Harmony of the Seas

[Castle25]

On 10/10/2021 at 9:56 AM, FionaMG said:

 

If you want to see them, make booking your shows a priority once you get on board. There were only 3 performances of Grease on our sailing so we didn't get to see it as we could not secure bookings for the only one that suited us.

This is the problem for people boarding in Barcelona, that people who boarded in Rome could have taken all of the places for the evening shows for the first 2 or 3 nights for the BCN people......seems a bit unfair

Edited October 14, 2021 by Castle25

[gumshoe958]

2 minutes ago, Castle25 said:

This is the problem for people boarding in Barcelona, that people who boarded in Rome could have taken all of the places for the evening shows for the first 2 or 3 nights for the BCN people......seems a bit unfair

Yes, but for the rest of the cruise they’ll have an advantage over the next group of Rome boarders. So it sort of evens out in the end.

[Castle25]

2 hours ago, gumshoe958 said:

Yes, but for the rest of the cruise they’ll have an advantage over the next group of Rome boarders. So it sort of evens out in the end.

not if the 2 evening show of GREASE are full before you board and you cannot go to the afternoon show......

[RoamingRetirees]

6 hours ago, Preziosa said:

Is it possible to change GTY balcony cabin. We are Very far behind on deck 9 and there a so many free cabins closer to the middle.....

We have in the past, as long as it is in the same category. However, these days they don't necessarily use every cabin. It's worth a try.

[Brucemcdou]

8 hours ago, Preziosa said:

Is it possible to change GTY balcony cabin. We are Very far behind on deck 9 and there a so many free cabins closer to the middle.....

We've done that several times in the past - just phone in and have the website open in front of you and request a specific cabin.  Must be the same category cabin, so that might prevent you from moving more toward the middle if those are a different category balcony?  

[darthvadrouw]

7 hours ago, Castle25 said:

This is the problem for people boarding in Barcelona, that people who boarded in Rome could have taken all of the places for the evening shows for the first 2 or 3 nights for the BCN people......seems a bit unfair

I mentionned this point to Michele the cruise director on my September cruise, he told me that this isn't actually the case. They keep asside places for the BCN passengers and only release them when the ship is in Barcelona.

[hummy0605]

On 10/8/2021 at 4:54 PM, danilija said:

Just arrived barcelona! Going on board this sunday 🙂 you who have already been on the cruise, how did you get yourself to the port? Any chance to get by metro or is taxi easiest?

Apologies not been on boards for a week or so. We stayed at barcelona universal on diagonal and got a taxi to port - 4 of us with a case each and it was 24 euros

Edited October 14, 2021 by hummy0605

[hummy0605]

On 10/10/2021 at 9:56 AM, FionaMG said:

Those only showed up on the day of departure and could only be booked by connecting to the ship's wifi, which could only be done when you were on board.

There was a free Royal-provided wifi service in the terminal but it was a different one to the one onboard.

If you want to see them, make booking your shows a priority once you get on board. There were only 3 performances of Grease on our sailing so we didn't get to see it as we could not secure bookings for the only one that suited us.

You can also ring guest services to see if they hsve any tickets. The aqua show was full when we tried to book but they told us they were releasing more tickets later in the week. We then managed to get 3 tickets but needed 4. There are always no shows so we managed to get a 4th space

[hummy0605]

On 10/11/2021 at 1:52 PM, Gracie115 said:

For those on board now or in the last month ...  was there a piano bar player in the schooner bar as there always was before Covid?  

Yes she is amazing. She's called Vasi and we loved her

[hummy0605]

On 10/12/2021 at 11:41 AM, turboless said:

How busy is Barcelona Airport and how long did it take people from touch down to getting out / to the port? 

 

We touch down 11.30am, earliest flight we could find and will then make our way straight to the port. Slightly worried with all the extra checking of vaccinating, tests, locator forms and it being half term 24th Oct, that we might get stuck in queues. 

 

Also I'm assuming getting a taxi is a pretty quick and easy process. 

