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"Live" from the Harmony of the Seas, 3/31/18-4/7/18

flannbarr
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flannbarr Great Review Rare

flannbarr

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Here is my first live review of the March 31, 2018 (Easter week) sailing of the Harmony of the Seas to the Western Caribbean. I figured I might as well start early so here goes.

 

I pondered whether to even do this review since Andrew (A&L_Ont) just live posted his recent cruise. My review will be much shorter and probably not nearly as much fun, but I am still going to do it. Maybe another perspective will be helpful for CC’ers.

 

Family-A little about us. I am Steve, age 54. My wife, Patti, is 59 years young and our son, Logan, is 16 years old. We live in a suburb outside Detroit. Our oldest son is almost 24 years old, lives and works in Chicago and is not going on this cruise.

 

Cruise Background-We love to travel and I love researching and booking vacations. This is our 14th cruise (11th cruise for Logan), 8th RCCL cruise and 4th Oasis class cruise. Most of our cruises have been in the Caribbean along with one fabulous Alaskan cruise.

 

Cabin Selection-We don’t normally get very expensive cabins. Sometimes we get interior cabins which we like because it is so dark and leads to good sleep. We have also had Boardwalk Balcony and Central Park balcony cabins.

 

I originally booked a balcony cabin on this cruise back in November 2017. Without my wife’s knowledge, I upgraded to a Grand Suite and then to an Owner’s Suite. A Royal Family Suite opened up and I upgraded to it for no charge. Then, I said what the heck and upgraded (for a cost) to a Two Bedroom Aquatheatre Suite (category A2). We will receive the Royal Genie experience so that should be fun. My wife and son knew nothing about any type of suite until a couple of weeks ago. Then the questionnaire from the Royal Genie arrived and I could not keep the secret any longer.

 

Air-We booked our air through Air2Sea. It was over $100 cheaper per person than booking direct with the airline. We are flying from Detroit to Fort Lauderdale on 3/30/18. After the cruise, we are flying to New York City on 4/7/18 to spend a day with family before flying home to Detroit on 4/8/18. DW and DS will find out we are flying first class when we arrive at the airport on Friday.

 

Pre-Cruise Hotel-We are staying at the Renaissance Fort Lauderdale Cruise Port Hotel. We have stayed there prior to other cruises and have enjoyed it. We also have Marriott points so staying for free is always ideal. You can’t beat the location. It is within walking distance of decent restaurants for dinner the night before the cruise and very close to Port Everglades by Uber.

 

Star Class and Royal Genie-On February 20, 2018, we received our Star Class questionnaire to complete. That was quite interesting and notched up my excitement for the cruise that was still 6 weeks away. I answered the questions separately for each of us. That is when I just had to tell my family what was really going on. They were really excited. Then my wife asked why we need to spend that much money. I told her we have been fertilizing the money tree in the back yard to which she now has several other things she would like to purchase. That was not the desired result that I was looking for.

 

On March 3, 2018, I received my first e-mail from Royal Genie, Sebastian. He provided information and asked a few questions. I responded to his inquiries immediately. I have read good things about Sebastian on CC so I was really excited. Then comes the March 20, 2018 e-mail from Valentina who introduced herself as our new Royal Genie replacing Sebastian who was leaving Harmony for Symphony. I replied to Valentina and am awaiting her reply. CC doesn’t have much info on Valentina except I think she was recently a casino host on Allure.

 

That is all I have for now. Harmony is currently at Port Everglades (3/24/18) for the final sailing before we board her. I will be back soon and am happy to answer your questions now and when I am the Harmony.

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Lovetocruise2002

Lovetocruise2002

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Flannbarr...so excited to follow along! And I am so happy that you decided to blog! I've been following your upgrade story since you posted it a while back and I had to laugh at your comment about the undesired results from fertilizing money [emoji38]

Our family is the opposite from you in that I am the one who keeps upgrading us into higher categories and my hubby would be happy with an inside. We're cruising Star Class for the first time next March so any info you can provide would be so much appreciated, even if you think it's trivial. Thank you for posting the timeline for the questionnaire and emails. Have a great cruise!!

 

 

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Crazy planning mom

Crazy planning mom

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Here is my first live review of the March 31, 2018 (Easter week) sailing of the Harmony of the Seas to the Western Caribbean. I figured I might as well start early so here goes.

 

I pondered whether to even do this review since Andrew (A&L_Ont) just live posted his recent cruise. My review will be much shorter and probably not nearly as much fun, but I am still going to do it. Maybe another perspective will be helpful for CC’ers.

