Harmony of the Seas Review April 28, 2024 Sailing

[cruiser0216]

Finally found the time to write a review! We had an incredible time! Let me know if you have any questions.

 

We are a couple in our 30s that left our kids are home. We have most recently cruised Carnival with children the past few years and hadn't cruised just us since before kids on an older RCCL ship at the time.

 

Overall review:

FANTASTIC trip. Everything was wonderful, ship incredible, talent Amazing, excursions amazing!

We drove down from North Dallas the night before and stayed at Staybridge Suites in Clear Lake. We loved that they provided a bag of microwave popcorn! :) Breakfast was ok, met our expectations.

 

Boarding/Embarking:

We boarded with our boarding group at 11:30 and it was seamless and quick - probably 20 minutes from start to finish. We then ate at Park Cafe for lunch and toured the ship. It started raining on us in Galveston, but was short lived and did not affect our sail away time. We watched sail away from the cantilevered hot tub near the Solarium.

 

Entertainment:

TOP NOTCH. The talent on this ship is incredible. Wonderful singers, dancers, actors, musicians; and then Jaw-dropping other talents like aerialist, tight rope stunt men, etc. Don't miss the headliner shows like Columbus (Incredible!!), the Fine Line Aqua Show, the "Hideaway Heist" aqua show, and the ice show 1886 (or some other year)! While the talent was incredible in Grease, it was too crude for us. :/

The production value is excellent. They weave current and older songs into each production and the special effects are so cool. My favorite being the Ice Rink's "screen" capability.

While we had reservations for each, it was possible to get in on standby and still get good seats for all but the Aqua Show. We had reservations for the Fine Line Aqua Show for the 2nd night, but it was cancelled due to wind/waves. Our reservations were automatically switched to the new night of Roatan. A friend had reservations for the 3rd night and they were able to do the show with some modifications - No high dives or tight rope walking - but then went back to watch from the back on another night and was glad they did. That venue at night is so cool!

 

Food:

We ate exclusively at "included" restaurants. We most enjoyed the MDR and the pizza place. The food quality at MDR wasn't fantastic, but it was good enough. We also found something we enjoyed each time in the Windjammer, however, seats were MUCH harder to find. Also, the location of the windjammer is hard to access.

 

Ship amenities:

The Ultimate Abyss was fun and we never waited more than 10-15 minutes for it.

Flowrider was great also. They were very helpful at teaching me how to do it and each turn was generous.

I only did 1 of the water slides and it was fun, but the lines were long.

Pools were full.

 

Service:

Excellent! One of my favorite aspects of this is the bar service cart at the pool. Genius!!! They mostly had beers over ice, but it was nice and cold with no wait. Thumbs up!

 

Excursions:

We did excursions exclusively outside of RCCL.

Roatan - 3 stop snorkel boat tour with Roatan Getaway Tours. Highly recommend!

Costa Maya - Native Choice's "Blue Lagoon Tour" to Bacalar 7 color lagoon. Incredible! That lagoon is like something out of Heaven. They were insistent on getting us back in time. It was about a 50 minute ride in a very nice shuttle.

Cozumel - private jeep tour with Cozumel Cruise Tours. We had Uncle Ramon and his old burnt orange jeep. He was great to us and we loved exploring the island and Punta Sur. He took us to Virgin Beach Club there and it was beautiful! They had wifi and while the drinks and food were a little expensive, we really enjoyed our time there. He also took us to a souvenir shop that was fairly priced.

Any questions? I'd love to answer them.

[smokeybandit]

Native Choice runs quite a good ship down there in Costa Maya.

[joepeka]

All good to hear. There have been quite a few pans of the "Columbus" show on this site, glad you found it entertaining. We will be on Harmony next month, looking forward to it as a 50th anniversary family cruise.

Edited May 12 by joepeka

[S.A.M.J.R.]

Great to hear!  We're boarding in just over two months.  

 

I doubt it, but are  you allowed to take GoPro cameras on the slides?  Maybe strapped down? 

[Nebr.cruiser]

3 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

Native Choice runs quite a good ship down there in Costa Maya.

