christa4

Hi All! I definitely fell off of the internet for quite some time. As some of you mention - life and land got the best of me. My husband used to work second shift so I had all the free time in the world after I got home from work to get lost in the digital world but he has since moved to first shift which was a huge win for us. 💜 I found that I was just spending too much time on my computer and not enough time in real life, not to mention my computer is old as dirt and normal things on a computer are taking 10x as long as they should. It took 3+ hours just to get my CruiseCritic password reset. [eye roll]

That being said - I'm slowly updating my blog with more information. Also - I drafted up a video from our wedding trip. I just posted it on YouTube, however it's not a public link. You need to have the proper link to be able to view it. So, HERE IS THE LINK to my website to check out the video if you're interested. The video is 16:33 minutes long.

The video has clips showing our room, the welcome reception in our room, some clips from different islands, some clips of the ship, some wedding video, and also some video from when we first left our house to fly down to Florida and when we gathered as a group at the hotel. You'll also see some construction on roads and at the airport as it was days following Hurricane Irma. 

A lot of things have changed since our wedding but our relationship is just as grand now as it was then! 😍💕 There have been some life events, with a new job, my grandma's passing, and my cousin who walked my mom down the aisle at our wedding has also passed. Lots of ups and downs like anyone else, but reminiscing on the wedding is bittersweet right now because my cousin isn't with us anymore and he was like my brother (I'm an only child).

To end on a fun note - we went on the same ship and same itinerary for our first anniversary. We stayed in an ocean view balcony room that time. It. Was. Awesome. It was so great going back on the same ship and having the same itinerary. Even though we didn't get to experience the same [super fabulous] perks that we did the first time, we experienced so many different things that we didn't get to do the first time around.

#WillWorkForRoyalSuiteClassPerks 😜🤩

And we have a back to back cruise coming up in August on the Navigator of the Seas. (Hubby doesn't know but I've secretly invited a handful of people to join us as a surprise for his birthday. Also, he will never make it to this post, so I don't have to worry about him finding out. 😉) We are going Aug. 16-19 and Aug. 19-23.

PS - It sincerely means a lot that so many of you are (or were) interested in our experience. I will do my best to finish the story.

At some point on embarkation day, I snuck to Starbucks.

NOTE about Starbucks on Harmony of the Seas:

Starbucks drinks used to be included in the deluxe drink packages, however, it is no longer included in any package exception for those in a Star Class Suite. Starbucks onboard is now franchised, which it didn’t used to be, therefore they are required to charge for it. When you are a Star Class member, you have to physically show your purple SeaPass card to get the drink for free. Your wrist band will not do the trick - you must have your card to show the barista.

After lunch we headed back to our room to unpack. We had so much stuff that we needed to figure out what was where so we just decided to put our clothes away in the closets. I can’t remember the last time I vacationed in one place long enough to actually be able to unpack my stuff!

During the unpacking process, Sebastian came to our room so we could sit down and discuss the plans he had for us plus what we wanted to add.

We told Sebastian that we wanted to go to as many speciality restaurants as possible. After chatting, we decided we’d go to Wonderland that evening, the wedding was the next day, Chefs Table on day 3, Izumi Hibachi on day 4 (which we ended up cancelling), pizza in the room on day 5, Jamies Italian on day 6, and Chops on day 7. On day 3, we found out we were the only 2 signed up for Chefs Table so they cancelled the seating. We swapped Jamies Italian for Chefs Table. No problem for us, we were just happy to be in paradise.

Also on topic was excursions. We already had an excursion booked for Jamaica because our friends bought that as our wedding present. In Haiti we had asked for an over the water cabana, zip lining, and dragons tail coaster. In Mexico, we had Sebastian sign us up for Xplore, the all day adventure park.

We went over the plan for the beer pong tournament (which didn’t go as planned because of drama so I’m not going to go into any detail on the plan or what happened.)

The Cabin Crawl was also on our list of ‘events’ that week. The crawl was to finish in our room so we asked for champagne and snacks. Also fully expecting this to go on our room bill.

