Pooch Posted March 24, 2022 Report Share Posted March 24, 2022 Not a great review writer but will give it a shot! After the stress and anxiety of Saturday, we headed to PC a little after 9:30 Sunday morning. Arrived about 45 minutes later and pulled into the garage. I have to say even though I knew she was big, I was not prepared for HOW BIG. Harmony is a beast! Port workers a little rude (are you dropping off or not?!?!) so we drove past them. Gave our bags to the porters around the corner & parked on the second level. A quick walk to the security area. We had our passports and vax cards in a clear plastic holder easily visible and printed Set Sail pass & negative test results from CVS. From turning into the garage til we were seated in the suites waiting area took maybe 15 minutes for the 4 of us including taking our pictures. Could not have been quicker or easier. Ducks in a row folks!! Boarding opened right around 11 for suites and pinnacles (saw a few prominently displayed gold name tags silly to me but hubby wants one!!) and after a few photos, we were on board! Our first drinks on Rising Tide which became hubby’s favorite bar! Debstr66, Moby Dick, Kirsten and 10 others 11 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GatorCruiser Posted March 24, 2022 Report Share Posted March 24, 2022 Rising tide is a good one. Trellis is my favorite. EmptyNestTravels 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WAAAYTOOO Posted March 24, 2022 Report Share Posted March 24, 2022 10 hours ago, GatorCruiser said: Rising tide is a good one. Trellis is my favorite. I'm so glad they changed the seats in the Rising Tide Bar when they built Harmony (and presumably, Symphony....but I haven't been on SY yet). Those little pencil seats they had on OA and AL were almost as uncomfortable as the metal chairs they use outside at Giovanni's/Jamie's. ALmost. ellcee, GatorCruiser and PPPJJ-GCVAB 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pooch Posted March 24, 2022 Author Report Share Posted March 24, 2022 His drink of the cruise- a goombay smash and they made the best there. I liked the passion fruit guava white sangria at the solarium bar. Somehow lost my taste for the sweet frozen drinks this time. WAAAYTOOO 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmptyNestTravels Posted March 24, 2022 Report Share Posted March 24, 2022 1 hour ago, GatorCruiser said: Rising tide is a good one. Trellis is my favorite. Yes! Trellis for sure! Jim Bonaventura and GatorCruiser 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fa-li Posted March 24, 2022 Report Share Posted March 24, 2022 Yay! Was hoping you would do a recap! Pooch and WAAAYTOOO 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fairlynew Posted March 24, 2022 Report Share Posted March 24, 2022 2 hours ago, Pooch said: His drink of the cruise- a goombay smash and they made the best there. I liked the passion fruit guava white sangria at the solarium bar. Somehow lost my taste for the sweet frozen drinks this time. Next time, ask them to substitute sparkling wine for the pinot grigio-gives it an awesome boost of bubbly-even more light and refreshing. Pooch 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pooch Posted March 24, 2022 Author Report Share Posted March 24, 2022 Coastal Kitchen: First night dinner filet night at CK. What to say? Frankly not great. No one cared much for anything. Daughter & I had the crispy pork belly and it was a big hunk of fat. Hubby’s shrimp cocktail was fine & son liked his escargot. Filet was not good. Overcooked, under seasoned and the sauce had a funky taste. Katie had the rigatoni with too much sausage & not enough rigatoni. I have to say it was kinda uncomfortable up there too. Waiter was not welcoming at all and it just felt snooty like I was a kid sitting at the grownup table & they were watching to be sure I didn’t spit my food out. There was a solo traveler who had apparently been on the ship for a couple of weeks with a few more to come and the staff was tripping over themselves to serve her. And they could not please anyone with the level of the shades. One person would ask that they be raised for the view, the next (me because of our table placement) would ask them to be lowered as the sun was in my eyes. So they went up and down and up and down the whole meal. We didn’t go back for several nights and I will probably pass on it in the future. WAAAYTOOO and ellcee 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fa-li Posted March 24, 2022 Report Share Posted March 24, 2022 Ooof. Had you made reservations ahead of time for more nights at CK and then ditched them? Where did you eat instead? This is one of my anxieties (I have several over-thought, unreasonable ones lol) that we will go night one for the filet and miss the chance to connect with MDR staff, and then will regret. I've also wondered if having star class there means the sky class guests are given the short end of the stick. Aaack! But still, perhaps I will be pleasantly surprised if I go in knowing it is not perfect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pooch Posted March 24, 2022 Author Report Share Posted March 24, 2022 We ate at MDR the other nights. Hubby & son went back night 6 for scallops but, like my MDR lobster, they were undercooked. My son & daughter ate there night 7 for the sashimi & cauliflower fried rice both of which