CruiserLucas

We always book a specialty restaurant for one of the formal nights, and did it on both formal nights on our last cruise. We did Jaime's for one and 150 Park for the other, with Chops in between on a regular night. This was on Harmony. Personally, we like formal nights, but the dining experience is probably going to be the same either way. In Chops, people were still dressed very well even though it wasn't a formal night.

Wasn't with Royal, but did a ship excursion in Curacao with Carnival last August (so probably all the same tour companies anyways) that was an island tour and had sea turtle snorkel. It was a really great tour in our opinion. Minibus of I think of about 20 or so people, we had a great guide, too. We also stopped at the Nina Sanchez gallery. I enjoyed looking at the art and the building, and the property had a nice view.

I would consider it if my future career plans change or don't plan out lol I work in higher ed in a front-line role and have to help people plan, I deal with disgruntled folks - especially about financials, I get "stupid" questions all the time, etc. And I still love what I do and love helping people. One of the things I like in my job is actually improving the customer service experience for people I work with, so I wouldn't have a problem keeping a smile on. I agree that it does emotionally drain me on some days, but I have ways to cope and rejuvenate (e.g. cruising) to get back. At least on Carnival's site they say "cruise benefits". https://jobs.carnival.com/perks But you can't see what that means on their site. I tried looking online a bit but didn't find anything else. Maybe someone else will say. Wouldn't that be nice though!

I think Seaday Brunch was fine the first couple of times we had it. I don't know that I paid attention to its promotion enough to get a sense if it was overhyped. I'd say I'm not writing letters home about it. Just writing some letters on Cruise Critic about it... 😅 I think they do/did a worse job overhyping afternoon tea on seadays. A box of Twinings or Tetley bags wasn't my idea of classy tea time I guess.

Oh no... From bad to worse. 😞😢 I'm sorry to hear you didn't get to make it. I hope Carnival was sympathetic to your situation, even if they don't have to be. FCC or something to ease the pain would be nice. At least you and your family were safe after two robberies.

And not to mention motor control/coordination. I can get a bit shaky and am already clumsy, so two hands to hold onto one item is ideal for me. I like trays so I don't have to do a back and forth from table to station. I've had the bussers remove my new plate of food right after setting it down when I went to go get the other stuff.

Hi Gabriel! Welcome to Cruise Critic! It's awesome to know you're thinking of your first cruise. My partner and I sailed on Harmony in late-February/early-March and loved the ship. I think you will, too. I have never sailed alone, and I'm not planning to be on this specific sailing, but I wanted to still provide advice as a young, gay cruise couple (27 & 30). The experience will be whatever you make it, honestly. Most cruisers are fun and friendly. Yes, there is the exceptional folks who may keep to themselves. Not all of them may not be judgy and cliqueish, just introverted or content with their own friends circle. You mentioned Atlantis, so this must have some portion of the cabins reserved for other LGBTQ travelers? If you don't personally know of any other travelers onboard, and you implied they have resources for connections then I encourage you to use them. The worst that could happen is that you don't like whoever you meet, and you may never see them again since it's a huge ship with 6,000 people on it. There will usually be a nightly LGBTQ meet up at a bar or other venue, too. That's consistent on most ships whether or not the cruise has a gay charter happening. Sometimes there are people who show up for those, sometimes not, but we have tried them once or twice to see if we can make new friends. Edit: Also, try the Roll Call forums here on Cruise Critic. There is a G&L Roll Call sub-forum at the top of this forum's page: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/547-gampl-roll-calls/ and there is also a general Roll Call already started for your cruise by another passenger in the main Roll Call forum: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2841662-harmony-of-the-seas-february-3-2023/#comment-62921398

We sailed Harmony in March, and this was one of our biggest complaints - granted our first time on Royal, so we were learning the way things worked for them. The line the first night was awful, and we had reservations. Didn't know you could reserve ahead for MTD, they were just on our app and we couldn't change them. But since the line was snaking down the hall we didn't know there was a shorter one for those with reservations and stood in the wrong line from the time we got off the elevator. Oops. They "hid" the signs for each line up by the podiums, not near the entrance/elevator where people were. I like Carnival's way of just "checking-in" on the app/requesting the table at your leisure when you're ready. And then you show up when they say your table is ready. So much better! But everything else on Royal was great so we're converts to Royal from Carnival despite bad MTD.

Try it and you’ll be surprised that it’s good. Real lox on the bagel with regular cream cheese is superior, sure. But lox is expensive to buy all the time and doesn’t go as far as a tub of the salmon cream cheese for a quick breakfast in the morning.

I don’t know if it’s a Jewish thing for bagels & lox on New Years, but I assume our family tradition of eating lots of bagels stemmed from my grandfather’s Jewish heritage. Funnily, though, he converted to Catholic when he married his Italian wife… lol I get my smoked salmon cream cheese from Philadelphia brand. It’s just in a small tub and I’ve seen it at most stores in the cream cheese section. And no issues with a mess yet for the cheese coming through the bagel hole. Doesn’t tend to get out by the time it has started to melt and it’s then ready to remove from the pan. I use non-stick skillets, too, so it cleans up easily enough and with the grease from the butter.

Nothing beats bagels & lox. 😋 We would have them for every New Years breakfast in my house growing up courtesy of my father (born in NYC, Jewish father). It's my go-to for bagel eating when on a cruise. At home, since where I live has no good local bagels, I do Thomas. I put Country Crock's plant-based olive oil spread on, just a little, and under the broiler for about 5 minutes, then add cream cheese (smoked salmon flavor of course). I'd highly recommend trying bagels as a grilled cheese bread, too. Similar instructions to what was posted above about buttering the pan, but here's my recipe: Butter in the pan and melted, put the cut-side down and let it sizzle until crisp and golden. Flip on over and add cheese, then top with the other cut side immediately. Let it brown on the outside, flipping as needed and until the cheese melts. Then enjoy!

The ritual is there not being one and everyone asking what it is supposed to be, duh! We didn't get anything special for our Cloud 9 balcony on Sunshine that I would call ritualistic. Didn't see any chalk-drawn pentagrams anywhere at least... 😆 When we went to tour the spa, they of course tied to pitch buying services and stuff, and then gave us a free jar of scrub with itty-bitty scrub pad. Heck, our cabin didn't even have the bathrobes or slippers in it like the cabin description said and we had to get them from our steward...

Yes, definitely can happen. I'm not saying they're immune to theft. But the more backups you have kept separate, the better. Most people don't carry their driver's license with their passport at all times, so they likely won't be stolen together, unless they're in the same bag or something. But in this instance, since it sounds like just the wallet was stolen, the passport would have likely been elsewhere and safe, providing backup. And it's always wise to keep two photo copies of your passport and separate from your passport, should that be stolen, too.

I hope you got on! That sucks!!! Makes for a good warning on why to have a passport or passport card at the least. If you had a bit more time before your travel I would have said give the LA passport agency (your closest and closest to port?) a call about an emergency appointment. Always worth a shot. Also, although you said you're not military, are you a spouse or dependent of military? You could qualify for a a military ID still as a backup for a photo ID.

We just leave ours under shirts/towel. Never had a problem or heard of any from others. Though the chances are never 0, it's going to be hard to stay away from the long arm of the cruise security if someone did steal them. We only use the floaty waterproof phone holders that go around your neck when at the beach, but that could be an option if you don't want to really risk it being on the chair.

You may have not hit the correct button, unfortunately. I just checked a random cruise, and the buttons are still the same. Pictures of the sequence below.

