Symphony of the Seas: 13/05/18-20/05/2018 Review with pics!

We woke up bright and early and headed up to the Windjammer for some breakfast. I have got to say, the food on this ship was amazing, but the breakfast buffet was the one thing that let it down. No fried egg/omelette station, and the scrambled eggs were powdery.

We were on the same cruise as you! I feel old now as we are 26 and 34 :')

The omelette station was in the back of the Windjammer, a bit hard to find. But they only did plain omelettes... Did you try the breakfast in the Solarium in the forward part of the ship? Muuuuuch better! And they made you omelettes with anything in it too, yummy!

following

Following along!

We were on the same cruise as you! I feel old now as we are 26 and 34 :')

 

The omelette station was in the back of the Windjammer, a bit hard to find. But they only did plain omelettes... Did you try the breakfast in the Solarium in the forward part of the ship? Muuuuuch better! And they made you omelettes with anything in it too, yummy!

We did see a few other younger couples, but it was few and far between!!!! Ah, we didnt venture back there at breakfast, its quite out the way of the main buffet! We kept meaning to go in there but forgot! Wish i had gone in!!!!!

Day 2 Part 2: Formal Night #1

We were both looking forward to our first formal night together, as i had raved to Luke about getting all dressed up and having our photos taken. I bought a new dress and shoes, and Luke had to get himself a new dress shirt and bow tie. We managed to beat all the photo lines by having our shots done before our 6:30 reservation. I'm glad we did as the queues after dinner were massive!

We bought 2 photos in digital format. Buy one get one half price with C&A meant we paid $30 for 2 digital photos.

We headed into dinner and the food was good yet again. I think we both had the Beef Tenderloin for the main, which was cooked perfectly and melted in our mouths. The options were Medium rare or medium well. I like my steak medium, so that was an issue for me. Luckily, Mary saw the horror in my eyes at the thought of me eating an overdone piece of meat, and she somehow managed to produce a piece that was the definition of medium.

The Feta, watermelon and tomato salad was so fresh and tasty. I could have eaten it twice over!

After dinner, we headed out to watch Captain Rick give his speech. He is rather amusing, and held the crowd well. We then proceeded to try lots of cocktails from the Bionic Bar. Man, those robots break A LOT. we went in for at least an hour every night, and one of them must have broken at least 2 times each night. When it broke, they had to reboot it. This caused a lot of chaos, the poor poor staff. If you were unlucky enough to have broken the machine with your drink concoction, when the arms were rebooted, anyone could come up and swipe their card and it would give them any of the waiting drinks. This happened to us twice! Not an issue as we had the package, but i would be annoyed if i was paying a la carte! Alas, it was not worth the argument with the Chinese passenger due to language barrier. I wonder if it was the same person who i had a table stand off with in the windjammer....

My handsome chap thoroughly enjoying wearing an uncomfortable shirt all night

I see you are from Charleston! I spent a lot of my summers there as my Uncle moved there 20 years ago! A gorgeous place to live!!!

Thanks. Really enjoying the review!

Beautiful photos

Day 2 Part 2: Formal Night #1

 

We were both looking forward to our first formal night together, as i had raved to Luke about getting all dressed up and having our photos taken. I bought a new dress and shoes, and Luke had to get himself a new dress shirt and bow tie. We managed to beat all the photo lines by having our shots done before our 6:30 reservation. I'm glad we did as the queues after dinner were massive!

 

We bought 2 photos in digital format. Buy one get one half price with C&A meant we paid $30 for 2 digital photos.

 

 

We headed into dinner and the food was good yet again. I think we both had the Beef Tenderloin for the main, which was cooked perfectly and melted in our mouths. The options were Medium rare or medium well. I like my steak medium, so that was an issue for me. Luckily, Mary saw the horror in my eyes at the thought of me eating an overdone piece of meat, and she somehow managed to produce a piece that was the definition of medium.

The Feta, watermelon and tomato salad was so fresh and tasty. I could have eaten it twice over!

After dinner, we headed out to watch Captain Rick give his speech. He is rather amusing, and held the crowd well. We then proceeded to try lots of cocktails from the Bionic Bar. Man, those robots break A LOT. we went in for at least an hour every night, and one of them must have broken at least 2 times each night. When it broke, they had to reboot it. This caused a lot of chaos, the poor poor staff. If you were unlucky enough to have broken the machine with your drink concoction, when the arms were rebooted, anyone could come up and swipe their card and it would give them any of the waiting drinks. This happened to us twice! Not an issue as we had the package, but i would be annoyed if i was paying a la carte! Alas, it was not worth the argument with the Chinese passenger due to language barrier. I wonder if it was the same person who i had a table stand off with in the windjammer....

My handsome chap thoroughly enjoying wearing an uncomfortable shirt all night

Absolutely love your dress! It’s fun to see a younger couple posting on here (we’re 26/27). We will be on Oasis in less than 3 weeks. Enjoying following along!

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Almost forgot! We also went to the Silent Disco in the Attic that night! We opted to change out of our formal wear, as by 12am it was getting a bit uncomfortable. I think Luke was ready to throw my heels off the side of the ship by this point due to my profuse complaining. I should have made him try them on.

