Symphony Abyss - closed toe shoes and/or sleeves?

[ZoeyVictoria]

I believe I have read a comment about shirts with sleeves required to ride the Abyss, and possibly closed-toe shoes.  Neither of these were required on the Harmony and I fully intend to ride again, but I take only sleeveless tops and sandals.  Do I need to pack these items for the Abyss?

[Sitzmark]

2 minutes ago, ZoeyVictoria said:

I believe I have read a comment about shirts with sleeves required to ride the Abyss, and possibly closed-toe shoes.  Neither of these were required on the Harmony and I fully intend to ride again, but I take only sleeveless tops and sandals.  Do I need to pack these items for the Abyss?

according to the RCI website, the only restrictions I see are you must be at least 44 inches tall, and no more than 330 pounds.

[taglovestocruise]

13 minutes ago, ZoeyVictoria said:

I believe I have read a comment about shirts with sleeves required to ride the Abyss, and possibly closed-toe shoes.  Neither of these were required on the Harmony and I fully intend to ride again, but I take only sleeveless tops and sandals.  Do I need to pack these items for the Abyss?

Your feet and legs are in a bag. Some wear sleeves to protect their elbows just in case they rub the sides.  Sandals are ok. 

[ZoeyVictoria]

I have ridden the Abyss on the Harmony and loved it, so I don’t want to miss the opportunity to ride on the Symphony.  I also don’t want to take closed-toe shoes if I don’t absolutely have to.  I read that comment during or shortly after the first sailing, so I was hoping that was a misunderstanding.

 

Thanks for the responses.

[T-2]

We were on the Symphony a couple weeks ago and I did have on tivas, there might be a problem with slip on types as if they might come lose in the ride, its very hard for them to retrieve an item but i did see people allowed in all footwear.  Ours was shut down for about 15 minutes while they tried to find a phone that had come out of a passengers pocket on the ride down, I would have thought it would have just fell through but it did not and they had to crawl up with a flashlight.  VERY difficult.  I really felt for the worker, he was beat when he finally located it.  

I had a tank top on it and they did require sleeves, I borrowed a light sweater and I must say I was really appreciative that i wore it as skin does not slide without burns if you make accidental contact.  Legs and feet are inside the bag but no loose items like sunglasses or necklaces were allowed.  Really a neat experience, but I am glad i had those sleeves on, especially my shoulders.  They only require your shoulders are covered, tee shirts and such are fine.  BTW, Loved the ship, Best cruise ever and we have done close to 40.  

[ONECRUISER]

30 minutes ago, taglovestocruise said:

Your feet and legs are in a bag. Some wear sleeves to protect their elbows just in case they rub the sides.  Sandals are ok. 

Haven't done it myself but heard elbows an issue from CC members and Daughter confirmed she wouldn't do it without sleeves  in Tank Top

Edited March 6, 2019 by ONECRUISER

[dwayneb236]

Yep, if ungraceful like me then you just might hit the elbows. I did. I survived though and had a margarita at the bottom .

[blueridgemama]

A logistic question. When you go on the slides and the Abyss where they start on one deck and end several decks down, where do you leave your stuff?

[dwayneb236]

have to leave it with co-traveler or not have any stuff.

[ZoeyVictoria]

I will take along a t-shirt, just in case.  My cabin is fairly close to the aft elevators on Deck 7.  My SO will probably not be able to get past the glass floor and windows to ride (fear of heights), so I am hoping to use it for transportation, having him take my wristlet or card and meeting him in the cabin.  I waited until too late in the cruise to start riding it on the Harmony and need to make up for lost time.  I never rubbed my elbows, but found that riding it three times in a row, as quickly as I could get back up to the top, resulted in quite a bit of dizziness.

[er345]

If possible wear something with longer sleeves! About 10 of us went down all wearing short sleeve shirts which are required.  In the first 2 seconds my bag slid up the side to the right and my upper left arm made contact. I have a terrible burn about 5 inches long and 3 inches wide on the back of that arm. At first it stung but within 10 minutes it burned like crazy. Three days later is still is painful. When my husband put aloe on it I screamed and cried it hurt so bad.

 

Everyone else in my group was fine.  I’m sure it’s rare to have my kind of accident but I wouldn’t go again without long sleeves.

 

As for the shoes many people are going down in sandals.  Your feet are enclosed in the bag so it would be difficult to lose a shoe. 

[Cat8bird]

 After much egging my DH on we did the Abyss on Harmony last year. He made it down with no problem in short sleeves. I on the other hand came out with less skin than I got on with. The worst burn ever! It stung and burned. And while taking a shower I thought I would jump out of the tub. 5 months later I have a reminder on my time on the Abyss. However, when we sail Symphony this year I'm packing a long sleeve tee. I'm going to give it another try.. Also, my cell came out of my pocket but luckily it was near where you come out.

