Wanderer

Our Meditarranean cruise on Oct 27th has changed from Allure to Wonder.

Hi All,
Some of you may remember I had a lot of posts a few months back when I was booking my mum’s first ever cruise and first ever holiday in over 17 years. We eventually booked on Anthem to go around the fjords which got changed to the med and I upgraded us to an Owners Suite as I wanted to make it special for her and to make sure she had enough space for her mobility scooter since there weren’t any accessible rooms left. Unfortunately that ended up being cancelled and changed to a British isles cruise which didn’t excite us seeing as we were planning to go end of September.
I’m super excited to say that last night I booked us on Harmony OTS out of Barcelona on 3rd October. I was holding off as it looked like Italy were going to keep their borders shut to us Brits but they surprised us all and opened up! This time I managed to bag us the accessible crown loft suite. Apparently there’s only one onboard so I’m really happy I’ve got it - my mum thinks we’ve just got a balcony room 😋. I’m a little bit nervous that she doesn’t like heights and it’s on floor 17 but I’m sure she’ll overcome that when she sees the room, right?🤔😬
 This will be my first time on Harmony and first time on an Oasis class ship. It’s been on my to do list for a while now! My question is, what can we absolutely not miss on Harmony once onboard?

The debarkation process was so smooth. The earliest possible time to get off was 6:00am. We met another couple that had a 10am flight and they made it off easy. It takes about 30 minutes to get to the airport, so you should be there by 7:00am at the latest. 
There are mandatory temp checks every single day. if you miss it (which we often did because of early excursions), you have to go to guest services to get it or they will call you down. Nobody gets away with it. Haha. All joking aside though, it was super easy and they just grabbed you as you left or came back to your room. It was quick and easy. 

Replace OCT 2nd 2021 Anthem, with OCT 3rd 2021 Harmony.

I will definitely try that out! Handing down my written request and sitting down and having some nice drink while waiting booking process to be made. Sound like a good way to start a cruise! ??

Any specialty restaurant that is open has access to reservation system. 
I write out my requests and hand them to someone able to make reservations. I wait for verification. Eventually reservations will show up as events on the App calendar. 

That is very true. We booked an oasis beach cabana at the price of $1199 and the sale that just went off it was priced at $499. So we cancelled and rebooked it and saved $700!

To piggyback on this great advice.  If you think it’s a good price, buy it.  If you see it cheaper just cancel and rebuy at the cheaper price.   We book some of our cruises a year or longer out and have canceled and rebought many times.  The key is to constantly check your planner before and after you purchase. 

Make sure they have your email address and can send you notifications when sales are happening. Plus, it’s always a good idea to randomly check prices on your cruise as supply and demand can cause prices on individual things you might be looking at to drop. Good luck and enjoy your cruise!

That is very close to my findings as well
 

I find they generally happen about every 2-3 weeks, usually starting on a Wednesday and lasting 7-10 days. Always a sale during major holidays. Black Friday usually has the best prices all year. 

Labor Day is not unlikely. The best advice, though, is to check the prices of the items you've bought or are thinking of buying on at least a weekly basis. Sometimes there are price drops that are unrelated to any "sale."

As far as I know specialty restaurants are not open for lunch  on port days.

In re-reading your question I posted in error. These are open only on seas days in my cruise experience . My apologies for mis-reading your question . I have never seen any specialty open for lunch on port days but I have not been on all ships. Also UDP only includes lunch on seas days, I believe .
 
 

On past cruises I have seen Chops and Giovannis open for UDP cruisers. Perhaps it varies by ship.

Usually there's at least one specialty that is and Johnny Rockets is open also.  I would check the past cruise Compasses to get an idea.

Harmony of the Seas. First and only so far.
Waiting to be onboard Anthem of the Seas on Oct 2nd (fingers crossed)!

I would go to the casino more often if it wasn't for the smoke.  You can still smell it very much on the non-smoking side.  It often prevents me from gambling at all.
 

I also avoid the casino due to the smoke. I wish Royal Caribbean would follow Celebrity’s lead and ban smoking in the casino.

I also avoid the casino due to smoke, and it's really awful when that smoke wafts up into the promenade. I wish they'd ban smoking in the casino!

This is from royal app for my upcoming cruise on Anthem on Oct.

I definitely hope there will be lobster night on our Anthem cruise out of Southampton! I am European and I love lobsters!

I am not going to cruise until Royal will waive mandatory masks.

I really hope that you are right on this. Rule is absolutely insane. Especially when cruising with fully vaccinated people!