pink845

Can I have some clarification with respect to the Continental Breakfast which I understand is still free for the Harmony of the Seas. Can someone who has cruised Harmony OTS of late advise whether we can order coffee and toast and yogurt the night before by placing an order request on the door handle (I do this on Princess all the time) or do we have to call Room Service between 6 am and 11 am to order our coffee and Toast??

Wow, what a lively and contentious topic among all the posters. We are cruising on Harmony of the Seas Dec 2. Ship is heading to St. Maarten and to San Juan and Labadee. Been to these islands numerous times before. Lovely Lovely, very welcoming of tourists and very appreciative for our support during our past visits. Now, in their time of need, if we can help, we are there for them. Yes, it may not be picture perfect, but these lovely people need us to support them with our disposable income - our travel income. Kuddos for RCCL for going back. I can guarantee you that each and every RCCL ship that arrives in these islands will be dropping off loads of food and medical supplies. To those people in the threads who are worried about safety, then, stay on the ship. To those mothers who are travelling with their kids, USE THIS AS A TEACHABLE TIME. Teach your children that disaster happens, and show your kids what disaster looks like. They will appreciate their own home much more. RCCL is not going to be able to make everyone happy. At one point, RCCL changed the Harmony of the Seas itinerary to I believe Costa Maya, Cozumel and Falmouth, then recently changed it back to its original itinerary of SJ and SM. RCCL is running a business. They are also limited on the ports to which the Oasis class ships can visit. They know that irrespective of the the ports visited, many of the 6000 plus passengers on these ships are happy to be on the ship, partaking in the activities that are on board. The islands are the gravy here. The ship is the destination. So I say once more, if you are worried about the condition of the islands, stay on the ship, but that would not be very empathetic towards the folks that are suffering. If you are adamant about not going, then look at the cancellation schedule and take a loss if you so choose but then you will have made your choice. RCCL is pretty accommodating in most respects but they have been through hurricanes before and the know when to cut their losses and when to cruise ahead.

What does Diamond Status mean to me? The free Pre-Dinner Cocktails once I hit Diamond Status in another 8 nights. I can't believe I will get something free from Royal Caribbean without strings attached!!!! What would be even nicer would be free laundry and dry cleaning similar to what I just recently achieved on Princess as an Elite. That was a lifesaver during our Asian cruise this past February. It was so nice to get our clothes cleaned after sweating like pigs on our daily tours.

A secret menu item - bacon. My husband always wants bacon on his caesar salad and he always asks the waiter to get it for him. I have yet to be on a ship (and we have sailed Princess, RCCL Norwegian, Carnival and Celebrity) where the waiter has not been able to get him bacon. It is not on the menu but they do have it at the ready. Just ask if you are a bacon lover. And also, if you want fries, they can get that for you too. Just ask. In fact, on subsequent nights, the waiter asks would you like bacon on your salad. Ha Ha.

We use a foreign exchange company to buy all of our currency prior to leaving our home country rather than the bank as banks do not carry all the currencies, some have to be ordered,etc. but foreign exchange companies (they are everywhere) will have the currency sitting there or will have it the next day for you.

John Bull,

Many Thanks for backing up my statement that using ATMS in Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, etc, China, can be quite a "hassle". We would hate to waste our precious time searching for ATMS, it has always been better for us (and we have traveled extensively throughout the world to bring the currency of the country with us. We do a value comparison of cost prior to leaving using the McDonalds menu in whichever country we are visiting and choose the most appropriate smaller denomination of currency. The smaller the denomination of the local currency we have in our possession, the less chance we will have of getting bilked by a vendor. If you rely on the ATMS in foreign countries, they will only spit out the larger denominations. Also, there are fees attached to using those ATMS in other countries and heaven forbid, my card gets eaten up by a machine.

Seriously, upgraded on Royal Caribbean???? Never in a million years, at least for me. We have been sailing with them a good 20 years and have never ever been upgraded even from an inside bottom cabin to a higher level. Now Princess, we have been upgraded several times even at when buying a Guarantee inside cabin a week before sailing, moving us right on up to balcony. Maybe people do get upgraded but no one in my fellow group of cruising buddies have yet to experience an upgrade from Royal Caribbean (complimentary that is)

We could not print either, so we called RCCL and they told us to use Internet Explorer to access the site. Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox or every other web browser have problems according to their IT person. Once we used Internet Explorer, presto it worked.

For Vietnam, Thailand and Singapore, we simply bought currency at home, brought it with us and hence had no hassle with having to use ATMS in those countries. Souvenirs cheap in Vietnam and Thailand, $50 per day that you are in each port is sufficient. Singapore is pricey - basically very comparable to US so you will need more $ for Singapore put it at $75 a day for souvenirs, t shirts.

In Singapore, we stayed at the Conrad Hilton - the MTR (subway) was right across the street from the hotel - took the MTR directly to the Marina Bay Pier MTR stop and literally walked 10 minutes under a covered walkway to the ship. Easy as pie. You can also do this in reverse. MTR was really cheap.

Dear Av8tor,

Looking forward to your upcoming days of reviews. I sailed on the original Regal Princess in 1993 and will be cruising on this new Regal Princess on June 9th out of Barcelona. I myself will be noting any differences between Regal and Royal (on which I sailed this past December 2013). Have a great time. Sailing anywhere in Europe is wonderful so much more than the Caribbean I find. Your fortunate to have the late dining as it was completely full when I booked but again that was only last week.

Cheers Pink845