Currently on Harmony of the Seas

[shoegal9]

My husband and I just got off a RCCL 3 night from Miami to the Bahamas. It was a disaster from start to finish.
-Overcharged $140 for my royal up request- still no response from them so I had to dispute it with my credit card
-bought the highest internet package and it never worked except for standard iphone messaging
-the food was terrible. just absolutely terrible. there wasn't one thing in the windjammer or main dining room i would ever want to eat again
-no seating at breakfast in windjammer on the sea day
- requested and confirmed a table for 2 in the MDR, seated at a table for 8
- pretty sure the air conditioning was not running in most spaces
- rainy sea day= nothing to do

the worst of all of it was the spa. After spending $450 on couples massages we were cornered and had products forced on us. the sales pitch for the spa products was so incredibly frustrating and awkward. I just don't need $65 body wash. but after 10 minutes this was still not clear.

as a new Floridian i planned to cruise often but this whole experience was like wow. hoping DCL is a better experience for us for sure.

 

[KashasMom]

I'm sorry you're not enjoying your cruise. We love the Oasis class (Allure over Harmony though) - so much more to do for our family, as well as family friendly shows every night. We also think their buffet is better than DCL. And pools!! SO many pools (unlike Disney). We're just lucky there are enough cruise options for all of us to enjoy!

 

[Cheburashka]

the worst of all of it was the spa. After spending $450 on couples massages we were cornered and had products forced on us. the sales pitch for the spa products was so incredibly frustrating and awkward. I just don't need $65 body wash. but after 10 minutes this was still not clear.

This is unfortunate, but from what I've read, very common about spa treatments on ships. I've read people's complaints about this in relation to spa treatments on DCL, too. Hopefully it's not as bad, but the upselling of products seems to be an unfortunate part of the ship spa "package".

 

[Cheburashka]

as a new Floridian i planned to cruise often but this whole experience was like wow. hoping DCL is a better experience for us for sure.

DCL will have plenty of activities to do, every day, rain or shine. Game shows, trivia, crafts, scavenger hunts, theater shows, character meets, first run movies in the theater, always something going on indoors. There is a covered promenade that you can walk on and watch the ocean, or play shuffleboard, as well. They also have complimentary on-demand movies & other programming on your stateroom TV.

AC will always be working.

Wifi has always worked for me. I don't stream with it, though, so can't answer if that works well or not.

Never been overcharged in my 8 DCL cruises.

Cruise food is usually not as good as food on land because it's mass-prepared, but I've never found DCL food to be bad. I've always looked forward to meals onboard. The adult upcharge restaurants on DCL are very good and I do recommend at least one dinner there.

You will always be able to drop in and get a table at the sit-down restaurant that is hosting breakfast or lunch. And imo that food is better than at the buffet. Not that the buffet is bad, but an MDR breakfast is better.

They will not guarantee a private dinner table in advance of your cruise (unless you sail concierge $$$$), but you can put in a request pre-cruise and might have it granted. You can go to Dining Changes upon boarding to check if your request was granted, and request it again if it wasn't granted.

 

[anjuan]

My son also loved the juice/smoothe bar. Interesting how DCL doesnt have those as they are popular on other ships.

Oasis ships can be huge and does imply more planning for reservations for activities and dining.
My teens found the lifeguards, surf and upper decks staff more engaging ( and hotte, lol) vs DCL.. DCL lifeguards just stand and guard, on royal you have pool deck, sport actvities staff that are great to hang out and chat with.

As someone else stated, DCL have a juice/smoothie bar at least on the dream class ships and I know you could get smoothies on the smaller ships since my daughter always did. Pre-covid they would also make smoothies in the teens club. (I don't know if this has returned yet.)

Also, my teen has told me about some great conversations that she's had with DCL lifeguards and other staff. She had more interaction with them than on our Allure RCL cruise. It probably varies based on the people on each ship.

 

[lilsonicfan]

Actually, we were bored silly on the Oasis. IMHO, RCCL relies a bit too much on the "bells and whistles". If you aren't a rock wall/flowrider/zipline kind of person, there is not going to be much to do. To compound our issue, there was no entertainment staff until the last 2 nights of the cruise as they were quarantined. They did do shows the last 2 1/2 days. Aqua80, I will have to say, was amazing, the ice show was "OK", and CATS was downright terrible...

However, I found that RCCL doesn't seem to do as much of the "during the day" activities (trivia, game shows, etc.) as something like Princess or especially when we were on Carnival Mardi Gras. Could have been due to lack of staff, though.

Also, during our voyage, the Solarium Bistro was closed the entire time.

Last comment. No one comes close to Princess when it comes to Pizza...

I will say that I do not like DCL's pizza at all, but am looking forward to trying pizza on HAL in a few months!

That's really too bad about being bored on the Oasis, but definitely depends on each person's tastes. My kids like kids clubs on DCL, the oldest was in Edge last time, but they really did not "do" very much. And DH was very bored ... it did feel like most of what DCL offered on our Panama Canal cruise was trivia, game shows, and crafts (SO. MANY. CRAFTS.) I was thinking of trying one of the mega ships just to give kids more to do, they would love the rock wall, zipline, flowrider, giant slide from deck 16 to deck 6, etc.

 

[ITGirl50]

We are booked for Wonder of that Seas in May. We did a suite for about the same price as a family stateroom on DCL. I’m a platinum DCL cruiser. DCL is the only cruiseline we have been on. I’m looking forward to other experiences. I’m not happy with the customer support we have gotten from Disney, so why not try others? We do have a DCL cruise booked this year though.

 

[epcotrulz]

Some updates/random thoughts since my last post …

The 1887 Ice show was excellent. Best way to describe it is figure skating, meets Jules Verne love story, meets Cirque-lite.

