LIVE - Harmony 11/26 - 12/3 Sailing the Eastern Caribbean

[AmyJA]

I have a question, if you please.

 

You talk about getting a freebee at Johnny Rockets because you stayed in a Boardwalk balcony room. We are staying in an ocean balcony room. Will we be getting this perk also?

 

No big deal…inquiring minds want to know.

[MrsKC08]

I have a question, if you please.

 

 

 

You talk about getting a freebee at Johnny Rockets because you stayed in a Boardwalk balcony room. We are staying in an ocean balcony room. Will we be getting this perk also?

 

 

 

No big deal…inquiring minds want to know.

 

 

Unfortunately no. They had the Johnny Rockets and soda package for staying in a Boardwalk balcony and they have something for those staying in Central Park Balconies. I believe it's a bottle of wine and lunch at Jaimes maybe!?

 

 

Lynn & Ken

Edited December 7, 2016 by MrsKC08

[MrsKC08]

I have a question, if you please.

 

 

 

You talk about getting a freebee at Johnny Rockets because you stayed in a Boardwalk balcony room. We are staying in an ocean balcony room. Will we be getting this perk also?

 

 

 

No big deal…inquiring minds want to know.

 

 

Information here on the neighborhood balcony perks.

http://www.******************.com/2016/01/26/royal-caribbean-offering-complimentary-perks-neigborhood-balcony-staterooms-oasis-class

 

 

Lynn & Ken

[rolloman]

Unfortunately no. They had the Johnny Rockets and soda package for staying in a Boardwalk balcony and they have something for those staying in Central Park Balconies. I believe it's a bottle of wine and lunch at Jaimes maybe!?

 

 

Lynn & Ken

 

Central park balcony Free Johnny rockets and a bottle of wine as well.

[MrsKC08]

Central park balcony Free Johnny rockets and a bottle of wine as well.

 

 

No, it's wine but not Johnny Rockets. It's lunch at Jaimes Italian restaurant.

 

 

Lynn & Ken

[AmyJA]

Thanks Lynn.

 

Link didn't work but I just Googled it.

 

We were going to go for a Central Park balcony. But we are on a ship! We want to get up and have breakfast and see water. BIG water.

[rolloman]

No, it's wine but not Johnny Rockets. It's lunch at Jaimes Italian restaurant.

 

 

Lynn & Ken

 

Maybe for your sailing it was different? .......I was in a central park balcony the week before you and Johnny Rockets was offered as a perk...

[MrsKC08]

Maybe for your sailing it was different? .......I was in a central park balcony the week before you and Johnny Rockets was offered as a perk...

 

 

This is straight from the Royal Website for the Eat, Drink, Play promo. You can use at Jaime's or Sabor too which is weird because the letters I saw and the people I spoke to said the letter specifically said Jaime's.

 

 

Lynn & Ken

Edited December 8, 2016 by MrsKC08

[MrsKC08]

As promised, I am back to give my overall thoughts, opinions and constructive criticism regarding our cruise on the Harmony. I know that there have been some people who cruised prior to our sailing or even on our sailing that have offered their 2 cents and answered some questions, but since I’m the OP and this was my review…well it’s only fitting for me share our feelings about the ship such.

 

Embarkation:

