melski94

What ship will you be on? 
I would have my car seat but that is because I would have paid for an airline seat for my infant. Sorry but traveling with a lap child is a nightmare.
As for strollers, bring a high end umbrella stroller that reclines.  If you don't have one, it is one of the best investments and will carry you for years for both cruises and other trips. 
Bring more than you think you will need of diapers and food! 

Just to clarify, you absolutely can use US dollars on the French side. We were there the week before you and every place accepted US dollars with a 1:1 exchange rate...including the not so touristy places. I think the tour boat operators make deals with certain businesses which was probably more of the issue as the place he uses hasn't been rebuilt yet. 
Great review! I am looking at doing something like this next year when we go to St. Maarten again.

Many of you already hit the important notes, but just a reminder....
A Passport card will not get you out of the country if you get stuck there A photo of your passport is as useful as a photo of cash Leaving your passport on the ship while you are in port is useless In short, invest in a passport and bring it with you every time you leave the ship.
I feel better now 

Great recap!  I love how new cruisers see things! Love the pictures! I'd love to learn how to take pictures like that.
It does take a while to settle in the first few sea days. I think there is such a build up that it takes me a few days to wind down and get in the groove. For some reason, I feel like the first 2 sea days never have great weather (at least on our cruises)...pool decks are very windy making it very cold after we get wet. I don't know if its the speed or the direction of the wind. We love sea days but the last sea day always seems to have the best weather without any winds and it is almost too hot.
I always say it is a must to go to the teen club the first night. The flip side of this is that you won't see your teens that much if they meet a group of friends.
Can't wait to hear about your next cruise in October.

I just sailed on Harmony a few weeks ago. For My Time Dining, my calendar would say "At your Lesiure" even though I booked 6:15 reservations. This happened well before the website change and many people said they saw the same thing on their calendars. I had problems booking entertainment, so I called to book entertainment (it was in the cruise planner but wouldn't allow me to select some people).  At that point, I asked about MyTime Dining time and customer service said the computer showed my reservation time of 6:15. They emailed me my calendar which showed all my entertainment and MTD reservations.  I printed it out just in case but had no problem on the ship. I verified the MTD reservations upon embarkation and everything was fine. 
Keep checking, your entertainment options should open up soon.

I just sailed on Harmony a few weeks ago. For My Time Dining, my calendar would say "At your Lesiure" even though I booked 6:15 reservations. This happened well before the website change and many people said they saw the same thing on their calendars. I had problems booking entertainment, so I called to book entertainment (it was in the cruise planner but wouldn't allow me to select some people).  At that point, I asked about MyTime Dining time and customer service said the computer showed my reservation time of 6:15. They emailed me my calendar which showed all my entertainment and MTD reservations.  I printed it out just in case but had no problem on the ship. I verified the MTD reservations upon embarkation and everything was fine. 
Keep checking, your entertainment options should open up soon.

The Captain is always responsible for his ship. There are very few exceptions where the pilot has complete control of a vessel like in Panama Canal. The Captain works closely with the harbor pilot but can override the harbor pilot if he feels his vessel is jeopardy. While the harbor pilot knows the harbor, the Captain knows how to steer the ship including angle, speed, etc. 
Now there are a few crazy things I see in the video. There is no one on the pier to help with lines, the anchor seems to be down in the water and dragging at the surface (it doesn't seem to be dragging at the ground).  Mechanical failure? That others have said there should have been ways to fix a mechanical failure before it got to this point.
 

Cruise Summary
I really enjoyed my first Radiance class experience.  Compared to the Vision class it is greatly improved.  With all the glass around the Centrum you definitely feel connected to the sea.
Things I liked about Serenade:
Aft outdoor seating in the Windjammer where I ate most of my WJ meals. Vintages wine bar with awesome seas views Pub with live music Centrum with different music at different times Solarium especially when the roof was opened Decent Voom experience (despite some issues with throttling) Easy to get around  Glass outward facing elevators Good MDR experience Great service (except Chops) Helipad access I have sister ships Brilliance and Jewel on my future cruises list and have no concerns now about booking these ships.
I enjoyed each port and was happy with the excursions I booked.  
Ten nights is a nice length.  
I'm keeping an eye on a Serenade cruise in the fall as I'd have no issues sailing this ship again.
 

