Harmony of the Seas December 2016 Pictures with 360 spherical images

[ThirstyCruiser]

Below is a link to my Google Photos Album of our 12-03-2016 sailing on Harmony of the Seas.

 

The images with a little circular arrow icon are pictures taken with a Ricoh Theta S camera. Give those a second to load, then you can move the picture up, down, left and right, look down on the ground, or up above, and zoom in and out. Most modern phones and browsers automatically recognize this picture format and will allow you to do this while looking at the pic. If your device does not support this, these pics will remain all distorted like you took them with a fish eye lense.

 

There are plenty of "plain" pictures as well.

 

We sailed in a Crown Loft Suite #1720. If you want a good sense of this room, both floors, both bathrooms and the balcony, I included a 360 spherical picture of each.

 

 

https://goo.gl/photos/3zaaeNa24suZNgFV9

 

 

Questions / comments welcome!

Edited January 8, 2017 by ThirstyCruiser
Fixed the link

[ThirstyCruiser]

A repost of my review to go along with the pics.

 

 

 

 

My favorite show was The Fine Line. That twirling dude is wild. Seriously, how does he do that.

 

Columbus and Grease - I dunno. Maybe they need a new Director, in my lousy opinion.

The dancing and singing and costumes are very good, technically. I just felt Grease dragged on and on and on. Could not wait for that to be over.

Columbus I did not like at all when it started. What is this? By the end I kinda warmed up to it. The sets, the costumes, the skill of the dancers / singers all very good. But its just one song after another rapid fire. 1% dialogue if that.

 

Can you tell I am not a fan of musicals? But let me tell you this - on Quantam we saw Mama Mia and that show was fantastic. Top Notch. And I love Jersey Boys, seen them twice on Broadway. Man I wish RCL would bring that show to a ship.

 

 

Our disembarkation was a Royal Cluster you know what. First time and maybe last time in a Suite ($$$ issue, man we got a good deal), Star Class, was all excited to be helped off the ship by the Concierge. He gathered a bunch of us on Deck 17 at 8 AM. And then we waited and waited and waited as every elevator that arrived on this top floor was stuffed. Everyone was going up to go down.

 

When we finally get to Deck 5 (I ended up taking the stairs with our carry ons in tow because it would one less person and set of bags to elavator down), we waited there in a line for another 15 minutes before we got to the gang plank. Holy Mackerel, it took over 30 minutes to get from Deck 17 to the gangplank with a Concierge escort.

 

Otherwise, the entire cruise was A+. I loved it. First time on Oasis class. Met some awesome people (Hi passinglane! Hi R&L! I hope our cruise schedule cross again).

 

 

At the Christmas Tree lighting, the Captain said there were 42 Pinnacles on this sailing. Was hoping he would give other counts like # of kids, Diamonds, etc, but nope, just the Pinnacle number.

 

A Crown Loft Suite is like nothing else. I will never be happy in a cabin without TWO bathrooms!

 

The All Access tour was pretty good. Hard to hear some of the staff, but hey, they work all day every day in a loud environment and my wife says I'm half deaf anyway. You would be surprised how empty the bridge is on a ship that wide with computer equipment as small as it is. 80% of the bridge is open, empty carpeting! It was scheduled from 830 to 1230, and it ended at 1130? Not like we were fast, the 9 AM tour was on our tails waiting a couple of times. Did we get cut short an hour?

 

The tour of Central Park by the Officer in charge of Landscaping (bet you didn't know that was a position on a cruise ship!) was very, very good. He was funny and interesting. Laszlo was his name. He got some good stories. Free tour, and took over an hour.

 

 

No crew bugged me for 10 ratings. No one brought the subject up.

 

 

This was the most stable cruise I have been on, even all the way up and back on Deck 17. First time on Oasis class. Combination of calm seas, jumbo ship? Felt a little sway the last night as we sailed thru a squall line past the FL Keys.

 

 

A couple of bar tenders I talked too said this cruise was dead from a drinking perspective compared to the week before and the average week for that matter. The average age of the passengers seemed much older than other RCL cruises I have been on, and I heard the same from more than one other person, unprompted.