We also added in 3 shows for the week.

Lastly, we discussed our in room Welcome Reception for that evening. I was fully expecting just to have wine and beer and was expecting it to show up on our bill.

After Sebastian left, Joey and I discussed with each other just how excited we were and couldn’t wait to see what comes of this week. We then got ready and prepared to go to dinner at Wonderland.

Bye-bye Florida, hello bright blue sea!

Oops. I guess before we even met with Sebastian, we had our priorities straight. Groomsman Matt had to get the drink package.

Mom and Check checking out the view!!

The first quick pic we took from our balcony before heading back out to get lunch.

Hard to believe we were on a ship! How beautiful??!

First obligatory drink of the week. Cheers!

(When I asked for a tropical cocktail, he said how about ‘sex on the beach’, I thought it sounded fitting - perfect drink to kick of the week!)

I’m pretty sure I already posted some of these pictures (maybe even all of them) but now that I’m going through them again, I’m having fun with it so here you go!!

These are from when we got to the cruise port and went through all the awesome VIP Star Class stuff at the terminal.

Finally getting through some pictures and getting our heads back on straight. Yesterday I was lucky enough to score an iPad Pro at a discount so last night and this morning I have spent some time getting our pictures in one place.

It’s hard to believe that it’s already been 2 weeks since we embarked on our cruise wedding. Let’s go back to the day that we got on the ship.

After lunch and going back to our room to unpack, our doorbell rang and it was Sebastian, ready to go over our itinerary for the week. Yup, I said doorbell. Our stateroom had a doorbell. It was pretty cool except for the fact that my mom never gave us more than 15 seconds to get to the door before ringing it again... and again... I’m rolling my eyes over here.

We will be doing the Northbound Alaskan cruise from Vancouver to Seward. This will be my first time to Alaska so I'm really excited. I'm trying to do as much research and planning as possible :D

That sounds like so much fun! Are you going to have time after the cruise ends in Seward to explore for a few days? There's a cool resort in Girdwood that has an aerial tram, an animal conservation center in Portage that was awesome, and a handful of breweries in the Anchorage area that are worth checking out. Actually, if you rented a car you could more than likely do Girdwood and the conservation center in one day. I'm definitely not an expert, I've only been there once, but if you have any questions, let me know!

As far as gear is concerned for staying comfortable during your trip: I recommend quality rain gear if there's going to be any chance of rain (both jacket and pants), lots of layers because of the crazy weather (shirts, jackets, etc.), and waterproof hiking shoes or mid boots if you plan on doing some hiking or a lot of walking. I hope you have a great time!! ;)

Your pictures of Alaska are awesome! My next cruise will be in May on Radiance of the Seas! I can't wait. Thank you for sharing these.

 

I'm loving your review so far and I can't wait to hear about the rest of your trip.

Thank you!! Where is your cruise headed to?

I'll do my best to have another update at some point today so keep your eyes peeled! :D

And who doesn't love pictures? This was another amazeballs balcony we checked out! Another Cruise Critic member was kind enough to kick off the Cabin Crawl in their so we scoped out her sweet view. (Thanks Raye & Dan!)

This was a 2 Bedroom Aquatheater Suite, room 9730. ☀️🌴⤵️

- Christa 💜

Can we take a minute and revisit just how fab this balcony was? 😍🤗

For those just joining the conversation, this is Sky Loft Suite 1724.

- Christa 💜

Sorry for the shaky video on this one but my favorite port view from our room was hands down - Labadee, Haiti. The mountains were b-eautiful! There was also this really cool greeting committee that was doing tons of fun tricks on jet skis and boats. I was only able to capture the end of it but I think it's still pretty neat!

OMG!!!! Katmai! You don't know how much I want to go there!! I watch the Explore.org cams every year to watch the brown bears! That area with the 2 bears in the river is in the riffles area, correct? Okay, officially jealous of you! First, your awesome suite and genie AND you have been to Katmai! So awesome!

