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"Live" From Harmony of the Seas. September 15-22, 2019 -Eastern Itinerary

MrFunInTheSun

By MrFunInTheSun,
in Royal Caribbean International

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perfect match Holiday Sharing Rare

perfect match

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5 hours ago, MrFunInTheSun said:

If you’re  on the fence of booking that Royal Caribbean cruise on Harmony of the seas, go do it today, wait right now! Don’t delay, you won’t be disappointed! 

 

We’re already booked! We have a long wait, but great reviews like yours are keeping me excited!  😍  Thanks for sharing your cruise with us! 

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MrFunInTheSun

MrFunInTheSun

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On 9/21/2019 at 9:37 PM, MamaTene said:

Have been following your adventure from moment you boarded in awe and amazement. You HAVE to let us all know how much weight you gained and if any of your clothes still fit...LOL!!!


Thanks for following along along! It was an amazing cruise! Way to short!

 

On 9/21/2019 at 11:57 PM, maureencruiser said:

Safe travels home, my friend.  I'll see you in 71 days.🤓🤓


Thanks for following along! See you soon on Lady Oasis!

 

On 9/22/2019 at 12:31 AM, Sea Dog said:

How was the garlic bread? Looks fantastic. So out of the all the times you ate at CP 150 which was the best entree?


Garlic bread was amazing! Really all of it was. Can’t pick just one.

 

On 9/22/2019 at 1:46 AM, perfect match said:

 

We’re already booked! We have a long wait, but great reviews like yours are keeping me excited!  😍  Thanks for sharing your cruise with us! 


Thanks for following along! 
 

On 9/22/2019 at 6:24 AM, RickAinley said:

Thanks for doing this. As you head off we will be getting on today. I have a strong suspicion our itinerary will change due to Tropical Storm Karen but either way your reports give us a great insight to the next seven days. 

 

Thanks for following along! Hope y’all had an amazing cruise! 
 

On 9/22/2019 at 8:07 AM, jimbri said:

Enjoying your review.

 

Thanks for following along! 
 

On 9/22/2019 at 8:29 AM, sellwingri said:

Boarding in 2 hours.  Thanks for your review!

 

 

Thanks for following along along! Hope you had an amazing cruise! 
 

On 9/22/2019 at 12:33 PM, FlowBroTy said:

 

Hey I See Me!!

 

Whoop Whoop! 
 

On 9/23/2019 at 5:53 PM, zencruisers said:

Great review as usual. Thank you for taking the time to take us along for the ride.

 

Thanks for following along! 

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RickinStl

RickinStl

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On 9/21/2019 at 8:37 PM, MamaTene said:

Have been following your adventure from moment you boarded in awe and amazement. You HAVE to let us all know how much weight you gained and if any of your clothes still fit...LOL!!!


We were on for two weeks..i left  home at 190 lbs and came home at 200.. since returning to normal.. I’m back to 190lbs.. 

 

It was the best time we’ve ever had.. bar crawls, slot pulls.. We made friends for a lifetime.. Most of us that were on the 15th sailing are already planning more cruises together!  WHOOP WHOOP!  

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MrFunInTheSun

MrFunInTheSun

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On 10/2/2019 at 9:04 PM, RickinStl said:


We were on for two weeks..i left  home at 190 lbs and came home at 200.. since returning to normal.. I’m back to 190lbs.. 

 

It was the best time we’ve ever had.. bar crawls, slot pulls.. We made friends for a lifetime.. Most of us that were on the 15th sailing are already planning more cruises together!  WHOOP WHOOP!  


 

Can’t wait for us all to do it again!! 
 

 

Best cruise ever! 
 

 

Whoop Whoop!! 

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MrFunInTheSun

MrFunInTheSun

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It appears after reading back thru this "Live" review there is a lot missing. This was an amazing cruise and I'm going to go back and try to fill in some of the blanks as so much fun was going on that it didn't completely translate into just how amazing this cruise was. 🙂

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Sea Dog "Live from...." Rare

Sea Dog

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I thought you did a great job answering all the questions that you did. A Live review is very difficult. That's why as much as I would like to do a live review for our October 13th sailing on Harmony, I am going to do a "as if" live the following week after I get back. It will give me more time to process and write my observations. I respect greatly everyone here on CC that does a live review.

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MrFunInTheSun

MrFunInTheSun

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September 14th - Pre-cruise day!

 

That day started like most day before you leave on a cruise day, what else needs to be done before leaving for a week. We had these "Little" storms still off out in the ocean planning at the time to do who knows what. With the anticipation of it could possibly do something whilst we were at sea it was time to put any outdoor things tucked away should a hurricane decide to head to Florida whilst we were at sea. It was also a day to make sure family members properly take care of pets while your away. 🙂

 

After the morning stress was taken care of and things on the list were forgotten it was time to make that trek toward Port Canaveral. Our amazing roll call group had gathering at Grills Seafood at 3:30. During this timer period I had also agreed to pick up what was then a new friend from our roll call at their hotel and bring her to our gathering at Grills, but at the time still a stranger, though not as much as a stranger as it could have been as we've all been chatting away for months. 🙂

 

Saturday afternoon I made my way to the Marriott Courtyard pretty much exactly the time I said I'd be there. I had been on the road a couple hours and had to pee like a race horse, I had parked my car and walked into the lobby, thinking she won't be waiting there for me so I got time to pee. Nope, you guessed it, she was on time in the lobby too. 🙂 So my horrible first impression was "Hello, glad to meet you, but I got to pee." So I zipped past her after shaking hands and did my business. We then had our formal greeting in the lobby and made our way to Grills having a few laughs at my horrible introduction. 🙂

 

At around 3:15 we made it to Grills and there were already quite a few folks from our roll call there, one had already warned then and they were starting to set up a table for about 25 people. Everywhere I turned there was a new person from our roll call that I've been communicating with for months, I'm hearing this name, that name and then trying to put names and faces together. At this point I'm lucky I still remember my name. Things begin to move along and we get everyone to our large table, in the mean time more folks arrived.

 

We then began to Whoop Whoop in excitement that our cruise day was about to begin. Oh yeah or main Whoop Whooper Jamie and his lovely wife Angie finally arrived. At this point my own nerves and the drink I had kicked in and all our months of communications was now a reality. However there was a very odd feeling to it all, I really didn't feel like I was sitting with a bunch of strangers, I've had a personal connection with everyone that was here over the past several months. This was a first for me to walk into a cruise this way. We all had tons of laughs, ice had been broken that all of us that made it to this gathering had kick started our amazing cruise. This cruise was a partial solo cruise for me and I hadn't done a full solo cruise since my cruise on Harmony last September. But after this it surely wasn't a solo cruise any longer, I had all these new friends.

 

Our wonderful meal and gathering went on for awhile longer and then folks started to head off here and there. I volunteered to pick up three folks at their hotels on cruise day to save them taking a uber or shuttle service. The joke was will I have enough room in my car, I'm like sure, we'll make it work 🙂

 

As we were leaving another roll call member, Sherry showed up but we were all leaving,. In hindsight I felt bad that Patty and I didn't turn around and go back and sit at the bar with Sherry but well its to late now. We left it that we would see her the next day at Jamie's Italian for lunch at noon. We continued on our way and I dropped Patty off at her hotel and I went to mine and checked in. I was starting to get a headache but didn't think much of it, took some advil and tried to go to bed early.

 

As the night was going on, more and more folks were checking in from our roll call that they made it, the excitement had begun to buzzzz all around. I attempted to go to sleep early, which I really think around 10pm I did fall asleep for a bit. My headache had still lingered off and on, I blamed it on the drink I had as I hadn't had a drink since my last cruise on Allure back in May.

 

September 15th, Cruise day... it's after midnight.

