WVHillbilly

Pre-cruise Day:  We flew from Dulles International Airport to Orlando on a morning flight on Southwest Airlines leaving the cold freezing weather behind.

Arriving in Orlando it was a long trek from the Southwest gate to baggage claim.  Played the baggage claim musical chairs, first bags are coming out at one carousel the no it’s over here, no we were just kidding back to the original location.

Collected our rental from Alamo it was quick and painless and we were off to Disney Springs for lunch.  Walked around Disney Springs a bit then headed to the hotel.  A couple of days earlier, I realized I scored a rental car bonus by renting from Alamo.  I’m not loyal to one brand over the other usually going with the best rate, but I was happy that the return location is like a 10 minute walk to the ship.

We only have two more nights at home before we fly out to Orlando and the pre-cruise packing panic is setting in.  Just like Santa, I’m making a list and checking it twice.  Am I packing everything I need; do I really need that?  Can I get everything in two checked bags or do I need a third?

Tomorrow is turning into a busy day; I had surgery on my foot in December and have one final check with the surgeon in the morning, the store for any last minute items, and get some cash from the bank.  I have one final check in with my elderly parents to make sure they are set for me to be gone.  Then we have a formal dance for Valentine’s Day.   I’ll finally take a breather once we are wheels up on Saturday morning.

4 hours ago, gatour said:

City Walk doesn't really get hopping until the night time.  During the daytime you are pretty much limited to a few shops and the restaurants.

 

Disney Springs has things to see/visit during the day time.

 

Now that I know your plans.  Pick up your car, head to Disney Springs do some site seeing, have a late lunch/ early dinner, and then head to your hotel on the coast.  Just my take.

I kinda wanted to try the Red Coconut Club but, things wouldn't be happening till much later in the evening and I really will need to some rest before boarding on Sunday.   So after picking up the car we'll head to Disney Springs and spend the afternoon there before heading to Cocoa Beach.  I hear there is a scheduled Space X launch on Saturday would be nice to catch that.  Also there is a guy on FB who takes pictures of Harmony coming in and he had some really nice night photos of her sailing in.  If I'm lucky I maybe able to catch her sailing in before daybreak.

4 hours ago, BNL1213 said:

We are on this cruise too!!!  I am going to have to look for that Kracken Lava Flow to jump start Day 1 as well.  Have safe travels and see you onboard!

Love the Kracken Lava Flows, or just plain Lava Flows if there isn't any Kracken rum

4 hours ago, RN4Nsy said:

I look forward to your review! I just got off on Sunday. Mentally kicking and screaming. She's a beautiful ship. On sea days, don't miss the lunch in main dining room. They have a buffet and a great salad bar, you pick ingredients and they make your salad. You can also order off the menu at lunch. On our last sea day, dessert on menu was a "floating island". Yummy! Dining room had great food but we also went to other venues.

 

Myra

 I agree the tutti salad is great on sea days.  What was the "floating island"?

4 hours ago, ljmandelbaum said:

 

We had fun doing TRikes Cozumel in December.  You might want to confirm where you are meeting before you get off the Boat.  The Tequila tasting was a lot of fun. 

 

Can't wait to read about your Perfect day at Coco Cay.  I'm wondering how many kids are going to be on your cruise since it is Presidents week for a lot of the Northeast and the kids are off from school.  

 I received one email about where and what time to meet them outside the port.  They said they would be holding a sign.  They also said they would send an email a week before so hopefully will get another one soon.

Glad you said it was fun, I see that they post a lot of pictures on facebook, I was planning on taking my own camera, was there time to take your own pictures or do they rush you around?

Excited about Perfect day,  i did not realize there would be a lot of kids off of school that week, not anti-kid but hoping for well behaved kids.  😊  Also its a partial charter with Rockin the Caribbean oldies, not sure that will impact any venues.  But hey it's a cruise and if I get lemons, maybe I can trade them in for frozen Lime Margaritas  😁

6 hours ago, Lionesss said:

I must say you are an excellent planner!!!!!!!

 

I love your outline of plans to do.

 

Me on the other hand I make lists and lists to check the list.

 

I am eager following your adventures.

 

Safe travels to you 

Thank you, I like to always have a plan B, in case plan A goes to crap. 😄  I also do packing lists to check off what I have already packed. 

6 hours ago, gatour said:

Between Universal/City walk and Disney Springs, I would do Disney Springs.  There are more things to see/do.  Plus if you have a car, parking is free at Disney Springs

We did a Disney and Universal vacation this past November, did not spend much time at all in Disney Springs so was planning on wondering around there for a bit, and like you said the parking is free there.  Wanted Universal City Walk for the nightlife just not sure I want to hang out there to long as we are staying in Cocoa Beach the night before the cruise.  Since we are arriving mid morning the day before, i do have a rental car to explore with and get us to Cocoa Beach.

5 hours ago, perfect match said:

I’ll be following along to help me deal with my “Isn’t it time for us to board Harmony yet?” depression. We will be 17 months out from our last cruise by the time we board in October, the longest wait we’ve ever had between cruises. It has been far too long as far as I’m concerned. It’s a first world problem for sure, but I really miss being at sea 🌊. Thanks for helping me get through.  😀

Your welcome; reading others reviews certainly helps me between cruises.

Harmony of the Seas – February 16 to February 23 – Semi Live Review

I have always enjoyed reading the cruise reviews for their information and entertainment value.  They also make the time between cruises a bit more bearable.  I have done three post cruise reviews, but this will be my first attempt at a live review.  In fact this is my first time with the internet on the ship, not sure how it will go but I will try my best to post in between enjoying the cruise.  I’ll also try and answer anyone’s questions that they may have.  I fancy myself as an amateur photographer so there will be lots of pics. 

We are a mid-60s couple, and I would describe ourselves as pretty easy to please and we are more inclined to roll with the flow.  On our past cruises dining has been in the MDR, café promenade/compass deli and the windjammer in that order.  The buffet would be my least favorite place to eat.  We don’t spend a great deal of time in our cabin and the only thing I expect from our room steward is to make the bed, replace the towels and fill the ice bucket in the evenings.   We enjoy listening to music and attending the various shows and lounging in the sun/hot tub during sea days.  On port days, we like to do a bit of sightseeing.

Background:  We booked this cruise three days into our very first cruise on Oasis of the Seas in April 2018.  I retired in November 2017 and after hearing about Royal Caribbean cruises from a co-worker I decided to finally take my DW on a cruise, something she had wanted to try for a long time.  To say that we fell in love with cruising is an understatement.  In addition to this cruise we have three others booked.

Harmony is our fourth cruise, with Oasis, Grandeur and Majesty being number 1, 2 and 3.  All have been great experiences.  We have an ocean view balcony, and first seating Traditional Dining.  We are not foodies and the MDR and other included venues have been fine with us in the past.  The only specialty dining we have experienced so far was Chops Brunch on Grandeur of the Seas and we were not that impressed with that one.  But because we wanted to experience Wonderland, I purchased the three night dining package for this cruise, when it went on sale for $99pp.  Our plans are to eat at Chops, Wonderland and 150 Central Park.  We were also lucky enough to get the great UBP glitch of 2019, so there will be no problem breaking even on this cruise.  I have the digital photo package so we will be jumping in front of a ship’s photographer as much as I can.  At the last minute, we purchased The Key as prices went down, so I will try to do a somewhat live review this time.

The Plan:  We started taking ballroom dance lessons this past September and hope to find opportunities to dance the night away.  The pre-cruise events starts off with a formal Sweetheart Dance on February 14 put on by our local dance studio.  With only a few hours of sleep we fly from DC to Orlando Saturday Morning.  So here is our itinerary for this cruise.

Pre-Cruise Day -2:  Final packing and attending the Sweetheart Formal Dance.

Pre-Cruise Day -1:  Flight to Orlando, spend the day checking out Disney Springs and/or Universal City Walk before checking into Country Inn & Suites by Radisson.

Cruise Day 1:  Kraken Lava Flow, specialty dinner reservations and then Chops lunch in the MDR. 

Cruise Day 2:  Coco Cay-this is our second time at Coco Cay, but the first time at Perfect Day.  Plans are for a relaxing beach day with time in the pool, beach and                                          exploring the island taking photographs.

Cruise Day 3:  Sea Day-this is a do nothing but enjoy the ship day.

Cruise Day 4:  Puerto Costa Maya-this is our second time here.  On our first visit we took a Royal excursion to the Mayan ruins at Kohunlich and Dizbanche, this time the                           plans are to explore the port and visit the Aviary.

Cruise Day 5:  Roatan, Honduras- we will be doing the adults only Sol y Mar Beach Club.   

Cruise Day 6:  Cozumel, Mexico-this will be our third time here, previously we did the Mayan Ruins at San Gervasio and Chocolate Factory Tour and explored downtown                             San Miguel.  This time we have Trikes Cozumel reserved for a tour around the island, followed by some time downtown before heading back to the ship.

Cruise Day 7:  Final Sea Day-hoping to enjoy the ship and drink our sorrows away as this cruise comes to an end.

Cruise Day 8:  Will be dragged off the ship kicking and screaming, once the shock wears off we’ll be off to explore Cocoa Beach area.  DW does not like rushing off the                               ship to the airport so we will spend another night in Florida before heading home.

Post-Cruise Day:  It’s back to the cruel cold winter with a flight from MCO to IAD.

First and last day I would expect to wear the same clothing you would wear in Cleveland for the time frame.  In SC and FL long pants and a sweater or light jacket.  For the sea days going down and coming back you may want long pants and a sweater or light jacket if you venture out on deck, inside the temperatures have been comfortable.