 

 

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Katmai was a treat from Joey' s sister and brother-in-law. It's the most amazing experience! If you ever need travel tips on going there, let me know! There are some things to know that will help you have a nice trip there.

Here is a picture from the Falls.

This shows the viewing platform.

You fly commercial to King Salmon and take a float plane from there.

And you have to be extremely aware of your surroundings because you never know when wild grizzly bears will pop out of nowhere.

- Christa 💜

Some of my fav pics from our Alaska trip. 📷

- Christa 💜

Okay, off topic, but are you doing a cruise to Alaska or a land tour, or both?

We just did our second cruise to Alaska. The first being round trip from Vancouver ( which is a really cool city if you have never been there!) The second leaving from Vancouver and ending in Seward, then we did a few days in Anchorage since you have to fly out from there anyway. Alaska is so beautiful! Whatever you do, have fun!!

Thanks for your review! So detailed!

Congrats on your wedding! How special to get married on Harmony!Looks like you guys had so much fun! Best wishes for your future together!!❤️[emoji898][emoji253]

 

 

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Thank you so much!!

Great question! One of Joey's sisters lives in Alaska with her husband and child. We will not be doing a cruise, just a really cool land vacation. We went last July, it was amazing. This time more of his family will be joining so I think the trip will be similar to our last one there. They live just outside of Anchorage and also have a cabin in Talkeetna overlooking Denali. They are both civilians working for the military. They were in difference military branches, each stationed there. That's where they met. When receiving orders to move, they each got out of the military so they could stay there together.

My mom did a RC cruise in Alaska a couple months prior to our Harmony cruise. She loved it! I don't remember the details but I know they did the combo of cruise with land tour prior to the cruise.

I really want to visit Seward during our trip! I've been looking into taking the train down there for a day or maybe even an overnight. Since we hope to visit Katmai again for a backpacking trip to see the grizzly bears during prime salmon season, we will be traveling with hiking & backpacking gear so staying at a campground in Seward isn't out of the question.

Anything you think is a must-see that we should consider visiting?

What was it like to have a Genie? Holy. Cow. It was such an experience and I'm so very thankful that we were able to experience this in our lifetime. We are your average couple with average jobs and an average house. We have car payments and a student loan with a couple credit cards. For us to be able to splurge on the Sky Loft Suite in the Star Class with a Genie was something we will never ever forget. (I'm proud to say that not a single part of this wedding went on a credit card - yay!)

I had read reviews about having a Genie and some of the things that came along with this perk. Until you experience it, you have no idea just how much easier it makes things. Our Genie was a man of few words when it came to pre-cruise email communications. I was slightly concerned that maybe it was because we had crazy difficult requests or maybe it was because he wasn't a good Genie. We came to find out that our Genie, Sebastian, was fabulous. While he was a man of few words via pre-cruise emails, he was extremely chatty and full of information in person. He was quite the perfectionist and took pride in delivering for his guests.

We arrived early to the cruise port on embarkation day; around 9:50am. Our luggage was swiftly loaded onto a cart by a porter who would deliver our luggage directly to our room. Our 3 guests in tow also had their luggage taken quickly but from the other porters, not the Star Class ones. A gentleman then took us with him, all 5 of us, though a building, into a separate entrance. We started cutting lines from the very beginning, starting by cutting a security line. I was carrying my wedding dress and everyone was watching us. I'm not sure if they were watching because I was carrying my dress or because we were being escorted by staff and we were cutting lines left and right. (It was a whirlwind so my memory might be slightly off with the order of things that happened.)

At multiple points they checked our Set Sail passes to see what room and class we were in. During this process, they kept pushing our 3 non Star Class guests through with us without a problem. They walked us up to the Star Class checkin point where they looked at our passports and Set Sail passes. This was the first point where anyone said anything about our 3 non Star Class guests. The lady at the counter sternly said she only had 2 guests listed, Joey and myself. I nicely said to her that everyone has been pushing our family along with us so I wasn't sure what was happening or what needed to be done. At the time we were checking in, there were 2 separate counters open for Star Class guests and we were the only ones around - there was no line so she went ahead and checked in our groomsman along with my mom and her boyfriend.