I had been to the silent disco on Celebrity before, so knew what to expect. Luke had not been to one, and was very excited and also apprehensive. After grabbing the headphones and getting two "something with vodkas" (actual name, madeup by the bartender. 100% sure it was just a Caribbean Cooler) we hit the dance floor. I know Rick mentioned that the silent disco was not great on the inaugural- but this was awesome! So many people dancing and singing!

We had so much fun, and it was suprisingly busy. This was the time where we saw the most amount of the younger generation. Now don't get me wrong, some of you older folks can throw some shapes! We danced for the whole duration, grabbed some pizza (AGAIN, IT WAS GOOD, NOT LIKE A "CARDBOARD CUTOUT") and headed back to our cabin for some much needed rest!

Photo looks like it was taken on a potato as my iphone 6S camera is not fantastic in the dark. Most of the photos on here are taken with my iphone/Canon DSLR

Great review! Following, we will be on the Symphony in August 2018

Day 3: Marseille

Our plan for the day was to find the free port shuttle, get a coffee by the marina and head back to the ship to make the most of everyone else still being ashore. We got up to find cloudy skies and no sign of the sun. Anyway, ever the optimistic brits, we headed into the main dining room in shorts and tshirts. I kid you not, people were in jeans, walking trainers, puffa jackets and hats. I know it wasn't a scorcher but it was still at least 18 degrees celsius!

Luke had eggs benedict which wasnt on the menu, and i had banana pancakes. Both of which were really good!

We got off the ship and were greeted by the longest shuttle bus line in the world. (10 points if you read that in Jeremy Clarkson's voice) Determined to keep that 18 euros in my pocket, we followed the green line for 10 minutes to find the free port shuttle bus. We had to wait 10 minutes for the bus to turn up, and then 10 more for it to fill up. We arrived at the shadiest bus stop i have ever seen, which was still inside the port grounds. We had to go through a barred door with a magsafe lock to get out! We took a long stroll across to the marina, after we got lost in the middle of some very weird looking modern abandoned buildings near the big wheel.

After a quick coffee, we decided to get the metro back half of the way, and then walked back through a dodgy part of the city to the magsafe door. I thought for a moment that we would not be allowed back in, as when we rang the bell on the gate the guy started shouting at us in French. We could see the bus waiting and sweat had started to form on my brow. I thought we were gonna get stranded in this strange city with an angry french man telling us to shoo (he literally used that motion). It wasn't until we showed our cruise cards that he looked both ways and ushered us in. So so shady. Was it worth the saving? Probably not. But then again i wasn't too impressed with the city so shall not be returning any time soon.

Back to the ship we went, safely aboard the most uncomfortable bus i have ever had the misfortune of travelling on. We decided to have a wonder around the ship and grab a hot dog until the weather started to get a bit better.

I can't remember what mains were for dinner, but i do remember having a warm cookie with ice cream for desert. It was ok, but i still feel the cookie dough desert from Pizza hut is a lot better (i have no shame). The cookie was tasty, but the texture was just of the granulated sugar that had been used to make it!

We spent the evening watching the sunset at the back of the ship, followed by a game of mini golf. We are quite heated at this game, and often play it online against each other (we still live at respective family homes). Somehow, we finished on the same score!

Great review!

Tremendous review keep it coming.

Great review! Thanks!

Great review! Good point about the bionic bar...what a waste....they are broken most of the time on all the ships where currently installed....maybe they should just unplug it and have the crew who currently clean up and or reboot the thing be a full time bartender? Better yet, try having the robot make the pizza instead.....surely it could not do a worse job.

really enjoying your review!!!

thanks for taking the time to share your experience and pictures with us..

my daughter and son in law (33 and 31) will be on the symphony in the med in july so it's nice to get an advance view of their cruise..

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Did you manage to look at the prices in the shops. We are on Symphony at the end of July and my daughter loves Michael Kors bags but if they add Spanish VAT to the price it may make them too expensive so I could warn her now! Your review is great.

Great review, Can't wait till Sept.:cool:

We will be on the Symphony in May 2019. Really nice review. It's good to get someone's perspective who's not a travel agent or blogger.

Did you manage to look at the prices in the shops. We are on Symphony at the end of July and my daughter loves Michael Kors bags but if they add Spanish VAT to the price it may make them too expensive so I could warn her now! Your review is great.

Hello! Thank you. I didn't get over to the handbags unfortunately! They had the usual "bag sale" on the last day, but no brands like MK/Coach were out there. I had a look at the makeup, and it all seemed similar prices to what i would pay back home. I know when i was on Celebrity last summer in the med, they had really good deals on bags. But we did not enter Spanish waters so that could have been why!

Thanks for taking the time to report. I still have 11 months to watch the reports come in. I suspect if you were to take this ship again from Miami around Spring break, or June through Sept you will see a much younger crowd.

Following...and very envious!!!

DAY 4: La Spezia.

This was the port i was looking forward to the most, as it was the only one i had not been to before!

