PatsFanBrian

I've bragged about getting to Diamond because for us, it's an accomplishment and has been a goal.  Unlike many here, a lot of folks don't have the time or funds to cruise as often as we'd like.  Additionally, many don't have the funds to accelerate the process by living the Suite life.  Reaching Diamond requires the equivalent of 12 standard 7 night cruises.  It's taken my wife and I 17 years to finally get there.  So I'm going to celebrate it.  Who knows how long it will take to get D+.  Now that we're closing in on retirement, perhaps it won't take another 17 years to get there and we'll occasionally treat ourselves to a suite.
Keep sailing and keep celebrating.

I've bragged about getting to Diamond because for us, it's an accomplishment and has been a goal.  Unlike many here, a lot of folks don't have the time or funds to cruise as often as we'd like.  Additionally, many don't have the funds to accelerate the process by living the Suite life.  Reaching Diamond requires the equivalent of 12 standard 7 night cruises.  It's taken my wife and I 17 years to finally get there.  So I'm going to celebrate it.  Who knows how long it will take to get D+.  Now that we're closing in on retirement, perhaps it won't take another 17 years to get there and we'll occasionally treat ourselves to a suite.
Keep sailing and keep celebrating.

I've bragged about getting to Diamond because for us, it's an accomplishment and has been a goal.  Unlike many here, a lot of folks don't have the time or funds to cruise as often as we'd like.  Additionally, many don't have the funds to accelerate the process by living the Suite life.  Reaching Diamond requires the equivalent of 12 standard 7 night cruises.  It's taken my wife and I 17 years to finally get there.  So I'm going to celebrate it.  Who knows how long it will take to get D+.  Now that we're closing in on retirement, perhaps it won't take another 17 years to get there and we'll occasionally treat ourselves to a suite.
Keep sailing and keep celebrating.

I've bragged about getting to Diamond because for us, it's an accomplishment and has been a goal.  Unlike many here, a lot of folks don't have the time or funds to cruise as often as we'd like.  Additionally, many don't have the funds to accelerate the process by living the Suite life.  Reaching Diamond requires the equivalent of 12 standard 7 night cruises.  It's taken my wife and I 17 years to finally get there.  So I'm going to celebrate it.  Who knows how long it will take to get D+.  Now that we're closing in on retirement, perhaps it won't take another 17 years to get there and we'll occasionally treat ourselves to a suite.
Keep sailing and keep celebrating.

I bought my quick picks for tonight's MegaMillions, I'm ready to jump onboard tomorrow morning.

Pay for the Voom and decide on the level of service (how many devices, somewhat slow or somewhat fast).  When you get onboard, put your phones into airplane mode, set up the phones to use Wifi for calling and connect to the ships Wifi.  On our sail last month, we needed to be able to call our daughter back home and this worked great.

The free photo is a def plus.  We took advantage on last cruise 😉  First time I ever packed a jacket for a cruise....surprised her with it.
 

We all get another chance, the next jackpot is estimated at $630M, $360M one time payout, probably abut $260M after taxes.  I can live with that.

I always compare ribs against my own, which since I’m saying so myself, are spectacular.

We were on Explorer 3 weeks ago, same class as Navigator.  You don't make reservations for shows on that class of ship.  Even though the ship was at full capacity, finding a seat in the main theater was never an issue, especially if you get there 15-20 minutes prior.  The Ice Show was packed, not surprising given the small number of seats in Studio B.  Get there 30 minutes early.
Most game shows are in the Star Lounge.  You definitely need to get there at least 30 minutes prior.  The Love and Marriage show is in the main theater, you won't have an issue with seats.
Trivia is usually busy, many sessions are held in the Schooner Bar which has limited seating.  Also, with the Schooner Bar, if you have a good piano entertainer, one who gets the guests involved, it will be a challenge to find a seat.  Same goes with the Pub guitarist.

The week prior to our cruise the week of 6/25, both my wife and I came down with flu like symptoms.  We tested ad nauseum right up to the official proctored test.  Every test was negative.  We both cleared up the day the ship was leaving port.  Nothing but an official positive Covid result was going to keep us off that cruise.

Congrats, we reached Diamond with our cruise last month.  We're currently planning our next when we can take advantage of the new status.

The week prior to our cruise the week of 6/25, both my wife and I came down with flu like symptoms.  We tested ad nauseum right up to the official proctored test.  Every test was negative.  We both cleared up the day the ship was leaving port.  Nothing but an official positive Covid result was going to keep us off that cruise.

The week prior to our cruise the week of 6/25, both my wife and I came down with flu like symptoms.  We tested ad nauseum right up to the official proctored test.  Every test was negative.  We both cleared up the day the ship was leaving port.  Nothing but an official positive Covid result was going to keep us off that cruise.

First, I'm sorry you had issues with your cruise.  It does sound like you are fairly new to cruising and may have learned a few lessons so you won't repeat the errors on future cruises.
I am a veteran of over 60 cruises now...on ten different cruise lines.  I can tell you many of the "issues" you experience are widespread and found on many cruise lines.  We've learned, over the years, from trial and error.  Our first cruise, we picked a terrible cabin location...not the room itself or the view...But we had a 3 year old and a 5 year old with us...and we learned too late that our cabin was on the other end of the ship from the kids' club...carried the sleepy kids the length of the ship every night.  And we booked a redeye from the West Coast to Florida.  Learned from that as well...never again.  Learned lots of lessons on our early cruises.
A few notes on yours:
1) The terminal appearing to be "bedlam"?  More common than you think.  Those porters are really busy.  They're unloading several thousand people off the prior cruise and taking in the luggage from several thousand on yours.  Excuse them if they seem distracted.  When they tell you to just leave your luggage...do just that...trust me, they will get them to your cabin.  Inside, yes, there may be lines...especially now when, with Covid test results and all, there are added steps to check-in.  Be patient...oh, and learn to get there early.
2) Those arrival windows?  They WISH they could get everone to arrive on schedule in an orderly fashion...but it just doesn't work that way.  People get there when they get there and they do their best to get them on.  Better than trying to allow a worse mess in the terminal.
3)  Your cabin?  One thing we learned early on was the importance of cabin selection.  We ALWAYS book early if we can...and carefully select our cabin.  They can't ALL be equal, they can't ALL be good.  Some views are better than others.  Some decks have lifeboats below them, some have overhangs, some have visable equipment.  Some cabins are below the pool deck and the crew moves chairs around early in the morning, some are below a disco dance floor.  For us, location on the ship is important.  We prefer midship and proximity to the elevators, some folks prefer the aft for the views.  Many cabins have larger balconies.  Learn to Google cabin photos or videos.  Even some "obstructed views" are way better than others.  Some on some ships and some lines really aren't obstructed at all.  Oh, some people actually like balconies with more shade...and privacy...and less effect from wind...others like more open and more sun.  The cruise line did not choose to give you a cabin you wouldn't like.  They gave you the one you booked.
4)  Anniversaries, Birthdays, etc.?  Yes EVERY cruise line will deliver you a small cake to your dinner table...and, yes, it is unneccessary and redundant.  But that is what they do for FREE.  You can always buy extras.  Buy your wife a night in a specialty restaurant, buy her a massage in the spa, buy a bottle of champagne. You can get anything you want.  But, for free, they will send you an extraneous cake.
Trust me, over sixty cruises, we have had FAR WORSE happen on cruises.  Just before the pandemic, we had major construction, starting at 6 am right below our cabin.  Worth complaining about.  Completely the responsibility of the cruise line as they knew in advance it would be an issue...after all, they scheduled it.  And yes, after THREE days, they finally found an open cabin to move us to...so, at least we got the final 9 nights of the 12 night cruise in peace--but with a smaller balcony than the one we booked and not as convenient a location.  And they gave us a $700 credit toward a future cruise (a fraction of what we paid for that one)...and we appreciated it.  Remember, the ships most often sail FULL.  Not easy to just move you to a better cabin when they are all taken.  And, of course, the difference with that cruise and yours, is that we actually booked a very good cabin..and the issue was reasonably unforeseen by us...and should have been apparent to the cruise line.  With your cabin issue, the cruise line really didn't do anything wrong.
BTW, if your balcony cabin was that bad, it was likely a lesser category that you got at a discounted price.  Buy a higher category cabin and likely have fewer issues.  AND, again, check it out before booking....or, at least, while there are still other available cabins to be moved to.
5) The offered discount on a future cruise?  Actually very generous on Royal Caribbean's part.  If you take them up on it and book another, RESEARCH your cabin choice. 

