Just off Harmony - happy to answer any questions!

[Crewzer33]

Just off Harmony this morning and had a GREAT cruise. We had an ocean balcony and a boardwalk balcony. Just did main dining for dinner. We are a Diamond family and enjoyed the Diamond Lounge every night. We have sailed on Oasis and Allure two times each, so we more or less hit the ground running (with your helpful tips about differences). Did not copy compasses. Happy to answer any questions I can. And THANK YOU SO MUCH for all of your tips pre-cruise.

[babydougie]

What was your cabin number for your boardwalk balcony room? We are staying in 9729 and are curious about the view with abyss.

 

 

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[Crewzer33]

10717 you can see the Abyss that's for sure - but it didn't bother them (newlyweds stayed there) and it didn't block the view, more like an obstruction.

[racerxspeedy]

What was your cabin number for your boardwalk balcony room? We are staying in 9729 and are curious about the view with abyss.

 

 

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babyd - have you seen the pics posted previously from 9729 attached?? The tube comes very close to the deck 9 balconies. We will be back on harmony in a few weeks and have deck 10 and 11. We enjoyed Harmony very much

 

[Ashland]

We'll be in #9729, 9727, 9725 & 9723 in a few weeks.....We'll just look around that obstruction ;)

[Crewzer33]

We have always had our dinners in Main Dining Room and have not cruised for three years. Thanks to Cruise Critic people, we expected the food to be of a lesser standard than in the past. However, we did have some great meals - the risotto the first night was EXCELLENT and the sole later in the week was very good. The Branzino was "fishy" even though it was the Chef's recommendation - not good! Our waiter was working his tail off while his assistant did next to nothing. He gave up the "spiel" last night about filling out the questionnaire and how they get "incentives" for high ratings. I will absolutely give him high ratings, but sheez, Royal must really put the pressure on them for so many to tell this to passengers. I will also let Royal know of our opinion on the main dining food - we would consider it "banquet" quality, while in the past that was not the case.

[hew2nd]

Glad you enjoyed the cruise.

Do you recall if there was much emphasis on pushing discounted specialty dining?

[Mommy4lyfe]

Welcome back! We just booked the Harmony today for September 30. Can you tell me how was debarkation? I am thinking about a 10:30am flight :o

 

Gladys

[babydougie]

babyd - have you seen the pics posted previously from 9729 attached?? The tube comes very close to the deck 9 balconies. We will be back on harmony in a few weeks and have deck 10 and 11. We enjoyed Harmony very much

 

 

 

Wow is that image from that cabin?! I guess I didn't realize how close it was when I booked in September. The view of the aqua theater seems ok. I can't wait to see more pictures/read reviews as people return next month.

 

 

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[babydougie]

We'll be in #9729, 9727, 9725 & 9723 in a few weeks.....We'll just look around that obstruction ;)

 

 

I can't wait to follow up with you. Would love to see pictures from the balcony. Are you doing any live broadcasts or blogs?

 

 

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[RoeC]

We are sailing on her in July. Can you explain the new dining. When we sailed last year on oasis we were able to pick early dinning. Now I understand its my time dining but in the past choosing this option I was able to reserve times. It is not letting me do that now. How does it work now?

[easyboy]

Glad you had a great time! Thanks for your feedback.

[Crewzer33]

We did the self-disembark and got off the ship close to 8 a.m. Customs took maybe 15 mins max. Others in our group who left later said that the customs line was longer (up to an hour) but no line for taxis. We could have easily made a 10:40 flight, but were booked on an 11:45 flight out of FLL. The Mobile Passport line was very short if you wanted to go that route.

[suesnake2002]

Where would you say you got the best breakfast. We are a breakfast/dinner kinda people

[Crewzer33]

We didn't book our cruise until late October, so we were not able to sign up for the traditional dining but were wait listed for it. The MTD dining times were already booked too. In the end we did get the traditional main dining prior to getting on the ship. Since we like to go the shows every night, and that controls when we eat, the traditional worked best for us. However, the first night we did not receive our appetizer until we had been seated for an hour. (Our waiter did have a very large group that was in his section too.) After telling our waiter that we had shows booked between 8 and 9 p.m. every night, he made sure that we received our meals timely. He was so busy though that if you didn't care for your initial entree, it really wasn't possible to get an alternate. If we thought we might like two different entrees, we would order an extra for the table to share. We were approached the first day at lunch about purchasing the specialty restaurant package and we politely declined and were never asked again.

 

Toward the end of the cruise, I did book another cruise for February 2018 and the traditional dining option already wasn't available......

[babydougie]

We have done oasis as well (love her!) which boat did you like better? Why? Did you have any travel companions that were kids? Thank you for sharing with us.

 

 

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[spazzyjanet]

When is the park cafe not crowded? Is it crowded on embarkation day? I only went there for lunch 1 time on Allure and it was toward the end of the sailing and it was SO PACKED (no seats) and as a result pretty un-enjoyable.

 

Do they have anything available during breakfast hours? If so, what?

[racerxspeedy]

Wow is that image from that cabin?! I guess I didn't realize how close it was when I booked in September. The view of the aqua theater seems ok. I can't wait to see more pictures/read reviews as people return next month.