were pronounced excellent. But I never went back. We had no problem connecting with our MDR waitstaff beginning on night 2. ellcee and fa-li 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pooch Posted March 24, 2022 Author Report Share Posted March 24, 2022 We had an absolutely beautiful spacious room thanks to L & S from Rhapsody. I would never have booked this otherwise. And there was storage everywhere! I could have stored a small third world country in there! Our room attendant, Fatoni, was terrific. Especially the day my son discovered maybe unlimited was a little too much drinking. He checked on him several times & brought him some coke to settle his stomach. What can I say, sometimes you just have to learn for yourself Kirsten, RWDW1204, KristiZ and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kadmgs Posted March 24, 2022 Report Share Posted March 24, 2022 1 hour ago, Pooch said: Coastal Kitchen: First night dinner filet night at CK. What to say? Frankly not great. No one cared much for anything. Daughter & I had the crispy pork belly and it was a big hunk of fat. Filet was not good. Overcooked, under seasoned and the sauce had a funky taste. I find the "fat" on pork belly a problem as well if it isn't cooked long enough. Honestly, they have to basically fry it or smoked it to the point that it looks like bacon for me to get past the gross mouth feel of the fat. I figured out with the filet that I don't in fact like truffle (I already knew this, but gave it the ol' college try), so I know going forward to order the filet without the truffle oil. I have a feeling that's what you tasted that was funky. To me, it has a medicinal/petrochemical flavor that I just can't jump on the bandwagon for. Pooch 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pooch Posted March 25, 2022 Author Report Share Posted March 25, 2022 I’m not sure how we go back to a lesser room. October cruise is a JS on Explorer to get to Diamond. I think it’s gonna be rough! WAAAYTOOO and kadmgs 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moby Dick Posted March 25, 2022 Report Share Posted March 25, 2022 14 minutes ago, Pooch said: I’m not sure how we go back to a lesser room. October cruise is a JS on Explorer to get to Diamond. I think it’s gonna be rough! We usually cruise Star Class. We took a cruise on the Anthem to Bermuda, no suites available at our late purchase time. So, we went in a balcony room. We actually didn't mind it. But, we've been Star ever since, our next cruise is Star, Ovation in May but our cruise in November on the Harmony is going to be a Boardwalk Balcony, last cabin at the rear to the rear. Can see the Aqua Theater show(s) and the wake view. Love having a Genie, though! WAAAYTOOO 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fa-li Posted March 25, 2022 Report Share Posted March 25, 2022 8 hours ago, Pooch said: I’m not sure how we go back to a lesser room. October cruise is a JS on Explorer to get to Diamond. I think it’s gonna be rough! I loved our JS on Explorer, and we almost always go full suite. It was so spacious, and I loved the walk in closet. It’s just the balcony that’s not as nice. But there are enough lovely outdoor spaces on that ship it was fine. PPPJJ-GCVAB 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pooch Posted March 25, 2022 Author Report Share Posted March 25, 2022 So far there are 3 of us in the JS as my daughter usually goes with us (the price of chauffeuring us around). When we took our grandson on Mariner in a spacious balcony cabin, it was so small I wouldn’t let the cabin steward open the sofa bed. I HATE having to crawl around the furniture. By given the very few full suite perks on Explorer, I was having trouble justifying the cost of a GS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fa-li Posted March 25, 2022 Report Share Posted March 25, 2022 I took no photos of the cabin but you can see the sofa set up in this one. There was another sliding glass door width past the chairs. My aunt and uncle were next door in a spacious balcony cabin and the JS was double the width. You could easily have the sofa bed open all the time and it would just feel like a hotel room with two beds. WAAAYTOOO and Pooch 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ampurp85 Posted March 25, 2022 Report Share Posted March 25, 2022 When we did Sky class on Allure we were also disappointed in CK. I don't eat seafood, so mostly I would have to order off the classic menu, which imho defeats the purpose of a suite specialty menu. We had a standing 8pm reservation that I believed we only used twice. I also dislike the MDR, the service is mostly okay, but the food is always bad to me. As far as being spoiled......I might actually be indifferent. I have done Star, Sky and Sea, they were good, and JS's on freedom and Voyager class, which was also good. I also have done interiors and balconies after sailing those classes. Personally as long as I have a room on the ship I am good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pooch Posted March 25, 2022 Author Report Share Posted March 25, 2022 I spend time in the room and on the balcony so I need to be comfortable. I go back to the room almost every day around 3 & read (or snooze) on the balcony til dinner at 6. kadmgs 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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