Lindanuf

On 3/24/2023 at 10:26 PM, Wendylet said:

Planning a trip at some point on the Wonder and we are gifting this trip to our two daughters, their husbands and their children and ourselves. I have one unenthusiastic son in law who flat out says he has no interest in a cruise…..even though it is free for him. I want to rap him upside the head! I asked him to look at the Wonder to see how fantastic it looks but he simply says he is sure there will just be lines everywhere to do anything. He hates lines. Never having cruised a ship this size before can anyone tell me how bad the lines are for slides and other activities. Likely we will be cruising the Caribbean in either a January or April. I wish someone was giving ME a free trip!!

Tell him you're getting the key so he can avoid most lines.  I hate lines to and travel with an ADHD kid and with the key we don't wait to get on or off or at shows.  We never have to wait to eat cuz we have an assigned dining time.  The only line I remember waiting in was Starbucks but that was no worse than my one at home.

On 1/12/2023 at 10:13 AM, Biker19 said:

The kids may appreciate a second Flowrider and you'd appreciate the $2K savings going on Harmony - no real diff between them other than the new car smell.

Wonder has 1 flowrider?

Ship - Harmony of the Seas

Deck - 14

Stateroom # - 268

Stateroom Category – 

Starboard or Port Side -  Port

Quiet Stateroom? – the room is right at the elevators and right under the Pool deck by the dive shop.  When we sat out on our balcony we sometimes heard running above us, especially the first and last night.  We didn’t hear it in the room if the door was shut.  We also didn’t hear any noise from the elevators in the room, except twice when piano guy was in an elevator, but I liked hearing when he was out there and it was not loud at all.

Was stateroom a connecting stateroom? -No

Balcony View - The balcony is right under a hump with a wall the was a slight obstruction, only to the side.  I will post Picts below.  It was a very private balcony because of the wall.  We couldn’t see any other passengers except right next to us and there did not appear to even be cameras on this balcony.

Balcony Size? Normal or oversized for class? - normal

Was wind a problem? -No

If an aft cabin, was soot a problem? -No

Any specific problems with this cabin? -No

Any other comments? - I loved being to close to the elevator.  I would probably book 1 deck down next time though, because of the noise on the balcony.  Single bed is closest to the balcony.

3 hours ago, LuCruise said:

Definitely glad someone pointed out that MTD doesn't start until 6:30pm and that we were still able to change from MTD to traditional.  Seems like the better option.

This the line for MTD looked like at 6:10 tonight on Harmony.  The thought of coming to wait in line 20 mins before I can even get in is not something I want to ever deal with.  At 6:30 the line is actually insane.

2 hours ago, LuCruise said:

Thank you for confirming!  Really glad you can show up within the range and thus at least come closer to 5:30pm (we tend to get a table for ourselves).  Too bad they use all rooms for traditional and push MTD start time as we found My Time worked well on Allure a few years ago. Sounds like it's a mess on Harmony.

Hope you're having a great cruise.

I was disappointed we got a table with just the 3 of us, I requested one with more people.  Other than that we’re having a great time.

On 11/24/2019 at 10:44 AM, LuCruise said:

Thanks.  The only thing is that for the production shows in the theatre such as Grease or Columbus, I like to arrive early at around 45 min before, to try and get good seats (or as best as we can as a lot of the front ones are reserved).  

 

If anyone can confirm how traditional dining works when it shows a range...then I think it may be best to switch.  But if we need to arrive at 5pm sharp...then that's a bit too early.  Also, I think it's easier to switch from traditional to MTD vs the other way around, once we see the actual show times on our cruise if dining doesn't work out?

I’m on Harmony now, 5-5:30 early dinner you can show up anytime before 5:30.  When we leave the main dining room between 6:30 and 7 there is a line out the door, around the corner, and back past the elevator, on both sides.  After seeing the horrible lines every day I would never do my dining time.  5 is a little early for us too but we get there closer to 5:30.

4 hours ago, Tntt said:

I will be sailing on harmony in 2020, we sailed symphony this year and I know these ships are similar but for those that have cruised both which one was your preference? I know symphony has playmakers, and the midnight balloon drop but does the harmony have any thing similar to this? Just curious as to what to expect because I've read on here in the past many prefer the symphony but what are some major differences?

From what I have read here the elevators work better on Symphony and other than that, they just have diff carpet, art and shows.

On 10/4/2019 at 6:55 AM, RickAinley said:

Actually my other complaint was for what is deemed a "family" ship, making the headline entertainment show, Grease,  "Suitable for mature audiences only". Plenty of West End/Broadway shows they could have picked.  

