joshvc

This will not be a stress-free experience, but if everything goes according to schedule, I think you'll make it. Traffic at the port is horrible, the worst I've seen at any airport or cruise port...but I didn't disembark until almost 9, where you'll be able to get off as early as 6 or 6:30- by the time we were up and turned on the tv at 7ish last week, like 33 numbers had already been called, and you'll be in the very first group. I am guessing that traffic isn't as snarled by then, and exiting from the parking garage means you don't have to deal with the Uber/Bus/Taxi hellscape, so maybe there's never traffic up there anyway. Since the last full day of the cruise is always Coco Cay, and it's a very very short cruise back across to Miami, I think you can be very confident that you'll be in port on time and have no trouble getting to your car by 8 AM and off to the airport comfortably. The only thing I think could derail you is any kind of huge change in itinerary, but that seems like a tiny possibility in April.

We were held off the ship in the port for about 45 minutes with little information, when they let us back on at 2:15 (ship time), pools were closed and elevator use wasn’t allowed. Food was open though and a/c was running. Rumors off the ship was that power was out and people were stuck in elevators but very unconfirmed. Pools and elevators are working now, have heard no announcements at all, but also haven’t heard any daily announcements since we sailed away.

I can confirm it's running, was on board last week and met several parties that had done it. Not sure on capacity though.

Right, used to that, but right now there's literally nothing except paid Perfect Day activities on the Daily Planner in the app. I'm sure things will appear on Saturday, but this is unusual. It's not a big deal as this is a very low key cruise for us, but if you were coordinating a group and wanted to hit the ground running, it would be a limiter.

You can still be a control freak! Most of the time I have my itinerary and room picked already and know Royal's price, and just send Brock (my MEI agent) the details. I do have him check refundable rates for me, and sometimes he has come back with lower prices than what Royal shows. Hopefully I'm one of his easiest customers, but I like knowing he and MEI have my back if things go sideways.

Most arcade games are $1-2- I think the most common price was 3 games for $5. I think the table minimums are going to vary by ship, day, and region, but walking through a completely dead casino on Explorer in December, I don't recall seeing blackjack for under $10. I don't like playing at empty tables so I didn't hang around and can't say for sure if they ever moved it down from there.

Just got our first successful Royal Up notification (got the rejection notice at dinner in the MDR last time) for our sailing Saturday on Mariner. Moved from a 10th floor interior to an 8th floor Ocean View Balcony. My bid was $155 each, but I actually don't remember what the minimum was- it was either $100 or $150. I had other bids at about the same price on Spacious Ocean View Balcony, Junior Suite, and Panoramic Suite, plus $100 on the Panoramic room. I happened to check last night, and the suites and panoramic rooms are all sold out*, but there were about 25 balconies available between the various options. Looks like that was enough for us to get one. (*sold out doesn't always mean full, but I expect this ship is close).

We sail on Mariner on Saturday, and the last couple sailings (including one departing today) are showing no ice shows and no skating sessions at all. The app still hasn't loaded activities for this weekend's trip. Has anyone seen anything (or been out on Mariner recently) about what's going on with Studio B? For that matter, have the shows & open sessions been happening on other ships lately? We were on Explorer at Christmas, and it was virtually impossible to get a chance to skate- you had to line up more than 30 minutes before distribution to get a chance because of limited capacity, which disappointed a lot of guests. Could they have just suspended them entirely, or is something wrong with Mariner's rink?

Good question, I plan to swing by the MDR to check on that after boarding.

Sailing this weekend, so I asked about this via their facebook team yesterday and was told they're not marking people anymore, just bring the vaccination record to the port and they'll handle it there. I did go ahead and accept the appointment for the on-site test for the kiddo, but expect to bypass it as he reached 14 days from the 2nd dose yesterday.

Oh this is really good to know, thanks- hadn't seen a report from San Juan on the timing topic, we'll head over closer to the time then.

We sail Sunday, so I don't have the experience yet, but our plan is this: Already loaded passports & vax cards in the app. Friday morning COVID antigen tests near home Print out negative test results- I've read here that shuffling back & forth betweeen the Royal app and your test results on your phone is a pain Friday afternoon flight to San Juan. Have to fill out Puerto Rico's TravelSafe questionnaire on the way, probably in the airport. Saturday, fill out Royal's healthy sail questions in the app, then just a tourist day in San Juan, will pick up some wine to carry onto the ship Sunday we'll leave the hotel about an hour before our check-in appointment, hoping we can get in a little early but not standing around for too long if we can't. I'll try to report back Monday or so with how things went.

We have a 5 day Mariner cruise in March, only stops are Nassau and Labadee. Also hoping for Coco Cay but Oasis is already there that day, so not sure if they'd put another ship in with Oasis, especially if they're back toward full capacity at spring break. Seems like it's more likely to be San Juan or St. Thomas, but that's just a guess.

Is this also the case in port? Our next cruise has a heavy USVI itinerary and I may need to take a call or two, which will be free for me as long as I'm not hitting the ship tower.

