Feedback of the sailing from the 3rd to the 10th of July aboard Harmony of the Seas

Dear Members and Readers of Cruise Critic,

I felt that it was time for me to payback to those of you who had taken the time to post information regarding Royal Caribbean's Harmony of the Seas from the dawn of her construction up to her latest sailings.

Our journey began back in September of 2015 when we had booked room 1722 which is a Sky Loft Suite for a sailing from the 3rd of July until the 10th of July out of Barcelona with stops in Palma, Marseilles, La Spezia, Civitavecchia and Naples before returning to Barcelona.

Shortly after booking our cruise, I joined the membership of Cruise Critic to gain as much information as I could about this ship and the sister ships within RCI. Most of the information was great and at times some of the information could have been misleading if you didn't have an open mind.

As many of you might know, Harmony of the Seas had a bit of a turbulent start with her sailings out of Southhampton. However I can assure you that my family and I did not witness any of the problems that were mentioned from those sailings. Now before I begin my story let me put up a few photos as most people are interested in this rather than me rambling on about my experience.

Ok, so here goes. About a week before the cruise began, I had received an email from the Genie who would be attending to us during our cruise. I don't want to mention his name but he is Genie No 1 on HOS and is also the face of the Genie that you see in the advertising that RCI does with their Star Class program. The email was basically for me to download the Loop app and to introduce himself to us. Now regarding this app, first of all, in my opinion it is not an app. It's just a webmail address that links your sailing details to your genie's email address. However it has a major flaw which I was unaware of until the genie told me towards the end of the sailing. In order for the genie to pick up the email on Loop, he has to be in front of his computer in his room. The phones that they carry around with them on the ship are not smart phones and they are really used just for making calls. So the best way to get in touch with your genie when you are on the ship is simply to dial his extension number which he provides to you on his business card when you meet him. If you use the Loop for important things he will not pick it up unless he is in his room. However when they are not with their Star Class guests they normally return to their rooms for desk work. Also I encountered a major problem when using the Loop in that I could not see the messages that the genie sent to me. And this was rather disappointing. The system is obviously not working properly as it should be. But perhaps it might be by now.

Our boarding time that we selected was 3:30pm. We stayed at a hotel that was only 10 minutes away from the port. However RCI use both terminals B and C in Barcelona for embarkation and disembarkation. Passengers in the front half use terminal B and those in the back half use terminal C. The Star Class suites board via terminal C but on embarkation day the closing time for terminal C is 3pm. Therefore we were advised a few days in advance that we should come to terminal B.

Upon our arrival, it was a little chaotic as my bags were immediately being loaded and carted off as they were pre-tagged. However I immediately stopped the baggage porters and had to find someone that could assist me in finding our genie. And here is the secret to all your problems for those of you who are traveling in Star Class. Find someone with a RCI name badge and identify yourself as a Star Class guest. The gentleman that I found immediately advised the porters that the bags were from a Star Class guest and that they should be loaded accordingly. He then immediately took me through the terminal to where my genie was waiting for us. The genie introduced himself to us and he knew each one of our names without us introducing ourselves. He took our Set Sea Pass Sailing documents which were scanned and proceeded then to escort us onto the ship and to our rooms. From the time we arrived at the port to the time we arrived at our room 15 minutes had elapsed at most. Time for more pictures. https://vimeo.com/175099370

After we arrived at our suite, the genie presented us with our sea pass cards, wow bands and other pieces of literature regarding the star class benefits. The room attendant and his attendant had also presented themselves shortly after. Before they left, I had remembered the post regarding tipping genies that I had read. So what I did was inline with what others had done in the past. I tipped him and also out of courtesy I had tipped the room attendants even though the room attendant tips were prepaid.

The mandatory sea drill takes place at 4:30pm and the location area is printed on your sea pass card. It last for about 45 minutes. The shipped sailed out of its dock at 6pm and our first night for dining was at Coastal Kitchen at 7pm.

I'll stop here for now and should the response be good from the readers then I'll continue the story with more pictures.

Best Regards,

jdemontrichard

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Beautiful photos, please contnue.:)

Looking forward to reading the rest :)

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Ok, so as a Star Class guest you have access to Coastal Kitchen for breakfast, lunch and dinner and like I said, on our first night of dining, a reservation was made for us there by our genie. The food was good but nothing remarkable, just good. Coastal Kitchen shares its floor area with the concierge area I believe. So basically when you enter Coastal Kitchen, the restaurant seating area is in front of you and to the left. To the right is a bar which we did not use and to the right of that is the concierge area with seating for guests and Pinnacle members I think. There was also an area to get some hot food and light snacks but I never used that either during the sailing.

