ChristyLNDRN

Currently on Harmony (just docked in St Thomas).  My kids are tweens/teens but my brother’s two kids ( 6 and 8) have  been using the kids club multiple times a day and LOVING it.  They keep begging to go back and don’t want to leave when he picks them up.  He has had no problems dropping them off whenever it is open. 

I was able to check in at midnight EST (or a few mins after) 45 days out. My brother in Texas was able to check in at 11 pm since he is in a different time zone.   He and I were able to get a 10:30 check in time for boarding day.  My father, who checked-in in the morning on day 45, picked 11 am as that was the earliest possible time he could see.  

Hi!  I am on your sailing as well with a group of 12, here’s a recent Harmony schedule to give you an idea of what it *may* look like.  

On Harmony this June.  Have watched the prices for the package fluctuate since we booked a year out last summer.  Lowest point was $57.99, but it’s been awhile since I saw that.  Bounced around from $62 to $65ish, and just keeps going up.  Currently sitting at $73.  Better deals for the refreshment and soda packages—those hit 16.99 and 6.99 around Black Friday/Cyber Monday.  

I was able to check in last night just after midnight Eastern time 45 days out.  To clairify, check in was set to open on April 28th, so this was midnight as the 27th turned into the 28th. Harmony out of port Canaveral.  

1 minute ago, John&LaLa said:

 

Just getting to that😉

 

Thank you so much!   Sailing Harmony in June and I’m the main planner for my group of 12, half of whom are royal newbies.  Trying to get an idea of what things *might* look like though I’m well aware anything could change between now and then.  I always enjoy your reviews and random thoughts😀

Can you post a copy of the show schedule?  Thank you and have a great trip!

Interested in this as well. Will be on Harmony this summer with my 12 (1 month shy of 13) and 14 year olds, along with their 13 and 15 year old cousins.  I’d really like for them to be able to attend teen activities together.  Recent Harmony compass has shown 12 and up for teen club/activities, which is what we experienced on the Mariner this December, but I had noticed some of the newer ships had 12’s in with adventure ocean.  Pic from March Harmony compass below.  
 

Is “Aqua theater showcase” as shown on the show schedule above the Fine Line show that used to be on Harmony pre-covid or just a……aqua theater showcase?  Just curious if anyone has seen it recently.  

Mariner promenade deck in December!

Just chiming in to add that I received my Royal up invite to bid this week at exactly 90 days out (sailing mid June on harmony). I was not expecting it this early.  I was also surprised that being in a Central Park balcony I was able to bid on all the big suites.  

We used curative for our mariner Christmas cruise and had no problems. 

1 hour ago, hometoosoon said:

Thanks for the amazing review! We are looking forward to our Mariner trip in April. We’ve got Oasis in 16 days (not that we’re counting!) I’m looking all over PA & DE/Curative for rapid PCR. Where did you go? I’m just finding the 1-2 day result option.

There are 2 rapid PCR’s thru curative.  One site is at Christiana Mall, which is where we went.  The other is in Newark…Chapman rd I think?  I was able to make appointments about a week out for ours. I have seen both sites available with appointments for 7-10 days out this week sporadically, although neither are showing at all this morning.  I feel like you have to just keep stalking the curative.com site availability is coming and going so quickly.   Good luck!!!

On 1/3/2022 at 9:43 PM, aphrodite6528 said:

Awesome review @ChristyLNDRN! Thank you so much for sharing

Thank you!

On 1/3/2022 at 10:10 PM, sharktums said:

We had friends on this sailing and they also had a great time.  Saw a few covid cases getting off at the end, but Mariner definitely seemed to have the best ship experience of everyone over christmas week! Thanks for the report!

Yeah we were lucky for sure!  Thanks for reading😀

5 hours ago, js10 said:

What an informative, well written review--and a cute family too!  I am sure CruiseCritic readers will find lots of helpful tips and advice.  (Full disclosure, those "kiddos" are my grandkids!)

Thanks Pop❤️  How fun will it be to sail with all your grandkiddos this summer!!??

