Joe01

View from back of the ship in the morning:

Abyss shots:


And some shots of the AquaTheater prior to the Top Tier reception:

English Muffin @ Park Cafe + Chocolate Donut. Always a favourite in the AM:

Morning Show with Marc and onboard shopping expert Tommy (who made several appearances...where was Moe?):

Then, the god-awful Let's Celebrate parade, repeated twice each sailing ?:

Night 2 food:


Evening on the Promenade:

And a little friend greeting us at the cabin...

Find him on Day 1 and tell him he MUST do his magic act along with his personal story. He did about 20 minutes when hosting a show in the theater. Tell him you are also Canadian and will be very disappointed if he doesn't do it!

I've noticed that with the addition of several new ports to the Oasis Class itineraries that they are often reducing the sea days from 3 to 2. Back in the day, OA and AL would traditionally rotate the 7 night Western and 7 night Eastern, both itineraries had 3 ports and 3 sea days. When the Med itineraries started back in 2015, they started offering 5 port days and 1 sea day (I'll mention this more later). 
I was on Harmony recently for a B2B and the 2nd week was 4 ports, 2 sea days (CocoCay, Costa Maya, Roatan, Cozumel). A minor gripe was that I felt that with only 2 at sea days was that the activities program including shows and hosted activities had to be crammed in to those 2 days, and therefore, there wasn't as much time to go to as many of the events. This isn't a criticism of the CD or team as they can only work with the itinerary that they are given, but with so many events going on onboard the Oasis Class, 2 sea days isn't enough. I often stay onboard and enjoy the amenities, but the issue is that it affects the activities program which is usually minimal on port days.
Another issue is with the Oasis Class Med itinerary. Why on earth does that have only 1 at sea day? Nowhere near enough time to enjoy the Oasis Class offerings in any way and they still keep the same ports each year despite rotating the ships that they send to Barcelona. Marseilles is a total waste of a day and that ought to be an at sea day. Palma is nice but you have to pay to use their transport at the port and it is a fairly early departure, so that is another port that should be canned from Oasis Class itineraries. I do get why the 3 Italy ports are offered though - they offer plenty in terms of excursions and even plenty to do near the port in La Spezia & Naples.
All that I'm saying are just observations, and personally, I think that the Oasis Class would work much better on the older 3 ports, 3 sea days approach. What are your thoughts?
BTW - was about to post this as a CC thread and realised that it could be inflammatory so I'll post it here in much friendlier territory. What would I do without the blog?

Bayonne, Port Canaveral, Perfect Day at CocoCay, Nassau for Oasis.
Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, Marseilles, La Spezia, Civitavecchia, Naples for Allure. 
I've been to all of these ports, and personally, the ports on both suck with one good one each (CocoCay and Naples). The Allure itinerary might look attractive to an American but as a European, my opinion is that this is a very basic Med itinerary and I cannot, for the life of me, understand why they have only 1 at sea day on an Oasis Class (it has to be 3, even 2 didn't work on the 2nd leg of this cruise). Marseilles is a total waste and should have been cut from this itinerary years ago (and that's from someone who likes France). The Med itinerary that you are doing on Vision is one of the best for people trying to tour Europe.
Barcelona is a shorter flight, but Bayonne is by far the easiest US departure port for me to sail from as United offers direct flights from both Glasgow & Edinburgh to Newark.

I just want to add a little about the Oasis class ship and Europe. I just took a Med Cruise and it was lovely. However, I went with other cruise line which significant lower cost for Med cruise and I happy with my decision. For US cruiser, Med Cruise is a port intensive and we really want to go everywhere and do as much we can because we have to pay so much to be there. For me if I visit Europe (med cruise) the ports is my destination so I was careless about the ship. It was my floating hotel. So I will not book Oasis class ship which I have to pay more. In another hand, I will book Oasis class ship for Caribbean cruise where I always cruise every year. Most ports in Caribbean I already visited so I will enjoy the ship more. So Caribbean cruise, the ship is my destination. I have 2 Oasis class cruise book and will be on Symphony in October 2019 and Oasis in August 2020. 

Day 2 - Perfect Day at CocoCay (photos should speak for themselves):
 

Photo time!
iHop in Orlando (breakfast on Saturday June 29th):

And some random shots from walking around Orlando:
 

Day 2 - Perfect Day at CocoCay (photos should speak for themselves):
 

Day 2 - Perfect Day at CocoCay (photos should speak for themselves):
 

Day 1 Windjammer food (Getting very hungry now):



Disney ship sailing past as the sun sets:

Photo time!
iHop in Orlando (breakfast on Saturday June 29th):

And some random shots from walking around Orlando:
 

Day 2 - Perfect Day at CocoCay (photos should speak for themselves):
 

First post cruise workout done.
What happened to the saying - "calories don't count"? ?

