ABFrenchie

The Sunset Pier at the Ocean Key Resort (end of Duval street, by Mallory Square) is a great place to grab drinks and get a bite to eat.  I'm a little biased - I got married there, but went back last year and the food and drinks were still great.

The Sunset Pier at the Ocean Key Resort (end of Duval street, by Mallory Square) is a great place to grab drinks and get a bite to eat.  I'm a little biased - I got married there, but went back last year and the food and drinks were still great.

Had a not so great experience with it last year but it was probably just a fluke based on our individual circumstance.  We filled out all of the paperwork and got our luggage valet tags. However, one member of my  party was in the process of being upgraded through Delta the day before disembarkation, so the customer service rep for luggage valet could not check him into his flight (something about the seat assignment being "pending").  Because they couldn't check him in, he couldn't participate in luggage valet. We said no problem, we'll just put the bags under a person in our party who WAS checked in and had a seat.  Guest relations confirmed we could do this.  For some reason, attendants on the ship took the bags from the hallway the night before disembarkation, but luggage valet didn't take them to the airport.  After leaving the port and while en route to the airport, we got a call from a rep stating the bags were still at the port.  I
Royal ended up shipping the luggage back to us a few days later, at their expense.  So, slight inconvenience but not the end of the world.  I'm still not entirely sure how a seat upgrade thwarted this process, but just something to keep in mind if anyone in your party is usually upgraded.  

I've stayed at the Excellence El Carmen in DR and have some friends who have stayed at other properties (specifically, Playa Mujeres and Riviera Maya).  We all had great things to say about the Excellence brand.  I would go back in a heartbeat if I didn't have cruise vacations planned for the next two years! Adults only, great variety of food options (this is one of the things I like about cruising), great pools and service.  We had a swim up suite.  The room was fantastic, we had a hot tub in our room.  The spa was incredible.  Before your treatment, you spend about 45 minutes doing hydrotherapy, using steam, sauna, cold water, thalassotherapy pools, etc.  We then had a salt scrub, soak in a tub, and hour long massage.  After your treatment, you're led to this room with beds that sway gently and you drink champagne for as long as you'd like.  The treatment was only $250USD total and it lasted about 3 hours, so a great price.  Just thinking about it makes me want to cancel a cruise and go back... 
The only downside I saw to El Carmen was that it didn't have much of a beach area.  I prefer relaxing by a pool so it wasn't a deal breaker for me. 
The only other all inclusive I have to compare it to is Beaches resort in Turks & Caicos.  I would take Excellence over Beaches any day.  
 

You will have to call Royal Caribbean for that, these pages and discussion threads are opened and supported by Royal Caribbean enthusiast, the blog has no control over what Royal does or doesn't do.
Well, @Matt might, but none of the rest of us do...

Never been on a Carnival so I can not compare. But I think its decent Tacos. Hope you will be able to convince him 

Try using your email address instead of your old username.  I had the same thing happen to me (changed passwords about 5 times) but once I started signing in with my email address it stopped asking me to change my password.

While I haven't specifically gone Keto on a cruise, I do try and eat mindfully and save my empty carbs for booze :)  I found it pretty easy to limit my meals to protein, veg and fat in both the WJ and main dining room.  The WJ always had a platter of cured meats/cheese, a meat carving station of sorts (beef, ham, etc), vegetables, a mountain of bacon, salad station, etc.  You should have no problem finding something Keto in there.  In the MDR, I would ask the waiter to nix the starch and double up on the veg with my protein.  There is usually one sugar free dessert on the menu in the MDR each night, although they probably wouldn't count as low carb just because they are sans real sugar.  There is usually a cheese plate on the dessert menu though that may be a better option for you!

There is a hot tub/spa available for an upcharge. I remember it being a little absurd, $50 or so for a one time use. They tried to upsell it as a romantic bath for two.  We declined. The rain showers were great though, and the pass includes a salt scrub you can use in the rain shower.

My husband and I loved the thermal spa pass. We are pretty active and work out in the mornings (even on vacation) so we really enjoyed using the heated bed, steam, sauna and rain shower at the end of our workout.  It was quite relaxing. We looked at it this way - 1 person can get a massage at the spa for close to the same price as the couple's weeklong thermal pass. So, we each got a relaxation every day of the trip vs. one person geting a massage one time. 

For the return flight after your cruise, check out the Luggage Valet program.  For a fee ($25 last time I cruised), Royal will take your luggage from your state room the night before you depart, take it to the airport and check it in, and you won't see it again until you're at your final destination.  RC will also check you into your return flight and provide you with your boarding pass. 

For anyone interested in knowing how this turned out - Royal notified us today the luggage has been shipped back to us via FedEx and we should receive it Wednesday! 

I didn’t want to commit to a live blog and fail to update it, so I thought I might add my thoughts in a final wrap up about my recent 7 day Harmony sailing.  I found this blog and reviews to be so helpful in maximizing my own cruise experience. 
Pre-Cruise: We flew in the night before and stayed at the Best Western Airport Hotel.  Husband got a good rate through his employer.  If we had been staying in Fort Lauderdale longer I probably wouldn’t recommend this hotel.  It is pretty basic but served its purpose well – a bed, a hot shower, free airport transfer, free breakfast, and port transportation for a price ($8pp).   Cruise port transfer was well organized and departed the hotel at 10:30AM.
Embarkation: Previously sailed out of Port Canaveral and Galveston on Carnival.  Embarkation at Port Everglades was the quickest and best experience.  From hotel to on board the ship, the process took about 50 minutes – and our shuttle dropped some Norwegian passengers off before us! We didn’t pack light (2 large suitcases, 2 carry-ons and a suit bag) so we were happy to see the porters waiting next to the shuttle drop off to take our bags.  I took some readers’ advice and ordered plastic luggage tags off of Amazon, so I wasn’t as worried about paper tags falling off as I have been on prior cruises.   We sailed through the embarkation process.  I don’t think we stopped moving except to check-in at the desk. 
First impressions:  Harmony is a gorgeous ship.  I’ve cruised 3 times with Carnival and I don’t know how I can go back to such a cramped, stuffy ship.  I love the open air design of Central Park and the Boardwalk.  The ship only felt crowded on the first afternoon following the muster drill and during promenade events.  Otherwise, you wouldn’t really know 6,409 guests were on board!
Muster Drill: I appreciated being in an air conditioned theater watching corny but hilarious hand washing videos instead of standing outside in the sun.
Room: We had a virtual balcony on the 10th floor near the elevators, 10446.  I read some cruise critic complaints about the location being too noisy but we didn’t have any problems with noise near the elevators.  Despite our over packing, EVERYTHING fit in a drawer, closet or shelf and all pieces of luggage fit under the bed! The virtual balcony was neat, but I found its timing to be a little off.  During sunrise/sunset, the image of the sky was pitch black on the screen.
Specialty Dining:  We took advantage of the $30 BOGO offer booked pre-cruise.  I took the advice of bloggers and went straight to the main dining room once on the ship to book our restaurants.  We were pre-booked at Sabor for Night #1, but were able to change it to Wonderland.  We were also able to get 150 CP for Night #2, although at a slightly later time than we had hoped (8:30PM vs the desired 6-7:30 window).  On the 4th day, after some so-so MDR food, we tried booking at Chops, but it was sold out for the rest of the cruise.   Note for our next cruise – book in demand venues early! We had lunch at Sabor on the last day and were able to walk right up and get a table.  
Wonderland:  We thought it was excellent. My husband had to talk me into this one as I hate seafood.  I thought the dishes were delicious.  I posted some photos on the FB dining page.
150 CP:  Very good.  I loved the flavored bread salts.  We had the 18oz steak which was good, but based on reviews, I had higher expectations.  But, the cucumber martini and service more than made up for it!
Sabor: For a $46 lunch, we were determined to get our money’s worth – and we did.  We saved Sabor for the last day.  We demolished the chips and guac (so good).  We ordered 3 appetizers (those bacon wrapped chicken things are amazing), 2 tacos, a quesadilla, 2 sides and 2 desserts :)   We didn’t polish it all off, but we came close.  Needless to say we didn’t need dinner and skipped the MDR that night.   The White Sangria at Sabor is delicious and my favorite drink on the ship. 
MDR: Royal has room for improvement.  The servers seemed a little stressed and the dining room a little chaotic each night.  Some meals were good, some ok, and one steak from the classics menu was downright inedible.  Since we couldn’t go to Chops we did order the upgraded Chops filet and found that to be quite good.  We didn’t try the MDR for breakfast or lunch.
Fitness Center/Vitality Cafe – I try and stay pretty active so I caught some morning track runs on port days.  Harmony has a great track and I loved watching our arrival into the ports.  The gym was crowded on sea days but overall a very nice fitness center with lots of cardio and weight equipment.  The Vitality Café outside of the gym always seemed to have a line, but that might be because the fresh juices, protein shakes and snacks were great (those granola bars – yum).  We had the drink package and we were not charged for the protein powder. 
Spa:  Beautiful facility.  We bought the thermal suite package for $199/couple and used it every day.  The thermal suite consisted of a heated relaxation bed, steam, sauna and rain shower.  We would purchase the thermal suite again.  It provided a daily dose of relaxation for the price of 1 person to get a 75 minute massage.    You are also provided with a salt scrub to use in a rain shower.   Near the end of the cruise we took advantage of a “Happy Hands and Feet” special.  $69 for a relaxing 50 minute foot scrub and foot/hand massage. 
Bars/Drinks:  Overall, the drinks on the cruise were great, so much variety in the bar menus.  My only complaint would be the lack of consistency between bars.  A few times different bartenders would make the same drink differently, despite having the ingredients posted in the drink book.  I would like to see more attention paid to keeping the freestyle machines restocked.  They frequently ran out of diet beverages. 
Vintages: This was one of my favorite spots of the cruise as I love wine.  I would have liked to see more variety on the by the glass menu, it was a little cab-heavy – although they were all good.  Vintages has this neat little wine sampling system where you can purchase 2, 4 or 6 oz pours.  A little pricey though and you can’t use the drink package to offset the cost.  The cheapest 2 oz pour was $8 and the most expensive 6oz pour was $300!
Sorrentos:  Maybe it’s because I usually deprive myself of pizza in favor of healthier options when I’m not on vacation, but I loved Sorrentos. We ate here every day – sometimes we were even sober!
Activities: We did the water slides, zip line, abyss, rock climbing and mini golf.  Mini golf got a little out of hand with kids running through the course while we were playing.  Overall, we liked the activities on the ship.  We tried booking the escape room mid cruise but it was booked solid for the rest of the cruise.  Lesson learned for our next cruise – book early!
Shows:  Comedy show and juggling headliner were great.  Columbus was cute, I liked how they incorporated modern music. The aqua show was not my cup of tea.   We sat in the back and left after 20 minutes.  Although, the man twirling in a skirt for 15 minutes straight without passing out was a bit impressive.  We skipped Grease and the ice show.  Not a show but we went to the Silent Disco party on formal night – HILARIOUS.
Ports:  Nassau is meh (been there, done that).  St. Thomas has gorgeous views.  Our excursion was cancelled before the cruise, so we took a cab up to Mountain Top, drank banana daiquiris and on the way back down he stopped at a few spots for photos.  My husband tipped a steel drum player and he gave us his CD.  We plan on listening to it when we’re craving those vacation vibes.  We could see the beautiful Magen’s Bay and want to go back and visit that beach someday.  As we drove up to Mountain Top the hurricane devastation was evident.  You could see partially sunken boats, collapsed buildings, downed trees and power lines.  Labadee is a little slice of heaven and by far my favorite cruise port.  It is just perfect.  No sales people yelling at you once you’re off the ship.  Towels, beach chairs, good food and drinks included (if you have the beverage package).  We went parasailing (A+++), hung out at Adrenaline Beach, and drank a bunch of labadoozies.    We set our parasail appt for 10:30 so we grabbed lunch once it ended at 11:30.  I’m glad we got there early because lunch lines got long.
Thanksgiving:  We celebrated turkey day on the ship.  They had a thanksgiving dinner option (great turkey dinner, so-so pumpkin pie) and cut a gigantic chocolate cake in the promenade following a Christmas tree lighting.  They decorated for Christmas while we were on the ship. 
Next Cruise office:  We loved this mega ship so much that we booked a May 4,, 2019 sailing on the Symphony.  We’ll visit 3 ports we haven’t seen yet (St. Maarten, San Juan and Coco Cay).   We booked a Central Park Balcony on deck 12 for $2,175 (includes free lunch at Jamie’s and a bottle of wine) and a $200 OBC.  Sounded like a deal to me, but I’m new to Royal so what do I know :)    