Your time is what you make of it - and if you say you had a poor experience, you have to assume some of that blame.
Saying things like "no one could tell me how the dining package worked" tells me that you weren't asking the right people.  Did you even look in your app?  I find that to be very self explanatory for booking shows and dining venues once on board.
Yes, pools are crowded.  Yes, chairs are hard to come by.  Did you try the solarium?  Did you wake up early to stake your claim on the chairs? (its all part of the game)
Cabin steward harassed you about muster?  It sounds like you didn't follow instructions, didn't watch the videos, and didn't check in at your station.  The cabin steward came to your room to ensure compliance per Coast Guard regulations.  The ship can't leave without muster being performed for all guest.  You should have been scolded, not praised for waiting to be tracked down for that.
Did you review the Cruise Compass paper that was left in your stateroom to tell you what was going on and when?  Yes, bars fill up on sea days for trivia and in the evenings for sing-alongs.  Theatres get busy (but your reserve a show so you get a seat) and if you want a good place to watch the show, arrive early.  But unless you are sitting behind a support column, you aren't really going to have a terrible seat.  Arriving early is part of the game...get a drink and talk to others.  Be a traveler, not a tourist.
St. Thomas cruise port - yeah, its a pier with some shops...about 1/3 of which are shuttered.  But you failed to mention whether you left the pier, hopped a taxi and explored.  If you took an excursion here and had a bad experience, did you talk to the excursion folks and inquire about a refund?
Unless there was a crew switch-over in 3 weeks on the Harmony, I find your comments hard to believe.  On the Jun 5-12 sailing, I found the staff to be friendly, courteous, and happy.  They often went out of their way to engage me.  Now maybe I have a bit more experience understanding the personalities that tend to be attached to folks that come from SE Asia and India from my decades of working with folks from that part of the globe, but they went out of their way to engage me.  Courtesy is a two-way street.  If you smile, say hello and ask how their day is, you become one of those people they engage with.  If you bark out your order and don't say "please" and "thank you", then you get what you give.  
As far as Sorrento's, I find the line to move fast, the pizza to be decent (for quick service on a cruise ship) and the staff to be as courteous as needed for slinging pizza to thousands of guests a day.  
All in all, sounds like you may be a little reserved in nature, perhaps a little shy.  Sounds like you had expectations of a all-inclusive, wait on you hand-and-foot experience that cruise lines like RCCL do not provide.  I would hate to cruise solo on my 1st cruise with no friends / family with me (as an experienced cruiser, solo might be alright [don't tell the wife 😄]), especially if I were not an outgoing person.

I bought my quick picks for tonight's MegaMillions, I'm ready to jump onboard tomorrow morning.

I bought my quick picks for tonight's MegaMillions, I'm ready to jump onboard tomorrow morning.

I bought my quick picks for tonight's MegaMillions, I'm ready to jump onboard tomorrow morning.

Guest do not have to wait until they get their sea pass cards, they can go straight to the muster station as soon as they step onboard.  You just need the app and they'll scan your sea pass right from the app (for those who get onboard before the rooms are open).

This.
We did eMed, had the email and PDF within minutes, printed it and brought it with us.

My wife got us started when she went with her mother on Brilliance back in '05 and liked it enough to book a cruise for both of us.  I remember her sending me an email where she marveled at the sized of the ship.  Our first sail together was on Freedom not long after it launched in '06.  We couldn't imagine a larger ship.  But Oasis had other plans.  We've been on Radiance class twice, Voyager class twice, Freedom class twice, Oasis class 3 times and Quantum once.  The only class I would likely stay away from at this point is Radiance, unless the itinerary was what I wanted.  It's just a bit too small for me.  But all the others each have their pros and cons and I'm good with any of them.

This.
We did eMed, had the email and PDF within minutes, printed it and brought it with us.

Can't speak to Onpoint (although I would think they have something similar) but when you do a test through emed, you get an email from them that has your test results that you can print out. 

Correct, there's a booth at the end of the pier where you can purchase the passes.
At the dock itself, there are many shops and there's a German style pub/brewery.  We walked to the brewery one evening to enjoy a couple of samplers of good beer.