I choose this ship for my family vacation because of the size as well as the variety of activities, entertainment and open air spaciousness of Central Park and the Boardwalk. Members of my family vary in age and interests and there was something on the Symphony for everyone. I first considered the Harmony until I discovered that the Solarium didn't have a pool. The Solarium is my favorite Sea day spot so this was an important feature for me. Dining: I read reviews about the food being average so we went to four speciality restaurants. Two for lunch and two for dinner. The service in the Main Dining room was amazing but the food was hit or miss. The food in the speciality restaurants was an all around amazing experience. Chops, Wonderland, 501 Central Ave and Hooked. We also had a Mediterranean buffet dinner in the Solarium which was also quite tasty. The only place that we would never eat at again was El Loco Fresh which was crowded, messy and did not have good food. Service: March Spring Break was a sold out sailing and a very full ship. The staff was on point and had everything under control. The waiters and bartenders kept orders moving quickly, the room attendant was pleasant and did a great job. Customer service was efficient and the ship was immaculate with the crew detailing the ship daily. World class shows and entertainment! This alone was worth the cost of the cruise. Casino: I wanted to try my luck at the slots or even play the lottery but I couldn't get near the casino because the cigarette smoke was so terrible. It also permeated the hallways, Dining room entrance and the entertainment areas on the fourth floor. Second hand smoke is a serious health hazard especially for people with asthma and those who work there. Royal Caribbean should do a better job on the air filtration or ventilation system. The Key: This is supposed to come with priority Embarkation & Debarkation, private time on activities, Internet, reserved seating at shows etc. The crew is still working out the kinks but things went smoothly in most cases so it was worth the added expense for this sailing. If I weren't on a crowded ship I would pass on the Key. Teen Center: My son only went on the first day, he had fun but preferred to hang with his older brother on the sports deck where there are tons of activities. Art: There is no shortage of spectacular artwork to discover around the ship. I sent my kids on a daily scavenger hunt and we still haven't found it all. On the last day we looked down the elevator shaft and noticed art in the elevator well below the third floor. Our family loves the Oasis class ships and Symphony of the Seas has all of the best features combined in one perfect ship. Read Less

Great staff, great ship, awesome friends, terrific cabin...fantastic! That was a wicked week, and it all started with the staff onboard, nothing was ever a hassle. Our servers in the MDR were some of the best I have ever encountered, met + exceeded all expectations. Voyager is due for a refurb later this year, wouldn't think it needs (only a couple of things here & there) but really the ship is in great condition...the refurb will be insane! Did a splurge for this cruise and got a Junior Suite on Deck10, right under the Windjammer...but really had no idea at all, didn't hear a thing and was able to sleep in until late :) Clean cabin, spacious, a good escape when needed. Picked this cruise for the range of ports and they didn't disappoint, Langkawi always a favourite, but Phuket was just too much fun and the food! In short loved it, pretty obvious I suppose...but as always go on with the right attitude and have the vacation you deserve :D Read Less

Our family had very wonderful experience with Symphony of the Seas to trip Caribbean for vacation 1/19-1/26/2019. one week on the ship travel, we feel excellent service, amazing shows and activity on the board, awesome food. On the ship trip also you can enjoy beautiful view of Caribbean and islands. The waiters, Prabhu, and Junny did wonderful jobs for each customer. They gave us detail good information and services, also they provide very useful information for ship trip, such shows, activities etc. when they knew my wife birthday, they held service members to celebrate birthday for my wife. My wife enjoy a special birthday dinner on the ship. Our family will remember this wonderful birthday. Another amazing thing will be never forgotten for this trip. Our family visited ST. Tomas island. When we returned to the board, my wife lost ruby ring. After about 2 hours, my wife was aware of her ring lost. We asked cabin crews to help. The crews asked derail information about ring and quick found the ring in board entrance security area. Crews gave us a great helps and also let us have very happy vacation trip. We want to thank very much for the crews' helps. The crews of Symphony of the seas did excellent job for customers. Read Less

The ship is an amazing ship for family cruising. Especially children 8 and older. There’s plenty to keep them busy. If you have children, choose an aft cabin. All activities for kids are aft. Otherwise you will be walking half the the time. Plenty of restaurants both for children and adults. The dining staff in the main dining room which is cramped when the ship is full, were fantastic. The food was mediocre. The shows on board were different and eclectic. Lots of talent. I did not try any of the specialty restaurants as I was traveling with my family of 14. Make reservations early. The cabins were typical and very well taken care of. The shore excursions were terrible. All beach destinations were crowded and didn’t stay long enough. Avoid getting off the ship in Nassau. Always crowded and Atlantis shore excursions took forever to get there and the Atlantis staff were rude and the grounds dirty. The waits were so long, you didn’t get to stay long enough. The pier is very long and the traffic was horrendous. This is not a cruise for the elderly. Too big and too crowded. One big plus was the ease of getting off and on the ship. However , once off the ship the traffic is congested and slow moving. The private island of Labadee was great. Also the trip over to the deserted island. Read Less

