Lol...back again and actually booked this time!!

[mom2mybugs]

Hi everyone!!!

   It has been forever again.  We tried to book earlier in the year, and couldn't pull things together with my college student and my father-in-law passing away. We looked at odyssey and an amazing itinerary, but just couldn't decide.   Prices got higher, and then I was on 2 days ago and the prices were actually 150 lower, so I decided to move.  Daughter finally decided she wasn't coming with us and now my husband and I are booked for December 31, 2022 on Harmony of the Seas (or will be as soon as my travel agent gets my confirmation email). The odyssey one was out since it was longer and we were worried about having to count on flights back that sunday with no cushion before work.   I have soooo many questions, worries and excitements.  

   We were trying to decide between Harmony and Symphony.  There was only about a $100 difference...not enough to be significant.  I really actually wanted to go on Symphony...it seems like a much prettier ship, and the solarium seems much nicer (Harmony's solarium in pics at least doesn't look nearly as interesting and no pool).  Also I wanted to try playmakers for the first time, and with a new years cruise, I thought that would be good for bowl games!  However, I definitely liked the flow of the itinerary better on Harmony.  Harmony goes out of fort lauderdale (which i find tends to be slightly cheaper for me than miami and i like the hilton we have stayed at).  Harmony also hits nassau on new years day--since i figure it will be a late morning, and i have no interest in nassau and nothing probably will be open, this seemed to work a bit better than a cruise day .  Finally, I just don't see us spending a lot of money on excursions this trip (been to all the ports and we stretched $600 to do a balcony) and Harmony goes to Costa Maya instead of Roatan (so no excursion needed, just enjoy the little port area and take the shuttle to the beach if we want).  We are going to cozumel, and I will have to decide if we splurge for a resort in cozumel or costa maya, or do something at Coco Cay.

   Talk to me about Coco Cay--we probably wont do the slides, but are there areas you really love to splurge on?  My husband is a shade seeker, while I live for the sun.  We can totally not spend a dime, but we did really enjoy the clam shells years ago at labadee.  The last time i tried to go to coco cay, we couldn't tender lol.  It's a whole new world, and while I will go research what is there, I'd love imput from people

  So we are looking forward to trying some of the specialty dining that is new to us.  Wonderland and Jamie's Italian spring to mind.  We won't do chef's table this trip to save money and we've done it twice before.  Should we book a specialty restaurant on new year's eve (our embarkation first night?). And speaking of,  I've never done a holiday cruise before and i'm not sure how much they plan in terms of main dining room specialties, parties, shows, "ball drop" etc.  Is there a lot of stuff or is it just first night as usual?   I'm very torn if we do MDR (and maybe 2-3 specialty restaurants) or just book a couple my time reservations.  Our last trip we did Europe, and almost all our dinners were just in the windjammer because we were tired.  I felt guilty having the MDR seating and not using it.  And heck...we decided so late to book this cruise (i've never booked only 6 months out) there might not even be dining available

   Our last cruise was in June of 2019.  So much has changed and I'm, frankly, worried I've forgotten how to do everything and/or it's all changed and I will miss stuff.  While I hope covid will be gone in terms of any requirements, I'm very stressed about the testing time frames.  And I have to even remember how to get on the cruise planner:)    I'm hearing/reading that the days of 48 dollar drink pkgs is gone, but I want to at least stay on top of stuff!  ArIe show reservations done on the ship and not before?  I know I will stress about that but it is what it is!  I usually use old cruise planners to figure out show times and then figure out dining, but I don't know what is "normal" at this point, so I don't know that that will help.  So that's where i'm relying on recent cruisers!!!

  So I'm excited, little worrried, and a touch overwhelmed.  But I can't wait to get on Harmony.  I'm still a tad bummed we aren't doing symphony, so i'd love to hear about what you loved about Harmony, tips for all of the above questions, and anything else!  I'm so excited to come back to reading about cruises, but still nervous that Covid will rear its ugly head and mess stuff up again!   Crossing my fingers and toes!    Jane

[AshleyDillo]

10 minutes ago, mom2mybugs said:

Should we book a specialty restaurant on new year's eve (our embarkation first night?). And speaking of,  I've never done a holiday cruise before and i'm not sure how much they plan in terms of main dining room specialties, parties, shows, "ball drop" etc.  Is there a lot of stuff or is it just first night as usual?   

