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5 minutes ago, Marbel69 said:

I see Solarium Bistro now on my cruise planner at $0.00 - is this a specialty restaurant or free?

Free.  Reservations are recommended.  But smaller groups can walk up and be seated if there is availability.

When you make the reservation in your cruise planner, checkout will cost nothing, similar to entertainment reservations.

Cruisekap, the Ultimate Dining Package you list is the same as it has been.  The report is that it will be changed to the Unlimited Dining Package.

I agree that the Chef’s table is a very nice experience for a bit of a splurge.

Very interesting.  I will be checking to see how the price compares to the current UDP.  I know it varies, but the current version is currently $199 on our next sailing.  We bought the 4 night package for $100 pp, which I thought was a good price.  I would possibly consider a new UDP that could be used at Playmakers, Vintages etc.  in the future.

However I would worry about the availability of specialty dining reservations.

3 hours ago, momofmab said:

Not ideal, but definitely doable for the short term (at least it's not a shower curtain, right?).  One hack I learned on here is to put a washcloth in the soap holder tray (which is annoyingly designed as a grate, that causes travel sized bottles & razors to easily topple over/fall through).  Put your stuff on top of the washcloth and it's less likely to fall.

I wish I had thought of that before our last cruise.  That issue was driving me crazy. Thank you for the tip, I will remember it on the next one.

And as for the original question, the OV balcony room on Symphony seems to have a shower that is bigger than I remember from past ships.  There was adequate room to shave and move around. I was surprised and didn’t feel claustrophobic at all. I wish the glass didn’t go up so close to the ceiling because I typically hang a towel over the door so that I can dry my eyes, and that was difficult to do.

I also agree that it’s nice to read a positive story on here for a change. Thanks for sharing!

And as someone who still feels angst when I think about the $800 camera I left in a cab many years ago, I am happy for you.  I’m sure it’s a great relief to get it back.

I didn’t realize the wine discount with the dining package was only for wine ordered in the specialty restaurants.  It won’t matter for us as we have the deluxe beverage package which also includes the bottle discount.  But that’s good to know for future reference.  

1 minute ago, Host Clarea said:

 

I'm pretty sure that Quantum class ships have a similar Solarium food venue in the evening, but not 100% sure.

I do have a dinner reservation for the Solarium on our upcoming Ovation cruise.  There was no charge.  Hopefully the food will be as good as it is in the other Solarium restaurants.

I agree with the yo-yo comment.  Our Ovation pricing seems to go up and down every week.  Today was back down.  If you check everyday you may get lucky.  But if it doesn’t go down I still think you will come out ahead at $52.  That’s the lowest it ever went for our Symphony cruise and we easily came out way ahead.  

The Escape Room is $20 a person.  If you are a fan of them, this one was good.  A lot of fun and still less than most of the land based ones I’ve done which run between $25 and $30 a person.

Thanks Bob, for mentioning the Solarium.  I thought you could also order off of a menu there.  We didn’t eat there for dinner this last cruise so I was going off of my memory from several years ago.  I know our friends that did eat dinner in the Solarium on Symphony really liked it.

On the newer ships the Solarium has a nice dinner at no extra charge.  While it is similar to a buffet in that you get your own food, everything is plated and nicer than a typical buffet.  

I appreciate the comparisons to NCL.  I do like the idea of making customers feel special and it sounds like NCL wins that one.  The little extras can make a difference in the whole experience. I’ve only sailed with RCI and have never been disappointed. But someday we may want a different experience.

30 minutes ago, purplegrapefruit said:

Anybody else find the glass wall in the Symphony solarium pool a bit creepy? 

I wouldn’t say creepy, but it made me uncomfortable.  There was no way I was going in there. I do not want to feel like I’m in an aquarium.  I did see a couple getting extra friendly under the water line and couldn’t unsee that.

Full disclosure: I have only sailed with Royal so I have no way to compare it with other lines.

Reasons I love to cruise with Royal:

The ships are beautiful.

Almost all of the staff I have interacted with have been friendly and helpful.

Many members of the crew are exceptional and can really make my day.

I love the variety of activities, even though relaxing is my number one priority on a cruise.

I like the variety and flexibility of food venues.

Entertainment is top notch. 

I have been wowed on 5 different ships with no major complaints.

However I can’t stand to go near the casino because of the smoke smell. If that were a priority for me and there was a cruise line with a non smoking casino, I would take it.

I agree this is an amazing review.  I’ve really enjoyed reading it! 

I even followed your signature link and read your review of the Alaska cruise.