This was probably the worst experience we have had on embarkation day. What started off good quickly came to a screeching halt. We were never given a “check-in” time when we did our online check-in on the Royal Caribbean website months ago. As mentioned, we later found out that it was because we had purchased our airfare through Air2Sea (even though we were arriving the day prior to sail-away). That morning we elected to take an Uber to the terminal (Terminal 18 by the way who have not sailed on Allure or Oasis in the past). The hotel we stayed at (Hyatt Place Ft. Lauderdale 17th Street Convention Center) does offer a shuttle to the port, but we truly didn’t want to be stock piled into a bus or van and possibly be making multiple stops along the way (there were 5 other ships in port that morning). We arrived to the terminal and found the door to go through to check-in. Once inside they had certain decks to the left and the rest to the right. Good so far, right? Crazy thing was that security wasn’t even ready for us yet so we stood around for a while before they started to send people through. Once through security we expected to see the “people with the ipads” since that was mentioned all over our check-in paperwork, the Royal website and even on cruise critic in places. However, it is the same as it is everywhere else that we have checked in…you walk up to a counter. No problem here, that was pretty smooth as well since we had already done our security photos online when we did our online check-in. We each had to sign our “Have you been sick recently?” form and then we got the traditional Embarkation photo. From this point we thought we would be heading to the gangway…WRONG. They heard you to the escalators (or elevators if needed) and give you a little card with a number on it and send you upstairs to what my husband called the “holding cell”. We sat here for what seemed like forever. You could tell that so many people were confused, especially those of us who have not sailed on an Oasis class ship before. There was a person on one end of this large vast room who had a microphone making announcements, but unless you were right on top of her, you couldn’t hear or understand a word she was saying. I even made the hike over to her to ask her what she was saying because no one on the other side of the room could hear her to which I got a rude and crummy response from her which basically said that they wouldn’t be starting to board until 11:15 and that I would be able to hear when they started the boarding because everyone would be quiet. REALLY? It would only be more chaos at that time, but whatever. This was my first notice of dis-organization for this cruise.

[MrsKC08]

Royal IQ App:

I’ll talk about this now because I started using this from the moment that we boarded the ship. It was quite simple to log on by simply selecting the royal-wifi and it picks up that you are on the Harmony. You enter in your personal information and voila, your calendar is right there handy along with other neat features.

Because we had issues with booking dinner for night two through our cruise planner online, that was one thing that I wanted to tackle ASAP. Within about 5 minutes of being on board and signing onto the App I was able to get a reservation for Chops and didn’t even have to stand in line at a restaurant or in the dining room to get this taken care of. This was a plus for me. I didn’t want to waste time standing in line right off the bat. Now, some people mentioned that they had issues with the App but that was not our experience at all. I was able to cancel dining reservations and make reservations without any problems at all throughout the week. Not to mention that whenever our Fine Line show was canceled and rebooked, within minutes the new booking appeared on my calendar in the App. (Royal Caribbean took care of rebooking everyone who’s show was canceled so you don’t have to do that yourself). In past cruises I am usually always carrying around the compass, but with the App I didn’t feel the need to take it with me at all.

From the App you can see the menus from all the restaurants, even the MDR as well as your onboard account balance. However, it surprised me that you couldn’t see the dining room and restaurant hours or the hours for other activities, like the slides, the Abyss, the Zipline and the Rock Climbing wall. These times are all available in the printed Compass, it’s just strange to me that they don’t show those on the App…or at least I didn’t find them and I did try to see if they were there. All in all I was pretty pleased with the App. I will mention though that I did not use the Text feature, but it is available for a small fee per device (I believe $7.99).

[MrsKC08]

Cabin:

Our cabin was 11719 (Boardwalk Balcony) on the starboard side of the ship. I was very pleased with this cabin décor and location. We were able to have some aft water view and see the signs and action on the Boardwalk. The storage was more than sufficient for all of our clothes and we thought the bed was comfortable. The bedding added to that comfort for sure. Our room steward, Christian was such a delight. When we’d see him in the halls he was so pleasant and friendly and he kept our cabin clean and tidy.

Some people are curious about the sound at night, but we didn’t find it disturbing at all. You can definitely tell that there is noise cancelling glass in the balcony door. Such a difference from having the door open and then closed AND LOCKED! The curtains were beautiful and they were thermal/blackout curtains so you really don’t get much light coming through.

The only real complaint that I have with the cabin is the TV programing. Frankly, it stinks! There are very few channels and many of them are in foreign languages. We made the comment several times during the week that we felt the programing was still set for the European cruisers and that they haven’t set it for the Caribbean cruises. I don’t think we’ve ever had worse TV shows on any of our previous cruises. Matter of fact, I remember having pretty recent movies playing on our Freedom cruises a few years ago. Another thing that drove me crazy was when you did find something to watch, out of the blue you’d get a black screen on the TV that said “Poor Signal” or “Lost Signal”. How does that happen on the biggest and newest cruise ship that has these satellites on the ship?