On New Years Eve they usually offer inflated "holiday" meals ay the specialty restaurants. It typically is a surf & turf meal (steak and lobster) with champagne all included but the price gets jacked up. If that's something you'd be interested in, then by all means splurge.

They do celebrate on board. They will likely do a midnight countdown on the Promenade. They sell tables on the Promenade for this event also, so again, something to look for if you're interested. I think I've heard of them selling reservations for the Rising Tide for NYE festivities as well. They also sometimes utilize the aquatheater for festivities, so there will be options all around the ship.

[Fairlynew]

Keep checking the prices for the unlimited dining package.    We really enjoyed it, especially for a relaxing lunch on sea days.  It can be a good value if the price is right.  For our 8 night cruise on Allure last spring, we paid $199 each and felt it was well worth it.

I have been to Coco Cay twice and never spent anything extra.  There are plenty of loungers in the sun and the shade.  Both times I have been, we start on the beach, then move to the pool later in the afternoon.  No problem finding great spots with shade either place.  I also saw lots of seats in the sun.

Have a great trip!

[mom2mybugs]

17 minutes ago, AshleyDillo said:

On New Years Eve they usually offer inflated "holiday" meals ay the specialty restaurants. It typically is a surf & turf meal (steak and lobster) with champagne all included but the price gets jacked up. If that's something you'd be interested in, then by all means splurge.

They do celebrate on board. They will likely do a midnight countdown on the Promenade. They sell tables on the Promenade for this event also, so again, something to look for if you're interested. I think I've heard of them selling reservations for the Rising Tide for NYE festivities as well. They also sometimes utilize the aquatheater for festivities, so there will be options all around the ship.

bummer--i want to be festive, but don't want to pay way much for it!  Maybe we will just party in the windjammer lol!  Thank you so much for the info!!!!   Jane

[mom2mybugs]

9 minutes ago, Fairlynew said:

Keep checking the prices for the unlimited dining package.    We really enjoyed it, especially for a relaxing lunch on sea days.  It can be a good value if the price is right.  For our 8 night cruise on Allure last spring, we paid $199 each and felt it was well worth it.

I have been to Coco Cay twice and never spent anything extra.  There are plenty of loungers in the sun and the shade.  Both times I have been, we start on the beach, then move to the pool later in the afternoon.  No problem finding great spots with shade either place.  I also saw lots of seats in the sun.

Have a great trip!

Do you still make reservations for the unlimited dining pkg?  Make the first one online like the other pkgs and then make reservations the first day when you get on the ship?  Good to hear about coco cay.  I have seen some pretty pricey stuff and I wasn't sure how crowded it would be.  I haven't checked yet to see what other ships we will be encountering on this cruise!  Jane

[Fairlynew]

You make your own reservations for the dining package once you get on board the ship.  We did not have any trouble getting the times and places we wanted; we were a group of three.  Larger groups may have more issues.  Also, we did not usually need reservations for lunch.  I don't know how it works for holiday meals, but they do make a courtesy reservation the first night, so they probably would reserve something-there might an upcharge though.  The only upcharge we encountered was $10 pp for the hibachi, which we did not mind because the experience was really fun.  I also imaging that the MDR will have a festive atmosphere on New Year's Eve if you don't want to pay anything extra.

There were 2 ships at Coco Cay the last time we were there-a voyager class (can't remember which one) and Allure.  Both were sailing at or near full capacity and we had no issues with seats.  

[KristiZ]

3 hours ago, mom2mybugs said:

bummer--i want to be festive, but don't want to pay way much for it!  Maybe we will just party in the windjammer lol!  Thank you so much for the info!!!!   Jane

The MDR will also have a nice menu for the holiday. The actual holiday is one of the times I avoid specialty dining! Otherwise we love sailing over Christmas/New Year. Enjoy!

[mom2mybugs]

11 hours ago, KristiZ said:

The MDR will also have a nice menu for the holiday. The actual holiday is one of the times I avoid specialty dining! Otherwise we love sailing over Christmas/New Year. Enjoy!

