Harmony: Royal Family Suite to Aqua Theatre 2 Bedroom

My wife and 16 year old son are sailing on the Harmony OTS 3/31/18. We have bounced around cabins several times, always upgrading.

We started in a Grand Suite. Then I changed to an Owner's Suite. Then I changed to a 2 bedroom Royal Family Suite (deck 10) which was cheaper than the OS but I changed after final payment so no reduction in price. That's the rules so that's fine.

I was considering moving to a Crown Loft Suites (L1's) when some suites with good side locations opened up which would not cost me any more money because the price decreased but I decided to stay with the RFS.

Now a Spacious 2 Bedroom AquaTheatre Suite just opened up--suite 10330. Of course the price for an A2 is higher than the RFS to the tune of around $4,000 for the 3 of us.

Is there any practical way to justify this increased cost?

The A2 is Star Class so that includes the Royal Genie but also several things that normally cost money compared to Sky Class amenities. As I see it, included in the price are 1) Gratuities (~$370 value), 2) Drink package (~$800 value), 3) Specialty dining (~$600 value). So that amounts to about $1,770. Of course, the Royal Genie and other amenities have a value but not easily financially defined. The view of the Aqua Theatre is amazing of course and we love the shows there.

I really can't justify this but I am looking to my fellow CC members for your thoughts.

At some point I should just stop looking to upgrade!

My wife thinks we are in a balcony cabin. The fact that we are in a suite if any kind is a surprise to her (don't tell her if you see her--haha).

Please share your comments with me. Thanks so much in advance.

Might be interesting to experience Star Class at least once. :)

Star Class is pretty amazing! I can't say whether it's worth $4,000 more but if you can afford it, try it! In addition to all you listed you basically can do anything on the ship you want to and it will not cost you. You can eat in a specialty restaurant every night and not be charged a thing. Obviously this would be excessive but our Genie told us people had done it. You can order from the specialty restaurants for room service! We told him what drinks we liked ahead of time and our room was stocked full of everything we mentioned. We joked about being spoiled by flashing our purple card and passing up lines everywhere and how we could use it at home! We are on the Harmony again soon without Star Class :(. It's going to be interesting to see the difference!

As for your decision, I have a teenage boy also, and whatever you do I'd stick with either 2 bedroom so everyone has some privacy and 2 bathrooms! You and your wife will be thrilled with whichever suite you end up with!!

It’s worth it. Your value for speciality restaurants is to low for three people.

Probably more like $1500.

Even if you eat in the mdr, you get all of the upgrades like surf and turf($35)pp

Plus you get internet, starbucks and premium ice cream for everyone.

Plus you get a tour of the bridge and etc.

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If the increased cost for the A2 won't hurt your pocket too much I would say upgrade. Why not try it at least once.

For my upcoming sailing in September, I originally booked a 2 BR Grand Suite for 4 people. It then decreased $672 and we were able to get the price reduction applied. Last month, on the MLK holiday, I looked up pricing again and the A1 Spacious Aqua Theater Suite with large balcony was only $290 over our original Grand Suite price so I grabbed it up immediately. I had never seen pricing that low for an Aqua suite, but I'm excited to have a star class suite. This will give me my opportunity to see going forward if the extra star class dollars are worth it!

It all comes down to cash :) If the $4,000 is not enough to make you think twice, do it! Star Class is a lot of fun and makes Harmony seem a lot "smaller" than it is. No lines, no problems with reservations, embark and debark, etc. However, if you look around and have some travel flexibility you may be able to find that you can take this cruise in an OS and take another cruise in Star Class for three for around $8,000. They are rare, but they do exist. I am guessing at the numbers here, but say your current cruise is $7,200 (approximate current cost for 3 in an OS on Harmony in Sept.) and you spend $4,000 to upgrade so you are $11,200 in for one week. You could stick at $7,200 and have a great cruise now and spend another $8,000 or so later and be $15,200 in for two weeks at average cost of $7,600 per week vs. the per week cost of $11,200 you may be at now (if you upgrade). I know Star Class for three can be had for around $8,000 as we recently booked a 2BR Aqua Theater suite for 3 for right around that in October. We changed to two people later and then moved to a different cabin, but the number for three was good. Of course without knowing the cost of your current cruise this is just speculation, but some food for thought. Enjoy the journey, there is no wrong answer as you will be on a great ship in a great cabin regardless of your final decision.

We had an aqua a few years ago in Allure, and loved loved loved it.

