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Symphony Review- on now

Luv2teachandcruise
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Luv2teachandcruise

Luv2teachandcruise

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Hi Everyone.  I am currently on Symphony and can answer questions you may have. But first, I am going to do my review.

Day before we flew into FLL and stayed the night there.

Day 1- we took a shuttle the morning of from our hotel to Port of Miami...BEST EXPERIENCE WITH A SHUTTLE EVER! The only snafu was the rude family that kept us waiting at their hotel to come down from their room ("Oh there are others waiting for us, hahaha.") 🙄  

Anyway, we get to the port and are the first ones to get off, (other group forgets they aren't the only ones on the shuttle and says., "this isn't our ship, we need to speak to him!" To which my dh replied, "No, this is ours, there are other people on the shuttle." Anyway, I digress...

We get off the shuttle, the porter takes our luggage and we are in through check-in ( they took our pics again because my teens may have changed since I took them literally a month ago), security and on to the ship in less than 15 minutes! The Harmony was fast last year, but this was FAST! 

We get on, and of course it's too early to go to our rooms, so to the Windjammer we go. I am NOT a Windjammer fan, but the teens like the burgers...so... They had only let Crown and Anchor, Suite, and The Key people on, so Windjammer was not crowded. YET. I am KETO and can't eat red meat, so this cruise may be a bit difficult to navigate the food. But, I have a salad with bacon, hardboiled eggs, and a vinaigrette dressing. It was ok. 

The boys decide they want to go swimming and on the slides. We head there, find a nice spot in the shade and...PEOPLE WATCH! Other than reading, it is one of my favorite things to do!  I am fascinated with the way people treat one another on vacation...some are so sweet, others forget there are people around them and yell at each other. It's the first day...chill out! Hahaha 

The boys enjoy the slides, the pool, the hot tub, and then want to do the Flowrider, do I head over there to sign their waivers and then go back to my shade!

 

Rooms become available at 1...we head there about 2 when the boys are done doing there thing. We walk in our room and are SHOCKED!!!....

 

Up next...what is shocking??

 

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Luv2teachandcruise

Luv2teachandcruise

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Sorry, I'm back.  Yes, shocked...let me take a step back and explain a little something.  My dh has a bad back, and after dragging our luggage around and getting to the room, he needs to stretch his back. He naturally sits on the floor...Big mistake...or maybe I'm thankful that he did. Anyway, he sits on the floor of our cabin and is stretching his back when he notices hair on the floor...and not just a little...it is as if the floor has not been vacuumed for a LONG time. There are long grey hairs, long black hairs, short black hairs...😳🤢.  Attached is a picture of it...But, that's not it...there is an inch of dirt on the leg of the vanity desk, AND written in lipstick on the mirror it says "Laura loves Donald" (neither of which are either of us)

20190803_142444.jpg

20190803_143104.jpg

20190803_142415.jpg

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Luv2teachandcruise

Luv2teachandcruise

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We had to go to Guest Services to get a key for our kids' room, so we asked there what we should do about the room. The Guest Services lady was appalled at the pictures and sent us back to our room immediately to meet with the housekeeping supervisor. By the time we got back there he was already there and was as equally appalled and embarrassed as the lady at Guest Services. He had taken his own pictures and found even more stuff wrong...but did assure us, when we asked, that yes, the linens on the bed had been changed because he could tell due to the lines from the iron (?). He wanted his supervisor to call us and sent someone else in to clean the room. One good thing about my experience with Royal Caribbean (only my experience)if they are wrong, they fix it and try to make it right. They gave us some OBC for our troubles. I seriously just wanted it cleaned. This was our 15th or 16th cruise with Royal and have NEVER had this issue!

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Luv2teachandcruise

Luv2teachandcruise

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On 8/5/2019 at 12:04 PM, SunnyDay4Cruisin said:

If you have a chance, please post the picture of the MDR's new vegan menu. I'm on the Allure later this month and would like to know what to expect.

 

Thanks and have a wonderful cruise!

I did not see a Vegan menu, but had some vegan options on the regular menu. Sorry!

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Luv2teachandcruise

Luv2teachandcruise

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Our cruise had 4 ports of call, which I usually only like 3, but it was fine. However, one of the excursions we did on our cruise that we thoroughly enjoyed was the Extreme Ziplining package in Roatan...I HIGHLY recommend. We had a great time...11 ziplines, suspension bridges, and 2 Superman-style (on your belly) ziplines. 

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Luv2teachandcruise

Luv2teachandcruise

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Main Dining Room

Our waiter, Rajparabu was AMAZING! He was very accommodating of my food limitations, and didn't make me feel "weird" because of said limitations. We ate  there 5 of our 7 nights. Every night I had the same appetizers...French onion soup with just the broth and cheese and a caesar salad with no croutons. Since I am Keto and don't eat red meat or seafood, my selections are very limited. The first night I had the pork chop...delicious, with steamed veggies.

 

The next night we tried the Solarium Bistro...I was not a fan, it was almost completely empty, so not very popular...upgraded buffet style food.

 

Day 3- I had a chicken meal(can't remember because I was jonesing on my hubby's roast chicken)

 

Day 4 I had Jerk Chicken...one word...DELICIOUS.  My DH got one to go for later that night!

 

Day 5- I had their "Thanksgiving" style turkey...no stuffing or potatoes with grilled veggies

 

Day 6- Formal night- we went to the Windjammer UGH

 

Day 7- Roast chicken, steamed veggies

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jbethel11

jbethel11

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7 minutes ago, Luv2teachandcruise said:

The next night we tried the Solarium Bistro...I was not a fan, it was almost completely empty, so not very popular...upgraded buffet style food.

I agree. On my Harmony of the Seas cruise last year, I went to Solarium Bistro and it was empty and we went on the first formal night, like you did. The appetizers was delicious and the main course was okay. Next time, if I were to head back, I would probably stick with the salmon.

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crewsweeper "Live from...." Rare

crewsweeper

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On the Oasis  we enjoyed  the Solarium at because  it wasn't  crowded.  

And yes, the food is served  buffet style  but we liked  it better than the MDR.

Luv2teachandcruise, your itinerary  is the same as ours will be next year. So enjoying your thoughts on the ports.

Glad they cleaned your cabin and hope you made good use of the OBC.

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crewsweeper "Live from...." Rare

crewsweeper

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6 hours ago, Biker19 said:

Ah, another rust bucket- what about the welds?

Salt does terrible things to paint and steel.  One wonders why over the years, a better paint hasn't been developed.

In the Navy over 40 years ago, we were always chipping and scrapping and re painting areas of the ship. On return from a relatively short deployment, the outside of the ship would be encrusted with salt.

Didn't make our ship a rust bucket, just the effects of being at sea.

 

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Luv2teachandcruise

Luv2teachandcruise

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9 minutes ago, crewsweeper said:

Salt does terrible things to paint and steel.  One wonders why over the years, a better paint hasn't been developed.

In the Navy over 40 years ago, we were always chipping and scrapping and re painting areas of the ship. On return from a relatively short deployment, the outside of the ship would be encrusted with salt.

Didn't make our ship a rust bucket, just the effects of being at sea.

 

I think the reason I was surprised to see it, is because they are usually so quick to paint, clean, scrape, etc , and it didn't seem so on the Symphony. 

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Luv2teachandcruise

Luv2teachandcruise

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11 hours ago, crewsweeper said:

On the Oasis  we enjoyed  the Solarium at because  it wasn't  crowded.  

And yes, the food is served  buffet style  but we liked  it better than the MDR.

Luv2teachandcruise, your itinerary  is the same as ours will be next year. So enjoying your thoughts on the ports.

Glad they cleaned your cabin and hope you made good use of the OBC.

I was disappointed with Costa Maya as our excursion was cancelled due to the Seas being too rough for kayaking...we were supposed to do the biking and kayaking tour.

 

We have been to Cozumel numerous times, so we didn't do any excursions there, although in the past I have done 1.) lighthouse tour with snorkeling, and 2.) a ropes course (which was fun), 3.) Snorkeling by itself where we saw a whole line of barracudas. 

 

I really enjoyed the waterpark at Perfect Day at Coco Cay. You have to get a time to come back for the biggest water slide got in line to get the time at 9:15, and it took about 15 minutes to get it...our come back time was 11:30. The drop slide was FUN! And my 14 year old loved the wave pool. The food was much better than at Labadee...we went to the Snack Shack...I got a caesar salad with chicken (and a very non-keto funnel cake), my dh got the burger with cookies, and my 15 year old got the mozzarella sticks. 

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brillohead "Live from...." Rare

brillohead

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12 hours ago, Luv2teachandcruise said:

Day 4 I had Jerk Chicken...one word...DELICIOUS.  My DH got one to go for later that night!


This made me chuckle. When I was on Symphony in March, we had people at tables on both sides of us who sent back the Jerk Chicken and ordered different entrees.  Their reason?  The jerk chicken was "too spicy"!!!!  

What in the heck did they expect JERK CHICKEN to be seasoned like, for crying out loud???  LOL

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