Royal Newbies return from Harmony of the Seas Med cruise - Trip Report

[jjsparkles]

 

6 hours ago, kernow said:

Can't believe I've only just found this review, I've really enjoyed reading it, thank you.

 

Glad John recovered enough to be able to enjoy some of the holiday, he certainly looks a lot happier in the later photos. We've had a couple of waiters/head waiters like your one, think they are worried you will give them a bad score in the survey and go over the top which can be even more annoying.☺️

 

Thank you, glad you've enjoyed reading along. I know he was trying to please, desperate for a good survey or tip, but they had the opposite effect this time. 

 

10 minutes ago, BekkaW said:

Great review, thank you! We were partially on this with you, having boarded in Rome a few days before you boarded in Barcelona. We really enjoyed this cruise, although in future I would board in Barcelona rather than Rome. Things like the app didn’t work for us, and we weren’t successful on Royal Up even though some of the rooms we bid on then sat empty. Civitavecchia is also a lengthy and expensive transfer, compared to Barcelona. 
 

Sorry to hear John was unwell but I’m glad he recovered and was able to enjoy some of the time. 

 

Hope you had a lovely time too. That's odd that the app wouldn't work if you boarded in Rome, how annoying. John was feeling much by the end thanks. 

 

Sunday 24 October

 

Up early, we got ourselves together and waited for our number to be called. Makes so much sense to ask you to stay in the room and watch the TV channel instead of everyone jostling about. Our number was called right on time at 07:15 and off we went.

 

 

When we reached deck 5 it was practically empty. We waved goodbye and made our way out to collect our luggage. Our bags arrived a few minutes after us and I was so surprised to just walk out of the terminal. I’d expected to have to show our passports or something.

 

We jumped into one of the many taxis waiting outside and took the short drive to our hotel, the same we had stayed in before. 

 

As we checked in, it was only 07:30, and I suddenly realised that if they didn’t have a room ready we’d be wandering Barcelona in the pitch black on a Sunday morning…..Thankfully they did have a room available for us so we relaxed for a few hours with some tea/coffee.

 

It turned into a beautiful day. We’d spotted that there was a stop for the hop on/off bus outside the hotel, so made our way to the bus stop and didn’t wait long for a bus on the orange route.

 

Some pics along the way 

 

 

Our boys would have loved to visit here

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a lovely day. The buildings in Barcelona are beautiful and reminded me a lot of Paris. 

 

 

 

 

 

We stopped to grab some lunch and change routes at a bus stop crossover and hopped on the green route, which headed off towards the beach. 

 

 

 

 

We intended to do the full loop but once we seen a taste of the beach we decided just to get off there and enjoyed a stroll along the sand. It was really busy but absolutely beautiful. You get everything in Barcelona, a traditional beach feel with loads of city/cultural stuff too – a perfect location. We hadn't been near any sand the whole holiday and you can't go on a cruise and not go to the beach!

 

 

 

 

We walked from here back to the hotel and had another look on the rooftop of the hotel.

There was a a smaller ship right beside the hotel, the Silver Shadow I think……it looks like a toy ship compared to what we had just been on but after a quick google it looks like it’s a very expensive ship to travel on with just over 300 guest capacity.

 

 

The Harmony was still in dock in the distance

 

 

After tidying up a bit in the room and getting our luggage organised for our flight in the morning, we had intended to go back out for dinner. I’m afraid to say we were pretty tired by this point and ended up with room service as we had another early start in the morning to get home. Again, have to say this hotel was lovely and we would stay here again. Hopefully there will be a next time!

 

Monday 25 October

 

Up early after a very good night’s sleep  we checked out and hopped into a taxi. There is a taxi rank right outside the hotel. Barcelona airport is big, but we checked in quickly and found our way to a lovely bakery beside our boarding gate to enjoy a wee latte before take off. We picked up some duty free perfume/aftershave for the kids and I got a Barcelona magnet.