I didn’t want to commit to a live blog and fail to update it, so I thought I might add my thoughts in a final wrap up about my recent 7 day Harmony sailing.  I found this blog and reviews to be so helpful in maximizing my own cruise experience. 
Pre-Cruise: We flew in the night before and stayed at the Best Western Airport Hotel.  Husband got a good rate through his employer.  If we had been staying in Fort Lauderdale longer I probably wouldn’t recommend this hotel.  It is pretty basic but served its purpose well – a bed, a hot shower, free airport transfer, free breakfast, and port transportation for a price ($8pp).   Cruise port transfer was well organized and departed the hotel at 10:30AM.
Embarkation: Previously sailed out of Port Canaveral and Galveston on Carnival.  Embarkation at Port Everglades was the quickest and best experience.  From hotel to on board the ship, the process took about 50 minutes – and our shuttle dropped some Norwegian passengers off before us! We didn’t pack light (2 large suitcases, 2 carry-ons and a suit bag) so we were happy to see the porters waiting next to the shuttle drop off to take our bags.  I took some readers’ advice and ordered plastic luggage tags off of Amazon, so I wasn’t as worried about paper tags falling off as I have been on prior cruises.   We sailed through the embarkation process.  I don’t think we stopped moving except to check-in at the desk. 
First impressions:  Harmony is a gorgeous ship.  I’ve cruised 3 times with Carnival and I don’t know how I can go back to such a cramped, stuffy ship.  I love the open air design of Central Park and the Boardwalk.  The ship only felt crowded on the first afternoon following the muster drill and during promenade events.  Otherwise, you wouldn’t really know 6,409 guests were on board!
Muster Drill: I appreciated being in an air conditioned theater watching corny but hilarious hand washing videos instead of standing outside in the sun.
Room: We had a virtual balcony on the 10th floor near the elevators, 10446.  I read some cruise critic complaints about the location being too noisy but we didn’t have any problems with noise near the elevators.  Despite our over packing, EVERYTHING fit in a drawer, closet or shelf and all pieces of luggage fit under the bed! The virtual balcony was neat, but I found its timing to be a little off.  During sunrise/sunset, the image of the sky was pitch black on the screen.
Specialty Dining:  We took advantage of the $30 BOGO offer booked pre-cruise.  I took the advice of bloggers and went straight to the main dining room once on the ship to book our restaurants.  We were pre-booked at Sabor for Night #1, but were able to change it to Wonderland.  We were also able to get 150 CP for Night #2, although at a slightly later time than we had hoped (8:30PM vs the desired 6-7:30 window).  On the 4th day, after some so-so MDR food, we tried booking at Chops, but it was sold out for the rest of the cruise.   Note for our next cruise – book in demand venues early! We had lunch at Sabor on the last day and were able to walk right up and get a table.  
Wonderland:  We thought it was excellent. My husband had to talk me into this one as I hate seafood.  I thought the dishes were delicious.  I posted some photos on the FB dining page.
150 CP:  Very good.  I loved the flavored bread salts.  We had the 18oz steak which was good, but based on reviews, I had higher expectations.  But, the cucumber martini and service more than made up for it!
Sabor: For a $46 lunch, we were determined to get our money’s worth – and we did.  We saved Sabor for the last day.  We demolished the chips and guac (so good).  We ordered 3 appetizers (those bacon wrapped chicken things are amazing), 2 tacos, a quesadilla, 2 sides and 2 desserts :)   We didn’t polish it all off, but we came close.  Needless to say we didn’t need dinner and skipped the MDR that night.   The White Sangria at Sabor is delicious and my favorite drink on the ship. 
MDR: Royal has room for improvement.  The servers seemed a little stressed and the dining room a little chaotic each night.  Some meals were good, some ok, and one steak from the classics menu was downright inedible.  Since we couldn’t go to Chops we did order the upgraded Chops filet and found that to be quite good.  We didn’t try the MDR for breakfast or lunch.
Fitness Center/Vitality Cafe – I try and stay pretty active so I caught some morning track runs on port days.  Harmony has a great track and I loved watching our arrival into the ports.  The gym was crowded on sea days but overall a very nice fitness center with lots of cardio and weight equipment.  The Vitality Café outside of the gym always seemed to have a line, but that might be because the fresh juices, protein shakes and snacks were great (those granola bars – yum).  We had the drink package and we were not charged for the protein powder. 
Spa:  Beautiful facility.  We bought the thermal suite package for $199/couple and used it every day.  The thermal suite consisted of a heated relaxation bed, steam, sauna and rain shower.  We would purchase the thermal suite again.  It provided a daily dose of relaxation for the price of 1 person to get a 75 minute massage.    You are also provided with a salt scrub to use in a rain shower.   Near the end of the cruise we took advantage of a “Happy Hands and Feet” special.  $69 for a relaxing 50 minute foot scrub and foot/hand massage. 
Bars/Drinks:  Overall, the drinks on the cruise were great, so much variety in the bar menus.  My only complaint would be the lack of consistency between bars.  A few times different bartenders would make the same drink differently, despite having the ingredients posted in the drink book.  I would like to see more attention paid to keeping the freestyle machines restocked.  They frequently ran out of diet beverages. 
Vintages: This was one of my favorite spots of the cruise as I love wine.  I would have liked to see more variety on the by the glass menu, it was a little cab-heavy – although they were all good.  Vintages has this neat little wine sampling system where you can purchase 2, 4 or 6 oz pours.  A little pricey though and you can’t use the drink package to offset the cost.  The cheapest 2 oz pour was $8 and the most expensive 6oz pour was $300!
Sorrentos:  Maybe it’s because I usually deprive myself of pizza in favor of healthier options when I’m not on vacation, but I loved Sorrentos. We ate here every day – sometimes we were even sober!
Activities: We did the water slides, zip line, abyss, rock climbing and mini golf.  Mini golf got a little out of hand with kids running through the course while we were playing.  Overall, we liked the activities on the ship.  We tried booking the escape room mid cruise but it was booked solid for the rest of the cruise.  Lesson learned for our next cruise – book early!
Shows:  Comedy show and juggling headliner were great.  Columbus was cute, I liked how they incorporated modern music. The aqua show was not my cup of tea.   We sat in the back and left after 20 minutes.  Although, the man twirling in a skirt for 15 minutes straight without passing out was a bit impressive.  We skipped Grease and the ice show.  Not a show but we went to the Silent Disco party on formal night – HILARIOUS.
Ports:  Nassau is meh (been there, done that).  St. Thomas has gorgeous views.  Our excursion was cancelled before the cruise, so we took a cab up to Mountain Top, drank banana daiquiris and on the way back down he stopped at a few spots for photos.  My husband tipped a steel drum player and he gave us his CD.  We plan on listening to it when we’re craving those vacation vibes.  We could see the beautiful Magen’s Bay and want to go back and visit that beach someday.  As we drove up to Mountain Top the hurricane devastation was evident.  You could see partially sunken boats, collapsed buildings, downed trees and power lines.  Labadee is a little slice of heaven and by far my favorite cruise port.  It is just perfect.  No sales people yelling at you once you’re off the ship.  Towels, beach chairs, good food and drinks included (if you have the beverage package).  We went parasailing (A+++), hung out at Adrenaline Beach, and drank a bunch of labadoozies.    We set our parasail appt for 10:30 so we grabbed lunch once it ended at 11:30.  I’m glad we got there early because lunch lines got long.
Thanksgiving:  We celebrated turkey day on the ship.  They had a thanksgiving dinner option (great turkey dinner, so-so pumpkin pie) and cut a gigantic chocolate cake in the promenade following a Christmas tree lighting.  They decorated for Christmas while we were on the ship. 
Next Cruise office:  We loved this mega ship so much that we booked a May 4,, 2019 sailing on the Symphony.  We’ll visit 3 ports we haven’t seen yet (St. Maarten, San Juan and Coco Cay).   We booked a Central Park Balcony on deck 12 for $2,175 (includes free lunch at Jamie’s and a bottle of wine) and a $200 OBC.  Sounded like a deal to me, but I’m new to Royal so what do I know :)    

