Harmony 5/13 basic review

I posted some of this in another thread but thought I would put a few thoughts here and see if anyone had any questions. Overall we LOVED the cruise and would go again tomorrow if we could, so anything negative I say below are just minor nitpicks.

Basic info: It was me (47), DW(47) and DS (20). It was our 7th cruise, 2nd on RC (Freedom was the other). 7 Day Eastern - St Maarten, San Juan and Labadee. We flew into FLL the day before (Friday) and stayed at the Renaissance Cruise Port which I highly recommend. It's our favorite pre-cruise hotel so far. I'll provide more detail if anyone's interested. We had pretty nice weather for the week. Labadee day was cloudy and cooler than normal but we were fine with that.

Cabin: We had the very last Boardwalk View Balcony aft on the Starboard side on Deck 12. 12729. We chose this because this cabin type is unique to this ship class and we wanted to try it out. It was kind of cool but we would probably just go with a OV balcony in the future. It was a bit noisy (which we knew ahead of time), especially when they played movies in the Aqua Theater. The Abyss affected the view, but didn't ruin it or anything, IMO. It looks like on Deck 10 the slide comes very close to the balconies but on 12 it's not too bad. I can post a pic later if anyone wants to see.

Entertainment: We saw Grease, Columbus, The Fine Line Aqua show, and the other Aqua show which I forget the name of. We had reservations when available, and had no trouble finding good seats around 20 min before show time. We are not huge musical theater people by any means, it's not really our "thing". But the Grease show was excellent. We were extremely impressed by how talented the cast are. Extremely entertaining and well done.

Columbus show wasn't what we expected, but we loved it. Same talented performers, and the custom ship set they had built for this show is amazing. They performed well known pop songs, wrapping into a sort of story. Very light-hearted and fun.

Fine Line was very impressive. Part Cirque du Soleil, part Blue Man Group, part dive show. Haven't seen another show like it. The other Aqua show was just ok, though we enjoyed it. Much lighter and less serious, using some of the same stunts and set pieces.

Food: Windjammer was overwhelmed by crowds at times, much worse than Freedom. But we found the variety and quality good. LOVED the Park Cafe sandwich, wish I had one right now. Sabor was a bit disappointing. We loved it on Freedom, but didn't enjoy this menu as much, and didn't feel it was worth the upcharge :( $19pp for dinner, and no discount for the first night. Got Johnny Rockets free for lunch, and enjoyed it. Got Room service a few times, and it was there within 25 minutes and very tasty. The menu is mostly "comfort foods" which is fine with us. Let me know if you want to know more.

VOOM: We had the 2 device Surf + Stream. Couldn't get connected until around dinner time the first day, it kept giving an error. But once we got on it worked fine all week, from everywhere on the ship we tried it. Wifi calling worked great, and my son was able to facetime, and stream youtube and Netflix without any issues.

Escape the Rubicon: VERY fun, highly recommended. Had about 12 total in our group, which is about the right number IMO. We finished in 42 minutes. Completion rate is around 20%, so go us :cool:Some in our group had done the one on another ship and said this one was miles better.

Ship itself: AMAZING. I'm a big ol' nerd and I'm in awe of the tech and engineering that goes into these things. Love the layout with the neighborhoods and Promenade. Solarium is a great space I was surprised it didn't have more people than it did. Plenty of chairs available all over even on sea days with perfect weather.

Abyss...meh, pretty disappointing TBH. :( It's not very fast or thrilling, though the glass floor at the top is pretty cool. Water slides are pretty fun, did them each a couple of times but wouldn't miss them if they weren't there. Kids apparently loved them, the lines stayed pretty long.

Flowrider was fun as always, though I suck at it. The instructors were great.

Drink Package: Didn't have one because we are 1-3 drinks a day type folks. But wow the individual drink prices are out of hand. >$15 for a simple house margarita after the 18% is added. Then the waiter in the schooner bar gives me the half eye roll when I hand him the ticket with no additional tip added. :rolleyes: Rum and Coke for $10? Good thing we're not big drinkers I guess.

That's all I got I guess. Tried to hit most of the stuff people ask about, but fire away and I'll answer anything I can. Thanks for reading! If you got this far you're a real trooper :cool:

Thank you for all the details! It is always great to read everyone's opinions and experiences as I seem to learn new things each time.

Glad you had a great trip!

Nice to know you enjoyed your cruise.

Thanks for the feedback.

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Totally agree Harmony is an awesome ship! I hadn't done a slides in 3 decades so the Abyss was fun for me[emoji3]. There is just sooo much to do on Harmony. I never made it to mini golf or the basketball court. Didn't zip line or wall climb because I was not a fan of the waiver you have to sign. Maybe because I didn't realize that in advance. But will do those things on Oasis when I go this year. I found if you take the time to try and get to know something personal about the staff there they really appreciate and will be extra attentive. My only issue is that the wine tasting class (not the Vintages one) had the exact same wines I had for a tasting 2 years earlier on another ship. Cannot wait for my next cruise!!!

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We were on the same cruise and the Renaissance is our go to hotel for ft. Lauderdale. The ship is beautiful and glad we experienced it but not worth the extra money. We actually booked an inside as the balcony cabins were extremely expensive. Would choose the allure every time against the Harmony

Thanks for sharing. We are sailing Harmony in February and looking for a pre cruise hotel so would love the details.

Also, any feedback on your ports of call?

We got off the ship on May 20th did a pre cruise stay at the Renaissance, loved it totally, I wouldn't choose any other hotel, its in a great location right next to the port and walking distance to a couple of restaurants, one being the Boatyard which is very good.

We were on the same cruise and the Renaissance is our go to hotel for ft. Lauderdale. The ship is beautiful and glad we experienced it but not worth the extra money. We actually booked an inside as the balcony cabins were extremely expensive. Would choose the allure every time against the Harmony

We are cruising on the Harmony in September. We were on the Allure 2 years ago. Luckily the price of Harmony for our ocean balcony this year is about the same we paid for the same cabin category on Allure.

Would you choose Harmony over Allure next time if the prices were the same?

Maggieq what about Allure is better than Harmony?

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Putting aside the staterooms, its all similar....Harmony has the bionic bar which to me is a total waste and we loved the champagne bar, everything is pretty much all the same unless your into the slides and such and how much of that could you really do? We prefer the Allure over the Harmony but prefer the stateroom on the Harmony somehow it appeared larger and loved the his and her closets but then again, the bathroom sinks on the Harmony were very small enough to wash hands and face but very small, where the Allure was more regular size. I also liked the coloring of the room better on the Harmony but we didn't like Jaimie's Italian at all and much prefer Giovanni's....the boardwalk was somewhat smaller on the Harmony due to them adding the slides where on the Allure there was more room to walk around in boardwalk. We prefer the Allure over the Harmony.

I loved the bionic bar. Except I don't know why I needed to tip a robot[emoji3]. Ultimate Abyss was awesome. Had been years since I'd done a carpet slide. So I missed a champagne bar? Rats!! Balcony room was great especially the footstools. I hear not all ships have the footstools. I will do Oasis soon but haven't done Allure. Will have to try it.

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Loved the footstools but I don't think we used the balcony more than a total of 35 minutes during the entire cruise lol....we are also booked on the Oasis for October, we went three years ago on the Allure and we love this class of ship.

I am doing my first Carnival cruise soon. Will not have a balcony room. I'm very anxious about that. Best part of balcony room is leaving each port. Especially when others ships are there to bid you farewell

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Thank you for your review. I would love to see a picture from your room.

Thank you for your review. I would love to see a picture from your room.

Hopefully this works:

Thanks for sharing. We are sailing Harmony in February and looking for a pre cruise hotel so would love the details.

 

Also, any feedback on your ports of call?

It's very close to the port, we could see Harmony out our window when we woke up. They probably have a shuttle to the port but I didn't even ask since Uber to the port was like $5 and we were picked up in about 5 minutes.

The lobby is beautiful with a nice restaurant, bar, and coffee shop, plus plenty of seating/meeting areas. Pool is really nice though we didn't use it. Room was impeccably clean with modern furnishings that looked brand new. We paid like $135 for the night which I thought was very reasonable.

We walked around the area at dinner time for a few blocks and passed at least 10 restaurants.

As for ports...in St Maarten we did the Mirabella catamaran snorkel tour and loved it. Cannot recommend highly enough. Crew was awesome and drinks and snacks were provided.

We also went to the "Yoda Guy" museum. It's run by the guy who created the original Yoda puppet for Star Wars, and worked on a bunch of other movies. The place is full of memorabilia, and the Yoda Guy himself is usually there. We met him, really nice guy and interesting to talk to. Not everyone's cup of tea I'm sure, but my son and I are big Star Wars fans so we were all about it. $25 for all 3 of us to walk through the museum, well worth it.

In San Juan we did the walking tour of the 2 forts and Old San Juan and it was very interesting. It was very hot that day and we were tired at the end but we enjoyed it.

Labadee we just had a relaxing Beach Day on the beach under the zip line. Love me some Labadee :cool:

Thanks for the review and picture from your Boardwalk room. We booked one on Sympony (mid way though and on deck 10) as they seem like fun rooms. Hoping the noise isn't "too bad" (which is why we opted for not right at the aft).

Is Columbus another Broadway type show? Not sure if this is the comparable show of Allure's Blue Planet?

Is Columbus another Broadway type show? Not sure if this is the comparable show of Allure's Blue Planet?

Not sure about Blue Planet, but Columbus is a broadway style musical. It's a comedy, family friendly. Some of the numbers are pretty over the top and silly, but fun. It has a very elaborate, custom built set of a sailing ship that's very cool. As I said I'm not big musical theater guy, but it was quite entertaining.

Johnny Rockets question, you said you had a FREE lunch, was that a perk you received or is free for all to enjoy??? Also is breakfast FREE at J.R.????

george35

... Also is breakfast FREE at J.R.????

 

george35

Breakfast is free at JR restaurants on Oasis class ships, and only on Oasis class ships.

Johnny Rockets question, you said you had a FREE lunch, was that a perk you received or is free for all to enjoy??? Also is breakfast FREE at J.R.????

 

george35

Sorry I should have specified. When we booked there was a promotion going on for Boardwalk balconies. We each got a free meal at Johnny Rockets, and a free soda package. Normally for lunch or dinner at JR there is a charge.

JR Breakfast is free on Harmony.

It's very close to the port, we could see Harmony out our window when we woke up. They probably have a shuttle to the port but I didn't even ask since Uber to the port was like $5 and we were picked up in about 5 minutes.

 

 

 

The lobby is beautiful with a nice restaurant, bar, and coffee shop, plus plenty of seating/meeting areas. Pool is really nice though we didn't use it. Room was impeccably clean with modern furnishings that looked brand new. We paid like $135 for the night which I thought was very reasonable.:

What a great rate. Thanks for sharing the additional information.

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Maggieq what about Allure is better than Harmony?

 

 

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The price and mama Mia vs grease.

Thanks for the picture!

Do you sign up for Escape the Rubicon before boarding or once onboard?