Harmony - Dec 2-9, 2017 Mini Review

We have finally sailed on Harmony of the Seas! My reviews don't include pictures, pre-trip stuff, or a lot of jibber-jabber, but I try to cover the highlights. I'd gladly answer any questions that I could and help out wherever I can.

This trip was the Eastern route with Harmony's first trip to San Juan since the hurricanes.

The Home Port:

I'm not a huge fan of Port Everglades, but being spoiled by PC will do that to a person. It takes us 3 hours to drive down and we left a wee bit later than we wanted to. We parked at the port because we didn't arrive until 2pm. These are the breaks on a last minute cruise. We booked the previous Cyber Monday, worked all week, had an event on Friday evening that had been planned for months, and had to pack Saturday morning... thus the late start. It cost $105 to park on-site. The lot for Pier #18 isn't covered, but it is SUPER close. We lucked into a nice spot pretty close to the turnaround loop.

The security line was non-existent and we were on the ship in minutes. That was awesome.

The Ship:

Wow. Loved it.

We're big fans of Oasis and have gone on multiple cruises on her now. The wow-factor of Harmony is better. She is very similar, but very different at the same time. You still enter on Deck 5 into the Promenade and you'll know your way around if you've been on her sisters... but she just pops a bit more. Maybe it is the newness? I don't know, but she pops. We are apparently Deck 6 people on this class of ship because we YET AGAIN got a Deck 6 room.

As I stated, we booked 5 days prior, so there wasn't much choosing going on. In fact, for a KILLER deal we just took the inside room guarantee and let them pick it for us. We wound up with a handicapped accessible room. I'm fairly sure it was as big as our JS, sans the balcony. MASSIVE. Loved it.

Our stateroom host Mel was really on top of his game. He was perfect for the entire week.

I will say that the lack of a pool in the Solarium is both noticeable AND sucky. Hated that. We spend a lot of time there and did so on this cruise, as well. Didn't care for that missing pool. They have some giant leaf sculptures instead????? I didn't get it. The rest of the Solarium is really nice, though. I like the redesign, except for the missing pool. We loved the fly decks outside and went out there a bunch of times. We had ZERO trouble with chair hogs and the staff was on the ball with towels left on chairs. It was nice and we always had chairs.

This ship had improved chairs all around the ship's pool decks and Solarium. A lot of them even had footstools! We noticed this upgrade and liked it a lot.

We visited most of the venues and they were the same or better than Oasis. The Attic takes over for both Blaze AND the Comedy Club which seemed like a better use. The Diamond Lounge is where the comedy club is on her sister. The Jazz Club is the same, but becomes the DL overflow when busy. I didn't notice any difference in the rest of the restaurants or venues. They may have different names, but were the exact same.

The Starbucks is out on the Boardwalk on this ship, instead of on the Promenade. Its place has been taken over by the automated excursion booking iPads.

The biggest exterior change is the addition of the giant purple slide... The Abyss, which we LOVED LOVED LOVED LOVED and did over and over. It was so much fun. That was awesome. They closed it down for heavy rain once and I volunteered to be a towel rider down, but they couldn't let me due to liability factors. They dry it by riding towels down, sort of wrapped up like a mummy. I met a 72 year old man who out-did me on it! He said he'd been more than 40x so far on the trip and it was like Thursday.

The Food:

We just ate snacks in the DL on the first night. We were brand new Diamonds, on our first cruise at this level, so we were just overwhelmed. I don't know if any of the people we met are on CC, but we met 4 nice couples who showed us the ropes and we were very appreciative for their help.

We bought the 3-night premium dining and had Jamie's Italian and Wonderland. We enjoyed it so much that we bailed on our Chops (consistently INCONSISTENT!) and went back to Wonderland for a second night. We had the same server and he made it very enjoyable again. He gave us our favorites and we tried the things we hadn't the first time. I really think this place is highly underappreciated. It was both fun and delicious.

The MDR menus are still boring to me. I feel like I'm at a bad wedding reception most nights.

The Ports of Call:

We went to St. Thomas, San Juan, and Labadee.

The first two ports are still in full recovery mode from the hurricanes. It was both sad and encouraging to see. There is a lot of hard work being done to get things back to normal.

