Too Many Passengers, Poor Communication, Not enough Crew and Accommodations
Harmony of the Seas Cruise Review to Caribbean - Western
7 Night Western Caribbean (Ft. Lauderdale Roundtrip)
Sail date: November 18, 2018
Ship: Harmony of the Seas
Cabin type: Inside
Cabin number: 9435
Traveled as: Large Group
Reviewed: 5 years ago
Review summary
While this ship was beautiful there were communication issues all over the place. We'd get different information from Guest Services vs. the Photo Center, etc. We sailed over Thanksgiving and that was a mistake. This was a sold out ship and it was obvious. The crew was burned out and struggled to keep up with 6500+ passengers. Room service brought the wrong order almost every morning and the times rarely matched with what we asked for. Plates piled up on tables at the buffet, trying to get a seat at the Windjammer was a struggle, trying to find a chair at the pool on sea days was impossible, we gave up on taking elevators because you could hardly ever fit in there with everyone else. The lines to do anything (flowrider, zip line, etc.) were always long and that's IF they were even open. Activities closed at the most random times. We tried to do the Abyss slide 5 times and 4/5 times it was closed. We even had the head waiter in the dining hall complain about another passenger to us! That's never happened on all our cruises! Plus this ship started requiring reservations for "My Time" dining and all shows and events. That information wasn't communicated to us by in advance so when we got on the ship we were unpleasantly surprised that we could hardly participate in anything we wanted to do and had to eat dinner in the dining hall at 8:30 pm (which was not good for us traveling with a 6 month old baby). This was the first RCCL cruise we've ever been disappointed in. I'm hoping it's simply because it was a sold out cruise on a huge ship, but the lack of communication about the required reservations was a huge issue that could've been solved in advance. We still had a nice time, but won't sail on the Oasis class ships again for at least a few years until RCCL can sort out its shortcomings.Embarkation
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Johnny Rockets
This was a nice break from the Windjammer and the Dining Hall. The burgers were great!
Windjammer Marketplace
The Windjammer on the Harmony of the Seas during Thanksgiving was a struggle. We had a REALLY hard time finding seating and some people felt that the staff struggled to keep up with removing used plates from tables. But the food was good.
Park Cafe
This has a really nice place to sit outside, shaded by trees and comfortable seats.
Cafe Promenade
The most delicious turkey wrap I've ever had!
Onboard Activities
Zipline
We never got a chance to try this on the Harmony because it was ALWAYS CLOSED!
Next Cruise
Super helpful and easy booking of our next Alaskan cruise.
Entertainment
Service and Staff
Ship Quality
Cabin / Stateroom
Ship tip
Don't sail on this ship over Thanksgiving. The crew struggled to keep up, trying to get an elevator was a challenge, there were long lines for everything and getting a chair at the pool was almost impossible.
Ports of call
Ft. Lauderdale (Port Everglades), Florida
Labadee (Cruise Line Private Island)