Wonderful Cruise, Excellent Ship

Item: Symphony of the Seas
Rating: 4.7
Author: davidmech21

Symphony of the Seas Cruise Review to Caribbean - Eastern

davidmech21

Contributor Level: Second Mate

50 Days Till Next Cruise

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 18

Overall rating:

4.7 out of 5

Verified Review

7 Night Eastern Caribbean & Perfect Day (Miami Roundtrip)

Sail date: October 22, 2022

Ship: Symphony of the Seas

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 14615

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 1 year ago

Review summary

The ship and the itinerary were amazing. It was a wonderful cruise.

Embarkation

5 out of 5

Fast and pleasant

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5

Don't waste your money on the Unlimited Dining Plan. Royal Caribbean will not allow you to make dining reservations before getting onboard the ship. We boarded at 10:30 and went straight to a restaurant to begin making reservations. We were surprised to find out that Chops was completely booked the first 3 nights of the cruise and had very limited availability the remainder of the nights. Anyone booking a single night of dining can make a reservation on the Royal Caribbean website, so most of the select times were already gone before we even got on the ship. If you're going to pay a premium for unlimited specialty dining, you should be given preference on which restaurants you would like to eat at. Royal Caribbean needs to fix this obvious problem. The food and service in the specialty restaurants were good, so I give this 3 stars, but after paying $500, I was very upset to not be able to eat where I wanted to. Buyer beware.

Onboard Activities

5 out of 5

Enjoyed all of the onboard activities. The crowds were manageable.

Entertainment

5 out of 5

All of the shows were excellent, however they were having technical issues in both the main theater and the aqua theater, not weather related.

Children's Programs

We did not take children on the trip.

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

The wait staff and service was beyond excellent.

Ship Quality

5 out of 5

Beautiful, very clean ship.

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5

We were in cabin 14629, not cabin 14615. 14629 has the double sized balcony, one of only 8 Central Park balcony rooms with the larger balcony. While we did enjoy the enormous balcony, I would recommend the same balcony on deck 12 or lower. The deck 14 balcony is slightly obstructed by the pool deck skybridge. We were not able to see to the far end of Central Park where the live musicians play. The room was great, but one deck lower down would have made a huge difference.