This will be part 3 of a 4 part series on Royal Caribbean’s Symphony of the Seas mega ship. This post is going to focus on the Entertainment on-board. Like everything else on this ship, there are a lot of options and I am only going to cover the options we were able to experience, which still leaves us a lot of ground to cover. We were able to take in four shows on-board and a few other acts. The shows ranged from popular Broadway shows, to original shows created by Royal Caribbean. As I have been talking with friends and family about this ship, I came to the realization that I love it so much because it really does a great job focusing on accommodating families. I can’t wait to take my 11, 10, and 7 yr old daughters on this ship. It is something they will always remember. The entertainment on board for the most part, is family friendly and only adds to my desire to make this our next family vacation.
First up, “Hairspray”. Get your ultra clutch hairspray to lock in you dew and get ready for a good time. I thought the cast was really good for this one. It’s tough to do something so popular, especially a play that was made into a movie with an all-star cast, but the entertainers on Symphony pulled it off. Quick note about the theater, it is pretty big seating 1,400 and was designed well. Comfortable seats and very few with obstructed views. Tip for you, make sure you go out well in advance and sign up for some of the shows you want to see. I’ve heard that they can be difficult to get into if you try to sign up after you are on the ship.
There is an aqua show on the ship called “HiRO”. This one is perfect for families. The first night out there were 3 meter waves and about 35 knot winds so the ship was moving too much for them to do the show. However, the second night was fine and wow, just wow. Great mix of dancing, diving, and aerial wire thing, not really sure what that is called. The music was good and they even threw in some slack lining. Really unique show and the entertainers are incredible.
Next up, ice skating show, “1977” (actual name of the show). I’m not a big ice skating guy, but I was entertained by this show. I am sort of a techy so the very beginning of the show was really cool. They start off with a fleet of drones that come out flying around in a very coordinated manner and put on a flying light show. Really cool. The skating was good, and the story line was decent. Beware if you sit in the front row you don’t lean too far over. The rink is small (you are on a ship) and there were a few times the skaters got a little close. Had I been leaning any further I would have risked impalement by toe pick. I basically risked my life to bring you this 30 second video, so enjoy. Feel free to take the little ones to this show.
The last show I will talk about was “Flight”. This is an original from Royal and they are really excited about it. It could be that this was the third show of the evening for me, or fatigue, maybe the Jack Daniels (typically helps with things like this) but I thought it was just ok. The show follows the history of flight in reverse chronological order. It was a bit confusing if there was story line beyond that. During each stage of flight there were mini stories and at times it seemed they were shooting for some other thread, but I was not following it. There are some great visual features of this play ending with the Wright Brothers flight, the plane actually coming out over the audience. Great use of the theater with the aerials on the plane and other pretty cool applications of people suspended from wires that I will let you discover on your own. The unique way they use the theater with all the aerial components make this worth seeing, even if the story line is a bit hard to follow. This is another one that would be fine for kids.
Add pizza video.There are different acts in some of the bars and restaurants around the ship. Not all of these take place at night. They had a great reggae band top side during the day where I really wanted to just chill out and drink Pina coladas all afternoon to soak it in. Could have been an epic happy place for me.
One day outside of the pizza shop Sorrentos they had professional pizza dough flingers (not sure if that is the technical term for them). We had just come back from an incredible lunch on Nassau, but decided we had done a lot of walking and needed a snack. We go to Sorrentos and see a huge crowd. My first response, was “looks like ice cream cones instead, lets head for the self serve on 15.” My wife having more patience, said lets check it out. As usual, glad I listened to her. These guys are really amazing. Not sure how long they were out there, but they were very entertaining and did a great job interacting with the crowd. Once again, these acts and shows were all family friendly.
If you have questions about the ship or any of our blog, please leave us a comment. If you would like to see more pictures of our trip feel free to visit our Symphony of the Seas Facebook Album.