Oh, and we loved the night light feature for the bathroom. The light switch outside the bathroom has a small blue light to help you find it in the dark, and inside there is a night light (from the main light) that gives you just enough light to see in there so you don’t have to blind yourself with the main light.

This was probably our favorite cabin we have had on any cruise!

[MrsKC08]

The MDR:

Our dining for this cruise was for the late traditional dining and as mentioned, I know that some have commented on here how bad their meals were in the MDR and I just have to say that it is all relative. Everyone has different tastes and opinions on food.

For us, everything we had was good except for the one meal that I mentioned (The flank steak passed off as a NY Sirloin). Everything came out hot and well presented on the plate. The only minor complaint that I would make is the portion size for the Ceasar salad. We got this salad every night because we like to have salad with a meal, but there was not much to it. You could put 2 of them together to maybe make a decent size SIDE salad. Other than that, everything was very good. Throughout the week we had the garlic soup (one of my RCCL favorites), the crab cake appetizer, prime rib, grilled chicken breast, roasted pork chop, lobster, beef tenderloin…just to name a few.

Our service was top notch as well. Our dinner never took the recommended 2 hours. Of course that could have been because we were a table for two and not sitting at a table for 10 which most definitely will slow down your dinner. Everything came out promptly and we were always served with a smile and had pleasant conversations with our wait staff. They did everything they could to make our dining experience a great one. Matter of fact, the one meal that we weren’t very happy about they were trying to jump through hoops to make it right with us. Remember those beautiful and delicious chocolate covered strawberries that we had delivered? Not to mention the special invite to the galley tour? We were very satisfied with our traditional dining in the MDR. I will mention though that we did not have breakfast or lunch in the MDR, so I can’t comment on that.

 

Oh, and remember me emailing our request for a table for two by a window? That is just what we got! I snapped this picture shortly after we boarded the ship while we were looking around. It was originally set up for 4, but when we arrived for dinner the first night, they had already separated the two tables and we were the only ones who sat here all week!

It pays to make your requests before you even board the ship!

[MrsKC08]

Other Dining:

During our week on the Harmony, we also ate at Chops, Johnny Rockets (breakfast and lunch), Sabor (lunch and dinner), Solarium Bistro (breakfast), Mini Bites (breakfast and lunch).

 

Chops: This was a fantastic meal and experience for us. Again, this was just a table for two and our dining reservations were at 5:30 (the best we could do on formal night). For appetizer I had the scallops which were fantastic and Ken had the pork bacon. When our waiter came to get our appetizer plates, I commented on how good the scallops were and before I knew it he brought me another plate! I didn’t ask for this…he just brought it to our table. Of course I am not complaining because they were really good! Our steaks were cooked perfectly and the flavor was great. So great in fact that we didn’t even add any of the sauces that they offered for them. I had the filet and it was probably the best filet I have ever had. I can’t remember the cut of steak Ken had, but he really enjoyed it as well. For our sharable sides, we had creamed corn, asparagus and the mashed potatoes. Again, all was very good. It was kind of hard to decide on dessert, so he brought out a sampling for us. I will warn you and say that the mud pie is VERY rich, but also delicious! But a little goes a very long way!

 

Johnny Rockets: Breakfast is complimentary here and pretty good. They have a good selection of items and it is served hot which is a plus. I wasn’t a fan of the potatoes, but that’s just because you could tell they were from frozen and not fresh “home fries”. I’m a southern girl, so I like breakfast potatoes!

Lunch was good as well. There is a cover charge for lunch, but since we were staying in a boardwalk balcony cabin our meal was complimentary (up to 4 meals, but must be used at the same time). Note that even though there is a charge, it is essentially ALL YOU CAN EAT. The fries and onion rings are very good and the burgers are cooked fresh right there, instead of sitting in the buffet line in the Windjammer or Mini Bites. I actually had the tuna melt and it was very good. As I mentioned several posts back, the ice cream sundaes and pies are included in your cover charge with your meal, but shakes, malts and floats are NOT. However, if you are a Gold Crown & Anchor member or above you will have a buy 1 get 1 free milkshake coupon loaded on your sea pass card. My advice is to have your free sundae with your meal (they were very very good) and then go back another time just to have your shakes. You won’t have to pay a meal cover charge if you are just ordering your shakes!