Good to know.  We have early dining this time, but my time was such a fiasco  last cruise we kinda gave up on mdr.  I will look forward to it this cruise!  Jane

[mom2mybugs]

14 hours ago, Fairlynew said:

You make your own reservations for the dining package once you get on board the ship.  We did not have any trouble getting the times and places we wanted; we were a group of three.  Larger groups may have more issues.  Also, we did not usually need reservations for lunch.  I don't know how it works for holiday meals, but they do make a courtesy reservation the first night, so they probably would reserve something-there might an upcharge though.  The only upcharge we encountered was $10 pp for the hibachi, which we did not mind because the experience was really fun.  I also imaging that the MDR will have a festive atmosphere on New Year's Eve if you don't want to pay anything extra.

There were 2 ships at Coco Cay the last time we were there-a voyager class (can't remember which one) and Allure.  Both were sailing at or near full capacity and we had no issues with seats.  

This is good to know.  Right now I have wonderland, hibachi and Jamie’s booked.  Udp is at 219 right now, but if it hits a real sale, I would buy it, keep hibachi and try not to feel guilty if we underused it.  It is so much food!   Though the idea of sea day lunch sounds good…normally I don’t move out of my deck chair in the sun but with all very traveled ports, I might spend those days by the pool and actually do stuff on sea days.

 I’m happy to hear seating at coco cay wasn’t bad!  I would reserve a day bed but I might want to save that money for the udp lol!   Jane

[Fairlynew]

$219 is not bad for the UDP on a ship that size, with so many options, especially if you have already booked 3 specialty restaurants.  You can cancel them and make reservations for all three on board, with the addition of lunch options and other dinner options.  You can still book the hibachi with the UDP; you just pay $10 extra-probably still a good value if you plan on doing three.  We got an early boarding time and were able to get the reservations we wanted on the nights we wanted at times we wanted with no difficulty.

[mom2mybugs]

13 hours ago, Fairlynew said:

$219 is not bad for the UDP on a ship that size, with so many options, especially if you have already booked 3 specialty restaurants.  You can cancel them and make reservations for all three on board, with the addition of lunch options and other dinner options.  You can still book the hibachi with the UDP; you just pay $10 extra-probably still a good value if you plan on doing three.  We got an early boarding time and were able to get the reservations we wanted on the nights we wanted at times we wanted with no difficulty.

Would you keep these reservations and go ahead and buy the udp, and then cancel on board?  I’m worried about losing the hibachi.  Jane

[Fairlynew]

I’m not sure.   I’ve never done that.  We got all reservations including hibachi easily.  Later in the week we wanted to change nights and were actually able to schedule hibachi on the day we were making the changes-i.e. same day reservations.    At first they said 8 pm that night then moved us to 7.   The ship was full that week and we were in a Central Park balcony so no concierge.   I will say that we made an effort to be friendly and polite to everyone which may have led to the hostess helping us with the changes more willing to accommodate us.   

[Fairlynew]

One thought: keep current reservations until you check in and know your boarding time.   As long your boarding time is no later than 11:30, you should be fine.   Also we were boarding in Ft Lauderdale.   We had 11 am time.  They did check times but let anyone with a boarding time before 12:30 line up with us.     We got there at about 10:30 and waited outside for about 35 minutes.  Process was fast once they opened the doors. 

[mom2mybugs]

10 hours ago, Fairlynew said:

One thought: keep current reservations until you check in and know your boarding time.   As long your boarding time is no later than 11:30, you should be fine.   Also we were boarding in Ft Lauderdale.   We had 11 am time.  They did check times but let anyone with a boarding time before 12:30 line up with us.     We got there at about 10:30 and waited outside for about 35 minutes.  Process was fast once they opened the doors. 

Good to know.  I don’t know why I’m so stressed out about getting the good boarding time.  I think it’s just different and I love being on the ship early.  We will be boarding in ft lauderdale too.  Do they let you into the terminal before your check in time?  Is the check in time the line up time?  I’m stressing about this so I don’t have to think about the Covid testing…that will kill me!   Jane