HIRO was definitely my favorite show!  I’m so glad you got to see it and that the key seats paid off.  

Fantastic night pictures!

I am sorry to hear about the escape room miss.  I can’t tell you how many times I am running late for things because of every scenario imaginable with my teenagers. I can relate completely. I’m glad you got some much needed mom relaxing time in the Solarium.

There is a chair at the desk.  It is small enough to carry out. With the furniture already out it might be tight, but you can probably make it work. 

For future riders, yes they tell you how to hold in your elbows and knees. But if you don’t have long sleeves it is still possible to get burned even with your arms straight. When my mat slid up one side I ended up sliding on my left side and got a terrible burn on the back of my left arm.  It was very painful for about two weeks and needed medical attention. Now I have a large scar. I was wearing short sleeves so if you have anything long sleeved think about wearing it on the slide.

So I checked our sailing again out of curiosity.  The current 3 night dining package has a banner that says up to 50% off and the price is $89!

So $89 is 50% off of $178.  Divide that by 3 nights is $59.33 a night.  Where would you have to pay that much for a specialty restaurant onboard?

On my cruise planner I can book MTD as early as 5:00 and as late as 9:30.

However there is a 5:15 and then it jumps to 7:00.  I don’t know if all of the times in between are taken.  Or maybe they they are forcing people to come early so they have time to clean and reset the tables for the 7:00 and later.  Because if there was a 6:30 reservation they would have to keep that table open until then. This was they can accommodate walk ins early and still get them out for the later seating. 

I also think 5:15 is way too early for me and I disliked our 8pm set time on Symphony.  We were always exhausted getting out of dinner at 10pm. 

4 minutes ago, MissLittle1959 said:

I can tell you for sure it's for each person paying for The Key program. I confirmed this with RCL when I bought it.

4 minutes ago, MissLittle1959 said:

I can tell you for sure it's for each person paying for The Key program. I confirmed this with RCL when I bought it.

Thank you! I gave out misinformation then, so I better go correct myself.

4 minutes ago, twangster said:

 

Izumi used to be $35 allowance.  Now it's $50 fixed.

 

$50 x 3 = $150.

$89 is 40% off $150.

 

So now they can claim "Up to 40% off" assuming you eat all three meals at Izumi.  

This was the exact same math I was thinking of.  If you eat at the most expensive restaurant all three nights you would be getting about 40% off the full price of the restaurant.  It’s not 40% off of the 3 night package.

I bought the 4 night package on Ovation back when they had that for $100 a person.  So $25 a night seemed reasonable.  Then I saw the 3 night for $69 and realized that was even less per night.  Now the 4 night isn’t even available for purchase.

Can someone who has already used the key confirm if the single device WiFi is for the whole cabin or each person gets a single device? So if 4 people were in a cabin paying for the key you could use 4 devices among you? I thought it was only one but I might be wrong.

I know this information must already be in this thread, but it’s too long to scroll through all the pages.   I appreciate someone helping me out.

Looking forward to following along on your planning. $700 each sounds like a fantastic price.  So happy you found something that works for you so you can take this trip.  We will be taking our first cruise to Alaska in August and obviously I am already excited and planning since I am reading the Alaska boards. 

You are correct that the rave reviews and the awful reviews probably aren’t what the general population will experience. I am usually a rave reviewer of RC, although I don’t post much because my thoughts have usually already been expressed by another post.

Since I am expecting to be wowed, I usually overlook any minor inconveniences on the ship and really enjoy the things that are great. My official review pretty much talked about all the good parts.

My contribution to little things observed from our Symphony cruise:

I was expecting outlets on each side of the bed, but there was just one. It happened to be the side DH sleeps on so I did not charge my device at night.  No biggie, just a slight disappointment. Also the phone took up most of the space on my tiny nightstand.  Again no biggie, but bothersome that I didn’t have room for my book, glasses and phone.  I did use the shelf below instead.  Wish the phone was at the desk.

I ignored all the upsell techniques on the ship.  However I did choose a spa treatment even knowing I would be hit up.  I was already planning a this as a treat for myself. I thought I could work around the upsell because I was expecting it.  But no, my 50 minute treatment consisted of at least 25 minutes of questions about my health, eating habits, exercise, even my bathroom regularity. All phrased like casual conversation just so she could spend the last 5 minutes recommending all the treatments that would ‘benefit’ me. When I declined to book more appointments while still on the table, she said she was at least going to “give me” some products to take. Luckily I flat out asked the price of the products and declined the $55 cream etc. Lesson learned, no more spa treatments onboard.