Our first 5 hours on board were spent fretting over the luggage American Air didn’t load onto our plane to Barcelona Friday night. Not the ideal beginning. The teen, to her credit, kept the faith while I imagined isolating between two outfits for the next 7 days…and doing a little bit of laundry a lot.
On our first full day on board the Royal Caribbean Symphony of the Seas, yesterday, my girl and I woke up late having been unable to fall asleep after back to back theatrical productions and a midnight balloon drop, 7000 balloons to put a finer point on it but not really because points and balloons don’t play nice. We missed the chance for breakfast then took off for an excursion to La Granja in Palma de Mallorca with a couple of protein bars in our pockets.
In between, we slept for like a minute and a half, watched some football, and wandered a few of the decks of the largest passenger ship at sea.
Still, 36 hours into this European cruise, we’ve barely seen half of what’s on offer on the Royal Caribbean Symphony of the Seas. I don’t even know what I don’t know that I didn’t yet see. But I’m prepared to give you a quick hit Symphony of the Seas review and a lot of Symphony of the Seas pictures.
For example, we’ve yet to get a slice of pizza at Sorrento’s. That’s almost unconscionable.
I saw it, once, from across a crowd, but haven’t since figured out where exactly I saw it. We did however have soft serve. Fine, two cones each. There was lunch too, while still docked in Barcelona and still without luggage. ‘Twas a Mexican feast with a tender, succulent carnitas soft taco (fine, two of them) fresh gaucomole and scallion sour cream; it was a meal I could eat thrice daily.
Carnitas aside, here’s the best of what else I’ve discovered already on the
Royal Caribbean Symphony of the Seas
- Boardwalk dogs, both the Coney style and the Smokey, with sweet grilled onions for days. Available without buns for those carb cutters among us.
- Hairspray the Musical in a Broadway-worthy room, the Royal Theater, with big city quality performances from the entire cast, top to bottom.
- More restaurants than meals on a 7-day cuise, especially in Central Park on the Royal Caribbean Symphony of the Seas which is swimming with greenery and tasty bites, including Chops which serves its sides in tiny All-Clad-esque stainless steel pots that are almost too precious and adorable.
- Single serving, buffet dinner courses served nightly in the sun-splashed, peaceful solarium on deck 15 at the front of the ship.
- The Pop-up piano player, playing a moveable feast of a Broadway prop style piano that wouldn’t look out of place in a western saloon. We spotted him in an elevator with guests rocking out!
- Sport 24 and Sky Sports News on massive 46″ cabin flatscreen TVs in the Symphony of the Seas cabins. I watched Premier League matches on day 1 and night 2 and I am in heaven.
- Port and Starboard double wide, open air hot tubs with sweeping views and under cover of shade.
- The trundle bed in our guest cabin which has inspired a mini song cycle from my musical obsessed teen.
- A bedside electrical outlet — YEAAASSSS — plus 2 USB, 1 European outlet, and a pair of extra outlets at the desk.
- Faux brick tile floor in cabin bathroom (and the tile backsplash). What? I love tile!
- Wristband SeaPass — the RFID WOWband — which functions as wearable room key and charge card, meaning there’s no need for pockets or for anything in ’em!
- The 1000+ pieces of artwork in the halls and staircases is drop dead gorgeous, especially the Frida Kahlo color chip overlay. Fun Fact: There’s more art on this ship than paintings hanging in the Louvre.
*Thanks to Royal Caribbean for putting my girl and I on this press trip. All opinions expressed above and honest and unbiased, as always.
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