Thoughts on new Symphony of the Seas cruise ship?

[KathleenM17]

Hi all, I'm interested in the new Royal Caribbean ship, Symphony of the Seas launching next year and I'd love to hear others thoughts? I always enjoy seeing what new innovations Royal Caribbean will bring out on a ship, do you think Symphony will have any key features?

 

I've cruised on Allure of the Seas recently.

 

Would love to hear people's thoughts on the world's soon to be largest ship! Are you excited about it or no?

[Clarea]

Laser tag.

[BNBR]

Harmony is not as good as Allure. And from the limited information Royal has shared about Symphony, it appears they may be fixing those issues. So we'll see. But at the moment, we know very little about what is new and innovative on Symphony.

[Biker19]

Harmony is not as good as Allure.

Why all the hate on those welds?

[KathleenM17]

Harmony is not as good as Allure. And from the limited information Royal has shared about Symphony, it appears they may be fixing those issues. So we'll see. But at the moment, we know very little about what is new and innovative on Symphony.

Oh really? Why do you feel Harmony wasn't as good? I hadn't heard that before and am interested? Thank you.

[molly361]

I have to desire to go on the Harmony but for some reason I am leaning towards trying the Symphony, might be because of the Boardwalk Sports Bar which probably won't really have much sports other than soccer. Too much $$ right now for my budget as well. Love the Oasis and Allure

[BNBR]

Harmony has slides. If that's super important, you'll like it. But otherwise, the quality of the ship is not as good. Even sitting on Harmony and talking with a bartender. He had opened Oasis, Allure, and now Harmony. And he volunteered the info... that Harmony was built in France and the quality was nowhere near as good as Oasis and Allure, which were built in Finland.

 

Sitting in the solarium on Harmony, broken plastic panels flapping in the wind, no pool, hard to see out to the water from the upper decks in the solarium, etc. (all glass and nice on Oasis and Allure). The great Sabor bar was changed to a little side bar for a couple of dry slides that block the view and land right in the middle of the boardwalk. Even little things like the removals of the lightshow/fountain under rising tide in the promenade. Other than slides, I felt Harmony had too many things "missing" but nothing really new. It's my opinion. Definitely booking Allure next year and will avoid sailing Harmony again.

 

Harmony, as a stand alone product, is a great ship and experience. But considering it sails next to Allure out of the same port, I'd prefer Allure. If we didn't have that option, Harmony would be fine.

 

Symphony seems cool. I believe they are removing the useless Sabor and replacing with a big Pub. Which is a great idea. And solarium fixes have been hinted at, we'll see.

[Clarea]

... the removals of the lightshow/fountain under rising tide in the promenade. ...

That part is an improvment in my opinion. Those fountains made so much noise it was hard to enjoy music or trivia in Schooner.

[BNBR]

That part is an improvment in my opinion. Those fountains made so much noise it was hard to enjoy music or trivia in Schooner.

 

I enjoyed music and trivia at Schooner on Oasis several times and never even noticed noise from the fountain. I guess to each their own.

[Clarea]

I enjoyed music and trivia at Schooner on Oasis several times and never even noticed noise from the fountain. I guess to each their own.

For us, if we were sitting anywhere near the railing that looks down to deck 5, it was difficult.

[BillOh]

For us, if we were sitting anywhere near the railing that looks down to deck 5, it was difficult.

 

 

The only problem I had with trivia and the Rising Tide, was some clown shouting out the answers as he passed by.

[Clarea]

The only problem I had with trivia and the Rising Tide, was some clown shouting out the answers as he passed by.

Yeah, that was pretty common for us too.

[Ourusualbeach]

Harmony has slides. If that's super important, you'll like it. But otherwise, the quality of the ship is not as good. Even sitting on Harmony and talking with a bartender. He had opened Oasis, Allure, and now Harmony. And he volunteered the info... that Harmony was built in France and the quality was nowhere near as good as Oasis and Allure, which were built in Finland.

 

Sitting in the solarium on Harmony, broken plastic panels flapping in the wind, no pool, hard to see out to the water from the upper decks in the solarium, etc. (all glass and nice on Oasis and Allure). The great Sabor bar was changed to a little side bar for a couple of dry slides that block the view and land right in the middle of the boardwalk. Even little things like the removals of the lightshow/fountain under rising tide in the promenade. Other than slides, I felt Harmony had too many things "missing" but nothing really new. It's my opinion. Definitely booking Allure next year and will avoid sailing Harmony again.

 

Harmony, as a stand alone product, is a great ship and experience. But considering it sails next to Allure out of the same port, I'd prefer Allure. If we didn't have that option, Harmony would be fine.

