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⭐️🎄🎅 Starmony “Christmas Vacation” - Harmony December 24-31, 2022🎅🎄⭐️


Jax

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Good morning from the Hilton Fort Lauderdale Beach Resort! 

We are off to a slow start today.  The activities director surprised us with a pool side cabana for the day which was perfect for our lazy Sunday. We are waiting on our Walmart order.  Planning to hit the sauna shortly.  The staff have been outstanding. Any request is actioned quickly.  Very happy with the room set up.  A twin size bed roll away was delivered complimentary as the sofa bed comfort is questionable for a grown male. Kitchen utensils are available upon request.  Very happy with the resort so far.   

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12 hours ago, Jax said:

Good morning from the Hilton Fort Lauderdale Beach Resort! 

We are off to a slow start today.  The activities director surprised us with a pool side cabana for the day which was perfect for our lazy Sunday. We are waiting on our Walmart order.  Planning to hit the sauna shortly.  The staff have been outstanding. Any request is actioned quickly.  Very happy with the room set up.  A twin size bed roll away was delivered complimentary as the sofa bed comfort is questionable for a grown male. Kitchen utensils are available upon request.  Very happy with the resort so far.   

 

I was excited to see your pics.  We got a one day pass for this resort on our last day since our flight leaves at 9pm.  Hoping to enjoy a beautiful 8 hours there! If you have time, could you all them how early you can check in for the one day resort pass?  I couldn't find it in my docs. Jane

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34 minutes ago, GCT said:

Is this something the genies can do or does it come with an extra charge?

The answer can vary based on a number of factors including ship, genie and type of request. In our case I mentioned we did not want to incur additional charges for the snacks (I had no special food requests and kept our request simple) and we didn’t require a private bar tender. It ultimately comes down to the ships F&B director.  Berty had a good idea of what I wanted from our pre cruise phone call and I left it with him to sort out with the F&B team.  Cakes and decorating are pretty standard star class perks. 

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16 hours ago, mom2mybugs said:

I was excited to see your pics.  We got a one day pass for this resort on our last day since our flight leaves at 9pm.  Hoping to enjoy a beautiful 8 hours there! If you have time, could you all them how early you can check in for the one day resort pass?  I couldn't find it in my docs. Jane

Sounds like 9am but I don’t think they are sticklers.  I saw a group arriving this morning as we were leaving.  

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We hit the Keys and Homestead Speedway today. The Speedway was closed but that wasn’t stopping us. Lol Within minutes we are met by security who informs us the track is closed for a private event. We chat for a few minutes, explain we are from Canada and are big NASCAR fans.  She lets us go to the track and take pics.  Totally unexpected but so so nice.  As we made our way to Key Largo we listened to Seminole Wind by John Anderson and Kokomo by the Beach Boys. Great songs, for a great drive.  
Our last stop was to a swap meet. I don’t know if you guys can relate but when I looked around the parking lot and surrounding area I said “I am not sure we should do this”, “ this doesn’t look safe”, “people are looking at us”.  The vehicle in the picture pretty much sums up our experience.  

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Another Christmas Miracle! Our friends Robert & Tammy left Vancouver Island a day early to beat the winter storm impacting them and Seattle.  They were able to get on Delta’s direct flight this morning and have just taken off.  Such a relief and looking forward to seeing them tonight! 
Our other friends arrived Sunday and are spending the week in Orlando at Disney.  We will see then Saturday. Getting excited to see everyone. 🎉🎉

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Genie news 🧞‍♂️ 

  • We are sailing at full capacity and the F&B team has requested all star class guests to confirm reservations prior to sailing to give us priority on dining requests.  Moving requests once onboard may be difficult.  
     
  • Onboard communication is via What’s App. This will be the first time we use that; previously we have always used Messenger. 
     
  • Confirmed a rough plan for snacks on embarkation day. Harmony doesn’t  randomly deliver food to your room; it is by request.  
     
  • I need to forward our lunch requests for embarkation the day before and it will be coordinated with the F&B team. 
     
  • Received information on star class check in & priority baggage handling. Nothing new; basically look for the purple star class banner and do not give your bags to anyone other than the designated star class porter. 
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Today we did a private waterways tour. Highly recommend! It took us through many of the waterways and it was so interesting to hear the history surrounding the properties and see the multi million dollar homes and yachts. Praying we win the Powerball. 🙏 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The wind finally died down a bit yesterday so we went to the beach in the morning and kart racing in the afternoon, followed by a great supper at Louie Bossi’s.  The boys had so much fun kart racing and finished at the top of the leaderboard. That was some of the best Italian food; everyone raved about their meals.  

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Today was a fun day! We booked a Private Tour; Everglades Airboat Ride. This was a favorite for all 5 of us.  We saw various birds and an alligator. Surprisingly they are not as easy to spot as I thought.  I was nervous about doing this because I don’t like critters of any kind but I had a lot of fun.  I had heard of alligator alley but today we were on it on our way to our tour. 
We had an early supper at Bo’s Pub. 
Now I need to pack for tomorrow! 