 

Our flight took off on time, a beautiful view from the plane

 

 

 

We landed in a very sunny (but cold) Manchester a couple of hours later. We got through passport control quickly, nobody looked at our passenger locator forms, and were soon on the road to drive home.  The blue skies disappeared not long after we hit the M74 – welcome back to Scotland 😄

 

It took us longer than normal to get home – hit some heavy rain just outside Glasgow. I was welcomed home to this 🥰

 

 

Today was my birthday 🎂 and the kids were waiting on us to hear all about our travels 😍

 

 **A wee real life update – a few days after we arrived home we both were emailed/text by NHS test and trace advising we’d been identified as close contacts with someone who tested positive for covid. We booked a test for a couple of hours later and thankfully got our negative results the following day. I think this must have come from the passenger locator form in the UK because I’d had to use a different email address to register for this. Therefore I’m guessing it was someone on the plane with us**

 

Our thoughts on Royal

The ship is absolutely stunning. The décor is beautiful, very muted and much more to our taste. There is so much to do but none of it is in your face. For example we're not into the casino and we didn't even see it, whereas on Carnival we had to walk though the casino daily to get where we wanted to go. Everywhere seemed to be like it's own destination which we really liked. It meant you experienced only what you wanted to.

 

We liked all the subtle design details too. Little things like having a foot stool with your chair on the balcony make a surprisingly big difference to comfort. We loved our room. We had a junior suite, but from what I’ve read it’s really just a big balcony room. No other perks other than the dressing gowns, kettle, coffee maker.  I’d read we could eat in Costal Kitchen for dinner but the cruise compass and the APP both said this was for Grand Suites and above only – so we didn’t even try. I loved the large walk in wardrobe and the bathroom. The balcony was very spacious and generally it was a lovely room.

 

Guest services

We were actually happy overall with how they handled things. I’m sure they’re used to this type of thing all the time. They offered free room service, free internet and free on-demand movies. As previously said, they also refunded our excursion to Pisa. We already had the internet package but they confirmed a second package would be free for John. This actually turned out useful because I could keep the ipad on and also use my own phone to contact the kids etc.

 

The way it worked out, you’d see all the charges on the account for movies, internet etc and then when the isolation period was over, guest services would refund it all. Just had to make sure anything we ordered using the app/tv was all on John’s account.

 

We loved that there was no loud cruise director! We hardly heard the cruise director on this cruise and when we did it was usually an informative announcement or a short message about what shows were on.

 

Solarium – loved this area, very big and easy to find somewhere to sit and relax. Really wish we'd tried the Bistro earlier in the trip.

 

Refreshment package – granted we didn’t get our monies worth out of this due to John’s health, but on balance I’m glad we had it. On Carnival there is only the option for soda package or full drinks package. Neither of us are drinkers so the refreshment package was ideal.

 

Surf and Stream Internet package – we had pre-purchased this before leaving and it worked really well. We had just one device package and shared it between us. We were able to watch Netflix on our ipad perfectly and having spent so much time in the room I’m so glad we decided to bring the ipad with us.

 

Food

So, maybe an unpopular opinion and possibly just covid related, but with windjammer not open for dinner we soon realised that unless you wanted to go to a speciality restaurant, there wasn’t much choice for dinner. We didn’t want a 3 course meal each night, but other than the main dining room, Sorrento’s or the Solarium Bistro were the only options. The Park Café closed at 6pm too.

As said previously it was exhausting dealing with our head waiter, which was actually a shame because our actual waiters were lovely. The food in the main dining room was nice, nothing wrong with it but on some nights the menu was not to our taste but we went anyway because there was nowhere else to go. I’d maybe look at the speciality restaurants if we were to go again. The waiter also put us off even attempting to try the sea day daytime offerings. This was something we'd really enjoyed on Carnival. 

 

TV’s – HDMI slot completely inaccessible. This is a personal annoyance for me. I completely understand their thinking – that with nothing to ‘entertain’ you in the room, you’ll either purchase the tv movies or leave the room and do something else. They spend a fortune on different entertainment so I understand this thinking. However, they’re missing the point on this one. It’s about choice and flexibility. We don’t go on holiday to watch tv, but if you find yourself in your room for whatever reason like we did, then there should be an option to plug in your own device, whether it be to watch tv or play games as I know some like to do. Even if John hadn’t been ill, we still like to end the evening with a couple of episodes of something or a movie before we go to sleep. They actively sell the surf and stream internet package by telling you that you can stream movies – not many want to watch a movie on a phone so what do they think you’re going to watch it on?  Many families with young kids will find themselves back in their rooms earlier than they’d ideally like too. To me it’s all about choice. I bring my own cables, I’m not going to wreck the tv by plugging it in. I don’t need you to provide multiple channels, just the hardware and I’ll sort out the rest. It’s so common now that even my own mum, who’s in her 70’s said to me ‘were you able to get Netflix there’?  Given that they’ve gone to the effort of providing an up to date TV in every room, it almost seems like they don’t understand how people watch tv nowadays. Anyway, grumble over, lol – it really wasn’t a deal breaker just an annoying wee thing that could easily have made our experience better.

