ChristyLNDRN

1 hour ago, dwHokie said:

Not sure who this guy is...but note how brand new the palms are, having hardly spread out at all.

 

OMG😂😂😂….I remember that!!!!

 

2 minutes ago, dwHokie said:

 

Hi sis!  No comment on the 5:30am cruise cam, eh?  😄

 

Can't wait 'till next NYE.

Got a good laugh out of that one!  Glad we are both a little nuts!   360 more days!

Thoroughly enjoying this…more please!!  

3 hours ago, ReneeFLL said:

Is that an increase for one person or several?

4 people in a JS 

Ouch!  New Year’s Eve sailing on Oasis….

 

My family group of 12 lost our 8 night Thanksgiving on Freedom but so far 8 of us have moved over to the 8 night New Years sailing on Oasis.   I was able to move from 2 forward adjoining JS on freedom to connecting JS on the hump, picking exactly the rooms we wanted.   Looking forward to the new Aruba/Curaçao/Coco Cay itinerary and considering it a win given this sailing looks to be about 3x the price we paid if we hadn’t been price protected. 

Got the same email, Freedom 11/23/24.  Puerto Plata added, time in St Thomas/St. Maarten reduced.  Happy as it’s somewhere my family hasn’t been.  

Yay!   If we couldn’t be there with you, reading your review will be the next best thing!  Great start bro🥰

Day 7 wrap up 

Not sure if I like having the last day as a port day…stuck packing after dinner!  We said goodbye and thank you to Sunil and Juan with some well-deserved extra tips. Some of us caught the 2nd ice show (iSkate showcase) and the Farewell comedy show in the theater but it was still an early night and a sad goodbye as my family would be up and out early with self-express walk-off.  
 

Day 7 Compass

Final morning:

Up early with just some quick treats from cafe promenade to hold us over for a bit.  Sad  (sleepy)faces all around to be leaving!

Self walk-off was a breeze.  We were in our car pulling out of the garage just after 7 for the long ride home.  We made great time, so we pushed on through with minimal traffic and made it home to Wilmington DE just after midnight.   We don’t always make it in one day but kids are great in the car and it worked out this time.  
 

Final thoughts…..

What an amazing trip!  Oasis class ships are perfect for an extended family with a wide variety of ages.  Service was outstanding and I didn’t notice any areas of understaffing.  We missed having some of the shows that were previously on Harmony pre-covid (Fine Line, Columbus) but we certainly had enough to keep us busy.  Crowds definitely seemed back to normal.  I believe we sailed at just under 6,000 as the cruise director made a comment on the last night that the following sailing would have 6,000+ passengers expected.  Yes, that s LOT of people but I just think Oasis class does a good job of distributing people. Activity lines could be long at times but I don’t think there’s anything we missed out on as a result.  Elevators were crazy the first day but improved after that and were fine the rest of the trip.  Greatly enjoyed all 3 port stops and would happily return.  Loved every minute together and all the memories made❤️
 

Next up:

Thanks for following😀

13 hours ago, prekteacher said:

What an incredible trip review!  Your family is absolutely delightful.  I love all the details you have mentioned and the pictures just tell a wonderful cruise!  We are on Harmony July 10 and I couldn't be more excited after reading about your cruise.   I look forward to hearing about the grand finale!  

 

Thank you,

Barbara 

Thank you so much!  I hope you have a wonderful trip!

2 hours ago, KBS1607 said:

Great review. Brings back memories of our only big family cruise in 2009. So glad we did it as Grandpa and my husband’s brother have passed away. 
 

Tell Suzy the Midsummer Night’s Dream quote if she doesn’t already know it - “though she be but little she is fierce”.  This was my daughter who was also never the tallest but can hold her own. 

LOVE that quote!  Fits Suzy perfectly!

Our group split up today.  Big kids went to Thrill Waterpark with the Dads and Pop.  Allison, Alda and I went with the littles to the beach club.  Dan had reserved both, so he met us mid-day for lunch. 
 