 

Stacie.

[vacationlover_mn]

They let me ride Symphony abyss in flip flops and a tank top.  However, I did end up getting a bit of a burn on my elbow 😞

Edited March 9, 2019 by vacationlover_mn

[Shannon12]

On 3/6/2019 at 4:52 PM, ZoeyVictoria said:

I believe I have read a comment about shirts with sleeves required to ride the Abyss, and possibly closed-toe shoes.  Neither of these were required on the Harmony and I fully intend to ride again, but I take only sleeveless tops and sandals.  Do I need to pack these items for the Abyss?

Sleeves (short ones were fine)were absolutely required on the Harmony. I had to go back to the cabin to change. I'm pretty sure I had on sandals though...

Edited March 9, 2019 by Shannon12

[LuCruise]

We're hoping to try abyss today when we board.  Do people really carry around long sleeves when it's 80 degree weather?  Just trying to figure out logistics is we need to pull out our cardigans?  (But my son's is sweat shirt weather)

[Ourusualbeach]

8 minutes ago, LuCruise said:

We're hoping to try abyss today when we board.  Do people really carry around long sleeves when it's 80 degree weather?  Just trying to figure out logistics is we need to pull out our cardigans?  (But my son's is sweat shirt weather)

We’ve only ever worn short sleeves and from we saw the vast majority of people did as well.

 

Will you be at the Sand bar at 2 today?

[LuCruise]

4 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

We’ve only ever worn short sleeves and from we saw the vast majority of people did as well.

 

Will you be at the Sand bar at 2 today?

Thanks!  Good to hear.  Think we'll take our chances then.  Don't think we'll be at the sand bar today as our kids are really anxious to go on zipline, abyss, etc...but we signed up for the meet and greet so hoping to make that. 😊 

Can't believe we'll be boarding soon!

[Ourusualbeach]

2 minutes ago, LuCruise said:

Thanks!  Good to hear.  Think we'll take our chances then.  Don't think we'll be at the sand bar today as our kids are really anxious to go on zipline, abyss, etc...but we signed up for the meet and greet so hoping to make that. 😊 

Can't believe we'll be boarding soon!

Just waiting for daughter to finish putting on makeup and we are heading to the port.  See you at the meet n greet.  

[LuCruise]

4 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Just waiting for daughter to finish putting on makeup and we are heading to the port.  See you at the meet n greet.  

Great!

[bandjwayne]

We were on the Harmony last month as short sleeves were required.  Like others have mentioned it's for your own safety.  I don't remember about the shoes, but do know that close toed shoes are required for the zip line.  

[vacationlover_mn]

3 hours ago, vacationlover_mn said:

They let me ride Symphony abyss in flip flops and a tank top.  However, I did end up getting a bit of a burn on my elbow 😞

Wait!  I was wrong... I had forgotten... they wouldn’t let me in with a tank, so I had to go back and change...

[er345]

Not trying to lecture here, but if you have packed anything long sleeved like a rash guard swim shirt, think about wearing it on the Abyss. In a short sleeve shirt the odds are you will get to the bottom unscathed. And it is a fun ride. But after my incident our friends did carry up long sleeve t shirts just to wear while going down the slide.

 

 I have to tell you the burn I got on my arm from the slide got worse every day.  Day 1 it felt like a sunburn.  I applied aloe every day. Two days later it got nasty and I was in constant pain. I should have gone to medical but I thought I could get though it.  By day 3 it was excruciating to have anything touch it. So I did show up to medical to be the first in line at 8:00 am. I was happy to find out there was no charge because I was injured on the slide and just had to fill out a report.  They treated me and wrapped my arm in gauze which helped a lot.  They even called later that day to check on me.

 

I blame myself and not the ship, but I can’t stress enough how much this impacted the rest of my trip. So be safe and enjoy. 

[CDNCRUIZR]

Sorry you got hurt. Thank you for the advice. I'll make sure to bring a long-sleeved shirt since I was looking forward on going on the slide. I won't chance it just wearing a short-sleeved shirt and risk getting hurt. 

[deliver42]

We just got off the Symphony yesterday. My wife was wearing a tank top, and they told her to change to, at least, short sleeves. I went in short sleeves and shorts, and got burned on my right elbow and hip. Nothing serious, but uncomfortable. I would strongly recommend long sleeves, and if possible, long pants. I went on in sandels  with no problem.

[kcbookworm]

I was turned away on Symphony for having on a tank top. I put on my denim jacket and all was well!  You do have to have at least a short sleeve top. I was glad I had the jacket on because I turned sideways in the slide and would have rubbed my shoulder!