We decided to get out in both places and spend a little cash to do a small part in the recovery. We booked local excursions, tipped a bit more freely than normal (not that we're even close to low tippers normally... but you know), and bought several small items from several different local vendors.

We just made the personal decision that instead of donating to faceless corporations who spend huge chunks of your donation on fat-cat salaries for CEOs, we'd meet people face-to-face, look them in the eyes, and buy their wares. That money would be going directly back into their local pockets. In the end, it was a tiny donation, but it was personal and we saw a LOT of people on the ship doing similar things. I hope this tactic was effective.

The conclusion:

A+++++++++++ Loved it and would love to do it again. I'm super excited she is moving to PC in the near future.

Thanks so much for your review! I am going on Harmony in a few days (first cruise ever) so it is great to hear the ship didnt disappoint

Surprising the MDR menus have still not been updated.

Sounds like you really enjoyed your cruise! Thanks for the feedback!

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Thanks for the update - we are sailin on HOTS Jan 13. I have a few questions:

How were the beds / mattresses? Complaints on another thread that mattresses are too hard on some ships (we had that issue on Navigator in Jan 2017).

did you enjoy the Entertainment?

What did you do in San Juan?

I enjoyed reading your review.

Keith

Great review. Sounds like an amazing cruise. Can I ask what you thought of Jamies?

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk

Good review..

Thanks to all for the comments.

Surprising the MDR menus have still not been updated.

To me, as well. This was the new one, at least the new-ish one from a few years ago. We went 3 nights and I didn't take photos.

The 3 nights we went to the MDR we had...

Me: Spaghetti Carbonara Her: Moroccan Ahi Tuna Steak

Me: Broiled Lobster Her: Coq Au Vin

Me: Shrimp Ravioli Her: Braised Lamb Shank

Thanks for the update - we are sailin on HOTS Jan 13. I have a few questions:

 

How were the beds / mattresses? Complaints on another thread that mattresses are too hard on some ships (we had that issue on Navigator in Jan 2017).

 

did you enjoy the Entertainment?

 

What did you do in San Juan?

The bed was harder than I prefer, but not as problematic as other ships we've been on recently. You'll still want an egg crate, if they'll do it. We should have in hindsight.

The two aqua shows were both better than Oasis, although there is a lot of emo grunting and Mad Max face paint in The Fine Line show. The Big Daddy comedy show was hilarious despite not having, nor actually being a child... which I think was the intended audience.

Grease was horrid, but I think the movie is horrid. This was just horrid with much worse singing. My wife, who LOVES Grease with lots of hearts and stars conceded the singing was off.

The comedy shows were good, but that changes almost every cruise.

We did the ship's Old San Juan/New San Juan tour because in our short turnaround from buying to sailing we didn't actually get any responses from the emails we sent to private tours. It was still a local tour and it is about 85% OSJ and 15% NSJ, but that could be because the city is still in a bit of a mess. The lack of response is understandable given the shaky infrastructure at the moment. We check out completely on phones/gadgets when we go, but others on the tour said their phone service went from AMAZINGLY GOOD to NONEXISTENT about 40x during the 3 hours.

We then spent a few hours wandering around OSJ to places we've seen before on cruise stops there. Some were there and some weren't. We bought a lot of stuff we normally don't bother with, but seriously that was just what I said in my original post... to interact as humans and make a small difference in their economy by doing what we personally could.

Options beyond the city weren't on the list. The Bacardi tour was popular, but there weren't the typical rain forest tours, mountain tours, etc. All gone for the time being.

Great review. Sounds like an amazing cruise. Can I ask what you thought of Jamies?

 

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk

It was better than Giovanni's to us. The food seemed fresher and was pleasing. We tried a lot of stuff FYI.