Always lots to see at the waterfront pool - they practice there for other shows. bigger deck meant we could have a special dinner served there one night out under the stars and ate most breakfast at our outdoor table. Plenty of room to do whatever you want. 2 full baths.

only fault - long walk from elevators - do not forget anything you may need when leaving the room (haha)

Had my 2 adult daughters, 2 grandkids and myself. Did not want room with stairs. Little area at the side if the back becomes too windy - just move chairs around to where you want.

indoor "livingroom" so family were not underfoot as people got ready to go out

We watched less tv than on any cruise before or since.

Enjoy!

After many years of cruising and debating the "is it worth it" issue, hubby finally agreed to try Star Class. I did all the things you did, tally up the cost of VOOM, drink package, dining, etc. for 4 people (in our case). It still did not come that close to the cost of a SC suite. Hard to justify. But then, RFerrington also commented on the fact that it is hard to quantify the cost of a Genie. And a wise Constable also told me that sometimes it comes down to YOLO. So, like other's have mentioned, if the cost difference is not a huge factor then it is worth it just to try once. One last point, if you check, SC is doing nothing but going up in price. The difference in cost for 4 of us sailing in 2019 and 2020 for the exact same cruise, same cabin is $5000 more in 2020.

If you can afford it, go for it !

Star Class is pretty amazing! I can't say whether it's worth $4,000 more but if you can afford it, try it! In addition to all you listed you basically can do anything on the ship you want to and it will not cost you. You can eat in a specialty restaurant every night and not be charged a thing. Obviously this would be excessive but our Genie told us people had done it. You can order from the specialty restaurants for room service! We told him what drinks we liked ahead of time and our room was stocked full of everything we mentioned. We joked about being spoiled by flashing our purple card and passing up lines everywhere and how we could use it at home! We are on the Harmony again soon without Star Class :(. It's going to be interesting to see the difference!

 

As for your decision, I have a teenage boy also, and whatever you do I'd stick with either 2 bedroom so everyone has some privacy and 2 bathrooms! You and your wife will be thrilled with whichever suite you end up with!!

I don't think eating in specialty restaurants every day is excessive. My DS, DIL and grandaughter will be on Anthem starting tomorrow. They plan on having all meals either in CK or specialty.

OP, if you do upgrade to Star class, please let us know your thoughts on the experience!

I have been star class (in a 2br aqua suit) and sky class (Which is what you are now) and we just booked a star class again using similar arguments you are considering.

Just keep In mind this. A genie is great but not necessarily worth thousands (depending on what you like and do).

The Value of a drink package will vary among people and since you are with a 16 year old I’m guessing you would drink less than otherwise. Plus lots of free drinks (beer and wine) are available in the suite lounge from about 11-11 which you will have available as sky class. You get internet either way since currently sky class. You may or may not care about doing specialty restaurants each night and the coastal Kitchen is yours to use either way and it is an awesome place for meals. Example, we will eat in CK once or twice for dinner when we go star class again b/c we love it up there. There may be other benefits you haven’t valued like priority access to activities like flowrider and zip line, etc which may be awesome for your 16 year old.

The is a lot of value in star class but not 4K just based on money IMO. However if 4K isn’t too much money for you I would do it. If 4K is a lot of money for you please realize that sky class feels pretty special too and the cabin you have now will feel pretty awesome. Plus the concierge in the suite lounge, while not a genie, will do their best to do things for you and they can do a lot.

We just did a similar analysis and decided 3k was worth it for us since we are going without the kids and want to do it up big. Having things like beer and wine brought to the room daily, special perks from the genie, etc. made us do it for both economic and non economical reasons.

Realize that the deck 10 2br aqua suites and balconies are smaller than deck 9 and deck 8 is the biggest but with just 3 of you I don’t think it will matter much.

Best of luck. You really can’t go wrong either way.

Only you know what $4000 means to you. I face that struggle over $400 between inside and balcony. Yes, worth it, because in the grand scheme $400 isn't a huge amount of money to me. Now $4000, that is a lot of money to me. The only travel I could do for the 8 years I had kids in college was road tripping to and from their campuses for move-in and move-out days. I love to cruise and am very happy to be able to treat myself to what I can afford now. So, if you can afford it and it's not going to really make a difference to other things in your life, go for it. If it is, let it go and know you can still have a wonderful family vacation together.

Thanks for your comments. The suite cake offline meaning it’s not available any longer. Maybe it will open up again.

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I mean the suite went offline....I’ll keep looking hoping it shows up again.

