Symphony Transatlantic

[Jeff-n-Terri]

Two weeks to go!  Symphony's maiden transatlantic crossing.  We have our shows booked, wine tasting scheduled, 5 night dining package, and of course the deluxe drink package.  So Excited!  Party across the Atlantic.

Who else is going?  Are there any RCCL Blog Events?

[4ensic]

17 minutes ago, Jeff-n-Terri said:

Two weeks to go!  Symphony's maiden transatlantic crossing.  We have our shows booked, wine tasting scheduled, 5 night dining package, and of course the deluxe drink package.  So Excited!  Party across the Atlantic.

Who else is going?  Are there any RCCL Blog Events?

Oh yeah!  It'll be good to see HectorIsMagic and Fourever perform again.  And all those sea days.

[mworkman]

Sadly no!! We had vacation booked for St. Lucia before they released the dates and made it near impossible to do.  Have fun! 

[Neaxan]

We'll be going and we can't wait. It'll be our first cruise with Royal but thanks to this wonderful blog I think we're prepared. Drink package, 5 night dining package plus Hibachi reservation, shows and escape room are booked, setsail passes and luggage tags are printed. I'm only missing the all access tour but I guess it'll be available on the ship. No RCCL blog events that I'm aware of but we've signed up for a few on the roll call (Meet & Mingle, Pub Crawl, Mini Golf and Scavenger Hunt).

Maybe see you on the ship!

 

[KathyC]

The RCBlog isn't going as there is a Symphony group cruise later in November.  But there will be a bunch of RCPeriscopers on board, who are also members of this community. 

[BarbieBell]

We will also be on the crossing Oct 28 on the Symphony. This will make our 17th RCI Transatlantic and we are really excited to meet some fellow travelers.  Looking ahead Nov 2, 2019 the Presidents cruise will be on this ship out of Miami and it will also be RCI's 50th Birthday. It seems that cabins are already going fast so you might want to check it out at the Next Cruise desk while onboard. 

[Matt]

On 10/12/2018 at 12:16 PM, Jeff-n-Terri said:

Are there any RCCL Blog Events?

 

On 10/13/2018 at 11:53 AM, KathyC said:

The RCBlog isn't going as there is a Symphony group cruise later in November.  But there will be a bunch of RCPeriscopers on board, who are also members of this community. 

@KathyC is correct. No RoyalCaribbeanBlog events on that sailing.  Nonetheless, I'm certain you will have a great time!

[tonyfsu21]

My parents are going to be on this cruise. I have a couple questions :

1. Is the purpose of the cape Canaveral stop to line up all (4) sister ships offshore for a RC promo photo opprutunty? 

 

2. Will passengers be required to go through customs twice (once cape and once Miami) if they opt to get off in the cape? 

[KathyC]

17 hours ago, tonyfsu21 said:

My parents are going to be on this cruise. I have a couple questions :

1. Is the purpose of the cape Canaveral stop to line up all (4) sister ships offshore for a RC promo photo opprutunty? 

 

2. Will passengers be required to go through customs twice (once cape and once Miami) if they opt to get off in the cape? 

1 - There is no 4 sister meet up.  They aren't all close to each other that day.  

2 - Some one will correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe you go through customs on your first port into the US.  So I think (but not 100%) that everyone does customs in Port Canaveral.  Ping @twangster

[twangster]

Just off the Adventure Snowbird migration which is sort of transatlantic, just North to South instead of East to West.

We first did US customs in Bar Harbor, Maine.  All ports after that were U.S. ports.  Those included Portland, Boston and Port Canaveral.  At all those stops we just walked off the ship like for any cruise port of call.  Our final stop in Ft. Lauderdale included the standard queues for CBP despite having met with CBP in Bar Harbor.  

So while we may have customs in Port Canaveral because that is our 1st US port, I suspect we'll meet CBP again in Miami because it's our final stop and everyone will have their luggage with them, so potentially people will have things that need to be declared for duty purposes. 

[Matt]

On 10/20/2018 at 4:07 PM, tonyfsu21 said:

1. Is the purpose of the cape Canaveral stop to line up all (4) sister ships offshore for a RC promo photo opprutunty? 

Nope, no photo opp. Purpose of the stop is just to give you somewhere else to visit before the cruise ends.

On 10/20/2018 at 4:48 PM, KathyC said:

2. Will passengers be required to go through customs twice (once cape and once Miami) if they opt to get off in the cape? 

Probably, yes.

[twangster]

Some folks who are Diamond/Diamond Plus/Pinnacle have started getting emails.   It seems this will be a cruise with very high numbers of them.   

Pinnacles will have their nightly happy hour in Dazzles and it's exclusive to them.  Diamond and Diamond Plus will have their nightly Diamond happy hours in the Diamond Lounge, Jazz on 4 and The Attic.  