I can't offer much in the way of help with the travel agent, but for the ship navigation/tour concern, I think you may find that you can nominate one of your party to do this yourselves- there are incredibly detailed tours of each ship on Youtube, done by this site and several others. I've used these to get a feel for ships we would be on, and by the time you board, it's like you've already been there. I'd start by having this nominee do that, then they can go scout the ship on their own while the rest of your party settles in your rooms, to fill in the gaps and see things in person. In less than an hour, they'll be ready to give the rest of the party a more than adequate tour. They'll also know the unique needs & concerns of your traveling party better than anyone, so can focus on areas of concern in their guidance. The check-in process is much like that of a hotel, just with many, many more people. This might be a place where your TA and/or working with Royal can help, if crowds & chaos represent a challenge, by helping get an ideal arrival time. In the Before Times, the advice would be to get there incredibly early, even 9 or 10 AM. Arrival times are apparently more enforced now, but nobody will be able to predict procedures that far out. Good luck with your planning, being this far ahead will serve you well!

You should be able to do that on the phone with Royal, they can manage your existing stuff much more than the website allows you to (assuming that their policy lets you do that, which I don't know off hand).

As Matt said above, you will still need a passport or the birth certificate + acceptable ID to get on the cruise- the government doesn't care that you never left Royal property, they care that you're going to/went to the Bahamas (or Haiti). At the island itself, just your SeaPass card will do for getting on & off the ship.

Yep, my kiddo mostly ate kids menu items but usually picked dessert of the adult menu, but did have a couple adult entrees too.

Perhaps not the same thing, but a thunderstorm closed everything when we were there last week. They gave a pass to everyone in line at the time, and they got front-of-line access when the slides reopened.

I warmed up to Dennis as the week unfolded, and he certainly was enthusiastic and upbeat, just..not funny. We loved Bobby Broughton on Enchantment, Dennis was just fine. Other than the pool and right after shows let out, Harmony never felt crowded. We'd wander through the promenade or central park and just be amazed by how uncrowded it was. The neighborhood system seems to work. Even Guest Services kept the line moving fast, and I had to stop in on Day 1 and the last night. Oh, one other moment of insanity: the first hour of the $10 Cruise Junk sale. Just wow. But hey, the line was extra short for coffee at the Cafe. Fortunately, we're not really pool people. We have one in our neighborhood that the kiddo hits up once a week during the summer, but CocoCay was plenty of pool time for us this week. Once he heard that he couldn't swim back & forth in the ship pools, he wasn't interested. It seems the other families with kids around his age figured out the same thing, because the under-10s I saw around were all in line for the waterslides, not in the pools. I think if you plan to maximize your first hour on the marquee slides, then enjoy the others (they're still really good) after 9 or 9:30, you can have a great day. I'm 90% sure we'll get the waterpark on our trip next year and just plan to be ready when the gangway opens.

It's a fantastic itinerary, I'd love to revisit each of the ports in due time, but there's also a dozen more Caribbean ports to try too!

GoPort was, ultimately, fine. Don't panic if you see a long line, they have two stalls so they can clear a hundred people out pretty fast. I think it was $15 for just me, about the cheapest I could find. My TA didn't think Royal would book me on their transfer, because at the time the earliest flight they'd accomodate was 12:30. I think they moved it back to 12, but didn't know that until after I'd booked GoPort. Really looking forward to Indy & Labadee. Indy has most of the features we loved on Harmony, and some new stuff to try. We were looking at the 2x CocoCay itineraries, but the dates didn't line up, and I'm actually more excited to get one stop at each private port.

I'm actually looking forward to a new departure port (Port Everglades for us)- too many ships and ports to only sail from one place, in my opinion anyway.