We had: (I lifted the descriptions from another post)

Starters

• Italian Bread Basket - Grissini, focaccia, crispy music bread & ciabatta, all served with extra virgin olive oil & balsamic
  
• Crab & Avocado Bruschetta - Ciabatta, crab & avocado with apple, chili, mint & lemon
  
• Giant Green Olives - With black olive tapenade & crispy music bread
  
• Prosciutto & Melon - With mini mozzarella & basil pesto
  
• Cured Meat Plank - Fennel salami, pistachio mortadella, prosciutto & schiacciata piccante, served on a plank loaded with mozzarella, pecorino & chili jam, a beautiful selection of pickles, olives & rainbow slaw
  

Sides

• Polenta Chips - With rosemary salt & Parmesan
  

Mains & Pasta

• Prawn Linguine - Fried garlicky prawns, fennel, tomatoes, chili & rocket
  
• Penne Carbonara - Crispy pancetta, sweet leeks, lemon & creamy Parmesan sauce
  
• Spaghetti Puttanesca - Tomato sauce, capers, chili, anchioves & olives.
  

The Penne Cabonara was exactly how carbonara should taste! Wonderful. The Prawn Linguine was the least successful item to us. We liked everything else and my wife ate every single olive that came out.

Thanks for the reply on Jamie's Italian. Great to hear. There are often great comments about Giovannis on here, but you don't hear much about Jamies. We'll be on Symphony which is close to Harmony.

Thanks for your review. Glad to hear you had a great cruise.

Thanks for you quick and thorough review. I do have one question, where were the bananas located in the Wind Jammer?;p

I've been on Harmony three times and we return to her again this March. I have found each cruise on her to be better each time. There are some features that I miss from Allure and Oasis but they sure aren't deal breakers.

Thanks for you quick and thorough review. I do have one question, where were the bananas located in the Wind Jammer?;p

 

I've been on Harmony three times and we return to her again this March. I have found each cruise on her to be better each time. There are some features that I miss from Allure and Oasis but they sure aren't deal breakers.

Don't worry, I looked!

No offensively placed bananas. My wife was mocking me for bringing my camera to the WJ.

We have finally sailed on Harmony of the Seas! My reviews don't include pictures, pre-trip stuff, or a lot of jibber-jabber, but I try to cover the highlights. I'd gladly answer any questions that I could and help out wherever I can.

I like to do long reviews with plenty of jibber jabber, but I also appreciate this kind of thought. Especially this one. We've had similar cruise experiences and I think having been on Oasis and Allure, I would look at Harmony in a similar manner, so I appreciate the insight. We will see how it related to Symphony, my next Oasis class cruise. The only thing I can think of to criticize is your taste in NFL teams, but I'm a Browns fan, so I'll just shut up in that regard.

Thanks for posting.

The conclusion:

A+++++++++++ Loved it and would love to do it again. I'm super excited she is moving to PC in the near future.

Me too, While I enjoy Port Everglades, I use to avoid Port Canaveral till I tried it, which wasn't till after Terminal 1 was built, but I'll gladly cruise out of either port.

Don't worry, I looked!

 

No offensively placed bananas. My wife was mocking me for bringing my camera to the WJ.

LOL, welcome to the club. My DW mocks me on all of my live reviews. Thankfully she doesn’t have her on CC account.

Thanks for the review. We were on the same sailing and ate at Jamie's on Day 2. We tried at lot of different things and they were all excellent, especially the meat plank. Also the penne carbonara was excellent and they prepared mine al dente and my wife's a bit softer as she prefers. I would say that while it is different than Giovanni's, we had good experiences at both. We almost went back on the last day because we enjoyed it so much but by then we were fooded out.

I don't know if it was coincidence but we noticed that incredibly fresh mozzarella cheese was readily available for the first few days (Jamie's, Coastal Kitchen, WJ) and then became increasingly scarce (and less fresh) as the week went on. So satisfy your cravings early.

Also maybe its just my perception (this was our first time on Harmony) but it seemed as if the Cruise Compass was not as detailed or useful as we were used to. For example, the pool hours were not listed, and I felt like some events were not listed either. On Day 7 we were wandering the Promenade and came across the Captain and Staff Captain drinking coffee alone at a high top table. They told us that they were scheduled to be there to talk with the guests, but nothing was listed in the Compass, unlike on other sailings we have been on ("coffee with the senior officers"). (Maybe this was intentional.) But it worked out great because we had a very pleasant conversation with them for about 10 minutes without feeling as if we were hoarding their time and they seemed to appreciate having someone to talk to (the officers always seem modest to me, as if to say "why would anyone want to talk to us?"). I got a private Captain's Corner session out of it.

Also I don't know how many people noticed but we were originally scheduled to depart San Juan at 2:00 pm (all aboard at 1:30) but the captain delayed all aboard until 2:30 to give us all a little extra time there, which was appreciated since the cruise was scheduled to leave at 3:00 when we booked it last year. The captain said it was worth burning a little extra fuel to get us to Labadee on time (actually we were a half-hour early).

Thanks for the review. We are on Harmony Saturday. Have been on Oasis and Allure and i Love Allure. So hoping Harmony exceeds my expectations. I already know I am not happy they took the umbrellas away from the Beach Pool, but we will manage. Hubby would sit there all day with me b/c he could have an umbrella. This time, he will sit under the overhang with BIL so Sis and I will just lay in the sun, which is what I love.

So looking forward to it. We are doing the Puzzle Room and have 5 shows booked. We saw Grease on Indy and loved it. One of our favorite musicals, so hopefully we like it on Harmony as well.

Can't wait to experience our 3rd Oasis Class ship. Already have Symphony booked for Dec 2019.

LOL, welcome to the club. My DW mocks me on all of my live reviews. Thankfully she doesn’t have her on CC account.

She was happy I didn't use it. I told her if I saw offensive banana placement... the world needed to know. She doesn't get the joke and more shockingly, didn't even laugh when I told her the backstory. She just thought it was stupid.

We are doing the Puzzle Room and have 5 shows booked. We saw Grease on Indy and loved it. One of our favorite musicals, so hopefully we like it on Harmony as well.

You likely will. My wife still enjoyed it, but admitted the singing was off. We wound up catching the afternoon show on the last sea day, so it might even be possible it was understudy day. We got there right as it was starting and I actually ducked out early... I don't think it is like Broadway where they announce understudies, but I personally would've missed it anyway if they did.

Thanks for the review. We were on the same sailing and ate at Jamie's on Day 2. We tried at lot of different things and they were all excellent, especially the meat plank. Also the penne carbonara was excellent and they prepared mine al dente and my wife's a bit softer as she prefers. I would say that while it is different than Giovanni's, we had good experiences at both. We almost went back on the last day because we enjoyed it so much but by then we were fooded out.

WEIRD!! We there on Day 2 about 6:30. We didn't hate Giovanni's, just thought Jamie's was better and fresher.

I don't know if it was coincidence but we noticed that incredibly fresh mozzarella cheese was readily available for the first few days (Jamie's, Coastal Kitchen, WJ) and then became increasingly scarce (and less fresh) as the week went on. So satisfy your cravings early.

Nice tip. Ours was very fresh, but we didn't have any later in the trip.

Also maybe its just my perception (this was our first time on Harmony) but it seemed as if the Cruise Compass was not as detailed or useful as we were used to. For example, the pool hours were not listed, and I felt like some events were not listed either. On Day 7 we were wandering the Promenade and came across the Captain and Staff Captain drinking coffee alone at a high top table. They told us that they were scheduled to be there to talk with the guests, but nothing was listed in the Compass, unlike on other sailings we have been on ("coffee with the senior officers"). (Maybe this was intentional.) But it worked out great because we had a very pleasant conversation with them for about 10 minutes without feeling as if we were hoarding their time and they seemed to appreciate having someone to talk to (the officers always seem modest to me, as if to say "why would anyone want to talk to us?"). I got a private Captain's Corner session out of it.

Captain Gus was out on his Segway and we got to talk to him for a few minutes because no one else was coming up and saying anything to him. He was super nice.

I also got to observe a nice moment. He stopped a group of boys who were mildly misbehaving. They weren't going nuts or anything, but they were acting silly, yelling, and pushing/shoving each other on the Promenade. That wasn't evil, but could've hurt an older person if they hit them in the process. The Captain stopped them. He was very firm, but very nice and told them that this was the 2nd time he'd had to speak to them since the cruise began. He told them as the top person on this ship, they must listen and obey him. He wouldn't tolerate them misbehaving a third time. He said something I couldn't quite hear, but I *think* it was a warning about not wanting to kick them off the ship because one of the boys was like "I think he's gonna tell my dad! I hope we don't get kicked off." as they were walking away. He was stern without being aggressive and I was glad.

