Harmony 7 Night Western Review 2/17-2/24

[Prinny11]

Hi all! These boards have been very helpful to me in planning our cruise adventures, so I just wanted to share my experience in hopes of helping someone else. I will try to provide as much detail as possible, without writing a novel.

 

Background: My bf and myself, brother and sister in law, their 2 kids (10 and 8), my parents, and two family friends booked this cruise about a year in advance. We had just come off Freedom in February 2017 and immediately wanted another cruise on the books. After weighing out several different options, we settled on Harmony. This was my 5th cruise with RC (8th overall), but first for any of us on an Oasis class ship.

 

Day 1 - Embarkation: my bf and I were driving over from Fort Myers after visiting his parents for a few days pre-cruise. We had flown into FLL from Buffalo 3 days earlier and rented a car to drive across the state. Flying to FLL instead of Ft. Myers was significantly cheaper and we were able to get direct flights, so that is why we went that route. We left Fort Myers around 8am on embarkation day and arrived to the Dollar rental car return (after stopping for gas) around 10:15. The shuttle to take us to the port arrived around 10:25, but there was some mechanical issue that they had to fix. We left around 10:45. After dropping 4 other people at the Carnival Conquest, we were dropped at terminal 18 around 11:05. Was through security and check in and on the ship by 11:15am. Met the rest of our group, who was already on board, at the pub and had a drink in my hand by 11:18am. Yeehaw! The rest of the group had flown into FLL the night before and stayed at the Quality Inn. It was noticeably a step down from the Crowne Plaza we had stayed at the year before, but it was also a lot cheaper. They got in around 9:30pm. All of the shuttles the hotel runs to the port we already booked for the next day, so they scheduled Lyfts for 10am. They were down in the lobby ready to go around 9:30am when the hotel staff was calling out names for shuttles that were ready to go. Apparently the lobby was not that full, so my mother asked if they were able to get a shuttle to Harmony and the girl said yes, there was one coming in 5 minutes. So they cancelled the Lyfts and got on a shuttle around 9:45am to head to the port. They were texting me photos of themselves with drinks by 10:30am, so from the hotel to being on the ship took less than 45 mins for them. You can imagine how antsy I was getting waiting for the rental shuttle to be fixed while the rest of my family was already on board :D.

 

We decided on windjammer for lunch. I'm definitely not a fan of buffets, but I went with it. We were some of the first people there so it was not crowded when we got there. It was filling in quite a bit as we were leaving. We wandered around the ship for a while and waited for the mass exodus to clear when it was announced rooms were ready around 1:15pm. We headed to our rooms around 1:45 and agreed to reconvene on my parents balcony for sail away at 4pm. We passed our bags in the hallway, so we took them with us and unpacked. We had main seating for dinner at 5:30. I had sent an email to dining about a month ahead of sail to request a 10 top for us. We had a table on deck 3 along the one wall with the license plate United States, and it was nice not having anyone on one side of us. Our waiter Christopher and assistant Shainie were excellent all week.

 

After dinner, we went to see Grease. I have never seen the movie (yes, really). I was not really a fan of this show. The story didn't flow and was very choppy. My sister in law, who is a Grease junkie, said some of the songs were out of order and there were several main scenes from the movie that were cut. She thought it was good, but she's biased. The performers were great, as usual. Just not my thing I guess. I don't totally remember what we did after Grease. I'm assuming we roamed around to some bars and then called it a day.

 

Day 2 - At Sea: My mother, sister in a law, and myself got up around 7am to hit the pool deck for chairs. Getting up this early was not quite necessary on the first sea day, but by the third sea day, this was almost too late. It was a lazy day at sea. Me and the kids did the water slides. I went down the blue one first. It was the slowest water slide I have ever been on. I actually asked the guy at the bottom when I got off if it was supposed to be that slow. He said not usually, but one of the jets was broken. Apparently the yellow one was working properly and running much faster. I didn't feel the need to wait in line again to verify. The bowl slide was a crap shoot as to how many times you would make it around the bowl before having to help yourself along because you got stuck. Fun novelty, the kids rode repeatedly, but I was one and done.

