Picture Imperfect: Live on Harmony

[OCSC Mike]

53 minutes ago, sellwingri said:

Forgive me for saying this but where is the review?

 

They leave 6/2.  Just set the review up early. 

[sellwingri]

11 minutes ago, OCSC Mike said:

 

They leave 6/2.  Just set the review up early. 

Missed that!  Thanks for the info.   Will follow the review.  We’ll be on Harmony for the first time in a September.

Edited May 23, 2019 by sellwingri

[Familygoboston]

I’m off to WDW for several days before the Harmony Cruise, so we jumped the gun getting the review set up, but we will cruise June 2. And in the meantime, I know Randy plans to share some really, really helpful information he shares with his cruising friends and family (and he’s not a TA) to help people new to cruising. This is great content, and the fact he shares it freely is really generous! He leaves no stone unturned for newbies planning a first cruise, and I learned a few things, and I’m a very old dog! 🤣 🐶

 

WDW plans⬇️

 

 

[OCSC Mike]

Enjoy Disney!  Coming from someone who can see the Magic Kingdom fireworks from his house, you're gonna need a cruise to relax after all that, lol.

 

Love the planning btw.  👍

[Familygoboston]

 

6 minutes ago, OCSC Mike said:

Enjoy Disney!  Coming from someone who can see the Magic Kingdom fireworks from his house, you're gonna need a cruise to relax after all that, lol.

 

Love the planning btw.  👍

Lol, Mike, no kidding! I haven’t been in years, (well we did a quick 2 day visit in 2013, but otherwise it’s been decades! ) and so much has changed! But you see all those breaks for pool and naps in my schedule! I hear it’s hot hot hot right now too! Unfortunately, I’m feeling like this cruise isn’t going to be EXACTLY relaxing! 🤣

 

 

[OCSC Mike]

It's beyond hot.  It's disgusting here right now.  Not supposed to be 92-95 in May.  😞

 

Those afternoon breaks are key.  My wife always tells her friends when they come down to visit to do it exactly how you did.  Unfortunately, most people try to cram in as much as possible... and I can't really blame them between the cost and only being able to visit X number of times.  That said, we sometimes refer to it as the "UNhappiest place on Earth" due to all the cranky tourists (parents and kids alike).  It's not uncommon to see little ones completely passed out in their strollers by evening.

 

As you said, there's so much new stuff that a lot of it will be unrecognizable.  Next trip, find some time to visit Disney Springs, maybe for dinner and walking around after.  It's what used to be Pleasure Island but the night clubs are long since gone and replaced by a much much larger area filled with stores and restaurants (many from celebrity chefs, some overpriced, some reasonable).

 

We actually haven't been to the parks much in the past few years but were recently gifted annual passes by my wife's generous parents so there's some stuff we haven't even seen yet.  We were going to activate the passes in early June but since we booked Harmony last minute for 6/16 (that's why I'm in your thread btw), we decided to wait until after we get back so they will stretch into the beginning of next summer when my teacher wife is off work.

 

I'd apologize for the rambling tangent but I blame you since you started this topic early and posted your Disney plans.  🙂

Edited May 23, 2019 by OCSC Mike

[Judyrem]

8 minutes ago, OCSC Mike said:

It's beyond hot.  It's disgusting here right now.  Not supposed to be 92-95 in May.  😞

 

Those afternoon breaks are key.  My wife always tells her friends when they come down to visit to do it exactly how you did.  Unfortunately, most people try to cram in as much as possible... and I can't really blame them between the cost and only being able to visit X number of times.  That said, we sometimes refer to it as the "UNhappiest place on Earth" due to all the cranky tourists (parents and kids alike).  It's not uncommon to see little ones completely passed out in their strollers by evening.

 

As you said, there's so much new stuff that a lot of it will be unrecognizable.  Next trip, find some time to visit Disney Springs, maybe for dinner and walking around after.  It's what used to be Pleasure Island but the night clubs are long since gone and replaced by a much much larger area filled with stores and restaurants (many from celebrity chefs, some overpriced, some reasonable).

 

We actually haven't been to the parks much in the past few years but were recently gifted annual passes by my wife's generous parents so there's some stuff we haven't even seen yet.  We were going to activate the passes in early June but since we booked Harmony last minute for 6/16 (that's why I'm in your thread btw), we decided to wait until after we get back so they will stretch into the beginning of next summer when my teacher wife is off work.

 

I'd apologize for the rambling tangent but I blame you since you started this topic early and posted your Disney plans.  🙂

I just  returned from a 10 day visit last Monday.   I have to say it was one of the most humid hot visits we have ever there (and I used to live in South Florida).  One lady in the World Showcase at Epcot fainted right there at the wine tasting bar.