We were planning on taking our 8 year old to grease because she loves musicals, is it really inappropriate?  She has seen both versions of the movie.

On 4/27/2019 at 3:04 PM, alexpfsu said:

 

Do you have your sheet still with the actives and times still that you could post?  If not do you recall how many times Flowrider was on it.   Where you able to get priority access to activities during regular hours like people have talked about before on Symphony?

 

Going on the same ship in 30 days or so and trying to see if I should keep the Key. Or should we just drop it and get our money back. 

 

Thanks for the current review on Symphony with the Key.

Here is from Symphony 2 weeks ago.

I just booked a thanksgiving cruise and the only option I had for dining is late.  Is that something I can just call and change?  My 7 year old will not make it with late dining.  They don’t have that kids option where they pick them up an hour into dinner at the late sitting either.   At this point I am thinking I should cancel the cruise over this.

44 minutes ago, tcmagnum said:

We had printed out our set sail passes a few weeks before we decided to buy the key, therefore the key symbol   was not on the set sail pass.  But I did go in and reprinted the set sail pass and the key symbol is on it now.  

 

Our set sail pAss did not have a key on it and we had the key months before I printed the set sail pass.

4 minutes ago, bradenj21 said:

Access to your stateroom at noon? 

We got to our room about 12:50 and all our luggage was in the hall and we got in our room.

On 4/20/2019 at 3:28 PM, October17 said:

Today is last day at sea, had the key luggage tags and a letter in the room in the morning. Key breakfast on deck 4, then to go to a meeting point to be escorted off ship, and to ask staff to help us past lines ashore (so I take it as meaning there will be no separate line once off the ship). 

 

Also got a form for key feedback that needs to be left to the cabin attendant today.

We just got off Symphony and didn’t get a key feedback form.

Excursions

St Kitts, we did the dolphin experience.  Was awesome and we had time to shop after.

St Thomas, we did a sail and snorkel to Turtle Bay.  It was awesome too.  I wanted to see turtles and we did, they were all over.  A guy from a diff boat almost drowned though.  They had to rescue him on a raft and revive him.  I swam right by him and saw him hanging onto the boat line.  A few min’s later we heard the call for a rescue.  I kicked myself for not recognizing he was in trouble.  We had rum punch on the boat back and it was all around awesome.  We even had time to buy some souvenirs at the port before our excursion.  

Nassau, we did Atlantis.  I’m glad we did it but it was a rip off for that price.  By the time we got to Atlantis it was 11:30, and we were the first group off the boat.  The bus and directions and wristband were so disorganized.  We had to head back to get the 2pm bus at 1:30.  We basically had 2 hours there.  We did the rapid lazy river twice, had lunch and left.  It was basically $100 a lap around the river.

We we’re back on the boat by 3 and I watched for pier runners.  The boat left around 5:00 ish, even though all aboard was 3:30.  Not even the late people were not running.   If you want to watch for pier runners on the Eastern Caribbean get a room on the starboard side.  We watched for runners at all 3 ports.

 Limits on Things

One thing I did not like was the limits on things for my daughter.  Try telling a 7 year old she can’t do a zip line cuz she doesn’t weigh enough, or go on the flow rider cuz she’s not tall enough, or swim with dolphins because she’s not old enough.  She does zip lines all the time off the boat.  We took her to Theater of the Seas after the boat to get pushed and pulled by dolphins, so it wasn’t that big of a deal, but RC seems to have higher limits on things than other places.  Oh, and they said kids under 18 couldn’t even play some game at on air on night.  It was a finish the lyrics game and the host said kids wouldn’t know songs from the 70’s and 80’s, or something like that.  I thought it was pretty  lame because compass did not list the game as 18+.

Things we loved

We loved all the shows (Hair Spray was my fav), the pool contests (sexy man, belly flop), line dancing at boleros, and the adult games we went to.  I loved that they took pictures at night around dinner and that there were so many backgrounds and photographers.  I loved that some of them had little steps my daughter could stand on.  I loved all the frozen drinks had alcoholic and non alcoholic.  Even the bionic bar had non alcohol drinks my daughter could try.

We loved all the games at On Air every night.  We played Majority rules, Rock the Room, several music ones and we even sang family karaoke, although they need more Toby Keith songs to choose from.  We sang Courtesy of the Red White and Blue (probably not as appropriate on an international cruise as say How Do You Like Me Now or Red Solo Cup would have been).  We had a blast at the selfie scavenger hunt.  We loved all the parties on the promenade.