 

After dinner, we went to the Fine Line aqua show. Wow, great show! The guy doing the spins in the beginning... is he serious?!? I don't know how that is humanly possible. Really great show and a must see if you are on Harmony. Thanks to reading this board, I booked this on the first day it was available, as I have read that it frequently gets cancelled due to weather/rough seas. This show was cancelled on day 3 and day 6, so we were glad we caught it early.

 

After the aqua show, we went to the comedy show. Dan - something was the headliner. I don't remember his last name. Started with a G. Gruer? Grauer? Whatever.. He was funny, but Simeon totally stole the show. His Trump impression was unreal. He didn't bash the President, which was refreshing. It was just a great, funny impression. If you closed your eyes, you would think Trump was in the room. After comedy, we had a few drinks in the pub and then went to bed.

 

I guess I am writing more than I had planned to. I'm at work so I will break here and finish up later on

[dv70]

Thanks for posting. We are doing a Harmony western cruise in December. I am looking forward to the rest of your review!

[qkd0314]

On the Harmony next weekend. Definitely looking forward to the rest of your review!

[Keith1010]

You are off to a great start.

 

Following along.

 

Keith

[Crazy planning mom]

Hi all! These boards have been very helpful to me in planning our cruise adventures, so I just wanted to share my experience in hopes of helping someone else. I will try to provide as much detail as possible, without writing a novel.

 

Background: My bf and myself, brother and sister in law, their 2 kids (10 and 8), my parents, and two family friends booked this cruise about a year in advance. We had just come off Freedom in February 2017 and immediately wanted another cruise on the books. After weighing out several different options, we settled on Harmony. This was my 5th cruise with RC (8th overall), but first for any of us on an Oasis class ship.

 

Day 1 - Embarkation: my bf and I were driving over from Fort Myers after visiting his parents for a few days pre-cruise. We had flown into FLL from Buffalo 3 days earlier and rented a car to drive across the state. Flying to FLL instead of Ft. Myers was significantly cheaper and we were able to get direct flights, so that is why we went that route. We left Fort Myers around 8am on embarkation day and arrived to the Dollar rental car return (after stopping for gas) around 10:15. The shuttle to take us to the port arrived around 10:25, but there was some mechanical issue that they had to fix. We left around 10:45. After dropping 4 other people at the Carnival Conquest, we were dropped at terminal 18 around 11:05. Was through security and check in and on the ship by 11:15am. Met the rest of our group, who was already on board, at the pub and had a drink in my hand by 11:18am. Yeehaw! The rest of the group had flown into FLL the night before and stayed at the Quality Inn. It was noticeably a step down from the Crowne Plaza we had stayed at the year before, but it was also a lot cheaper. They got in around 9:30pm. All of the shuttles the hotel runs to the port we already booked for the next day, so they scheduled Lyfts for 10am. They were down in the lobby ready to go around 9:30am when the hotel staff was calling out names for shuttles that were ready to go. Apparently the lobby was not that full, so my mother asked if they were able to get a shuttle to Harmony and the girl said yes, there was one coming in 5 minutes. So they cancelled the Lyfts and got on a shuttle around 9:45am to head to the port. They were texting me photos of themselves with drinks by 10:30am, so from the hotel to being on the ship took less than 45 mins for them. You can imagine how antsy I was getting waiting for the rental shuttle to be fixed while the rest of my family was already on board :D.

 

We decided on windjammer for lunch. I'm definitely not a fan of buffets, but I went with it. We were some of the first people there so it was not crowded when we got there. It was filling in quite a bit as we were leaving. We wandered around the ship for a while and waited for the mass exodus to clear when it was announced rooms were ready around 1:15pm. We headed to our rooms around 1:45 and agreed to reconvene on my parents balcony for sail away at 4pm. We passed our bags in the hallway, so we took them with us and unpacked. We had main seating for dinner at 5:30. I had sent an email to dining about a month ahead of sail to request a 10 top for us. We had a table on deck 3 along the one wall with the license plate United States, and it was nice not having anyone on one side of us. Our waiter Christopher and assistant Shainie were excellent all week.