I didn’t want to commit to a live blog and fail to update it, so I thought I might add my thoughts in a final wrap up about my recent 7 day Harmony sailing.  I found this blog and reviews to be so helpful in maximizing my own cruise experience. 
Pre-Cruise: We flew in the night before and stayed at the Best Western Airport Hotel.  Husband got a good rate through his employer.  If we had been staying in Fort Lauderdale longer I probably wouldn’t recommend this hotel.  It is pretty basic but served its purpose well – a bed, a hot shower, free airport transfer, free breakfast, and port transportation for a price ($8pp).   Cruise port transfer was well organized and departed the hotel at 10:30AM.
Embarkation: Previously sailed out of Port Canaveral and Galveston on Carnival.  Embarkation at Port Everglades was the quickest and best experience.  From hotel to on board the ship, the process took about 50 minutes – and our shuttle dropped some Norwegian passengers off before us! We didn’t pack light (2 large suitcases, 2 carry-ons and a suit bag) so we were happy to see the porters waiting next to the shuttle drop off to take our bags.  I took some readers’ advice and ordered plastic luggage tags off of Amazon, so I wasn’t as worried about paper tags falling off as I have been on prior cruises.   We sailed through the embarkation process.  I don’t think we stopped moving except to check-in at the desk. 
First impressions:  Harmony is a gorgeous ship.  I’ve cruised 3 times with Carnival and I don’t know how I can go back to such a cramped, stuffy ship.  I love the open air design of Central Park and the Boardwalk.  The ship only felt crowded on the first afternoon following the muster drill and during promenade events.  Otherwise, you wouldn’t really know 6,409 guests were on board!
Muster Drill: I appreciated being in an air conditioned theater watching corny but hilarious hand washing videos instead of standing outside in the sun.
Room: We had a virtual balcony on the 10th floor near the elevators, 10446.  I read some cruise critic complaints about the location being too noisy but we didn’t have any problems with noise near the elevators.  Despite our over packing, EVERYTHING fit in a drawer, closet or shelf and all pieces of luggage fit under the bed! The virtual balcony was neat, but I found its timing to be a little off.  During sunrise/sunset, the image of the sky was pitch black on the screen.
Specialty Dining:  We took advantage of the $30 BOGO offer booked pre-cruise.  I took the advice of bloggers and went straight to the main dining room once on the ship to book our restaurants.  We were pre-booked at Sabor for Night #1, but were able to change it to Wonderland.  We were also able to get 150 CP for Night #2, although at a slightly later time than we had hoped (8:30PM vs the desired 6-7:30 window).  On the 4th day, after some so-so MDR food, we tried booking at Chops, but it was sold out for the rest of the cruise.   Note for our next cruise – book in demand venues early! We had lunch at Sabor on the last day and were able to walk right up and get a table.  
Wonderland:  We thought it was excellent. My husband had to talk me into this one as I hate seafood.  I thought the dishes were delicious.  I posted some photos on the FB dining page.
150 CP:  Very good.  I loved the flavored bread salts.  We had the 18oz steak which was good, but based on reviews, I had higher expectations.  But, the cucumber martini and service more than made up for it!
Sabor: For a $46 lunch, we were determined to get our money’s worth – and we did.  We saved Sabor for the last day.  We demolished the chips and guac (so good).  We ordered 3 appetizers (those bacon wrapped chicken things are amazing), 2 tacos, a quesadilla, 2 sides and 2 desserts :)   We didn’t polish it all off, but we came close.  Needless to say we didn’t need dinner and skipped the MDR that night.   The White Sangria at Sabor is delicious and my favorite drink on the ship. 
MDR: Royal has room for improvement.  The servers seemed a little stressed and the dining room a little chaotic each night.  Some meals were good, some ok, and one steak from the classics menu was downright inedible.  Since we couldn’t go to Chops we did order the upgraded Chops filet and found that to be quite good.  We didn’t try the MDR for breakfast or lunch.
Fitness Center/Vitality Cafe – I try and stay pretty active so I caught some morning track runs on port days.  Harmony has a great track and I loved watching our arrival into the ports.  The gym was crowded on sea days but overall a very nice fitness center with lots of cardio and weight equipment.  The Vitality Café outside of the gym always seemed to have a line, but that might be because the fresh juices, protein shakes and snacks were great (those granola bars – yum).  We had the drink package and we were not charged for the protein powder. 
Spa:  Beautiful facility.  We bought the thermal suite package for $199/couple and used it every day.  The thermal suite consisted of a heated relaxation bed, steam, sauna and rain shower.  We would purchase the thermal suite again.  It provided a daily dose of relaxation for the price of 1 person to get a 75 minute massage.    You are also provided with a salt scrub to use in a rain shower.   Near the end of the cruise we took advantage of a “Happy Hands and Feet” special.  $69 for a relaxing 50 minute foot scrub and foot/hand massage. 
Bars/Drinks:  Overall, the drinks on the cruise were great, so much variety in the bar menus.  My only complaint would be the lack of consistency between bars.  A few times different bartenders would make the same drink differently, despite having the ingredients posted in the drink book.  I would like to see more attention paid to keeping the freestyle machines restocked.  They frequently ran out of diet beverages. 
Vintages: This was one of my favorite spots of the cruise as I love wine.  I would have liked to see more variety on the by the glass menu, it was a little cab-heavy – although they were all good.  Vintages has this neat little wine sampling system where you can purchase 2, 4 or 6 oz pours.  A little pricey though and you can’t use the drink package to offset the cost.  The cheapest 2 oz pour was $8 and the most expensive 6oz pour was $300!
Sorrentos:  Maybe it’s because I usually deprive myself of pizza in favor of healthier options when I’m not on vacation, but I loved Sorrentos. We ate here every day – sometimes we were even sober!
Activities: We did the water slides, zip line, abyss, rock climbing and mini golf.  Mini golf got a little out of hand with kids running through the course while we were playing.  Overall, we liked the activities on the ship.  We tried booking the escape room mid cruise but it was booked solid for the rest of the cruise.  Lesson learned for our next cruise – book early!
Shows:  Comedy show and juggling headliner were great.  Columbus was cute, I liked how they incorporated modern music. The aqua show was not my cup of tea.   We sat in the back and left after 20 minutes.  Although, the man twirling in a skirt for 15 minutes straight without passing out was a bit impressive.  We skipped Grease and the ice show.  Not a show but we went to the Silent Disco party on formal night – HILARIOUS.
Ports:  Nassau is meh (been there, done that).  St. Thomas has gorgeous views.  Our excursion was cancelled before the cruise, so we took a cab up to Mountain Top, drank banana daiquiris and on the way back down he stopped at a few spots for photos.  My husband tipped a steel drum player and he gave us his CD.  We plan on listening to it when we’re craving those vacation vibes.  We could see the beautiful Magen’s Bay and want to go back and visit that beach someday.  As we drove up to Mountain Top the hurricane devastation was evident.  You could see partially sunken boats, collapsed buildings, downed trees and power lines.  Labadee is a little slice of heaven and by far my favorite cruise port.  It is just perfect.  No sales people yelling at you once you’re off the ship.  Towels, beach chairs, good food and drinks included (if you have the beverage package).  We went parasailing (A+++), hung out at Adrenaline Beach, and drank a bunch of labadoozies.    We set our parasail appt for 10:30 so we grabbed lunch once it ended at 11:30.  I’m glad we got there early because lunch lines got long.
Thanksgiving:  We celebrated turkey day on the ship.  They had a thanksgiving dinner option (great turkey dinner, so-so pumpkin pie) and cut a gigantic chocolate cake in the promenade following a Christmas tree lighting.  They decorated for Christmas while we were on the ship. 
Next Cruise office:  We loved this mega ship so much that we booked a May 4,, 2019 sailing on the Symphony.  We’ll visit 3 ports we haven’t seen yet (St. Maarten, San Juan and Coco Cay).   We booked a Central Park Balcony on deck 12 for $2,175 (includes free lunch at Jamie’s and a bottle of wine) and a $200 OBC.  Sounded like a deal to me, but I’m new to Royal so what do I know :)    

For anyone interested in knowing how this turned out - Royal notified us today the luggage has been shipped back to us via FedEx and we should receive it Wednesday! 

