Recent Star Class Cruise from Galveston Review

[Sokko]

My wife and I recently went on a 7 day Western Caribbean cruise on Harmony of the Seas out of Galveston and thought I would share my trip review.

This was our first Star Class experience and we didn't really know what to expect. For what its worth, my wife and I are, what  we believe to be, low maintenance.

We arrived at the terminal around 11 am and the parking lot was busy!!! It took us about 15 minutes to get from the entrance of the lot to the drop off spot for Star class #6. Once there, our luggage was taken by the Star Class Attendant and we were walked right in and the check in process was quick and painless.  We were in the suite waiting area less than a minute when our Genie Claudio met us and another one of his rooms and he took us right in to the ship.  We entered Deck 5 and I asked the Genie if we could get our visit to the muster station done as it was in the main dining hall on deck 5 ( visible from where we were standing). He said he would prefer to take us to our rooms and let us come back later on our own.  Once inside the cabin, a Star Loft, Claudio went over our itinerary.   -backstory

 

The Shore "Genie" Jerryme caused more work than if there would have been no communication before getting on the ship.  He reached out about 4 weeks before the cruise. We exchanged about 3 emails each.  After the first email I'm not sure he read any of the others.  We requested which restaurants we wanted to eat at, mentioned a few we didn't want to go to and he just added all the restaurants whether we wanted them or not.  I also mentioned that we were celebrating my wife's birthday on day 2 and that I was hoping for a cake and some room decorations.  I wasn't too worried because I kept reading that there were similar problems with other cruisers and that the ship's Genie would take care of everything.

Back to Day one of the cruise

 

Our Genie Claudio took care of everything.  Any reservation we wanted, and show any time, he got it done.  No worries.  Days 1-5 there was always some kind of treat waiting for us, Charcuterie boards, chocolate covered strawberries and cookies were the norm.  

 

Day 2 when we came back from lunch the room was decorated for my wife's birthday celebration.  It was a surprise to have this done for her.  It even had a gift from Claudio which was really unexpected and very nice!!  The cake was made from towels.  Not what I expected.  My wife asked me if I requested an edible cake.   I did not, guess that's on me.  Still very nice that they set this up.  We ate at Hibachi. The host sat us then explained to the table what each dining package covered.  Then he looked at my wife and I and said order anything you want it is all covered.  We ordered Sushi ( a full roll) the hibachi and I had a small carafe of warm saki (one of my only drinks).  We received 4 receipts, all totalled 0$.  The only food or drink item that we paid for on the ship was cotton candy on the boardwalk (3.98 each) and a nonalcohol pineapple drink on the promenade.  

 

For dinners Claudio would come in to the restaurant about 5 minutes after we were seated to make sure everything was as expected.  The shows our Genie would meet us outside the venue to escort us to reserved seats and get us drinks if we needed.  For shore excursions our Genie would meet us at the elevators to cut any lines and escort us to the disembarkation location.  

 

Our room steward and his apprentice were great.  Days 1-5 it seemed that any time we would leave the room when we came back the room was made  up like new.  

 

We aren't alcohol drinkers much so we had different sodas in the suite.  When we were low we texted our Genie and almost immediately they were restocked.  We never had to ask again as they were filled almost daily after that.  

 

Day 2 our Genie said there was a flowrider time set aside for star guests at 9am.   That was the only time any star class event was mentioned.

 

Days 6 and 7 were a little different.  I don't remember any snacks in the room.  We did use room service and our Genie said to text him or if we called room service our suite was on a priority list so the food was delivered super quick.  Also on day seven we had 2 tours, the galley tour and the navigation area.  

 

Also on day seven we requested the tip form to have the tips added to out on board account.  Tips are included as part of the Star Class amenities, except for the Genie and room stewards to my knowledge.  We tipped our Genie 750.00 room steward 150.00 and apprentice steward 75.00.  We also tipped anyone that dropped off room service 3-5 per trip.  

 

It was an amazing trip, we had so much fun.  I'm not sure if star class was worth the extra money.  My wife and I agreed that we weren't wowed, but it was a great experience.  

 

Hope this helps if you haven't tried star class yet.  For those that have, is there anything we could have done differently to experience more?

 

[cruisellama]

Nice rundown.  The streamlined embarkation and disembarkation with the Star luggage handling is a favorite perk along with the early access to the suite.

[WAAAYTOOO]

So your Genie AND your room attendant were both named Claudio ?  How easy !

[Babsy47]

My experience was also that the "shore genie" caused more work for the ship genie than had the shore person not existed.  The poor ship genie needed to cancel everything the shore genie had done.