Experiences of a first time cruiser - Symphony of the Seas

I’ve just disembarked symphony, after a 6 night cruise to Labadee, Falmouth and Nassau. Here are my thoughts about the experience as a first time cruiser, from Europe. Overall impressions were incredible, it’s clear to see that RC have high standards across the board, and this is met with good management, good staff, and good maintenance.

Embarkation

I think from arrival to walking on the ship was less than ten minutes. Absolutely flawless experience. So many staff members, incredibly friendly and it made the experience painless. I wish airport travel was like this.

Symphony

Incredible ship. I didn’t want to leave, and felt six nights was too short. I’d have like as much as ten nights to fully experience the ship. It looks brand new, and it was great to see the staff clean and maintain the ship so well. There were a few places it looked tired, some of the hot tubs were a bit worse for ware and some upholstery needs replacing, but otherwise, fantastic.

Entertainment

Flawless execution of the shows, they are really amazing, especially the set design. Hiro was the star, followed by flight then 1977. Hairspray was a miss for us, great sets, but I don’t think it’s a show that resonates from those outside of the US. I wish the shows in the main theatre were more disciplined with the audience, people coming and going, kids talking. I get that it’s a cruise ship and people are on vacation, but this behaviour can detract from the experience.

Food

We did 4 nights in the MDR, each night was impeccable. The servers made our vacation with their care and attention, the focus on our son and bringing class each night to the occasion.

We had one night in the windjammer, which was organised chaos, and one night at Jamie’s Italian, which whilst good quality, wasn’t worth the additional cost. Our server was amazed we just chose one starter, main and desert. It would appear that other patrons chose multiple items of each, and as a result, we were given a discretionary discount, which was nice.

Drinks

We are used to all inclusive packages in European holiday resorts and found the way drinks worked here to be very frustrating. A single person going to the bar and getting a round of drinks is difficult with such a system, with the sea pass cards need to be seen all the time.

The drinking culture seems to be a lot more consumption than i expected, again, far more was being drank than a European all inclusive resort.

We had the refreshment package, but honestly, we’d probably pay as we go next time.

Favourite locations

Central Park is stunning, especially with live music at night. Playmakers is cool to hang around in. Solarium is awesome to get away from kids, but by late afternoon half the people in the pools or tubs were drunk 🙈

Pool decks

By 8am all the loungers in the sun were reserved with towels or bags, same in the solarium. These were treated as day beds / locations for the vast majority of people. Pools and hot tubs were good and plentiful. One thing I found bizarre was the lifeguard situation, again, compared to European resorts there appeared to be too many and they sapped the fun out of things. Kids can’t jump in the pools 🤯, two lifeguards on the small kids water slides 🤯🤯 - in Europe the water slides wouldn’t have any staff members on, and kids would be barrelling down one after another.

Room

We paid (and saved) by having a guaranteed ocean view balcony. We were assigned deck 12 forward and we loved it. No issues at all, literally perfect. Our travel companions had deck 8, which was probably better location wise as we used Central Park a lot, but guaranteed rooms are for us in the future with the savings to be made.

Staff

Overall, the staff were incredible. It’s easy to see where they make the difference in many places. With European working legislation, we did and do feel conflicted with their working conditions, our room attendant, from India, will be working every day for nearly another year. Our waitress had a 10 year old daughter she hasn’t seen for months.

Ports

Labadee - highlight of the trip. The more destinations RC can control the temperature experience, the better the vacation outcome

Falmouth - infrastructure outside of the port was woeful, we did a RC excursion which started nearly an hour late and getting back was stressful. Without complaining, we had a message on our phone giving us 50% refundable credit.

Nassau - never want to visit again. The experience outside of the port detracts and is the polar opposite of what the onboard experience is like. Locals kept saying “welcome to paradise”, and they were not being ironic. It’s awful.