Apparently Royal is implementing lessons learned from the President's Cruise since the TA will have similar top tier C&A numbers present.   

In that sense it won't be a normal Royal cruise experience for non top tier since many venues will be closed at times for special top tier events much like the President's Cruise.  

[tonyfsu21]

31 minutes ago, twangster said:

Some folks who are Diamond/Diamond Plus/Pinnacle have started getting emails.   It seems this will be a cruise with very high numbers of them.   

Pinnacles will have their nightly happy hour in Dazzles and it's exclusive to them.  Diamond and Diamond Plus will have their nightly Diamond happy hours in the Diamond Lounge, Jazz on 4 and The Attic.  

Apparently Royal is implementing lessons learned from the President's Cruise since the TA will have similar top tier C&A numbers present.   

In that sense it won't be a normal Royal cruise experience for non top tier since many venues will be closed at times for special top tier events much like the President's Cruise.  

Here’s the referenced letter:

[WAAAYTOOO]

So the suites lounge will have only suites guests for happy hour ?

[tonyfsu21]

21 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

So the suites lounge will have only suites guests for happy hour ?

Looks like they have a new SOP after my relentless emails to management re: suite lounge for suite guests only. LOL! 

[Lovetocruise2002]

1 hour ago, tonyfsu21 said:

Looks like they have a new SOP after my relentless emails to management re: suite lounge for suite guests only. LOL! 

@tonyfsu21 I am betting that you are not the only one.  I just followed the most interesting thread on another forum a week before the President's cruise about that exact issue.....

[WAAAYTOOO]

18 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

@tonyfsu21 I am betting that you are not the only one.  I just followed the most interesting thread on another forum a week before the President's cruise about that exact issue.....

Yes, I read that one, too.

[twangster]

The TA like the President's Cruise are anomalies, not the norm.  

The Pinnacle letter for the TA doesn't say Pinnacles will be denied entry into the SL, just that Dazzles is dedicated to them.  Do you really think they are going to deny a Pinnacle who tries to go into the SL?

Now we get to see how the Pinnacle crowd reacts on the TA.   

Royal created this monster and now they are walking on egg shells around it, trying to not disturb the beast they created.  

 

[tonyfsu21]

4 minutes ago, twangster said:

The TA like the President's Cruise are anomalies, not the norm.  

The Pinnacle letter for the TA doesn't say Pinnacles will be denied entry into the SL, just that Dazzles is dedicated to them.  Do you really think they are going to deny a Pinnacle who tries to go into the SL?

Now we get to see how the Pinnacle crowd reacts on the TA.   

Royal created this monster and now they are walking on egg shells around it, trying to not disturb the beast they created.  

 

Forget the Pinnacles and the suite lounge debacle, the real MONSTER is the Club Royale Casino Players program as a whole! What a joke and a mess! 

[WAAAYTOOO]

3 hours ago, twangster said:

Do you really think they are going to deny a Pinnacle who tries to go into the SL?

No, of course they wouldn't....but I promise you that they would damn well turn me away if I tried to get into Dazzles during "their" time.  Not that I would,  of course.

[BarbieBell]

Just returned from the Symphony Transatlantic and although the ship exceeds all expectations the cruise overall was disappointing. The crew seemed unorganized, their new app system was having glitches and the over 200 pinnacle guests plus approx 200 suite guests pretty well had the run of the ship so Diamond Plus guests were out in the cold. Our happy hour was in a couple of small rooms on deck 4 and so crowded meeting and socializing was impossible. Probably the worst deal was the decision to stop in Port Canaveral for the ship to undergo US inspection and forced all crew  and passengers get off the ship and go through immigration. So our last day on the ship involved getting off the ship in groups much like departure day, waiting more than two hours in lines and then making do in a very small terminal until we were allowed back on the ship around 2:00. So we had a bad day, then repeated the process departure day by waiting in long lines to disembark, then gather bags and more huge lines for taxis. Clearing immigration wouldn't have made it any worse really and we could have enjoyed our last day much better. This was poised as making it easier on the guests however most guests didn't agree at all. It appeared the only ones that benefited from that ordeal was RCI. The were able to sail smoothly into Miami with all preparations done for US arrival, dump us and reload for the next cruise. Lots of angry people leaving with a frown rather than a smile feeling like we got a swift kick in the pants. Sad, I was really looking forward to this cruise for over a year and it was a serious disappointment. 