Day 8: Disembark I had a 12:10 flight home, and signed up for Luggage Valet, meanwhile A & E would stay in Titusville a couple more days. Bags went out at the appointed time Saturday night, and on Sunday we got down to breakfast around 7:45. I ate quickly and walked off the ship around 8:05, right into...an 80 person deep line for GoPortCanaveral, which I booked a month ago. This was looking dicey. Fortunately, they had two buses pull up a few minutes later, so other than being hot & sweaty, by 8:40 we were westbound to MCO. I cruised through security, picked up a second breakfast, and boarded an on time flight. Luggage appeared just as it was supposed to, so I’m a big believer in Luggage Valet now. Got an Uber home, total time gangway to living room was 6 hours, 30 minutes. Wrap-up and review-like content Obviously, we loved the cruise and we loved Harmony. That said, the ship is just absurdly large, and to us that became a detriment over time. You’ll note that nowhere in this incredibly long writeup is “we went to the pool,” because every time we walked by, it was elbow to elbow in the water, and a towel on every chair. We never consciously said “we’re not going to bother with the pool,” but we never felt like it was the most fun thing we could be doing. We also got a bit tired of waiting for elevators (I got to where I just hiked the 5 or 6 decks to wherever I needed to go). Other than the pool and the elevators, Harmony never felt all that crowded, which was impressive. The entertainment was top notch and the level of service we got was always impeccable. I think we’d happily sail on Harmony again given the opportunity. Un-Favorites: Ultimate Abyss, elevator wait times, crowded pools, too much seating blocked off in the shows (the entire balcony for Columbus? really?), long walks to refill soda cups. Favorites: The Fine Line, open skating, ice shows, Perfect Day, Castillo San Cristóbal, MDR food & wait staff, specialty coffees from Cafe Promenade (lines were never long and the coffee is good). Next time: With E loving the cruise, we decided to plan another one for next year. Right now, Oasis class 7 nighters are running pretty expensive next summer, and as mentioned, we wanted to find a somewhat smaller ship to try anyway. With that in mind, we booked a 5 night Independence cruise out of Fort Lauderdale for next August. It only has 2 stops- Perfect Day & Labadee, so while it won’t exactly be a cultural enrichment trip, it should be as relaxing as it gets. We booked an aft corner balcony on deck 10, which means only one flight of stairs to the WJ and the pool, and the MDR isn’t such a long walk either. It’ll just be me, A, and E, and the corner room looks to have enough space for the 3 of us, and I expect we’ll enjoy the balcony a lot. We booked that room for about half of what an interior on Harmony or Allure would have cost us around the same time (yeah, 7 vs 5 nights, but money is money). I’m excited to try that class of ship, and see if sailing with 30% less people helps with some of the crowding we felt on Harmony. Also really excited to visit Labadee. So that’s it, I know I’ve left some things out, so may add additional thoughts, but happy to hang out and answer any questions about Harmony on an MDR-level budget.

Day 5: Sint Maarten I originally had big plans to rent a car and make a lap of the island, but now halfway through the cruise, energy levels were starting to dip and we decided to cut back to a much simpler day. We instead took the water taxi into town and made a lap of the beachfront and Front Street, doing some shopping along the way. Eventually, E and I split off to That Yoda Guy’s museum, while the ladies finalized their shopping. The museum was really neat, perhaps a little on the small side for $12 adult/$7 kid, but unique enough that I was happy to pay. We did get to meet the Yoda Guy, which was cool. Would endorse doing it once if you’re a fan of Star Wars or movie makeup/puppetry. We decided to meet back at the ship and decide on the afternoon plans, which wound up being...going back into town to buy more stuff. A found a bracelet she liked at Kays, I bought a couple bottles from a bourbon store, and passed on a watch that I liked in a store window, because it’s half that price online. We enjoyed Phillipsburg a lot, everyone was very friendly, and look forward to going back to really explore another time. That night we went to see iSkate, and (forgive me for repeating myself) really enjoyed that too. I do have an incredible ability to be looking at the wrong skater and miss the best stuff. A & I stayed up for Love & Marriage, which started slow but found its footing about halfway through. I was never all that impressed with Dennis, the cruise director (his schtick never really reached higher than “women be shopping, amirite?!” outside of this show), but he found a rhythm with pretty good contestants and the show was fun. I could do without the tedious “audition” part of the show, but other people seem to like it. Day 6 & 7: Cruising We started Day 6 with some ice skating- we got there at about 8:50 and were able to go right down and get gear. They weren’t crowded, and didn’t enforce the 20 minute sessions. E had skated before, but within 20 minutes was getting himself around the ice pretty well. We skated for about half an hour total, handed our stuff back in, then E decided he wanted to go again. We rested a little while longer, but got back in the non-existent line and skated another 25 minutes or so, before we were all thoroughly worn out. To my unending surprise, the ice rink was a highlight of the week. Later that morning, A & I hit up the ships waterslides. Lines were surprisingly short for a sea day, and we got 5 rides in probably 45 minutes or so. I had low expectations considering how much of a bummer the Abyss was, but these are pretty solid little slides! Would definitely cruise on a waterslide ship again and not wait so long to hop on them. The show that night was Columbus, and it was also very good. Kinda felt like it ran out of steam in the last half, but the leads were both among my favorites from Grease so I enjoyed seeing them get center stage. Day 7 was a lot of bouncing around the ship- we went to the Central Park tour, which had some interesting stuff about how they tend the garden, but was dominated by a few home gardeners with lots of specific questions and/or desire to show that they know things. From there, we went down to the Captain’s Corner, which we enjoyed. In the afternoon, A & W split off to go see Grease, while E & I decided at the last second to go see iSkate again, then tried to do the X-Ray thing in the Royal App (you go to deck 12 and “see” into the bridge with your phone), but it wasn’t working. We went to what was billed as the “farewell parade,” but it turned out to be the same parade, but at the end a handful of representatives from various ship teams walk through- kitchen staff, housekeeping, bar staff, maybe one or two more departments. It’s honestly not necessary to go to the parade more than once. After that, it was time to pack up. The week went by as fast as the weeks leading up to it went slow. Before bed, I went down to guest services to cancel my arcade credit. We never found the arcade on deck 14, but the one on the boardwalk is simply embarrassing. Like, I don’t know why they even bothered- just put another jewelry store in there or something and stop getting 7 year olds excited about playing in an arcade. We also popped into NextCruise...