Next, someone escorted us up to a Star Class waiting lounge area inside the terminal. We sat there for a short time, long enough to catch our breath. It was amazing how quickly we were shuffled from one stage to the next. To someone who had never been though that before, it was all happened so quick, it seemed borderline chaotic for me to process. We never waited in a line up to that point so it was nice to sit there and gather ourselves. We hardly waited for 5-10 minutes. During this time, we saw Kristen Bell and her family board the ship.

A short time later our energetic Genie appeared in the Star Class lounge area. He came over and introduced himself. I knew from the first handshake that we were going to have fun this week. His energy was contagious and his smile was full of life and positivity. Sebastian welcomed our 3 extra guests to join us during the rest of the boarding process. He guided us onto the ship with ease. We entered on deck 5, right in the heart of things. He walked us off to the side so we weren't standing in the way and he had us look around and take things in. There he explained that he wasn't sure if our room was ready yet, as we got on the ship early, which we didn't have a problem with. He said he'd escort us to our room so we could get a quick glimpse and I could drop off my dress.

As he guessed, our room wasn't ready when we got there. They still let the 5 of us in to get a brief view and explore the balcony and it's wonderful view. We were there for about 3 minutes before turning around and deciding we were hungry. This is where we met Brian our room attendant for the first time. He also introduced us to his assistant, Channel. They advised that our room would be finished in about 20 minutes. We told them no rush, we were just happy to be on the ship!

The Coastal Kitchen wasn't open because the Netflix film, Like Father, was still filming there. It was unclear if and when Coastal Kitchen would be open to guests during our sailing. They had dedicated 150 as the backup until Coastal Kitchen reopened. I was slightly annoyed by this, as it was one of the perks I was really looking forward to. I didn't want to trace across the ship to go to 150. Sebastian said he was trying to get a concrete answer on if and when Coastal Kitchen would open back up to guests and would get back to us later with an update.

We parted ways, mom and Chuck to do their own thing, Joey, Matt and I to do ours (we wanted food). Sebastian said he'd meet up with us a little later to go over our requests and itinerary for the week. Joey, Matt and I went down to deck 5, near where we came in. While standing down there deciding what we wanted to eat, our guests started pouring in so we were sidetracked from the original plan. After a while we decided to go to Windjammer Buffet. This was the only time we ate there that day, and let me say, we enjoyed it. When we walked in we found another group of family already situated at a table and enjoying some lunch. We found a group of tables near by that we quickly occupied. As we were eating, 4 more people from our group arrived so we all squeezed in for a quick lunch before parting ways again.

Next, Joey and I went back to our room to start unpacking...

I'll leave you hear for now - more to come!!

Be sure and check the Illy website because they run deals all the time. I got this machine and pods plus espresso cups for $150...considering in the past we spent as much as $600+ for an honest to goodness espresso machine, it was a no brainer. We do Keurig for everyday, but they crap out in a couple years. Too funny, I love my lattes but rarely finish one cup a day...go figure. Sometimes have a cup of the Illy in the evening. Also have the Epica milk frother. $50 something on Am. Creates lovely heated froth if you're interested.

This is great information! Thank you for looking out! I'm now noticing that Illy's website has some really cool espresso cups! ****Daydreaming about putting in an espresso bar in my bedroom.

I think I took more video than pictures this trip thanks to my GoPro Hero5 Black and the GoPro Karma Grip to compliment it. In my down time [hahaha] I'm going to edit some of it and get a little video posted to YouTube. For now, here's a clip of the Grease Show that I took on my phone from the front row, middle or the theater.

I can only thank our Genie, Sebastian, for these absolutely amazing seats. What an experience. I've never been that close to a stage during any performance so when the performers point and sing to you, it's slightly uncomfortable but really fun.