[tonyfsu21]

3 minutes ago, BarbieBell said:

Just returned from the Symphony Transatlantic and although the ship exceeds all expectations the cruise overall was disappointing. The crew seemed unorganized, their new app system was having glitches and the over 200 pinnacle guests plus approx 200 suite guests pretty well had the run of the ship so Diamond Plus guests were out in the cold. Our happy hour was in a couple of small rooms on deck 4 and so crowded meeting and socializing was impossible. Probably the worst deal was the decision to stop in Port Canaveral for the ship to undergo US inspection and forced all crew  and passengers get off the ship and go through immigration. So our last day on the ship involved getting off the ship in groups much like departure day, waiting more than two hours in lines and then making do in a very small terminal until we were allowed back on the ship around 2:00. So we had a bad day, then repeated the process departure day by waiting in long lines to disembark, then gather bags and more huge lines for taxis. Clearing immigration wouldn't have made it any worse really and we could have enjoyed our last day much better. This was poised as making it easier on the guests however most guests didn't agree at all. It appeared the only ones that benefited from that ordeal was RCI. The were able to sail smoothly into Miami with all preparations done for US arrival, dump us and reload for the next cruise. Lots of angry people leaving with a frown rather than a smile feeling like we got a swift kick in the pants. Sad, I was really looking forward to this cruise for over a year and it was a serious disappointment. 

Interesting. My parents were onboard as diamond members and had the complete opposite experience. Although they always get in line early and I’m not sure when you started waiting. They walked off in 15 minutes in the Cape and then Fri Am they were in the car headed home by 7:00am (already on I-95 North). They did mention craziness in the diamond lounge but other then that, nothing but a positive experience. 

[twangster]

5 hours ago, BarbieBell said:

Just returned from the Symphony Transatlantic and although the ship exceeds all expectations the cruise overall was disappointing. The crew seemed unorganized, their new app system was having glitches and the over 200 pinnacle guests plus approx 200 suite guests pretty well had the run of the ship so Diamond Plus guests were out in the cold. Our happy hour was in a couple of small rooms on deck 4 and so crowded meeting and socializing was impossible. Probably the worst deal was the decision to stop in Port Canaveral for the ship to undergo US inspection and forced all crew  and passengers get off the ship and go through immigration. So our last day on the ship involved getting off the ship in groups much like departure day, waiting more than two hours in lines and then making do in a very small terminal until we were allowed back on the ship around 2:00. So we had a bad day, then repeated the process departure day by waiting in long lines to disembark, then gather bags and more huge lines for taxis. Clearing immigration wouldn't have made it any worse really and we could have enjoyed our last day much better. This was poised as making it easier on the guests however most guests didn't agree at all. It appeared the only ones that benefited from that ordeal was RCI. The were able to sail smoothly into Miami with all preparations done for US arrival, dump us and reload for the next cruise. Lots of angry people leaving with a frown rather than a smile feeling like we got a swift kick in the pants. Sad, I was really looking forward to this cruise for over a year and it was a serious disappointment. 

As  D+ I was fine with what they offered.  Nothing was taken away from us.  We never have access to the suite lounge so no loss there.  Dazzles was one venue dedicated to Pinnacles for happy hour.  I don't normally visit Dazzles between 4:30pm and 8pm so no loss there.  Chop's Pinnacle breakfast also no impact since that isn't a D+ benefit either.

D+/P/S had the entire center section of the Aqua Theater and Studio B plus the entire second floor of the main theater.  For breakfast the entire deck 4 MDR was set aside for D+.  

There were 2,589 Diamond and Diamond Plus.  I had no problem getting happy hour drinks in The Attic and taking them out to where ever I wanted to including Central Park.  

With so many D+ if anything we had the run of the ship.  Bottom line - any cruise with half the ship being D/D+/P it is not going to be a normal cruise experience.  Honestly on a normal Harmony/Symphony sailing D/D+ have to share the small D Lounge on deck 4.  Any given week that lounge is slammed during happy hour.  I had the same experience on Adventure with over 1,500 D/D+ on the Snowbird migration cruise.  They gave us the entire Viking Crown Lounge but that still wasn't enough.  President cruises are much the same, an abnormally high number of top elite.  

I experienced no crew issues, at least no different from any Oasis class crewing.  Smaller ships have a better crew experience in general.  The mega ships suffer but that's just mega ship cruising.  Even with that my experience everywhere was quite good.  Dinner in the MDR was some of the best as was dinner in the Bistro, very fast and quite friendly.  Windjammer had crew offering to get you drinks just like any other WJ.  I don't recall a single bad crew moment.

As far as immigration - blame our government, not Royal.  Oasis uses that same terminal.  I don't think CBP was ready for the high numbers of non-US citizens that take longer to process.  They didn't staff up for this and just went with a normal Oasis shift.  That's on CBP, not Royal (they had the manifest, CBP knew this was coming at them).