ADventure Ocean info

On Sea days the sessions are 9-12, 5-7, and 7-10.  There is also a 10-2 session but you pay $7 an hour for that.  Your kid can go in with a diff age group but once they switch they have to stay in the new group.  My daughter was in the 6-8 group but she made friends with a 9 year old and so she wanted to move groups.  They let her try the 9-11 group (with a trial pass) to be with her friend, but told her after that session she had to decide which group.  She was almost in tears when I picked her up and said she wanted to stay with 6-8.

I really wish they had a 12-2 session.  RC scheduled adult only things during the 12-2 session that my husband and I would have gone too if we could have left her at AO.  For example, Martini seminar, Next Cruise presentation, adult scrapbooking, and slot tournaments were all around 1pm.  Hello RC???? You would have gotten more money from me if I could have put my kid somewhere!!!  Another scheduling oversight was the Easter Festival stuff.  Why would they put that at 5:15?  Most parents with young kids probably have 5:30 dinner.  Put the Easter stuff from 12-2 on a sea day and put the adult stuff when AO is avail..  

19 hours ago, Cel_cruise said:

All aboard was at 3:30...but it’s 3:53 and they just listed 15 names to report to guest services ...unfortunately I don’t have a pier runner view!


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We had a pier runner view and there was nothing to see.  All the late people just walked on and didn’t see anyone left behind.   I think they may have been though because no one got on after names were called.  You really don’t hear announcements in the room though so maybe they were already on.  This was the most running I saw from a late person.

14 hours ago, Cel_cruise said:

 

At 4:15 they were still calling for 2 names...and we finally pulled away around 4:40 I think...wouldn’t be surprised if someone was left behind!

When we looked outside around 7:30 it felt like we were really hauling a$$..hard to say if that’s just how it ‘felt’ or if the captains as trying to make up for leaving late and coming to a near stop for 2 aqua shows!! Oh - and there was a shipwide Alpha Alpha Alpha call at 5:24 for the dining room / deck 5 .. so who knows if that’s another reason to be going fast (or maybe we aren’t going fast and it just feels that way?!) ...

On a side note - the Alpha call was during the aqua show and of course stopped the music completely. The performers did a great job of trying to keep the timing of their show going without sound and picked it back up again when the announcement stopped!


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The alpha call was for a woman that passed out completely right at the dining room entrance.  The medical staff was trying to get a pulse and revive her when they closed off the dining room as we were trying to go in.  Dinner in level 5 was delayed because of it.  I don’t know what happened but I hope she was ok.

2 hours ago, Cel_cruise said:

 

It’s amazing how different our boarding day experiences were on the same ship on the same day! I went to sign up around 3pm and they were in the Explorers room! Cracks me up! But - no matter what - it’s super easy!


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We didn’t sign ours up day 1.  We went in the afternoon day 2.

5 hours ago, PopeyeDaSailor said:

Wow, great LIVE review. 

 

I'm heading out on the same ship on May 11th with my two kids.  My daughter is almost 6 and my son will turn 12 during the cruise!

 

Can you two ladies please talk about signing them up for kids programs?  This will be our first cruise with kids (haven't been on a cruise since 2003) and I'm looking for any tips.  I know they will be in different age groups but I just want to know how/where/when we can sign them up. 

 

We plan on putting them in the program for days we are sailing and keeping them out when we're in port leaving the ship.

 

Oh and love the Disney thing but Grandmom/pop lives near there so my kids have been there so many times they have lost the spark (which is sad).

The first day you show up, you sign up and register them, they have tables set up to do this right outside the entrance to Adventure Ocean.  Once they are registered you can just drop them off.

They have 3 main sessions with diff theme’s and activities at each.  They morning session is 9-12, afternoon 2-5, and evening 7-10.  They also have Adventure dining from 5-7 and you can drop them anytime during the afternoon and leave them there all the way through.  You have to keep them from noon to 2 every day.    They also have a late night option from 10p -2a but that’s $7 and hour.

Ours was adopted out of foster care last year with no experience with anything and no common sense.  When we got her she had not even been to a movie theater.   

My daughter loves Adventure Ocean so far and sugar beach, where the stuffed animals are all fat, and making drinks at the bionic arm.  She also loved the sexiest man contest and the belly flop contest.   I’m not sure what the appeal of those are to a 7 year old but she loves screaming and cheering on adult men doing silly things.  She also loves getting dressed up for formal night.

7 hours ago, Cel_cruise said:

Are you saying that they are not swiping your child’s seapass when they enter or exit AO?

My daughter is 8 (she would say almost 9!) but there are 6 other people on her pick up list besides me in our group. She would need her seapass when being picked up so unless the drop off and pick up person are the same - she won’t be able to get into our room to get a bathing suit or phone or change or to meet us in a show with reserved seating etc.

Right now she is using a lanyard like case that holds her phone and seapass together but she wouldn’t wear that in AO as I wouldn’t want the phone damaged. Regardless of there being work arounds - it’s mind boggling that you can use a WOW band EVERYWHERE on the ship except AO strictly because they don’t have a band reader!! That’s just being cheap.

 

We have needed our sea pass card to pick her up, not drop her off.   She can’t sign in our out by herself anyway so she has not even worn her band in.   It sounds like your 8 year old is way more mature than ours.   Ours is with 1 of us 24/7, she would never be walking back to the room alone, nor does she even change into her suit alone.  I could never trust her with a phone either. Ours is pretty immature for a first grader.

7 hours ago, Cel_cruise said:

 

Yes - I know we are on the same cruise - I am the one who asked you about this boarding experience in our roll call.

 

You are welcome to share experiences here as well about this cruise if you want!

 

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Thank you, I might share a few things too instead of a brand new thread. 

We have not attempted any of the special key times for stuff yet but are going to try the rock wall today from 4-5.  

5 hours ago, Cel_cruise said:

Cross posted with The Key thread...

The Key on Symphony...the headaches continue...

Tonight we had 2 activities that would involve The Key. We had reservations for Hiro and we had Ice Skating.

Hiro started at 8:30 and we arrived around 8:12. We stood in the reservation line and it was odd that it just wasn’t moving. Come to find out - that it wasn’t moving because most of the guests showing up at that time were Key guests - and when they showed up the reserved seating area was already full. Many guests were very unhappy. We know of at least 20 that could not be seated in the area but there may have been more.

The greeter from the Sports Staff was very apologetic - he told us that he has been asking management to start using the reservation data to block off reserved areas based on the actual numbers but they won’t accept his suggestion. I felt bad for him as the guy on the front line dealing with this mess. He said point blank to talk to CD Mike about it because it is definitely a real issue and we should not have been in this situation.

Our group of 8 split up - I took the 3 girls and we found some bench seating on the side that we could fit on it my daughter sat on my lap (for an hour!!) and the other 4 adults went to Deck 7 to watch - so not only did they not get Key - they didn’t even use their reservation!! One of them dragged a chair over for the senior of the group. While the view from Deck 7 was great - it should not have come to that!!! Luckily we thought the show had enough entertaining stunts and choreography that it helped make things tolerable.

After that disappointment - we went to the properly scheduled Ice Skating time. They waited until 9:30 to open the ice exactly and then nearly every guest that was in line needed to sign waivers. It was 9:45before we got to the front and then we had to wait for some of the girls moms to come down to sign waivers. It was 10:05 before we had everything done and could proceed to skate fitting area. Given the late start I asked that our group also be given stickers for the 10:30 Skating session which after pointing out we would have 5-8 minutes to skate before the time ran out, they agreed. In the end- that request being granted was great compensation. When they cleared the green group - they let us stay on the ice while the white group was allowed in the skate prep area. We had about 10 min of ice time with just the 4 of us which was perfect for the 2 kids who were new to skating!! We stayed on until the entire white group made it onto the ice and freed up seating for us to get off.

For skating - I accept that some of the delayed start was on us for needing to sign waivers - though I do wish that they had a process for this to sign them ahead of time or at checkin or muster tag pick up or something. But 15 minutes before we even got to the sign in station was crazy - this was a first ice skating event I think and there should have been more people to get the possible key guests into the ice quickly.




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Wow, that sucks about the key seating.  We were going to go at 8:15 too but our table mates in the dining room told us to always go to shows 30 mins early.  I know they didn’t  have the key but I didn’t want to miss the show so we arrived at 8 and stood in the reservation line.  When we got up to the front of the line they told us 4 rows were reserved for key members, they were maybe 6 rows back and right in the middle.  We were one of the first key people there because we could pick from any row any seat.  I think the more experienced cruisers knew to come at 8 and I was glad we did because there was someone on stage entertaining even before the show.   After hearing your story I think we’ll arrive 30 mins early for all the shows because I like to be where I can get good videos.

9 hours ago, Cel_cruise said:

 

Yes - I can buy her one - but it won’t stop the problem I have which is that she needs to carry a purse or something to keep the card in....little girl clothing doesn’t come with pockets to hold seapass cards! Ha!

When I spoke with Adventure Ocean - they said the only reason they can’t take them is because no one has given them a band reader...


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Didn’t you say your daughter is 8?  They Told my daughter to leave her card with us when we checked her in.   If she’s older and needs a card you can just get her a lanyard, they have pretty sparkly ones in the gift shop.