Probably took us about an hour from landing to getting through passport control with them chrcking forms. Our luggage was on the carousel waiting then we had to go to another desk to show them our locater form again. We got in a taxi straight away and luckily our hotel let us do early check in about 11am ish

[s_kuegeler]

On 10/14/2021 at 7:04 AM, Preziosa said:

Is it possible to change GTY balcony cabin. We are Very far behind on deck 9 and there a so many free cabins closer to the middle.....

Yes. We checked in yesterday and tried to change the cabins, because we didn‘t have cabins next to each other. They told us to go to guest service and asked there. We did that and we were told that they have to wait till the end of embarkation. In the end they didn‘t have cabins next to each other in the categorie we booked, but we upgraded to two boardwalk balcony cabins for 100€ per Person.

[sgmn]

1 hour ago, s_kuegeler said:

Yes. We checked in yesterday and tried to change the cabins, because we didn‘t have cabins next to each other. They told us to go to guest service and asked there. We did that and we were told that they have to wait till the end of embarkation. In the end they didn‘t have cabins next to each other in the categorie we booked, but we upgraded to two boardwalk balcony cabins for 100€ per Person.

Hope you have a lovely cruise. Come back and tell us how it went 

[Itchy&Scratchy]

does Solarium Bistro allow unvaxxed kids in it for dinner?

[FionaMG]

1 hour ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

does Solarium Bistro allow unvaxxed kids in it for dinner?

There were no vaxxed/unvaxxed distinctions on board when I cruised last month so unless something has changed in the meantime the answer would be yes. That may change, of course, when the ship relocates to the US at the end of the month. As far as I am aware, absolutely everyone sailing on the TA must be vaxxed, so the issue would not arise on that sailing.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

3 minutes ago, FionaMG said:

There were no vaxxed/unvaxxed distinctions on board when I cruised last month so unless something has changed in the meantime the answer would be yes. That may change, of course, when the ship relocates to the US at the end of the month. As far as I am aware, absolutely everyone sailing on the TA must be vaxxed, so the issue would not arise on that sailing.

thanks. We are sailing in November, after HOTS arrives in the US... So, the protocols aren't exactly known, and neither are they spelled out on the RCI website.

 

So far, the cruise planner allowed me to make MTD reservations for us WITH the unvaxxed kiddo, but I've read on CC and on RCI website that MTD is not available to families with unvaxxed kids. I don't know if I should go ahead and switch to early dining (we really don't want to eat at 5:30, but we'll miss the shows if we eat at 8 ), or wait to see whether the protocols will change for our November sailing. Alternatively, if the Solarium bistro allows unvaxxed kids in it - we could book a night or two in it. However, somewhere on the RCI website I read that unvaxxed people are only welcome to use specialty restaurants at 5:30 pm, which defeats the purpose of us opting for Solarium Bistro due to timing.

[FionaMG]

11 minutes ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

So far, the cruise planner allowed me to make MTD reservations for us WITH the unvaxxed kiddo, but I've read on CC and on RCI website that MTD is not available to families with unvaxxed kids.

 

If it's letting you make the reservations, I'd just hang on to them for the time being until more is known about what the CDC has up its sleeve for November after their current restrictions expire. It's anyone's guess as to how that will impact cruising in the US.

We ate one dinner in the Solarium Bistro on our cruise and enjoyed it. The food was very good. I wanted to try all the desserts but managed to restrain myself .

I hope it works out for you.

[AshleyDillo]

45 minutes ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

We are sailing in November, after HOTS arrives in the US... So, the protocols aren't exactly known, and neither are they spelled out on the RCI website.

And of course you can't even judge by the other Oasis class ships as Allure and Symphony will allow them but Oasis has it as vaccinated only.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

20 minutes ago, AshleyDillo said:

And of course you can't even judge by the other Oasis class ships as Allure and Symphony will allow them but Oasis has it as vaccinated only.