 

Symphony seems cool. I believe they are removing the useless Sabor and replacing with a big Pub. Which is a great idea. And solarium fixes have been hinted at, we'll see.

 

I'm not sure why people keep blaming the French shipyard for many of the quality issues.

 

It would have been Royal that provided all of the specs for the materials or at least agreed and signed off on them during the bidding process.

 

If you want to blame someone for the cheaper quality then blame the bean counters at Royal not the shipyard.

 

While each ship will have its pluses and minuses I find there are far more things on Harmony that I like than I dislike compared to Oasis and Allure.

[BNBR]

The only problem I had with trivia and the Rising Tide, was some clown shouting out the answers as he passed by.

 

We had the pleasure of the cruise director deciding to read off the entire cruise compass on the loud speaker during our trivia a couple of weeks ago. The staff member did make a few jokes about it to lighten the mood, holding up the compass and asking if everyone already had one. But we had to stop trivia for a good 5 - 10 minutes.

[molly361]

Is the Symphony going to have the slides?

[BNBR]

I'm not sure why people keep blaming the French shipyard for many of the quality issues.

 

It would have been Royal that provided all of the specs for the materials or at least agreed and signed off on them during the bidding process.

 

If you want to blame someone for the cheaper quality then blame the bean counters at Royal not the shipyard.

 

While each ship will have its pluses and minuses I find there are far more things on Harmony that I like than I dislike compared to Oasis and Allure.

 

I just repeated what a crew member told me. Take it as you wish.

[Clarea]

Is the Symphony going to have the slides?

Yes.

[Yorkvillain]

That part is an improvment in my opinion. Those fountains made so much noise it was hard to enjoy music or trivia in Schooner.

 

 

100% agree.

[Pratique]

I am not expecting Symphony to be significantly different than Harmony, just a few tweaks here and there, but we still don't know if the decor and room layouts will be the same (I'm guessing that there will be no difference). One difference is that they decided not to build any Studio cabins for solo cruisers after those 15 rooms were on the original deck plans. I am sailing Symphony for the transatlantic and then again for the new western itinerary, and also because it will be the newest ship.

[renza]

We have been on oasis, allure, and harmony. We sail a lot only living 40 minutes from Fort Lauderdale. Our favorite by far is the harmony, so many little things that made our trip awesome. Cabin has a much better layout, among other things like chairs on balcony recline. All little things that make harmony so much better than oasis and allure. We will try symphony as well too, I am sure it will have even more things to make your experience better.

 

 

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[LuCruise]

We took our kids on Allure April of last year and they absolutely loved it. We are now booked on Symphony but not until Mar 2019. They are going to go crazy when they hear we are going (which will be ahwhile). The slides, abyss ontop of the zipline, flowrider, pools, rock wall...will surely keep them busy. My daughter has seen the movie/live showing of Hairpsray and will be super excited to see the musical, and the new shows are very exciting. And laser tag...they love that at parties so will be very excited. We also have a Boardwalk Balcony booked, which is on other Oasis ships...so different and seems like a fun room (we'll deal with any noise..not an issue). Can't wait!

[BNBR]

We took our kids on Allure April of last year and they absolutely loved it. We are now booked on Symphony but not until Mar 2019. They are going to go crazy when they hear we are going (which will be ahwhile). The slides, abyss ontop of the zipline, flowrider, pools, rock wall...will surely keep them busy. My daughter has seen the movie/live showing of Hairpsray and will be super excited to see the musical, and the new shows are very exciting. And laser tag...they love that at parties so will be very excited. We also have a Boardwalk Balcony booked, which is on other Oasis ships...so different and seems like a fun room (we'll deal with any noise..not an issue). Can't wait!

 

We will book Symphony around the same time in 2019 as well. I'm looking forward to it. I think they'll nail it based on the little hints we are getting.

[dub237]

We have booked symphony for the inaugural sailing 550 eu inside cabine with drink package and the 9 days cruise next October , we was on the shipyard also in st nazaire it was very interesting to see the construction

 

 

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[karena1]

Allure is my favorite but will be on Harmony in Dec and again next Sept for the President's cruise, so hoping we like it as much as Allure.

 

We will probably do Symphony at some point just to be on the next ship in that class, but will wait for a decent price.

[Yorkvillain]

We have been on oasis, allure, and harmony. Our favorite by far is the harmony

 

 

Same here.

 

They made a lot of little improvements on the Harmony that I like. With that being said I LOVE what they are doing on the Symphony with the redesigned Solarium, seafood restaurant and Boardwalk Sports Bar.

 

I’ll probably never sail the Oasis, Allure or Harmony again only because of how amazing the Symphony looks.