Roland4

The person who told me 400 later revised that number down to 380. The ship feels comfortably occupied, and with the reduced number they can accommodate a single show at 9:15. We had forgotten how much "smaller" Symphony is compared to Serenity! We are just finishing up our first (of only two) sea days and will be in Istanbul for the next two days, with a L-O-N-G tour booked for tomorrow. I will try and post some pictures and observations sometime in the next few days.

We have been told something just over 400 guests this cruise, after having only 60 guests for the previous 7 nighter after the Red Sea. The next several cruises after this one are in the 500+ range apparently. We spoke to one of the crew who was onboard for the Red Sea crossing who said it was "interesting". They were part of a convoy escorted by three US Navy ships, and there were armed guards onboard. They were not allowed on any outside deck until they were well out on the Red Sea.

We got caught coming out of Reykjavik in the tail end of three dead/dying hurricanes. All you need to know is we were in a PH on Deck 10 and had solid water hit our balcony door, twice!!😁

We will be boarding Symphony in Athens on April 13/24 for a 12 night Greek Isles/Turkey voyage. When we originally booked this one, it was going to Israel and, of course, we all know how that turned out, but the addition of Kusadasi (and the concert at Ephesus), plus Istanbul, which we have never been to, turned this into a great itinerary. We are doing this B2B with a Tauck Tours Rhone River package and over four weeks we will only have two ports we have visited previously! Our last time on Symphony was the famous (or maybe infamous) Trans-Atlantic From Hell in September 2012, and we are not hoping for a repeat. Given that there has been very little posted on CC about Symphony of late, I thought I would post our thoughts as we go along. This is a VERY port-intensive itinerary, so this will not be a "Live From", nor will I be posting daily menus/programs, (mostly because I don't have the patience), but if someone has questions, I will try to get answers. No promises, but I will try. 🙂 The bags are almost packed, and the limo arrives at 11:15 Thursday morning! See you onboard Symphony on Saturday!

Personally I am pleased to see them take a hard line on this as I am sure there would be "individuals" already thinking along those lines!

The E-Tickets for our April 13 cruise on Symphony were sent to my office e-mail as the booking TA.

"Rudeness" is in the ear of the beholder if one is easily offended! 😁

There were reports earlier that Mesrs D'Ovidio and Kent planned to be onboard.

Our planned boarding on April 13 is far less important than our hope that she, and all aboard, arrive safely in Athens! ❤️

Crystal has said a number of times that a smaller casino will be added to both ships. The problem, I suspect, and at a guess, is it will have to wait until the next drydock.

That is correct. We received a cheque a few months ago for US$4450.00, or $2225.00/person, which is the maximum amount under Florida law. As I understand it, the balance you are owed becomes part of the Unsecured Creditors claim amount.

I suspect it means they have not released the pricing to the General Public yet as it is still in pre-booking for "select" past guests ie - previous World Cruise guests..

The only thing Royal Caribbean and Crystal have in common is they both sail ships!

I think on Serenity "gutted" might be too strong a description, but they definitely redecorated it and went to what seemed to us as smaller tables.

I stand corrected about Warnemunde, but I disagree about Berlin. We did this with Crystal in 2011 and we saw pretty much all of the major sites, and a few unscheduled ones, even with a significant lunch break. Our local guide was excellent. It was enough that we knew we would be coming back, and we have twice since then.