**PS - I like to buy whatever I can off of MooseJaw.com because they offer rewards points even on items that you can't usually get any type of discount on. Like the GoPro and the Karma Grip, you get 10% rewards dollars on each item so you can get $70 to use on a future purchase if you buy these items here. Also, I use Ebates to get 4.5% cash back. I <3 Ebates!! Check if out if you've never heard of it! It's seriously great! I've received $599 cash back so far on purchases!

That machine is new too. Getting excited for Saturday.

Great! I'm glad there are some new fun things that you haven't had yet - that's always fun to check out the new goodies and toys. When are you guys heading down to Florida?

Woohoo, I have the Illy Iperespresso 2 here at home:hearteyes:. The one you had is new generation. Good to know, hope we have one in our suite in January, but not counting on it. It's only the Vision... I might bring our pods just in case. I only like the black tops or darkest grind. You could possibly get the one like mine for a really good price on the Illy website:

I'm going to have to look into this!! We had a Keurig that we purchased when Joey first moved in with me years ago, then we got the Ninja Coffee Bar ($229) for a bridal shower gift from my mom so we donated the Keurig. I wanted more flexibility other than single serve pods. I'm loving the Ninja, especially having the stainless steel carafe.

I enjoy Starbucks because I like espresso so I typically get iced espresso drinks like a macchiato. After using this machine with the red lid cups, I lost my mind! The espresso was sooooo smooth. I drank it straight. I ended up having way more caffeine than I was used to so the last couple of days I've been fighting that dreaded caffeine headache because I'm only drinking one cup of coffee back home now.

My fingers are crossed that you will have one of these machines in your suite!!!! (yn) :hot-beverage:

Ok so before I even finished typing this, I had to look up this machine! It looks like the one we had is $199 on Bed Bath & Beyond. And the 21 count of Medium Roast pods is $18.99. Hmmm.... If I wasn't planning on buying hiking gear for our Alaska trip, I'd probably purchase one of these machines but for now, I think I'm going to have to just put it on the *wish list*.

The bathroom products were quite nice. Part of me wanted to take them but I think they are what stripped the expensive pink color out of my hair. 💕🤷*♀️

Ok everyone - I was OBSESSED with this espresso machine. It was the smoothest espresso I've ever DIY'd. Yum! Might have to look I to investing in one of these bad boys because it got me through those long days! I found I only went to Starbucks 3 time on the ship because I was busy drinking this stuff. ⤵️☕

- Christa 💜

The steps had really fun lights to illuminate them. I found we never had them on. At night they were just too insanely bright. It'd be cool if they had a dimmer switch on them. Then we would have used them. 🔅🔆

- Christa 💜

More room pictures!!

Not sure how we wills ever cruise again with only one bathroom. We were spoiled and this was one of our favorite conveniences! 🚿🛁

Upstairs bathroom. [Joey used this one] ⤵️

Downstairs bathroom. [i used this one] ⤵️

- Christa 💜

We are staying in this room in January...thanks for the peek! A little distressed to hear about the noise transfer from next door (even if it was celebrity noise) there was virtually none in this same room on the OASIS. Oh well.

The celeb neighbors had a lot of people in and out of their room and the only 2 things were heard were the screaming at the top of the lungs child and Kelsey singing one morning. We didn't hear any talking, laughing, TV, or anything else. Almost as if we just heard the more unusual noises. We never once heard anything from the Crown Loft on the other side of us.

Once and a while I heard a toilet flush, I think the sound came from the panel in the wall near the entrance door. I rarely noticed it.

The thing that did annoy us was the sound of the door slamming to the crew area. I think it must have been a trash or supply area. That we heard regularly during the day, never outside of daytime hours.

- Christa 💜

Co-workers again for the win. 🍾💍🐚🍍🎉

- Christa 💜

Errands. Still not used to driving my dad's car. Every time I come out of a store I look for mine in a bit of a panic.

Dropped off my rings for their 6 month warranty inspection and am getting them soldered.

I'm also being good and parking in the distant parking spots since I walked way more on the cruise than I do on a typical day at home. There's something to say for not gaining weight during the 10 days we were gone!

- Christa 💜