My View: Harmony of the Seas - 8 days of semi-live tips & too many pics!

[APDMOM]

We are here, on Harmony, waiting for Grease to start...and we would like to bring you along with us!

 

After much anticipation, our countdown finally says:

 

 

 

 

 

[APDMOM]

About this review:

Well, technically the countdown should be saying, “Sailing”, because we are in for 8 days of pampering on Harmony.

 

I will try my best to post more than once a day.  If you have questions or requests, I will try to help out with tips.  We have only the basic Voom (Stream only), so we may not always be able to connect... we will see how it works out. 🙂

 

A little background:

 

We booked this cruise in July 2018 when we found what we considered a good deal for three of us in an oceanview balcony.  I keep a close watch on prices.  As you can see from our spreadsheet, the price never dropped lower than what we paid (refundable fair):

 

The spreadsheet shows dates and prices, then the difference from what we paid, and the last column shows whether the price went up or down from the previous date we checked.  It pays to keep a watchful eye on prices, as you can see it is very unpredictable when they will drop...

 

Edited November 11, 2018 by APDMOM

[APDMOM]

Two minutes until curtain call... I will be back later with our first day pictures, tips, and adventures.  🙂

[APDMOM]

Ugh!  😱 I did it again.... Confused “Stream” and “Surf”...

 

We have “Surf” for free for 24 hours. 

Edited November 11, 2018 by APDMOM

[APDMOM]

Arrival:

We arrived at the port just before 10.  It was probably the fastest embarkation in our 29 cruises.  We got our ticket for the parking area at 10:03, quickly got through security, check-in, and went up the escalator to the diamond waiting area.  By this time (10:30), boarding had already started.  We were on the ship at 10:37.

 

Lunch:

Nothing was open when we boarded, so we enjoyed the quiet waiting time in Schooner.  Park Café opened at 11:15, and that was on our agenda for lunch.

 

Tip: When you get to the ship, pick up a Cruise Compass by Guest Services.  

They did not hand these out at boarding, and they have the list of restaurant times.

 

Here is the Compass for the first part of the day:

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 11, 2018 by APDMOM
Clarify

[APDMOM]

I will be back with more of day one tomorrow.  I need some sleep. 

 

Cruise Dreams to all!

[Espn]

Haven't been on Harmony yet but following. Ehjoy!

 

[MrFunInTheSun]

Thanks for bringing us along. 

[JamesEM]

Following along, looking forward to your reports and photos, thinking about booking this cruise for this Jan.

[BLAMBKY]

8 hours ago, APDMOM said:

Arrival:

We arrived at the port just before 10.  It was probably the fastest embarkation in our 29 cruises.  We got our ticket for the parking area at 10:03, quickly got through security, check-in, and went up the escalator to the diamond waiting area.  By this time (10:30), boarding had already started.  We were on the ship at 10:37.

 

Lunch:

Nothing was open when we boarded, so we enjoyed the quiet waiting time in Schooner.  Park Café opened at 11:15, and that was on our agenda for lunch.

 

Tip: When you get to the ship, pick up a Cruise Compass by Guest Services.  

They did not hand these out at boarding, and they have the list of restaurant times.

 

Here is the Compass for the first part of the day:

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for sharing, we cruise in May, so counting down. Are the new procedures in place (uploading your own photo) that made the difference in how fast you made it on board?

[APDMOM]

1 hour ago, BLAMBKY said:

Thanks for sharing, we cruise in May, so counting down. Are the new procedures in place (uploading your own photo) that made the difference in how fast you made it on board?

Hi, Britney!

 

Thanks for following along!  We still had to get our picture taken, even though we had uploaded our photos at home.  One thing that made it faster is that we did not have to fill out the health questionnaire.  Also, we got there very early and all the check in stations were already manned, so it was fast.  

 

Additionally, I liked that they took the ship picture as we went to the waiting area, not on the way to the ship.  

 

Enjoy your countdown!

🙂

[APDMOM]

Thanks to everyone commenting and following along!  I do not typically respond to every individual comment, but I read every one, and greatly appreciate them!

 

Here we go with more of day 1... 🙂

[APDMOM]

My View: Day 1 - Fort Lauderdale:

 

Tip:  Take time to get your family boarding picture taken.  This helps to get your photos linked to your cabin through the facial recognition software.

 

Views in port:

 

 

 

[APDMOM]

I don’t know why some pictures are so small... 🤔

[APDMOM]

Lunch in Park  Café:

 

Tip:  I highly recommend this for embarkation lunch if you are looking for a free option.  It did not get busy at all during the 45 minutes we spent here.