I didn’t want to commit to a live blog and fail to update it, so I thought I might add my thoughts in a final wrap up about my recent 7 day Harmony sailing.  I found this blog and reviews to be so helpful in maximizing my own cruise experience. 
Pre-Cruise: We flew in the night before and stayed at the Best Western Airport Hotel.  Husband got a good rate through his employer.  If we had been staying in Fort Lauderdale longer I probably wouldn’t recommend this hotel.  It is pretty basic but served its purpose well – a bed, a hot shower, free airport transfer, free breakfast, and port transportation for a price ($8pp).   Cruise port transfer was well organized and departed the hotel at 10:30AM.
Embarkation: Previously sailed out of Port Canaveral and Galveston on Carnival.  Embarkation at Port Everglades was the quickest and best experience.  From hotel to on board the ship, the process took about 50 minutes – and our shuttle dropped some Norwegian passengers off before us! We didn’t pack light (2 large suitcases, 2 carry-ons and a suit bag) so we were happy to see the porters waiting next to the shuttle drop off to take our bags.  I took some readers’ advice and ordered plastic luggage tags off of Amazon, so I wasn’t as worried about paper tags falling off as I have been on prior cruises.   We sailed through the embarkation process.  I don’t think we stopped moving except to check-in at the desk. 
First impressions:  Harmony is a gorgeous ship.  I’ve cruised 3 times with Carnival and I don’t know how I can go back to such a cramped, stuffy ship.  I love the open air design of Central Park and the Boardwalk.  The ship only felt crowded on the first afternoon following the muster drill and during promenade events.  Otherwise, you wouldn’t really know 6,409 guests were on board!
Muster Drill: I appreciated being in an air conditioned theater watching corny but hilarious hand washing videos instead of standing outside in the sun.
Room: We had a virtual balcony on the 10th floor near the elevators, 10446.  I read some cruise critic complaints about the location being too noisy but we didn’t have any problems with noise near the elevators.  Despite our over packing, EVERYTHING fit in a drawer, closet or shelf and all pieces of luggage fit under the bed! The virtual balcony was neat, but I found its timing to be a little off.  During sunrise/sunset, the image of the sky was pitch black on the screen.
Specialty Dining:  We took advantage of the $30 BOGO offer booked pre-cruise.  I took the advice of bloggers and went straight to the main dining room once on the ship to book our restaurants.  We were pre-booked at Sabor for Night #1, but were able to change it to Wonderland.  We were also able to get 150 CP for Night #2, although at a slightly later time than we had hoped (8:30PM vs the desired 6-7:30 window).  On the 4th day, after some so-so MDR food, we tried booking at Chops, but it was sold out for the rest of the cruise.   Note for our next cruise – book in demand venues early! We had lunch at Sabor on the last day and were able to walk right up and get a table.  
Wonderland:  We thought it was excellent. My husband had to talk me into this one as I hate seafood.  I thought the dishes were delicious.  I posted some photos on the FB dining page.
150 CP:  Very good.  I loved the flavored bread salts.  We had the 18oz steak which was good, but based on reviews, I had higher expectations.  But, the cucumber martini and service more than made up for it!
Sabor: For a $46 lunch, we were determined to get our money’s worth – and we did.  We saved Sabor for the last day.  We demolished the chips and guac (so good).  We ordered 3 appetizers (those bacon wrapped chicken things are amazing), 2 tacos, a quesadilla, 2 sides and 2 desserts :)   We didn’t polish it all off, but we came close.  Needless to say we didn’t need dinner and skipped the MDR that night.   The White Sangria at Sabor is delicious and my favorite drink on the ship. 
MDR: Royal has room for improvement.  The servers seemed a little stressed and the dining room a little chaotic each night.  Some meals were good, some ok, and one steak from the classics menu was downright inedible.  Since we couldn’t go to Chops we did order the upgraded Chops filet and found that to be quite good.  We didn’t try the MDR for breakfast or lunch.
Fitness Center/Vitality Cafe – I try and stay pretty active so I caught some morning track runs on port days.  Harmony has a great track and I loved watching our arrival into the ports.  The gym was crowded on sea days but overall a very nice fitness center with lots of cardio and weight equipment.  The Vitality Café outside of the gym always seemed to have a line, but that might be because the fresh juices, protein shakes and snacks were great (those granola bars – yum).  We had the drink package and we were not charged for the protein powder. 
Spa:  Beautiful facility.  We bought the thermal suite package for $199/couple and used it every day.  The thermal suite consisted of a heated relaxation bed, steam, sauna and rain shower.  We would purchase the thermal suite again.  It provided a daily dose of relaxation for the price of 1 person to get a 75 minute massage.    You are also provided with a salt scrub to use in a rain shower.   Near the end of the cruise we took advantage of a “Happy Hands and Feet” special.  $69 for a relaxing 50 minute foot scrub and foot/hand massage. 
Bars/Drinks:  Overall, the drinks on the cruise were great, so much variety in the bar menus.  My only complaint would be the lack of consistency between bars.  A few times different bartenders would make the same drink differently, despite having the ingredients posted in the drink book.  I would like to see more attention paid to keeping the freestyle machines restocked.  They frequently ran out of diet beverages. 
Vintages: This was one of my favorite spots of the cruise as I love wine.  I would have liked to see more variety on the by the glass menu, it was a little cab-heavy – although they were all good.  Vintages has this neat little wine sampling system where you can purchase 2, 4 or 6 oz pours.  A little pricey though and you can’t use the drink package to offset the cost.  The cheapest 2 oz pour was $8 and the most expensive 6oz pour was $300!
Sorrentos:  Maybe it’s because I usually deprive myself of pizza in favor of healthier options when I’m not on vacation, but I loved Sorrentos. We ate here every day – sometimes we were even sober!
Activities: We did the water slides, zip line, abyss, rock climbing and mini golf.  Mini golf got a little out of hand with kids running through the course while we were playing.  Overall, we liked the activities on the ship.  We tried booking the escape room mid cruise but it was booked solid for the rest of the cruise.  Lesson learned for our next cruise – book early!
Shows:  Comedy show and juggling headliner were great.  Columbus was cute, I liked how they incorporated modern music. The aqua show was not my cup of tea.   We sat in the back and left after 20 minutes.  Although, the man twirling in a skirt for 15 minutes straight without passing out was a bit impressive.  We skipped Grease and the ice show.  Not a show but we went to the Silent Disco party on formal night – HILARIOUS.
Ports:  Nassau is meh (been there, done that).  St. Thomas has gorgeous views.  Our excursion was cancelled before the cruise, so we took a cab up to Mountain Top, drank banana daiquiris and on the way back down he stopped at a few spots for photos.  My husband tipped a steel drum player and he gave us his CD.  We plan on listening to it when we’re craving those vacation vibes.  We could see the beautiful Magen’s Bay and want to go back and visit that beach someday.  As we drove up to Mountain Top the hurricane devastation was evident.  You could see partially sunken boats, collapsed buildings, downed trees and power lines.  Labadee is a little slice of heaven and by far my favorite cruise port.  It is just perfect.  No sales people yelling at you once you’re off the ship.  Towels, beach chairs, good food and drinks included (if you have the beverage package).  We went parasailing (A+++), hung out at Adrenaline Beach, and drank a bunch of labadoozies.    We set our parasail appt for 10:30 so we grabbed lunch once it ended at 11:30.  I’m glad we got there early because lunch lines got long.
Thanksgiving:  We celebrated turkey day on the ship.  They had a thanksgiving dinner option (great turkey dinner, so-so pumpkin pie) and cut a gigantic chocolate cake in the promenade following a Christmas tree lighting.  They decorated for Christmas while we were on the ship. 
Next Cruise office:  We loved this mega ship so much that we booked a May 4,, 2019 sailing on the Symphony.  We’ll visit 3 ports we haven’t seen yet (St. Maarten, San Juan and Coco Cay).   We booked a Central Park Balcony on deck 12 for $2,175 (includes free lunch at Jamie’s and a bottle of wine) and a $200 OBC.  Sounded like a deal to me, but I’m new to Royal so what do I know :)    