As others have said, most cruisers are easy-going and will not care, or remember who you are after a glance when you pass by on the ship. Depending on how big/small it is for a world cruise, more repeated contact with the same passengers could be more likely. I do think you might want to speak with the cruise line about their security ID policies. If your partner's passport is more masculine, but they want to present feminine, that may cause an issue depending on the security photo they take for her cruise account. If there's not a close enough match when using it, it could cause a delay using a service. For example, my partner is a cis-male, and he shaved his beard to just stubble one day while onboard. His security photo had a full beard, and when re-boarding at a port they made him present a second photo ID to prove his identity.

In mid-December 2018 on Dream they had a big Christmas tree in the atrium, contests like others have mentioned, singing, music, other themes sprinkled throughout. On our December 26, 2021 cruise on Sunshine it was similar, and there was a big gingerbread village in a lobby area made by the dining team similar to what @cyntil8ing has in their pic above. So seems to have been kept consistent before and after the pandemic. But I didn't monitor it that closely to spot many differences.

We had one in December and it was a disappointment. We actually booked Cloud 9 Balcony for Horizon, but when Horizon had engine issues and they split our sailing, we ended up in Cloud 9 Balcony on Sunshine. The room just has different decor, different "special" toiletries, spa robes, and spa slippers really. You're also located close to the spa. FYI, the slippers are very small and cheap. We didn't even bother ask for other sizes, since a bigger cheap slipper still wasn't worth wearing. Horizon has better steam rooms, the thalassotherapy pool as pointed out is missing from Sunshine, and the spa showers for before and after the steam rooms (and pool for the spas that have it) are not as nice. There are still the heated tile loungers. So having seen both, I'd not bother going for Cloud 9 on Sunshine again myself.

On the plus side, you can still get lots of other drinks with Cheers that don't contain alcohol anyways if you end up buying it.

Just sharing my experience, and maybe it's gotten better over the past year as they get back to running normally and increase supplies and training... We had a very tough time on both our cruises last year in August and December. Both of us are lactose intolerant and in the main dining room they could not understand wanting non-dairy milk. First time it was like "Well, what do you want?" So we'd ask for coconut milk, which is what we prefer. They'd come back and say not available, then more "what do you want? Want the chef to come talk to you?" No... I just want you to tell me what you have that's not dairy creamer. lol So they'd leave again to find out and come back and only had soy milk, which is fine, but really weird they wouldn't be prepared with at least knowing they have 1 non-dairy alternative available. After that we'd just ask for soymilk to make it easier on everyone and straightforward, but if you're choosy on what non-dairy milk you get, it could be hit or miss. Personally, I don't like almond milk for my coffee, so I'd forgo it altogether if that's all they had. But a struggle to get it figured out when ordering stuff.

Saw someone win $100 on Sunshine in December. First time I've seen it. Edit/addition: Not the claw machine on a ship, but on the cord cutting game I've won a prize in an arcade. In high school, for my first iPod Touch 🤣

It will be relatively warm at those locations still at that time of the year. Or at least not a noticeable enough change. Plus if it’s a warm and muggy day, a “cooler” refreshing ocean dip could be pleasant! I’ve been through the Caribbean and Gulf in December and water was still very warm at different places. Coolest I’ve felt was at the Bahamas this past March at CocoCay when it was about 70° temperature and the water was about the same temp, and there was a strong wind. Still was warm enough once getting in the water to enjoy it, though, and that’s North Atlantic water, not Caribbean.

IDK... I grew up in the west with In & Out, and I think the obsession with them is overrated. So it's a low bar to clear in my opinion to be better than them... 😅 But I still agree that Guy's burgers ARE better lol

Maybe it's going better for non-dairy alternatives now versus last year. When we were on Horizon and Sunshine last year most of the dining options only offered us soy milk, after they struggled to understand that we wanted non-dairy for our coffee - about the only time I'd have dairy in a significant amount to worry about it. After the first few struggles to not get dairy products, we just stuck to requesting soy milk since it took a while to even find out they had that. I usually prefer coconut milk for my coffee. More than once I was still given cream in the dining room after requesting soy milk; though to be fair they're probably so busy they're on autopilot. Next time I'll just bring lactaid pills or something 😅