REVIEW - Symphony of the Seas 6th-13th September

I have picked up so many tips from reading other people's reviews, as well as enjoying reading them - here's mine!

Background

We’re Paul (52) & Lucie (44), from Cheshire UK. This was our 5th cruise, but first one since 2012. We’ve done one cruise with Norwegian, the rest were all Royal Caribbean.

Precruise

We flew to Rome from London Heathrow with Alitalia, and stayed the night before at the T4 Hilton which was great; not especially cheap but worth it for convenience. The on-site Chinese restaurant was worth a visit.

Flight was pretty straight forward, we’d pre bought our Leonardo express train tickets online (€14 per person) & it was a quick simple ride into Termini.

It was about a 10 minute walk to our hotel - pavements were a bit wonky for wheely luggage though!

We stayed at the Best Western Art Deco Hotel on Via Palestro. Our room was ready when we arrived & Paul had sneakily arranged an upgrade & a bottle of prosecco for our anniversary.

We had booked dinner at the Ambrosia restaurant at Hotel Artermide on via Natzionale. The food was amazing & we thoroughly enjoyed it.

Embarkation

Up, repack & headed off to Termini for the train to civitaveccia (about €10 for the two of us). Once again a painless trip & a max 10 min walk to the port gate. However once we arrived at the port there were no directions on how to get to the ship, and the only shuttle bus that passed us said he was going for lunch, sorry! We ended up walking all the way down the pier to the ship, which was hard work in the sun. We eventually made it & check in was the usual super easy experience. Within minutes we were on the ship with a glass of fizz in hand.

We bought wow bands at guest services, just over $6 each. Not sure I’d bother again; they were handy for opening the cabin door but you had to take them off virtually every time you bought a drink, and more often than not they crashed the till. Mine broke & was replaced FOC at guest services.

Straight into our room - 10319 boardwalk balcony - at 1pm & one of the bags was already there. Our soda cups were in the room along with the letter about the Jonny Rockets lunch & a climbing wall session.

We only heard noise from the boardwalk one night & it turns out we didn’t shut the balcony door properly.

Bed was by the bathroom, not the balcony.

The other suitcase arrived before dinner.

Muster was a bit weird, everyone in studio B, the emergency signal, a life jacket demo (couldn’t really see it very well) & a supposedly “humourous” video. We then had to fight our way through to the other end of the ship to our muster station. It wasn’t great to be honest.

Main dining room dinner

We were MTD on deck 4, and had pre booked for 7:30 all week.

First night dinner was good, pretty quick service for both food & drinks but it varied over the week. Night 2 was incredibly slow! There was always a big line for people who had not booked, so I’d definitely recommend pre booking online beforehand.

The staff were run off their feet, barely had time to pause for breath, but did a great job all things considered. We only got a “ please give us 10/10, we’re trying really hard to please everyone” speech one night.

Breakfast

Most mornings we ate at the windjammer at about 8:30. No problem getting a table & wasn’t that crazy busy. Food was hit & miss, both taste & temperature wise.

We had a couple of windjammer lunches too - same comments as above.

Free dining venues

El loco fresh - a great addition, perfect for lunch or a 4pm nacho snack. Wish it was open for breakfast though.

Sorrentos - we had a pizza slice for embarkation day lunch (starter). Enjoyed it.

Dog house - also first day lunch (main course). Would’ve had another couple of times but it wasn’t open the whole time.

Solarium Bistro - hmmm… went for dinner one night, food was ok, but all mezze style small portions (buffet style) so not really a “meal”. We weren’t that impressed.

Park cafe - only ever went in there to fill our water bottles on the way to the gym. Always seemed popular (ie busy!) though.

Promenade cafe - cookie selection seemed poorer than previous trips. Decent “proper” coffee though (drinks package).

Speciality dining

Johnny Rockets - we had a freebie lunch as part of our room package which we took on the Sunday when everyone else was getting on/off in Barcelona.

The burgers were poor - over cooked & dry. Glad we didn’t pay for it. The milkshakes were included in the drinks package.

150 Central Park - we went on Allure 6 years ago & it was an amazing experience. Well let’s just say it didn’t pass the “2nd visit test “. No tasting menu anymore, just a regular 3 courses to choose from & no more salt selection to add to your butter.

I had the short rib (needed more seasoning) followed by the halibut with warm potato salad. It was bland & the potato “salad” was so over cooked it was just mush with potato skins in it. Not great.

Paul had the “crispy” pork belly (soggy) and the lamb wellington. He wasn’t asked how he wanted it cooked & it was too well done for his taste.

For desert we both ordered the fried cheesecake - basically deep fried donut balls. Didn’t enjoy it. Our waiter also brought the peanut butter chocolate thingy which was much nicer.

Wonderland - this was a fabulous meal, we loved it. The cocktails (we tried them all!) were pretty good too. The tuna tartare was stunning, best thing I ate on the ship all week.

We used our OBC for the 2 speciality restaurant bookings - not sure I would’ve paid for 150 Central Park but Wonderland was definitely worth the money.

Bars

Bionic bar - fun!

Trellis bar - always busy

Rising Tide - probably our go to post dinner drinking venue of choice.

Schooner bar - whenever we went in the music was way too loud.

Boleros - slow bar service

Wonderland - wish we’d found this earlier in the week. Great cocktails.

Playmakers - lots of screens, always seats available.

Poolside drink service was pretty good overall - one day we waited quite a while for our drinks but the waiter was really apologetic. Most of the time drinks came back quickly.

Gym

We visited every morning bar one at about 7am. It was never that busy. Thoroughly enjoyed a post workout fresh juice from the vitality cafe every morning - included in our drinks package.

Just calculated I did an average of 18763 steps per day & used the stairs the whole time - some days were 39 flights of stairs according to my watch!

Flowrider

We used to go to the 9am body boarding session and regularly had it to ourselves, or only a couple of other people there. Previously staff have been fun & taught you how to do tricks etc, but generally on this trip they were miserable & boring with very little customer interaction other than telling off kids.

Ultimate Abyss

We had a couple of goes, great fun! Be aware you need to have your shoulders covered, so need to wear a t shirt & shorts.

Water slides

Also good fun, you have take off your watch, wow band etc to use it. The perfect storm “bowl” one was pretty rubbish, the blue & yellow ones were much better.

Carousel

Good clean fun, everyone comes off it with a smile on their face. The kangaroo is definitely fastest!

Shows

Hairspray - really good, great production. Enjoyed it.

Hiro - great athletes, divers etc but just a bunch of random displays with no real story to it. Plus quite a lot of stomping & stick waving in a paddling pool.

Also the aggressive lesbians saving seats & causing a fuss when someone else tried to sit in them were kind of distracting (they were in the audience, not part of the show BTW)

We switched cruise director part way through our cruise, from Michele to Bobby. Michele & Daniel had great chemistry & we enjoyed watching their morning show.

Drinks package

We had the drinks package thrown in with our booking, ie we didn’t specifically pay extra for it, so we definitely got our money’s worth!

Post gym juice, proper coffee, bottled water, glass of wine with dinner, aperol spritz on pool side, it was nice to not have to worry about what we ordered. It was my first experience of using the freestyle coke machines too, all of them worked fine & offered so much more than coke/soda drinks. There’s vitamin water, Powerade & a whole host of stuff I’d never even heard of!

We ended the week with our lowest ever bill - 2 wow bands, a couple of extra tips for the speciality restaurants & the shuttle into Marseille - $68 all in!

Embarking in Rome

I had contacted customer services via email prior to our trip to ask specifically about the Sunday of our trip - changeover day for 80% of the passengers but not for us. We’ve visited Barcelona several times before, so we decided to stay on board & take advantage of the quiet ship. I was assured that it would be a normal day for us & everything would be open as normal. Not true. None of the activities were open til 12 noon at the earliest, so we just ended up sitting on pool side.

We had quite a few photos taken on formal night, but when the photographer tried to assign them to our room it didn’t recognise it. Then when we tried to view on the screens it just said we had no photos to view. Im assuming this was also related to our Rome embarkation.

Additionally the Royal app didn’t recognise Rome guests as being on board so was a waste of time. The trip was very Barcelona-centric.

Ports

Naples - got off about 11, wandered round Naples, had amazing pizza lunch, got back on ship.

Palma - we took a taxi to town (about €15). The ship shuttle was €10 return, so cheaper but not as convenient. If there’s 4 of you definitely get a cab.

We ate at the market & had a brilliant time sampling all the ham, wine, fish etc. Just elbow your way in with the locals & be brave!

A spot of shopping & a taxi back to the ship.

Marseille - we took the ship shuttle, $18 per person return. Yes there’s a free shuttle but we figured by the time we walked to the shuttle, waited for it, then got from La Joliette into the city it was just easier to take the $18 hit.

We had a wander round, spot of shopping & amazing lunch in the vieux port. Anyone noticed a theme yet??!!

For us the trip was more about the ship than the ports, so we weren’t that bothered about trips, tours & the like.

Post cruise

We carried our own cases off, and headed back to Rome on the train for another 2 nights at the best western.

We did a small group e bike tour through viator on Thursday afternoon (4 hours) which was fabulous. Saw things we’d never find ourselves without a local guide. Definitely recommend it; the company was TopBike rentals & tours - excellent service. There were 6 people in our group which was a great number.

We also booked a small group coliseum/Roman forum tour with viator - totally different experience. Started late, disorganised, uninspiring guide, our “small group” was 24 people… but the coliseum is spectacular! Avoid a tour with Vivicos at all costs.

By the time we were due to go home the novelty of dragging our luggage around Rome had worn off, so we booked a transfer online with airport taxis & transfers. Brilliant service - €43 total, driver was 10 minutes early in a very clean vehicle. Would definitely use again.

A few more pictures:

The Wonderland menu in stages!

The "Smoke Rings" cocktail in Wonderland

I'll try & add some more later - any questions please ask away!

Very nice. we will sail Symphony in February and looking forward. So far we've done Oasis, Allure and in 2020 Harmony. So will have covered all of the Oasis class until the new ones come out.

By the way is the water slide as scary as it looks.:D

By the way is the water slide as scary as it looks.:D

The blue water slide is quite fast & very dark, the yellow one seems less fast, but that could just be because it's not as dark IYSWIM!

The "dry" purple slide looks very steep & scary but it wasn't that bad once you were on it. The glass floor you need to walk over to get on it was scarier!!

Thanks for the review. Looks like you tried most everything the ship has to offer.

We overlapped a few days ! See if you agree with my thoughts!

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2675164

Thanks for your review! I was sad to hear about the Flowrider staff—that’s one of the main things my husband and son like to do on the ship. Shocked about 150 Park, too-that’s usually one of our favs! I guess each ship is different, tho-we’ve had nothing but good experiences on the Allure and Harmony. :)

Glad you had a nice time .sailing out of Miami in November.

Fill us in on the "Wow" band ? Thanks. Bob

Fill us in on the "Wow" band ? Thanks. Bob

Scroll down: https://www.royalcaribbean.com/anthemoftheseas/already-booked/smart-check-in/

Enjoyed your review and pictures, thanks!

Sent from my SM-T820 using Tapatalk

Thanks for your review! I was sad to hear about the Flowrider staff—that’s one of the main things my husband and son like to do on the ship. Shocked about 150 Park, too-that’s usually one of our favs! I guess each ship is different, tho-we’ve had nothing but good experiences on the Allure and Harmony. :)

Yeah the Flowrider was still fun, but the staff can definitely make the experience much more entertaining. They just didn't appear interested in interacting with customers.

We loved 150 CP on Allure, that's why we went back. I guess just too many people didn't like the "no choice" tasting menu which is why they went back to a regular "choice" a la carte?

Glad you had a nice time .sailing out of Miami in November.

Enjoy!

We overlapped a few days ! See if you agree with my thoughts!

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2675164

Between us we seem to have done a very comprehensive photo review! Hardly any overlapping shots :D

Hope you enjoyed it too!

Enjoyed your review and pictures, thanks!

 

Sent from my SM-T820 using Tapatalk

thanks for reading!

You mentioned the rock wall climbing. How was that?

Will lobby DW for the drink package as she likes the juices at the Spa and good coffee.

Thanks for the dining tips. And the review of Wonderland. Will make sure we get that on our cruise package. Will probably still look at 150 Central but the salt selection was an intriguing part of those meals we've had there. As an American who has lived in Texas, home of the deep fried desserts :D , I would not touch any dessert "deep fried".

We've enjoyed the Solarium Bistro at night in the past. But it was service, not buffet (which is what they have in the day time). How were the crowds there during the day?

You mentioned the rock wall climbing. How was that?

 

Will lobby DW for the drink package as she likes the juices at the Spa and good coffee.

 

 

Thanks for the dining tips. And the review of Wonderland. Will make sure we get that on our cruise package. Will probably still look at 150 Central but the salt selection was an intriguing part of those meals we've had there. As an American who has lived in Texas, home of the deep fried desserts :D , I would not touch any dessert "deep fried".

 

We've enjoyed the Solarium Bistro at night in the past. But it was service, not buffet (which is what they have in the day time). How were the crowds there during the day?

We never got around to the rock climbing so I’m afraid I have no idea what the special session for boardwalk balconies entails!

Wonderland was really good, we really enjoyed it. 150CP was just a disappointment compared to last time. The cheesecake was described as “fried” not deep fried on the menu, I’d have swerved it as well if I’d have known!

We didn’t go in the solarium bistro during the day at all; we went in the solarium one afternoon & there were plenty of beds available (if you ignore the lady trying to “save” 4 of them, which is exactly what we did!)

Enjoyed your very thorough review except for the unfortunate and unnecessary lesbian statement!