam for us to view him while traveling. 
  • Expect me to post pictures of Cruise Compasses and other documents.
  • My laptop "N" key is starting to get sticky, lets hope it doesn't fail while on the cruise.
  • Biggie One: I really hope that I can get some interaction from YOU! Ask any questions you have may have, give me some tips, or just comment on what you see here.

wooh! Time to get my fingers soaked... Too much typing!

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45 minutes ago, Joe01 said:

What are you most looking forward to on Symphony? Definitely do the slides. Go to 80's night as well. Those are my two recommendations.

Definitely looking forward most to the Abyss and Perfect Storm slides, and the shows. They were fantastic last time on Allure, and can't wait to see what the Symphony cast brings to the stage, ice, and water. Food as well!

My mother and father are excited most for the ports and places we will see, but I bet they will also enjoy the food and activities on SY, just like last time on Allure.

Thanks for the question!

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8 minutes ago, CraftyCat05 said:

Definitely looking forward most to the Abyss and Perfect Storm slides, and the shows. They were fantastic last time on Allure, and can't wait to see what the Symphony cast brings to the stage, ice, and water. Food as well!

My mother and father are excited most for the ports and places we will see, but I bet they will also enjoy the food and activities on SY, just like last time on Allure.

Thanks for the question!

The ice shows are great. Very talented cast. 

Saw most of one of the Aqua shows and it is certainly very impressive. Definitely takes a lot of skill to do what they do. I need to go back to see the other one.

Didn't get to see Hairspray or Flight, so need to cruise on Symphony again to see them. The cast are great though (I saw them in a different number).

BTW - The blue slide is very fast. Also love the champagne bowl (green/yellow) but the queue is long for that one. The yellow racer is slower though. I didn't do the Abyss.

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2 minutes ago, Joe01 said:

The ice shows are great. Very talented cast. 

Saw most of one of the Aqua shows and it is certainly very impressive. I need to go back to see the other one.

Didn't get to see Hairspray or Flight, so need to cruise on Symphony again to see them. The cast are talented though (I saw them in a different number).

BTW - The blue slide is very fast. Also love the champagne bowl (green/yellow) but the queue is long for that one. The yellow racer is slower though.

I hear that the cast is very talented, but the story line for the ice shows are very disorganized and not together. Luckily, the twists and turns will distract me from it!

I'm really excited about flight (aviation enthusiast here), and will be interesting how they can make the history of flight into an entertaining masterpiece.

Thanks for the tips about the slides! Will help me beat all the others ?

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Just now, CraftyCat05 said:

I hear that the cast is very talented, but the story line for the ice shows are very disorganized and not together. Luckily, the twists and turns will distract me from it!

 I'm really excited about flight (aviation enthusiast here), and will be interesting how they can make the history of flight into an entertaining masterpiece.

Thanks for the tips about the slides! Will help me beat all the others ?

Yes, what you said about the Ice Shows is true, but that's not the fault of the cast. It's probably the way ice shows work though. 1977 was better than Flight in that regard.

Careful on the blue side. I nearly blacked out at the end of it. Was a fair splash of water at the exit. Do take care.

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Just now, twangster said:

Must try blue slide ?

It's like people blacking out on rollercoasters. Very fun, but it is fast and what I would consider intense (although that definition changes depending on what you like).

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Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! Going to be calling a Uber to the airport in less than 2 hours! 

 

but... just got a text from American, saying that our flight to Miami has been delayed by 14 minutes, making our connection time a mere 59 minutes. Anything to do in Miami? Is the airport hotel good? I just don't think that we are going to make that flight to Barcelona...

@accio7, it may commence, but not where it's going to be! lol, thanks for the well wishes.

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3 hours ago, CraftyCat05 said:

but... just got a text from American, saying that our flight to Miami has been delayed by 14 minutes, making our connection time a mere 59 minutes. Anything to do in Miami? Is the airport hotel good? I just don't think that we are going to make that flight to Barcelona...

@accio7, it may commence, but not where it's going to be! lol, thanks for the well wishes.

Oh no! All the best to you, my cruising friend, I hope you do make the flight as well!

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Updates, updates, updates!

Calling American at the last minute while enroute to the airport to make a flight to Miami, an absolute miracle worker was able to get my whole trip rerouted so I could actually make to Barcelona on time! I will now go though Heathrow instead of Miami, for no extra charge! Everything seems to be going well....

Except my Macbook Pro has decided to make my "B" key to be very temperamental and only work when it wants to. If you see a lot of missing B's, then you know why. Will try to get this fixed, lol.

Well, Yay for making flights!

 

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Following for sure ,  Do not miss the laser TAG , try to do it on the first day were you almost do no have lines , another good way to burn some calories for 10 minutes ? we did it several time and it was enjoyable.

You are going to love the ship on Rome/Florence days were you are staying on board , its going to be just for you almost.

IF you will still have time , try to do a quick tour in Naples even for 1 hour , its a special city.

 

Have a safe flight.

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11 hours ago, JLMoran said:

Congrats on the free flight fix! Fly forth to fun and frolicking!