 

We did the afternoon rest period because we did rope drop😳 for Flight of Passage at Animal Kingdom and stayed for Avatar at night.  It was MUCH BETTER doing that!

 

[Dayman9966]

14 hours ago, rsharp83 said:

 

Two Words:  PATRICK MAHOMES 

😀

Yes, super talented for sure, exciting......Like Donovan McNabb....got us to the NFC Championship 4 times, even a SB, but never got over the hump because Coach was terrible with clock management and not running the ball in the playoffs.  Hope you have better fate with him than we did.  BTW.....CARSON WENTZ

[OCSC Mike]

7 minutes ago, Dayman9966 said:

Yes, super talented for sure, exciting......Like Donovan McNabb....got us to the NFC Championship 4 times, even a SB, but never got over the hump because Coach was terrible with clock management and not running the ball in the playoffs.  Hope you have better fate with him than we did.  BTW.....CARSON WENTZ

 

Love the off-topic stuff in this thread.  Wife and I are originally from the Philly 'burbs.  FLY EAGLES FLY!

Edited May 23, 2019 by OCSC Mike

[Familygoboston]

Lol, if you are following a Familygoboston review, you can expect a lot of “off topic” parenthetical comments and digressions 😂 Especially when it comes to sports. The screen name is a double entendre 

Family (on the) Go

and

Go Boston (sports teams!) 

It’s not just the destination of the review, this was good, that was bad; with Randy and I writing it’s often about the journey! 😉

[OCSC Mike]

I like your style!  As long as you eventually get around to sharing some Harmony info too.  😉

[MrsKC08]

This is going to be awesome, I can tell!

We sail (for the second time on Harmony) in November, so I will be following along.

[Ocean Boy]

5 hours ago, Familygoboston said:

 

Lol, Mike, no kidding! I haven’t been in years, (well we did a quick 2 day visit in 2013, but otherwise it’s been decades! ) and so much has changed! But you see all those breaks for pool and naps in my schedule! I hear it’s hot hot hot right now too! Unfortunately, I’m feeling like this cruise isn’t going to be EXACTLY relaxing! 🤣

 

 

I would like some hot. It has been nothing but damp and chilly here all day.🙄

[Ocean Boy]

2 hours ago, Familygoboston said:

Lol, if you are following a Familygoboston review, you can expect a lot of “off topic” parenthetical comments and digressions 😂 Especially when it comes to sports. The screen name is a double entendre 

Family (on the) Go

and

Go Boston (sports teams!) 

It’s not just the destination of the review, this was good, that was bad; with Randy and I writing it’s often about the journey! 😉

Not to mention that I can't stop myself from inserting comments while I am neither on the ship nor have I ever been on the ship. I just can't help myself.

[Familygoboston]

18 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

Not to mention that I can't stop myself from inserting comments while I am neither on the ship nor have I ever been on the ship. I just can't help myself.

I like your comments! I’ve missed you Ocean Boy! Our witty repartee! 

And “cruising” virtually is what these live threads are all about! I hope everyone feels they can chime in when they want! 😍

[JKCamara]

7 hours ago, OCSC Mike said:

 

Love the off-topic stuff in this thread.  Wife and I are originally from the Philly 'burbs.  FLY EAGLES FLY!

Speaking of off-topic and sports...Love to see another OCSC fan on here. My husband and I are season ticket holders. :) 
In other news, looking forward to the review because we will be on the Harmony in Sept!

[rsharp83]

More off-topic sports banter (I promise we will do stuff about Harmony)

Kathy throws her Boston sports championships at me all the time. (As she should) 

 

But I fire back with my college alma mater, the Northwest Missouri State University Bearcats, a Division 2 college. We own 6 National Championships in Football, including 2 different back to back championship seasons. Plus 10 national championship game appearances and 28 Conference championships.  In Men's Basketball we have won 2 National Championships in the last 3 years. Had the national player of the year in 2017. This years team started only 1 senior and 2 freshmen guards and went 38-0 to win it all. Our coach was National Coach of the Year and a whole bunch of other accolades. I have an abundance of national championship garb to choose from on this cruise! 

 

 

[OCSC Mike]

8 hours ago, JKCamara said:

Speaking of off-topic and sports...Love to see another OCSC fan on here. My husband and I are season ticket holders. 🙂

 

Vamos Orlando!  Hope you're not upset about missing out on Zlatan tonight.  He's as entertaining to watch as anyone but I'm OK with him being out.  🙂  Enjoy the game tonight!

 

We had a pretty good situation going until this season.  My wife is friends with two couples who had season tickets together and we were their designated fill-ins when anyone couldn't use their tix (they were kind enough to just give them to us for free).  We would get to see several games each season (and had to pass on others when we already had plans before offered tix to a game).  Unfortunately, they bailed and gave up their seats this season so it's TV for me (which I'm OK with as fun as being there for the energy is).

[rsharp83]

The 30 For 30 Cruise

We named it 30 for 30, because, 30 people for our 30^th anniversary. Lots of people always say they wanna go next time. But will they really go…this time they are really going. When the dust finally settled, we had 53 people booked and paid. (At one point we were over 60 people, but a few had to drop out). (STOP: Edit and update before we even publish this thing.) We stood at 53 people for months and months. Planned all the transport etc. for 53 people. Two weeks before we fly, I get a text from one of the cruisers. “Hey, my daughter has decided she could go with us, so we are trying to book a cabin for her. Hope this doesn’t throw anything off.” So now we were 54. Planning for 20 is one thing, planning for 50+ that is a whole different animal.

 

Lucky for me I had some help. Because as soon as we announced where we were going Kathy was interested. She already had a lot of other stuff on her plate for travel, selling a house, graduating a child, moving. But when she asked Jeff if he wanted to go, he was all in for it. So, our 30 for 30 also became a reunion cruise with a couple of our favorite people. And then the planning was on, all 20 months of it!

 

As part of that planning phase I did a bunch of Cruise News newsletters for the group. Since there are so many newbies in our clan I had to cover a lot of things that experienced cruisers already know. But It wasn't that long ago that I was the newbie who had tons of questions I needed answered. I am going to be linking some of those newsletters over the next few days. 

 

The newsletters can serve two purposes here. One is to provide information to new cruisers or those that have never sailed an Oasis Class ship. The other purpose here is to share some of my methodology for organizing large group cruises. 

 

I'll start with the most basic newsletter. This one is the invitation to the cruise. When we threw it out to our friends and family that we were going again on a group cruise there are always the basics that have to be covered. This newsletter is the opening -- the one to get people interested. 

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/tgsf5ue9uoatn23/Harmony Cruise News 1.pdf?dl=0

[rsharp83]

It was packing day. This is why we over pack. 

 

Amy: “I don’t think I’ll wear hats that much on this cruise.”

Me: “So you are still packing 4 hats?”

Amy: “Yes.”

[DISFANS3]

GO CHIEFS...

[OCSC Mike]

Yikes, I think we took less to Alaska and we were there for 18 days in "not sunshine."  Whatever works for you.  🙂

 

Disclaimer:  We did do laundry about halfway through.

 

Fly Eagles Fly!

Edited May 26, 2019 by OCSC Mike

[joe/jack]

Great Review 

[Ocean Boy]

9 hours ago, rsharp83 said:

It was packing day. This is why we over pack. 

 

Amy: “I don’t think I’ll wear hats that much on this cruise.”

Me: “So you are still packing 4 hats?”

Amy: “Yes.”

Apparently, F-G-B has not yet instructed you folks on the art of down sizing.

[Familygoboston]

4 hours ago, OCSC Mike said:

Yikes, I think we took less to Alaska and we were there for 18 days in "not sunshine."  Whatever works for you.  🙂

 

Disclaimer:  We did do laundry about halfway through.

 

Fly Eagles Fly!

 

Yes! This is how we do it! Carry less stuff, for instance, I have ONE hat, it’s cute, but it doesn’t take up much room! 🤣

 

30 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

Apparently, F-G-B has not yet instructed you folks on the art of down sizing.

 

🙄 Lord knows,  I have been trying! I started a “packing boot camp” on our FB page this weekend. Yesterday, I went LIVE on our FB page in the Container Store travel aisle. I was showing some of my favorites for keeping your travel bags small (I’m not a paid endorser, but I should work on that 🤔) 

The video is too long to share here, but “these area few of my favorite things” 🎼 

 

In Bag jewelry bags: compact with a nice structure to protect jewelry, little packets you can take with if you want to stash your jewelry on an excursion in your day bag. 

 

Rue Me 3 pockets and Luggage tags: the 3 pocket is great for toiletries or electronic chargers, headphones etc. The luggage tags work on a QR code so you can input your itinerary each trip and if lost, (and know one we know EVER  loses her bag 🤣) can be scanned by someone’s phone to find where you are and get your bag too you.  I only include my phone or email so no one can see my itinerary and my (empty) home address at the same time. 

 

 Goo Toobs: no need to bring the big bottles in your checked luggage, these goo toobs so the job and bring just enough. Plus for trips where you prefer to carry on, you can put this size in your quart bag 

 

These are just a few of the things I’ve shared as my faves!