Symphony of the Seas is the 25th ship in Royal Caribbean’s fleet...
And a sister to Oasis Of The Seas, Allure Of The Seas, and Harmony Of The Seas.
She’s been under construction for the last several years at the STX shipyard in France
And will make her debut in April 2018.
She’ll spend the summer season in the Mediterranean, do a transatlantic beginning October 28th,
And in November she’ll be based here in the United States.
You know, they’ve been making these Oasis-class ships for ten years now.
And I wouldn’t blame you if you were thinking...
“Big deal… another Oasis-class ship… who cares?”
But in this video, I’m going to show you why you should be excited about Symphony Of The Seas
And I’ll show you how she’s different from her three sisters.
One important difference is that she won’t be based at Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale.
She’ll be cruising from the Port Of Miami
And Royal Caribbean has been busy constructing a brand new state-of the-art cruise terminal for her.
Something that’s always impressed me about Royal Caribbean...
Is that even though they’ve got the largest cruise ships in the world, carrying the most number of passengers...
They've perfected the embarkation process so well...
That it’s actually quicker to get onboard a Royal Caribbean ship with 5500 other passengers...
Than it is to get onboard some of the other cruise line’s much smaller ships.
And with Symphony of the Seas they’ll be introducing an even more streamlined check-in experience
That reduces lines and even eliminates the check-in counter completely.
The new process will leverage a combination of facial recognition, bar codes and beacons...
To make boarding fast and frictionless.
You’ll check-in with a brand new mobile app, and upload a selfie from home...
Rather than having to wait to take the time at the terminal to have a security photo taken.
Symphony Of The Seas will be just enough bigger than her sisters to be able to claim the title of largest cruise ship in the world, but...
There are many more significant differences than that.
So let’s go over them.
The most noticeable changes will be back at the end of the ship in the Boardwalk neighborhood.
Spanning the length of the entire Boardwalk will be a brand new sports bar and arcade
Called "Playmakers".
This is the place to watch the big game on 30 big-screen TVs...
And you’ll be able to enjoy wings, burgers and craft beer on draft
As well as play 23 popular arcade games.
On the other side of the Boardwalk you’ll find a new candy and ice-cream shop called...
Sugar Beach.
Talk about a sugar high!
This place will be packed with candy and all sorts of sweet treats including ice cream and all the toppings.
Plus, cupcake decorating classes.
Of course, all the most popular features of The Boardwalk on the other Oasis-class ships have been retained.
There’s the original hand-carved carousel that’s been a hit with people of all ages.
And Johnny Rockets where you can enjoy burgers, fries and milkshakes
Served in the classic style of a 1950s diner.
Then there’s the very cool AquaTheater, an amphitheater-style venue at the far end of the ship
With a beautiful ocean backdrop where you can enjoy a show of aquatic acrobatics,
Diving from incredible heights, and a beautiful water show set to music.
It’s a great place to enjoy a show on a warm night in the Caribbean.
But don’t sit in the first couple of rows unless you want to get wet!
And that brings us to the tallest slide at sea: The Ultimate Abyss.
This was one of the things that really impressed me when I cruised on Harmony Of The Seas.
I’ve been on a lot of cruise ship waterslides, but this slide is actually even more fun because…
It isn’t a waterslide. There’s no water.
So, you don’t have to get in to your swim suit, or get cold or wet…
And if you want to do it over and over again...
You don’t have to do that long climb up a set of stairs in the wind like you do on a lot of cruise ships.
In fact, you can even use the nearby elevators to get to the top to ride it again.
You enter up on deck 16 through the jaws of some kind of scary looking sea creature...
And just approaching the start of the ride is scary because the floor is all glass...
And looks down all the way to the Boardwalk neighborhood and the ocean.
The ride itself is a lot of fun, and I’m not just saying that… it really is fun…
I even got my wife to go on it, and I don’t remember her going on the waterslides of any of our other cruises.
Ten floors below where it started, there’s a very gentle finish to the ride...
As opposed to getting dunked in a big pool of water like you do on a waterslide.
So, I really can’t say enough good things about the Ultimate Abyss slide…
And I’m glad to see it will be there on Symphony Of The Seas.
There will be several new food and beverage concepts making their debut on Symphony Of The Seas…
Adding to an already diverse lineup of more than 20 restaurants across the ship’s seven neighborhoods.