 

Some tips from a couple of newbies…..

 

Booking

As I said at the start, I only found the oceanview balcony guarantee by accident, playing around with the website. It was in the ‘choose your own room’ section, but technically you can’t as it’s a guarantee. So glad I found this. Also with Royal up, as complete newbies I didn’t really know if this would work. The email gave the minimum price and when I clicked onto the link the slider was much higher than the minimum. I simply moved it right back down to the minimum and submitted. We got it – again probably something to do with such limited capacity but it was worth a try and it worked.

 

Refreshment package – despite the number of threads, info on the internet about this, I really struggled to find a straight answer to a vital (for me) question. Do you need to carry the free cup around with you everywhere to get a soft drink? The answer, no, you don’t. The only time you need it is if you want to use the Coca-Cola Freestyle machine. You can get cans of coke and other soft drinks from the various bars all over the ship. We were only given draft coke in the Solarium bar – everywhere else provided cans. Some gave you the can, some poured some of the can into a glass. It was always a fresh can too, probably because it so quiet everywhere.

Coffee – The free tea (including Tetleys!!)/coffee/juice’s/water is available in a few locations, Café promenade, Park Café, Solarium Bistro, Windjammer, probably elsewhere that I don’t know about, maybe Vitality? We didn’t go to the vitality so I can’t be sure, but I don’t think they had speciality coffee.

Speciality coffee, latte’s/cappuccinos etc were only available in Café Promenade. I have to say this was a little bit annoying. I expected to be able to get a latte from Park Café too but unfortunately not. I liked the coffee’s here but felt their cold options were limited – only 3 that I recall

If you like tea/coffee in your room and you have a kettle, pick up one of the milk cartons beside the cereal at breakfast to keep in your room fridge, or add one to your breakfast room service delivery. The fridge kept our water/milk etc very, very cold.

Water – I wanted to be able to pick up bottles of water during the day, but they were cans – not quite as easy to deal with. It tasted fine though. Sometimes we were given glasses of ice water instead by bar tenders.

Mocktails – I loved the pina coladas and the bar tenders were very friendly and happy to offer suggestions to try

 

Surf and Steam – we pre-purchased this and I’m glad we did. It was much more expensive onboard. We got 1 device and just swapped it between us. Very easy to do and it worked well enough for us to watch movies etc.

 

 

Cash account

This might only be beneficial to UK cruisers. I really, really don’t want to start a debate here because I’ve read tons of threads about people having cash accounts, but do want to share our experience in case it helps someone. We have previously set up cash accounts because our credit card is rubbish, we hardly use it, and the exchange rate is not good at all. On our Carnival cruises we would purchase onboard credit before travelling using our Revolut card, which we can pay in dollars. We’ve always spent what we put in but I know you can cash out in the casino if there was anything left over so it was never a worry to us. Any dollars we had left we would usually give to our son.

 

This time, we needed dollars and euros. I had some of each loaded on our Revolut card, but didn’t want to provide this card number to pay the balance on our cruise because it acts like a debit card and gets held up on charges. We also brought some dollars in cash. So, we set up a cash account. When we did this we were asked if we wanted to put down a deposit and duly did. Again, our experience on Carnival is that you HAD to put down cash. With Royal you don’t. You can simply pay the balance at the end. I didn’t realise this before we went. If I had, then I would not have went to the bother of getting cash. I would simply have paid using my Revolut card, in dollars, at the end of the cruise.

 

Show reservations

We noticed that shortly after boarding lots of shows were already flagged as ‘sold out’. From what I understand, you used to be able to book the shows prior to boarding. Since covid, this has changed and you need to connect to the ship wifi before you can book.  I know this sounds obvious, but just keep on checking, lol. I thought we’d missed out on seeing Grease but managed to get a reservation for the last day by just rechecking the app periodically throughout the week. The app is also great for highlighting the things you think you might be interested in. I found it really easy to use.

