My View: Harmony of the Seas - 8 days of semi-live tips & too many pics!

[MeandHer1968]

Loving the review...We will be on her in 12 short days and this is just making me want to go NOW!!!!! 

[Familygoboston]

On 11/12/2018 at 8:52 AM, APDMOM said:

 

Hi, fellow FLKrewzer!  

 

We tried to go to the diamond lounge the first night, but it was packed!  There was standing room only.  So, we got a whiskey sour at Boleros.  It was much more relaxing.  Since then, we used the pre-loaded drinks in the diningroom, Solarium Bistro, and Trellis bar also.  When we don’t use all 3 drinks, we get bottled water to stock up for port days.  We will try diamond lounge again this week, and will report back. 🙂

OMG....how did I not think of this?! You are so brilliant! We leave easily 2/3 of our diamond drinks on the card. I just can’t drink that much that early and stay awake formthe shows. But getting our water for the next days excursions, this is brilliant. I knew we were sisters from another mister! 😘

Edited November 14, 2018 by Familygoboston

[perfect match]

Thanks for doing this live review, ADPMOM! I always enjoy your reviews and pictures. I plan on booking Harmony once she is here in PC, but for now, we're looking forward to sailing on her sister, Symphony, coming up in April.  

[ISLANDFAN]

Great review! Very informative and the pictures are beautiful. Headed to The Harmony during the first week of February with my son and his family. Gonna be a hoot!

 

Islandfan

[APDMOM]

Good morning from beautiful St. Kitts!  Thank you for all the compliments, likes, and contributions to this review.  I will be starting shortly to report on yesterday’s adventures in St. Thomas. 

 

🙂

[APDMOM]

My View: Day 4 - St. Thomas

 

[APDMOM]

Morning exercise:

I started the day with some exercise, walking the jogging track.  My intention was to walk 4 miles, but blisters on my heels kept me to 2 miles (for real!).  Note to self: yoga shoes are not for walking. 😬

 

 

 

Break spot:  There is a rainbow in there, somewhere:

 

[APDMOM]

Day 4: Cruise Compass:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[kitkat9438]

Thanks for the wonderful review and awesome pictures.  We will be sailing in 24 days.  First time on the Harmony so this is a big help.  Enjoy the rest of your cruise.  

[h20skibum]

Just wanted to post and say I am enjoying your review.  I know I like to get feedback anytime I do a review, just so I know someone  is following along.

 

Great photos.  Are you using CC to host them, or some other site?

 

We are sailing Harmony in 11 days, and I recognize a couple from our roll call posting here, so we are all getting excited.  I was thinking about doing a “Live”, but with the changes to CC, there doesn’t seem to be as much interaction anymore.  Keep up the good work, and you may see one from me in a few days.

 

Mark

Edited November 14, 2018 by h20skibum

[APDMOM]

1 hour ago, h20skibum said:

Just wanted to post and say I am enjoying your review.  I know I like to get feedback anytime I do a review, just so I know someone  is following along.

 

Great photos.  Are you using CC to host them, or some other site?

 

We are sailing Harmony in 11 days, and I recognize a couple from our roll call posting here, so we are all getting excited.  I was thinking about doing a “Live”, but with the changes to CC, there doesn’t seem to be as much interaction anymore.  Keep up the good work, and you may see one from me in a few days.

 

Mark

 

Hi, Mark!  

 

Yes, CC seems to be going through some growing pains with the recent changes.  I have had some difficulty navigating the fonts in this new format.  It is not very user friendly with the iPad.  It keeps jumping to the bottom of the page when I try to change the font size or color.  

 

However, I do like directly uploading my pictures.  So, yes I am using CC to house my pictures.  I do hope they work things out that we can use Tapatalk again, but it is okay for now.  🙂 I do like that the “love/laugh/trophy” button has been added.  

 

If you are like me, there can never be too many live reviews.  It will be great to see a Thanksgiving week review!  Thank you for checking in! 

[APDMOM]

Internet is a bit slow here in Dt Kitts, so the pictures take a long time to load.  I will start posting again while multitasking 😁

[APDMOM]

Day 4 Breakfast:

We returned to our old favorite, Johnny Rockets...

 

DH got the french toast:

[APDMOM]

How we spent our day in St. Thomas...

If you came for input regarding shore excursions, or to see more of the island, this may be disappointing.  We have been to St. Thomas multiple times and decided to use this cruise to enjoy the ship. I did get off for a short while to see this new port area. We had never stopped at the specific port before (Crown Bay Center).

 

Family Time: Mini-golf:

 

Tip: One of the best times to play mini-golf is early in the morning on port days.  There were only 2 other people playing around 8:45 a.m.

 

You do not want to play on our team... We have perfected Mr. Bean Style mini-golf, and we just have fun.

 

 

 

Mr. Bean Mini Golf... where a hole-in-two is an accomplishment! 😂

 

With that view in the background, and quality family time, this is about as close to Paradise as we can get in this world.  

 

 

[APDMOM]

After mini golf we made a quick stop to watch the Flowrider:

 

 

 

Port days are also great for swimming!  We were able to put in some laps while DH was working on his farmer’s tan. 😁

 

Edited November 14, 2018 by APDMOM

[ccnwater]

My son and DIL are there on their honeymoon!  So glad I found your post, so I can see the ship, ports and looks like beautiful weather!  Today they are planning on snorkeling in St Kitts.  I think for St. Thomas they were going up the mountain on the lift.   They have always cruised with us, seems so weird we are not with them!  But understand, being their HONEYMOON!  lol!  Thanks again for posting!

