Review of Harmony 4/14/19 sailing

[bmsm6]

We sailed with our family group of 12 on Harmony 4/14/19 - 4/21/19.  I don't normally write reviews, but I've benefitted so much from info in other reviews posted here that I thought I would share a few observations from our trip.  7 of us had been on Allure before, 2 had never cruised with Royal Caribbean, and 3 had never cruised before at all.  Overall, everyone had a GREAT time, and we hated to leave!

 

Arrival: We flew into FLL on Saturday and stayed at Hampton Inn/Plantation (UberXL was about $38), which had a shopping mall with restaurants within 5-10 min walking distance for dinner.  When I initially booked this hotel, I did so because it said they had a free shuttle to the cruise ship.  But when we got there late (our flight had been delayed), most of the slots had been taken and we decided Uber would be easier anyway.  An UberXL Sunday morning was about $32.  Once we got to port and turned our bags in (and waited for the rest of our group to arrive - 4 were in another Uber and 4 had their own car), we only stood in line for 5-10 minutes to get through security, took our boarding photos, and then walked right on the ship!  It was around 11:15-11:30am.

 

St. Maarten (Day 4):  We took a taxi to Divi Little Bay resort, which was $5 each.  My dad, son (age 11), sister and brother in law, and I rented snorkel gear and swam out along the left side all the way to where the sunken helicopter is.  It was a long way (there were several excursion boats already floating there), but was fun.  My husband and daughter (age 9) rented a jet ski while we were snorkeling, and ended up flipping over!  Luckily the guy who worked at the resort saw them after a few minutes and rode out to explain how to flip it back over.  I think for the two chairs, umbrella, snorkel gear, and jet ski rental, we paid about $100 at the resort.  We also had drinks (best frozen margarita I've had!), took pics of the kids with the parrot at the bar, and ate a light lunch at the resort before taking a taxi back to Front Street to walk around for an hour or so, after which we took the water taxi back to the boat.  

 

San Juan (Day 5):  We walked to the El Morro fort, which was pretty cool.  Along the way we found the road with the umbrellas overhead.  Entrance fee to El Morro was $7 each but kids were free.  On the way back we stopped at a frappe shop that had games on the table (Jenga, Connect 4), so we all sat and relaxed for a few minutes.  Most of the group went back to the ship for lunch, but my parents and I went to a tiny breakfast/lunch place called Spiga, which was really delicious!  Their paninis and cookies were amazing.  Two of the folks in our group took a food tour excursion and they said that was great too.  It was nice that our phones worked here so we could navigate easily on our walk (we have AT&T), but the people with Verizon in our group seemed to be on an "extended" network so not sure if that will end up with extra fees.

 

Labadee (Day 6):  We walked to Columbus Cove and found some chairs in the shade.  Lunch was really good (better than Windjammer IMO)...especially the Oreo cupcakes.  My dad tried to do the zip line and was all harnessed up when they said they had to cancel due to wind.  My husband and kids went on the aqua park for about 30 minutes, which they enjoyed.  It was a fun, relaxing day.

 

Departure:  Our flight out of FLL was at 12:15, and our luggage tag departure time was scheduled to be 8:45.  We finished up breakfast and went to deck 5 to wait around 8:00, but seeing that there was no one around, we decided to try to go ahead and get off a little early.  I'm so glad we did, because it was less than 10 minutes by the time we were out on the curb with our bags calling an UberXL (which was about $20 total for 4 of us, less than half the cost of what my parents paid an hour before to take a taxi to the airport...I think they said it was $11 each).  My in-laws did self-debarkation and got in line around 6:15am; they said the lines were crazy and it was the only frustrating time for them during the whole trip.  When my parents did self-debarkation around 7am, I think the crowds had dissipated significantly.