 

Sabor: This was by far our absolute favorite place on the entire ship. We ate lunch here twice and dinner once. I could have honestly gone there every day just for a drink and guacamole and chips. The venu is great, the service is great and the food is great! Yes, it is ala carte pricing, but the pricing is very fair in our opinion. We didn’t have a meal there over $16 including the guacamole!

 

Solarium Bistro: I had made dinner reservations for Solarium Bistro long before our cruise and truly planned on having dinner there, but by about day 3 I decided that we would just have breakfast and maybe lunch in there and just have another dinner night in the MDR since it was pretty good so far. I canceled our dining reservation through the App without any issues.

We didn’t have breakfast in Solarium until day 5 or 6 and found that it was probably the best breakfast venu on board. Had we known this earlier in the cruise, we most definitely would have been there every morning! It’s peaceful and quiet and although it is buffet style, it’s nothing like the craziness of the Windjammer. They have fried eggs available for you, along with the regular scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, corned beef hash and other breakfast items like pancakes and French toast. They also have a nice selection of fresh fruit and oatmeal. If you want my recommendation of where to have breakfast on board, this would be it!

 

Mini Bites: This was probably one of my biggest disappointments. I had seen pictures and read about it all throughout Cruise Critic and was really looking forward to it. Matter of fact, this was where I had planned on getting my midday snacks. Sadly this was a big let down for both of us. Why??? The menu NEVER changed at all throughout the week. Breakfast and lunch was the same every single day! The only positive is that if you want an omelet you can get one here. Everything else can be found other places on the ship. Lunch was always the usual hamburger, hot dog, fries, nacho cheese (which was hardly edible) and tortilla chips. We did eat breakfast here twice only because the second day we had gone all the way up there thinking the menu would be different (which it wasn’t) and since we were there we just stayed and ate instead of going somewhere else.

 

Windjammer: What really is there to say about the buffet. To me this was the most disorganized cluster of madness on the ship. Everything is spread out and in little circles. No one really knows where the line ends and begins. My crazy husband wanted to eat lunch here on embarkation day…CRAZY I KNOW! It was almost impossible to even find a place to sit, and once I did I just stayed there. I didn’t bother going to get any food. I let him get something and then I went down to Park Café (Central Park) and had my lunch. The selection I saw in the Windjammer was not impressive to me and other than the salad part of the buffet, nothing really tripped my trigger so to speak. My honest opinion is that this ship is just too big to even attempt a meal in the Windjammer, especially during peak dining times.

 

Park Café: As mentioned, I had my lunch here on Embarkation day. The traditional roast beef sandwich was very good, not to mention the build your own salad. They also make panini sandwiches in here as well. We ate lunch in here another afternoon and it was just as good. They also serve soups and cookies and pre-made sandwiches in here. You can’t go wrong with a light lunch in Park Café.

 

Sorrento’s: I can tell you that this place was busy ALL WEEK LONG! To be honest, I think it is just because the smell kind of draws you in when you are walking around the Promenade. I just wish the pizza tasted as good as it smells. We did stop here one time during the week and had a couple slices of pizza. They were “so-so”, but we didn’t return the rest of the week. I do know that they will make a custom pizza for you if you like. We met someone in the elevator one evening that had a pizza that they made for him. It looked good and smelled good, but I’m not convinced that it tastes as good as you would expect it to.

 

Café Promenade: On our Freedom cruises we were at Café Promenade quite a bit but this cruise we only stopped there once to get a couple cookies. The sandwiches looked good but we were never really that hungry when we stopped there. It was also very hard to find a place to sit there. This is a happening place for people who just want to “sit” making it hard for those who actually want to EAT there. I know it would be hard for them to enforce it, but those seats should really only be for people who are eating, not for those who want to sit and socialize or play games. There are other places to do that.

[MrsKC08]

Production Shows:

As most people do when sailing on an Oasis class ship, we made our show reservations many weeks before our sailing. Matter of fact, I booked all our entertainment the day that it opened up on our cruise planner! This was something new for us because we had never sailed this class before. BUT, I wanted to make sure that we had everything scheduled so that we wouldn’t miss anything.

