Boarding the Symphony of the Seas and setting sail

 Sunday, November 9, 2025

Oh my goodness, that was a lot of sleep!! Yay! I'm up before the sun and have a ton of time to do my yoga while catching up with Ginger. She's had two decent meals at Grady and is now NPO so her surgery must be pretty soon!! 

It's 7:15 and I'm up and stretched and dressed! Wild!  Maureen has just gotten up and the day will begin shortly.  We're neither one of us normally breakfast eaters and a seventeen-dollar breakfast buffet holds no appeal!  But coffee would be wonderful, so eventually we'll figure out how to engineer that!  There's no point in rushing since we can't check into the ship until one.  But navigating the port and the parking will not  be a fun exercise, so we'll allow lots and lots of time for that.  The port is only ten miles away.

Yeah, well, when everyone else is eating it's hard not to!  The buffet wasn't as wonderful as the one's in the Yucatan, but it's better than not eating until two or three!! Then there's the whole discussion about transferring the luggage and walker on the way home.  Neve mind!  We'll figure it out!!

The shampoo and stuff  are in bottles that seem to be attached to the walls by magic!

We're planning to leave around ten thirty.  Oh!  And Ginger's surgery has been bumped, so we figure it will be tomorrow.  Someone commented that having it on Monday might be better because the Tier I staff will be on duty!

There are two ways to get to the port from here and Maureen's GPS suggests what turns out to be the muc better route!  We drop of Robin and Ma and the checked bags and Maureen and I park the car and rejoin Robin and Ma.  There's one heck of a left turn to get into the parking garage but it gets done and there is lots of parking on level 6.

Bet you didn't know green beans grew on trees!

Well, maybe not!

We did't take the tunnel!  Dean did and it was awful!

So much construction!

This must be the place!

Help for people with cruise-brain who forgot where they parked!

No standing in line for us!

Pretty terminal

Ask Robin where the camera is!

Selfie!

And we're aboard!

Soon the port people bring Ma a wheel chair and it is our golden ticket!  A free pass to the head of the line!  We are escorted through all the check-in procedures and are whisked aboard the ship!!  

We can’t get into our staterooms yet, so we head to the Windjammer to peruse the offerings and have a tiny spot of lunch.  By the time we’re through, the staterooms are available and we check ours out.  It’s pretty much just like the Harmony of the Seas which we sailed on time before last and all we need to do is ask our attendant to separate the beds and open the passage way between the two balconies! 

                                                              So much food!!

The four of us pore over the offerings for the week and the two shows, Hiro, a water show, and Hairspray, both are either sold out or conflict with the two dinner reservations that Dean has made.  Not happy campers;  but we’ll see what happens.  We do luck into reservations for an excursion on St. Thomas that had been sold out when we looked before!  Here's a shocker - it is age restricted and Ma can't go.  I just made it by a year!

                I love how they made the parking garage look like the prow of a ship!

                                           Couldn't do this without a balcony!

                                            Yep, it's as small as it looks!

                                                Gotta do some exploring!

                                               We think it's a Transformer!

                                               Fun stuff in the ceiling

                                               Of course there is art for sale.

It’s time for the Sail Away party on the pool deck and we do a bit of line dancing and then watch Miami disappear.

                                          You couldn't pay me to do this!!

Back to our stateroom to get unpacked and ready for Dean’s birthday dinner. As we’re leaving our attendant finally arrives with Ma’s walker!!  By the time we have asked him for the bed and balcony arrangements and answered his questions we are pretty late to meet Dean in Chops, his selection for dinner.  But we’ve got a great excuse!!

The menu is quite lovely and everyone makes a selection of an appetizer, entree, and side dish. And most of us have a glass of wine!  Or maybe a glass and a half?  Our waiter, Madé from Indonesia, adds to our glasses when they get low!  I’m having the goat cheese salad and the petite filet with sautéed mushrooms and an Argentine Malbec called Trumpeter.

                                                                   Onion rolls

We're quite satisfied when Madé brings the dessert menu!!  Oh dear! But there's key lime pie and the meringue is a mile high when it arrives!  I win!!  Then Madé learns that it's Dean's birthday and he brings him a slice of cheese cake with a candle in it!  Everyone has a taste!

When Madé brings the checks for the wine, the amounts are all zeroes!!  No one quite understands!  But no one questions!!

We're kind of bummed about not getting a reservation for "Hiro" tonight and Dean suggests that we just go down there anyway.  He says you can often get in because people don't use their reservations. We give it a try after dinner and when we get down to the Aqua Theater there are two lines, one for reservations and one for hopefuls like us.  The young lady says if we stand in that line we stand a very good chance of getting in!  Even better, though - another young woman takes a look at Ma, asks how many are in her party, and escorts us all inside!!  We get settled in plenty of time to check out the stage/pool before the lights go down.

                                            The evolution of a carousel horse

And there is an actual carousel that you can ride;  and there are arcade games that you cn play just by launching the app and clicking the circus icon.  And there is popcorn and hot dogs! 

The show is incredible, with a Samurai theme, and I'll try not to add too many photos here!  The light wasn't great for photos but gorgeous for the production! Everything else was superb!!  Dancers and swimmers and high divers and tightrope walkers and slackwire artists and a trampolinist (?) and so much going on that it was like a three-ring circus in just one ring!!

After the show we take a tour through the Schooner Bar where an Englishman, Alan Taemur, is playing the piano and we stay for just a bit because there aren't any open seats.  He ends his set with - wait for it - "Sweet Caroline" - of course and we head back upstairs.  It's been quite a first day and we're all ready to call it a night!

When we get back to our room the beds have been separated and all is right with the world!