Dinner tonight at Central 150, I would slot it in between Animators Palate and Palo. For $65 per person, I expected better ….

Had a spa treatment today, the lounge area is half the size of Rainforest on Dream/Fantasy (no hot tubs, special showers or view to outside). Really enjoyed the smoothie bar!

Agree with another that there isn’t enough activities on board. I’m bored … lol. Just a movie to stream in the room would be nice … they seemed more focus on shopping events on today’s sea day than anything.

The Jazz quartet has been excellent. Jazz on 4 has been my place to hang out after dinner.

One day left, and I’m ready to get off here … if anyone has anything they would like me to research or find out about don’t hesitate to ask …

 

[epcotrulz]

Duplicate post

 

[holula]

Cats was two hours of my life I’m not getting back. I did love the Aquashow on Royal and also the ice skating though.

 

[epcotrulz]

I'm sorry you're not enjoying your cruise. We love the Oasis class (Allure over Harmony though) - so much more to do for our family, as well as family friendly shows every night. We also think their buffet is better than DCL. And pools!! SO many pools (unlike Disney). We're just lucky there are enough cruise options for all of us to enjoy!

There are three pools on this ship that I can find that are completely jammed with people, am I missing some somewhere?

There are three hot tubs in the Solarium, but it’s soooo hot in there it’s really very uncomfortable to use them during the day … an adult pool would go a long way to improving the experience…

 

[juliann1977]

Sounds disappointing, OP. So sorry you aren't having a great time. It sounds like you are trying to make the best of your experience.

We were actually on Harmony's first sailing after it returned to service last August--a port intensive Mediterranean cruise. Despite some oddities, mostly because the ship was a ghost town with around 800 guests, we had a great time. That said, we "bid" to upgrade to the best suite on the ship, which was beyond incredible, and had a genie who was responsible for us and one other suite making sure everything went well. We didn't eat in the main dining room, but we really enjoyed all of meals at the specialty restaurants. There weren't a ton of kids on board, and I think that was the biggest disappointment for our daughter (15), who normally makes at least a few, if not many, friends on Disney cruises--she was kind of bored in the evenings. Our son (12) had better luck with that. Entertainment wasn't great, but we didn't really expect it to be. Our port excursions were also odd and not what we would normally do, but that wasn't Royal's fault--they were just trying to work within the confines of what the Italian government would allow at the time. We still had fun and saw a lot.

All in all, we had a good experience and service, accommodations, etc... that for us was better than sailing concierge in a suite on DCL (which is what we normally do), and significantly less expensive than the same itinerary would have been on DCL. Med for a week in a Royal suite on the Magic runs about triple what we paid. The circumstances were obviously very unusual though, and I doubt anything like this would happen again. We have sailed Royal before and like it, but we LOVE DCL.

 

[epcotrulz]

A big part of the disappointment is that the crew is spread so thin. Just had breakfast at Jonny Rockets, the food was good (best breakfast on the ship IMO) and our server was wonderful, she was just assigned too many tables. I felt bad for her, but made sure to give her a large tip and thanked her for friendly service even though I could see how busy she was. (We arrived there at 9, food hit the table at 10)

The ambient music on the ship is grating. Sitting at Jonny Rockets we could clearly hear their music, the pool deck music and something playing at the aqua theater. They need to get some audio techs on here to figure some things out … it’s not at all relaxing. I love a good BGM loop, and miss that detail.

 

[epcotrulz]

About half of the time this is what you get with the freestyle machines

 

[Starport Seven-Five]

We were on Oasis in January and were underwhelmed. Followed that up with Independence in early May... that was the worst of 30+ cruises that I have done. The (included) food on RCCL is terrible IMHO.

Did you try El Loco Fresh on Oasis? That was probably our favorite place to eat on any ship we've been on.

 

[anjuan]

View attachment 675570

About half of the time this is what you get with the freestyle machines

We found a similar situation on Allure in December. I couldn't even find a diet option on multiple days.

 

[epcotrulz]

Well, last night in the ship is a wrap, Grease was just OK. The lead who played Sandra D seemed to have a limited range, and I feel she held back the rest of the cast? The rest of my travel party felt the same as well when we were discussing at dinner at WonderLand.

WonderLand was great!! Good food, atmosphere and service. I guess they pay Disney or Tim Burton some sort of licensing fee?! There was imagery from the Tim Burton film in the restaurant. Food was imaginative and of higher quality then Central 150 and I would say very close to Palo. I do feel the price was high ($140 including gratuity for two), but it was worth it to end the cruise on such a good note.

Anywho, I hope I helped other like minded folks with future cruising decisions. I value my time as much as my $$ and would prefer to spend more $$ for time better spent, so RCL is out of consideration for me (shocker!) for my future vacations.

Off to see when I can squeeze in a weekend cruise on the Dream ….

 

[epcotrulz]

Disembarked at 9:00, was a very smooth process. Was passing time in Windjammer when called … 30 minutes from time called to my car in the parking garage.

Enjoy your Sunday!

 

[DCLCruiseFan09]

Off to see when I can squeeze in a weekend cruise on the Dream ….

We ended up doing the 3 night out of Canaveral on 6/3. Definitely didn't regret getting one more in before she moved to Miami.

Been seeing 35% off cruises on the Dream out of Miami advertisements. Best of luck finding a good discount!

 

[epcotrulz]

One last report, we were charged for two drinks on our final statement and didn’t notice until after we left the ship. I don’t drink alcohol and this happened three other times during the course of the cruise. Thirty minutes spent on the phone they agreed to refund those erroneous charges as a “one time courtesy” …