The beach club was amazing.  Not crowded at all, there were chairs that remained empty all day. Water was so clear.  Saw lots of fish swimming by us, the above barracuda, and even a small shark.  Lunch was delicious.  For me, it was worth the $99.  More than that?  Probably not, although it was a lovely, relaxing day.  
 

Kids eventually met up at the splash pad outside the waterpark. 

All aboard was 4:30.  Got back around 4:15 with just enough time to clean up before that darn early dinner time. 
 

 It’s hard having so much fun!

Day 7–Coco Cay

Up for sunrise on our last day.  We had a fairly late scheduled arrival of 10 am .

Plenty of time for breakfast although obviously we would have preferred an earlier arrival to maximize our time ashore.  Especially since all the port scheduled I checked had us arriving after Freedom.  However, when we left the windjammer after breakfast (no crowds, weird!) we could see the dock and no other ship in sight!  Wow, Perfect Day just got a lot more….perfect!

We arrived early, but it still took some time to clear the ship.  I’d say we stepped off a little after 10.  

Day 6 Compass

Kids even let Dan and I join in the fun…

Flowriding as the sun set….so cool and so much fun. 
 

This was definitely one of the highlights of the trip, and a night to remember, thanks to Jacob and Daniel.   I had brought some cash for tips for them, and Dan actually ran back to his room for more after seeing how much they were helping the kids.  I also mentioned them in the post-cruise survey❤️.

Day 6, at sea continued…

Zach has been a flowrider junkie for awhile now…I think one of his favorite cruise memories was finishing 2nd in the “king of 360’s” boogie board competition on our first Harmony cruise.  Even with two waves onboard, lines for the boogie board flowrider ranged from long to obnoxious most of the time.  Stand up lines often looked better but he hasn’t tried that yet.  We looked into signing up for a group lesson (4-8 riders, $70) but didn’t think that would be a great value, depending on how many people were in the group.  So we looked at renting the wave for our group.  It was $340 for an hour with no instruction (2 sports staff present for safety/observation) or ($500+ for full instruction from the 2 staff).  Since the kids had all been flowriding during the week and had prior experience, we went with the lower level.  Especially sharing the cost, this was an AMAZING experience and worth every penny.   *Warning—we all took way too many pictures of this so skip this post if flowriding has no interest for you LOL!

Jacob from England and Daniel from Portugal were waiting for us at the bleachers.  We went over some safety info first and they checked that everyone who wanted to ride had signed waivers and had bands.  
 

After that, the kids hit the wave!

Jacob and Daniel were seriously amazing.  They did way more than I expected and went above and beyond helping the kids truly have an awesome experience. 
 

Day 6, Sea day continued

This portion of the review is sponsored by cats who refuse to move out of the way for ping pong…

Tonight was the 2nd formal night (and lobster night). Pop and Alda made some appetizer plates in the windjammer and we had a little pre-dinner cocktail hour on our adjoining balconies. 
 

Coolest boys ever…

And the sweetest granddaughters…

Still feeling cool at dinner…

Teen table

Sunil stuffed us silly with all the lobster tails we could possibly want, and then entertained us with tricks.  He stumped us with puzzles multiple times throughout the week.

Mmmmmmmm, dessert….

And a stop in Central Park after dinner 

Two towel animals waiting for us tonight…

And Dan had another one I had never seen before…

As the sun went down, we changed and headed off to the flowrider for our rental.

Day 6–At Sea

Still can’t sleep in….if you get the solarium at 6 am the chairs may still be stacked..

It’s a great place to hang while you wait for everyone else to wake up!

Boardwalk is pretty quiet in the mornings too

Breakfast was back at Johnny Rocket’s this morning.   Mike tried to get bananas in or on top of his pancakes he ordered and I think something was lost in translation😂

Suzy and I hit the towel folding demonstration in Dazzles…

She recreated some on her own and made some deliveries!
 