Let's talk about crew.
Harmony is no longer the newest or largest ship in the fleet, however, I would say that she has now evolved from that role into a ship with a big heart. General vibe is great and that is mainly down to a great crew.
Marc Walker was CD for Week 1 and Dennis Charles was CD for Week 2. Marc is probably my new favourite CD now that Abe Hughes has left. Absolutely hilarious at L&M and great joie de vivre that really helped the atmosphere on the ship. I actually liked Dennis more than I thought I would - he still has plenty of energy and did a decent job hosting, although I missed a few events due to being sick or due to poor scheduling (not his fault, I'll mention later). He was also friendly and patient when my mother asked him a question about customs (unrelated to Cruise Directing). My criticisms would be that he talked for too long at L&M and it kinda dragged with some of the audience walking out. He also needs to stop shouting into his microphone at events, we can hear him easily. If he can cut those two things out, he would definitely be one of the best. Either way, both of these guys were SO MUCH BETTER than Bobby Brown.
Moe was Activities Manager both weeks - he was good fun. Did have slight problems sometimes understanding his Fiji accent. He is moving to be entertainment manager on CocoCay after the current sailing, glad that I got to sail with him before he left ships.
I have sailed with Captain Gus several times and both him and Captain Johnny are my favourites, so it's great that they are both assigned to the same ship. Both have a very upbeat presence and are probably the only two Captains active on social media. Both seem to be friendly and enjoy being around guests.
Our stateroom attendant Vibert Joseph was fantastic. Such a sweet guy and did a great job. I did mention earlier that I would like a decrease in how frequent they clean the rooms, and I still feel the same way.
Staff around the ship ranged. Some were excellent (shout out to team at Starbucks). Plenty of awesome crew on Harmony, although I can't remember much names. A few duds - server on Week 2 at CocoCay seemed intimidating and was quite difficult to communicate with, and I felt as if he kind of ignored me. Sorrento's staff were mixed, a few friendly ones but there was one real dud that really seemed to be going through the motions and got the wrong order one night (instead of 2 cheese slices, it was 1 cheese and 1 half pepperoni - half of the base was missing). Cafe Promenade and Park Cafe were OK, but I felt that with these 3 eateries, they needed to bring Latisha Jones from HM 2017 back to train them and improve the mood in these venues which was sometimes a bit dour.
Everyone else that we met was friendly. Great crew on this ship.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
Well, what a trip this was. Probably one of the longest that we've taken (18 days in total). I enjoyed every minute (almost) of it. From Orlando to the Harmony to New York.
Plenty to talk about in due course, but the first question I will answer is:
Would you sail Harmony again?
Yes!, Harmony is a great ship with a pretty awesome crew and a great lineup of shows. I've enjoyed consistently returning to her. However, I don't think that I would do another B2B on her. I feel that doing 2 weeks on a ship that isn't new to you can get a tad stale by the end. I don't believe that Harmony will be my ship for 2020. I kind of want a break from Oasis Class but all of the Freedom Class are offering lacklustre Caribbean itineraries, and the only good Voyager Class option is Explorer out of Civitavecchia and they are having a charter during one of the weeks that we would sail so she is ruled out. So, probably yet another year on Oasis Class, but hoping not another one on a 2nd gen. Maybe a return to the 1st gen? Both Oasis and Allure will be amped by our next cruise, and both NJ and Barcelona are great departure ports for us.

Hello all. Can confirm that I am home safely - arrived home around 10am.
Not too bad of a flight. We were slightly delayed due to catering issues (they should have just left without their rubbish food IMO). For the first 2 hours, I watched a movie called "5 Feet Apart" which was in theaters/cinemas back in Spring (mainly watched for the delightful Cole Sprouse). Great movie, might make some cry.
Managed to then sleep for the majority of the Atlantic stretch which impressed me, never done that before. Fell asleep around Newfoundland and woke up near Ireland. Arrived in Edinburgh around 8.20am.
There was some guy taking photos and autographs with kids at the baggage claim. I've tried searching to see which celeb we were sharing the flight with but no luck as of yet.

Time to go! Just about to board. 
Bye USA - you've been great.
Will update with some final thoughts when I am back home in Glasgow. Then onto the pics!

Day 2 - Perfect Day at CocoCay (photos should speak for themselves):
 

Day 1 Windjammer food (Getting very hungry now):



Disney ship sailing past as the sun sets:

Day 2 - Perfect Day at CocoCay (photos should speak for themselves):
 

Day 1 Windjammer food (Getting very hungry now):



Disney ship sailing past as the sun sets:

Photo time!
iHop in Orlando (breakfast on Saturday June 29th):

And some random shots from walking around Orlando: