Just off Symphony. A FANTASTIC time!

[leisuretraveler223]

Had a really enjoyable 8 day trip on Symphony.  Will share my thoughts in replies and welcome any questions.

[crusin1112]

Glad to hear you had fun!  Going next month on Symphony to Aruba, Curacao and Labadee.  Cant wait!  It will be my first time in Aruba and Curacao.  How was the aqua show (Hiro i believe) and Hairspray? 

[leisuretraveler223]

Traveled in a group of four. My wife and myself and another couple. We were in a crown loft, they were in a grand suite.  Enjoyed the suite deck, suite lounge and other suite perks. But dined in MDR every night and were perfectly happy with it.

 

Looked at Coastal Kitchen Menus every day, but honestly liked the wider variety in MDR.  Coastal was great for breakfast several days.

 

Lots of talk about MDR food, but I think overall it is  much as it has been for the past five years- order the right items and you'll be happy.  Items that are made well in "large format" come out great.  So the prime rib, fried chicken, beef tenderloin, lasagna, soups, and most of the sides were excellent.  Sadly as has always been the case, pork chops were overcooked and dry (easy to do if you don't have a really nice piece of pork), and the seafood for the most part was ho-hum, but what do you expect when it's all frozen?

 

One major bright spot was the lobster tail.  Yes, they limit you to one and then have an uncharge, but these are MUCH better tails than the scrawny little ones they used to serve.  One lobster tail is plenty, if you're hungry, order something else to go with it.

[leisuretraveler223]

1 minute ago, crusin1112 said:

Glad to hear you had fun!  Going next month on Symphony to Aruba, Curacao and Labadee.  Cant wait!  It will be my first time in Aruba and Curacao.  How was the aqua show (Hiro i believe) and Hairspray? 

 

Hiro was very good. Albeit a little longer than I felt it needed to be. It's about 50 minutes and it was cool, but honestly felt like I could've seen it all in about 25-30 minutes.

 

Didn't make it to Hairspray, but did see 1977, the ice show and that was FANTASTIC!  I'm not a big figure skating enthusiast, but to sit close and watch them was really impressive. Great music too!

[ajtaylor29]

4 minutes ago, crusin1112 said:

Glad to hear you had fun!  Going next month on Symphony to Aruba, Curacao and Labadee.  Cant wait!  It will be my first time in Aruba and Curacao.  How was the aqua show (Hiro i believe) and Hairspray? 

We just did this itinerary in January and had a great time! I'm not always a big fan of the shows, but i loved Hiro and Hairspray!! We also saw 1 comedy show late night, and the ice show, enjoyed them both!

[leisuretraveler223]

The ship was BUSY!  This is probably my tenth time on an Oasis class vessel since Oasis launched.  I've been on as a solo, a couple, a large family and a group. I've been on over holidays, and all seasons. I've been on when it was close to or at capacity (although that is a somewhat ethereal number).  But I've never found everything as busy as I did this time.  

 

Every bar seemed to always be full.  Even the Suite Lounge was crazy.  In the past, I found the Suite Lounge was busy immediately preceding the two fixed dining times, but this time, it was basically packed from a little before 5 until 7:30 every night. Had to wait for tables every time we went there.

 

I don't really get it. There are only so many rooms, and only so many people, Why everything seemed so busy this time was a little head scratcher.  Even the suite sun deck, which historically always seemed to be under utilized, was pretty much full every day.

 

Not a complaint as much as a general observation.

[crusin1112]

Glad to hear you enjoyed the shows!  I loved the ice shows on Harmony so im sure i will enjoy this one as well.  What kind of theme nights did they have?  The usual 70's and 90's night im sure. 

[leisuretraveler223]

Enjoyed Labadee.  While we were all in suites, we skipped Barefoot Beach Club. I've been before and I don't love it. I prefer the beach on the other side (Adrenaline Beach, I believe). Barefoot Beach Club is fine, but it's just kind of a small beach and cove and I just don't love the feel.

 

Water was great and there were plenty of loungers.