 

No drink package for me this time. Free basic beers and coffee in Suite Lounge during day, free basic cocktails 5-8, I just paid for the occasional special drink (average 1 a day if that).

 

Don't ask me about food. Put it in front of me and I'll wolf it down. I'm happy to eat anything I didn't have to slave over a stove to make, or have to clean up. Service good to very good. We ate in Coastal Kitchen a lot. In Silk Deck 5 MDR twice. Second night we had a waiter good enough to tell sweetie hold on as we were leaving, I spotted a Head Waiter. First time I took the time to mention good service. That guy (Santino) was a good waiter. One night in the Mexican place. Eh, nothing great, nothing bad. Eh.

 

The scariest thing about Abyss is the part where you get on. You have to stand on a glass floor, ten stories over the Aqua theater. Yikes! I did NOT have the onions to try the zip line.

 

The water slides are a welcome addition, but NCL's are better. The 3 on this ship don't start off steep enough, and/or don't have enough water volume. If you wear a lot of material (women one piece, men with board shorts and a long sleeved sun short) it will be a slow ride. I and others actually got stuck about 25 % of the way down multiple tiles on the blue and yellow slides. And green that feeds the "toilet bowl", forget about making it all the way around. But if you expose a lot of skin (take off that sun shirt) big difference. Skin is slippery. The giant toilet bowl slide on NCL is much much better, you are guaranteed multiple trips around the drain, and right down the drain you go. Here, everyone has to shimmy on their buttskis to get to the drain. Poor design, or lack of water volume. Nevertheless, on Port day in Falmouth we stayed on the ship, I just keep going and going and going on those slides. Once I took off the sun shirt I was much slipperier and had a better experience.

 

Harmony is the proud owner of the world's s-l-o-w-e-s-t frozen yogurt machines. They did me a favor - usually I make myself a towering cone that looks like something out of a Dr Suess book 3 times a day and make myself sick eating all that ice cream. This time I just gave up waiting for it to ooze out after only like 2 inches.

 

The pool was not missed in the Solarium. Hot tubs are fine, and ther eare more chairs as a result. But on sea days that wind whistles non stop thru that ceiling.

 

We did Nachi Cocum in Cozumel. We shall return. The food there was excellent, the service was very attentive. Not crowded. I walked on the beach north till I got to Mr Sanchos. Packed. 10 guys doing shots in the water. Smoking. Loud. None of this is bad! Just know what you want and go there and don't complain! When I walked back to Nachi Cocum.....quiet, empty chairs here, there, everywhere....sound of waves....maybe boring to some, maybe perfect to others. Note to self - bring more cash next time so you can do the Snorkel Tour they do - cash only. I tipped our guys Carlos $20 as we left. Cab there was $17 (gave her $20). Cab to downtown from Nachi for the Shops at The Forum was $25. Then $7 back to the ship at The International Pier.

 

First time in Cozumel - where were the famed pier runners?! Nowhere. As we walked past at 4 PM if Senor Frogs got any quieter a funeral was going to break out. Margaritaville was so quiet you could hear a mouse peeing on cotton. See note above on how dead this cruise was from a drinking perspective. Not a single runner. Not even to the 3 Carnival ships on the next pier. Slow week for getting drunk?

[Clarea]

Love those Ricoh 360 degree photos!

[Shanafan]

I could not get the link to open from my phone. I will try from my laptop later. We are going on Harmony February 18.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[ThirstyCruiser]

I could not get the link to open from my phone. I will try from my laptop later. We are going on Harmony February 18.

Please try now. I updated the link, I needed to correct the Sharing options so my full name was not displaying, and it caused a new URL to be generated. You may have tried to hit my original link based on your post timestamp right as I was changing it.

 

I have put the correct updated URL in the original post.

[Shanafan]

That fixed it! Thank you....I am off to check out the photos!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[A&L_Ont]

Thirsty Cruiser, great review. I will look at the pics right after this.

 

Just a few points that stand out to me. Laszlo your guide of the garden tour is the same man that was featured in the Mighty Ships episode on Oasis. I met him at a helipad sailaway one time and he was a fun guy to chat with. We have never seen the pier runners at Cozumel, but we have seen the pier stumblers. One even pushed in a wheel chair.:D As for the toilet slide, no shirt is the way to go. I got four full loops before going down the drain hole. With a rash guard shirt on I hardly did one loop.

 

Now off to look at your pictures.

 

Edit: I forgot to add that Nachi is our go to. Great spot. Carlos is very attentive and easy going. My type of guy.

Edited January 8, 2017 by A&L_Ont

[ThirstyCruiser]

I wrote "Star" class, but I meant "Sky" class. Crown Loft Suite is Sky class.

I can't edit the original post after only a few minutes? Oh well.

[A&L_Ont]

I wrote "Star" class, but I meant "Sky" class. Crown Loft Suite is Sky class.

I can't edit the original post after only a few minutes? Oh well.

 

It's like 10-15 minutest edit time frame.

 

Amazing photos. I am considering getting a 360 camera. I wonder, can they be uploaded directly to the CC forum App?

[twccruiser]

Loved the review and photos, thanks for sharing!!

[Destaw71835]

Great photos.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[whitshel]

Awesome review and pics, what kind of camera did you use for the regular pics, they are spectacular.

[BILL-WI]

Love the 360 photos....the suite is magnificent!:):):)

 

BILL

[ThirstyCruiser]

Awesome review and pics, what kind of camera did you use for the regular pics, they are spectacular.

The regular pics were all made on my Samsung Galaxy Note III. Yeah, a 4 year old phone!

[sdrocks]

Thanks for the awesome pictures. We are boarding in 13 days for a B2B.

Am way too excited. I want to try the zip line, but not sure about the

Abyss. Will take it as it comes. I want to be extra careful as I broke my

arm in Feb, 1016 on the Anthem. Don't want a repeat of that or anything

like it. LOL !

[sdrocks]

Sorry, above was 2016. Oops.

[ThirstyCruiser]

Amazing photos. I am considering getting a 360 camera. I wonder, can they be uploaded directly to the CC forum App?

I can try if someone tells me what to try.

 

The best things about that camera is how fast it is. Literally one click and done. Its not like on your phone where you have to slowly pan around trying to be steady for 10-15 seconds.

 

It also does video. When you watch the video playing you can pan around as everything is moving while the video plays. I did not make any 360 videos good enough to post. The one video at the end of the album posted is one I made with my phone.

[whitshel]

The regular pics were all made on my Samsung Galaxy Note III. Yeah, a 4 year old phone!

 

Awesome, I had the Note 7 but ya had to turn it in because Celebrity won't let me on board with it. But now I have the S7 Edge so I'm glad to see those were taken with a Note. (I am a previous owner of a Note II and Note IV tho and they both took great pics)

[qa4ever]

Link to pictures doesn't work anymore?

[jgoodm]

Would you mind reposting these pictures?

 

Thanks,

[ThirstyCruiser]

I just tried the link again and it still works for me. But who knows. So I turned off sharing, the previous link is no good now, and turned on sharing again, which produced the following new link:

 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/e81HiBghZjdzRgiq2

 

Best chance of success being Google Photos is going to be using a Google Chrome Browser. But on my iMac, it also works just fine in Firefox. Don't forget you can zoom in and out, up down and all round for those 360 degree pics.

[qa4ever]

Thanks! They worked now!

[Jimbo]

I just tried the link again and it still works for me. But who knows. So I turned off sharing, the previous link is no good now, and turned on sharing again, which produced the following new link:

 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/e81HiBghZjdzRgiq2

 

Best chance of success being Google Photos is going to be using a Google Chrome Browser. But on my iMac, it also works just fine in Firefox. Don't forget you can zoom in and out, up down and all round for those 360 degree pics.

 

Great Pics Thanks!

[jgoodm]

I just tried the link again and it still works for me. But who knows. So I turned off sharing, the previous link is no good now, and turned on sharing again, which produced the following new link:

 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/e81HiBghZjdzRgiq2

 

Best chance of success being Google Photos is going to be using a Google Chrome Browser. But on my iMac, it also works just fine in Firefox. Don't forget you can zoom in and out, up down and all round for those 360 degree pics.

 

Thanks