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

[hurls88]

Have a great sail away. Will you guys do the Escape Room?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[A&L_Ont]

Here are pictures with Valentina and Sebastian as we boarded the ship earlier today.

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

She is being trained by one of the best. Enjoy your time and Iif you have a chance let him know Andrew and Lisa from Canada say hello.

 

When we were on board a few weeks ago boarding had started prior to our arrival at 10:50. Sounds like your arrival went smoothly which is always a good start.

[flannbarr]

These treats were waiting for us when we arrived in our cabin.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[flannbarr]

Muster drill was painless.

 

Sail away was beautiful. Coast guard or sheriff forcefully kept some crazy jet skiers away from us.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[Lovetocruise2002]

These treats were waiting for us when we arrived in our cabin.

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

 

Did you request those treats ahead of time or did they just surprise you with it?

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[flannbarr]

Did you request those treats ahead of time or did they just surprise you with it?

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

 

 

Just a surprise.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[Lovetocruise2002]

Just a surprise.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

 

 

Nice! [emoji4]

Enjoy Grease tonight!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[travelplus]

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.

 

Sounds like a fun cruise. I am leaving on the Brillance Trans Atlantic on Thursday but first off to Tampa on Wednesday. Your plan sounds like fun.

 

Looking forward to your report!

[flannbarr]

Have a great sail away. Will you guys do the Escape Room?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

 

 

We do plan on trying the escape room.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[hurls88]

We do plan on trying the escape room.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

 

 

Thank you for your reply. Please let me know what you think

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[JamesEM]

Have a great cruise, we had a family cruise on the Harmony this past Nov., and were happy campers, I would suggest checking out the Windjammer for dinner one night.

[flannbarr]

One nice unwritten perk about Star Class is when you board the ship (10:30am for us), you are escorted directly to your cabin even that early. We were able to drop off our carry-on bags and our suitcases were already there because the porters take them immediately and directly to your cabin after you give the bags to them. We checked out the suite, ate some the of the provided snacks and then left because the room steward was still cleaning our room. But it was sure was nice to drop off our carry on bags.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[flannbarr]

We signed the activity waiver with Logan next to the flow rider as soon as the desk opened. The new website does not have this feature active yet to do pre-cruise.

 

At 5:30pm, I went with Logan to the teen center on deck 15 to register him. It turns out there was no need for me to go with him...he could do it himself without parental sign off.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[flannbarr]

Next was a fabulous dinner at 150 Central Park at 6:00pm. This is our 4th Oasis class cruise but our first visit to this restaurant. We are so happy we went to 150. Logan was doing his own thing and did not join us for dinner.

 

 

A bread basket was placed on our table along with unsalted butter. Unsalted because they offered 6 different salts with varying flavors to add to your bread butter. That was fabulous and was a course by itself.

 

 

 

Appetizers—Lobster Gnocchi and Veal Bolognese. Wow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[flannbarr]

For the entree, we shared the 18 oz beef tenderloin carved tableside. The beef was so tender. Served with potatoes and veggies. Carving tableside was just for effect. I would have preferred that the meat was carved in the kitchen and then served versus waiting for the hot steak to be carved by the server. But it was still warm enough and tasted yummy.

 

 

Oh and we had white wine with our meal too.

 

Dessert-We were both extremely full so....we shared a very rich chocolate tart.

 

All in all, I give 150 Central Park a 10 out of 10. We just set the standard for the rest of the week.

 

Since we are Star Class, the bill came and it read $0.00. Some have asked on CC about tipping since it’s already included for Star Class. We did add a tip to the bill because service was impeccable.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[flannbarr]

Dinner lasted almost 2 hours so next on our agenda was Grease at 8:30pm.

 

 

We met Valentina inside the theatre and she escorted us to our 4th row center seats. The first 4 rows were reserved for Star Class.

 

The musical was very good and it lasted 1.5 hours until 10pm.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[Lovetocruise2002]

Flannbarr...was there anything (food item) in 150 CP that wasn't included for star class?

[L1211]

Dinner lasted almost 2 hours so next on our agenda was Grease at 8:30pm.

 

 

We met Valentina inside the theatre and she escorted us to our 4th row center seats. The first 4 rows were reserved for Star Class.

 

The musical was very good and it lasted 1.5 hours until 10pm.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

 

 

Oh my. Ours starts at 10:30 tonight!!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[flannbarr]

Flannbarr...was there anything (food item) in 150 CP that wasn't included for star class?

 

 

I don’t believe so.

 

FYI, at 150 CP, they had a a bottle of wine on the menu for .....wait for it....$4,044. Seriously? But we were entitled to a 30% discount. SMH.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[Lovetocruise2002]

I don’t believe so.

 

FYI, at 150 CP, they had a a bottle of wine on the menu for .....wait for it....$4,044. Seriously? But we were entitled to a 30% discount. SMH.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

 

 

Just did a double take on the price just now lol

Thought it was a typo.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[flannbarr]

Had a fabulous day yesterday (Sunday).

 

Started with breakfast in Coastal Kitchen. Spent the day on the suite sun deck. That’s another non-financial perk for sky and Star Class and I believe also Pinnacle. Very nice and comfortable although very windy up there.

 

Had lunch at the Solarium Bistro.

 

We spent an hour in the casino before my wife went to a workout in the fitness room.

 

Having such a large balcony in our Aqua Theatre, I took advantage of it and took a short nap on the comfy lounger.

 

We had dinner scheduled at Wonderland. That review will be coming shortly.

 

Genie Valentina showed up at our dinner table just to check on us. We were scheduled to watch the aqua theatre show in the evening (from our balcony) but it was canceled for the second night in a row. She rearranged the rest of our week and we attended the comedy show at 9pm. It was very funny. We were placed in the front row so yes I was a good target much of the evening. The 2 comedians were very funny during their combined 50 minutes.

 

There is a high rope walker who was out yesterday afternoon for quite a while. Yes he was tethered.

 

After the comedy show, we went back to the casino and did ok. We then went to the Schooner Bar and listened to a fabulous British gentleman play the piano and sing. He was exceptional. We wrapped it up around midnight.

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[flannbarr]

Lifeguards-There are lifeguards at every pool from the minute they open early in the morning. That is very good to see. I’m not sure if a tragedy caused this but it’s an excellent idea either way.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[TheInnocentAge]

We then went to the Schooner Bar and listened to a fabulous British gentleman play the piano and sing. He was exceptional. We wrapped it up around midnight.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

Ah, the Schooner is a great place to end the evening. Did you happen to notice if Andrea is still there? She's our favorite bartender...

[flannbarr]

Dinner at Wonderland was in a word....wonderful.

 

L1211 must have been in the restaurant at the same time as us and did a wonderful review with many pictures. No need to duplicate. But I confirm what was reported.

 

I was a bit skeptical going in but it did not disappoint. I ate things that I never would have ordered myself and it was all good and fun too.

 

The food starts out in small portions and then gets much bigger as the entrees come out. The culmination was the dessert. Just WOW!

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[jimbri]

Enjoying your review and photos!