 

Muster drill

Just do this as soon as you board. You’ll get a pop up or telling you to do it. You simply watch a video or two and then head to the muster station advised to get your seapass card scanned. We both had to watch the videos so make sure you download the app on everyone’s device (unless there is some family/group option I’m not aware of)

 

Be nice to the crew

Sounds obvious? Some people are so rude and I know through my son speaking to his friends that conditions are not great for some of the crew. Remember, they don’t make the rules so if you’re asked to put your mask on, just do it. It’s not a big deal.

 

Overall we had a lovely time despite John being ill at the start. The ports were lovely and I’d love to explore again without the need to be on an excursion. But I’m still glad we did them. I also thought they were pretty good value for money.

 

Having booked this last minute and got a very, very good deal I feel very lucky to have been able to experience this beautiful ship. I doubt we’ll ever have an emptier ship at such a low price again. The ship is very well designed and despite it being so big it never felt overwhelming. In fact we found our way around quite easily and were surprised by how quiet everywhere was – given there were about 3K passengers on board. I don’t think there was ever more than 1 person in front of us for anything.

 

I’d like to try a different itinerary and of course another ship at some point, but realise we’ve probably been completely spoiled to have a junior suite on such a beautiful ship as our first Royal experience. Thank you to everyone who posts on this forum – the threads were really useful to this first time Royal cruiser 😊

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Itchy&Scratchy]

9 hours ago, jjsparkles said:

 

 

 

These chairs are surprising comfortable, once you get yourself up there, lol.

Looks nice - do you remember which deck this was on?

 

Do you think Grease would be age appropriate for a 10 yo?

We once watched a musical on NCI - about Elvis and other singers, and there were a lot of sexual innuendos, which, thankfully, went right over our then 7 yo's head. But he did express his displeasure at seeing actors smoke on stage.

[jjsparkles]

16 minutes ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

Looks nice - do you remember which deck this was on?

 

Do you think Grease would be age appropriate for a 10 yo?

We once watched a musical on NCI - about Elvis and other singers, and there were a lot of sexual innuendos, which, thankfully, went right over our then 7 yo's head. But he did express his displeasure at seeing actors smoke on stage.

 

Yes this was right at the back of the ship as high up as you can go there. The flow riders were just behind us.

 

There is a parental advisory for Grease, saying adult themes or something along those lines. There is a lot of innuendo and they do use stronger language than in the movie, also smoking etc. Very young kids wouldn't understand but older kids would. Very subjective but I don't think I'd take kids to it having now seen it. 

[poocher]

37 minutes ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

Looks nice - do you remember which deck this was on?

 

Do you think Grease would be age appropriate for a 10 yo?

We once watched a musical on NCI - about Elvis and other singers, and there were a lot of sexual innuendos, which, thankfully, went right over our then 7 yo's head. But he did express his displeasure at seeing actors smoke on stage.

Basic story line of Grease (understanding that I very much dislike the show) is a nice girl turning into a slut to keep a boy.  The leader of the sluts singing about putting out and ends the show by proclaiming her need to go to the drug store because, thank goodness she got her period.  Don’t get me started on the innuendo in Greased Lightning.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

57 minutes ago, poocher said:

Basic story line of Grease (understanding that I very much dislike the show) is a nice girl turning into a slut to keep a boy.

well, thank goodness, my DH doesn't really want to see it, so I can leave DS with him. I've seen the movie, but it's been a while, and I've only seen the singing and dancing scenes since then.

We'll try again next year with Mamma Mia. 🙂

Edited November 12, 2021 by Itchy&Scratchy

[Merion_Mom]

@jjsparkles

 

Your posts and photos are just extraordinary!  You have done a marvelous job of telling us everything and anything anyone would want to know about your cruise!

 

Thank you so much!

[bigeck]

15 hours ago, jjsparkles said:

 

Yes this was right at the back of the ship as high up as you can go there. The flow riders were just behind us.

 

There is a parental advisory for Grease, saying adult themes or something along those lines. There is a lot of innuendo and they do use stronger language than in the movie, also smoking etc. Very young kids wouldn't understand but older kids would. Very subjective but I don't think I'd take kids to it having now seen it. 

