Stars Aligned In Perfect Harmony - Star Class- Harmony of the Seas - 10/01/2023

[MLH]

14 hours ago, JVPIII said:

It will be here before you know it. If there is anything specific you want me to scope out for you let me know.

Thank you so much!  If you could ask if the genies are staying through December that would be great!  So excted  you should receive your genie email soon!

[JVPIII]

@MLH I will gladly ask about the genies whereabouts through December. Can not wait to get the email. I have been checking email first thing everyday and last thing as well. I am waiting not so patiently. 

[JVPIII]

We are officially 25 days away and we got our Genie email yesterday. We will have Wendy Zhang as are genie for this trip. If my family thought I was crazy before then it’s only going to get worse, lol . Having Genie confirmation makes it all real.

 

[JVPIII]

I immediately responded with an introduction to our family and covered are initial preferences for dining and in suite requests. I let Wendy know we plan on eating at all the specialty restaurants and chefs table (sans wine pairing). We also requested to dine in Coastal Kitchen on filet night. Have to get that filet that @Lovetocruise2002 got so many of us excited about. I warned Wendy of my Mom’s Dr. Pepper addiction and requested those be in the suite as well.
 

I also put in request for some special genie magic regarding Rick’s and my Mom’s birthday celebrations that we plan to do on the ship. Rick’s birthday is 9/18 in just a few days and my Mom’s is 11/6 so I want to make sure they are both recognized on this cruise.

Now a little bit of a rant. While I was not surprised that Wendy’s email requested us to pre-book chefs table and Hibachi, as I have seen many people on the blog say this, I was surprised that it came in the initial form welcome letter. It is surprising and disheartening to me that the “all inclusive” and “the genie will make it happen” aspect of Star Class has diminished in this way. While I do understand cutbacks to remain profitable, I do not see how this change helps with this. At the end of the day we will have a good, time just a stray observation. We do not plan to pre book any of the meals as 7 pm is where we like to eat anyways and will leave the specific days we eat at each restaurant up to Wendy.

[Lovetocruise2002]

37 minutes ago, JVPIII said:

Now a little bit of a rant. While I was not surprised that Wendy’s email requested us to pre-book chefs table and Hibachi, as I have seen many people on the blog say this, I was surprised that it came in the initial form welcome letter. It is surprising and disheartening to me that the “all inclusive” and “the genie will make it happen” aspect of Star Class has diminished in this way. While I do understand cutbacks to remain profitable, I do not see how this change helps with this.

That Izumi did not used to show up on the initial email, however, in the last year and a half or so, it has.

[MLH]

1 hour ago, JVPIII said:

I immediately responded with an introduction to our family and covered are initial preferences for dining and in suite requests. I let Wendy know we plan on eating at all the specialty restaurants and chefs table (sans wine pairing). We also requested to dine in Coastal Kitchen on filet night. Have to get that filet that @Lovetocruise2002 got so many of us excited about. I warned Wendy of my Mom’s Dr. Pepper addiction and requested those be in the suite as well.
 

I also put in request for some special genie magic regarding Rick’s and my Mom’s birthday celebrations that we plan to do on the ship. Rick’s birthday is 9/18 in just a few days and my Mom’s is 11/6 so I want to make sure they are both recognized on this cruise.

Now a little bit of a rant. While I was not surprised that Wendy’s email requested us to pre-book chefs table and Hibachi, as I have seen many people on the blog say this, I was surprised that it came in the initial form welcome letter. It is surprising and disheartening to me that the “all inclusive” and “the genie will make it happen” aspect of Star Class has diminished in this way. While I do understand cutbacks to remain profitable, I do not see how this change helps with this. At the end of the day we will have a good, time just a stray observation. We do not plan to pre book any of the meals as 7 pm is where we like to eat anyways and will leave the specific days we eat at each restaurant up to Wendy.

At least the Hibachi thing has been somewhat resolved versus book it and we will refund it.  I guess many complaints to corporate and genies were heard.  I think it is a fair solution as they need to book those experiences to optimize usage of the venue.

[Lovetocruise2002]

29 minutes ago, MLH said:

At least the Hibachi thing has been somewhat resolved versus book it and we will refund it.  I guess many complaints to corporate and genies were heard.  I think it is a fair solution as they need to book those experiences to optimize usage of the venue.

Ugh! That was the most ridiculous when they said to book and first and we will refund you later. I just ignored that and asked the Genie to book it. I never booked it on my own ahead of time, never had issues getting a spot through the Genie.

[JVPIII]

41 minutes ago, MLH said:

At least the Hibachi thing has been somewhat resolved versus book it and we will refund it.  I guess many complaints to corporate and genies were heard.  I think it is a fair solution as they need to book those experiences to optimize usage of the venue.

We usually eat around 7 so it works out great for us.

11 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Ugh! That was the most ridiculous when they said to book and first and we will refund you later. I just ignored that and asked the Genie to book it. I never booked it on my own ahead of time, never had issues getting a spot through the Genie.

This is exactly what we plan to do. No pre-booking for us. 

[JVPIII]

I also got my cruise duck supplies delivered and designed my tag that I’m going to attach to them. I have never done them but do love to look for them. 
 

 

[JVPIII]

[JVPIII]

Update: 22 days and counting.

I put together some small toiletry kits for the group as a small surprise. 

Before:                                                                                                                      After: 

 

  
 

Also, on a related note, even though it isn’t Rick’s Birthday for another week we are celebrating this weekend as we are super busy the rest of the month up until the cruise. We are going to have a board game day with friends tomorrow and going to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory on Sunday. I set this up for him to find in the morning:

[JVPIII]

Now on to actual cruise updates.

I received a response email from Wendy:

Basically an I am glad to hear from you but I am busy right now. Perfectly acceptable because we know she is busy and we will be delighted to have the same attention to detail and level of service when it is our turn.

I also went to the cruise planner today hoping to book the thermal spa couples pass but only saw the single pass available. I also called and they said they only had the singles pass. I am going to email Wendy and ask her to inquire about it when she has a free moment, but I wanted to ask here as well. Has anyone had luck recently with a couples pass?

[Babsy47]

I believe Wendy was our genie on our Harmony Star class cruise in 2022.  She had just joined the ship; our pre-cruise communications were with someone else.  She was more quiet than others, but overall she did an amazing job.  We were a tough group with kids ranging from 1.5 to 17.  She appeared to manage everything seamlessly.

[JVPIII]

16 hours ago, Babsy47 said:

I believe Wendy was our genie on our Harmony Star class cruise in 2022.  She had just joined the ship; our pre-cruise communications were with someone else.  She was more quiet than others, but overall she did an amazing job.  We were a tough group with kids ranging from 1.5 to 17.  She appeared to manage everything seamlessly.

We are a group of 4 adults and should not be too much trouble. I have heard that she is quiet but if you ask for what you need/want she comes through. I am going crazy with anticipation. Only 19 days to go!!!

[JVPIII]

Update 18 Days to go:

My mom finished the door decorations today and I think they came out amazingly. Dollar store finds magnificently transformed.

Before (ignore the pre packing mess):

 

After:

[SweetPea]

On 9/9/2023 at 2:38 AM, JVPIII said:

I put together some small toiletry kits for the group as a small surprise. 

Are you missing Tide Sticks? I feel like you're missing Tide Sticks.

[JVPIII]

2 hours ago, SweetPea said:

Are you missing Tide Sticks? I feel like you're missing Tide Sticks.

Lol. What is funny is that I actually had them in my cart but realized my mom probably already has two in her purse.

[JVPIII]

Update 17 Days and Counting

Wendy has given us devastating news. The escape room is still non operational on Harmony . Oh well we will still have a great cruise. Also she said she may have a hard time sourcing Dr. Pepper which would be a true disaster for my mother because her addiction crazy. I told Wendy that if she wasn’t able to get some we would bring our own. I just didn’t want to lug on soda when we are in star class. 1st world problems I know.  

[LandstromCruise]

Wonder why the escape room hasn’t opened back up?  We did the one on Oasis pre shut down and enjoyed it. 

[JVPIII]

13 minutes ago, LandstromCruise said:

Wonder why the escape room hasn’t opened back up?  We did the one on Oasis pre shut down and enjoyed it. 

We did the one on Oasis post Covid and had a great time, which is why we were looking forward to it on Harmony. I had heard that it was broken and they were waiting on a part but that has now been almost a year so it looks like it may never open back up. 

[Jax]

On 8/18/2023 at 7:24 PM, JVPIII said:

What has everyone's recent experience with this? If from the Harmony it would be even better as I know different ships do not always have the same rules.

I don’t see a problem. We were in #8730 last Christmas on HM and I was the first to board that sailing and it was close to 11am and we had scheduled an 11:30 boarding time. 

[Jax]

On 9/6/2023 at 6:18 AM, JVPIII said:

Now a little bit of a rant. While I was not surprised that Wendy’s email requested us to pre-book chefs table and Hibachi, as I have seen many people on the blog say this, I was surprised that it came in the initial form welcome letter. It is surprising and disheartening to me that the “all inclusive” and “the genie will make it happen” aspect of Star Class has diminished in this way. While I do understand cutbacks to remain profitable, I do not see how this change helps with this.

This seems to be a grey area that can vary by ship and genie.  We have never been asked to pre book any dining by our genie. The caveat being we may need to be flexible on our dining time at Hibachi.  Our preferred dining time was 6pm and our genie scheduled Hibachi for 7pm followed by late night comedy so it all turned out perfect.  

[Jax]

On 9/9/2023 at 1:03 AM, JVPIII said:

Has anyone had luck recently with a couples pass?

We have had the couples pass on our last 3 cruises but only the single pass is showing in cruise planner for our upcoming cruise on HM this December.  

 

On 9/14/2023 at 5:11 PM, JVPIII said:

The escape room is still non operational on Harmony

It wasn’t open last December either Too bad because they can be fun with the right group.  I was hoping it would be operational by this December. 

 

On 9/14/2023 at 6:04 PM, JVPIII said:

We did the one on Oasis

We did too.  Although it seemed harder than Anthem’s.  Thank goodness we had a couple high school students with current math skills. Lol 

[JVPIII]

1 hour ago, Jax said:

I don’t see a problem. We were in #8730 last Christmas on HM and I was the first to board that sailing and it was close to 11am and we had scheduled an 11:30 boarding time. 

This has been solved. Wendy said do not worry about scheduled time just to let her know when we get there and she will take care of it.

54 minutes ago, Jax said:

This seems to be a grey area that can vary by ship and genie.  We have never been asked to pre book any dining by our genie. The caveat being we may need to be flexible on our dining time at Hibachi.  Our preferred dining time was 6pm and our genie scheduled Hibachi for 7pm followed by late night comedy so it all turned out perfect.  

We are going with the same mentality. We tend to eat around 7 when we are on a cruise so this should work out fine for us. We should have our schedule soon as we are now at 13 days out.

43 minutes ago, Jax said:

We have had the couples pass on our last 3 cruises but only the single pass is showing in cruise planner for our upcoming cruise on HM this December.  

 

It wasn’t open last December either Too bad because they can be fun with the right group.  I was hoping it would be operational by this December. 

 

We did too.  Although it seemed harder than Anthem’s.  Thank goodness we had a couple high school students with current math skills. Lol 

I called the cruise planner department and they told me only the single pass is available now. Wendy however told me that couples pass is available on day one but the price she quoted was more expensive then 2 singles passes so who knows.  Wendy did let us know that each person still gets a 1 day pass included with Star and a one day pass is an additional $35 per pass, so we may just get 2 day passes and use our free pass for our 3 sea days. In true fashion we have not made up our minds about this yet.

[Jax]

11 hours ago, JVPIII said:

so we may just get 2 day passes and use our free pass for our 3 sea days

This is our strategy this time. With busy port itineraries we will probably use our freebies and then purchase daily.

[JVPIII]

UPDATE 9.5 DAYS TO GO

I said before that I own and operate my own travel agency and that is true but I also work as a 911 dispatcher for our local Sheriffs Office. Tonight is my last night of work for the next 17 days!!! Universal Halloween Horror nights this weekend and a cruise in just over a week! YAY!!!

So many things to do and so little time. Short weekend trip to Orlando, then shopping and packing. Stay tuned!!

[SweetPea]

Much respect! I manage ANI/ALI outages as well as loss of PH 0/1/2 to the PSAP as part of my job. I appreciate the ability to work calmly under highly stressful situations.

Where are you staying at UO? Please say my favorite place on the planet, HRH?

And, oh, are you doing an RIP tour at HHN??

[JVPIII]

3 minutes ago, SweetPea said:

Much respect! I manage ANI/ALI outages as well as loss of PH 0/1/2 to the PSAP as part of my job. I appreciate the ability to work calmly under highly stressful situations.

Where are you staying at UO? Please say my favorite place on the planet, HRH?

And, oh, are you doing an RIP tour at HHN??

Thank you. We are the primary PSAP for our county so it can get hectic at times for sure. 

We are staying at Cabana Bay Beach resort. We love the retro vibes and the lazy river is a nice addition. We plan on going up after my boyfriend gets off work on Saturday, eating dinner somewhere in Disney Springs, lounging in the lazy river Saturday morning then going to HHN Sunday night. No RIP tour this time. It is my boyfriends first time. I got fast passes so with it being Sunday in September and with the fast pass it should be ok crowd wise. Rick is not a crowd person so it goes well.

[SweetPea]

People love CBR! Rebecca was a bartender at HRH before she went to Cabana Bay, but I'm not sure she's been back since she had baby London!

Do you have a park ticket for the day also? If so, take advantage of that. They'll have a holding area and some houses open before HHN only ticket holders are allowed in (at least this is the way it usually works). Hard to say what crowds will be like with things back to normal, but i absolutely have my fingers crossed for you guys!! 

[JVPIII]

39 minutes ago, SweetPea said:

People love CBR! Rebecca was a bartender at HRH before she went to Cabana Bay, but I'm not sure she's been back since she had baby London!

Do you have a park ticket for the day also? If so, take advantage of that. They'll have a holding area and some houses open before HHN only ticket holders are allowed in (at least this is the way it usually works). Hard to say what crowds will be like with things back to normal, but i absolutely have my fingers crossed for you guys!! 

We are annual pass holders so we do have a day pass. The plan is to go a little early and get into one of the holding areas so we are released early.

[SweetPea]

Perfect plan! We let our APs expire in the second year of lockdown.  We paid for 2021 and never went so we didn't renew in 2022 for the first time since 2003.  

[FireFishII]

Does anything else think that @SweetPea and @JVPIII were speaking Greek?  I have NO clue on what all those acronyms were all about. Are they even on this planet.  LOL!  Unfortunately, my translator is broken. So, I read thru the messages multiple times and I think I now get it. 

UO - Universal Orlando

HHN - Halloween Horror Night

ANI/ALI outages - an electric/power company?

loss of PH 0/1/2 to the PSAP - PH could be Phase but PSAP???

HRH?

RIP - Rest in Peace?  I guess that would work for HHN

CBR - Cabana Bay Beach resort - that was easy but why not CBBR? Or CBB? 

AP - Annual Pass

Boy, I never worked so hard before to read a few messages.  But it was fun trying to figure out all this Greek.

 

Ευχαριστώ

 

[SweetPea]

1 hour ago, FireFishII said:

Does anything else think that @SweetPea and @JVPIII were speaking Greek?  I have NO clue on what all those acronyms were all about. Are they even on this planet.  LOL!  Unfortunately, my translator is broken. So, I read thru the messages multiple times and I think I now get it. 

UO - Universal Orlando yes!

HHN - Halloween Horror Night yes!

ANI/ALI outages - an electric/power company? No, sorry. Automatic Number Identification/Automatic Location Identification. Federally required to be provided to the PSAP for wireline 911 calls. 

loss of PH 0/1/2 to the PSAP - PH could be Phase but PSAP??? Exactly.  PH is phase. This applies to wireless calls, also federally required. If you have a loss of PH0 it means your wireless 911 call cannot reach the PSAP. PH 1/2 is also location information where PH1 is a general location and PH2 pinpoints it to a certain level of decimal points of latitude and longitude. I'm speaking in general terms here. 

A loss of ALI and PH1/2 would mean the PSAP would receive your call, but have no location info, which the 911 dispatcher would have to ask you for during the 911 call. 

PSAP is public safety answer point (if that is not right off the top of my head, I'm close). This is the center who answers your 911 call.  When @JVPIII says his PSAP is primary, this means his is the PSAP that takes the most traffic in his county. This can also be referred to as the predominant PSAP. 

HRH? Hard Rock Hotel at Universal Orlando 

RIP - Rest in Peace?  I guess that would work for HHN. Yes, it's the VIP tour for HHN which gets you to the FOTL (Front of the line)

CBR - Cabana Bay Beach resort - that was easy but why not CBBR? Or CBB? Good point!

AP - Annual Pass yes!

Boy, I never worked so hard before to read a few messages.  But it was fun trying to figure out all this Greek.

 

Ευχαριστώ

 

Please excuse the work jargon! But I've filled it in when quoting your post! Stop me now because i could go on and on. And on....

[asquared17]

2 hours ago, FireFishII said:

RIP - Rest in Peace

rest assured, this is always what i mean when i use “rip” in my liveblogs and comments

[JVPIII]

8 hours ago, SweetPea said:

Please excuse the work jargon! But I've filled it in when quoting your post! Stop me now because i could go on and on. And on....

@SweetPea Thank for translating. @FireFishII sorry about the jargon it is a nasty side effect of working for 911. That is just the universal jargon and not the non universal codes and shorthand each agency uses to speak. It is a language all its own

[JVPIII]

Made the 3 hour drive north to Orlando today for our weekend in Universal. Here is a picture Rick took in the car on the way up.

He is always making a face in pictures so I’m sure you will see more when we get to the actual cruise portion of this blog.

We decided to spend some time in Disney springs this afternoon and at the recommendation of @OCSC Mike we went to dinner at Chef Art Smith’s Homecoming. 10 out of 10 would recommend.

Here is the current menu if you are interested.

Rick had Country fried steak with mash potatoes and macaroni and cheese and I had fried chicken with green beans. Both were very good!

 

Also for those who were not aware Disney Springs does have an Up, Up and Away so you can pretend it is PDCC. 

[SweetPea]

My list of RC bloggers i need to cruise with at some point keeps growing. 

[OCSC Mike]

14 minutes ago, JVPIII said:

We decided to spend some time in Disney springs this afternoon and at the recommendation of @OCSC Mike we went to dinner at Chef Art Smith’s Homecoming. 10 out of 10 would recommend.

Glad you liked it!

[JVPIII]

As stated before we are staying at Cabana Bay Beach resort while we are here. We have a pool facing family suite complete with kitchenette, living room and split bath.

[JVPIII]

Also before I head off to bed I have to share a great application of “girl math” that I used while at Disney Springs. Don’t know what girl math is? It is delightful and it will save you tons of money. Let me show you:

I had planned to go to The World of Disney store and buy a new Halloween Lounge fly bag which retails at $89. They did not have any at the store. 
I then went to the Lego store and took a $500 Harry Potter set off the shelf and was making my way to checkout when I saw $250 Hocus Pocus set I wanted more.

I put the $500 set back and checked out with $250 set.

Planned spend $589, which is basically $600

Total spend $250.

I actually saved $350.

Please feel free to use Girl Math in your own life.