 

A few other random notes:

• Motion sickness - Didn't happen to me, but it affected my in-laws...they had these gray bracelets (maybe called sea bands?) that seemed to help them tremendously.
• Photo Package - we paid for this a week before the trip, and it was $250.  Onboard it was $300.  We didn't have a problem with including everyone in our group in the photos...they just gave them my room number.  On our last Allure cruise which was 3 years ago, they were still printing all of the photos so we got hard copies and a soft copy of them, but this time they don't print unless you request it.  I should be getting a link to download all 180 of our photos any day now.  One regret I have is not checking the photos each evening. I waited until the last day, and realized several were missing, so I had to search for them, and I'm hoping I didn't miss any.
• Rooms - we had 5 balcony rooms on deck 12 beside each other (and ours had a connecting door to our kids' room).  Our room attendant was able to open the balcony dividers between all the rooms so we could all hang out and chat on the balcony during the week, which was really nice.  For the kids' room, we had originally booked one adult and one kid in each room, and when I went to Guest Services to switch the kids to their own room, they said they couldn't do it in the computer but just gave us extra keys, which was fine.  One thing I didn't like about the rooms was having to have a key card in the slot by the door...one time I was taking a shower and my husband left the room after grabbing his key card, not realizing the lights would go out on me a few minutes later in the bathroom!  We ended up putting a different card in the slot after that.
• No-Shows - Two of the rooms in our group had a no-show, so they each had their room to themselves.  We have known for a while they would be no-shows, and followed guidance from this forum to just not say anything, and there weren't any issues.  One time at dinner our waiter asked about the 2 no-shows and just marked them off his list.  I'm assuming they'll see the refund for port taxes/fees for these no-shows soon.
• Ice cream - Out of the 4 ice cream machines on deck 15, not one of them had a vanilla/chocolate swirl option, which I would have liked.  All 4 were either vanilla/strawberry or chocolate/strawberry.  Not a big deal, but an observation nonetheless :).  I did like the different location of these (so you're in the shade when standing in line)....on Allure they were right by the pool in the sun.
• Elevators - I really wish they could make these more efficient. Maybe one side for odd floors and one side for even...I don't know, but almost every time we were in the elevators they stopped on every floor.  We took the stairs when it was only 3-4 floors, but not a lot of people did that as many times they would be taking the elevator for 1-2 floors.
• Kids club - On previous cruises, our kids loved Adventure Ocean, but this time they just didn't want to go.  However, on the 2nd to last day we found out we could sign a waiver for our 11 yr old to go into the teen "Living Room" and play video games.  He loved this and I wish we had known earlier in the trip.
• Ports - The ports were all great, but I think I prefer having a day at sea in between ports instead of all 3 in a row.
• App/Messages - iMessage worked for us for about a day with our phones in airplane mode and wifi connected to royal (for those of us that didn't pay for Voom), but after that stopped working.  The Messaging feature in the Royal app ended up working great, though.
• Wow band - I got this for one of my kids for $5 at guest services.  It worked well.  I think someone on this forum had mentioned they could be re-programmed for use on a future cruise, but the muster station is pre-printed on it so I'm not sure if that would always work or not.
• Abyss - Several of us went on this and it was fun, although a few people skinned their knee on the side.
• Water slides - Several in our group enjoyed them.  They got stuck if wearing a swim shirt, so they enjoyed it much more without.
• Charges - Good idea to keep an eye on these throughout the week, and the app made it easy to do so.  I got double-charged one night for a drink in the theater where they were manually writing room info for charges.
• Dinner - we had main dining at 5:30.  Having all 12 of us at a table was great - it was a booth on one side and chairs on the other.  Our waiters were awesome - one of them would tell jokes or give us a puzzle to solve after dinner each night.
• Shows - they were great - saw both ice shows, both water shows, and headliner show. Comedy show was ok...opener was horrible but the main guy was funny.  Some ppl in our group went to Columbus musical and said it was just ok. My sister was the only one who went to Grease, and she had to leave early bc someone spilled or poured a drink from the balcony onto her. 
• Crowds - Everything was pretty crowded - I guess because it was spring break. I don’t recall our Allure cruises being so crowded, but they were in May. 
• Pool chairs - The chair saving was frustrating as it was impossible to find a chair on pool level if you didn’t get there early - had to go up a deck to find a chair.  Not sure if there is a good solution to improve it though. 
• Activities - we went to several of the puzzle/trivia sessions in Schooner bar in the mornings, but my favorite was Royal mystery puzzle game on day 7 in On Air at 2pm (you have to solve puzzles to find clues and figure out who to arrest). They said it was created by the same people who did the escape room, which we wanted to do also, but minimum age was 12 or 14 so we didn't do it since our kids were too young.  Other activities we enjoyed were zip line, putt putt, and ping pong.  Two we didn't manage to fit in were ice skating and flow rider, unfortunately.
• Casino - several in our group enjoyed the free learn to play lessons in the mornings on sea days, and the low minimums early in the day as well.

 

That's all I can think of for now.  Happy to answer questions if anyone has them. 

[Biker19]

18 minutes ago, bmsm6 said:

  I'm assuming they'll see the refund for port taxes/fees for these no-shows soon.

 

App/Messages - iMessage worked for us for about a day with our phones in airplane mode and wifi connected to royal (for those of us that didn't pay for Voom), but after that stopped working.  

Confirm that they also get double points.

 

Good to have confirmation that iMessage still works without a VOOM package - can't say why it stopped working.

[bmsm6]

6 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

Confirm that they also get double points.

 

Good to have confirmation that iMessage still works without a VOOM package - can't say why it stopped working.

Oh I forgot about the double points - thanks for that reminder!  It was also the first cruise for both of them, so I don't think they joined C&A yet...do you think they should just call?

[Biker19]

1 minute ago, bmsm6 said:

..do you think they should just call?

Yes, but wait till at least a week after the cruise - so the points have a chance to settle.

[dltaeg]

Thanks for the review. We are doing a similar cruise to you in a few weeks. I hope you don't mind me asking 2 questions.

 

How long did it take you to walk to El Morro fort from the port?

 

and also what day/time was the ice rink open for public use. We wanted to do this last time we sailed on Harmony but it never opened up.

[bmsm6]

56 minutes ago, dltaeg said:

Thanks for the review. We are doing a similar cruise to you in a few weeks. I hope you don't mind me asking 2 questions.

 

How long did it take you to walk to El Morro fort from the port?

 

and also what day/time was the ice rink open for public use. We wanted to do this last time we sailed on Harmony but it never opened up.

 

Sure!  We were taking our time walking to El Morro since we got off the ship around 8 and knew it didn't open until 9.  I would say it took about 25 minutes at a leisurely pace when you subtract out the stops we made along the way.  We got there a little bit before it opened and you can explore around the sides of the fort before it opens to kill time.  Definitely make sure you go by Fortaleza Street on your way to see the umbrellas (near the intersection with Santo Cristo Street I think).

 

The ice rink was open on Day 7 from 9:30-12:30.  It said you could go at 9:10 to sign up for a slot, which I did, but no one had opened it yet and it was just a long line of people so we ended up doing something else.  There were a ton of activities on that last sea day.  I think it was also opened at one point earlier in the week as well but I can't recall when.

[mondsd]

Thanks for sharing your notes. 🙂 Im going on Harmony in July and can't wait!!

[DISFANS3]

Good info on harmony, We will be on the Harmony next May 2020. We are just back from the Freedom out of San Juan, there is a extra charge with Verizon out of San Juan, found that out when we got home...Awesome trip.. 

[Clarea]

4 hours ago, DISFANS3 said:

 ...  there is a extra charge with Verizon out of San Juan, found that out when we got home...Awesome trip.. 

 

I thought Verizon treated Puerto Rico like the mainland US.  Were you roaming on a different carrier while in San Juan?

[Judyrem]

Excellent review, thanks for posting!🙂

[TravisP]

We were on the same cruise with a group of 26. Had an awesome time. Most of us went ahead and booked HOTS again for 2-28-2021. 

[TravisP]

One thing I figured out early in the cruise, when you are waiting on an elevator, when a door opens on one you can fit in, get on it regardless of if it is going the direction you want to go. You will spend more time waiting on an elevator that is not full going the direction you are going than is will take you to ride the other elevator the wrong way first. 

[El Abuelo]

We were also on that cruise. Agree with the observation about 3 sea days followed by 3 port days. If I had a choice we would look for something more inter spaced. We,also noted a bit more sea movement than in previous cruises. 

 

 We had Voom, it worked but was a bit spotty until the night before San Juan when it got really bad. They did a reset or something, it was very good from then on. 

 

We were here on deck 7, aft. For some reason, in that spot the middle is closed and you can’t cross sides. If you use the wrong side elevator you need to walk down, a flight, cross, then walk back up. Very odd.