Looks like the teens had a pizza party for lunch

Dessert from cafe promenade 

 And of course a spin on the carousel 

Boys also hit up the teen speed climb

Day 5 Compass—St. Thomas 

Found some pics of the snorkeling at Honeymoon beach on Suzy’s underwater camera…

A few last pics from making our way back to the ship 

Fun attire was acquired!  We even managed to find the girls matching dresses!
 

Looks like dessert was enjoyed all around😀

Ice show 1887:  A journey in time was our after dinner entertainment and was enjoyed by all.   Zach and Mike hit the headliner showtime Starring Bryan “Soul Man” Cheatham immediately after without reservations and enjoyed that as well.  
 

Next up:   Sea day and a special flowrider private rental 

16 hours ago, bobmacliberty said:

 

We spent the whole day at Honeymoon beach and it was great.  There's a ferry near where the ship docks (15 min walk) that takes you to Water Island, and then one of those open air bus trucks takes you from there to Dinghy's.  Chairs and umbrellas were free if you bought food/drink there.  Decent snorkeling among the rocks on the left, and other water toys available for rent.  One of our favorite days at St. Thomas.

This would definitely be my plan next time!

10 hours ago, perfect match said:

Great review, @ChristyLNDRN! Thank you very much for doing it.

 

We’re on Harmony in September and we can hardly wait. We’re on an Eastern Caribbean itinerary but will be going to St Maarten where you went to St Kitts. We love sailing on Oasis class ships. For now, I’m thoroughly enjoying cruising virtually along with you and your extended family! Thanks for taking us along! 

Thanks for following!

Our first stop was in a bay for snorkeling. Location stamp on my phone says Brewers’s Bay.  Airport was nearby and we could see planes flying over.   Captain let the boys climb the ladder to the top to dive in!

Water was deep, but clear.  They had vests and noodles, along with enough snorkel gear and fins for everyone.  Not a ton of fish to see but we did see multiple turtles and some rays.  
 

We had about 1-1.5 hours here, and then we headed to Water Island/Honeymoon beach.  When we dropped anchor here, we were able to swim to shore.  It was much shallower, had much better snorkeling near two rocky areas, and had an awesome little bar/ restaurant, Dingy’s, for lunch (food was fantastic). We happily could have skipped the first stop and spent the whole day here.

We probably had about 2 hours here.  Felt a little rushed to have to get back to Yacht Haven by 2:30 to give us plenty of time to get back to the ship.   All in all, it was a GREAT day!   Got back in time to do a little shopping and stepped back onboard just before 3:30.

Today’s plan was a private charter with Seas the Day.  They were very highly rated/reviewed.   They have several different half day/full day charters to choose from. We ended up booking the Hydra.  Dan did all the research for this day, but here’s an overview

We ended up having to pay for a full-day charter but really were only able to take advantage of 3/4 of a day as the pickup time was 9:30 and all aboard was 3:30.  We were given the option of Red Hook departure (better for St Johns itineraries) or Havensight departure (sticking to St Thomas area).  We decided Havensight would be much easier/better way to manage the limited time that we had.  Left the ship around 8:45 to make our way to the meeting place in Havensight/Yacht haven marina.  Open air shuttle bus was $6pp.

Quick 15 minute ride and we were at the Marina.  
 

Another catamaran from Seas the Day docked before ours and took FOREVER to load and move for our boat to be able to dock.  We were a few minutes late getting started but before long we were on our way after going over safety information and our itinerary for the day.  We asked to be away from crowds, snorkel, and hit a beach.  We started off with a sail back past Harmony the way we came but it was a (bumpy) enjoyable ride and made for some good pics!

Day 5–Good morning St Thomas!

As we were sailing in, we ended up turning around and backing in the channel. Had to switch from bridge wings to aft for better view!

Day 4 Compass

1 hour ago, Valmoisy said:

I'm loving your report.  Thank you for taking the time to write it.  How far in advance did you book the Marriott day passes?  Considering this for our January cruise and wondering how early I should book.

I reserved the day passes about a month before our trip.