September 1, 2024

Item: Harmony of the Seas
Rating: 4.3
Author: amerritt18

Harmony of the Seas Cruise Review

amerritt18

Contributor Level: Second Mate

420 Days Till Next Cruise

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Reviews: 2

Helpful Votes: 13

Overall rating:

4.3 out of 5

7 Night Western Caribbean (Galveston Roundtrip)

Sail date: September 01, 2024

Ship: Harmony of the Seas

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 8224

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 2 months ago

Review summary

Overall, I’m glad we took this trip, but I wouldn’t do it again on this ship. I know kids have every right to be on vacations and cruises, but the number of unruly, unsupervised kids running around was unreal. They run into you, knock food out of your arms, take over the elevators, scream, etc. I heard some toddler having a screaming meltdown hourly and couldn’t escape it. I’m not trying to be judgmental, because we don’t know all the info, but we even an unsupervised child fall to his death the last night into Central Park. It was traumatic for everyone. There needs to be increased rules or age restrictions on being unsupervised. We still like RC, but we will probably not do Oasis-Class again.

Embarkation

5 out of 5

We were on the ship before 11

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5

The food in the MDR took a major dip from our past sailings. Food wasn’t warm, didn’t have much flavor. Specialty dining was fabulous, but you shouldn’t have to pay hundreds of extra dollars to have good food on a cruise. The Windjammer sucked. No seats, cold food, too many unruly kids left unattended touching everything.

Onboard Activities

4 out of 5

Most events geared to kids/families. There isn’t an adults-only pool on the ship which is a major draw-back for us. I don’t think we’ll book anymore Oasis-class cruises unless we have our little one with us.

Entertainment

5 out of 5

The quality of the performers was fabulous. The shows themselves were a little weird. I need a plot! But Grease was Broadway-level good.

Service and Staff

4 out of 5

Everyone just seemed a little “over it” on this cruise, which I understand can happen with how difficult the jobs can be. I feel like everyone just needed a day off!

Ship Quality

5 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5

Ship tip

This is not the ship for you if you want a quiet and relaxing cruise. There is no adult-only pool. There will be kids everywhere, and most will not be supervised. If you want a kid-centered cruise/vacation, this is for you.

Thumbs up

Ports of call

Costa Maya (Mahahual), Mexico

4 out of 5

We went to Maya Chan and had a great time, but this port is so nasty there is trash everywhere and the water smells like sulfur. They don’t have people taking care of shorelines well here.

Thumbs Up 0

Coxen Hole, Roatan, Bay Islands, Honduras

4 out of 5

Sol y Mar was great, but I probably won’t ever venture out on my own in this port.

Thumbs Up 0

Galveston, Texas

5 out of 5

It’s fine. We don’t spend much time doing anything here before the strip.

Thumbs Up 0

Cozumel, Mexico

5 out of 5

Easy to get a cab. Pushy vendors, I’m used to it by now.

Thumbs Up 5

Disembarkation

4 out of 5

We were a little delayed, but that was due to a fatal accident the night before. Otherwise we were off the ship in a timely manner.

11 Comments

TheVegasSphere 2 months ago

We were on the same cruise, and heard from multiple independent sources it was a 12 year old boy who fell and died. He was allegedly trying to go from one Central Park balcony to another and slipped and fell. Simply awful. Two other “alpha alpha alpha” alerts that day too. It was apparently a sad last day of the cruise for several families.

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Frescaangel 2 months ago

We were on the same cruise. I was very surprised at how well behaved the kids were. We didn’t have any of them running into us or knocking our food down. They were everywhere in the pools but even if the kids weren’t there the pools were way beyond capacity. I didn’t hear that the child died. There was a child that fell from the balcony in Central Park but I didn’t hear that they died. We tried to ask one of the officers how the child was doing, they said they couldn’t divulge any information about the incident. Where did you hear that they died? I really hope that’s just a rumor. Someone in the bathroom said they had a concussion. I don’t believe that’s all the injury’s they sustained. We were eating at Jamie’s a short while after it happened. We saw the place they had blocked off where the accident happened. There was a whole scenario of injuries they could have sustained. Including death. I’m sorry the kids were not behaving when they were around you. It can make things very frustrating.

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basssacker 2 months ago

Thanks for sharing we always try to avoid summer cruises or holidays for that reason

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LauraRussellMT 2 months ago

Oh my goodness! It’s so sad an unattended child fell and died on the ship. Did RC reimburse you/the people on the ship your cruise fare or something similar? I remember hearing a story in the past where this happened on another ship that when a child fell and died on the ship (same scenario!), the cruise line gave a 100% future cruise credit to everyone on board for the same category type and length of cruise they had been on. I wish I could remember which cruise line it was that did this.

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Gwbigdog 2 months ago

Thanks for sharing your cruise

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cruising2004 2 months ago

Oh my! First of all prayers to the family and friends of the little one, I’m sorry you had to go through this. Sorry the children were so rude. Thank you for your detailed review.

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BEWag1 2 months ago

We are going in November hopefully we won’t have to deal with this! Praying….

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karlgrgurich 2 months ago

Wow. That would have been very traumatic. And unruly kids would definitely be a negative

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TiffyTaffy 2 months ago

Thank you for your honest feedback.

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HeavySeas 2 months ago

Thanks for sharing your cruise experience

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Cruiserlife 2 months ago

Kids sail free enough said.

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Other reviews of this sailing

absolutely wonderful!!!

Love Cruising with Royal Caribbean!

AN AMAZING TRIP!