[seapad]

BMSM6, thanks for such a great summary and review! My family will be on Harmony in July. They are a party of 13. Could you please tell me where your group was sitting (floor and location) where they have the table for 12? Would you think it can also accommodate 13 people?

There are 5 kids in total. 

 

Thank you! 

[reallyitsmema]

On 4/24/2019 at 7:07 AM, Host Clarea said:

 

I thought Verizon treated Puerto Rico like the mainland US.  Were you roaming on a different carrier while in San Juan?

 

Puerto Rico is included with Verizon.  I just checked this itinerary using the interactive trip planner earlier this week.  We will be in San Juan next week and plan on using our phones.  Will see what happens, but I expect we will have no charges.  Not sure why DISFAN had charges, wonder where they were when they got the charges.  Maybe connected to the ship by accident.

Edited April 25, 2019 by reallyitsmema

[luv2sailAgain]

Thank you for the review! 10 of us will be sailing in July on deck 12.  Were you able to hear the ocean?  I am worried that I should have booked cabins on a lower deck.  I

[bmsm6]

On 4/25/2019 at 10:39 AM, TravisP said:

One thing I figured out early in the cruise, when you are waiting on an elevator, when a door opens on one you can fit in, get on it regardless of if it is going the direction you want to go. You will spend more time waiting on an elevator that is not full going the direction you are going than is will take you to ride the other elevator the wrong way first. 

 

Yes, you are so right about this!!!  

[bmsm6]

On 4/25/2019 at 2:13 PM, seapad said:

BMSM6, thanks for such a great summary and review! My family will be on Harmony in July. They are a party of 13. Could you please tell me where your group was sitting (floor and location) where they have the table for 12? Would you think it can also accommodate 13 people?

There are 5 kids in total. 

 

Thank you! 

 

We were on deck 3, which is where they had the 5:30 main dining (I think deck 4 was used for my time dining, and not sure about deck 5).  When you walk in, and go to the left, then straight back almost all the way to the back of the dining room, we were in a little circular area on the right.  I think the table number was 164.  It could definitely fit 13 people.  Originally they set it up for 14 at that table but we ended up only having 12.  There is a booth seat that winds all around that little circular area, so half of our table sat in the booth and the other half were in chairs.  Just email rcldining@rccl.com closer to your trip with all the stateroom numbers and people and they should be able to take care of it.

[bmsm6]

22 hours ago, reallyitsmema said:

 

Puerto Rico is included with Verizon.  I just checked this itinerary using the interactive trip planner earlier this week.  We will be in San Juan next week and plan on using our phones.  Will see what happens, but I expect we will have no charges.  Not sure why DISFAN had charges, wonder where they were when they got the charges.  Maybe connected to the ship by accident.

I don't have verizon but my in-laws did, and I think when they tried to turn their phones on it said "Extended" in the top left corner of their iPhones.  So they were worried that they would be charged extra...I haven't heard from them if they actually were or not (I think they turned the phones off shortly after turning them on).

[reallyitsmema]

28 minutes ago, bmsm6 said:

I don't have verizon but my in-laws did, and I think when they tried to turn their phones on it said "Extended" in the top left corner of their iPhones.  So they were worried that they would be charged extra...I haven't heard from them if they actually were or not (I think they turned the phones off shortly after turning them on).

 

They shouldn't have had charges if they used their phones while it said extended while in San Juan.  Might have had slower speed due to using another networks towers, but it would have been covered by Verizon.

[bmsm6]

On 4/25/2019 at 8:49 PM, luv2sailAgain said:

Thank you for the review! 10 of us will be sailing in July on deck 12.  Were you able to hear the ocean?  I am worried that I should have booked cabins on a lower deck.  I

Yes - you can hear the ocean!  We really liked deck 12...only 2 flights of stairs up to the pool deck, so it gave us a break from waiting on the elevators 🙂

[luv2sailAgain]

11 hours ago, bmsm6 said:

Yes - you can hear the ocean!  We really liked deck 12...only 2 flights of stairs up to the pool deck, so it gave us a break from waiting on the elevators 🙂

Thank you for the information!  I really enjoy sitting on the balcony and listening to the ship sail through the water. So peaceful!