Also I don't know how many people noticed but we were originally scheduled to depart San Juan at 2:00 pm (all aboard at 1:30) but the captain delayed all aboard until 2:30 to give us all a little extra time there, which was appreciated since the cruise was scheduled to leave at 3:00 when we booked it last year. The captain said it was worth burning a little extra fuel to get us to Labadee on time (actually we were a half-hour early).

We didn't notice until the ship didn't leave. I guess we missed that announcement. We would've gladly stayed out longer if we had known.

poncho1973...thanks for taking us along.

Thanks for the review. We are on Harmony Saturday.

So looking forward to it. We are doing the Puzzle Room and have 5 shows booked. We saw Grease on Indy and loved it. One of our favorite musicals, so hopefully we like it on Harmony as well.

Our family was on board the Harmony last October and loved Grease!! Very upbeat!!:D I posted a u-tube clip of the show but I don't think we had all of the same characters as the video, as I noticed the singing was a bit "off"; however, on our cruise, the singing was excellent, so it will probably depend on the characters. I especially liked the scene on the bleachers with Jan and her boyfriend, Roger (I think that were their names). IMO, that guy had a much better singing voice than the main character, Danny, and I wish he would have been able to switch places. My guess is he didn't meet the "appearance" of playing Danny. Anyway, his voice was beautiful, so hope he is still there on your cruise!!!!!:hearteyes:

Our family did the puzzle room and got out with 7 minutes to spare!! Gotta warn you, though, it was way tougher than I thought, so take as many with you as you can for different ideas!! If it hadn't been for our younger generation in there with us, DH and I would not have gotten out before time ran out!!:eek: Good luck!!

Here's the clip:

Nice review, thank you. We are sailing HOS April 18'. We have sailed Oasis x3 and Allure x2 so excited to check out the differences.

I liked your description of the MDR....bad wedding reception. :-) We try it prob 3 times during the week, but not fans of the lengthy process.

Nice review, thank you. We are sailing HOS April 18'. We have sailed Oasis x3 and Allure x2 so excited to check out the differences.

I liked your description of the MDR....bad wedding reception. :-) We try it prob 3 times during the week, but not fans of the lengthy process.

It's never popular among the older crowd here on CC, but I've also coined the phrase Geriatric Prom® for formal night.

Thanks for the review, have sailed Oasis and Allure 2x each so very excited to sail Harmony February 3rd for a B2B!! First B2B for us and have ultimate dinning both weeks to enjoy the venues. We love Central Park at night,

Quick question, did you attend any of the music performances at night in Central Park. I read on another thread about a guitarist.

Also you shared no issues with chair hogs, so it was easy getting loungers each day? DW is not an early riser! :cool:

Thanks!

Loved your review and only made me more excited to sail HOTS on Jan 13!! How were the lines for the slides?

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Loved your review and only made me more excited to sail HOTS on Jan 13!! How were the lines for the slides?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

The water slide lines were great. Never waited more than 4 or 5 people. We didn't go on them during the peak of the day, but still during normal hours. I never saw big lines either.

The Abyss had some long lines at times. We just did it over and over when we saw the line was short.

Thanks for the review, have sailed Oasis and Allure 2x each so very excited to sail Harmony February 3rd for a B2B!! First B2B for us and have ultimate dinning both weeks to enjoy the venues. We love Central Park at night,

 

Quick question, did you attend any of the music performances at night in Central Park. I read on another thread about a guitarist.

 

Also you shared no issues with chair hogs, so it was easy getting loungers each day? DW is not an early riser! :cool:

 

Thanks!

We never watched anyone in CP, but we walked through a few times when music was playing. It was a guitar player most of the time and, I believe, once a 2-piece strings crew playing classical music.

Fun note on music. We rode the elevator with the mobile piano player several times. He was super fun. He'd just roll into an elevator and play for whoever got on.

We only sit in the Solarium, but it was fine. We got a couple of those love loungers a couple times. Right time, right place. We never had chair issues in the Solarium. NONE.

I forgot an important funny thing. They were filming commercials on our cruise. A few times we saw them around the ship, closing down certain areas and having actors come in. They were at the Abyss and it was SUPER hyped kids. They were at the WJ. They were roaming in CP and on the Boardwalk. Neat.