I can't answer the photo question.  I also buy it at WDW but never have on a ship.
Arcade credit goes on the seapass card so you'd need one for each boy.
There are plenty of hangers.  If you feel you don't have enough just ask your stateroom attendant for more.
 

That is a subjective question. Are you naturally a cold person in restaurants?
It can be windy on the upper decks but in late March only once did I find it chilly where I put on something. I wore a lot of short sleeves or sundresses and I did not find the restaurants or theater cold and I never used warmer clothes. However, my MIL is always cold everywhere and always wore long sleeves. I do bring a light jacket or pashmina in case I need it but this cruise I didn't. 

I can't answer the photo question.  I also buy it at WDW but never have on a ship.
Arcade credit goes on the seapass card so you'd need one for each boy.
There are plenty of hangers.  If you feel you don't have enough just ask your stateroom attendant for more.
 

So I did one periscope but my cruises are about absolute relaxation!   So no voom, no live blog and not a ton of pics.  But I had an amazing time with my husband and 15 year old daughter (who I pretty much only saw 1 day lol).  
   I had not been on a cruise until 2015.  We did 3 cruises in 2 years and then we hit Disney (the other obsession!)  I can't even describe how much I missed being on a ship.   This was the 2nd time on freedom.   I did like the cruise terminal at port Canaveral better than port Everglades but embarkation was super easy... under 40 minutes for sure and drinking my first lava flow (with kraken rum) by 11!
   We had an ocean view... plenty big enough for the 3 of us. Our stateroom attendant suzanna was wonderful and we loved our 4 towel animals! 
  The 6 days was too short (Joe took my extra day for his 8 day.  Freedom alternates 6 and 8 day cruises right now) but we still hit 3 ports... grand Cayman, Costa maya and cozumel.  The biggest disappointment of the trip was that it was so windy in grand cayman that they canceled all excursions to stingrays city.  I was very bummed but we still got to swim with lucky the dolphin and buy lots of pics!   In Costa maya my husband did one of the ruins while my daughter and I shopped and enjoyed the one day we could get near the pool (chair hugs were awful and i sure wish rc would enforce their policy).  In cozumel we went to nachi.   Since there were a ton of ships in port I'm glad we went.   We got in so early we beat all the employees... got a beautiful beach spot!  We enjoyed it... the food was excellent!
   Speaking of food,  we ate...a ton!  Sabor was excellent (service not great though)  and I loved the tuna tacos and the guac.  I tried all 3 margaritas (goes love the drink pkg) and liked the cucumber jalapeno the best.   Chops was so good (and the service great)  that we took the 25%off and went back the next night.   The my time dining was mixed.... the service was fast (almost too fast)  but the tables for 2 were right on top of each other and the food was good,  but not amazing.   I'm glad we tried my time but not sure we will do it again.  And then....CHEFS TABLE!   the chef was amazing, the wine was amazing,  the food was amazing and the dessert (the world from wonderland)  was ever moist AMAZING thing I've ever eaten or watched!!  This was our 2nd chefs table and we will definitely do it again. 
   RC lost money on my drink pkg for sure.   Most days I parked myself on my sky deck chair with my book... read,  eat,  drink,  repeat.   We also had a mocha or latte every morning, wine with dinner (loved the bartender at vintages... she never steered us wrong and one of her suggestions was served at chefs table) and after dinner drinks.   My daughter was probably a wash in terms of cost...we got her the refreshment pkg and she was over a few days,  probably underused more but it was nice to have it paid for before the cruise.
   The ship never felt crowded and traffic flow was great.   It's really a perfect size... not too big and not too small.   For what I do (loaf in a chair and try to thaw)  it works well.   I'd love to try oasis class for the dining and the shows... someday lol!
   Precruise we stayed at the Hilton marina.   We had an amazing corner balcony that had views of the intercoastal waterway as well as the port.  Their pool area was a perfect way to unwind precruise!  We ate at cheesecake factory on Las olas and that was fun.   Post cruise we stayed at the W hotel and got upgraded to a 2 bedroom suite...amazing!  I could sit on the balcony staring at the ocean and the waterway!.  Both were absolute splurges but we decided to yolo book them!
   And so now I'm over 400 days till my next ocean cruise.   I thought about a 5 night navigator next spring break but we really need to save for our summer 2019 cruise...12 night Mediterranean/ Greek isles out of Barcelona on vision of the seas.   It will be the trip of a lifetime and with 8 ports we will spend a 5 night cruise amount just on excursions.  We also have Paris this summer to link forward to (we have never been to Europe and will be going on a viking river cruise!)  Both are very different from our Caribbean cruising!
   So that is my freedom trip.  I wanted to share more since I love reading everyone else's blogs but I was too busy reading and being lazy!   Let me know if you have any questions!   Jane