 

One wish:  There are a lot of fun things for kids at Labadee, and lots of water areas to be.  They have one floating tiki bar in the water off Adrenaline Beach. There is no reason for kids to be out there. It's a crowded bar on a float that says "no jumping".  I do not think it would be unreasonable for them to say that is an adults only area.  Just the floating tiki bar, not the whole beach.

[leisuretraveler223]

2 minutes ago, crusin1112 said:

Glad to hear you enjoyed the shows!  I loved the ice shows on Harmony so im sure i will enjoy this one as well.  What kind of theme nights did they have?  The usual 70's and 90's night im sure. 

 

White night and Caribbean night were noted on the planner in advance.  I believe they also had an 80s night (or at least an 80s dance party on the promenade).  

 

[FionaMG]

7 minutes ago, leisuretraveler223 said:

One major bright spot was the lobster tail.  Yes, they limit you to one and then have an uncharge, but these are MUCH better tails than the scrawny little ones they used to serve.  One lobster tail is plenty, if you're hungry, order something else to go with it.

 

I guess they must have got a new delivery of decent sized ones since we were on on the 10th of February sailing. Once the shell was off it was the teeniest tiny lobster tail I have ever seen on any of my cruises. I was so shocked I even forgot to take a picture.

Just as well DH wasn't really hungry that night! 😂

[leisuretraveler223]

Just now, FionaMG said:

 

I guess they must have got a new delivery of decent sized ones since we were on on the 10th of February sailing. Once the shell was off it was the teeniest tiny lobster tail I have ever seen on any of my cruises. I was so shocked I even forgot to take a picture.

Just as well DH wasn't really hungry that night! 😂

 

That's what I've been accustomed to in the past, but these were absolutely the same tail that you could order from the Chops selections for $16.99.

 

Being from Massachusetts, I don't really lose my mind over lobster, and kinda chuckle when others do. I mean, it's good, but it's not some rarity any more. You can buy lobster tails in just about every grocery store across the country. Watching people gorge themselves on piles of tiny previously freezer-burned and overcooked scrawny tails soaking in butter always seemed kind of hysterical. One decent tail is really enough.

[leisuretraveler223]

Frustrating experience:  Night one, about 8:30 pm, we wander into Sugar Beach and decide to get some indulgence for our sweet tooth.  I go to the counter with a small bag of candy that totals a whopping $7.  I go to pay for it and there's a problem.  Something wrong with my account.  Twenty minuted I'm stuck there as they are calling who knows where to try and figure it out.  Meanwhile, there is a line building behind me and I'm like "forget it, I don't want it that bad", but they literally have my card and I can't get it back.  

 

Finally, they come back and say I need to go to guest services and fix my account.  Really?  It's 9pm on night one of an 8 day cruise, we are literally at sea for the next 48 hours, and I've got a hard stop over $7?  of course, at 9pm of day one guest services is a train wreck, so I waited until the next morning, and when I finally got there, everything was fine. They couldn't figure out what the issue was the night before. Grrr.....

[FionaMG]

3 minutes ago, leisuretraveler223 said:

 

That's what I've been accustomed to in the past, but these were absolutely the same tail that you could order from the Chops selections for $16.99.

 

Being from Massachusetts, I don't really lose my mind over lobster, and kinda chuckle when others do. I mean, it's good, but it's not some rarity any more. You can buy lobster tails in just about every grocery store across the country. Watching people gorge themselves on piles of tiny previously freezer-burned and overcooked scrawny tails soaking in butter always seemed kind of hysterical. One decent tail is really enough.

 

We've usually always ordered it in the past and found one to be plenty. Maybe we just drew the short straw this time. I actually chose the Indian dish instead since we'd already had lobster in 150 CP.

 

I'm glad you had a great time on your cruise. We really enjoyed it too. First time on Symphony. ☺️

[mets123]

How was the seafood restaurant? My wife wants lobster rolls for lunch one day and I am trying to determine if it's worth the trip.

[leisuretraveler223]

1 hour ago, mets123 said:

How was the seafood restaurant? My wife wants lobster rolls for lunch one day and I am trying to determine if it's worth the trip.

 

I didn't check out Hooked. I'm sure the lobster roll is good. It's actually really hard to screw up lobster!

 

[PhillyFan33579]

I am on Symphony right now and having a great time. I was on Icon last month and for me (us), Oasis class ships are definitely better than Icon. We always spend a lot of time at the Solarium and Boardwalk on Oasis class ships, two areas that don’t exist on Icon. We also prefer the “real” CP balconies to the infinite CP balconies on Icon. The one area that is better on Icon is the promenade. The promenade on Symphony seems small after spending a week hanging out on the promenade on Icon. We are in our late 50s with adult kids and both agree Oasis class ships are better than Icon based on our cruise preferences. However, we both agree Icon is probably more appealing to families with younger kids. 

[blueslily]

I LOVE Symphony! ❤️ 

[Minuet888]

Going on my first cruise on Symphony May 31st.  SO EXCITED!

[FionaMG]

10 hours ago, mets123 said:

How was the seafood restaurant? My wife wants lobster rolls for lunch one day and I am trying to determine if it's worth the trip.

 

9 hours ago, leisuretraveler223 said:

 

I didn't check out Hooked. I'm sure the lobster roll is good. It's actually really hard to screw up lobster!

 

 

@leisuretraveler223, I hope you don't mind if I reply to this, since we did go to Hooked one evening.

 

@mets123, we went for dinner and although we didn't try the lobster roll, we had a great meal. The restaurant itself is really nice too and we had an absolutely outstanding server. Her name is Pupae and, if you do decide to go, ask if you can be seated in her section. Nothing was too much trouble for her and she patiently explained all the dishes to us (it was our first time at Hooked) and made sure we understood what we were ordering. She also explained to us how to eat the soft shell crabs, which were something we'd never had before. We told her we wanted to share everything so she set everything out in the centre of the table for us.

 

Dinner menu. I think it has more items on it than the lunch menu.

 

Here's what we had:

 

Soft shell crab:

 

Maryland crab cake.

 

Fresh hand-tossed salad:

 

Captain's platter. We were offered a choice of halibut or salmon for this one. We chose the halibut and it was really good.

 

Royal platter:

 

Desserts: Coconut cream pie and lemon tart. We were too full to eat these in the restaurant and Pupae got them made up for us to take back to our cabin to eat later. They weren't great tbh. The coconut cream pie was ok but the lemon tart lived up to its name and was far too tart for our liking.

 

All in all, it was a very nice meal. I really liked the Captain's platter but found the Royal platter to be just a bit too much fried stuff for my liking, so I'd definitely not choose that one again.

[dragontrainer]

For this sailing/itinerary, did the ship time change any days?  Or did they stay on Eastern the full eight days?

[TeeRick]

A few weeks ago on Symphony, we dined in Hooked and also had Pupae as a server.  She also was a server in Coastal Kitchen for the lunch shift.  Very nice lady!

[LisaLisa87]

Thanks for sharing your experience! Our next cruise will be on Symphony and I can't wait. Sadly, I have 313 days go go. I appreciate the info shared about Hooked as well. This will be our first sailing on a ship that has Hooked, and we're debating whether to try it.

[Bead Pirate]

2 hours ago, dragontrainer said:

For this sailing/itinerary, did the ship time change any days?  Or did they stay on Eastern the full eight days?

 

We stayed on EST the entire cruise...

[ajtaylor29]

3 minutes ago, Bead Pirate said:

 

We stayed on EST the entire cruise...

Which is important to remember because the time in ports will be different (Aruba and Curacao) so if you've booked private excursions you need to make sure you coordinate the local time vs. ship time!

[DamonG]

My wife and I were also on this cruise. It was amazing! We had breakfast every morning in Coastal Kitchen, and ate dinner in specialty almost every night. All of our servers were fantastic. The food was mostly very good. By the end of the week, we just tired of eating so much food, and skipped dinner the last 2 nights.

The shows on Symphony are the best of any cruise I have been on. Hairspray and Hiro were very good, Flight was spectacular.