We've used them twice.  Both tours were very good.

[BK79]

I was on the April 14-21 sailing. My experience was also amazing. Food was pretty good, drink service was great and yes the shows were really fun.

[dragontrainer]

It's exciting to hear a positive review of the ship; we'll be on in a few months with our kids.

 

Did you notice if they had shuffleboard anywhere on the ship (maybe around the sports deck?)  I have a son that really enjoyed shuffleboard on our last cruise (Symphony) but I can't find a definitive answer of whether it exists on Harmony.  If it does, it seems it's not in a similar spot to other Oasis ships.

 

Thanks!

[PhillyFan33579]

Enjoyed your review and glad you had a good time. I unfortunately doubt I will ever cruise on Harmony again due to no pool in the Solarium. That is a show stopper in my book, although I realize this isn’t an issue for a lot of cruisers. 

[cruiser0216]

21 hours ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

Enjoyed your review and glad you had a good time. I unfortunately doubt I will ever cruise on Harmony again due to no pool in the Solarium. That is a show stopper in my book, although I realize this isn’t an issue for a lot of cruisers. 

Your opinion is a common one. I would have preferred one in the Solarium also. 

[cruiser0216]

On 5/13/2024 at 7:40 AM, dragontrainer said:

It's exciting to hear a positive review of the ship; we'll be on in a few months with our kids.

 

Did you notice if they had shuffleboard anywhere on the ship (maybe around the sports deck?)  I have a son that really enjoyed shuffleboard on our last cruise (Symphony) but I can't find a definitive answer of whether it exists on Harmony.  If it does, it seems it's not in a similar spot to other Oasis ships.

 

Thanks!

Oh shoot, no, I didn't notice if they had shuffle board. I remember basketball courts with pickleball lines, and table tennis (within some walls to block the wind, which I thought was so smart!) but I don't remember shuffleboard. Sorry! 

[cruiser0216]

On 5/11/2024 at 7:13 PM, joepeka said:

All good to hear. There have been quite a few pans of the "Columbus" show on this site, glad you found it entertaining. We will be on Harmony next month, looking forward to it as a 50th anniversary family cruise.

It was incredible! The whole cast, but especially the two leads, were incredible singers. Unfortunately, it was the male lead's last time as he was moving on to play the cowardly lion in Icon's "Wizard of Oz" . There were several other entertainers in the audience for his last show and the CD honored him well. Lots of cheers and crying. I could tell they are each other's biggest fans. Very heartwarming! 

[cruiser0216]

On 5/11/2024 at 7:51 PM, S.A.M.J.R. said:

Great to hear!  We're boarding in just over two months.  

 

I doubt it, but are  you allowed to take GoPro cameras on the slides?  Maybe strapped down? 

You know, I don't know, but I think you may able to because how else would YouTube videos get that video of each slide? They did make me hold my shoes and sunglasses in my hand, so maybe if the gopro is held? 

[cruiser0216]

On 5/11/2024 at 6:59 PM, smokeybandit said:

Native Choice runs quite a good ship down there in Costa Maya.

We would definitely use them again! I noticed that while we were walking out of the port to get to the tour operators, you could ask any other tour operator how to find your operator and they were all gracious to point you in the right direction (at all 3 stops). Tourism is clearly very important to them and we felt very safe. I heard good things about the Mayan food + 7 Colors Lagoon tour too. 

[George C]

On 5/11/2024 at 7:13 PM, joepeka said:

All good to hear. There have been quite a few pans of the "Columbus" show on this site, glad you found it entertaining. We will be on Harmony next month, looking forward to it as a 50th anniversary family cruise.

I thought Columbus was by far the worst show/play I have ever seen on rccl , loved all the other entertainment. Actually left the show after 30 minutes.

[Biker19]

8 hours ago, George C said:

I thought Columbus was by far the worst show/play I have ever seen on rccl

So, you liked Cats?

[George C]

1 hour ago, Biker19 said:

So, you liked Cats?

I didn’t think it was great but I stayed for the whole show , definitely some good songs and cast, also saw it on broadway decades ago.