melski94

forgot to add lunch which was conch stew. We asked for local and this place was packed with locals. Sorry but now time for a rant. At 3:30, there was only 1 gangplank open for huge line. It’s hot, no shade, no water and takes 30 minutes to get onboard. Seriously, on a ship with over 6000 people only 1 gangplank open? There are some amazing things on Harmony and some amazingly poor ways to do some seemingly simple things. *edited to take off lunch picture...didn't look so good at the top of the page.

We used Roatan Eco tours.

Hard to believe we are just finishing day 4 and half way done. Today we were in St Marteen. Took a private tour of St. Marten with Joyce Personal Services. We had a driver named Mack and he was quite good. We normally wouldn’t do an island tour but I chose it for my MIL. I do prefer a private tour with kids. It’s rebuilding slowly but they are quite happy to see tourists. Maho Beach was packed with tourist but Orient beach was very quiet. Here are some pics: My husband was fascinated by the Little League field We were amazed by the destruction of the lagoons and the mess still there. Orient bay. Ocerlooking Great Bay Beach and ship: Other random notes: Fine Line has been cancelled every evening due to swells. They rescheduled it during port times on every port (no swells in port). They claim this first time done during the day. We saw tonight’s 5:45 show. We all agreed it was very good and we would have loved to see it at night. The 5:45 show messed up dinner plans so I changed the reservation to 7:30. The show was over at 6:30 and no one wanted to wait an hour so the thinking was go to Windjammer however I think the entire audience was thinking the same thing. We made a detour to MTD and they had our table available. We were not the only ones in nice shorts (please don’t judge) and MTD was half empty. Super quick dinner of short rib which is one of my favorites. Now I never would go to dinner in shorts but it was a quick change of heart to avoid crowds and no one said a thing. Tomorrow we’ll be in San Juan and celebrating son’s 15th birthday.

We did a private snorkeling tour in Roatan and the snorkeling was excellent. It was some of the best snorkeling and they didn’t have to feed the fish.

Dinner formal night. Another first for my MTD experience...Checked in 5 minutes before reservation only to be walked down to deck 3 traditional dining. They are filling up the larger no show tables at the 5:30 seating with MTD. We arrived to check in at 6:10 and walked out at 7:20. The biggest wait is to get the waiter to take our order (he was bringing dessert to another table). We decided that tomorrow night we are getting dessert off the kids menu. Chocolate chip cookie, ice cream & brownie sandwich.

One crazy thing that I’m trying to figure out…arcade credit. I did not prepay for the arcade thinking I could do it onboard but you can’t buy arcade credit on Harmony…you could on Liberty and Brilliance. However there is a C&A coupon for arcade credit (which is better than the prepay option). I was told by guest services who called the casino (who is in charge of the arcade) that you must buy the games individually since I didn’t prepay a package. After, I track arcade spending and then I’m supposed to go to the loyalty desk to get my credit. Seems like a messed up system to me. I may have to visit the loyalty desk to verify.

Just posted more but lost signal And it didn’t save the text of the message. This will be quick. I forgot pictures. First view from track that never gets old. next gym Tonight I have reservations at 5 for ice show but we may skip. I forgot about formal night when making them. Also have 8:30 aqua show reservations. Last nights show was cancelled for technical reasons. Hoping it goes on tonight but wondering if it will be cancelled due to wind. After show going to head to pub and if I can stay awake the Silent Dance party.

Today everyone slept in. I was surprised it was 8 when I woke up. I had to check that we weren’t under the pool as we heard a sound like chairs moving across the deck during the night. Not sure what that sound was but I think I need a noise app. One thing about connecting door. If you had young kids I’m not sure I’d like it. All the other ships we could leave the connecting door open. Here it is always closed(if open can’t open room door). My kids are old enough to be ok but younger I’d need a shoe or something to prop door open so I could hear them at night. So I woke up and went to deck 5 track. Love it! Gym was crazy crowded. Here is a pic at 9. My D18 went at 11 and DH went at noon. All said it was very busy and they also ended up on the track. DH thinks this is the gym is better on Liberty…he hates the layout but the full track saves the day. Breakfast at Mini Bites. DH took 4 kids there while I worked out but S14 and I came later. We all liked it. Went down water slides this morning. It’s cold (only 72) especially when wet! D6 got stuck every time…even in the bowl slide which when she stopped in the bowl she didn’t know what to do so she tried to walk. She sat down and was fine. We all think the racing slides are faster and confirmed by the slide crew. Lunch at park cafe. The 11 and 6 yo didn’t like it…had to get a hot dog from the boardwalk. Had my first Royal Kemmelwreck and a salad. However the favorite was this chocolate eclair...probably my favorite dessert on a ship.

Last night, after muster we finished unpacking. DH took S14 to teen club to register and get a wrist band. This is different than Liberty and Brilliance where you didn’t have to register the teens. Originally we were going to ask to get him in the 15-17 club as his birthday is on the cruise. However, he found out that he knows a boy from school and he is also in the 14 club so he didn’t ask to move up. Dinner was in the MDR. I had visited earlier to see if I could request a table (answer was no) but he told me with our large party to go to another line when we came back at night. That tip saved us as the line with and without reservations was long at 6. Dinner was good. Wait staff ok but the section head stepped in to help take orders as our wait staff had several large tables. I think dinner only took 70 minutes which is quite good for the MDR. After dinner, S14 went to teen club and DH took the 2 younger ones to AO. Computers were down so check in slow. DD18, MIL and I went to get seats for Grease. DH made it to Grease right before it started but checked out 30 minutes later to ‘check on kids in AO’ or as I later found out he checked on the kids and then went to the pub. He came back just as it ended. So MIL, DD18 and I enjoyed Grease, but DH thought it was horrendous. Vocals were ok, story different than movie but enjoyable if a Grease fan. Later, DH and I went to pub. Music very good. We are music snobs living near Music City and thought Kieran Cox was quite good. Pub was packed and actors from Grease came in for a drink after the show. Sorry for a lack of pics.

Spacious ocean balconyone thing I like is the connecting door is towards front of stateroom. On Liberty they were in the middle of the room. Someone asked about youth C&A coupons. This is gold.

We got the luggage downstairs at 9:45 this morning as I was hoping to leave at 10. Called 2 cars, uber xl and lyft. Uber showed up in 5 minutes but lyft canceled on me after waiting for 10 minutes. Ugg. Half the group was already there by the time another uber driver showed up. No wait in security or any lines at 10:45. I didn’t upload pics as I figured they could do it faster than me. Eating in Windjammer by 11:20. Checked out A0, Ultimate Abyss (btw, you need to wear a shirt with sleeves), carousel, zip line, muster drill and now waiting to register for the teen club. Initial thoughts are everyone loves it. Beautiful and very excited about the food options. Trying to get pictures to upload but I’m getting upload failure. I’ll try later. Only image that uploaded was not via Voom. This is AO explorers club.

Happy cruise day! We flew in on Jet Blue last night. I was nervous as we’ve never flown on Jet Blue and we have no status but was pleasantly surprised. Nice leg room, TVs, friendly flight attendants, full size soda cans and chips. We were delayed about 40 minutes but the desk kept making announcements keeping us informed. It’s the little things. We are staying at the Springhill Suites in 2 rooms, both are 2 queens with a pull out couch. The hotel has a free shuttle from the airport. We arrived at the hotel around 8:40pm and quickly walked to Chipotle. There’s several fast food options and BJs is right across the street for wine...you can use your hotel key as a membership card. This hotel is packed with cruisers and offers a shuttle for a fee.

There is a variety and even my very picky 6 year old eats there...everything from chicken nuggets to nachos to fish. I don't remember exactly as we didn't eat the buffet the last time we were there. Quality is not great but its fine. I think it is better if you get there early rather than waiting until later.

First, I’ll introduce myself, I’m Mel and traveling with my DH, DD18, DS14, DS11, DD6 and MIL (MIL first mass cruise ship). Staterooms This trip we have 3 Spacious Oceanview Balconies on Deck 12 (category D3 and D5). DD18 and MIL in one, next to ours with our room connecting to the 3 younger kids. All 3 in a row and hopefully we can open all the balcony dividers. Why we booked: This is our fourth family cruise all on RC. We’ve only cruised during Spring Break as that is a good week for vacations for us. DD18 just had a birthday and will graduate high school in May, MIL celebrated 70 last summer and we were not able to go on a trip with her then, and DS14 will celebrate a birthday on this cruise. DH loves the fact it is a Sat-Sat cruise. He hates going to work the day after we get back. I appreciate that we can get back on Saturday and still celebrate Easter as last year we were home very late on Easter. Our schedule: Day 1: Embark at Fort Lauderdale Day 2: Sea Day Day 3: Sea Day Day 4: St. Maarten (private island tour) Day 5: San Juan (walk around forts) Day 6: Labadee (Beach bungalow and zip line) Day 7: Sea Day Day 8: Back to FLL What we are looking forward to: *Large ship – first time on an Oasis class ship *Different entertainment (AquaTheater and Grease) *New things to do (Ultimate Abyss) *Zip lining *Large outdoor track *DD6 should be tall enough for the big water slides Concerns: *DD18 just turned 18 a few weeks ago and worried about meeting other young adults without teen club. *Is the ship just too big? *Will the staterooms be too small? They will be the smallest (square footage) we’ve stayed in. *Is it worth the extra “surcharge” for this class ship? The price per person per night is significantly more than other cruises...even staying in a JS on Liberty last year the week before Easter. We’ll see if we feel it is worth the extra cost. Even with those concerns, we are easy going and we always have a great time. I’m sure there will be things we love and things we don’t but usually the good outweighs any bad. After all we’ll be on a cruise and we can’t wait. Right now, I do not have any specialty dining planned. I did buy the drink package during the Black Friday sale. This will be my first time with the drink package but I didn’t want to deal with buying wine in FL when we get in late Friday. I am hoping to take a break in the afternoon from the family to come back to this page so feel free to ask questions.