I think I might make some Solarium Bistro dinner reservations as well, just in case. I can always cancel them when I get onboard or when the protocols are announced beforehand.

[turboless]

Has anyone from the UK filled in the UK locator form prior to leaving the UK? 

 

It states

 

If you’re travelling on a cruise that lasts 19 days or less, submit the form in the 48 hours before boarding. If your cruise is longer, you can submit the form while travelling.

 

However I've heard if you enter the correct day you are returning to the UK or tells you that you can only fill it in 48 hours before returning to the UK. Did anyone who's filled it in enter the UK return date as the boarding date and have any issues? 

[turboless]

Delete

Edited October 17, 2021 by turboless

[hummy0605]

On 10/17/2021 at 2:03 PM, turboless said:

Has anyone from the UK filled in the UK locator form prior to leaving the UK? 

 

It states

 

If you’re travelling on a cruise that lasts 19 days or less, submit the form in the 48 hours before boarding. If your cruise is longer, you can submit the form while travelling.

 

However I've heard if you enter the correct day you are returning to the UK or tells you that you can only fill it in 48 hours before returning to the UK. Did anyone who's filled it in enter the UK return date as the boarding date and have any issues? 

We filled ours in 24 hours before we flew back to uk. They moved oir flight from sunday night to monday morning so we booked a hotel in barcelona when we got off ship and filled the uk locater form in then. We struggled uploading our vaccination certificates so if you have a paper copy just tick the box to say you will show a physical copy at the airport

[turboless]

1 minute ago, hummy0605 said:

We filled ours in 24 hours before we flew back to uk. They moved oir flight from sunday night to monday morning so we booked a hotel in barcelona when we got off ship and filled the uk locater form in then. We struggled uploading our vaccination certificates so if you have a paper copy just tick the box to say you will show a physical copy at the airport

Thanks, taking paper copies of everything, just thought it would be nice to fill it in before we go and have it all done and not have to worry about doing it on my phone as we fly home the day we dock. 

 

The site says we should be able to fill it in before we go, just people on FB for our cruise can't find a way of doing it

[Brucemcdou]

Random question for those currently on HOTS or on recent cruises: are they running a full schedule of fitness classes in the gym?  I understand from other posts that the gym still requires masks and also requires reservations, which would seem to make any normal classes (spinning, yoga, pilates, etc.) difficult but wanted to ask.  

 

I know there's always the running track but I'm more of a gym-class guy.  

[FionaMG]

3 minutes ago, Brucemcdou said:

Random question for those currently on HOTS or on recent cruises: are they running a full schedule of fitness classes in the gym?  I understand from other posts that the gym still requires masks and also requires reservations, which would seem to make any normal classes (spinning, yoga, pilates, etc.) difficult but wanted to ask.  

 

I know there's always the running track but I'm more of a gym-class guy.  

 

There were definitely a few classes scheduled but not as many as usual and I don't know if they actually took place. Some were scheduled for the fitness centre and others for the sports court. I think the latter were intended more as fun fitness sessions as opposed to "proper" training.

 

Masks were NOT required in the gym nor were reservations. That said, when I was on (26 September sailing) the gym was operating slightly reduced hours, from 7 am to 7 pm, so you'll want to check that in the Cruise Planner if you tend to train earlier or later. I got caught out the first evening and had to do my session on the running track instead.

 

Every other cardio machine had a notice on it saying it was out of service for physical distancing but I did not see any such restrictions on the weight training machines. The few people I saw using the gym at the same time as me were always very scrupulous at wiping the equipment down after use.

 

The water fountains were not in use, so take a bottle of water or whatever you like to drink when training along with you. Powerade is available from the Vitality Café at the entrance to the gym.

 

Bear in mind that Harmony is still in Europe so if your sailing is out of the US the rules may change once she arrives Stateside.

[Biker19]

13 minutes ago, Brucemcdou said:

are they running a full schedule of fitness classes in the gym?

Depends on your definition of full - there are some classes. No mask required in the gym, it's a vax only venue.