 

[APDMOM]

1 hour ago, ccnwater said:

My son and DIL are there on their honeymoon!  So glad I found your post, so I can see the ship, ports and looks like beautiful weather!  Today they are planning on snorkeling in St Kitts.  I think for St. Thomas they were going up the mountain on the lift.   They have always cruised with us, seems so weird we are not with them!  But understand, being their HONEYMOON!  lol!  Thanks again for posting!

 

Fun!  Glad you found this.  Now you can sort of cruise with them. 🙂 We are having beautiful weather, although the water is rough in St Kitts.  Hope they are still able to go snorkeling.

[APDMOM]

A Walk in Port - St Thomas:

 

This was a very different kind of port.  It is very industrial and not completely recovered from the hurricane damage.  I only stayed within the fenced area to take pictures.  We will be back next month on Equinox, when I will take a trip to St John.

 

Cruising into Port:

 

 

 

 

My Views from the Port:

 

 

With such a big ship, it is hard to find a good angle to fit it all in.  I finally found a spot by walking off the beaten path...

 

 

Beautiful from any angle

 

 

[APDMOM]

Critters everywhere... They walk right where pedestrians walk, and caused quite a few comical reactions. 🙂

 

 

 

 

Back to the ship to get some great soft serve ice cream and lunch...

 

[APDMOM]

A Rainy Afternoon:

This calls for a shared, fruity drink of the day on the balcony: ($9.44 with gratuity).  We are very frugal so that our cruise budget can stay strong for future cruise bookings.  We will always share one drink, rather than buy two.  This one was an excellent new discovery!  

 

A favorite new drink - Portside Punch:

 

Rain everywhere:

 

 

We saw the pirate tour go out, all jovial and loud, out on their adventure.  They returned shortly after, very subdued and all hunkering down.  There was lightning close to the ship, and I can only guess that the tour had to be cancelled due to the thunderstorm:

 

 

Action from the balcony:

 

After it cleared up, we spotted this stingray from our balcony:

[APDMOM]

After the storm: A beautiful sunset from the balcony:

 

 

My View Aft:

 

My View Forward:

 

Goodnight Moon:

 

 

[gottogocruisin]

On ‎11‎/‎11‎/‎2018 at 8:33 PM, APDMOM said:

Tip: Download Royal IQ for your phone and iPad at home.  We downloaded it on two devices at home.  When we got to the ship, we tried to put it on DH’s phone, but it failed due to needing a wifi connection for the large app.  It may have something to do with settings for our Verizon Cellular... 

 

Royal IQ:

 

If you have questions about how it works, feel free to ask, but here are some screenshots that are somewhat self-explanatory.  You create an account using your name, room number and birth year:

 

 

When you tap on the compass, you can see the Cruise Compass activities for the day.  We found one time to be inaccurate, so double check your paper copy if you are really interested in the activity.  When you tap on the arrow by the activity, it gives you the option to add it to your calendar:

 

 

Any reservations you made at home show up in this calendar, and it includes members of your party that plan to attend the activity.  For example, the colored squares by Grease show that DH and I attended, while the squares by the ice show indicate that all three of us would be attending:

 

 

You can message with the app at the following rate:

 

 

 

 

Tip:  If you and your friends have iPhones, the messenger glitch still applies.  DH and I can message each other through the iPhone messenger, using the free Royal Caribbean wifi. 

You have a great tutorial but I am not too good at downloading the Royal IQ. Please tell me how to get this started and then I can do it. Sorry everyone else who knows how, but I am "older" and into this as a newbee. 

Loving your review. Thanks for taking the time to do this.

Kay

[vtroper]

APDMOM,

 

Really enjoying the review.  We’ll be sailing on Harmony for the first time in 31 days, so it’s been fun to get a sneak peak.

 

Are you guys visiting Labadee on this trip by chance?  My wife is interested in getting a massage on the beach but I haven’t been able to find anything on massage prices other than the ones on the ship.  If you happen to come across any information about beach front massages, I’d be interested in anything you find out.

 

TIA,

Vtroper

[APDMOM]

56 minutes ago, gottogocruisin said:

You have a great tutorial but I am not too good at downloading the Royal IQ. Please tell me how to get this started and then I can do it. Sorry everyone else who knows how, but I am "older" and into this as a newbee. 

Loving your review. Thanks for taking the time to do this.

Kay

Hi, Kay!  Do you have an iPhone or iPad?  If so, just go to the App store and search for “Royal IQ”.

 The App store has this icon on the iPhone or iPad:

 

The Royal IQ app looks like this:

 

Hope this helps 🙂  If not. send me an e-mail at APDMOM@live.com and I will see if I can help you get the app.

[APDMOM]

35 minutes ago, vtroper said:

APDMOM,

 

Really enjoying the review.  We’ll be sailing on Harmony for the first time in 31 days, so it’s been fun to get a sneak peak.

 

Are you guys visiting Labadee on this trip by chance?  My wife is interested in getting a massage on the beach but I haven’t been able to find anything on massage prices other than the ones on the ship.  If you happen to come across any information about beach front massages, I’d be interested in anything you find out.

 

TIA,

Vtroper

 

Hi, vtroper!

 

We can find out for you!  That is one port we intend on getting off the ship a bit longer... We love Labadee!