 

Look at all the empty seating:

[APDMOM]

After lunch we walk through Central Park back to the Schooner in order to wait for rooms to be ready

 

We did not buy the drinks package, as the 3 free drinks from Diamond are plenty for us.  We do allow a splurge every now and then, so my boarding treat was an Amaretto Sour.  DH asked the bar tender for a cherry, as he knows I like them.  The bar tender kindly added six!  😁

 

 

 

[Cruiseenthusiast101]

Keep her in good shape for me. Sailing next weekend. Have a great cruise!

[Sobro]

Hi APDMOM! Nice to see you and your family cruising again and sharing with us landlubbers. We plan to sail Harmony at some point once she's based at Port Canaveral since we can drive there in a day from Nashville. My main interest is dinner at Wonderland since I've been on Oasis Class twice already. And to possibly introduce Royal Sailing to a couple we know who sail Carnival and Holland America.

 

Apropos of nothing, during our Aruba Trikes adventure (last December seems so long ago!) you'll recall we had pictures taken by our guide in front of the colorful Aruba sign while on our trikes. I just had our picture made into a fridge magnet since we never did get an official Aruba magnet on that trip.

 

Greg & Rahn

 

 

[LuCruise]

Love your reviews do excited to follow along on your Harmony one.  You are like me in spreadsheet tracking.  It shows it pays to book early (no pun intended).  Enjoy your cruise!

[sisocialworker]

thanks for taking me along..we are sailing next month

[sisocialworker]

14 hours ago, APDMOM said:

About this review:

Well, technically the countdown should be saying, “Sailing”, because we are in for 8 days of pampering on Harmony.

 

I will try my best to post more than once a day.  If you have questions or requests, I will try to help out with tips.  We have only the basic Voom (Stream only), so we may not always be able to connect... we will see how it works out. 🙂

 

A little background:

 

We booked this cruise in July 2018 when we found what we considered a good deal for three of us in an oceanview balcony.  I keep a close watch on prices.  As you can see from our spreadsheet, the price never dropped lower than what we paid (refundable fair):

 

The spreadsheet shows dates and prices, then the difference from what we paid, and the last column shows whether the price went up or down from the previous date we checked.  It pays to keep a watchful eye on prices, as you can see it is very unpredictable when they will drop...

 

was your final price 3131 for 2 people?

[APDMOM]

1 hour ago, Sobro said:

Hi APDMOM! Nice to see you and your family cruising again and sharing with us landlubbers. We plan to sail Harmony at some point once she's based at Port Canaveral since we can drive there in a day from Nashville. My main interest is dinner at Wonderland since I've been on Oasis Class twice already. And to possibly introduce Royal Sailing to a couple we know who sail Carnival and Holland America.

 

Apropos of nothing, during our Aruba Trikes adventure (last December seems so long ago!) you'll recall we had pictures taken by our guide in front of the colorful Aruba sign while on our trikes. I just had our picture made into a fridge magnet since we never did get an official Aruba magnet on that trip.

 

Greg & Rahn

 

 

Hi, Greg and Rahn!  

So glad to see you here!  We had that same picture made into our Aruba fridge magnet. 😁

 

We will be on Harmony again next November 10th.  I can’t recall if either of you are veterans, but they just had an excellent, moving Veteran’s Day Ceremony on the promenade.  Will post details later, but thought I would mention that in case you plan for November 10, 2019 😉

 

[APDMOM]

46 minutes ago, sisocialworker said:

was your final price 3131 for 2 people?

 

No, there are 3 of us.  We have a 14-year old boy.  Pricing for 3 can be very.... “interesting” when it comes to Royal 🙂  

 

We deduct the $100 OBC from our final price so that we can compare apples to apples with other cruises when we may not have OBC.  So our final price was $3,031.

[APDMOM]

Rooms were ready right at 1 p.m. We unpacked our hand luggage and were just about to put the “do not disturb” magnet out when my husband noticed one of our suitcases down the hall.  So, we unpacked those and were totally settled in by 1:45 p.m.! 

 

I did something new this time.  I packed cheap plastic hangers, and kept shirts and skirts hung on the hanger as I folded them into toe suitcase.  It made unpacking VERY easy!  Just grab the hanger and “Voila!”

 

Tip: Keep cheap hangers from Kohl’s or your favorite shopping destination, and pack them for easy travel.  That is, if you do not fly with a weight limit.  Fortunately, we get to drive.

[APDMOM]

Our Room:

 

 We have a balcony room on deck 7, port, aft. I will post some pictures of the room itself later.

 

Here are some views from our balcony: