LMM's Harmony of the Seas Christmas Cruise - PHOTO Review!!

[LittleMissMagic]

The furry friend in my dad's hand is my GoPro Hero 8 Black with a Movo mic attached. The GoPro Hero 8 is a brand new addition to my camera collection. I've rented a GoPro before, but for the first time a GoPro has actually had all of the features that I want to actually buy the camera. For me, that's in-camera stabilization, a digital viewing screen so you can see what you're recording, waterproof without additional housing, and the new mod packs so you can easily add lights, display, and mics.... the only problem being that the mods aren't available yet! They were supposed to be available for pre-order in December, but it's January, and they still aren't available on the website. So in the meantime, I had to use a GoPro mic adapter (instead of the media mod).

 

Sail Away by Victoria Shingleton, on Flickr

 

After sail away, our parents headed to the Diamond Lounge for beverages, and Rachel and I went to Central Park.

 

Elevator Lobby by Victoria Shingleton, on Flickr

 

Central Park by Victoria Shingleton, on Flickr

 

Vintages, the wine bar located in Central Park, was never crowded (which we appreciated).

 

Vintages by Victoria Shingleton, on Flickr

 

Vintages by Victoria Shingleton, on Flickr

[LittleMissMagic]

49 minutes ago, BSocial said:

YAY, just stumbled upon your review, LMM.  Glad to see you did a Royal Caribbean cruise this time.  Looking forward to more of your commentary and fantastic photos !

 

Thanks for following along! We really enjoyed the Harmony of the Seas.

 

1 hour ago, A&L_Ont said:

LMM, welcome back. It’s been a while but I’m looking forward to your adventures.
 

Glad to read that you are still actively pursuing your architecture career and to read that your sis is in construction.  You two have it covered from both side. I’ve sat in on enough job site meetings to know where she is coming from.  It totally explains her spread sheets.😉 Your folks look to be doing awesome as well. I still remember your cruise story from years ago where your dad was chasing, or maybe pushing the taxi, possibly in Costa Rica. 

 

Bring it on Victoria. I’m ready for some good reading. 

 

YES!!! My dad pushed our taxi that broke down in Costa Rica! That was my first ever cruise review on here.

[BuzzBuzzen]

Yes I remember you and your reviews , welcome back and enjoying this review already. Cheers, Buzz.

[CruiszBug]

Was on Oasis of the Seas and disembarked on December 22 from Miami. I was wondering if the weather would hold for the holiday cruise travelers.. Yikes! Sounds like no!

[TMO3CCO1]

The picture of your products in “the cooler” looks like a FabFitFun box. 

[perfect match]

Good to see you back here on the Royal Caribbean board with a new review, especially since Harmony is the next ship we will be sailing. I’m looking forward to following along through the rest of your cruise! 

[suesnake2002]

Were you able to have the dividers open on your balconies??

[Ourusualbeach]

12 minutes ago, suesnake2002 said:

Were you able to have the dividers open on your balconies??

Haven’t read any reports of dividers not being able to be opened on Oasis class ships except potentially if they were between fire zones.  I know there are a couple BW balcony dividers that do not open.

[GSRDPM]

What a treat to find you posting again! I always love your presentation style and your after hours photos of the ship have always been the stuff that should be in catalogs. You have given me tips on how to shoot in the past and I have benefited greatly from your advice. Anxiously awaiting the rest of the review....My wife and I are on the Oasis in February.

[LittleMissMagic]

On 1/3/2020 at 4:51 AM, suesnake2002 said:

Were you able to have the dividers open on your balconies??

I'm not sure, because we didn't want the balcony divider open, haha! They looked like they could hinge open, and one afternoon when we were eating lunch at Johnny Rockets, I watched a stateroom hostess clean the interior balconies, and she opened all of the dividers and walked all the way through with her sprayer.

[LittleMissMagic]

On 1/2/2020 at 6:14 PM, BuzzBuzzen said:

Yes I remember you and your reviews , welcome back and enjoying this review already. Cheers, Buzz.

Thanks for following along! It's good to be back!

 

On 1/2/2020 at 8:56 PM, CruiszBug said:

Was on Oasis of the Seas and disembarked on December 22 from Miami. I was wondering if the weather would hold for the holiday cruise travelers.. Yikes! Sounds like no!

Not great weather, but we were able to change our itinerary and escape it. Going to Cozumel, rather than Coco Cay, gave us much better weather.

 

On 1/2/2020 at 10:04 PM, TMO3CCO1 said:

The picture of your products in “the cooler” looks like a FabFitFun box. 

Haha, thanks! The majority of the products are Rachel's, and she does do FabFitFun.

 

On 1/2/2020 at 10:54 PM, perfect match said:

Good to see you back here on the Royal Caribbean board with a new review, especially since Harmony is the next ship we will be sailing. I’m looking forward to following along through the rest of your cruise! 

Awesome! We had such a good time on the Harmony. Honestly, I was pretty bored with Royal Caribbean, but Oasis-class restored my interest.

 

9 hours ago, GSRDPM said:

What a treat to find you posting again! I always love your presentation style and your after hours photos of the ship have always been the stuff that should be in catalogs. You have given me tips on how to shoot in the past and I have benefited greatly from your advice. Anxiously awaiting the rest of the review....My wife and I are on the Oasis in February.

Thank you, that's the best compliment!! I was carrying a lot of gear around this trip, and I was always super excited when people would stop me to ask questions or talk about photography. Oasis is definitely on my list of ships to check out - really enjoyed the Harmony.

[LittleMissMagic]

After a getting a glass of wine in Vintages, we hopped on over to the Trellis Bar, also located in Central Park, where we'd be meeting our parents.

 

Trellis Bar by Victoria Shingleton, on Flickr

 

Trellis Bar by Victoria Shingleton, on Flickr

 

Trellis Bar by Victoria Shingleton, on Flickr

 

Trellis Bar by Victoria Shingleton, on Flickr

 

[LittleMissMagic]

We actually had two reservations for tonight... one for 7:00 at Sabor, and another for 9:00 at Izumi. We were planning to go to both. So we headed down to our rooms to get dressed for dinner and rushed to Sabor. The idea was we'd get chips and guac, then we'd later go to Izumi.

 

Sabor by Victoria Shingleton, on Flickr

 

I said "the plan," so you know things didn't go according to plan... we sat down and were greeted by our awesome server, Francis a.k.a. Coco. Rachel and I ordered Jalapeno Cucumber Margaritas, and Mom and Dad got strawberry margaritas.

 

Sabor by Victoria Shingleton, on Flickr

 

And, of course we got chips, salsa, and guacamole - so good.

 

Sabor by Victoria Shingleton, on Flickr

 

Personally, I loved the Jalepeno Cucumber Margarita. I am a big fan of cucumber. Rachel not so much. She asked later if she could get the drink but without the cucumber, and he said he would bring her something else. Rachel said later this week, she was waiting to get a Jalepeno Cucumber Margarita at the Sabor bar to bring to me, and she saw them pour the mix out of a big green slush bucket and it freaked her out. Well, I never saw that, so it wasn't ruined for me. I was convinced they muddled it.

 

Sabor by Victoria Shingleton, on Flickr

 

When Coco asked us what we wanted to eat, we decided we should get something. So Rachel and Judy split a steak quesidilla, and Stove and I ordered beef tacos. Honestly, I was surprised. I live in Southern California, so I have a pretty high standard for Mexican food.... my standard was met. The beef tacos were so good!
 

Sabor by Victoria Shingleton, on Flickr

[LittleMissMagic]

They were playing a football game over at the Aqua Theater. I had my fingers crossed that they would play the College Football Playoff games here (particularly Clemson vs. Ohio State). Spoiler: they would not.

 

Aqua Theater by Victoria Shingleton, on Flickr

 

Central Park by Victoria Shingleton, on Flickr

 

After dinner, we realized we weren't hungry anymore, so we decided to cancel the Izumi reservation and hoped that we could get a reservation there for lunch later in the week. We instead headed to the Promenade - Rachel wanted to take a ride on the Rising Tides bar.

 

Rising Tides by Victoria Shingleton, on Flickr

 

This bar rises from the 5th to the 8th deck. You can board on either level. This was another bar that we thought would be very popular, but there was never a wait for - you just had to catch it when it was still. It spent more time on deck 5 than deck 8 just because it was colder outside on deck 8, we were told

 

Rising Tides by Victoria Shingleton, on Flickr

 

Rising Tides by Victoria Shingleton, on Flickr

[LittleMissMagic]

Rising Tides by Victoria Shingleton, on Flickr

 

Rising Tides by Victoria Shingleton, on Flickr

 

Rachel found her new favorite drink the Expresso Martini at Rising Tides.

 

Rising Tides by Victoria Shingleton, on Flickr

 

Going up!!!

 

Rising Tides by Victoria Shingleton, on Flickr

 

Rising Tides by Victoria Shingleton, on Flickr

[LittleMissMagic]

Rising Tides by Victoria Shingleton, on Flickr

 

Here we are on Deck 8, in Central Park.

 

Rising Tides by Victoria Shingleton, on Flickr

 

I think we went up and down twice before calling it a night.

 

Rising Tides by Victoria Shingleton, on Flickr

 

Rising Tides would be one of our favorites - it's a great spot for watching all of the action in the Promenade, and also fun to go up and down.

[LittleMissMagic]

For our first day at sea, we were not expecting good weather. We weren't banking on spending the day by the pool, but we were okay with that because we knew they were sailing us south to better weather.

 

At Sea by Victoria Shingleton, on Flickr

 

At Sea by Victoria Shingleton, on Flickr

 

I went to the gym that morning, and Rachel went to run the track. The gym was located on Deck 6 forward, conveniently very near our stateroom. The track was located down on Deck 5. Rachel is training for the NYC Half Marathon in March, so she had to run this week. I preferred to lift weights in the gym. It was pretty crowded in the gym, as expected for the first sea day on the cruise. I knew this would be the most people I'd ever see in here because we were all stuck on the ship, and at the beginning of the cruise, people are pretty ambitious about their workout schedules... this will drop off. But there were no towels, and they weren't replaced the entire time I was there, so I was just dripping sweat on the floor. Sorry.

 

There are many treadmills, ellipticals, and bikes (all were reserved today, though). I thought the free weights area was a little small. There was a Smith machine, four benches, and free weights. The benches and Smith machine were all taken, so I just grabbed some weights and made a spot for myself on the side. I actually filmed my workout, so if that footage makes it into a Vlog on my new YouTube, I'll let you know. I spent about 25 minutes in the free weights area and decided to join Rachel for her last lap on the track - caught her just in time! We then returned to the gym for an ab burnout, which I did on the floor with no mat (all of the mats were being used in a group class). Finally, at the very end, a gym attendant came by passing out towels, and I ran up to him and asked for two.

 

Leaving the gym, we just happened to run into Judy and Stove at Vitality Cafe. We decided to head up to Park Cafe in Central Park which is where I found the best breakfast item on the ship (I don't have to try them all to know it's the best) - the breakfast burrito. Highly recommend. It's not flippin' amazing, but for cruise ship breakfast (verrryyyy low standard), it's pretty good.

 

We decided to clean up and try to eat lunch at Izumi. We didn't have a reservation, so we were just hoping they could slide us in.

 

Izumi by Victoria Shingleton, on Flickr

 

Izumi by Victoria Shingleton, on Flickr

 

Izumi by Victoria Shingleton, on Flickr

[LittleMissMagic]

This dude greets you when you walk in.

 

Izumi by Victoria Shingleton, on Flickr

 

Rachel did all of the talking, and I stood back to take photos... per usual.
 

Izumi by Victoria Shingleton, on Flickr

 

Izumi by Victoria Shingleton, on Flickr

 

They didn't have any more Hibachi timeslots that day, but they were able to fit us in at the Sushi Bar. Rachel told us that we had a $35 credit with our Unlimited Dining.

 

Izumi Menu by Victoria Shingleton, on Flickr

 

Izumi Sushi by Victoria Shingleton, on Flickr

[LittleMissMagic]

Edamame is complimentary.
 

Izumi Edamame by Victoria Shingleton, on Flickr

 

I got the miso soup.
 

Izumi Miso Soup by Victoria Shingleton, on Flickr

 

And the seaweed salad.
 

Izumi Seaweed Salad by Victoria Shingleton, on Flickr

 

And then Mom, Rachel, and Dad all got their sushi.... and I was left waiting.

Mom ordered the Champagne Lobster in Yuzu Wrap Roll.

 

Izumi Sushi by Victoria Shingleton, on Flickr

 

Finally, my sushi arrived. I ordered the Baked Snow Crab & Salmon Dynamite Roll. This is not the Baked Snow Crab & Salmon Dynamite Roll. It's a California Roll.

 

Izumi Sushi by Victoria Shingleton, on Flickr

 

Guys, it was horrible. So bland and unappealing. Seriously, I couldn't eat it. So Judy offered me her roll... which was also very bland. Then Rachel sent me her last roll.... and even that one I found to be lacking flavor. Stove had eaten all of his sushi. Considering that my roll came out much later than everyone else's, I think there must have been a mistake. Maybe they accidentally delivered my sushi to the wrong table. Maybe they forgot it completely. Either way, I sampled three different rolls, and they all completely lacked flavor. Victoria on Vacation does not recommend Izumi for sushi.
 

Edited January 5, 2020 by LittleMissMagic

[GSRDPM]

5 hours ago, LittleMissMagic said:

After a getting a glass of wine in Vintages, we hopped on over to the Trellis Bar, also located in Central Park, where we'd be meeting our parents.

 

Trellis Bar by Victoria Shingleton, on Flickr

 

Trellis Bar by Victoria Shingleton, on Flickr

 

Trellis Bar by Victoria Shingleton, on Flickr

 

Trellis Bar by Victoria Shingleton, on Flickr

 

These are so beautiful.  That first picture is incredible. Somehow you managed to capture the detail in both the lighter and darker areas of the view. There is minimal to no motion blur from the bartenders (How did you get them to stay still for the shot, LOL!) - The color from the bar is in sharp contrast to the dark surroundings and ...OMG!!!!...The light on Rachel's face is perfect!!! Good thing nothing naughty was going on in the central park view cabin above.  The lighting there is even perfect!

[GSRDPM]

On 1/2/2020 at 4:26 PM, LittleMissMagic said:

 

Uh-oh... didn't see what happened here -

 

 

 

Looks risky...What happens if Skynet becomes self aware at that moment....

[bobmacliberty]

Great review so far.  Love the pics.  I've more or less abandoned my old Hero 4 Black (other than time lapse shots from the balcony railing) due to lack of many of the requirements that you listed and instead use my iPhone with a DJI Osmo mobile.  Off to read more about the Hero 8. 

 

You bring a perspective that I will never have.  Beauty cooler?  Changing spa appointments because formal night changed?  Never in a million years would I have either of those thoughts. When I read what you wrote to my wife though, she was just nodding her head and saying yup, yup, yup.

[LBumb]

Amazing job. I’m thoroughly enjoying

[rs45thompson]

Enjoying your review so far. Thank you for doing it.

[Beav1279]

I'm enjoying your review! Thank you for sharing the info and your beautiful pictures.