First, This is a big boat. But it's mostly storage for all of the passengers. There are not enough amenities to host all of the passengers comfortably. Many times we found we had to wait in lines to be seated for food, for soda machines, ice cream machines, and (most annoyingly) elevators (all the time). We chose this cruise because it was a 'DreamWorks' cruise. We thought it would be like Disney with characters going around. Not so much. In fact, hardly at all. Over 7 days, we saw 4 characters. There were long lines for photos with the crew yelling at people to "get in line!" Not so much for the ambiance. For the kids - our children hated their child center on the 14th floor. Our 9-year old described activities more appropriate for 5 or 6-year-olds and requested to not return after 1 visit. Our 7 year old only went there twice and then didn't want to return. Total disappointment. The staff kept them in 1 room running around playing games for hours. It was like a big kid pre-school. The staff seemed totally totally disinterested. Our child literally said, "I hate this place" right in front of them and they didn't even acknowledge or ask the child why. The housekeeper constantly pressed us on our schedule for the day. We would tell her that we were not sure but we would leave the sign out when were we gone. She seemed annoyed and it became very uncomfortable after several days. We really love to hit the spa (steam rooms, etc.) on the ship. These were tiny rooms. Again, unless you hit the rooms on off-hours, they were very crowded. The staff, who had to open the thermal rooms, often seemed annoyed by having to do their job. The showers were cold and there was no privacy for changing. It was terrible. Did we mention that everything was very crowded? The pools on deck 15 are tiny and filled to capacity except on excursion days. The pools were falling apart. The hot tubs in the family areas were always packed. The ice cream machines were messy and not kept up. You can sign up for various drink packages but the soda machines are not plentiful on the ship. (Floor 5, 15, & 16). They were often out of order, no ice, and the drinks tasted like watered down soda water. You can ask at various bars for soda but the bartenders often seemed annoyed. Overall, not good. Dining - The food was quite good on the first day. However, as the cruise progressed, it became clear that the cooks were recycling left-overs and just changing the food a little bit to make a different dish. Needless to say, it got stale and gross pretty quick. The main restaurant poses as a fine dining establishment. Yet, they blare announcements, loud music, and have the audience "give it up!" for the entire cook/wait staff every night - they would go on and on for 10 or 15 minutes per interruption. We were interrupted during multiple conversations with the family. It totally interrupted nice meals and is very disruptive. Lines and crowding - please be advised that you should make reservations for most things on the cruise well in advance. Expect to stand in line and wait a lot. Again, the boat is bigger but the amenities are really not. The cruise as a whole is constantly trying to get you to spend more money. The experience felt like one upsell after another. The customer service was poor. We felt like they just wanted to process us to get to the next customer. Many seemed nice but quite a few were annoyed at having to help us. Finally, getting off this cruise is hell. Everyone is thrown into a huge warehouse and we had to all be processed through customs. It was so disorganized and stressful. Terrible, terrible experience. We were told that our 'disembark time' was 10:45 AM, then the room attendant told us (that morning) that we were supposed to have been out by 9:00 AM. There was nothing in the documentation saying that!! If you like spending your vacation at a hugely overcrowded, sticky, broken mall, then this cruise is for you. Read Less

This ship should really listen to what their customers say!!! Alot of people understand that formal night is not for everyone but dressing in singlet tops and shorts for dinner - dressing like this is totally unacceptable. So Royal Caribbean listen to what we are saying, a dress code is for everyone not some arrogant people. I found the food ok for dinner, we went in Silk and Wonderland, but wait for the deals it’s well worth it. Food in the windjammer is ok, 1 thing I don’t understand is the boy and the little toaster, poor man is stressed out to hell, give him a bigger toaster!! The entertainment is brilliant, went to the shows not sure I understood The Gift. Our room was lovely and big, nice shower. The guys in the jewellery shop are great we had a good deal - Imran thank you ☺️ Loved the drinks robot Read Less

My wife selected this cruise to experience the new Royal Caribbean Symphony of the Seas. We've cruised RC on inaugural/early cruises for all the Anthem and Quantum class ships. The new boarding experience is much faster and exceptional and we boarded in record time with many fewer annoyances. Symphony does not depart from the standard of quality we've come to expect from the ships of the larger RC fleet. The form, fit, and finish of ship's accoutrements does not disappoint, and it presents itself as a world class cruising experience. The attitude and pitch control of the boat is well executed and provides a low deck pitching experience. The shear size of the ship helps to provide a smooth "ride" during rougher seas. As expected, the crew is exceptionally well trained, attentive, and helpful. We spotted several experienced crew members from previous RC ships that we've cruised. To have access to a bath tub, we booked room 9626 a starboard Junior Spa Suite more than a year ago. The friendly attentive stateroom attendant kept the room clean, neat and tidy, and did his work in timely fashion and did not interfere with our use of the room. We purchased VOOM internet and found that we could connect almost everywhere on the ship. Its speed was not fast enough to prevent video stuttering. Our main dining room wait staff were professional, attentive, friendly, humorous, and hard working and did their best to please us. The quality of the food in the main dining room varied from evening to evening. Most food items were good. Foods that disappointed including overly baked potatoes, overly fatty strip steaks, under-cooked, hard, nearly raw vegetables, and frost burned sugar free ice cream with a sandy texture. We were also disappointed that it was not made obvious that our junior spa suite class allowed dining in the upscale Coastal Kitchen during supper time. We were invited to attend a Suite upgrade seminar by the Next Cruise staff in which we found out about our eligibility for dining in the Coastal Kitchen in the evenings. We promptly made reservations for the only remaining time of 8:30 PM. We greatly enjoyed the food and staff there. The grade of sugar free ice cream served there was superb, In the future, if we stayed in a suite, we would switch our evening dining location to the Coastal Kitchen for the superior food items. Read Less

We chose this Thanksgiving cruise because it was a renovated ship and had a port every day. There was a good mix of traditional beach & shopping ports (St. Thomas, St. Maarten, Barbados) and newer exotic ports (Grenada, Dominica). We were in port from 8:00-5:00 every day so we were able to sleep in on some days, get a full day in port on other days, and always make it back to the ship to sit down for a family dinner. I really like the predictability of the 8-5 port schedule. It's very easy to keep it straight in your head. We really wanted beaches and relaxation so we did not book any excursions. There were lots of teens & kids on the boat so our daughters made friends and were excited to meet up with them every evening when we returned from port. There was a rock climbing wall, golf course and kids' pool, but the ship was still a manageable size. We were not overwhelmed by people or lost trying to find each amenity. Disembarkation was not a total zoo like it can be with the mega-ships. This ship has an indoor cinema and outdoor movies by the pool, which we love, but they repeated several movies over the course of the week. No movies on the "network" TV in the room (we really like that about Norwegian & Princess). All-in-all, the amenities were pretty good and the cabin renovation was nice. One thing I HATE about the renovations is the lack of outlets in the cabin! We always bring an extension cord. I like to unplug (we don't buy internet on the cruise) but we still need to charge cameras, iPhones, Kindles, etc. Royal Caribbean does the best with service, embarkation, disembarkation and all the little details. The dining room food was a bit boring with the same menu almost every night, but I think they do that to push you toward the specialty paid restaurants. The buffet food was pretty good, but there were alot of "repeats" there too including Indian food all the time. I love Indian food but was a bit baffled to keep seeing it for lunch every day. Many of the buffet & dining room desserts were bland, but others were excellent. The buffet was not open all the time. For example, when you get back from port at 5:00 PM, it's not open. It did not re-open until 6:30 on port days. Also, there was not a continuously open burger/pizza place for the kids like most other cruises have near the pool. We had no issues with food availability, but when you have kids you expect to find that type of convenience food regularly available if they did not eat in port. We did LOVE that breakfast room service is still free on Royal Caribbean if you just do the continental breakfast. I love to relax in bed with my coffee and ease into my day. It's also nice to give the kids milk, fruit or a pastry while they watch cartoons in their pajamas. If you want hot breakfast (eggs, etc.) for room service, there is a charge. On Thanksgiving night, they did a HUGE dessert showcase in the buffet with chocolate covered strawberries and a chocolate fountain. We had our actual Thanksgiving dinner in the main dining room and it was underwhelming. We ended up going to the buffet afterwards. The gym was pretty good with sturdy treadmills and plenty of machines & free weights. There were a few free fitness classes and a few paid ones. Not as many classes as on other ships, but there was always 2-3 classes every morning-- usually spinning, abs and yoga. The fitness classes were in an open area in the middle of the fitness floor which was annoying because you had to hear the spinning instructor SCREAMING across the entire gym while you tried to listen to music on your treadmill. One downside of the gym was no TVs on each treadmill/elliptical. Not a huge issue, but a nice feature on other cruises. Given that this was an older ship, the gym was still pretty large. It was much larger than I expected. We did not do any posed family photos on this cruise, but it did look like they offered a variety of different backdrops. Read Less