Thanks!

3 hours ago, Traveler said:

Following for sure ,  Do not miss the laser TAG , try to do it on the first day were you almost do no have lines , another good way to burn some calories for 10 minutes ? we did it several time and it was enjoyable.

You are going to love the ship on Rome/Florence days were you are staying on board , its going to be just for you almost.

IF you will still have time , try to do a quick tour in Naples even for 1 hour , its a special city.

 

Have a safe flight.

Thanks for the tip! 

Since we are doing a B2B, we planned to do the city tour the first week in Florence and Rome, and then on the second week to do explore on our own, and then maybe enjoy the ship for the last few hours while in port. Will also need to check the my TripIt itenerary if we have anymore time to explore Naples... lol

Thanks for the well wishes about the flight! We are in the No. 1 Lounge at Heathrow waiting for our flight to Barcelona!

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Heathrow Airport Update

Now in the No. 1 Lounge at Heathrow (thanks Priority Pass card!), and just got off our American flight to Heathrow!

The Flight

The flight was great, even got a gobsmacking 2 hours of sleep while on board. The seat had a nice layout, giving lots of room for all of the necessary inflight items, including my phone, water, and glasses. The crew was also great, giving great and speedy service. Unfortunately, because of the last minute flight change we weren't able to get the meals we had ordered for the Miami to Barcelona flight. This created havoc for my mother, not giving her what she had wanted and could have with her very extreme food allergies. But, there was a meal at the end of the metal tube flying us to London... The First Class pilot's meal! The flight attendant was kind enough to give her the pilot's meal (and apparently they get First Class meals), making the flight just so much better. All of the other food was great, and menu pictures are at the end of this post. 

Was also able to watch two movies while eating dinner and breakfast (The Post // Maze Runner: Death Cure), but had only 5 minutes to go in the movie before they shut off the screens for landing. Also got some sleep as I said before, and American offers Casper bedding for sleeping, which was some of the most comfortable long haul bedding i've ever had the pleasure to use. 

Heathrow

We didn't get off the a good start... The jet bridge that connects the plane to the terminal had broken down, making us stranded in the plane for an extra 15 minutes before we were able to deplane.

As usual, you had to walk a long way to the main airport area, as it always is with Heathrow and it's terminals. We then got to the wonderful British security.

Since TSA and the British Security are nothing alike in their allowances, many people were flustered in the connection security area. We even had the pleasure opportunity to see a senior American traveler get told off by many security personnel. They were not happy with him, thus making him go through the search of all of his baggage and his person after being snobby to one of the helpers in the Security line. 

My security experience was fine, and luckily didn't get anything taken for further screening, as there was a line of about 5 bags to be searched. 

Now we are at the lounge, typing to blogs and reading golfing magazines. Soon we will be off for Barcelona on British Airways! Type to you guys soon.

Pictures

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The Seat

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Seat Control Panel

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Amenity Kit Contents

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Drinks and Nuts

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Menu #1

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Menu #2

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34 minutes ago, CraftyCat05 said:

Thanks for the well wishes! Just got to the hotel room, planning on giving a Periscope of the view! @CraftyCat05 on periscope!

Great blog. Joined your live Periscope. For some reason when I typed a message, it didn't go through. Hope to catch your upcoming scopes with better luck. Happy sailing!

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Hotel Update (in Barcelona!)

We have arrived in Barcelona after our flight on a British Airways A320, and this edition of CraftyCat05's blog is coming from the Hotel Arts in Barcelona!

Flying, part dos

Once off the uneventful flight from Heathrow (including one spicy panini, free of charge!), we went though immigrations and got to the....

Empty taxi stands. We were very unlucky to travel on the day that the Barcelona Taxi Cabs have decided to have a 48 hour strike, in protest against Uber. This in turn, makes everyone use Uber, ultimately defeating the point of this strike. 1 Uber - 0 Taxi Cabs. ( @Joe01 got very lucky with this, being in Barcelona on the same cruise only weeks before!)

After the debacle at the airport taxi stands, we decided to check out the busses.... 

Which the line was a good Kilometer long (gotta use those European measurements! - Stupid America). That was a no go.

We then decided to use Uber (read above about score), making the rest of the trip quick and seamless. Only thing was that the driver only spoke Spanish, but we had a Spanish speaker in the group (thanks Dad).

Hotels and Chicken

Once reaching the hotel, we decided to check in (cuz that's what normal people do, right?) and with only one missing passport scare, we were in the clear, we were about to relax in our suite on the 25th floor, and go to sleep!

Ha ha, no! Something has to go wrong, right?

Our room was still occupied (curse you late checkout!), and we had to wait for a hour and a half to get our room in our possession. We spent this time siping on Margaritas, Daiquiris, and eating food to our hearts content (except the check holding us back). I had a chicken breast, my mother had a chicken wrap thing, and my father had Tuna Ceviche (not Peruvian grade like he had as a child though)

Now time for rest! Hope to see you soon, whether it be in the blog or periscope!

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