 

Family-A little about us. I am Steve, age 54. My wife, Patti, is 59 years young and our son, Logan, is 16 years old. We live in a suburb outside Detroit. Our oldest son is almost 24 years old, lives and works in Chicago and is not going on this cruise.

 

Cruise Background-We love to travel and I love researching and booking vacations. This is our 14th cruise (11th cruise for Logan), 8th RCCL cruise and 4th Oasis class cruise. Most of our cruises have been in the Caribbean along with one fabulous Alaskan cruise.

 

Cabin Selection-We don’t normally get very expensive cabins. Sometimes we get interior cabins which we like because it is so dark and leads to good sleep. We have also had Boardwalk Balcony and Central Park balcony cabins.

 

I originally booked a balcony cabin on this cruise back in November 2017. Without my wife’s knowledge, I upgraded to a Grand Suite and then to an Owner’s Suite. A Royal Family Suite opened up and I upgraded to it for no charge. Then, I said what the heck and upgraded (for a cost) to a Two Bedroom Aquatheatre Suite (category A2). We will receive the Royal Genie experience so that should be fun. My wife and son knew nothing about any type of suite until a couple of weeks ago. Then the questionnaire from the Royal Genie arrived and I could not keep the secret any longer.

 

Air-We booked our air through Air2Sea. It was over $100 cheaper per person than booking direct with the airline. We are flying from Detroit to Fort Lauderdale on 3/30/18. After the cruise, we are flying to New York City on 4/7/18 to spend a day with family before flying home to Detroit on 4/8/18. DW and DS will find out we are flying first class when we arrive at the airport on Friday.

 

Pre-Cruise Hotel-We are staying at the Renaissance Fort Lauderdale Cruise Port Hotel. We have stayed there prior to other cruises and have enjoyed it. We also have Marriott points so staying for free is always ideal. You can’t beat the location. It is within walking distance of decent restaurants for dinner the night before the cruise and very close to Port Everglades by Uber.

 

Star Class and Royal Genie-On February 20, 2018, we received our Star Class questionnaire to complete. That was quite interesting and notched up my excitement for the cruise that was still 6 weeks away. I answered the questions separately for each of us. That is when I just had to tell my family what was really going on. They were really excited. Then my wife asked why we need to spend that much money. I told her we have been fertilizing the money tree in the back yard to which she now has several other things she would like to purchase. That was not the desired result that I was looking for.

 

On March 3, 2018, I received my first e-mail from Royal Genie, Sebastian. He provided information and asked a few questions. I responded to his inquiries immediately. I have read good things about Sebastian on CC so I was really excited. Then comes the March 20, 2018 e-mail from Valentina who introduced herself as our new Royal Genie replacing Sebastian who was leaving Harmony for Symphony. I replied to Valentina and am awaiting her reply. CC doesn’t have much info on Valentina except I think she was recently a casino host on Allure.

 

That is all I have for now. Harmony is currently at Port Everglades (3/24/18) for the final sailing before we board her. I will be back soon and am happy to answer your questions now and when I am the Harmony.

Hi Steve. My husband, 15 year old son and I will also be on the cruise. We will be in a regular Oceanview balcony cabin. How great that you have a huge suite. Your teen will love that. We are Flying from NY to Fort Lauderdale on Thursday. We have a place in Boca Raton and will be staying there. There is a meet and mingle for this cruise.:)

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flannbarr Great Review Rare

flannbarr

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Hi Steve. My husband, 15 year old son and I will also be on the cruise. We will be in a regular Oceanview balcony cabin. How great that you have a huge suite. Your teen will love that. We are Flying from NY to Fort Lauderdale on Thursday. We have a place in Boca Raton and will be staying there. There is a meet and mingle for this cruise.:)

 

 

 

Excellent. I am signed up for the meet and mingle. We look forward to meeting you in a few days.

 

 

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L1211 "Live from...." Rare

L1211

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Where did you sign up for the meet and mingle? First time RCI cruisers on this sailing with you guys. My spring breakers are a bit older - 17 and 18 and in their own cabin!! Looking forward to it!

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flannbarr Great Review Rare

flannbarr

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i'll be following along as this is the same ports as when I'll be on. Do you have any excursions booked yet ?

 

 

Wife and son hope to zip line in Labadee. They have done that on prior cruises. In Cozumel, we usually take a taxi to Paradise Beach for the day. Jamaica-no thank you. We will stay on the ship and maybe walk around the port area.

 

 

 

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MaiseyM

MaiseyM

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Have you heard anything from your new genie yet? I’m curious, is booking your airline tickets usually less expensive if you’re booking through RCO? I have 5 tickets to buy for next Christmas at peak time.

 

 

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