We had already planned to do the Cinque Terre train ride, as i had been to Pisa before (from Livorno), and Luke was not bothered either way. We got off the ship and onto the shuttle which took you to just outside the port. We walked through the little cruise terminal building and set off on our long trek to find the station. It is well sign posted, but is about a 20 minute walk through the town. Once we got to the station, we found the second longest queue in the world (again, 10 points for reading in Jeremy Clarkson voice). There is a dedicated ticket office for Cinque Terre card, and it took us another 20 minutes to reach the front of the queue. The card was 16 euros and gave us access to all the trains, paths, toilets and wifi. Very good value!

Once we had validated our ticket (weird concept to me) and found the platform, we boarded the busiest train in the world.

Honestly. I have been on a lot of trains, and nothing compared. I took Luke to London for his birthday last year, and i bought unreserved tickets thinking that there would be plenty of seats due to the off peak time of travel. It was off peak, but they had cancelled the 2 trains before and after it, meaning our train looked something like this:

We ended up standing against the toilet door in the "lobby" area of the train carriage. Lovely way to spend almost 4 hours....

So imagine that scenario, add a few more people and you have the Cinque Terre train experience. We were squashed against each other like sardines. There were even people holding the automatic sliding doors open between the seating areas to make more space! Luckily, there were 3 american couples next to us who made light of the situation and made the journey a lot more entertaining! If the group from San Diego are reading this, hello!

Anyway. We decided to get off at Vernazza, and work our way back. We walked straight down to the harbour, and got a gelato and some wonderful bruscetta.

After our snack (As there is obviously not enough food on the ship), we headed to the next village down of Corniglia. We got off the train and started following everyone else. That was until we saw the longest set of winding steps in the world. We contemplated it, turned around and walked back to get on the train. Oopsie.

Day 4 Part 2: La Spezia continued....

So, we hopped back on the train and headed to the next village of Manarola. This is the village you see in all the photos, and i was so excited to get down to the harbour to get the famous shot...along with the several hundred other people with the same idea. It was my favourite of the villages we visited, and the most picturesque by far. We walked up the path that wrapped the cliffside, and took some amazing photos!

We spent about 45 minutes here, just taking in the beauty of it all! Its up there with Santorini for one of the most gorgeous places i have ever visited! Back to the train and we headed to the last village of Riomaggiore. It took us ages to get down to the harbour, and i mistakenly chose the "waterside" route. We climbed down the steepest steps in the world, past people's front doors and under some sketchy looking scaffolding. I guess the photos were worth it! NB: They were in the middle of constructing a public lift when we were there! Probably will be done in the next decade or so....

Day 4 Part 3: Back to the ship and down the rabbit hole..

We got the train back to La Spezia (it wasn't as busy on the way back, we even got a carriage to ourselves!!!!!), and walked back to the ship shuttle. Grabbed a photo of the ship from the pier, its just so photogenic!

We had Wonderland reservations at 6:30pm, so we had a bit of a sunbathe, some Caribbean Coolers (1st mistake of the evening) and headed to get ready. I had booked this table as soon as the reservations were live, so was a very eager beaver. Once i sat down and looked at the menu, it was only then that i remembered i am a picky eater and that i had put my dinner in the hands of a man who does not know that i have an issue with the texture of some melted cheese, or that the texture of yoghurts makes me wretch. I remembered to tell him i don't eat seafood/fish, but in my haste i forgot to tell him the taste, smell and texture of eggs makes me want to internally implode. This was my second mistake of the evening.

You can imagine the horror that set in when this was the first plate he placed down infront of us.

Now, as i had had a few drinks by this point (i was now on the Cheshire Cat Cosmos), i had built some courage up and decided i would try the egg, (third mistake). The texture of the egg white almost made me be sick. However, the egg yolk had been devilled with all lovely things and it did not actually taste of egg. Success! I immediately text my parents to tell them i had eaten an egg. Proud moment. Luke enjoyed it all, said it was ok. Classic male response.

Our waiter brought Luke out the Lobster and bone marrow canape thing, as well as the shrimp in the filo pastry. He enjoyed both throroughly, despite the fact he also remembered he doesnt like shtimp. But then again Luke's experience is based on Enlish prawns, not shrimp. They are small and not meaty at all. Luke's response was "that is actually quite nice, i managed to get three bites out of it!". You may be confused thinking that this is a statement that has to be made at all, but please remember that this is the size of British Prawns. Around the size of a 2p/quarter coin.

Next up was the Caprese salad and Baby vegetables in the garden. Now, Luke made his first error of the night. He forgot to mention that he hates tomatoes. (seriously though, who doesn't like tomatoes?! Crazy boy). Parts of the tomato salad were nice. Other parts, not so much. The Olives were odd and very intense. They were like eating a jelly sweet with a liquid centre! But it was not a sweet, it was an olive bean that was very odd indeed. You wouldn't find them at Jelly Belly thats for sure. Baby Veg in the garden was underwhelming. The best part was the "poo" (waiters words, not mine) left by the visitors to the garden. It was chicken pate made into a truffle with cocoa dusting. Sounds strange but tasted good!