A Fun Week

Item: Harmony of the Seas
Rating: 4.3
Author: darlynep

Harmony of the Seas Cruise Review to Caribbean - Eastern

darlynep

Contributor Level: Purser

Cruises: 4-6 cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 41

Overall rating:

4.3 out of 5

Verified Review

7 Night Eastern Caribbean (Ft. Lauderdale Roundtrip)

Sail date: September 29, 2018

Ship: Harmony of the Seas

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 12245

Traveled as: Singles/Friends

Reviewed: 6 years ago

Review summary

Enjoyed the week and like Royal Caribbean. This is my 4th trip with them. I will not travel on Harmony again. It's a bit too large and crowded for my taste. The shows are very good. Not a gambler, I was delighted to find there was a lottery each evening and took advantage of it. The staff is friendly and conscientious and could not have been better.

Embarkation

4 out of 5

I was toward the end of the time to check in and they could have used another person or two to make it go a bit faster. However, it still was much faster than early in the day.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5

The dining rooms are beautiful. It is remarkable how the friendly staff members (Silk, in my case) were able to move 6500 people through meals easily and efficiently. I do wish the dining rooms had more vegetable options. They're extremely meat-centric. The Windjammer was chaotic.

Onboard Activities

3 out of 5

The onboard wine tasting was great fun. The pools, however, and the solarium area are not good at all. There are only two adult-sized pools with water levels of 4'5" to 4'9". They are small and crowded, so it's impossible to swim, to stand and do exercises or stretches, or pretty much to do anything at all in them. I'm 5'5", and with the wave motion, all I could do in the pool was to stand at the 4"5" end (if I could find a spot because that's where everyone was) and get a face full of water. Very disappointing. The solarium area is a disappointment as well. Having been in the solaria on Allure and Oasis, this supposedly bigger and better ship definitely was neither. Harmony's solarium has 3 hot tubs and no other water feature. I would not be interested in traveling on Harmony again because or the lack of water time.

Entertainment

5 out of 5

Children's Programs

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

Ship Quality

3 out of 5

It was extremely clean. However, I would like to have seen better pools and shops. The showers in the thermal area of the spa don't drain properly: The water comes back into the shower instead of down the outer drain.

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5

Ship tip

If you're interested in pools, change ships. Otherwise, there are tons of fun things to do here, so just treat it like a fun week in a new city.

Thumbs up

Ports of call

Ft. Lauderdale (Port Everglades), Florida Did not visit port

Just boarded here -- from the plane to Harmony.

Thumbs Up 0

Nassau, Bahamas

4 out of 5

The port was fine. However, the time there was much too short to enjoy it properly. Greycliff is a great excursion, but I would have liked to have explored more of the city on my own.

Thumbs Up 7

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas

5 out of 5

I enjoyed my excursion here and a few of the shops as well as my beach excursion and drive.

Thumbs Up 6

San Juan, Puerto Rico

5 out of 5

Waaay too short a time in San Juan to enjoy what Old San Juan has to offer.

Thumbs Up 12

Labadee (Cruise Line Private Island) Did not visit port

Have been there twice before and it's lovely. Took advantage of the spa on this day.

Thumbs Up 0

Disembarkation

4 out of 5

It was a little chaotic, yet at the same time organized. The worst part of it is that it's way too early in the morning.

Traveler Photos

3 Comments

arhappygirl 6 years ago

Lottery each night, what does that consist of?

Thumbs Up 1

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mamahirt 6 years ago

What do you mean by a lottery each night?

Thumbs Up 0

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CVCruiser 6 years ago

A little research would have shown that the Harmony did not have a Pool in the Solarium as Allure and Oasis have. They put it back in the Symphony though. As for the other pools on board, I would be impressed to find ANY cruise ship where you can swim in a pool during peak times?!?! Ive found that at least on Oasis class ships there are often times that the pools are available with few people in them. Harmony has 3 main pools btw.. 2 on main pool area, and 1 across from the kids water zone. Also, if you wanted to stretch and exercise in a pool, the circular swirl poolin the Kids water zone is open to anyone, and a nice place to do that. 🙂

Thumbs Up 1

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Other reviews of this sailing

We had an incredible time. Perfect service, as it was our first (but certainly not the last) we had a very enlightening experience. Crew was wonderful and we had a blast of a time.

Mpstly Wonderful cruise