I did experience some confusion debarking in Miami but I think that's just a lot of Uber/Lyft clogging up the lanes and taxi and bus drivers who don't understand the flow of the new terminal yet.  Terminal workers are not Royal employees and if you look at terminal 18 in Port Everglades the local sheriff's office does traffic management.    That was absent in Miami so there was chaos as a result. 

[Nomad]

I was also on the Symphony Transatlantic and the immigration process took about 20 minutes for us to clear immigration.  That said, the line for the international guests was very long.  I talked to some international guests that had an excursion and the bus left without them.  I guess there were a lot of them with the same excursion stickers, so the bus might have been half full when it left.  I agree that CBP was not ready for the number of international guests.

We were in a Suite, so our experience was a bit different.  Not sure if I felt we had the run of the ship.  That said number of Pinnacles did impact the Suite experience. 

Some of the things that Royal did was limit the Pinnacle dining in the Coastal Kitchen to 3 nights and they also opened Dazzles as a Pinnacle lounge.  I am not sure, but I think they encouraged the Pinnacle guests to use Dazzles but the Suite lounge was always pretty full of Pinnacle guests so finding a seat was normally a challenge.  The Suite lounge was a lot noisier than normal.  I don’t blame the Pinnacles for being there because that is what they are entitled to by Royal.  While my experience was not quite the Suite experience I would have preferred, it was a really fun cruise and we met some really nice people both Suite guests and Pinnacles who are also Suite guests just not staying in a Suite. 

I really felt sorry for the employees in the Suite lounge.  The concierges had to work with any extra 240 Pinnacles (I heard different numbers from 220 to 300 Pinnacles).  The Coastal Kitchen staff had to try to accommodate the higher than normal diners.  The bartenders were really working overtime.  They brought in extra bartenders and waiters to handle the volume.   Those extra employees came from somewhere, so the impact probably trickled down to everyone. You could tell at the end of day they were seemed pretty tired.  Normally the waiters and bar staff will chat with you some.  While they still had time to chat in the slower times.  When it was busy, they were working pretty hard and didn’t have time for much discussion.  Even with all the extra work, the staff was very friendly and always greeted with a smile. A really good hard working staff.

In the future I think that Royal will have to figure out a way to handle the Suite Lounge overload during these ‘Special’ cruises.  There were a lot of unhappy people, both Suite guests and Pinnacles.  There was almost an attitude of Suite guests against Pinnacles and the other way around. (Another thing the Concierges had to deal with.)

 

[tonyfsu21]

12 minutes ago, Nomad said:

I was also on the Symphony Transatlantic and the immigration process took about 20 minutes for us to clear immigration.  That said, the line for the international guests was very long.  I talked to some international guests that had an excursion and the bus left without them.  I guess there were a lot of them with the same excursion stickers, so the bus might have been half full when it left.  I agree that CBP was not ready for the number of international guests.

We were in a Suite, so our experience was a bit different.  Not sure if I felt we had the run of the ship.  That said number of Pinnacles did impact the Suite experience. 

Some of the things that Royal did was limit the Pinnacle dining in the Coastal Kitchen to 3 nights and they also opened Dazzles as a Pinnacle lounge.  I am not sure, but I think they encouraged the Pinnacle guests to use Dazzles but the Suite lounge was always pretty full of Pinnacle guests so finding a seat was normally a challenge.  The Suite lounge was a lot noisier than normal.  I don’t blame the Pinnacles for being there because that is what they are entitled to by Royal.  While my experience was not quite the Suite experience I would have preferred, it was a really fun cruise and we met some really nice people both Suite guests and Pinnacles who are also Suite guests just not staying in a Suite. 

I really felt sorry for the employees in the Suite lounge.  The concierges had to work with any extra 240 Pinnacles (I heard different numbers from 220 to 300 Pinnacles).  The Coastal Kitchen staff had to try to accommodate the higher than normal diners.  The bartenders were really working overtime.  They brought in extra bartenders and waiters to handle the volume.   Those extra employees came from somewhere, so the impact probably trickled down to everyone. You could tell at the end of day they were seemed pretty tired.  Normally the waiters and bar staff will chat with you some.  While they still had time to chat in the slower times.  When it was busy, they were working pretty hard and didn’t have time for much discussion.  Even with all the extra work, the staff was very friendly and always greeted with a smile. A really good hard working staff.

In the future I think that Royal will have to figure out a way to handle the Suite Lounge overload during these ‘Special’ cruises.  There were a lot of unhappy people, both Suite guests and Pinnacles.  There was almost an attitude of Suite guests against Pinnacles and the other way around. (Another thing the Concierges had to deal with.)

 

I wonder if this is the norm for a new ship TA crossing to her home port? Anyone been on any of the other Oasis Class TA’s bound for home port?