Apologies for the lack of blog over the past 5 days – ML and I have been sailing the Caribbean Sea on Royal Caribbean’s Harmony of the Seas…  We were going to try and go internet free for the whole week, but I caved midway through day 5… so here we are!

Until yesterday – she was the largest cruise ship in the world…. but RC have outdone themselves and built an even bigger ship – Symphony of the Seas which is about an inch bigger apparently – that was launched this week.

This gives you an idea of how big the ship is.  Walking from pool to food – I’ve never done so much walking before!!!

Boarding was pretty exciting after an interesting Uber ride from Miami Beach with a chap who spoke not a single word of English.  When we got to the security gate at the port, ML had to explain who he was and that he wasn’t coming with us.

We didn’t have to wait too long before we could get into our room, so we wandered around the ship to get to know the lay of the land (so to speak) and then unpacked.  After completing the online check in asking for 2 single beds, and then writing a personal email  making sure that we would be able to have 2 single beds – there was one bed, but Winston, our Stateroom Attendant was quick to rectify the situation – but really, if they had a list of beds that need to be together or apart early on it could save them a lot of bother…. I’ll have to suggest it to Guest Services.

Here’s a little photo montage of our first impressions of the ship.

The Promenade – cafes, bars and some shops.

Central Park – restaurants – overlooked by the indoor cabins.

There’s a Jamie’s and a Johnny Rockets burger joint…

That’s the Captain taking celebrity photos with people.

The shopping is pretty full on and expensive…. Oh look Darl, it’s Cartier!

This tiara was quite affordable, but ML said it didn’t fit me very well….. I would have thought I could have made it work.

There is a bar with bionic bar robots that make the drinks – this has only had a few people trying this out whenever we’ve passed it – It’s probably interesting for one drink, but where’s the witty banter?

There’s a rock climbing wall

Then one for the kiddies.

You can zip line from one point of the ship to another.

It doesn’t go very far, but it’s a good way to peer into some of the inside cabins.

There is a carousel – or merry go round.  I walked past this one time and saw the saddest nana on there.  It was like her family had plonked her on there while they went and did something else.

RC is very serious about hand washing so they have this Purell liquid hand sanitiser in front of every single doorway.  So the skin on my hands is quite dry and my ring has rusted a bit – potent stuff!

This is the adults only Solarium – no pool, but 3 very hot spas… so essentially a sauna.

Mini golf

The bus where you drive your mates to the beach….. oops, this bus seems to be empty ML.

There is not one, but two wave ride pools – I wasn’t game to try this myself, and my lack of interest didn’t help, but I did spend an afternoon watching other people doing it and there were some very impressive manoeuvres and some hilarious falls.

This is called The Abyss – you climb up into the mouth, slide down one of two slides…

… and end up on the bottom level – apparently this sort of thing is essential to cruise ships now.  The kids love it (big and small!)

Central Park

This is how you tell if the cabana chair is free – look for the feet.

First things first – the safety drill at your muster station.  We were all crammed into a really small room with not a lot of space between us when our muster station attendant told us that she was waiting on 90 more people, so could we squeeze in a bit more – if the ship went down at that moment, we would have been fish food.  They did show a really cool safety video though – like a James Bond type of thing where he was searching for all the things you’re not meant to do… and then there was a song about washing your hands.

And then we sailed out of Fort Lauderdale…

This platform is on top of the Bridge and is glass  – so only those with a solid understanding and belief in engineering stand on it.

As ML has sailed out of this port before – she was able to point out the house you can see here with its own wave rider pool!!!

Then it was see you later alligator…

As we sailed out, this plane flew overhead with this sign – “Liv P Wanna Fly To Prom With Me?”  Gee I hope she said yes and I hope she can read backwards.

Our first dinner at the Main Grande Dining Room – Our waiters are Willy from Mexico & Miguel from The Philippines, who we have nicknamed Migsy…. he doesn’t understand why.

Look Jen – your top got an outing!

Our first show of the cruise was the ship’s production of Grease.  Not bad, but not spectacular – maybe for me Grease has been done to death and maybe it’s because I once starred in a university production of Grease (and when I say starred, I was in the chorus with no lines, however I did cartwheel across stage)… Also our experience was peppered with anecdotes from the chap sitting behind us – he regaled his wife with all the things he had done during the day whilst Sandy belted out “Hopelessly Devoted to You” and when I turned and gave him the finger to the lips he said “Oh, I’m fine!” and continued on….

Day 1 – done and dusted.