The one I’m most excited about is the new Mexican restaurant, El Loco Fresh.
If you recall on the sister ships, the Mexican restaurant used to be located on the Boardwalk.
The original version was Ritas Cantina, then they switched to Sabor…
And now they’ve refined the concept even further…
Making it even more casual, and moving the location up to the Sports Zone, where the wipe-out café used to be.
El Loco Fresh will offer made-to-order tacos, burritos and other popular Mexican food...
In an open-air setting that can seat more than 100 guests.
Hooked Seafood, a New England-style seafood restaurant, will feature fresh seafood...
Most of it sourced from ports along the cruise route…
At an upcharge of $19 for lunch and $39 for dinner.
It’ll be located at the front of the ship in the upper level of the Solarium.
Of course, all the other restaurants that have been so popular on the three other Oasis-class ships...
Will be part of the mix on Symphony Of The Seas, too.
But with refreshed interior designs and new menu specialties.
The interior designs of Wonderland are definitely intended to stand out and be a topic of conversation.
But the interior decoration is not the only imaginative thing about Wonderland.
The Cuisine is quite unique.
It’s not just food, it’s a show right there on your plate!
Another dining venue that mixes food and showmanship is Izumi Hibachi and Sushi
A very popular restaurant on the other Royal Caribbean ships that have it.
Now we head to Central Park a beautiful area running down the center of the ship...
With more than 12,000 lush tropical plants.
No other cruise line has anything quite like this serene open-air neighborhood
featuring meandering walkways with quiet nooks for reading and relaxing.
When I’m trying to get from one end of the ship to the other, I almost always go through Central Park.
Because it’s so beautiful, and so unlike anything you’d expect to find on a cruise ship.
And Central Park is home to several of the ship’s specialty restaurants.
Chops Grille is the American steakhouse that is well known to Royal Caribbean guests.
I’ve had many good meals at Chops Grille on other Royal Caribbean ships.
It’ll be fun to see how they’ve tweaked the interior design and the menu.
The Italian specialty restaurant is "Jamie’s Italian" by celebrity chef, Jamie Oliver.
Another popular dining venue that’s been carried over from the sister ships is the Park Café
And I’m excited to tell you that they’ve made it bigger…
With seating capacity for 150 people now.
If you’ve never been on an Oasis-class ship, you should definitely try the Park Cafe’s roast beef sandwich…
It’s their signature item on the menu.
Another restaurant in that same area is 150 Central Park... whose menu changes with the seasons.
Up at the front of the ship is one of my favorite parts of the Oasis-class sisters: the Solarium.
It’s been re-designed a bit on Symphony Of The Seas.
The Solarium bar isn’t up on the top level anymore. That’s the location of the new seafood restaurant.
The bar moved down a level, in front of the Solarium Bistro.
And just like on Harmony Of The Seas, the solarium spans three levels, not just two.
On Symphony Of The Seas, they’ll be using glass panels above the Solarium to block the wind.
On the sister ships they used plastic panels… which had a tendency to rip.
And I’ve saved the best news about the Solarium for last.
There was a big ruckus when people discovered that the Solarium on Harmony Of The Seas didn’t have a pool.
Royal Caribbean heard the feedback loud and clear…
And there will be a pool in the Solarium on Symphony Of The Seas.
If spending time in the water is a big thing for you on vacation…
You’ll enjoy The Pool and Sports Zone up on the top deck of the ship.
It’s where you’ll find all sorts of fun adventures including a trio of waterslides known as "The Perfect Storm".
There'll be an all-new children’s water play area called "Splashaway Bay", plus several swimming pools.
And a zip line that takes you on a pretty cool ride far above the Boardwalk area down below.
Plus, a mini-golf course
And two FlowRider surf simulators.
If I ever find myself with nothing to do on a Royal Caribbean ship...
And that doesn’t happen very often…
I head over to the FlowRider and just watch the people do their thing.
At the beginning of the week, it’s a whole lot of wipeouts.
And by the end of the week it’s amazing to see how good everybody’s gotten at it.
One area where Royal Caribbean is just simply the best among all the cruise lines is entertainment.
If you like being entertained in the evenings at a pro-quality Broadway show…
You should be cruising with Royal Caribbean.
They lead the entire industry with world-class entertainment.
On Symphony Of The Seas, the big musical will be “Hairspray”
And you might recall that that was Royal Caribbean’s first Broadway musical at sea, years ago.
They’ve giving it a total refresh, and it'll be the big headline show in the Royal Theater.
There’s also a new original show called “Flight” which is a satirical look at the evolution of air travel.
In the iconic AquaTheater there’s an all-new aqua show for Symphony Of The Seas…
And Studio B will showcase a new ice-skating show called “1977"
Which will incorporate some new high-tech effects…
Thanks to six laser projectors that they’ve installed which can basically turn the white ice on the floor...
In to a big digital projection screen.
On other days, Studio B will transform in to an epic glow-in-the-dark laser tag arena.
And, if you’re looking for a challenge, check out the new Puzzle Break experience on Symphony Of The Seas.
You’ll be working in teams and racing against the clock looking for clues to reach a common goal:
To find a key that'll allow you to escape from the submarine that you’re locked in.
The staterooms on Symphony Of The Seas are also really impressive. And I’m not just talking about the suites.
Every stateroom has a view, even the least expensive inside cabins.
They feature high tech virtual balconies.
What you’re seeing here is not an actual balcony or a window, it’s a wall-to-ceiling video display
To make you feel like you’re in a much more expensive balcony cabin…
And it has a real-time view of what’s happening outside.
Symphony Of The Seas has more balcony staterooms than her sisters...
And the balcony cabins have benefited from years of experience and innovation at Royal Caribbean.
For example, there’s a closet on each side of the couch, and that puts them far enough apart...
That both people can access their closet at the same time without bumping in to each other.
There are multiple power outlets at the desk, as well as USB charging ports.
And Royal Caribbean is one of the few cruise lines to put a power outlet next to the bed
To allow you to keep your phone nearby at night while it charges...
Or to make it easy to run a CPAP machine at night.
I like a lot of the little thoughtful design choices that they’ve made in the cabins on Royal Caribbean’s newest ships…
Like a night light that’s built in to the bathroom…
So it’s never pitch black even if you stumble in to the bathroom in the middle of the night.
And they also went to the trouble of designing curtains that truly block out all the light from outside
A great little feature for people that like to take naps…
Or people that like to sleep in past sunrise.
Now, if you can afford to splurge on a suite…
Royal Caribbean offers amazing two-story loft suites with incredible views out huge picture windows.
And something new to Symphony Of The Seas is "The Ultimate Family Suite".
A dream come true for kids of all ages!
It features a slide from the kid’s bedroom to the living room below
A floor-to-ceiling LEGO wall
An air-hockey table
A theater-style TV room with 3D movies, complete with a popcorn machine
And a library of video games across multiple gaming systems.
The Ultimate Family Suite is designed for a family up to eight...
Features two bedrooms, and even has a private Jacuzzi on the balcony.
Now there’s just one of these suites onboard, and it’s already sold out for all of 2018…
Even over the Christmas holiday when the price spiked to close to $90,000 for the week!
Royal Caribbean ships are VERY high tech.
The robot bartenders at the Bionic Bar… that’s just a gimmick.
Something flashy to make you say WOW!
But there’s a lot of really useful technology onboard that'll improve your cruise experience.
For example, Royal Caribbean’s Internet connectivity is so much better than any of the other cruise lines.
You see, most cruise lines make their connection to the Internet using satellites that orbit high above the earth.
And the transmission of the signal over those large distances causes latency in the connection...
That just makes using the Internet feel slow and unresponsive.
But Royal Caribbean uses a completely different system from a company called O3B Networks
Using a series of low earth orbit satellites.
If you do an Internet speed test on some other cruise ship and then do one on Royal Caribbean...
You’ll see a big measurable difference in not only the upload and download speeds, but the ping time, too…
All thanks to O3B Networks and their low earth orbit satellite network.
You can stream video and music
Do video chats
Play online games
All from poolside, or anywhere on the ship.
It truly is the fastest Internet at sea.
Symphony Of The Seas will span 16 guest decks
Encompass more than 230,000 gross registered tons
And carry over 5500 guests in over 2700 staterooms.
79 passengers more than her three sisters!
Eastern and Western Caribbean cruises out of the port of Miami begin in November of 2018.
I’m Jim Zim. Thanks for watching.
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