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It all comes down to cash :) If the $4,000 is not enough to make you think twice, do it! Star Class is a lot of fun and makes Harmony seem a lot "smaller" than it is. No lines, no problems with reservations, embark and debark, etc. However, if you look around and have some travel flexibility you may be able to find that you can take this cruise in an OS and take another cruise in Star Class for three for around $8,000. They are rare, but they do exist. I am guessing at the numbers here, but say your current cruise is $7,200 (approximate current cost for 3 in an OS on Harmony in Sept.) and you spend $4,000 to upgrade so you are $11,200 in for one week. You could stick at $7,200 and have a great cruise now and spend another $8,000 or so later and be $15,200 in for two weeks at average cost of $7,600 per week vs. the per week cost of $11,200 you may be at now (if you upgrade). I know Star Class for three can be had for around $8,000 as we recently booked a 2BR Aqua Theater suite for 3 for right around that in October. We changed to two people later and then moved to a different cabin, but the number for three was good. Of course without knowing the cost of your current cruise this is just speculation, but some food for thought. Enjoy the journey, there is no wrong answer as you will be on a great ship in a great cabin regardless of your final decision.

We are close to $12,000 for 3 people in a royal family suite so it’s not cheap. Realize this is during Easter break so it’s more expensive, by a lot.

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I don't think eating in specialty restaurants every day is excessive. My DS, DIL and grandaughter will be on Anthem starting tomorrow. They plan on having all meals either in CK or specialty.

Our last one we didn’t set foot in the MDR for dinner. Did CK most nights.

Our last one we didn’t set foot in the MDR for dinner. Did CK most nights.

We don't even eat in MDR if we are in Sky class. Love CK!

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I mean the suite went offline....I’ll keep looking hoping it shows up again.

 

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We have learned it is a 15min delay for “holds” to free up.

It is amazing the variance in suite pricing just from week to week. The room we are in October for $7600 for two is $11,500 two weeks earlier which I probably would not pay.

Looks like you can get a 2BR Aqua Theater Suite for just over $7,000 for three on the 10/21 Allure sailing. You may have to call to get it as it says the class is available, but when you click it, you get a message that those staterooms are unavailable. When that happened to me I called my TA and one was available. Same thing happened when I saw the Grand Panoramic available as a class, but said unavailable when I clicked it. I called my TA and was able to book it. That is about the least expensive Star Class I have seen.

Looks like you can get a 2BR Aqua Theater Suite for just over $7,000 for three on the 10/21 Allure sailing. You may have to call to get it as it says the class is available, but when you click it, you get a message that those staterooms are unavailable. When that happened to me I called my TA and one was available. Same thing happened when I saw the Grand Panoramic available as a class, but said unavailable when I clicked it. I called my TA and was able to book it. That is about the least expensive Star Class I have seen.

That same thing happened when I booked our Star Loft. Same message when I clicked it and when I called RC it was available.

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We have learned it is a 15min delay for “holds” to free up.

The suite just opened up but my travel agent is closed since it’s so late at night. Let’s see if it’s available Sunday morning when the TA reopens.

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We have sailed Star Class three times. We have enjoyed each sailing tremendously. You can not quantify by just adding up the cost of the extras. How can you put a price on expedited embarkation where your Genie greets you, walk you through security, check-in and straight to your suite! Our Genie brought us Starbucks coffee every morning. We could have dined on our balcony with white linen service every night. When it came time to disembark, we didn’t have to put out our luggage until 7AM on the day of disembarkation, we were walked off by our Genie at our chosen time (once even after 10:30) and from Suite to curbside in 10 minutes! Then, there are the Suites; we have been in two Sky/Star lofts and a Grand Loft, you just can’t put a price on those Suites.

We have seven more Star Class Royal sailings booked and we look forward to every one!

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We have sailed Star Class three times. We have enjoyed each sailing tremendously. You can not quantify by just adding up the cost of the extras. How can you put a price on expedited embarkation where your Genie greets you, walk you through security, check-in and straight to your suite! Our Genie brought us Starbucks coffee every morning. We could have dined on our balcony with white linen service every night. When it came time to disembark, we didn’t have to put out our luggage until 7AM on the day of disembarkation, we were walked off by our Genie at our chosen time (once even after 10:30) and from Suite to curbside in 10 minutes! Then, there are the Suites; we have been in two Sky/Star lofts and a Grand Loft, you just can’t put a price on those Suites.

 

We have seven more Star Class Royal sailings booked and we look forward to every one!

 

 

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Thanks for your comments. It’s a $4,000+ bump compared to my RFS but I’m doing it if it’s still available at 9am when my TA opens up today.

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