1 hour ago, mcgore83 said:

Thank you for sharing with us!  Great review and a beautiful family!

Thank you!!

Wrap up and final thoughts:

Our return to Port Canaveral came bright and early.  Think we were docked right around 7:00. 
 

We always do express walk-off.  We left the room and soon as the captain announced that the ship was cleared and it was a total breeze, straight walk out all the way with a brief stop at the facial recognition scanners.  We were in our car pulling out of the garage at 7:30.  Sad faces from the kiddos to be leaving…

Crossed back out of Florida a little after 10 AM…

And with literally no traffic we just kept on going.  Made it home to Delaware to be greeted by our kitties just after 11pm.
 

Final Thoughts

I think we got very lucky.  We got on and off right before things starting getting crazy from the looks of other current threads trending right now.  We did not notice any disruptions or hear of any Covid cases onboard. Mask compliance onboard seemed high.  Masking indoors (for us) was not a bother.  That being said, 3/4 of us are used to masking up every day all day for school so it really wasn’t much of a change from our norm.   I felt pretty safe on board the entire trip.  We have since tested negative upon our return prior to returning to our schools/work.  

I had the booze package on my two most recent sailings but wanted to try the refreshment package for a change.  While the deluxe package certainly was more convenient, I didn’t miss it all that much.  I enjoyed trying a few virgin cocktails on the pool deck and in the theater, and it was still easy enough to get a glass or two of wine at night in the MDR and pay a la cart.     Kids both had soda packages and ordered Shirley Temples in the MDR and all the specialty restaurants that we went to but were not up charged for them.   I didn’t think those were part of the soda package but maybe they just billed them to my refreshment package.  In any case, they enjoyed them😀.   

It’s weird to say that this is the “smallest” ship we had sailed in quite awhile.  I was a little worried that the kids would have been spoiled by their previous Oasis class experience but they (and we all) had a great time.  Service was consistently great across the board.  Having sailed many of the ship classes now, I would say that Oasis class is our favorite but I certainly wouldn’t hesitate to sail on Mariner again.

Would we sail over Christmas again?  Probably not.  It was cool being on the ship for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but I think we all missed a little bit of that Christmas feeling that you get being at home and with family for the holidays.  I also don’t want to know what a holiday sailing feels like at full capacity!!  Side note—I did add the surf&stream package on Christmas Day so we could try to talk to family and it worked out great.  We used both FaceTime and Google Duo and caught up with all the grandparents and aunts/uncles.  You could purchase for 24 hours but it made more sense for me just to add it for the rest of the trip at that point as the daily rate decreased with more days purchased.  

All in all, this was a great trip, and we were all so excited to be back onboard after so long. Thankful for the time together and the memories made. 

Next up:  Party of 12!  Coming June 2022, extended family style….

Thanks for reading along.  Happy sails everyone!

1 hour ago, irishgal432 said:

We are heading out on Jan 15 for a girls tennis team cruise. Do you know what the passenger count was?  Thanks  Loved your review.

Thanks!  I asked at check-in and was told that 2800 were expected for the sailing. 

Day 5 Compass

Happy that we had Chops scheduled for lunch today—the boy was a little grumpy about limping around on his injured toe, but if there’s anything that cheers him up, it’s STEAK!

Sample Chops lunch menu.  I believe there was butternut squash soup instead of the mushroom soup. 
 

Kids got plain Mesclun salad from kids menu for their app.  Mike had the squash soup while I had the wedge salad.  Everyone had the filet for entrees, and we all shared all of the sides except for Mac and Cheese, which no one wanted LOL.  I think we all got the warm chocolate cake for dessert.  Everything was very good and it definitely put a smile back on Zach’s face.  
 

Note that Chops lunch is less than half the cost of Chops dinner although menu is limited.   Dinner menu pic for comparison:

After lunch we had reservations for the 4:15 “everyone” ice show.  We had a little time to kill before, hung out a bit outside on deck 4.  There’s chairs and shuffleboard there and we saw a bunch of flying fish, pretty cool!

Although the ice show was for everyone, they had separate sections for vaxed and unvaccinated which was nice.  Show was high energy and enjoyable. 

After the show it was time for our last night in the MDR.  No one was very hungry but we wanted to say goodbye to Eka and Igusti and make sure we tipped them the extra they deserved❤️
 

Suzy and I both got tortellini.  She asked for the sauce on the side and that was not a problem. Mike requested a double serving of the coconut shrimp appetizer for his main course.  Hilariously, the boy ordered more meat…prime rib.   I don’t know how he does it…teen boy metabolism I guess.  Note that lobster was not served on this cruise which is a change for all my previous 5 nights.  Not sure if that was due to special Xmas Eve/Xmas day dinners or not. 
 

We caught the farewell show at 9:15 with Monique from Goddess and the comedian, Alvin Williams, who we had missed the first night.   Laughed a lot and loved hearing Monique again.   Sadly after that, the fun was just about over…we’d be up early for self-assist walk off. 
 

Next up:  Debarking and final thoughts. 

Day 5–At sea

Woke up to sunrise over Cuba as we sailed past. 
 

We kept breakfast very light this morning-had reservations for Chops lunch at 1, so wanted to make sure we were all hungry!  Snacks from Cafe Promenade are perfect for that.  Some of the pastries are different every day. 
 

It was VERY windy on the outside decks this morning and most of the afternoon. Morning consisted of hot tub hopping, plus some waterslides and flowriding. 
 

There was a teen-only speed climb listed on the compass for 11:30 that Zach wanted to try.  Unfortunately he somehow smashed his toe on the flowrider and we had to hobble back to the room to ice it.  It’s actually still a little bruised and swollen several days later so I think an x-ray may be in order this week. At least this was the last day!

10 hours ago, mk907 said:

Thoroughly enjoying your review! We are booked for the Mariner in February and love the sneak peek. Thanks for taking the time to write about it. 

Thank you!  Hope you have a great trip!

9 hours ago, tarheel3559 said:

I was on the cruise prior to this, Captain Tobias was at the helm. Mariner's current captains are Cpt Tobias Oster and Cpt Tor Olsen.

Thanks!!

42 minutes ago, bhsolo said:

Thank you for your review, especially Cozumel. Was debating what to do there, going solo, and am now thinking Paradise Beach might be nice. Easy to get a taxi back to the ship?

Super easy.  There were several lined up just waiting.   Highly recommend Paradise Beach!

Day 4 Compass

Day 4 wrap up…

We left Paradise Beach a little after 2 to head back to the ship.  Wandered a bit through the shopping area first.  The party bars looked quite lively😜

We had the bigger ship this time!

This open play archery was set up on the Sports court a few times…

Always happy just to chill with a good book!

Dinner tonight was back in the MDR.  Apps were baked potato soup and seafood puff pastry for adults, cheese plate and veggie crudités (kids menu) for the kiddos. Entrees were Ahi Tuna, Lasagna, Mojo Pork Chop and the Chicken breast off the everyday menu.  The soup and lasagna were both things I hadn’t ordered in the MDR before and were both quite good.  Everyone else seemed to enjoy what they had as well. 
 

Entertainment tonight was “Center Stage”  Here’s the description:

It actually was the singers and dancers doing 2 numbers, followed by a juggling act.  He was trying to achieve the Guinness World Record for most objects juggled at a time on a cruise ship.  Fun to watch, and once again we had plenty of space off to the side in the theater.  

Another towel animal at the end of the night😀

Next up…our last day, at sea.  

20 hours ago, Missusdubbya said:

Loving your review so far, thank you!

Thank you!!

16 hours ago, BecAus said:

Lovely review - such helpful details for people with upcoming cruises.

Love your style of writing.

Your photos are all brilliant and gorgeous photos of your kids (and yourselves of course)

It sounds like you had a wonderful Christmas cruise.

Thanks for taking the time to review - it is an enjoyable read sitting here in AUS with no cruising in sight for the forseeable future!

 

Thank you so much!  Hope the New Year brings a return to more normal cruising for us all at some point!!