I didn’t want to commit to a live blog and fail to update it, so I thought I might add my thoughts in a final wrap up about my recent 7 day Harmony sailing.  I found this blog and reviews to be so helpful in maximizing my own cruise experience. 
Pre-Cruise: We flew in the night before and stayed at the Best Western Airport Hotel.  Husband got a good rate through his employer.  If we had been staying in Fort Lauderdale longer I probably wouldn’t recommend this hotel.  It is pretty basic but served its purpose well – a bed, a hot shower, free airport transfer, free breakfast, and port transportation for a price ($8pp).   Cruise port transfer was well organized and departed the hotel at 10:30AM.
Embarkation: Previously sailed out of Port Canaveral and Galveston on Carnival.  Embarkation at Port Everglades was the quickest and best experience.  From hotel to on board the ship, the process took about 50 minutes – and our shuttle dropped some Norwegian passengers off before us! We didn’t pack light (2 large suitcases, 2 carry-ons and a suit bag) so we were happy to see the porters waiting next to the shuttle drop off to take our bags.  I took some readers’ advice and ordered plastic luggage tags off of Amazon, so I wasn’t as worried about paper tags falling off as I have been on prior cruises.   We sailed through the embarkation process.  I don’t think we stopped moving except to check-in at the desk. 
First impressions:  Harmony is a gorgeous ship.  I’ve cruised 3 times with Carnival and I don’t know how I can go back to such a cramped, stuffy ship.  I love the open air design of Central Park and the Boardwalk.  The ship only felt crowded on the first afternoon following the muster drill and during promenade events.  Otherwise, you wouldn’t really know 6,409 guests were on board!
Muster Drill: I appreciated being in an air conditioned theater watching corny but hilarious hand washing videos instead of standing outside in the sun.
Room: We had a virtual balcony on the 10th floor near the elevators, 10446.  I read some cruise critic complaints about the location being too noisy but we didn’t have any problems with noise near the elevators.  Despite our over packing, EVERYTHING fit in a drawer, closet or shelf and all pieces of luggage fit under the bed! The virtual balcony was neat, but I found its timing to be a little off.  During sunrise/sunset, the image of the sky was pitch black on the screen.
Specialty Dining:  We took advantage of the $30 BOGO offer booked pre-cruise.  I took the advice of bloggers and went straight to the main dining room once on the ship to book our restaurants.  We were pre-booked at Sabor for Night #1, but were able to change it to Wonderland.  We were also able to get 150 CP for Night #2, although at a slightly later time than we had hoped (8:30PM vs the desired 6-7:30 window).  On the 4th day, after some so-so MDR food, we tried booking at Chops, but it was sold out for the rest of the cruise.   Note for our next cruise – book in demand venues early! We had lunch at Sabor on the last day and were able to walk right up and get a table.  
Wonderland:  We thought it was excellent. My husband had to talk me into this one as I hate seafood.  I thought the dishes were delicious.  I posted some photos on the FB dining page.
150 CP:  Very good.  I loved the flavored bread salts.  We had the 18oz steak which was good, but based on reviews, I had higher expectations.  But, the cucumber martini and service more than made up for it!
Sabor: For a $46 lunch, we were determined to get our money’s worth – and we did.  We saved Sabor for the last day.  We demolished the chips and guac (so good).  We ordered 3 appetizers (those bacon wrapped chicken things are amazing), 2 tacos, a quesadilla, 2 sides and 2 desserts :)   We didn’t polish it all off, but we came close.  Needless to say we didn’t need dinner and skipped the MDR that night.   The White Sangria at Sabor is delicious and my favorite drink on the ship. 
MDR: Royal has room for improvement.  The servers seemed a little stressed and the dining room a little chaotic each night.  Some meals were good, some ok, and one steak from the classics menu was downright inedible.  Since we couldn’t go to Chops we did order the upgraded Chops filet and found that to be quite good.  We didn’t try the MDR for breakfast or lunch.
Fitness Center/Vitality Cafe – I try and stay pretty active so I caught some morning track runs on port days.  Harmony has a great track and I loved watching our arrival into the ports.  The gym was crowded on sea days but overall a very nice fitness center with lots of cardio and weight equipment.  The Vitality Café outside of the gym always seemed to have a line, but that might be because the fresh juices, protein shakes and snacks were great (those granola bars – yum).  We had the drink package and we were not charged for the protein powder. 
Spa:  Beautiful facility.  We bought the thermal suite package for $199/couple and used it every day.  The thermal suite consisted of a heated relaxation bed, steam, sauna and rain shower.  We would purchase the thermal suite again.  It provided a daily dose of relaxation for the price of 1 person to get a 75 minute massage.    You are also provided with a salt scrub to use in a rain shower.   Near the end of the cruise we took advantage of a “Happy Hands and Feet” special.  $69 for a relaxing 50 minute foot scrub and foot/hand massage. 
Bars/Drinks:  Overall, the drinks on the cruise were great, so much variety in the bar menus.  My only complaint would be the lack of consistency between bars.  A few times different bartenders would make the same drink differently, despite having the ingredients posted in the drink book.  I would like to see more attention paid to keeping the freestyle machines restocked.  They frequently ran out of diet beverages. 
Vintages: This was one of my favorite spots of the cruise as I love wine.  I would have liked to see more variety on the by the glass menu, it was a little cab-heavy – although they were all good.  Vintages has this neat little wine sampling system where you can purchase 2, 4 or 6 oz pours.  A little pricey though and you can’t use the drink package to offset the cost.  The cheapest 2 oz pour was $8 and the most expensive 6oz pour was $300!
Sorrentos:  Maybe it’s because I usually deprive myself of pizza in favor of healthier options when I’m not on vacation, but I loved Sorrentos. We ate here every day – sometimes we were even sober!
Activities: We did the water slides, zip line, abyss, rock climbing and mini golf.  Mini golf got a little out of hand with kids running through the course while we were playing.  Overall, we liked the activities on the ship.  We tried booking the escape room mid cruise but it was booked solid for the rest of the cruise.  Lesson learned for our next cruise – book early!
Shows:  Comedy show and juggling headliner were great.  Columbus was cute, I liked how they incorporated modern music. The aqua show was not my cup of tea.   We sat in the back and left after 20 minutes.  Although, the man twirling in a skirt for 15 minutes straight without passing out was a bit impressive.  We skipped Grease and the ice show.  Not a show but we went to the Silent Disco party on formal night – HILARIOUS.
Ports:  Nassau is meh (been there, done that).  St. Thomas has gorgeous views.  Our excursion was cancelled before the cruise, so we took a cab up to Mountain Top, drank banana daiquiris and on the way back down he stopped at a few spots for photos.  My husband tipped a steel drum player and he gave us his CD.  We plan on listening to it when we’re craving those vacation vibes.  We could see the beautiful Magen’s Bay and want to go back and visit that beach someday.  As we drove up to Mountain Top the hurricane devastation was evident.  You could see partially sunken boats, collapsed buildings, downed trees and power lines.  Labadee is a little slice of heaven and by far my favorite cruise port.  It is just perfect.  No sales people yelling at you once you’re off the ship.  Towels, beach chairs, good food and drinks included (if you have the beverage package).  We went parasailing (A+++), hung out at Adrenaline Beach, and drank a bunch of labadoozies.    We set our parasail appt for 10:30 so we grabbed lunch once it ended at 11:30.  I’m glad we got there early because lunch lines got long.
Thanksgiving:  We celebrated turkey day on the ship.  They had a thanksgiving dinner option (great turkey dinner, so-so pumpkin pie) and cut a gigantic chocolate cake in the promenade following a Christmas tree lighting.  They decorated for Christmas while we were on the ship. 
Next Cruise office:  We loved this mega ship so much that we booked a May 4,, 2019 sailing on the Symphony.  We’ll visit 3 ports we haven’t seen yet (St. Maarten, San Juan and Coco Cay).   We booked a Central Park Balcony on deck 12 for $2,175 (includes free lunch at Jamie’s and a bottle of wine) and a $200 OBC.  Sounded like a deal to me, but I’m new to Royal so what do I know :)    

I didn’t want to commit to a live blog and fail to update it, so I thought I might add my thoughts in a final wrap up about my recent 7 day Harmony sailing.  I found this blog and reviews to be so helpful in maximizing my own cruise experience. 
Pre-Cruise: We flew in the night before and stayed at the Best Western Airport Hotel.  Husband got a good rate through his employer.  If we had been staying in Fort Lauderdale longer I probably wouldn’t recommend this hotel.  It is pretty basic but served its purpose well – a bed, a hot shower, free airport transfer, free breakfast, and port transportation for a price ($8pp).   Cruise port transfer was well organized and departed the hotel at 10:30AM.
Embarkation: Previously sailed out of Port Canaveral and Galveston on Carnival.  Embarkation at Port Everglades was the quickest and best experience.  From hotel to on board the ship, the process took about 50 minutes – and our shuttle dropped some Norwegian passengers off before us! We didn’t pack light (2 large suitcases, 2 carry-ons and a suit bag) so we were happy to see the porters waiting next to the shuttle drop off to take our bags.  I took some readers’ advice and ordered plastic luggage tags off of Amazon, so I wasn’t as worried about paper tags falling off as I have been on prior cruises.   We sailed through the embarkation process.  I don’t think we stopped moving except to check-in at the desk. 
First impressions:  Harmony is a gorgeous ship.  I’ve cruised 3 times with Carnival and I don’t know how I can go back to such a cramped, stuffy ship.  I love the open air design of Central Park and the Boardwalk.  The ship only felt crowded on the first afternoon following the muster drill and during promenade events.  Otherwise, you wouldn’t really know 6,409 guests were on board!
Muster Drill: I appreciated being in an air conditioned theater watching corny but hilarious hand washing videos instead of standing outside in the sun.
Room: We had a virtual balcony on the 10th floor near the elevators, 10446.  I read some cruise critic complaints about the location being too noisy but we didn’t have any problems with noise near the elevators.  Despite our over packing, EVERYTHING fit in a drawer, closet or shelf and all pieces of luggage fit under the bed! The virtual balcony was neat, but I found its timing to be a little off.  During sunrise/sunset, the image of the sky was pitch black on the screen.
Specialty Dining:  We took advantage of the $30 BOGO offer booked pre-cruise.  I took the advice of bloggers and went straight to the main dining room once on the ship to book our restaurants.  We were pre-booked at Sabor for Night #1, but were able to change it to Wonderland.  We were also able to get 150 CP for Night #2, although at a slightly later time than we had hoped (8:30PM vs the desired 6-7:30 window).  On the 4th day, after some so-so MDR food, we tried booking at Chops, but it was sold out for the rest of the cruise.   Note for our next cruise – book in demand venues early! We had lunch at Sabor on the last day and were able to walk right up and get a table.  
Wonderland:  We thought it was excellent. My husband had to talk me into this one as I hate seafood.  I thought the dishes were delicious.  I posted some photos on the FB dining page.
150 CP:  Very good.  I loved the flavored bread salts.  We had the 18oz steak which was good, but based on reviews, I had higher expectations.  But, the cucumber martini and service more than made up for it!
Sabor: For a $46 lunch, we were determined to get our money’s worth – and we did.  We saved Sabor for the last day.  We demolished the chips and guac (so good).  We ordered 3 appetizers (those bacon wrapped chicken things are amazing), 2 tacos, a quesadilla, 2 sides and 2 desserts :)   We didn’t polish it all off, but we came close.  Needless to say we didn’t need dinner and skipped the MDR that night.   The White Sangria at Sabor is delicious and my favorite drink on the ship. 
MDR: Royal has room for improvement.  The servers seemed a little stressed and the dining room a little chaotic each night.  Some meals were good, some ok, and one steak from the classics menu was downright inedible.  Since we couldn’t go to Chops we did order the upgraded Chops filet and found that to be quite good.  We didn’t try the MDR for breakfast or lunch.
Fitness Center/Vitality Cafe – I try and stay pretty active so I caught some morning track runs on port days.  Harmony has a great track and I loved watching our arrival into the ports.  The gym was crowded on sea days but overall a very nice fitness center with lots of cardio and weight equipment.  The Vitality Café outside of the gym always seemed to have a line, but that might be because the fresh juices, protein shakes and snacks were great (those granola bars – yum).  We had the drink package and we were not charged for the protein powder. 
Spa:  Beautiful facility.  We bought the thermal suite package for $199/couple and used it every day.  The thermal suite consisted of a heated relaxation bed, steam, sauna and rain shower.  We would purchase the thermal suite again.  It provided a daily dose of relaxation for the price of 1 person to get a 75 minute massage.    You are also provided with a salt scrub to use in a rain shower.   Near the end of the cruise we took advantage of a “Happy Hands and Feet” special.  $69 for a relaxing 50 minute foot scrub and foot/hand massage. 
Bars/Drinks:  Overall, the drinks on the cruise were great, so much variety in the bar menus.  My only complaint would be the lack of consistency between bars.  A few times different bartenders would make the same drink differently, despite having the ingredients posted in the drink book.  I would like to see more attention paid to keeping the freestyle machines restocked.  They frequently ran out of diet beverages. 
Vintages: This was one of my favorite spots of the cruise as I love wine.  I would have liked to see more variety on the by the glass menu, it was a little cab-heavy – although they were all good.  Vintages has this neat little wine sampling system where you can purchase 2, 4 or 6 oz pours.  A little pricey though and you can’t use the drink package to offset the cost.  The cheapest 2 oz pour was $8 and the most expensive 6oz pour was $300!
Sorrentos:  Maybe it’s because I usually deprive myself of pizza in favor of healthier options when I’m not on vacation, but I loved Sorrentos. We ate here every day – sometimes we were even sober!
Activities: We did the water slides, zip line, abyss, rock climbing and mini golf.  Mini golf got a little out of hand with kids running through the course while we were playing.  Overall, we liked the activities on the ship.  We tried booking the escape room mid cruise but it was booked solid for the rest of the cruise.  Lesson learned for our next cruise – book early!
Shows:  Comedy show and juggling headliner were great.  Columbus was cute, I liked how they incorporated modern music. The aqua show was not my cup of tea.   We sat in the back and left after 20 minutes.  Although, the man twirling in a skirt for 15 minutes straight without passing out was a bit impressive.  We skipped Grease and the ice show.  Not a show but we went to the Silent Disco party on formal night – HILARIOUS.
Ports:  Nassau is meh (been there, done that).  St. Thomas has gorgeous views.  Our excursion was cancelled before the cruise, so we took a cab up to Mountain Top, drank banana daiquiris and on the way back down he stopped at a few spots for photos.  My husband tipped a steel drum player and he gave us his CD.  We plan on listening to it when we’re craving those vacation vibes.  We could see the beautiful Magen’s Bay and want to go back and visit that beach someday.  As we drove up to Mountain Top the hurricane devastation was evident.  You could see partially sunken boats, collapsed buildings, downed trees and power lines.  Labadee is a little slice of heaven and by far my favorite cruise port.  It is just perfect.  No sales people yelling at you once you’re off the ship.  Towels, beach chairs, good food and drinks included (if you have the beverage package).  We went parasailing (A+++), hung out at Adrenaline Beach, and drank a bunch of labadoozies.    We set our parasail appt for 10:30 so we grabbed lunch once it ended at 11:30.  I’m glad we got there early because lunch lines got long.
Thanksgiving:  We celebrated turkey day on the ship.  They had a thanksgiving dinner option (great turkey dinner, so-so pumpkin pie) and cut a gigantic chocolate cake in the promenade following a Christmas tree lighting.  They decorated for Christmas while we were on the ship. 
Next Cruise office:  We loved this mega ship so much that we booked a May 4,, 2019 sailing on the Symphony.  We’ll visit 3 ports we haven’t seen yet (St. Maarten, San Juan and Coco Cay).   We booked a Central Park Balcony on deck 12 for $2,175 (includes free lunch at Jamie’s and a bottle of wine) and a $200 OBC.  Sounded like a deal to me, but I’m new to Royal so what do I know :)    

I didn’t want to commit to a live blog and fail to update it, so I thought I might add my thoughts in a final wrap up about my recent 7 day Harmony sailing.  I found this blog and reviews to be so helpful in maximizing my own cruise experience. 
Pre-Cruise: We flew in the night before and stayed at the Best Western Airport Hotel.  Husband got a good rate through his employer.  If we had been staying in Fort Lauderdale longer I probably wouldn’t recommend this hotel.  It is pretty basic but served its purpose well – a bed, a hot shower, free airport transfer, free breakfast, and port transportation for a price ($8pp).   Cruise port transfer was well organized and departed the hotel at 10:30AM.
Embarkation: Previously sailed out of Port Canaveral and Galveston on Carnival.  Embarkation at Port Everglades was the quickest and best experience.  From hotel to on board the ship, the process took about 50 minutes – and our shuttle dropped some Norwegian passengers off before us! We didn’t pack light (2 large suitcases, 2 carry-ons and a suit bag) so we were happy to see the porters waiting next to the shuttle drop off to take our bags.  I took some readers’ advice and ordered plastic luggage tags off of Amazon, so I wasn’t as worried about paper tags falling off as I have been on prior cruises.   We sailed through the embarkation process.  I don’t think we stopped moving except to check-in at the desk. 
First impressions:  Harmony is a gorgeous ship.  I’ve cruised 3 times with Carnival and I don’t know how I can go back to such a cramped, stuffy ship.  I love the open air design of Central Park and the Boardwalk.  The ship only felt crowded on the first afternoon following the muster drill and during promenade events.  Otherwise, you wouldn’t really know 6,409 guests were on board!
Muster Drill: I appreciated being in an air conditioned theater watching corny but hilarious hand washing videos instead of standing outside in the sun.
Room: We had a virtual balcony on the 10th floor near the elevators, 10446.  I read some cruise critic complaints about the location being too noisy but we didn’t have any problems with noise near the elevators.  Despite our over packing, EVERYTHING fit in a drawer, closet or shelf and all pieces of luggage fit under the bed! The virtual balcony was neat, but I found its timing to be a little off.  During sunrise/sunset, the image of the sky was pitch black on the screen.
Specialty Dining:  We took advantage of the $30 BOGO offer booked pre-cruise.  I took the advice of bloggers and went straight to the main dining room once on the ship to book our restaurants.  We were pre-booked at Sabor for Night #1, but were able to change it to Wonderland.  We were also able to get 150 CP for Night #2, although at a slightly later time than we had hoped (8:30PM vs the desired 6-7:30 window).  On the 4th day, after some so-so MDR food, we tried booking at Chops, but it was sold out for the rest of the cruise.   Note for our next cruise – book in demand venues early! We had lunch at Sabor on the last day and were able to walk right up and get a table.  
Wonderland:  We thought it was excellent. My husband had to talk me into this one as I hate seafood.  I thought the dishes were delicious.  I posted some photos on the FB dining page.
150 CP:  Very good.  I loved the flavored bread salts.  We had the 18oz steak which was good, but based on reviews, I had higher expectations.  But, the cucumber martini and service more than made up for it!
Sabor: For a $46 lunch, we were determined to get our money’s worth – and we did.  We saved Sabor for the last day.  We demolished the chips and guac (so good).  We ordered 3 appetizers (those bacon wrapped chicken things are amazing), 2 tacos, a quesadilla, 2 sides and 2 desserts :)   We didn’t polish it all off, but we came close.  Needless to say we didn’t need dinner and skipped the MDR that night.   The White Sangria at Sabor is delicious and my favorite drink on the ship. 
MDR: Royal has room for improvement.  The servers seemed a little stressed and the dining room a little chaotic each night.  Some meals were good, some ok, and one steak from the classics menu was downright inedible.  Since we couldn’t go to Chops we did order the upgraded Chops filet and found that to be quite good.  We didn’t try the MDR for breakfast or lunch.
Fitness Center/Vitality Cafe – I try and stay pretty active so I caught some morning track runs on port days.  Harmony has a great track and I loved watching our arrival into the ports.  The gym was crowded on sea days but overall a very nice fitness center with lots of cardio and weight equipment.  The Vitality Café outside of the gym always seemed to have a line, but that might be because the fresh juices, protein shakes and snacks were great (those granola bars – yum).  We had the drink package and we were not charged for the protein powder. 
Spa:  Beautiful facility.  We bought the thermal suite package for $199/couple and used it every day.  The thermal suite consisted of a heated relaxation bed, steam, sauna and rain shower.  We would purchase the thermal suite again.  It provided a daily dose of relaxation for the price of 1 person to get a 75 minute massage.    You are also provided with a salt scrub to use in a rain shower.   Near the end of the cruise we took advantage of a “Happy Hands and Feet” special.  $69 for a relaxing 50 minute foot scrub and foot/hand massage. 
Bars/Drinks:  Overall, the drinks on the cruise were great, so much variety in the bar menus.  My only complaint would be the lack of consistency between bars.  A few times different bartenders would make the same drink differently, despite having the ingredients posted in the drink book.  I would like to see more attention paid to keeping the freestyle machines restocked.  They frequently ran out of diet beverages. 
Vintages: This was one of my favorite spots of the cruise as I love wine.  I would have liked to see more variety on the by the glass menu, it was a little cab-heavy – although they were all good.  Vintages has this neat little wine sampling system where you can purchase 2, 4 or 6 oz pours.  A little pricey though and you can’t use the drink package to offset the cost.  The cheapest 2 oz pour was $8 and the most expensive 6oz pour was $300!
Sorrentos:  Maybe it’s because I usually deprive myself of pizza in favor of healthier options when I’m not on vacation, but I loved Sorrentos. We ate here every day – sometimes we were even sober!
Activities: We did the water slides, zip line, abyss, rock climbing and mini golf.  Mini golf got a little out of hand with kids running through the course while we were playing.  Overall, we liked the activities on the ship.  We tried booking the escape room mid cruise but it was booked solid for the rest of the cruise.  Lesson learned for our next cruise – book early!
Shows:  Comedy show and juggling headliner were great.  Columbus was cute, I liked how they incorporated modern music. The aqua show was not my cup of tea.   We sat in the back and left after 20 minutes.  Although, the man twirling in a skirt for 15 minutes straight without passing out was a bit impressive.  We skipped Grease and the ice show.  Not a show but we went to the Silent Disco party on formal night – HILARIOUS.
Ports:  Nassau is meh (been there, done that).  St. Thomas has gorgeous views.  Our excursion was cancelled before the cruise, so we took a cab up to Mountain Top, drank banana daiquiris and on the way back down he stopped at a few spots for photos.  My husband tipped a steel drum player and he gave us his CD.  We plan on listening to it when we’re craving those vacation vibes.  We could see the beautiful Magen’s Bay and want to go back and visit that beach someday.  As we drove up to Mountain Top the hurricane devastation was evident.  You could see partially sunken boats, collapsed buildings, downed trees and power lines.  Labadee is a little slice of heaven and by far my favorite cruise port.  It is just perfect.  No sales people yelling at you once you’re off the ship.  Towels, beach chairs, good food and drinks included (if you have the beverage package).  We went parasailing (A+++), hung out at Adrenaline Beach, and drank a bunch of labadoozies.    We set our parasail appt for 10:30 so we grabbed lunch once it ended at 11:30.  I’m glad we got there early because lunch lines got long.
Thanksgiving:  We celebrated turkey day on the ship.  They had a thanksgiving dinner option (great turkey dinner, so-so pumpkin pie) and cut a gigantic chocolate cake in the promenade following a Christmas tree lighting.  They decorated for Christmas while we were on the ship. 
Next Cruise office:  We loved this mega ship so much that we booked a May 4,, 2019 sailing on the Symphony.  We’ll visit 3 ports we haven’t seen yet (St. Maarten, San Juan and Coco Cay).   We booked a Central Park Balcony on deck 12 for $2,175 (includes free lunch at Jamie’s and a bottle of wine) and a $200 OBC.  Sounded like a deal to me, but I’m new to Royal so what do I know :)    