 

Think it was around 3am I woke up and well, you guessed it a boat load of us were chatting on our roll call at 3am, who can sleep, we are getting on a ship in a few hours. LOL. Pretty sure I did doze off a few times until sometime after 7am I finally made my way to Denny's for breakfast. I felt like I was going to be getting a cold, no way can I get a cold, no way. Made my way back to my room to shower and stop at Publix, where shopping is a pleasure... to pick up a few more last minute things. Now remember I said I thought I felt a cold coming along, that morning I had already drank two things of Airbourne.

 

I messaged Patty, Rose and Phyliss and said I was on my way after a quick stop at Publix. Stopping at Publix I decided I would buy all this stuff if one were to get sick and aloe lotion just in case of a bad sunburn. Finished at Publix and made my first stop at the Marriott for Patty, loaded her bags in my car and she says do you think we will have room for everyone and their bags? My bags are quite big. Sure we will be fine, you should have seen how full my car was with my friends when we sailed on Harmony back in 2017, we'll be fine. 🙂 Made our way to pick up Rose and Phyliss at their hotel. They were waiting for us in front, we were all laughing as we saw all the bags, to everyone's amazement we made it, no one had to sit on the room and we didn't drag anyone behind the car. By this time it was around 10:05am, the pier was  within minutes from where we were, we circle around and I drop them off and they checked their bags with porters, I didn't check my bag but left my bag with Rose as I left and went and parked my car in the garage. I was back with them within a very short period. We all walk into the terminal together and three of us together and then got separated with Patty, we all just kept going and knew we'd meet up with each other someplace on the other end. Rose, Phyliss and I went thru the expedited line and the face recognition thing did its thing and boom, we were done, we went up to the next level and one guy was saying I had to go this way, Rose and Phyliss this other way because they had the Key. We ended up back in the same spot in the end and walked right on the ship. We were all on the ship no later than 10:25am.

 

Once on the ship, our first agenda were our reservations for our specialty dining, somehow Patty got ahead of us and was already on the ship. I got separated from Rose and Phyliss and didn't see them again for a bit but once I met up with Patty made our reservations for some of the nights for the week. I set up our group of 15 people for Wonderland on night 4 and added a few names to our meal on night one at Izumi Hibachi making our roll call group gathering for 22 people. After we got all that taken care of it was almost noon, time for our group meet up at Jamie's Italian. I got there a few moments early and said there were about 16 of us that would be there for lunch. They were setting up our table, while we were waiting I went out in Central Park and I kept hearing my name, as I kept going to three and four different directions, made my way back with our group to Jamie's Italian. It was at that time I got to finally meet Rick who had been on the ship the whole week before, it was so awesome to finally meet Rick & Jean after chatting in our roll call for so many months and him following my blogs all these years. Was this real?  Met a few others that were not part of our pre-cruise meal at Grills the day before. We all had the "Unlimited Dining Package". Our waiter, don't remember his name was amazing, he basically just kept bringing us everything on the menu, bless his heart. We all just kept eating and then they rolled us on out. It was around 145 or so when we all went our ways as our rooms were now open. This to me is the perfect way to start a cruise. Go to lunch at a specialty restaurant, no lugging your bags all around to much and once you are done lunch, rooms are ready. We all went on our ways and said we'd see each other at sail away part after muster drill at the Wipe Out Bar between the flow-riders.

 

Made my way to my room, inside cabin as I didn't win the Royal Up, I was cool with an inside room as I'm not in my room much anyways. Remember earlier I said I kept thinking I was going to get a cold. Well when I was at Publix I had bought a bottle of Ester C. 24 hour Immune support. I laid down and rested a bit since I was in my room before muster. Once I was done resting I took three of the Ester C pills as that's how many you are supposed to take in a day. Made my way to my muster station which was in the theater. Muster came and went and it was now shortly after 4pm and time to head to the Wipe Out Bar. I hiked up all the flights of stairs from the theater to deck 15. Once I got to deck 15 I ran into Tim and got my a drink from the bar there as I knew the bar at the Wipe Out Bar was going to be busy. We had 50-60 people from our roll call that were supposed to meet up there for sail away. Got my drink and chatted with Tim for a bit then made my way to deck 16. Finally met more folks from our roll call. The sun was shining and it was HOT HOT HOT.

 

Time went on, met more folks and we were all chatting away. suddenly I just collapsed. Rick thought I was just messing with them all and picked me up and I was standing again and somewhat chatting I guess, then I collapsed again, it was then poor Rick knew I wasn't being a jerk and messing with them. They all moved me over to the seats by the flow rider and they got the ship paramedics and all that. What a way to meet a bunch of new people face to face that you've been chatting with for months. 🙂

 

Anyways time went on and my blood pressure had skyrocketed which had caused me to collapse. I had not drank much so it was not the alcohol. They took my blood pressure and tested my blood sugar. They wanted to bring me down to the infirmary but I had refused. I just kept drinking water. I was very thankful for all my new friends around me that took care of me during this very weird time, showed really what great folks we had in our roll call and great community we as cruise folks are. We sailed off, I was feeling better as my blood pressure started to subside. I missed us sailing away and pictures. As proud as I am I took up the offer of Patty going with me back to my deck after sail away to ensure I made it back to my room to rest up before we all were to meet up for dinner at Izumi Hibachi.

 

Once I got back to my room I took a nap, drank more water before our dinner at 730. So basically the rest of night one I was taking it rather easy for the most part being optimistically cautious. While I didn't not drink at all, I was very cautious. Everyone arrived at Hibachi, I honestly was amazed, so far every gathering everyone had shown up that said they were, we had 22 people, basically Hibachi was everyone from our roll call. Everyone also had the "Unlimited Dining Package". We all had lots of laughs and an amazing time, new friendships were forming and ones made earlier were bonding more. Our since of community from our roll call was very prevalent. As time went on my horrible first impression from our sail away party was subsiding.

 

Once dinner concluded most of us made our way to our first official meet up at the Rising Tide Bar. This was our first night of many that we closed the Rising Tide Bar down for the night. During the course of the rest of that night, folks that were not with us at Hibachi made there way to Rising Tide and more faces and names were known. Whoop Whoops were going all around. Good Times. As the Rising Tide Bar was closing and our wonderful wait staff there were taking care of us it was almost that time to call it a day. Day One was a huge success despite my horrible meeting of many. 🙂 Made my way back to my room to rest up for Day two which brought us to Coco Cay. What adventure will we have in Coco Cay??

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MrFunInTheSun

MrFunInTheSun

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9 hours ago, Sea Dog said:

I thought you did a great job answering all the questions that you did. A Live review is very difficult. That's why as much as I would like to do a live review for our October 13th sailing on Harmony, I am going to do a "as if" live the following week after I get back. It will give me more time to process and write my observations. I respect greatly everyone here on CC that does a live review.


Thanks. Guess the biggest challenge is typing what’s happening via the iPhone. Since it’s one letter at a time on a keypad it’s not as convenient as using a keyboard. 😀

 

7 hours ago, perfect match said:

Wow! What a way to kick off a cruise! I’ll bet everyone knew who you were after passing out at sailaway!  🚢 

 

Ha. Yeah. Though I’m not sure it was seen by as many as one would think as it all happened so quickly. It definitely changed how day one played out as extra caution was taken.

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Ren1216

Ren1216

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I've been away from the boards for a long while, starting to peek around again as I've just booked my family group of 9 on an upcoming Harmony sailing.  Some things have changed over the last few years!  I've read through your LIVE thread and truly enjoyed it.  Thank You for for all the time and effort you've put into this.  Clearly, it's an enjoyable read for many, but it's also an invaluable source of information for those like me in the planning phase.  The pictures are fantastic!  I'll be watching for more as I see you've paused (hopefully just a pause) your narrative at Coco Cay.  Glad you're ok after what transpired on Day 1!

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