Beautiful ship but overwhelming number of guests makes for bad service

Item: Harmony of the Seas
Rating: 3
Author: jessgraz

Harmony of the Seas Cruise Review to Europe - Western Mediterranean

jessgraz

Contributor Level: Purser

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 12

Overall rating:

3 out of 5

Verified Review

Western Mediterranean

Sail date: August 11, 2016

Ship: Harmony of the Seas

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 10719

Traveled as: Family (older children)

Reviewed: 8 years ago

Review summary

This brand-new ship is absolutely beautiful. The cabins have ample space for storage. The cabins are large especially in the bathroom where a decent sized shower is the highlight. The food was great. The evening shows - Grease, Columbus, The Fine Line, iSkate, etc. were the best shows we have seen on any cruise and we are very experienced cruisers - absolutely amazing!! The reason we are giving this cruise 3 out of 5 stars is the service. We don't know if it is because there are too many people on board or because the ship is still going through growing pains, but the staff at guest services, shore excursions and the cruise director's team are terrible. The service is rude, inconsistent and slow. Particularly at guest services and shore excursions, we were made to feel as if we were bothering them and that our issues were nothing more than an inconvenience. As for the cruise director's staff, again it seemed the guests were more of a bother - not a single person was friendly or fun! The most anyone said to us was literally as we were leaving the ship on the last day - as they were holding the elevator for us to leave. We do have to say that the dining room team and our cabin steward were amazing - courteous, helpful and pleasant. Having cruised with RCCL in the past, we would not cruise with RCCL again on any of their megaships for fear they just don't have their act together when there are more than 2000-2500 passengers.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

5 out of 5

Onboard Activities

1 out of 5

Entertainment

5 out of 5

Service and Staff

1 out of 5

Ship Quality

5 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5

Ports of call

Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy

5 out of 5

Naples, Italy

5 out of 5

Barcelona, Spain

5 out of 5

Palma De Mallorca, Balearic Islands

3 out of 5

Marseille (Provence), France

3 out of 5

La Spezia, Italy

5 out of 5

14 Comments

capeman 8 years ago

You have got to be kidding, you booked the ship didn't you? Then you complain of the crowd. Amazing.

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dee1285858150 8 years ago

That why you go during off season so there is not so much people

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mandymw 8 years ago

I like your comment , but this is what I saw.

I was boarding at Barcelona , it was quite small amount of people until Rome. When we arrived at Rome , a large group of tourists was boarding and everything turned crowd at that time .

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nucfuel 8 years ago

Was on Oasis in June and found all crew to be pleasant and helpful. Strongly suggest pre booking shows and meals on line as soon as you can. We did and never once had to wait for a seat at the main dining room or any entertainment venues.

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betsey77 8 years ago

Cruised on Oasis and found that staff were way more friendly and helpful than Harmony. Perhaps they are still having teething problems on a new ship, but the difference between the staff on the two was very noticeable. Oasis carries near enough the same amount of guests, so I don't know why there was such a variation in the staff friendliness!

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dmcc89666446 8 years ago

We have been on the Oasis and Allure and loved them!!! As with any new ship, it does take some time for the crew to get organized and become comfortable with everything on s new ship. Most reviews will tell you it is better to book a new ship after it has sailed for a few months. This gives them time to work out the kinks. Now, having said this, I can't wait to get on the Harmony as soon as it gets to Ft. Lauderdale on Nov. 5 !!!!!!

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General1010 8 years ago

So true brander 3 I've been on the oasis and allure multiple time I pre book meals ,shows excursions all at home and I can't say nothing bad about the oasis and allure!! Can't wait to get on the harmony in November

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aprilt27 8 years ago

2394 to 1100 is the ratio on the Gem and everyone was very friendly and helpful. They didn't seem stressed out.

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twangster 8 years ago

I wonder how many cruisers each cruise are first timers. Might vary by season. Wonder if that contributes.

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bradner3 8 years ago

6000/2000 is approximately the same ratio for Allure and Oasis. When I went on Allure I found the staff to be very pleasant and great to be around. I took the all access your which was lead by the cruise director staff and I spent half a day with them. One tip I have found to be useful is to book all entertainment, meals and excursions online or over the phone before your cruise and you will never have to bother the guest services or the excursions folks. I think too many people don't take advantage of the pre-planning tools, therefore the employees do get a little overwhelmed. Really, passengers should only need to go to these desks for one off items or problems. I am not saying this is what you did, or didn't do, I'm just saying that some passengers still wait to get on the ship to make all arrangements and then hold up the line complaining that things are not available at the times they want because they are booking at the last minute.

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tolondon2012 8 years ago

So quantity over quality!@ is the Oasis better I was going to make that my next cruise..

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aprilt27 8 years ago

This is one huge reason we enjoyed the Norwegian Gem so much

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twangster 8 years ago

I fear this trend on the 'mega' ships. They could use the extra space to have more venues, more staff, but they just try to cram on more guests. Sometimes on small ships I miss the flashy zinging cool new stuff, but the more intimate feeling and more personal service is a nice benefit to the smaller ships.

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aprilt27 8 years ago

Well I'm feeling glad we didn't keep this cruise and instead canceled it. I read the ship stats after reading your review and I can see why service was so bad. You got over 6000 passengers with only a little over 2000 crew. That's a horrible ratio.

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