 

 

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Hello again - The "abysmal" slide has been covered in other threads below. These aft B1 rooms are now considered obstructed view. Too bad this wasn't disclosed when our booking was made. Most of the threads show pics from deck 10, but IMO deck 9 is the most obstructed. I have attached another pic showing the slide on deck 9

 

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2459075

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2443789

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2368659

[racerxspeedy]

Yes that image is from the last B1 Starboard on deck 9 (9729). Port side (9329) has the same obstruction.

Spazzyj - Both the Park Café and Mini bites/wipe out café (deck 15) have been reworked. They can still be quite crowded, but the flow is greatly improved.

 

For breakfast Park café has egg sandwiches, egg burritos, muffins, hot and cold cereal, fruit cups, yogurt.......

We went on Embarkation day and it wasn't to crazy. We enjoyed the made to order eggs at Johnny Rockets which was near our rooms on deck 6. Mini Bites has made to order eggs as well.

 

FYI - We enjoyed Harmony as much or more than Oasis.

[Paulette3028]

What was your cabin number for your boardwalk balcony room? We are staying in 9729 and are curious about the view with abyss.

 

 

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We also were just on Harmony, disembarking on 2/25/17. Our cabin was 11329. It had a very little obstructed view from our cabin. We watched the Fine Line Aqua Show totally fine from our cabin....it was delightful sipping champagne. Nice view of the ships wake as well.

[ljmandelbaum]

Do you know how many kids were on your sailing?

[Paulette3028]

Do you know how many kids were on your sailing?

 

Something like 1200. We had a very full sailing of 6322 passengers.....everyone had plenty to do. We never seemed overly stressed to find chairs at the pool....and the pool attendants did their job well -- removing 'towel people' from chairs, when they 'bodies' did not return for a significant amount of time. I commend them!

[Crewzer33]

Yes, 1200 kids, but we are used to that since we have to cruise during school breaks. One of our sons has graduated from college and youngest (newlywed) has one term of law school left, then we aren't committed to those times. BUT, I met so many polite and nice kids on this trip! It is a lot of people, but I like being around "youngsters" lol.

 

We tried Mini Bites for the made to order omelettes and so did others in our group at different times - never seemed to be busy. (We heard several people asking where the Windjammer was while in Mini Bites.) We went to the Solarium many times for breakfast and lunch. We also checked out what was on the menu in the other venues. We always do Park Cafe as our embarkation lunch (we have been on Allure and Oasis twice each) and board as soon as they let us so we are having lunch about 11:15. Since we end up eating a much bigger breakfast than we ever would at home, lunch for us is around 1:30, so the crowds are manageable at those times no matter where you go. We found the the Windjammer and Solarium had similar basic offerings at breakfast and lunch, but Windjammer has more and on a grander scale. The Windjammer also has more dessert offerings, a make your own pasta station, make a wrap station, along with an ice cream sundae station. The Windjammer also had a ginormous cake they were serving for dessert at lunch one day, along with a ginormous submarine sandwich that they were slicing pieces off of. Windjammer also had roasted chicken, ham and pork for lunch.

[Paulette3028]

Yes, 1200 kids, but we are used to that since we have to cruise during school breaks. One of our sons has graduated from college and youngest (newlywed) has one term of law school left, then we aren't committed to those times. BUT, I met so many polite and nice kids on this trip! It is a lot of people, but I like being around "youngsters" lol.

 

We tried Mini Bites for the made to order omelettes and so did others in our group at different times - never seemed to be busy. (We heard several people asking where the Windjammer was while in Mini Bites.) We went to the Solarium many times for breakfast and lunch. We also checked out what was on the menu in the other venues. We always do Park Cafe as our embarkation lunch (we have been on Allure and Oasis twice each) and board as soon as they let us so we are having lunch about 11:15. Since we end up eating a much bigger breakfast than we ever would at home, lunch for us is around 1:30, so the crowds are manageable at those times no matter where you go. We found the the Windjammer and Solarium had similar basic offerings at breakfast and lunch, but Windjammer has more and on a grander scale. The Windjammer also has more dessert offerings, a make your own pasta station, make a wrap station, along with an ice cream sundae station. The Windjammer also had a ginormous cake they were serving for dessert at lunch one day, along with a ginormous submarine sandwich that they were slicing pieces off of. Windjammer also had roasted chicken, ham and pork for lunch.

 

 

When we retire we will have more flexibility to go cruising when there are less children on board, and probably get better pricing since holiday/school vacation weeks are prime vacation time for families and prices are higher. Although we don't have school age children we need to vacation during those same weeks to stretch vacation days from work as far as possible. The large number of children onboard to us, has rarely even been much of an issue.....we probably have had more difficulties with drunk/mean/rowdy adult passengers than children honestly.

[racerxspeedy]

When we retire we will have more flexibility to go cruising when there are less children on board, and probably get better pricing since holiday/school vacation weeks are prime vacation time for families and prices are higher. Although we don't have school age children we need to vacation during those same weeks to stretch vacation days from work as far as possible. The large number of children onboard to us, has rarely even been much of an issue.....we probably have had more difficulties with drunk/mean/rowdy adult passengers than children honestly.

 

 

Paullete - Did you have any issue sleeping due to noise from the aqua theatre? or did you stay up until the noise dies down at 11:30?