Harmony of the Seas - April 8-15 Review

[squattie]

We thoroughly enjoyed our week on Harmony of the Seas!  We are a party of 3 with 2 adults and 1 child, with ocean view balcony cabin.  

 

Cabin:  Our room was ready at 1:30pm, so that was nice, and our luggage was already outside our door by that time too.  I did not like the reduction in housekeeping service.  With our child, we used couch conversion into a bed, and it stayed that way for the entire trip.  There were reports with the reduction in housekeeping services that the cabin steward would stow/unstow the bed daily, but that did not happen.  So if you wanted to use the couch other than a bed, we would be the ones to make the change.  Another issue with the cabin was the missing bottom seal on the shower door.  As a result, any time we showered, the bathroom floor had water all over it.  We notified our cabin attendant who said maintenance was already notified, but they couldn't get the part.  We asked for additional towels daily to basically build our own dam against the door.  Fun times, and with only 1/day service, the towels piled up.  

 

Dinner:  We did not purchase any specialty dining packages.  We ate at MDR for dinner every night at 5:15pm.  Wasn't anything to write home about, and wasn't bad either.  Service was slow a few nights, and found ourselves with a dining experience about 1.5 hours each night.  They could easily speed this up and get it under an hour, especially with the simplified menus and smaller portion sizes.  The lines for My Time Dining were ridiculous every time we left each evening, basically having to go shoulder to shoulder with guests as we left trying to get to the elevator or steps.  Was able to order multiple appetizers and desserts which came at the same time, but the entrees were not allowed to come at the same time.  The lobster portion was so small, I went ahead and ordered the NY strip, but had to finish the lobster before they would bring the steak.  So in one minute I ate the lobster, then waited another 10 minutes for the steak to appear.  Lots of mentions about "at the end of the cruise you will receive a survey"... yada yada yada.  This got old quick.  

 

Breakfast/lunch:  Breakfast was split between the WJ and MDR.  Wasn't impressed with MDR for breakfast, might as well go to WJ as the items I was served in MDR had clearly had been sitting for a while.  The syrup on my pancakes had crystallized.  Lunch was at WJ and MiniBites, both pretty decent grab and go items for pool side. 

 

Retail: If you need a watch, HOS has one for you.  Just don't buy the first day.  By the end of your cruise, there will be 75% off sales and really big yellow signs on the promenade advertising such, with boxes and boxes of watches piled up.  Not impressed with overall retail on this ship.

 

Embarkation took us 10 minutes from our Lyft to ship. 

 

Disembarkation was a complete disaster, and took us 1.5 hours from cabin to Lyft.  Supposedly Homeland Security wasn't ready for the ship, which delayed everything.  We've done multiple cruises in the past and did self-disembarkation, and been off the ship in 15-20 minutes.  Regardless, the RC staff didn't do a good job managing the process.  They made an announcement saying disembarkation was delayed, but then 5 minutes later we get a notification from the app that's it's clear to get off the ship.  When arriving on the 5th floor, there were people everywhere and nobody moving.  Eventually we found ourselves on the starboard side of the ship, with everyone making a line on the running track.  The line was all the way down that side of the ship, then did a u-turn and went through the MDR. 

 

Entertainment:  We enjoyed all of the shows on board, including The Fine Line (Aqua Theater Show) and Grease.  For Columbus, the boat mechanism broke on Thursday night, so they had to cancel the show.  RC moved all of our reservations to Friday night.  The show was a bit cheesy/corny (think tap dancing sharks and dancing cheeseburgers), so it was entertaining to see how ridiculous it could get.  

 

Easter:  We were sailing on Easter Sunday, and RC did add a Catholic Easter Mass and a non-denominational service.  The Priest was the same person leading the non-denominational service, minus the vestments.  At least they had something.  Afterwards they had an egg hunt, and provided families with an easter basket to find eggs in the Boardwalk area.  Of course there were kids who had 15 eggs, and others had none.  

 

Ports were St Maarten, St Thomas, and Coco Cay.  For St Maarten, we went with Joyce Prince tours and had a fantastic day.  She took us to both sides of the island, and made sure we saw everything we wanted to see.  Fantastic tour, and would highly recommend using Joyce, especially if it's your first time on the island.

 

We did a RC excursion on St Thomas (half day catamaran snorkel/champagne tour to St John).  You would have thought it was the RC excursion staff's first day.  There were single file lines at the pier that started blending together, with no clear beginning or end.  When it came time to go, the staff said "oh, just follow the sidewalk over to the two boats" that you could see in the distance and they'll take it from there.  When we arrived at the two boats, they started boarding us, but ultimately realized we weren't in the right spot.  The guy called someone, and told us we had to go back to the pier.  There were other excursion guests already on the boat, who had to figure out among themselves that they were not in the right spot, even though the staff had taken their tickets. We get back to the pier and meet the lady who told us to walk to the boats, who then took us in a different direction to one of the open air taxi-buses.  Two guests were not able to make the excursion because they oversold it and did not have the space.  Weird start, but when we finally arrived at the catamaran, we had a great time!  Saw a small sea turtle, ray, and different types of fish.  St. Thomas is the only place we saw noticeable sargassum seaweed, and that was at the port.

 

For Coco Cay, we were originally scheduled to be the only ship that day, but Mariner got re-routed due to bad weather, and beat us to the island. We purchased the waterpark cabana, and enjoyed the day there.  Yes, the lines to the water slides are ridiculous and RC should figure out how to manage that.  The Daredevils Peak slide had wait times of 1.5 hours at peak, which did decline later in the day.  Didn't ride a few of the slides to avoid wasting a good portion of our day standing in a line.  We did enjoy the island, and it was one of the highlights of our trip.  The mozzarella sticks, burgers, drinks, funnel cakes all were good, and our cabin attendant did an outstanding job.  

 

Overall, great week!

[mafig]

Considering going on Harmony soon, so your review came in handy.  Thanks!

[rucruisn2]

Going on Harmony in June.  If cabin cleaning is reduced to once a day, is the tips lowered?

[Biker19]

Just now, rucruisn2 said:

If cabin cleaning is reduced to once a day, are the tips lowered?

No.

[simon.hed]

Good synopsis. 

 

we had that same itinerary last August. We also had very similar experiences on RC excursions (getting to whatever you were doing was insanely unorganized, once there it was amazing).

 

I avoid WJ at all costs. MDR breakfast was great every day for us. We ate specialty every night except a couple, and the MTD lines were snaked for miles when we were there.

 

I only went to water park at CC first trip there. Not sure how they can manage the lines with that. We have been to CC 4 times I think and have been only ship every visit (somehow). That isnt the case with our upcoming 3 cruises, including 2 Oasis class ships June 2024

[Ret MP]

We'll be cruising on Harmony in Jan 2024 from Galveston.  I'm hoping that the new terminal will have a better debarkation experience for all.  I'm totally looking forward to Sabor and its offerings.  Did you give Sabor a try? 

 

Thanks for the review.  

[OCSC Mike]

2 minutes ago, Ret MP said:

I'm totally looking forward to Sabor and its offerings.  Did you give Sabor a try? 

 

Not the OP but I had Sabor for dinner on Harmony last June and our entire extended family of 8 (some of whom don't even like Mexican food) all enjoyed it.

 

The apps (chips and guac, jalapeno chicken popper type item, and calamari) were so good we re-ordered them several times... which worked out well b/c the entrees weren't as good (the burritos were tiny and weird; I'd get a steak next time). We all loved the desserts... churros and dessert chimichangas.

 

Lastly, I enjoyed the jalapeno margarita. Not quite as good as my favorite Goalpost margarita from Playmakers (jalapeno pineapple) but very good if you like spicy.

[Ret MP]

2 minutes ago, OCSC Mike said:

 

Not the OP but I had Sabor for dinner on Harmony last June and our entire extended family of 8 (some of whom don't even like Mexican food) all enjoyed it.

 

The apps (chips and guac, jalapeno chicken popper type item, and calamari) were so good we re-ordered them several times... which worked out well b/c the entrees weren't as good (the burritos were tiny and weird; I'd get a steak next time). We all loved the desserts... churros and dessert chimichangas.

 

Lastly, I enjoyed the jalapeno margarita. Not quite as good as my favorite Goalpost margarita from Playmakers (jalapeno pineapple) but very good if you like spicy.

Sounds great.  When it comes to Mexican food/Tex-Mex Food, there's only good and gooder, as far as I'm concerned.  Of course, I'd prefer the gooder.  

[topnole]

We liked the dancing sharks.  The shark was the funniest part of the show.  Yes, ridiculous.  But the whole story line is ridiculous, so why not.  Loved how they got Paul Simon and Jimmy Buffet in the same scene.