I too would like to see you continue your review/comparison.  Have been on Royal 3 times and 3 future Royal cruise booked.  I have booked this ship for an Alaska trip in June 2020.

We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express and walked to 15th Street Fisheries, it's a little over a mile walk each way.  We had sidewalk part of the time and shoulder of the road the rest of the time.  We are mid 60's in fairly good shape, it was a long hot walk, not many places to rest along the way.  We ate downstairs and the had a few drinks and appetizers for the meal.  The food and drinks were good and would consider going back.  If you eat outside you can see and feed the fish.  I might reconsider uber the next time but the walk wasn't really that bad but it was hot in April and we needed a drink by the time we got back to the hotel.

We are new to cruising, so wasn't aware that the luggage would be delivered to our cabin.  To those who have it placed inside your cabin what time did you notice it there?

In our three cruises, we are among the first to board anxious to get the vacation started.  Once the announcement the cabins are ready, we head to the cabin then or after I finish my drink.  We wipe the surfaces down with a cleaner wipe and checkout the cabin, unpack the carry on bag, next step is to look for our luggage.  The first two times, I found them in the hallway a 10-20 feet from our cabin, if they all weren't there I'd unpack the ones i had then go look for the last one or two bags.  On the Majesty last April, I think I found one bag in the hallway several rooms away, went looking for the other ones and found them in the elevator lobby being staged with other bags, so I grabbed them and rolled them to our room.  Within an hour of the cabins becoming available, we are unpacked and heading out to enjoy the ship.  I prefer to grab my bags as I see them (1) to make sure someone doesn't think it's theirs and (2) get everything unpacked and put away to minimize wrinkles and have my room organized.

Happy to see that this thread continually grows legs.  Since my original question, I continue to shoot in jpg and raw.  Most of my photos are taken in auto mode as they are quick shots on excursions/ships, local festivals and car shows.  Tweaking the images in raw makes them standout in my opinion.  I know that many complain that shooting in raw and jpg uses to much memory; I just try to carry extra SD cards and load them to a laptop and an external HD daily and clear the cards for the next days shooting.

2 hours ago, jennyumaa said:

 

I just checked for our cruise. Photo package (all digital) $119.99. Good price?

I think this is a pretty good deal, its the cheapest I recall it being.  Actually purchased it at this price for my Harmony cruise in February.

We attended one on the Oasis in April 2018, it was held in Jazz on 4.  Genre was a 1920's speakeasy with a secret password needed to get in.  The hosts put on a fun show, many dressed for the era, music and chance for dancing.  The drinks were to sweet for my taste, they had some food available but we didn't try any.  All in all it was a lot of fun and something different to do. 

I'm on a Harmony western cruise in Feb, I checked a couple past cruise compasses and the formal nights have been on Day 3 the Sea Day and Day 6 Cozumel.  

We had a late afternoon flight after the cruise, so we ubered to the airport and rented a car for the day.  Went to Everglades Holiday Park for an airboat tour and gator show.

Haven't done any atv tours, but I do own several atvs and have ridden others.  Most of the automatics require you to depress the foot brake to shift it into gear.  Mine will only start in park or neutral; I would contact the tour operators directly to see what accomadations they can make.

Just now, Merion_Mom said:

 

You receive a bill (which can be zero, if you booked before your cruise) in a folder.  You can put a tip on the slip or leave cash, all inside the folder.

Okay, thanks doing specialty restaurants for the first time on the Harmony in February.

Did you hand the waiter the extra tip or did you just leave it on the table?

We book ours thru our TA and will arrange final payment about a week early.  Gives me the piece of mind, in case murphy's law would kick in.   I fear that if I wait till the last day there will be something that prevents my payment from reaching RCCL.

12 hours ago, POF1234 said:

Views from the balcony were fantastic.  Personally I would skimp on anything else and have a balcony.  Especially in Alaska.  One of the reasons I don;t usually cruise is I get bored looking at the ocean all day.  Not in Alaska, lots of scenery. 

 

Yes - we went up for the glacier viewing and also just to move around.  Both great views 

 

We went to Glacier Bay and the ship did a 360.  We were fortunate it was a clear and crisp day. 

 

If you go - be sure to bring binoculars ! 

Thanks, we have a deluxe balcony on Caribe Deck.  after we booked the Royal I started seeing so many negative reviews about it being the wrong ship for Alaska because of it's size and lack of outside viewing places, but we decided to stick with what we had booked.  Will be sure to bring binoculars.

best part of booking on next cruise is $100 pp deposits; and usually some obc.  Research the prices of cruises your interested in before boarding so you have an idea of costs for the ships and cabins that interest you.  I generally book on board and have it transferred to my TA; once i had a price drop that was a better deal from when I originally booked it.  In this instance i went from an inside to an oceanview; lost my obc but the overall price was a better deal.

How was the venison?  is it wrapped in something and how was the sauce?