After dinner, we walked around the ship to orientate ourselves. Central Park by far is the prettiest area of the ship and is best viewed at night and when the ship is sailing. There is a light breeze that can be felt when you are in Central Park when the ship sails and there is a nice bar called Nells I think which serves good quality drinks. As a Star Class guest an adult gets the Ultimate beverage package. Below the age of 18 ( for Europe) they give you the Replenishing package I think, which is basically everything except alcohol. Our son is 17 and occasionally he can drink at home. So once in a while I would get him a sangria using my sea pass card. Now the Ultimate beverage package has limitations as well. First of all, you can't order a bottle without paying something. If the bottle cost less than $100 you get a 20% discount and if the bottle is over $100 you get a 40% discount. Now regarding drinks. If the drink is less than $13 there is no additional charge. But if the drink is more than $13, you pay the difference. Most drinks are targeted at $13 and below around the ship but dining outlets like Vintages and 150 serve many glasses of wine above $13.

At the end of the evening, we decided to take in the show called Big Daddy's Hideaway at the Aqua Theatre. It runs for about 1 hour and started at 11pm that evening. Good show for a first night. But the better show at the Aqua Theatre is the one called A Fine Line. It is laced with danger so don't miss that one.

That's it for day 1. Interested in hearing more, let me know.

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https://vimeo.com/175111226

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https://vimeo.com/175111368

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https://vimeo.com/175111610

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Sorry folks. I don't know why the uploaded video is without audio.

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Very interested in hearing more please [emoji4]

https://vimeo.com/175111922

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So on day 2 we arrive at Palma de Mallorca. This was the only port where we did not have an excursion booked for us. On our first night while dining in Coastal Kitchen, the genie had the RCI excursion manager meet with us to discuss our excursion plans for the cruise. See, I intentionally did not make any excursion plans nor speciality dining reservations because I wanted to test the Star Class privileges. Basically the word " No" should not be used towards a Star Class guest. Everything that they do should be with a " can do" principle. Of course there will be some things that can't be done due to either logistics or the ridiculous request being made by the guest but dining reservations and excursions are things that are well within their control even if the venue is said to be fully booked.

We decided to do a spin class at 8am which was complementary for Star Class guests. But you only get one class complementary. Any others which carry a charge would need to be paid for. There are 21 bikes in the studio and I recommend that you book in advance using the sign in sheet which is located in the wellness area. Spin classes are Monday, Tuesday and Saturday at 8 am and carry a $20 charge. Cycling shoes are also provided.

After the class, we had breakfast at Coastal Kitchen. But here is my complaint regarding Coastal Kitchen. For Star Class guests, it's basically considered to be a Main Dining Room. Yet the operating hours vary for breakfast and lunch depending on the day of the week. And this was rather annoying. The opening hours are not that long first of all. Example 8-9:30 am on day 2 for breakfast. Lunch from 12 to 1:30pm as well. That is absolutely ridiculous in my opinion. And on other days breakfast may start earlier such as in the port of Civitavecchia. On that day it starts at 7am but will end by 9am. I complained to the genie that the restaurant should have operating hours just like a hotel restaurant and open at 6am and stop service around 10:30am. Lunch should be served from 12:00pm to at least 3:00pm.

We went into Palma and toured the place on our own. We returned to the ship by 2pm but found it difficult to find somewhere to have a decent lunch onboard the ship at 3pm. As a Star Class guest I was disappointed about this. We had pizza at Sorrentos to hold us over until our dinner reservation at 150 for the formal evening.

Well this was not a good experience for us and I'll write about this later in.

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Thank you so much for sharing your cruise feedback. I have been wondering about star class more and more lately so this is helping quite a bit.

By the way, I watched the vimeo video and it sounded fine.

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So dinner on the second evening was at 150. On a scale from 1-10 the overall experience I gave to RCI for this restaurant was 4. Shortly after we were seated at our table our waiter arrived to introduce himself and the theme of the restaurant. I had immediately noticed that his tie was not properly knotted and during the middle of his presentation he asked to be excused to serve dinner at another table.

As we awaited for the waiter to return, our genie showed up at 150 to check in on us to see how we were doing. And in fact he showed up every evening at the restaurants where we dined each evening. Even though I didn't ask him, I believe that he must have been alerted by the restaurants after our arrival. Although our meetings in the evening were brief, the time spent was sufficient to catch up on what we did for the day and to address our plans for the next day such as an excursion or dinner reservation. It was also a time to provide our genie with any feedback or suggestions that could make our experience more enjoyable. But more on that later on.