The iPods would at least help and you could give them to a few people who would tend to hang out together.
Yes, you can share as long as only 1 device is connected at a time.  One thing to look at is a post on page 2 of this discussion page.."using a travel router". It may save you some fights of who is on when. 

Welcome!
I just returned from Harmony a week ago. Great ship and you’ll have a great time.
Your questions were answered but I have a few add-on tips. 
1. If anyone has Apple devices, you can use iMessage for free. There is a well known glitch on Harmony. Put your iPhone in airplane mode and connect to the WiFi “Royal-WiFi”.  We all had iPhones and we easily stayed in communication with each other on the ship and my teens could still text friends at home who had iPhones. 
2. On my day 3 cruise compass, voom surf was $15.99 per day and surf and stream was $19.99 per day. They considered this a daily deal so I’m not sure if it was more other days. 
3. If your kids/teens want to do the arcade, you can prepay for packages on your cruise planner but you can’t buy a credit package on the ship. These prepay packages give you a some free credit. Once on the ship, you pay per game. My kids while weren’t excessive could easily rack up a $15 charge in 10 minutes...each game is about $1.25. I think a package gives you some control over how much they spend.

Ending with with our overall impressions, some random thoughts and going back to my original concerns. Overall, Harmony is a great ship and we’d be thrilled to go on it again.  
Food:  Very good. Breakfast we ate in Mini Bites all week for made to order omelets and eggs. Great selection in the buffet too. I thought it was a mini Windjammer…not quite the selection but had what we’d typically eat without the crowds.  Lunch was always at Park Cafe.  D6 didn’t like it but we’d ride the Ultimate Abyss to the Boardwalk for a hot dog and carry it up to the Park Cafe to eat with everyone else. I enjoyed the salad and sandwich selection.  For dinner, we ate in the MDR every night. Except for the first night, dinners took about an hour..this was quicker than MTD on Liberty. We had some great dishes..the prime rib & lamb were our favorites. I know food is subjective but it is quite good considering they are trying to feed about 2000 people at once. There were no or at least very few specialty dining reservations available after day 3. Grade: Very Good
Entertainment: We made it to all the main shows: Grease, Fine Line (only done during the day due to weather), Headliner (ventriloquist Ronn Lucas), Columbus and comedy show. MIL found comedian too edgy but we enjoyed them. We all enjoyed the family comedy show the last evening. A mixed review of Columbus..didn’t love it but I liked how they made fun of themselves. Grade: Good 
Daytime activities: D6 is finally tall enough for slides. Most of our sea days were spent in the pools and slides. Loved Ultimate Abyss and the water slides. Older 2 kids tried zip lining the first day and thought it was ok...wouldn’t wait for it. Didn’t try the rock wall or ice skating. MIL had several massages which she loved. I had one too but MIL made a reservation for 50 minute massage but I ended up with 75 minutes. I loved it but was surprised and I was not happy with extra cost. Biggest problem was there was too much to do and not enough time.
Adventure Ocean: S15 had a friend from school on the ship so he didn’t attend the teen club as much as he has in the past. D6 only went in the evening...slides were her daytime activity. S11 loved the Voyagers club, made a few friends and he routinely checked himself in and out during the day. He always went in the evening. This is different than the past on Liberty where I had to make him go in the evenings.
 
Random things:
MDR Dress:  The most casual cruise we’ve ever taken. No more smart casual. The cruise compass lists dress as casual and people took advantage. I’d say a good portion of men where in nice shorts and polos on casual nights. Even on formal night, saw several t-shirts and shorts. 
Mass and Passover services: It is the week before Easter, there was a Catholic priest on board and he held a Catholic Mass every day. On Good Friday, he held a Good Friday service. There was a Passover Service that you had to register for at Guest Services.
The full price of drink package:  Deluxe $63, Refreshment $26 and Soda $9.50.
Bar Service:  On Air was a great place to grab a quick drink to go.  Also the Pub had a good selection of wine (On Liberty, I remember having to run to Vintages to get a glass of wine).
Account Statements: I always check my statement on TV so was surprised to see the written one at the end of the cruise. A $100 pool towel charge on the last night.  A quick trip to guest services and it was removed but I would have been stressed out if we had an early flight. Prepaying everything made for a light bill for us.
Bookings and Sales:  I booked MTD and the Beach Bungalows in September. The beach bungalows were never on sale. Drink package was booked in October during a sale for $47...cheapest I saw. Dragons Breath Flight Line was also on sale in October for $83. I did see it cheaper at $78 in February but the times were late and I didn’t want to lose my time slot to save $5.
 
Going back to my original 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.
1.  There were some meet and greets for 18-20 yo starting on Day 3 but they weren’t organized events and were not attended. D18 ended up hanging out with us which was very nice as in the past I didn’t feel like I’d see much of her during the cruise.
2.  Yes it is big. Having been on other cruises, we could figure it out fairly quickly. My MIL had a tougher time and routinely was lost.  There is no way to do everything in a week.
3.  The staterooms are too small for us, especially if we had to sleep 4 in one. I’d probably book 2 connecting Junior Suites next time.
4.  This is a tough one to answer. The price of one Spring Break cruise on Harmony is the same as a 5 night cruise over Thanksgiving in a JS AND a week cruise in 3 staterooms on Adventure for Spring Break 2019. So would I rather have 2 cruises or one? In 2020 and 2021, we’ll be back to one cruise a year and I would try for another Oasis class. I feel like this is a splurge, as we also like to do other vacations, but I may only have a few more years of cruising with all 6 of us.   
That's all from Harmony!  Time to start planning our Independence cruise for Thanksgiving!

Day 6 Labadee
Arrived at 10 am, D18, S15 and I made our way to Dragons Flight Line.  We were supposed to be in the 2nd group of the day but I asked if we could go earlier if space was available which it was. Not nearly as scary as I thought.  A fun, smooth ride and we all agreed we’d do it again. 
DH, S11, D6 and MIL headed to our beach bungalow on Columbus Cove.  Cheapest bungalows in Labadee, it’s a private beach area, close to the food with nice sand.  The bungalow attendants would clear people who tried to put chairs on this part of the beach which made it for peaceful day for us.  The poor attendants had to deal with some really mad people. We checked out Nellie’s beach and the over the ocean water cabanas looked great but the beach seemed crowded. These seemed to be a better fit for my family and I’ll book these same bungalows for our next cruise when we get back. 
 
Here are the cabanas:I’ll send more pictures in a bit.  Taking forever to upload and I want to go for a run.  

Here is the $25 birthday cake...choice of chocolate or vanilla and we chose chocolate.  I purchased it 2 nights ago at guest services and there was a note in my reservation.   The picture doesn’t do the cake justice.  It was quite good but of course tonight’s dessert was the chocolate molten cake.  The outside is a hard edible chocolate, the ‘beans’ are white chocolate chips.  The only frosting was the green stuff. Cake was very moist and much better than the Royal Chocolate Cake but not better than the molten cake.
The cake was brought out after dessert. That was fine as I wanted it to be a surprise so couldn’t tell people not to order dessert.  Half of the cake was left so our waiter saved it for tomorrow night. 
Really rocking tonight. Dramamine taken by 3 of us. Captain says storm in North Atlantic affecting our waves here. 
We were late leaving SanJuan due to miscommunication...Capt Johnny was not happy. We’ll be arriving late to Labadee tomorrow...Royal iq showed the change to our zip line time.

I've never heard of the chance to lose the room. My TA does it for me. I don't receive a new confirmation number so I don't think it is a new booking.
The bigger issue is that you could lose your OBC. Since you spent your OBC, those items in your Cruise Planner will be cancelled. I do not use my OBC on the cruise planner until after final payment. An RC agent, recommended this to me when I had to book something by phone just in case of a price adjustment. While you may save $50 total, did you buy anything on sale that you would lose? If so, take those savings into account too.
 
I use Nancy with Mei.  She checks new prices with every sale and always responds via email. You turn your reservation over to the TA. You make payments to the TA. However, you still have direct access to anything in the Cruise Planner and pay directly for those.

You need name, address, birthday, and document (I use passports). 
There is a step for arrival & departure info, emergency contact.
On some ships (Harmony), they'll ask you to upload a picture. I chose not to do this and they took a picture of us at the pier. I figured it would take me longer to take a picture and upload it than for them to do it.
Finally, you can set up the onboard account.  In many of these steps, you can copy the information from the first person.
It only takes a few minutes per person and after that you can print the set sail document.
 

We had 7 people on Harmony with 6:15 MTD reservations. I went there in the afternoon after embarkation to ask about a table. They told me to skip the line for reservations and go another desk as that was who handled large parties. This tip saved us so much time!  The first formal night (night 2) our table was already occupied at 6:15, however, they sent us to Deck 3 which was traditional dining and allowed us to use an empty table there. Personally, I appreciated the effort to use an empty table rather than making us wait. Except for that night, we had the same table and wait staff. Dining took an hour each night and we made every show.

Midnight stroll through the Centrum:

I hired a private driver, Winston, with Tour Jamaica Today to take my family of 6 to Blue Hole.  I don't remember what it cost but we had him the entire day but we mostly wanted to go to Blue Hole and lunch. The best thing about Winston was that he was a safe and slow driver.  We were constantly being passed by other taxis.  We were able to keep our stuff in the van while we did our excursion and everything was very safe.  I will use him again for our Thanksgiving cruise.  

I did not see any guided tours but to be honest I wasn’t really looking.  Prior to our cruise I contacted a private guide on TripAdvisor but they told me they couldn’t give any tours inside the forts.  
Inside the fort, there were no obvious tours except a group of school kids on a field trip and that wasn’t guided either. The only guided tour I saw was after we left the fort. The tour stopped out the outskirts of the fort, took pictures and started walking back to town. 

One way for 7 people. 

San Juan
Kids slept in and I woke them at 8:15. Breakfast in Mini Bites again. Off the ship and we took a taxi to El Morro. The trolley was supposed to be running but never saw it.  Taxi cost $16 for 7 of us.  The taxi told us it was walkable but I had a feeling my MIL would struggle going uphill to the fort.  Here are a few pics of the fort and the stairs inside the fort. 
 
 Birthday boy wanted hamburgers (same birthday dinner request since he was 3 and only day of the year I’ll eat a burger) so we headed straight to Johnny Rockets.  I also had extra OBC to use since DH cancelled his zip line tomorrow.  Little brother made sure to tell the waiter it was his birthday so they brought him a sundae and sang Happy Birthday to him. 
 
Fine Line started while eating lunch.  My 2 younger ones wanted to see show and they have the best view in the theater plus it was shaded.  

2nd formal night and lobster tonight.