poocher

We found the cabanas up there quite stuffy.  I didn’t last 15 minutes in one.  Frankly, I find the whole solarium area on Harmony to be stuffy.  Too many windows/sunshades overhead to allow for a good airflow and with no pool, impossible to cool off.

8 hours ago, njkruzer said:

Doesn’t always work.

Dining gods must like me cuz it does for me!

26 minutes ago, DukeASUGirl said:

 

We created our own fixed time during MTD on our cruise a couple of weeks ago. 5 pm was too early, and 8 pm was too late, so we did a standing MTD reservation for a party of 6 for 6:45 pm, and had the same table with the same waitstaff every single night.

I’ve done this exact thing our last three cruises with the same result.

It is not my intention to label anyone, merely an observation that people, in general, are more apt to post complaints than complements.  I find this to be true of all kinds of reviews not just cruises and not just Cruise Critics.  

Well we all have opinions.  For the 6 of us, the food was, for the most part, tasty & well prepared.  YMMV

19 minutes ago, fredmdcruisers said:

Pretty clear I thought. You are definitely in the minority of reported experiences. 

 

And I think people like to complain and then pile on to other complaints.  Not to mention there’s a reason it’s called Cruise Critics.  

21 minutes ago, BecciBoo said:

I need a menu so we can plan our 3night dinner pkg to coincide with the menu.  I won't want to do Mexican, (nothing they make compares with San Antonio TexMex anyway) and I don't care for curry so no Indian night, I'll do the rest, but I need to plan.  Can anyone help?

Indian wasn’t a night unto itself on our sailing.  There was an Indian offering every night.  And do remember, the theme of the night is just a few dishes not the whole menu.  So on Mexican night there were non Mexican dishes.  I just didn’t like any of them.

8 minutes ago, fredmdcruisers said:

On which ship did you have this unusual experience and when please?

May 6 sailing.  Harmony of the Seas

On 5/25/2023 at 9:40 AM, moposh said:

I was just on Explorer.  I got a two-top.  Seemed like there were several two-tops.  I'm on Vision in August and have requested a two-top.  We'll see.  I have the 5:30 dining.  

 

In the past, my mother and I shared a table with others.  We didn't request a two-top.  When we did MTD we got a two-top.  MTD was different then.  We had the same table every night.  We just showed up and went to our table.  

And I still do this.  3 post shutdown cruises with MTD.  Picked out a table on day one and had the same table & staff every night, no waiting, just walked right in.

18 minutes ago, Another_Critic said:

There is no way I would go on a cruise with kidney stones (3 time kidney stone "survivor").  There is a risk that the stones could cause an infection or a blockage.

 

Check your credit card that you used to see if it has cancellation insurance.

Started getting stones at 15 then every year for 7 years.  Percodan was my walking around drug in case of an attack (I once spent all day at a mock general assembly before taking myself to the ER.  By then I had a very high tolerance for pain).  I had one back in January on vacation, drank a lot of water but did not change any plans.  With that in mind, I’d go as long as I had good pain meds with me.  

I have to agree and disagree.  The menu is more limited.  There is no arguing that.  But except, in my case, for Mexican night, I found something I really liked every night.  I don’t like Indian or spicy so that was gonna be a challenging night for me.  In the future, that will be a specialty or WJ night.  But as long as there a choice I REALLY liked every night why do I care if there are 10 choices or 6?  
The food was 90% delicious.  This was the general consensus of six adult diners, 2 of whom were newbies.  My brother couldn’t understand what the fuss was about.

And an aside, he was shocked to have his room serviced twice a day.  His comment?  On land you’re lucky to get fresh towels and your trashed emptied every day!  I think we are all a little spoiled here 😊

On 6/6/2023 at 10:13 PM, DukeASUGirl said:

I don't drink coffee. Dad drinks it black. Husband has recently switched to butter to make "bulletproof coffee" and he never had trouble just using the butter dishes in the MDR. My mom usually ordered tea most nights, but the couple of nights she ordered coffee and asked for cream, she had no issue getting cream.

 

In fact, on the nights when she ordered tea, and it was just the men ordering coffee, they had to tell the waiter to take away the cream since they wouldn't be using it.

 

We disembarked Navigator about a week and a half ago.

Gotta know what butter & bulletproof coffee mean??

🤢🤮

And I ate neither chicken nor meatloaf.  I didn’t see meatloaf on any of our menus.  I did have delicious crab cakes, beef bourguignon, sauteed filet of sole, pecan crusted salmon, butternut squash soup, DD loved the Indian dishes, brother & son loved all the lamb dishes.  

3 hours ago, nelblu said:

Remember, the 18% grats brings this miniscule lobster tail to $20+ and to me it does not taste any different than the previous ones.  Someone mentioned that the lobster served is Canadian and not Maine. 

Canadian lobsters are cold water lobsters just like those caught in Maine.  I had some on Harmony last month.  Although it certainly isn’t fresh cold water lobster, is it better than the warm water ones they used to serve.  Living in New England, it was nothing to write home about but for those who don’t have access to the fresh stuff, it was fine.  And FWIW I had no problem with the food in MDR or WJ on that cruise.  Yes, I did not care for the offerings on Mexican night but my table mates enjoyed their dinners so it’s just a matter of taste.  Hot foods were hot, cold foods cold, portions appropriate, service very good.  IMO much ado about nothing.

My brother is a seat of his pants vacationer too.  Whichever way the wind blows.  Unfortunately when you have limited seating and 4500 people all trying to see the same shows, you can’t always go with the flow.  How’s that for a bunch of metaphors!  We didn’t always use the reservation, but we had something every night.

17 minutes ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

I have been on Harmony multiple times including last week. There has always been a nice breeze in the solarium, at least when the ship was moving. 

2 sailings on her and no breeze. Maybe I’m just old & hot.  I do sleep with a window cracked in the bedroom all winter long 😁.  But it’s just too stuffy in there.  The suites cabanas are even worse.  I didn’t last 20 minutes in there.

40 minutes ago, fredmdcruisers said:

Name one please.

Yes, have to say I’ve never been to any restaurant, high end or not, that adjusts portion size based on their observations of your eating habits.  In fact in my experience, the higher end the venue, the smaller the portions.

Oh God yes.  One of the only things I hate about Harmony, along with the stifling airless solarium.

54 minutes ago, Katems75 said:

I hope this is sarcasm!  They seriously need to increase the portion sizes.  I was on Harmony May 13 and portions were TINY.  Meat was THIN.

I never had tiny portions on May 6 Harmony.  Most nights I took dessert to go because I was too full.

6 minutes ago, ngrund said:

the problem RCL has with their math is % of what- marketing people just love stating things as % since it confuses a lot of people-

 

the savings of $25 is as you say about 25% of 102 but it is also 32% of $77

The full price is always shown in the CP next to the sale price so their percentages are indeed accurate.  The problem is the full price often changes.  But it’s always there.  Unfortunately reading has become a lost art.  People see what they want to see and don’t read further.  We may not like Royal’s CP sales but I have yet to find one that is flat out wrong.

I never managed to use all my vouchers each day.  I drink the ships water so no need for bottled and I brought several bottles of wine to drink at dinner.  Such a lightweight 😁😁

So was there ever bacon in WJ?  Did they just run out (this would be a distinct possibility if I were aboard!)

Juice is complementary just not the fresh squeezed.  Your typical mixed drink (margarita, daiquiri, pina colada) runs $15 plus tip.

The app is definitely wrong.  WJ is absolutely open for dinner with no reservations necessary or even possible!