Great review. Where in Scotland are you from

[LizikinsLivesToCruise]

15 hours ago, Merion_Mom said:

@jjsparkles

 

Your posts and photos are just extraordinary!  You have done a marvelous job of telling us everything and anything anyone would want to know about your cruise!

 

Thank you so much!

 

I totally agree. I am going to have withdrawal symptoms now that it is over.

[CaroleC]

Fabulous review, really enjoyed reading it all and looking at the pics. Thank you so much for the time you put into it.

 

 

Edited November 13, 2021 by CaroleC

[jjsparkles]

17 hours ago, Merion_Mom said:

@jjsparkles

 

Your posts and photos are just extraordinary!  You have done a marvelous job of telling us everything and anything anyone would want to know about your cruise!

 

Thank you so much!

Thank you, glad you enjoyed reading along 🙂

 

9 hours ago, bigeck said:

Great review. Where in Scotland are you from

Thanks. We’re west of Glasgow 

 

2 hours ago, LizikinsLivesToCruise said:

 

I totally agree. I am going to have withdrawal symptoms now that it is over.

Ha, ha 😂 I suppose I’ll need to book another cruise 😃

 

20 minutes ago, CaroleC said:

Fabulous review, really enjoyed reading it all and looking at the pics. Thank you so much for the time you put into it.

 

 

Thanks for reading, glad you enjoyed it 🙂

[Luckynana]

Great review!  Thank you for taking us along.  Many of your pictures brought back memories of our Mediterranean cruises.  It was a shame that your husband was so ill for the beginning of your trip;  thankfully he bounced back after the first few days.  As (I think it was Jimbo) suggested, you should look into your Travel Insurance with regard to the beginning of your cruise.  You'll just need some documentation from the doctor's office on the ship.  

[Preziosa]

We were on the Cruise when you did leave your Cruise. So it was a flash back for me. We were not sick so We had a fantastic Cruise. Thank you for the review.

[FlatFooted Freda]

On 11/6/2021 at 5:28 AM, live2cruise2011 said:

In dollars that would be just under $1850 for us Americans great start to the review 

I vote great price for a Junior Suite.

[kmcg8r]

Thank you! We board Harmony very soon and reading this (though we are in the Caribbean vs. Europe!) was so helpful. 
 

I don’t know how to tag it in the reply, but you had a photo where you both were standing on a clear deck that looked down below. Probably in the front or back of the ship. Where was this? You could see the ocean beneath you I think?

 

Agree with the others - loved your writing and commentary and so sorry your husband was sick for a portion of it! 

[Preziosa]

It s on the top op the bridge. acces through the Solarium

[jjsparkles]

On 11/13/2021 at 10:25 PM, Luckynana said:

Great review!  Thank you for taking us along.  Many of your pictures brought back memories of our Mediterranean cruises.  It was a shame that your husband was so ill for the beginning of your trip;  thankfully he bounced back after the first few days.  As (I think it was Jimbo) suggested, you should look into your Travel Insurance with regard to the beginning of your cruise.  You'll just need some documentation from the doctor's office on the ship.  

 

Thanks for reading along. I’ve checked the insurance and no clause for this, thanks 🙂
 

 

On 11/14/2021 at 2:43 PM, Preziosa said:

We were on the Cruise when you did leave your Cruise. So it was a flash back for me. We were not sick so We had a fantastic Cruise. Thank you for the review.

Hope you had a lovely time. Thanks for reading 🙂

 

On 11/14/2021 at 6:30 PM, FlatFooted Freda said:

I vote great price for a Junior Suite.

 

Thanks, That’s good to hear. I thought we got a good deal 👍

 

On 11/16/2021 at 2:32 AM, kmcg8r said:

Thank you! We board Harmony very soon and reading this (though we are in the Caribbean vs. Europe!) was so helpful. 
 

I don’t know how to tag it in the reply, but you had a photo where you both were standing on a clear deck that looked down below. Probably in the front or back of the ship. Where was this? You could see the ocean beneath you I think?

 

Agree with the others - loved your writing and commentary and so sorry your husband was sick for a portion of it! 

Oh, we’d love to be on this ship in the Caribbean, hope you have a lovely time. The pic was in the Solarium at the front, portside 🙂  We got some amazing photos from there daytime and evening. It’s a lovely spot 🙂