Beautiful ship with plent of bling but....fell short in other areas
Symphony of the Seas Cruise Review to Caribbean - Eastern
7 Night Eastern Caribbean (Miami Roundtrip)
Sail date: December 15, 2018
Ship: Symphony of the Seas
Cabin type: Balcony
Traveled as: Family (older children)
Reviewed: 5 years ago
Review summary
Symphony of the Seas is a first class ship with eye boggling decor and an unusually large number of activities. I’ve traveled on Oasis of the Seas and other Oasis class ships, but never felt as crowded as I did on this trip. It was typical to wait in line to eat casual meals in the Windjammer, Mexican Restaurant and the solarium Bistro. The length of the lines and the amount of time waiting was much longer than I’ve experienced on any other ships. This compares to no lines on HAL or Princess. I was never able to use the hot tub without 28 other folks. The capacity is 29. Unless you like playing cards inside in the card room, it was difficult to impossible to find a space anywhere on the outside decks. The cabin size (10583) was great with the best storage space and bathroom ever. However, this high was diminished by the lack of complimentary amenities. We got 2 small bars of soap for the entire cruise. It proved impossible to keep the small slivers of soap off the shower floor. There was no bath gel or body lotion and since I was accustomed to having these items on other ships I didn’t bring any with me. There are tons of lounges around the pool deck areas, but not enough comfortable non-lounging chairs. This trip makes me reconsider the pros vs the cons of traveling on a big ship with 6,200 people vs traveling with 3 to 4,000. Might not sound like a big difference, but trust me it is. If you go in for bigger better blitz and have children who want all the bells and whistles of their over the top water/entertainment activities then Symphony of the Seas is the ship for you.Embarkation
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Onboard Activities
Entertainment
Service and Staff
Ship Quality
Cabin / Stateroom
Ship tip
Be prepared for crowds everywhere. Know that as a general rule you will have to wait in lines to eat at the Windjammer and the Solarium Bistro. Be ready to always have 29 strangers join you in the hot tub. The hot tubs look like packed sardines pretty much all the time. There was no shortage of deck lounges, but not enough comfortable chairs in the outside pool and solarium areas. Unless you are happy playing cards inside in the card room be prepared to have difficulty finding a table and place to play. We were asked to leave the tables at the outside Mexican restaurant because understandably they needed them for people eating.
Ports of call
Labadee (Cruise Line Private Island)