Even though there were disappointments, we had an overall great time.
Embarkation
5 out of 5
Best embarkation ever. As a suite guest, we took the elevator to the third floor where there is a comfortable waiting area. They had staff with iPads come to you and verify all your pre cruise check info we already submitted.
Then, we were welcomed onto the ship. Total time was maybe 5 minutes tops!
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
.
Coastal Kitchen
2 out of 5
This was the most disappointing thing for us. Corners were cut significantly in the menu. Breakfast is now just the same six items for the entire cruise, which is exactly what they have in te wind jammer, except the wind jammer has more variety. After multiple cruises, I have come to expect more from coastal kitchen.Service was fine and we had a table. So that's good.
El Loco Fresh℠
3 out of 5
Line was long when they were open. Typically 10-15 minute wait. Bigger problem was finding a table. Only about 25 tables and the clean staff worked pretty slowly. We ended up bussing our own table to sit down. After all that, the food was okay. Consider the quality similar to taco bell.
Windjammer Marketplace
4 out of 5
Ended up eating here for breakfast I stead of coastal kitchen. Food is the same quality and actually more variety. Only problem is finding a seat.
Wonderland
5 out of 5
Fun place. Creative and delicious.
Chop's Grille
5 out of 5
Good steak. Great service as always.
Onboard Activities
3 out of 5
Fitness center is nice but very small. Every working machine (10-15 treadmills were broken) was in use. Rough count was prolly 30-40 treadmills, 5 elliptical, and 5 bikes. Not much for 6,000 passengers.
Entertainment
5 out of 5
Hiro, 1970s ice skating, and flight were all top notch, fun shows. Don't expect much storyline but they are all a lot of fun
AquaTheater
5 out of 5
Clever theater with reservation, no wait.
Service and Staff
4 out of 5
Service staff was great. They unfortunately had to problem solve a lot with the corners cut by royal.
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
Ship was spotless. 6,000 guests and they do a remarkable job.
Cabin / Stateroom
2 out of 5
Cabin was still a suite but smaller than what we saw on anthem and even mariner of the seas. Apart from the concierge service, it was not worth the cost. Royal cut a lot of corners. Here are a few highlights.
1 - we got a fridge but nothing stocked in it. The water bottles provided in our cabin were too big to fit in the fridge. Side note, my kids found the past guest fried rice in their fridge on the first day.
2 - the water bottles provided in the cabin required a bottle opener, but none was provided. The poor cabin stewards had to share someone's personal bottle opener on the first day while they scrambled to find one for us (because I asked).
3 - even though we had the Internet package tied to our room, royal charges 1.99 per day to use their "free" messaging app on the ship. We had a group of 10 with us so we just used Google chats for free.
4 - xray vision doesn't work. We tracked someone down cut we thought it would be fun, only to find out it hasn't worked in months.
5 - fitness center is tiny. See activities section for more details there.
There's more but comparing this to the Princess Cruise we did in April, I don't think we would do symphony again.
Ship tip
Be sure to research as much as you can about the ship. It was lovely but you should make sure little things that may be important to you are still available.
Took the $4 train to downtown... which consisted of about a dozen jewelry stores. Ended up walking back since I didn't really want to buy a used Rolex.
I would wait to do any comparisons. All ships have had growing pains as they return to full capacity and face staffing and supply shortages. Even the same ship can be a different experience a month later.
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