After our genie left, the waiter had returned and took our order for the appetizer and main course. The portion sizes in 150 are ridiculously small. I had ordered a beet root salad which comprised of a few minuscule cubes of beet. The main course had 3 scallops that looked more like an appetizer portion. The service was terribly slow. Thank goodness I didn't have to pay for that specialty restaurant. I didn't even bother to stay for dessert and the waiter could sense that I was disappointed with the overall experience.

However the evening was not ruined as we went to see Columbus the Musical which we enjoyed. As a Star, Sky and Sea Class guest, seats are held on the upper tier of the theatre until 20 minutes before the show starts. Show your sea pass card to avail these seats should you want them. However in my opinion the best seating is in the stalls of the theatre located in the lower tier. Show up early and you can get a seat close up or better yet, ask your genie to reserve seats for you. For Columbus seat reservations are really not necessary, however for Grease, the genie will reserve seats for you in the theatre for the time and date that you have requested. Normally the seating will be in the first 3 rows and in the centre of the theatre.

More news to come regarding day 3.

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Beautiful pictures!!!

OMG I almost did not hit on this thread.

Glad I did.

WOW

Thanks for the posts and yes I am waiting for more.

Wow Factor.

I'll post more information in about 24 hours. Unfortunately I have to go to work now. I'll try and finish the thread by tomorrow.

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Thanks for sharing with us.

Jdemontrichard, thanks for the review. I have stayed in this cabin on Oasis many years ago. I saw in the video that there is now a tub/shower combo upstairs. On Allure and Oasis the upstairs have just showers. In the washroom downstairs, was it just a shower or was it a tub combo too? The balcony on Harmony has been much better designed and much nicer furniture too.

We have three cruises booked in the neighbouring SLS 1724 on Harmony so I will be curious to read your opinions about the genie and Star Class category. Chances are we will have your genie at some point on Harmony. We have stayed in the SLS and RLS multiple times without genies over the years so I am really wondering how much "better" it might be. Our first genie experience will be August 28th on Allure in the RLS so I guess we will know soon enough. ;)

Great review so far, and the photos are amazing.:)

https://vimeo.com/175157948

The bathroom which is located on the ground level of the Sky Loft Suite has a large shower which comprises of 2 shower heads, each one is located on opposite ends to the shower area. There is no bathtub within this bathroom. However both bathrooms have flaw designs that are hard to overlook. The bathroom located on the top floor has major water buildup after a shower at the rear of the tub. Water also flows down from the side of the tub onto the floor. The lower bathroom has a problem as well in that the doors do not close fully and water comes out from the shower into the bathroom floor area.

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Thanks for the downstairs washroom pics. The sliding door and water on the floor is regretfully common in all of the loft suites with showers, or at least the ones we have been in. As for the upstairs washroom the partial glass panels look nice but will allow sprayed shower water onto the floor. The partial panel glass door also let a lot of that nice warm air out of the shower.

Sometimes visual appearances override functionality, and RC could have done this better.

On day 3 we had breakfast again at Coastal Kitchen and went out on an excursion that was recommended by RCI's excursion manager. We thoroughly enjoyed the day and I highly recommend to anyone looking to book an excursion to go with RCI rather than independently. The tour companies that RCI deal with provide guides who have an excellent command of the English language along with local knowledge of the area.

When we arrived back at the ship, it was a peak time for those returning from tours. The line to board the ship can be long at times and this is where RCI has fallen short for Suite Class guests. I had mentioned to our genie that the recognition of the suite class program must begin from the gangway of the ship. I recommended that the security line have a special line for the suite class guests for boarding the ship when returning from an excursion and he agreed at the suggestion. Hopefully in the near future it will be implemented.

We dined at Sabor that evening and the meal and service was excellent. In our opinion it was so good that we decided to dine there again on our last night of the cruise. As usual, our genie arrived at the restaurant shortly after we were seated to check in on us. Now I apologize readers but I did not avail the service of hand crafted cocktails that is provided to Star Class guests. But I have no doubt that if I had requested an artisan cocktail every evening to be delivered at a set time then it would have been done. However when I had met our genie that evening, I had requested a change in the excursion for the next day and it was done without question. So this was a great benefit of having a genie with the Star Class service for me. The ability to just pick up a phone or send a message or even request that the genie meet me immediately to work on our request was astounding. And the request was always met with the same answer, " I'll get on it right now Captain de Montrichard". And within a relatively short time frame a confirmation message was delivered to me. Think of the genie as your personal assistant. Whatever you would like done then all you have to do is ask.

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