I didn’t want to commit to a live blog and fail to update it, so I thought I might add my thoughts in a final wrap up about my recent 7 day Harmony sailing.  I found this blog and reviews to be so helpful in maximizing my own cruise experience. 
Pre-Cruise: We flew in the night before and stayed at the Best Western Airport Hotel.  Husband got a good rate through his employer.  If we had been staying in Fort Lauderdale longer I probably wouldn’t recommend this hotel.  It is pretty basic but served its purpose well – a bed, a hot shower, free airport transfer, free breakfast, and port transportation for a price ($8pp).   Cruise port transfer was well organized and departed the hotel at 10:30AM.
Embarkation: Previously sailed out of Port Canaveral and Galveston on Carnival.  Embarkation at Port Everglades was the quickest and best experience.  From hotel to on board the ship, the process took about 50 minutes – and our shuttle dropped some Norwegian passengers off before us! We didn’t pack light (2 large suitcases, 2 carry-ons and a suit bag) so we were happy to see the porters waiting next to the shuttle drop off to take our bags.  I took some readers’ advice and ordered plastic luggage tags off of Amazon, so I wasn’t as worried about paper tags falling off as I have been on prior cruises.   We sailed through the embarkation process.  I don’t think we stopped moving except to check-in at the desk. 
First impressions:  Harmony is a gorgeous ship.  I’ve cruised 3 times with Carnival and I don’t know how I can go back to such a cramped, stuffy ship.  I love the open air design of Central Park and the Boardwalk.  The ship only felt crowded on the first afternoon following the muster drill and during promenade events.  Otherwise, you wouldn’t really know 6,409 guests were on board!
Muster Drill: I appreciated being in an air conditioned theater watching corny but hilarious hand washing videos instead of standing outside in the sun.
Room: We had a virtual balcony on the 10th floor near the elevators, 10446.  I read some cruise critic complaints about the location being too noisy but we didn’t have any problems with noise near the elevators.  Despite our over packing, EVERYTHING fit in a drawer, closet or shelf and all pieces of luggage fit under the bed! The virtual balcony was neat, but I found its timing to be a little off.  During sunrise/sunset, the image of the sky was pitch black on the screen.
Specialty Dining:  We took advantage of the $30 BOGO offer booked pre-cruise.  I took the advice of bloggers and went straight to the main dining room once on the ship to book our restaurants.  We were pre-booked at Sabor for Night #1, but were able to change it to Wonderland.  We were also able to get 150 CP for Night #2, although at a slightly later time than we had hoped (8:30PM vs the desired 6-7:30 window).  On the 4th day, after some so-so MDR food, we tried booking at Chops, but it was sold out for the rest of the cruise.   Note for our next cruise – book in demand venues early! We had lunch at Sabor on the last day and were able to walk right up and get a table.  
Wonderland:  We thought it was excellent. My husband had to talk me into this one as I hate seafood.  I thought the dishes were delicious.  I posted some photos on the FB dining page.
150 CP:  Very good.  I loved the flavored bread salts.  We had the 18oz steak which was good, but based on reviews, I had higher expectations.  But, the cucumber martini and service more than made up for it!
Sabor: For a $46 lunch, we were determined to get our money’s worth – and we did.  We saved Sabor for the last day.  We demolished the chips and guac (so good).  We ordered 3 appetizers (those bacon wrapped chicken things are amazing), 2 tacos, a quesadilla, 2 sides and 2 desserts :)   We didn’t polish it all off, but we came close.  Needless to say we didn’t need dinner and skipped the MDR that night.   The White Sangria at Sabor is delicious and my favorite drink on the ship. 
MDR: Royal has room for improvement.  The servers seemed a little stressed and the dining room a little chaotic each night.  Some meals were good, some ok, and one steak from the classics menu was downright inedible.  Since we couldn’t go to Chops we did order the upgraded Chops filet and found that to be quite good.  We didn’t try the MDR for breakfast or lunch.
Fitness Center/Vitality Cafe – I try and stay pretty active so I caught some morning track runs on port days.  Harmony has a great track and I loved watching our arrival into the ports.  The gym was crowded on sea days but overall a very nice fitness center with lots of cardio and weight equipment.  The Vitality Café outside of the gym always seemed to have a line, but that might be because the fresh juices, protein shakes and snacks were great (those granola bars – yum).  We had the drink package and we were not charged for the protein powder. 
Spa:  Beautiful facility.  We bought the thermal suite package for $199/couple and used it every day.  The thermal suite consisted of a heated relaxation bed, steam, sauna and rain shower.  We would purchase the thermal suite again.  It provided a daily dose of relaxation for the price of 1 person to get a 75 minute massage.    You are also provided with a salt scrub to use in a rain shower.   Near the end of the cruise we took advantage of a “Happy Hands and Feet” special.  $69 for a relaxing 50 minute foot scrub and foot/hand massage. 
Bars/Drinks:  Overall, the drinks on the cruise were great, so much variety in the bar menus.  My only complaint would be the lack of consistency between bars.  A few times different bartenders would make the same drink differently, despite having the ingredients posted in the drink book.  I would like to see more attention paid to keeping the freestyle machines restocked.  They frequently ran out of diet beverages. 
Vintages: This was one of my favorite spots of the cruise as I love wine.  I would have liked to see more variety on the by the glass menu, it was a little cab-heavy – although they were all good.  Vintages has this neat little wine sampling system where you can purchase 2, 4 or 6 oz pours.  A little pricey though and you can’t use the drink package to offset the cost.  The cheapest 2 oz pour was $8 and the most expensive 6oz pour was $300!
Sorrentos:  Maybe it’s because I usually deprive myself of pizza in favor of healthier options when I’m not on vacation, but I loved Sorrentos. We ate here every day – sometimes we were even sober!
Activities: We did the water slides, zip line, abyss, rock climbing and mini golf.  Mini golf got a little out of hand with kids running through the course while we were playing.  Overall, we liked the activities on the ship.  We tried booking the escape room mid cruise but it was booked solid for the rest of the cruise.  Lesson learned for our next cruise – book early!
Shows:  Comedy show and juggling headliner were great.  Columbus was cute, I liked how they incorporated modern music. The aqua show was not my cup of tea.   We sat in the back and left after 20 minutes.  Although, the man twirling in a skirt for 15 minutes straight without passing out was a bit impressive.  We skipped Grease and the ice show.  Not a show but we went to the Silent Disco party on formal night – HILARIOUS.
Ports:  Nassau is meh (been there, done that).  St. Thomas has gorgeous views.  Our excursion was cancelled before the cruise, so we took a cab up to Mountain Top, drank banana daiquiris and on the way back down he stopped at a few spots for photos.  My husband tipped a steel drum player and he gave us his CD.  We plan on listening to it when we’re craving those vacation vibes.  We could see the beautiful Magen’s Bay and want to go back and visit that beach someday.  As we drove up to Mountain Top the hurricane devastation was evident.  You could see partially sunken boats, collapsed buildings, downed trees and power lines.  Labadee is a little slice of heaven and by far my favorite cruise port.  It is just perfect.  No sales people yelling at you once you’re off the ship.  Towels, beach chairs, good food and drinks included (if you have the beverage package).  We went parasailing (A+++), hung out at Adrenaline Beach, and drank a bunch of labadoozies.    We set our parasail appt for 10:30 so we grabbed lunch once it ended at 11:30.  I’m glad we got there early because lunch lines got long.
Thanksgiving:  We celebrated turkey day on the ship.  They had a thanksgiving dinner option (great turkey dinner, so-so pumpkin pie) and cut a gigantic chocolate cake in the promenade following a Christmas tree lighting.  They decorated for Christmas while we were on the ship. 
Next Cruise office:  We loved this mega ship so much that we booked a May 4,, 2019 sailing on the Symphony.  We’ll visit 3 ports we haven’t seen yet (St. Maarten, San Juan and Coco Cay).   We booked a Central Park Balcony on deck 12 for $2,175 (includes free lunch at Jamie’s and a bottle of wine) and a $200 OBC.  Sounded like a deal to me, but I’m new to Royal so what do I know :)    