 

After dinner, we went to see Grease. I have never seen the movie (yes, really). I was not really a fan of this show. The story didn't flow and was very choppy. My sister in law, who is a Grease junkie, said some of the songs were out of order and there were several main scenes from the movie that were cut. She thought it was good, but she's biased. The performers were great, as usual. Just not my thing I guess. I don't totally remember what we did after Grease. I'm assuming we roamed around to some bars and then called it a day.

 

Day 2 - At Sea: My mother, sister in a law, and myself got up around 7am to hit the pool deck for chairs. Getting up this early was not quite necessary on the first sea day, but by the third sea day, this was almost too late. It was a lazy day at sea. Me and the kids did the water slides. I went down the blue one first. It was the slowest water slide I have ever been on. I actually asked the guy at the bottom when I got off if it was supposed to be that slow. He said not usually, but one of the jets was broken. Apparently the yellow one was working properly and running much faster. I didn't feel the need to wait in line again to verify. The bowl slide was a crap shoot as to how many times you would make it around the bowl before having to help yourself along because you got stuck. Fun novelty, the kids rode repeatedly, but I was one and done.

 

After dinner, we went to the Fine Line aqua show. Wow, great show! The guy doing the spins in the beginning... is he serious?!? I don't know how that is humanly possible. Really great show and a must see if you are on Harmony. Thanks to reading this board, I booked this on the first day it was available, as I have read that it frequently gets cancelled due to weather/rough seas. This show was cancelled on day 3 and day 6, so we were glad we caught it early.

 

After the aqua show, we went to the comedy show. Dan - something was the headliner. I don't remember his last name. Started with a G. Gruer? Grauer? Whatever.. He was funny, but Simeon totally stole the show. His Trump impression was unreal. He didn't bash the President, which was refreshing. It was just a great, funny impression. If you closed your eyes, you would think Trump was in the room. After comedy, we had a few drinks in the pub and then went to bed.

 

I guess I am writing more than I had planned to. I'm at work so I will break here and finish up later on

Following. On 3/31 cruise:)

[Prinny11]

Day 3 - Labadee: Last year on Freedom, we got a bungalow and enjoyed it so much we decided toget a bungalow again this year. We got off the ship around 8:45am. We stopped just inside the port and hopped on a golf cart they have there totransport people who have bungalows and cabanas. We were the second groupto arrive at the bungalows so we were pretty much able to take our pick. We went with #4. The attendants brought us towels and floating mats, andreturned to us again when the bar opened. They kept our labadoozies fullall day long, and stocked our cooler with water and beer (every adult in ourgroup had the deluxe beverage package). The kids went in the aqua park from10-11am. After lunch, the women in my group braved the market. Ihave no issue going through the market and just brushing off theaggressiveness, but I totally get why so many people hate it. My sisterin law is one of the nicest people on the planet and has a hard time sayingno. The market is brutal for her, but we make her go anyway just forkicks haha.. Labadee is one of our favorite stops. Just agreat beach day. The bungalows are great for a small group. Privatearea, no rushing or fighting over loungers, bar service all day.

We hopped on the tram to head back to the ship around 3pm. After dinner we went to the headliner show, which was Mosaic, an a cappella group. I am a fan of a cappella and have seen popular groups (Pentatonix, Home Free, etc.) several times. I thought these guys were just okay. The sound mixer needed to turn down the bass and beat boxer mics. It was so loud it drowned out the rest of the guys and you could barely hear the actual singing. I'm used to it and understand that the bass and beat boxers are a big part of the show, but it bothered some people in my group, and there were several other people that were getting up and leaving. It was rattling the speakers and vibrating the seats, it was that loud. After the show, we roamed some bars and went to bed.

Day 4 - Falmouth, Jamaica: We had been to Falmouth before and did a ziplining and river tubing excursion previously. We were considering doing a trip to the Blue Hole or Dunn's River, but after taking into account the drive time to and from Falmouth and the fact that my parents are in their mid 60's and our other friend with us is 71, we opted to do nothing. We slept in, had sit down breakfast in MDR, and got off the ship around 11am. The kids thought they wanted to come off the ship with us and go shopping, but that lasted all of 30 minutes. My brother and our one friends took the kids back to the ship and the rest of us carried on. Around 3 we went back to the ship and went our separate ways until dinner.

We ate at Jamie's Italian this night. An excellent meal!! The kids went to adventure ocean, so it was just the adults. Our server brought us two meat planks, which were fantastic, and two orders of every appetizer on the menu. There was no room left on the table! All of the appetizers were good, but my favorites were the tomato bruschetta (it wasn't called this, but I don't remember the actual name), and the calamari. The calamari was probably the best I have ever had. The breading was so light and crispy, and not the slightest bit greasy. We all ordered individual entrees, and the server brought out about 5 different pasta dishes for us to share. He then brought out two dessert planks. It was so much food it was ridiculous. I highly recommend Jamie's.

Since we had a late departure from Falmouth (7pm), there was no main show scheduled that evening. iSkate was going on in the ice rink (no reservations needed), so we went to that. It was a good show, the skaters were very entertaining and the trick skater was very good. After the show, we had planned to hit the casino and have all of us sit down together to play blackjack. Yeah, not even close. The casino was packed, not one single blackjack seat to be had. Since the next day was a sea day, we decided to come back then and see if it would be less crowded. I think this was the night my sister in law and I went to the RED party. They cover the ice in Studio B and make it a "nightclub experience" as they call it. It was fun. She and I are both dancers so we enjoyed it. Stayed later than planned, went to bed around 2:30am.

More to come!

[hurls88]

Great stuff so far on Harmony in July

[Prinny11]

Day 5 - At Sea: My mother and I had planned on getting up early to get pool chairs, but after my late night I didn't really feel like getting up so I called my mom and told her. She was fine with it. We all agreed to meet at the zip line at 10 to do that and the abyss since you needed regular clothes for both. My sister in law met us with the kids and after we all signed waivers, we got in line. I should have thought of this beforehand, but I wore my flip flops. My mother had water shoes on, so I figured she could go first and then I would use her shoes. Nope. They wouldn't let her wear her water shoes (even though they are very snug on her feet) because she didn't have socks on. They made you have socks and laced shoes. Thankfully, my nephew is tall for his age and wears men's size 9. So he went first, then my mom used his sneakers, then me. My niece wasn't heavy enough to ride. She was 9 pounds too light of the 75 pound required minimum. Yes they weighed her. None of the guys had interest in doing the zip line. After the zip line we went on the Ultimate Abyss. It was fun to do once, but not something any of us besides the kids did again.

 

A few of us went to eat lunch in the dining room. I did this every sea day because I am a fan of the salad bar. On this day, I only had a small salad because I wanted to go to Park Cafe for the beef on weck, or kummelweck as they call it. Being from the Buffalo area, this is where this sandwich was born. I had to laugh when it was put on my plate. This thing was nothing like a real beef on weck. The beef was cut way too thick, and it was way overcooked. It is supposed to be very thinly sliced and medium rare. But I'm biased, so whatever. I'm sure people that aren't used to real beef on weck think this is a good sandwich.

 

After lunch, my sister in law took the kids to a puppet show and movie in the kids club, my mother went to the art auction, and the rest of us went to the casino to try and get a table for blackjack. The five of us sat down and things weren't going that well, so my brother made a quick exit. He has no patience for blackjack. Also, my Dad wasn't following the rules. So that was annoying. Another guy sat down next to me who was very friendly. He was from Boston, I'm a Red Sox fan, so we chatted at length. Whenever my Dad didn't play how he was supposed to, I yelled at him. The dealer had changed at this point, and several times I caught him and the guy next to me giving each other looks like, "Is this girl really talking to other players like that?" They didn't realize he was my Dad, so I filled them in. They gave a collective "ooooooohhh, okay" and laughed. The laws of chance while playing with an automatic shuffler say that not playing the "right" way doesn't matter, but I think it messes up the mojo of the table when you don't. And I think table mojo is a thing in blackjack. It's probably not, but it makes it more fun. After the cooler came in and dealt himself 3 blackjacks and 6 card 21 in a row, we left. We all ended up winning money, so it was fun.

 

Don't really remember what I did the rest of the day until dinner. We were back in the MDR tonight and had another good meal. After dinner we had two shows scheduled, Columbus the Musical, and 1887, the ice skating show. I had read mixed reviews on Columbus, and I have to say I fall on the side of eh, its okay. It is definitely better if you know all the songs, but I still thought it was kind of hokey. Yes, I know it is meant to be that way, but still.. 1887 was good. The lighting effects they do on the ice were cool and the bubble guy was also a hit. Worth seeing. After the shows, we went to the pub for a few drinks and called it a day.

 

 

Day 6 - Cozumel: Over the past few years, I have morphed into the vacation planner for my family, so it was on me to do all the planning. All of us have been to Cozumel before, so I was looking for something different and adventurous to do. I landed on X-rails to Jade Cavern. We went with a private excursion vs. a ship sponsored one. We have done this in the past and have had no issues making it back to the ship on time or whatever other nonsense they try to fear you into taking ship sponsored excursions. We met at the Hard Rock Cafe just on the other side of the street from the port shopping area and met up with the tour operator. We had 10 in our group, and there was just one other mother/daughter combo coming with us. Awesome! I hate when excursions like this have 30 people in them. Another bonus of going private. We took a 20 minute bus ride to where the excursion would start from. Our guide gave us the basic run down of safety and explained it was about a half hour ride out to the cave, where we could jump in the water for a while, then ride back. Holy freaking fun!! The X-rails are kind of like a dune buggy. We went on a dirt road through the jungle, which was very bumpy but that just added to the fun. When we got to the cave, we all took one look at the water and decided we weren't going in. I don't know if it was the reflections of the cave walls, or because it was so deep, but the water looked black. Our guide told us it was perfectly fine to swim in. He even emptied his water bottle and filled it with the water to show us how clear it was. And it was crystal clear. But we still didn't go in. Our guide was super nice and began explaining a bunch of stuff about the cave and just the area in general. One end of the cave had a ton of bats in it, so it was cool to see them. The guide also found a termite mound on a tree and ate them, and encouraged us to do the same. Ummm, yeah... not eating termites. My nephew did though. Gross. On the way back, I asked the guide to go faster and it was so much fun. We were there in dry season so the road was pretty dusty, but they watered down a few spots so we would drive through huge mud puddles. We defintiely got dirty. It was a lot of fun. I highly recommend it if you are looking for something fast and adventurous to do in Cozumel. I haven't had time to sort out all of my pictures yet, but when I do I will post some from this tour. I also have video from it.

 

After that we shopped around the port area for a little bit and got back on the ship. Dinner again was in MDR. We had seen all of the shows at this point, so we had no plans for after dinner. I don't remember what we did this night. I'm assuming more bar hopping, probably a game show or something. We went to family fued one night. Maybe it was this night. Who knows...

[Prinny11]

Day 7 - At Sea: Since this was our last day, I definitely wanted to be in the sun around the pool. My mom, sister in law, and myself were on the pool deck around 7:30am, and this was almost too late to get chairs in the sun. The chair hogging was off the wall. Around 8, one of the attendants was tagging chairs and I did see a few actually get the stuff removed from the chairs so other people could sit in them. Its a losing battle, unfortunately. However, it was quite windy this day so it was amusing watching people's belongings blowing off the saved chairs and down the deck. The wind freed up many seats that day. This was a very lazy sea day, not much to comment on.

 

After dinner we went to the farewell comedy show (no reservations). This was with headliner Dan again, and again, Simeon stole the show. That guy is funny. He told us he is moving to Symphony when it sets sail, so for anyone booked on Symphony, make sure you go see him. After the show we had the very sad task of packing to go home. We reconvened at the Schooner for some farewell drinks and that was wrap.

 

Disembarkation: The bf and I were on JetBlue at 1pm and the rest of our group was on Southwest at 11:30am, so we disembarked separately. The group got off the ship around 8:15am and got through customs and to Ubers in less than 20 mins. Me and the bf were some of the last to get off the ship around 9:30am. We used mobile passport and were through in about 5 minutes. They didn't even scan our phones. We handed the agent our passports, he looked at the photos to make sure they matched our faces and sent us on our way. Didn't even say anything to us. We waited about 15 minutes for an Uber and were at the airport 10 minutes after that. Couldn't have been smoother.

 

Points of Interest and Hot Button Topics:

 

MDR attire - shorts and Tshirts were prevalent in MDR every night except formal night. I did witness one guy getting turned away at the door for having shorts on during a formal night. Other than that, you could wear whatever..

 

Lines/elevators - never had an issue with lines or getting an elevator except during peak times. Yes, the windjammer at 12:30 on embarkation day was busy. Duh. Elevators right after a show let out were busy of course. And yes there were the people who tried to cram into the elevator when there was clearly no more room, or those that tried to get on before anyone could get off. Idiots.

 

Chair hogs - this got worse with every sea day that passed. As I said before, 7:30am was almost too late on the last sea day. The attendants can only do so much, and unfortunately, the only real way to get around this is to beat them at their own game. Sucks, but such is life. First world problems.

 

Casino smoke - let me first say that I hate smoking. Like despise it. It baffles me that there are still people in this world that smoke. One of the people in my group is a smoker. I get on him about it all the time. But whatever, they're adults, they can do whatever they want. At night, the casino was extremely crowded and very smoky. There is a smoking and non smoking side. Obviously the smoke still wafts over to the non smoking side, but at least you're not sitting at a table with someone blowing smoke in your face. If gambling is that important to you, get over it. Every land casino I have ever been in smells like smoke. It is what it is. The casino is very easily avoidable, so the people that rant and rave about it on these boards always make me laugh. When we went during the day, it was noticeably less smoky.

 

Photos - My mother tried to buy one of the single photos that the people take at dinner of myself and one of my brother to update the ones she bought of us last year. Since we were not in the same stateroom, and my mother was not in the photo, they would not let her buy the photos. Yes you read that right. My mother was not allowed to buy photos of her children. The staff told us when the photographer asked for the stateroom number, we should have given them my mother's room number so the photo would get logged under her account. Me and my brother had to buy the photos ourselves. Beyond ridiculous.

 

Drink cards - I first noticed the drink card signs on day 6. It could have been out before that, but I was in a bar every night and this was the first time I noticed it. It was 10 drinks for $79. We all had the deluxe beverage package, so I can't speak of the benefits of the card or what drinks you were able to get with it.

 

I think that's all I have. I will upload some photos later this evening. I did not save any compasses, but I can say they were extremely similar to others that have been posted recently, and if you have your shows reserved you pretty much fill in the rest on the fly anyway. They did have a silent party on night 5, and the quest was night 6. If anyone has any questions, I would be happy to answer anything. Stay tuned for photos!

[zdad59]

Nice concise review. We are on Harmony on 10 March. DO you remember your table number in the MDR?? We have a group of 10 as well. We know our table is #330. Wondering if yours was near where ours will be.

 

Thanks.

[Clarea]

Excellent, detailed review, thanks!

[Prinny11]

Nice concise review. We are on Harmony on 10 March. DO you remember your table number in the MDR?? We have a group of 10 as well. We know our table is #330. Wondering if yours was near where ours will be.

 

Thanks.

Yes, we had table #311. It was on the left side of the dining room about half way back

 

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

[helencruising]

Thank you for your review. I enjoyed reading it. :):)

[zdad59]

yes, we had table #311. It was on the left side of the dining room about half way back

 

sent from my xt1585 using tapatalk

thanks !

[RILIPAUL]

Thanks for sharing!