@rjac I'm trying to make sure I'm not missing anything...any medical, anxiety, other issues? Are you talking about keeping them there until 10 or the late night party? I'd address the AO staff with the concerns during registration and see what they can do as the AO staff have always been very good to my kids. A few other suggestions, have 12 yo check on 8 yo once a night and text parents status. Or the parents can call up to AO and check on the child. Also, the child can use the AO phone to leave a message on the stateroom phone and parents check that phone every once in a while. @tiny260 My biggest suggestion is for the 12 yo to go the first night to the teen club. The staff does a really good job with the meet and greet and encourage new friendships.

While I can't speak to this excursion, I am in your situation as there is an 11 year difference between my oldest and youngest. There are very few RC excursions that allow my youngest...I think RC insurance is behind it for liability reasons. So I we basically do the same RC excursions but purchase directly through the vendor and use taxis, etc. The advantage is that you can use Trip Advisor reviews to pick the same or similar excursion which may or may not be better than what is offered by RC. It is almost always cheaper to purchase on our own and since there are 6 of us it all adds up. A place like Cozumel has a ton of taxis to go back and forth to the beach resorts and excursions and it is one of the easier places to get a taxi. I've always found many taxis waiting for people to leave too. That being said we always leave with plenty of time to spare to get back to the ship...even if you want to be extra cautious you could leave at the same time as the bus.

And they measure for anything that has height restrictions...flowrider, slides, etc. One of my kids was just slightly under and not allowed.

They are very strict on height rules. It is a liability thing. Sorry!

Its not there! I think we have to do in onboard which seems really silly to me! I can tell you next week.

Yes, a full breakfast is available but it is over earlier than the other days...I think 8:30 but that may depend on the ship. The hours will be in the cruise compass. Click on cruise compass in the main menu above and look for your ship to get an idea for the specific hours and venues.

I have gotten the Voom package for my teens but not the younger kids...who don't have a cell phone anyways. My kids are not that age now but I've had them in AO at that age and will so again soon. So take this as my opinion only. If it was *my*12 year old, they have a phone and I would get VOOM. My thinking is that the 12 year old has free roaming of the ship and it is nice for them to check in. Now if it was *my* 8 year old, they don't have a phone at that age so no need for VOOM. Also, *my* 8 year old would not be able to roam the ship by themselves so I know where they are at night...which is in AO. I've never had an instance where my kids at any age needed immediate access to me. If it was a true emergency, I would think the AO staff would hunt me down but I've never asked. On Liberty there were phones to check out for the AO but they are typically reserved for the nursery and if any left for the Aquanauts. I don't know if there would be any left for your Explorer. I just tell my kids I will pick them up by 10 and to have fun...I feel like that sounds dismissive of your concerns but its not meant to be. My kids know the expectation is that in the evening they are in AO and daytime AO time is up to them...there are certain daytime activities that my kids love so we check the kids compass for them.

Traditional dining may have a wait list. If it is waitlisted, come back and we'll walk you through MTD.

As for flights, look at RC air2sea program. While not competitive within the U.S, I’ve read about people getting very good deals for overseas flights. Another option is to check out the Hopper app. It tells you if the price quoted is expected to go down and when is a good time to buy.

One thing you could do is switch the adult so both adults are in the same room. You can switch names on the reservation without forcing a reprice assuming at least 1 name on the reservation stays the same. Then the keys to the rooms are accurate and you don't have to deal with getting another key, etc. Also, it is highly unlikely that RC will move the kids since they won't be next to you. Good luck!

You have to call RC or if you used a TA then they have to change it for you assuming it is still available.