I didn’t want to commit to a live blog and fail to update it, so I thought I might add my thoughts in a final wrap up about my recent 7 day Harmony sailing.  I found this blog and reviews to be so helpful in maximizing my own cruise experience. 
Pre-Cruise: We flew in the night before and stayed at the Best Western Airport Hotel.  Husband got a good rate through his employer.  If we had been staying in Fort Lauderdale longer I probably wouldn’t recommend this hotel.  It is pretty basic but served its purpose well – a bed, a hot shower, free airport transfer, free breakfast, and port transportation for a price ($8pp).   Cruise port transfer was well organized and departed the hotel at 10:30AM.
Embarkation: Previously sailed out of Port Canaveral and Galveston on Carnival.  Embarkation at Port Everglades was the quickest and best experience.  From hotel to on board the ship, the process took about 50 minutes – and our shuttle dropped some Norwegian passengers off before us! We didn’t pack light (2 large suitcases, 2 carry-ons and a suit bag) so we were happy to see the porters waiting next to the shuttle drop off to take our bags.  I took some readers’ advice and ordered plastic luggage tags off of Amazon, so I wasn’t as worried about paper tags falling off as I have been on prior cruises.   We sailed through the embarkation process.  I don’t think we stopped moving except to check-in at the desk. 
First impressions:  Harmony is a gorgeous ship.  I’ve cruised 3 times with Carnival and I don’t know how I can go back to such a cramped, stuffy ship.  I love the open air design of Central Park and the Boardwalk.  The ship only felt crowded on the first afternoon following the muster drill and during promenade events.  Otherwise, you wouldn’t really know 6,409 guests were on board!
Muster Drill: I appreciated being in an air conditioned theater watching corny but hilarious hand washing videos instead of standing outside in the sun.
Room: We had a virtual balcony on the 10th floor near the elevators, 10446.  I read some cruise critic complaints about the location being too noisy but we didn’t have any problems with noise near the elevators.  Despite our over packing, EVERYTHING fit in a drawer, closet or shelf and all pieces of luggage fit under the bed! The virtual balcony was neat, but I found its timing to be a little off.  During sunrise/sunset, the image of the sky was pitch black on the screen.
Specialty Dining:  We took advantage of the $30 BOGO offer booked pre-cruise.  I took the advice of bloggers and went straight to the main dining room once on the ship to book our restaurants.  We were pre-booked at Sabor for Night #1, but were able to change it to Wonderland.  We were also able to get 150 CP for Night #2, although at a slightly later time than we had hoped (8:30PM vs the desired 6-7:30 window).  On the 4th day, after some so-so MDR food, we tried booking at Chops, but it was sold out for the rest of the cruise.   Note for our next cruise – book in demand venues early! We had lunch at Sabor on the last day and were able to walk right up and get a table.  
Wonderland:  We thought it was excellent. My husband had to talk me into this one as I hate seafood.  I thought the dishes were delicious.  I posted some photos on the FB dining page.
150 CP:  Very good.  I loved the flavored bread salts.  We had the 18oz steak which was good, but based on reviews, I had higher expectations.  But, the cucumber martini and service more than made up for it!
Sabor: For a $46 lunch, we were determined to get our money’s worth – and we did.  We saved Sabor for the last day.  We demolished the chips and guac (so good).  We ordered 3 appetizers (those bacon wrapped chicken things are amazing), 2 tacos, a quesadilla, 2 sides and 2 desserts :)   We didn’t polish it all off, but we came close.  Needless to say we didn’t need dinner and skipped the MDR that night.   The White Sangria at Sabor is delicious and my favorite drink on the ship. 
MDR: Royal has room for improvement.  The servers seemed a little stressed and the dining room a little chaotic each night.  Some meals were good, some ok, and one steak from the classics menu was downright inedible.  Since we couldn’t go to Chops we did order the upgraded Chops filet and found that to be quite good.  We didn’t try the MDR for breakfast or lunch.
Fitness Center/Vitality Cafe – I try and stay pretty active so I caught some morning track runs on port days.  Harmony has a great track and I loved watching our arrival into the ports.  The gym was crowded on sea days but overall a very nice fitness center with lots of cardio and weight equipment.  The Vitality Café outside of the gym always seemed to have a line, but that might be because the fresh juices, protein shakes and snacks were great (those granola bars – yum).  We had the drink package and we were not charged for the protein powder. 
Spa:  Beautiful facility.  We bought the thermal suite package for $199/couple and used it every day.  The thermal suite consisted of a heated relaxation bed, steam, sauna and rain shower.  We would purchase the thermal suite again.  It provided a daily dose of relaxation for the price of 1 person to get a 75 minute massage.    You are also provided with a salt scrub to use in a rain shower.   Near the end of the cruise we took advantage of a “Happy Hands and Feet” special.  $69 for a relaxing 50 minute foot scrub and foot/hand massage. 
Bars/Drinks:  Overall, the drinks on the cruise were great, so much variety in the bar menus.  My only complaint would be the lack of consistency between bars.  A few times different bartenders would make the same drink differently, despite having the ingredients posted in the drink book.  I would like to see more attention paid to keeping the freestyle machines restocked.  They frequently ran out of diet beverages. 
Vintages: This was one of my favorite spots of the cruise as I love wine.  I would have liked to see more variety on the by the glass menu, it was a little cab-heavy – although they were all good.  Vintages has this neat little wine sampling system where you can purchase 2, 4 or 6 oz pours.  A little pricey though and you can’t use the drink package to offset the cost.  The cheapest 2 oz pour was $8 and the most expensive 6oz pour was $300!
Sorrentos:  Maybe it’s because I usually deprive myself of pizza in favor of healthier options when I’m not on vacation, but I loved Sorrentos. We ate here every day – sometimes we were even sober!
Activities: We did the water slides, zip line, abyss, rock climbing and mini golf.  Mini golf got a little out of hand with kids running through the course while we were playing.  Overall, we liked the activities on the ship.  We tried booking the escape room mid cruise but it was booked solid for the rest of the cruise.  Lesson learned for our next cruise – book early!
Shows:  Comedy show and juggling headliner were great.  Columbus was cute, I liked how they incorporated modern music. The aqua show was not my cup of tea.   We sat in the back and left after 20 minutes.  Although, the man twirling in a skirt for 15 minutes straight without passing out was a bit impressive.  We skipped Grease and the ice show.  Not a show but we went to the Silent Disco party on formal night – HILARIOUS.
Ports:  Nassau is meh (been there, done that).  St. Thomas has gorgeous views.  Our excursion was cancelled before the cruise, so we took a cab up to Mountain Top, drank banana daiquiris and on the way back down he stopped at a few spots for photos.  My husband tipped a steel drum player and he gave us his CD.  We plan on listening to it when we’re craving those vacation vibes.  We could see the beautiful Magen’s Bay and want to go back and visit that beach someday.  As we drove up to Mountain Top the hurricane devastation was evident.  You could see partially sunken boats, collapsed buildings, downed trees and power lines.  Labadee is a little slice of heaven and by far my favorite cruise port.  It is just perfect.  No sales people yelling at you once you’re off the ship.  Towels, beach chairs, good food and drinks included (if you have the beverage package).  We went parasailing (A+++), hung out at Adrenaline Beach, and drank a bunch of labadoozies.    We set our parasail appt for 10:30 so we grabbed lunch once it ended at 11:30.  I’m glad we got there early because lunch lines got long.
Thanksgiving:  We celebrated turkey day on the ship.  They had a thanksgiving dinner option (great turkey dinner, so-so pumpkin pie) and cut a gigantic chocolate cake in the promenade following a Christmas tree lighting.  They decorated for Christmas while we were on the ship. 
Next Cruise office:  We loved this mega ship so much that we booked a May 4,, 2019 sailing on the Symphony.  We’ll visit 3 ports we haven’t seen yet (St. Maarten, San Juan and Coco Cay).   We booked a Central Park Balcony on deck 12 for $2,175 (includes free lunch at Jamie’s and a bottle of wine) and a $200 OBC.  Sounded like a deal to me, but I’m new to Royal so what do I know :)    

For anyone interested in knowing how this turned out - Royal notified us today the luggage has been shipped back to us via FedEx and we should receive it Wednesday! 

For anyone interested in knowing how this turned out - Royal notified us today the luggage has been shipped back to us via FedEx and we should receive it Wednesday! 

Does anyone have any experience with misplaced luggage being returned to you by RC or luggage valet, and if so, how long the process took?
We just got off an absolutely fabulous week on the Harmony and opted to check 3 bags in with the luggage valet program. When we filled out the form, we put 2 bags under my husband's name and 1 under mine. We got a call yesterday afternoon from customer service claiming they couldn't check my husband's bags because there was an issue with his airport check-in. However they were able to check me in just fine. We asked customer service to then put 2 bags under my name for luggage valet, and we would check the third in at the airport. They said no problem and last night I received 2 luggage valet tags in my stateroom. We set the luggage out before the deadline and it was gone by morning. 
As we arrived at the airport for our flight we got a call from a rep (unclear if Royal or third party luggage valet rep) claiming to have our 2 bags because we cancelled luggage valet (we did not).  The bags were not sent to the airport and would not be on our flight. The rep couldn't/wouldn't provide any information as to how we will get our bags back other than to say they have to be sent to a warehouse first and we would get a call "in a few days". 
Anyone deal with a similar issue? How was it resolved? We enjoyed our cruise so much we booked a NextCruise 2019 sailing on Symphony but I am incredibly disappointed with customer service so far in resolving this issue and am considering canceling it.