Fabulous First Cruise
Harmony of the Seas Cruise Review to Caribbean - Eastern
Contributor Level:
Purser
Cruises: 1 cruise (first)
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 26
7 Night Eastern Caribbean & Perfect Day (Miami Roundtrip)
Sail date: October 08, 2023
Ship: Harmony of the Seas
Cabin number: 9522
Traveled as: Family (older children)
Reviewed: 1 year ago
Review summary
I was unsure of what to expect with this being our first cruise, however, my 13-year-old daughter and I are now hooked for life on cruises especially if they are anything like this one! We had a blast and cannot wait to go again! We stayed in cabin 9522 which was in the front of the ship and we felt the movement of the ship throughout the cruise whether we were in our room, walking through the ship, sitting at the pool or at dinner. It was not anymore than the feeling you get in an elevator though. The room was plenty spacious for my daughter and I. It was clean and cozy. Our room attendant was so sweet and did amazing work while we were out and about. We did not get the food or drink packages (although my sister did end up purchasing the beverage package for my daughter) and we did just fine. I enjoyed iced tea, lemonade, fruit punch, coffee and water for free throughout the day. I also purchased at least 1 if not 2 alcoholic be a day and still didn't reach the amount it would have been for the package. I traveled with 15 other family members and even though we did the my time dining after having an awesome experience the first night in the main dining room with our head waiter Raj and Assistant Head Waiter Chadrick, we decided to book those tables for the rest of the week at 745. Dinner was amazing 3 course meals with the option to get multiple items for each course. The steaks could have been less chewy and grisly but all of the other items were amazing!!! We stopped at St. Martin/St. Maarten and did the beach and shopping. I wish that we had researched which beach to go because if you ask the taxi driver like we did, they will take you to the closest beach which in this case was Great Bay Beach and it was not the best beach due to all of the debris and trash on the beach. They do this because they want to get back to the taxi station in order to fill up passengers again. Be sure to take cash with you for taxi. It was $5 per person one way in St. Martin but in St. Thomas it was $15 per person one way!!!! In St. Thomas we booked excursions through Coral World Ocean Park including the sea lion swim and the seatrek underwater adventure. Both of these were phenomenal experiences!!!! My only advice here is to make sure you give yourself 45 minutes to an hour to get from the ship to Coral world by taxi and 45 minutes to an hour to get back to the ship afterwards. If you miss your scheduled time for your activity, they will charge you a $50 rebooking fee. Also it is advisable to have them arrange for a taxi when you book your Excursion. Also make sure you allow yourself time to look at photos in the gift shop if you are interested in buying those. They will not allow you to take phones or underwater cameras to either of the adventures. We ran out of time to look at them and had to call back which resulted in having to buy all photos taken during our adventures for a total of $175. As for CocoCay, I really don't have a lot to review for this because we were at chill Island for maybe 2 hours which was really nice, but then a big rainstorm came and there were literally no places to go for shelter other than the bathrooms. The area at chill Grill only barely covered the food, but there were no covered areas for eating your food therefore everything was soaked and completely inedible. We just ended up going back to the ship. I cannot say enough about Wind Jammer and Raj the head waiter in the main dining room. They work for 8 months straight with no time off and still somehow manage to keep their energy up and smiles on their faces. Be sure to tip them extra at the end of your cruise! Also be prepared to buy photos because they are a fantastic opportunity for family photos and are extremely professional!Embarkation
Everything ran so smoothly!!! It was very much like an airport. Everyone was friendly and directions were clear.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
We had MyTime dining but after having dinner together in The Silk MDR on Deck 5 the first night with Raj and Chadrick, our head waiter and assistant waiter, we reserved a table with them for the remaining nights of the cruise! All 17 of us!!! The food was delicious and so many options made it easy even for my picky teenager.
Onboard Activities
My only complaint about Harmony would be that there are not enough large pools. There are only 4 onboard with each one having a max capacity of 30. With over 6000 people on boards this left the pools feeling more like tiny water puddles. Everything else was fabulous!!!!
Entertainment
The Aqua show was absolutely incredible!!!!! The bands in the Promenade could have been better. Sam at the Schooner bar was fantastic!!!
Service and Staff
I am missing my head waiter like a family member right now. He became like family!!!! Raj we love and miss you!!!! I did not meet a single staff onboard that was not super friendly, and incredibly helpful and welcoming!
Ship Quality
The ship is absolutely gorgeous!!! My only complaint is that there should be more pools or a couple very large pools instead of 4 tiny pools.
Cabin / Stateroom
Our room was perfect for me and my 13 year old daughter. It was very clean and spacious for us. Caroline our stateroom attendant was awesome!
Ship tip
Have fun and don't overthink it all!!!! Be kind to staff! They work 15 to 16 hours a day for 8 months straight, yeah you read that right, no days off for 8 months! They are exhausted but they do everything they can to make your experience great!
Thumbs up
0
Ports of call
Miami is its own world!!! We stayed at InterContinental by IHG and it was incredible!!! Very pricey but it is a luxury hotel so we expected that. We awoke to seeing our ship in port which was beautiful! We also got our nails done at Nailbox in downtown Miami and although they did an absolutely amazing job, it was CRAZY expensive (in excess of $500 for 3 of us!)I was sad to see SO many homeless people and camps.
Don't ask the taxi driver what beach is the best because they will take you to Great Bay Beach which is not very nice. Shopping was okay but lots of sketchy people trying to get you to take their taxis. Don't fall for the Dor's24K skin care!
I booked excursions through Coral World Ocean Park to do sea lion swim and SeaTrek and I cannot express how fantastic both were!!!!! Just make sure to give yourself 45 minutes to 1 hour to get there and to get back.
Perfect Day At Coco Cay, Bahamas
It might have been great if they had facilities that allowed you to get into when it came a massive storm or rain. The food was all soaked making it inedible because there are no rain proof shelters other than the bathrooms.
Disembarkation
Quick and efficient!! We were so sad to leave!
7 Comments
UglyShirtGuy 1 year ago
Great review! Welcome to the cruise club.
Next time you visit St. Maarten, the beaches to visit are Maho Beach (it is the one that's famous for airliners coming in right overhead) and Orient Beach. Before anyone scolds me for recommending a "nude beach", only the very southernmost end has that kind of dress code; the rest of the beach enforces that same rules as any public beach...and it is a gorgeous beach. It's on the French side, so it'll take a bit of a taxi ride to get there. Or book an excursion that visits both beaches.
Again, thanks for the review!