If you’ve followed along with me throughout this review you probably remember me mentioning that our Grease show had been moved since when I had originally booked it. This was no big deal and actually worked out fine for us, but I can’t stress enough that you should check your planner before you cruise to make sure that everything is as you remember booking it. This was the only change for us, but I’ve read and heard where others have had reservations get moved or completely dropped. And remember, you can always move things around from your Royal IQ App.

Now…here is one of my other biggest complains from our cruise. At each venue there was never any clear direction for where those with reservations should line up and those for stand-by. We have cruised enough to know that to get a good seat you need to get to a show pretty early and well, with a ship this size I didn’t really know what to expect. Our first show was for Grease and when we got to the theater we noticed that there was already two lines started. After asking we discovered that apparently both lines were for reservations (they were in front of both doors). So we got in line. After about 15 minutes standing there, someone from the Cruise Director staff came out and directed everyone with reservations to ONE LINE, which made everyone merge together and cause a lot of frustration). But, when they opened the doors, they were scanning sea pass cards at both doors, so then we split the line again! This happened all week long at every venue (Studio B, Aqua Theater, etc). The only place we found signs of where to stand for reservations was outside the Attic for the comedy show.

FYI- Don’t go to the upstairs level of the theater thinking you can get in that way because they only open the 4th floor doors to start letting people in. Also make note that they start opening up the venue 45 minutes before show time and you must be in your seat 15 minutes before show time because that is when they start allowing the stand-by people to come in.

 

Grease: You can NOT miss this show! Let me say that again….DO NOT MISS THIS SHOW! I had high expectations for this show after hearing how great the Broadway productions are on the Oasis class ships and this is one of my all-time favorites. They do mention that this is for mature audiences and I also want to stress that I personally don’t think that any children should be in this show. We did see kids in our show (some even in the front row). I couldn’t believe that people had their kids in there, and all I can venture is that people are used to the “watered down” version of Grease that they have seen on TV. So, don’t say I didn’t warn you! Anyway, this was such an excellent show. The casting was perfect, the sets were great and the talent was on par with Broadway! I could have gone back to see it another night if we weren’t busy with other things!

 

1887 (Ice Show): This was very good, even though I thought the story line was a little…weird. The costumes were great but we had a good laugh when we noticed two men dressed like women. I don’t know if they were supposed to be men dressed as women or if they didn’t have enough female skaters so they had to “create” them. Nonetheless, it was definitely a good show. It still amazes me that all those skaters can skate on that small rink on a ship! They had a lady in the show (not a skater) from Sweden that did some amazing things with bubbles. It had nothing to do with the story line at all, but it was probably my favorite part of the show. It was simply mesmerizing.

 

Comedian (Phil Tag): The comedy show is done in the Attic (deck 4) which is a great venue for a comedy show. We thought that the comedian was pretty funny, but the guy who introduces him and is actually a Royal Caribbean crew member, Simeon, is extremely funny! I could listen to him for hours. I think he is good enough to be a headline comedian. This was an adult comedy show, and I am happy to report that there were no children that were there! The reason I even mention that is because we have been on many cruises where there is adult comedy and for some strange reason there are children that show up to those shows.

On the last night of our cruise at 11:30 they had another adult comedy show in the theater with Simeon and Phil again. It was good, but if you caught him earlier in the week, there is really no need to stay up late on your last night to see this show again. He did do some different jokes, but a lot of them were the same.

 

Headliner (Ronn Lucas): This guy was really good. He's a ventriloquist and is probably right up there with someone like Terry Fator (if you're ever in Vegas you should check out his show). I had never heard of him before, but they played a short video before he came on stage and apparently he has been around for quite some time and performed for some prestigious people...like US Presidents. I will say though, that he started off strong and then kind of started to lose some people toward the end of his show. It was good, but I still the best headliner show we have ever had was on Freedom with MO5IAC, the acapella music group. I do realize that their headliner shows do change sometimes from week to week, so there's a good chance that this guy wouldn't be on your sailing.

 

Columbus the Musical: This is one of those things that you will either love it or hate it. It’s done kind of in the same style as Spamalot or a Monty Python type of thing. It’s that kind of a comedy production. We actually really enjoyed it, but again…I realize that some people will not. We did see quite a few people get up and walk out of the show. Some of the cast was the same from Grease, but some were brand new cast members. The vocal performances were fantastic and the props and set were great. They did have some kind of small glitch during our performance and the theater went dark and there was a delay of about 10 minutes or less, but they picked up right where they left off. We thought it would throw the actors off a bit, but they didn’t miss a beat! Their professionalism was very evident after something like that.

 

Fine Line: Well, it’s really hard for me to give a fair review on this particular show. This was one that I was really looking forward to! As you saw by following along with me during our trip, this show was canceled EVERY SINGLE NIGHT due to weather. The water in the aqua pool was just sloshing out too much because of the movement of the ship. We all understand realize the safety hazard with something like this and for the most part, most everyone we spoke to during the week understood why it was canceled even though you could tell that everyone was bummed, just as we were. I will say that at this venue I was again very frustrated with the lack of organization. They just had a couple of stansion lines set up on both sides of the theater, which is where the lines were to start, but so many people just walked right past them and tried to go sit down somewhere in the theater before it was even opened up for people. I can tell you that I stood there three times (for each of our scheduled and rescheduled shows) only to have people just walk right past me and disregard the fact that there was a line started! I even mentioned to people that walked by that they would make them move from their seats and get into the line because they have to scan your cards, but it was like talking to a brick wall. SO, I’m telling all of you that there are going to be lines set up, and if you go and sit down at the theater thinking you’ve already got your seat, they will come and make you get up and get in line and you’ll most likely have to be much further back in the line than you would have if you just joined the line to begin with. But I digress…

 

Anyway, finally on our last day they had rescheduled the aqua show for 1pm, 7pm and 8:30pm. They had automatically rescheduled us for 7pm but to be quite honest we were kind of afraid that it could possibly be canceled again so at about 11:30 we made our way to the Boardwalk and made the decision to try and see the 1pm show just in case. To be honest, I didn’t want to wait and stand in a stand-by line so I went over to the port side back stairs and walked up to deck 7 by the rock climbing wall. They had closed it for climbing due to the upcoming show, but I asked the attendant there if we could come up and sit down on the deck and he said we could. So…we had a perfect seat that was shaded and we stayed right there and watched the 1pm showing of the Fine Line! Some other people noticed us up there and came and joined us too. If I can give you ANY good tips, this is it people! There are little decks on both sides just one level up from the Boardwalk where you go for the rock climbing wall. You can sit up there anytime and it’s a perfect spot to watch the aqua show!!!

The show itself was excellent, but it is really something to be seen at night. We missed a lot of the effects because of the day light, which was a bummer…but at least we got to see it. Again, there is not any type of story line and if I could compare it to anything I would say that it is like an aqua version of a Blue Man Group show. It definitely is something not to miss, but I hope you get to see it at night.

As I mentioned, we did have reservations for 7pm that night, but my sweet husband whom I love so much said that he did not want to see the show again, even though I tried to convince him it would be so different at night! LOL I did get to see some of the show from our balcony as we were getting ready for dinner later that night and it just confirmed my suspicions that this is show to be seen at night!

Here’s another tip for you. Schedule dinner for Sabor the night you have your Aqua show scheduled. That way when you finish dinner, you are right there to get into line for the show! A 5:30 dinner reservation at Sabor would give you plenty of time if you have a 7 or 8pm aqua show scheduled!

 

All in all we were very pleased with all of the entertainment provided on our cruise. The parade on the Promenade, the Quest show, the Love and Marriage show and the other things throughout the week were lots of fun. I will say though, that we missed having a Welcome Aboard show and a Farewell show that you normally have on a smaller ship.

However…we were both very disappointed in the daytime activities available during our cruise. If you look back at the compasses I scanned you will notice that there is pretty much little to nothing to do during the day, especially during sea days. Now, if you are just wanting to find a lounge chair and relax or sit on your balcony and read a book or spend your say in the spa…then you won’t mind this. We were looking for some relaxing time, but we also like doing things or having things that we could do during the day…OTHER THAN attending a seminar or watching a movie!

[MrsKC08]

We had pre-purchased drink packages prior to our cruise. Doing this gave us some discount and kept our onboard account in check. Do I think we got our full money’s worth…probably not but I would most likely do it again and I’ll tell ya why. We never really concerned ourselves with how much we were spending on drinks during the week. If we wanted something, we got it. If we didn’t like the drink, we’d discard it and get another one without feeling like we were throwing money away. I didn’t have to keep track of the “receipts” throughout the week to double check with our account to make sure everything was right. This alone can be a major pain in the butt.

 

Everything we drank was included in our packages. There was never an experience where we ordered something that we had to pay the difference on. Of course we never ordered any wine (I'm funny about my wine) and we didn't order anything that would be considered a "premium liquor". Had I known earlier in the week about the smoothies and options at the spa, I would have certainly gotten many drinks from there!

 

One thing that we did notice right off the bat was that there weren’t many bar attendance walking around the pool and decks to serve drinks. I’m not sure if that is due to the drink packages or the size of the ship. But we are used to always having attendants coming around the pools and such with drinks or taking drink orders! There wasn’t even very many of them out at sail-away…which was incredibly strange to us. We had to hunt them down! Along with this was that many of the bars seemed to open up much later in the day than we are used to. I don’t know if this is a means to limit those with drink packages or not, but just another observation.

 

For us, most of our drinks came from the Bionic Bar. The drinks were stronger here than anywhere else we got them from throughout the week. Now, for the person who mentioned something a few posts back about their frustration with the robots “spilling some of the drink”…yes, that happens with each drink and we noticed that. But it seriously wasn’t enough for us to even make note about or be upset over. The frustration for us was that during the week it seemed the mixers and such were gone from the selection to choose from so for the drinks that we “created”, we had to change them up frequently because some of the items were no longer available. There is also a limited variety of alcohol choices at the Bionic bar.

[MrsKC08]

A ship of this size simply needs more elevators. It seems like there was the same amount of elevators on this ship as on the Freedom or other ships we have been on, yet this holds so many more passengers. Of course, I’m always amazed at how many people ride an elevator to go up or down 1 floor. I totally get it for people with bad knees or backs or even elderly…but we found a lot of very young and virtually healthy people riding an elevator to go 1 floor. Just something that makes me chuckle.

 

We saw a lot of very unhappy people on this ship that were at the Guest Services counter…A LOT! Some of the complaints I heard were substantial, and then some were just ridiculous (I won’t share them here as not to call anyone out). But there were some people who were upset that the ship was just “too big”… Hello? You booked a cruise on the largest cruise ship in the world, what exactly where you expecting it to be like?

 

Overall though, I think the staff was very pleasant and friendly and always happy to help or answer any questions you might have had. The few times we saw the Cruise Director Abe, he always had a smile on his face and said hello.

 

Final thoughts…

Would I sail on Harmony again? Probably not, unless the price was right. I had high expectations for this cruise and truly thought it would be our best cruise to date, and it was a fun trip and we enjoyed our time on Harmony…but it was not our best cruise. Ken and I both said that Freedom of the Seas is still our favorite ship. I think that it is the right size with the right balance of things to do on board.

 

Would I sail on an Oasis class ship again? I would like to try the Oasis or Allure only because many people we spoke to during the week who have sailed on those ships say that they are much more organized and a better cruise experience. I’d like to find out for myself.

 

I would tell anyone not to waste their time on the sales they have in the Promenade. My experience on this ship was that women acted like it was Black Friday during the $10 sale and it was mass chaos. Arms were flying everywhere and lots of pushing and just a bunch of rude people in a tight cramped area. As for the sales they had on watches, just make note that they have these sales before you get to the islands. Why do you think that is? I promise you that you will find better deals on those islands on jewelry and watches. To be honest, I think this was the first cruise I’ve been on that I didn’t buy anything from the shops. Their shops are so high dollar, I can’t imagine anyone buying anything from them unless they are from an area of the country or countries outside the US where these prices might seem like a deal to them. I can find better deals all day, any day of the week. The shopping on board was a big letdown for me.