Overall cruise experience was great! 6th time cruising and I have only cruised with RC. Food in windjammer was one of the best out of the 6 cruises I’ve taken. Entertainment was THE BEST out of the 6 cruises. MUST SEE – Saturday night fever and hyno-tainment! New to cruising – wait to shop on ship until end of cruise. They always run sales on clothing, bags, jewelry etc. Cabin -This is my 6th cruise, second time in an interior room and let’s just say I will not book an interior room again. Personal opinion, I felt like interior cabins got pushed under the rug - stains on towels & sheets. They didn't put a mattress pad on top of the two twins making a king, you had a valley where the beds met. Our lights in bathroom and desk area lost connection or breaker blew? Hair and dirt in drawers. Night before vacation was over - heard very loud noises coming from bathroom area – neighbors must have had an issue, couple of minutes later, our toilet overflowed/backed up causing water & other “things” everywhere which took over and hour and a half to get taken care & cleaned up around 10 PM night before getting off ship. On the bright side, everything was brought to staffs attention and every issue was taken care of immediately. Excursions - 1st stop - Roatan, Honduras - We booked last minute for the Gumbalima Park. HIGHLY RECOMMEND! such a cool experience. We already had a snorkel excursion planned and beach/speedboat excursion booked at the 2 other ports, so we thought to try something different. Bittersweet, again, excursion was awesome but knowing after the fact we weren’t able to snorkel at the other ports, I wish we would have went snorkeling. 2nd stop - Belize City, Belize - All water excursions were cancelled for Belize because of rough waters, luckily, we found out early morning the day before we were at port so we could rebook something else. We went to Kukumba Beach, it is a manmade beach which was pretty cool. The slide was awesome! There is a restaurant, bar and gift shop located at this beach. Tons of activities for all ages. I am also surprised they still tendered instead of skipping island because of the rough seas. The port is really nice, shops and bars! 3rd stop - Cozumel Mexico - always a great time in Cozumel! Again, water excursions were cancelled. Our excursion got cancelled but didn't find out until we were supposed to meet for our excursions at 10:15am, off the ship at 7:45am. We docked and were allowed off boat at 7:30am, RC made announcement at 8:30 am on the ship when more than half the boat was off that all water excursions were cancelled. When we finally were told our excursion was cancelled we had only 2 options to book, panoramic bus tour or dune buggies. We booked the dune buggies (4 people per buggy). Dune buggies was fun. It was called Dune buggies, beach and snorkel. Luckily since all water excursions were cancelled, we weren’t allowed to go snorkeling or to the beach. The beach is rocks…like big boulders covered in seaweed. The snorkeling…..doesn’t look great unless they take you away from the shoreline. Maybe it looks different if there weren’t rough seas but from what I saw, I am glad we didn’t “beach” and “snorkel”. The beach club you go to is ok. They have many mini stands (food, souvenir, essentials stand, bar and fish therapy). There is also a pool, but it looks like it’s just the ocean water. The beach club also shares an excursion with the captain your own speedboat. It might get busy there.. Food – We only ate in the windjammer and Sorrento’s. Some people say we miss out on the best part about cruising which is the MDR. However, it was so nice going to the windjammer every night on our time. Every night was a different theme, so you could get the same old thing (hot dog, burger etc) or mix it up every night. Dessert was always on point. Service was great. We have had no issues with breakfast lunch or dinner in the windjammer. The staff stayed on top of clearing tables during the busy time so everyone could sit. Read Less

Great Ship, Wonderful Service, Even full (6700 passengers) it did not feel crazy crowded. We ate mostly in the MDR thought the food was good. Really enjoyed the Mediterranean Food at the Solarium Bistro for Dinner. We like to eat lunch in the MDR on sea days, but the menu was pretty limited - the great thing is there’s a buffet in there that you can also use if you don’t see what you like on the menu. Windjammer was pretty busy for breakfast- we tried to eat at the MDR when we had time. Saw most of the shows, they were ok, the standout was Grease. The ship is great for families. We loved Labadee - did the Dragons Breath ZipLine - really enjoyed it. We took a taxi to Paradise Beach in Cozumel - it was fantastic. Climbed the Dunn’s River Falls in Jamaica - loved it! Our favorite neighborhood was Central Park - it’s beautiful and never very crowded. Read Less