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Genie news 🧞‍♂️
I was not expecting to hear from Berty again but there were some last minute changes to the shows.  The biggest change was the cancelling of the aqua shows for nights 1-3. No idea why. We are now hosting our friends in our suite on night 4.  This makes me a bit nervous as I know that so many variables can cancel the show that late in the cruise but we will hope for the best.  Basically I went with Betty’s recommendations.  I have learned to trust them and let them do what they do best. I told Berty he is always 10 steps ahead of me so he is in charge! Lol 

A second star class flow rider session has been added on day 6. This was welcome news! 

I have to send Berty our lunch order tonight for delivery to the suite at 1pm.  

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14 minutes ago, Jax said:

Genie news 🧞‍♂️
I was not expecting to hear from Berty again but there were some last minute changes to the shows.  The biggest change was the cancelling of the aqua shows for nights 1-3. No idea why. We are now hosting our friends in our suite on night 4.  This makes me a bit nervous as I know that so many variables can cancel the show that late in the cruise but we will hope for the best.  Basically I went with Betty’s recommendations.  I have learned to trust them and let them do what they do best. I told Berty he is always 10 steps ahead of me so he is in charge! Lol 

A second star class flow rider session has been added on day 6. This was welcome news! 

I have to send Berty our lunch order tonight for delivery to the suite at 1pm.  

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Can you order boarding day lunch from any resturant?  We were unable to order on boarding day on any of our Star cruises and had Coastal Kitchen.

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1 hour ago, MLH said:

Can you order boarding day lunch from any resturant?  We were unable to order on boarding day on any of our Star cruises and had Coastal Kitchen.

No it can vary by ship and genie. Room service doesn’t begin until 5pm but in our case Berty offered to arrange delivery from a limited selection; Jaimie’s Italian lunch menu, Johnny Rockets or Sabor lunch menu.  Normally we never dine in our suite but wanted to try it on our ATS deck.   

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When we sailed Oasis back in March, the Aqua show kept getting cancelled too. At first it was due to weather (wind), and then they had technical difficulties (whatever that means), we also heard rumours of no divers 🤷🏻‍♀️. Anyhow, I don’t think we actually got around to seeing it until Day 4 or so. Allan switched up a whole bunch of things for us with no issues. Let Berty take care of it. It will work out just fine. 

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33 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

When we sailed Oasis back in March, the Aqua show kept getting cancelled too. At first it was due to weather (wind), and then they had technical difficulties (whatever that means), we also heard rumours of no divers 🤷🏻‍♀️. Anyhow, I don’t think we actually got around to seeing it until Day 4 or so. Allan switched up a whole bunch of things for us with no issues. Let Berty take care of it. It will work out just fine. 

Yup agreed. I am so happy we have Berty taking care of us. He really is 10 steps ahead of me! Lol

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Random thought the night before we meet Berty. He is going to think “some of us” are nuts. Lindsay, Reyd and Robert just realized there is no Portside BBQ or Playmakers on Harmony and they are not handling the news well. Lol It has been a source of many laughs.  I told them they need to let it go. Poor Berty.  

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Royal up 

I just received another Royal up email.  It seemed strange to receive so close to our sail date plus the minimum bids keep changing and are higher  now than back in September. 
I am not bidding because we want our ATS.  Not sure if this is common but it has never happened to me on past cruises.

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Happy to report that our friends respite worker and her son arrived in Orlando tonight!  They were re routed from Chicago to Newark in the hopes of missing that winter storm and then got stuck in Newark overnight due to a missed connection.

13 people, 5 families travelling from various airports and we all made it to Florida! That’s a Christmas miracle. We are going to have a great week! 🎄🎅⭐

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2 hours ago, GregD said:

In 421 days I'll be sailing in that same room........sigh

 

Have a great cruise!!

We are back next Christmas but in 9730. So far we like it! If only it wasn’t 13 degrees, cold and drizzly we would be soaking up the sun on our deck.  Tomorrow will be much warmer.  

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Due to the high number of travel related delays, our sail away has been delayed until approx 6:30pm. Thank god for Berty because he pushed our dining until 7pm so we could catch sail away from our deck.  This ship is packed; without Berty we would have been out of luck.  

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20 minutes ago, Jax said:

More show schedule changes. I have sailed enough over the holidays to expect them. Just happy to have Berty take care of them all with little impact to us.  ❤️

I think this is one of the best things about sailing in Star Class. Just knowing that I don’t have to worry about dealing with last minute changes and that they are just taken care of makes my vacation much more of a vacation.

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4 hours ago, GregD said:

I think this is one of the best things about sailing in Star Class. Just knowing that I don’t have to worry about dealing with last minute changes and that they are just taken care of makes my vacation much more of a vacation.

💯

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