 

Thank you all for coming along with me and the nice comments. This was my first time ever doing a LIVE review of a cruise and it was much easier for me than doing one post cruise. I know that I had mentioned doing the Periscopes while on board, but I had some issues with getting the videos to have a strong enough connection, despite having the Surf & Stream package. Some areas of the ship seemed to have stronger signal than others.

[klass2]

Thank you for your time. I enjoyed your final thoughts and agree with many of your observations.

 

Do you happen to recall if they had the ship models in stock and for sale during the cruise in "The Shop"?

 

We ordered one on the transatlantic cruise and they were supposed to ship it to us within 4-6 weeks. We have not received ours yet although others who ordered on our cruise have.

 

I contacted royal to see what the status is and they said they are back ordered until January or February.

 

Thanks again.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[Clarea]

Very much enjoyed your detailed review.

 

One question: You mentioned fried eggs at the Solarium Cafe for breakfast. Were they offering eggs made to order there, or were these already cooked and sitting in the warmers?

[MrsKC08]

Very much enjoyed your detailed review.

 

One question: You mentioned fried eggs at the Solarium Cafe for breakfast. Were they offering eggs made to order there, or were these already cooked and sitting in the warmers?

 

They were not cooked to order, they were already placed on plates (2 eggs per plate) on a warmer. They were all cooked over medium, so they were done, but not over or under done. Personally...just the way I like them! :)

[MrsKC08]

Thank you for your time. I enjoyed your final thoughts and agree with many of your observations.

 

Do you happen to recall if they had the ship models in stock and for sale during the cruise in "The Shop"?

 

We ordered one on the transatlantic cruise and they were supposed to ship it to us within 4-6 weeks. We have not received ours yet although others who ordered on our cruise have.

 

I contacted royal to see what the status is and they said they are back ordered until January or February.

 

Thanks again.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

You know, I can't be 100% for certain if they were in the Shop, but I'm pretty sure that they had some in there. At least I remember seeing little model ships in there. I didn't look close enough to see if they were Harmony, but I can't think why they would have some other ship in there for sale.

[MrsKC08]

One more thing that I was just thinking of while having my lunch today. Photos!

 

Prior to our cruise we considered getting a photo package before hand. We thought with the size of the ship that there would plenty of places to get photos done. Ultimately we decided against getting the package.

 

Once on board we were quite disappointed with the lack of photo opportunities around. There were several places that would have made great spots for photos...like on the Boardwalk or Central Park to name a few. We also got frustrated with the kiosks that they had in the photo area. Many times when we'd go to see the photos we had taken the night before, we'd get this screen..

 

 

Another frustration is that even though the digital file and printed photo cost the same, you couldn't use your crown & anchor coupon for digitals.

 

In the end, I'm glad that we didn't spend the money for the package ahead of time because we would have felt it a waste with hour our photos turned out and the limited options for photos.

[Clarea]

They were not cooked to order, they were already placed on plates (2 eggs per plate) on a warmer. They were all cooked over medium, so they were done, but not over or under done. Personally...just the way I like them! :)

Thanks!

[maryjaden]

Thank you for your excellent and comprehensive review. This was very helpful as we will be on the Harmony next August.

[PaulS]

Early in this review MrsKC08 indicated that she finalized her dining arrangements by writing the ship's Restaurant Operations Coordinator prior to sailing. I would like to do this for our upcoming cruise on the Jewel and want to try to make sure I use the correct email address. It appears that the first two letters of the email address is the abbreviation for the ship. However, I'm wondering if every ship would have an 02 in the email address like is shown in the thread.

Thanks

[MrsKC08]

Early in this review MrsKC08 indicated that she finalized her dining arrangements by writing the ship's Restaurant Operations Coordinator prior to sailing. I would like to do this for our upcoming cruise on the Jewel and want to try to make sure I use the correct email address. It appears that the first two letters of the email address is the abbreviation for the ship. However, I'm wondering if every ship would have an 02 in the email address like is shown in the thread.

Thanks

 

Probably not. For example, Freedoms email was FR_RestaurantOperationsCoordinator@rccl.com

 

For Jewel I would probably assume that it would be JE or JW_restaurantoperationscoordinator@rccl.com. You can also send to RCLDining@rccl.com which is the general email address for dining requests.