Rewind

We won't be staying up this late (back one hour for the end of DST and back another for us living EST), but thought the combo of these two events is a bit humorous:

Will do. Previous two tests were both done sitting in a lounger in the middle level front of the Solarium.

Correct - we are lowly Diamonds in a Boardwalk view. First time in a Boardwalk and thought we would give it a try (and it was cheap). We did have 6 bottles of water in our stateroom when we arrived.

Nothing in Cozumel (we have been there a few times). In Costa Maya, we are doing a Bike / Kayak excursion through the ship. In Roatan, we booked a private excursion with Victor Bodden.

You should be able to pick a boarding time when you check in using the app. Crowds - there will be some, but we have had good luck on the big ships as they move people around fairly well. The worst times for crowds are when shows let out - either avoid those areas or if you are at that show, wait in your seat a while for the crowd to dissipate. I can update later this week when I have more info. There are two performances of the ice skating show tonight (7pm and 9pm) and one of Columbus the Musical (8pm). Aqua Theater shows start tomorrow, and Grease is at the end of the week. We are booked for Columbus on day three at 3pm (sea day). For those Diamond members, we have been kicked out of the Crown Lounge between 5pm-8pm, reserved for Diamond+ and Pinnacle. The lounge is available all other times though WiFi is Starlink: But for the more fun pics:

Hi all and welcome to an almost live Harmony of the Seas trip report. I’ll have the basic internet package so I should be able to post throughout the week. This will be our third Oasis class ship and look forward to trying out a Boardwalk Balcony cabin. I’ll let you know if we get any notice of what access we have to the Crown Lounge. Quick rundown so far - Stayed at the Country Inn and Suites last night - a bit to close to the motorcycle rally but we were tired enough to sleep through it. Ate breakfast at the Sunflower Bakery and Cafe; I do recommend the grilled cinnamon roll. Took a rideshares to the terminal at 10:45, didn't check my watch but we're on the ship by 11:15/11:30. We had a noon scheduled time but things were moving fairly fast. Checked in to our muster, went up to Windjammer and saw a line to get in, back to Central Park to get lunch at the Park Cafe (we did make a quick detour to make dining reservations at Chops). After a bit of wandering, we grabbed a couple loungers in the Solarium to wait until rooms become available. More to come and I will check in a few times a day - let me know if there is any specific things you want to know.

Diamond here. I don't drink, DW has 1 a night, maybe 2 if we go see a show. Now the evening soda I get and the handful of waters that we use the next day for excursions are quite nice. The biggest benefit for us is the 24 hours of free Wifi each. Benefit to get to D+ would be the two days of WiFi each and reserved seating at shows. If they remove the drink vouchers, will we buy a drink package at a discount? Not a chance. Does Royal have the best loyalty program currently? I think so. But even with that, we are trying other lines as well. Have done one MSC and have both a Virgin and Celebrity coming up; did not like the ship design of the MSC but want to try another layout to see if it suits us better; Virgin - we got a deal in order to try them but otherwise I think they are quite pricey (like more than an Icon sailing pricey).

I use the hotspot option on my phone. Works well if the DW wants to hop online while we are elsewhere on the ship.

We did a one way rental after a cruise - there is a combined Enterprise / National / Alamo rental location just over the bridge. They have a shuttle that runs from the cruise terminals to the rental office - makes it easy. But I will say, get up and get off the ship as early as possible to get on the first car rental shuttle. We did, got in, got our car, and got out just before a mass of people showed up. The rental car is great for a couple reasons - A. Some place to keep your bags as you explore Kennedy. B. You are on your own time table and not someone else's. C. Prices are fairly cheap - I think possibly cheaper than two people booking transport through the cruise lines.

Congrats Chris! We are on Icon in Feb 2025. Maybe we will see you, maybe it will be some other ship in the future. Keep up the great vids!

It's a long shot, but you could see if you can swap to 6305 and 6307 just down the hall. 6305 is the Ben and Jerry's Sweet.

I see you are sailing in April. I will check in November and report back. 😁

I have done many Royal cruises and only one MSC cruise. In general, I think they are more alike than different. But a quick comparison of our one cruise on MSC Seashore: Food quality is a bit better on MSC (pizza hands down is better). Trying to find complementary food on MSC is more difficult; Royal has a good handful of complementary venues and someplace open 24 hours to find food. At least on the Seashore, only the MDR and the Buffet were complementary and everything else was an extra cost. The MSC production show staff did a different show each night. Royal's production cast will do at most two shows, but they also have the Ice Skating show, the Aqua Theater show, and a couple guest performers. I can't compare ship design across fleets with my limited MSC knowledge, but I will say the MSC Seashore felt very much like Royal's Anthem - to me both felt cramped and did not manage crowds very well. I do love Royal but I'm not a fan of the Quantum class design - not saying I had a bad cruise, just didn't like the ship. Same with MSC's Seashore - drove me absolutely nuts that there wasn't a place that passengers who did not book into MSC's suite classes could see where the ship was headed (no public spaces look forward). However, I do think you will be blown away by Symphony. There is so much to do on the ship itself, you might miss a few thing - we did while we were on a 12 night transatlantic on a sister Oasis class.

Yep, I think they announced cabins were ready at 12:50pm.

I think the traffic itself is limiting the flow of people checking in. There were a bunch of people waiting outside but even when we said we were early, they just waved us through.

I should add, check-in was super easy. We left out hotel at 11:45 and we were on the ship at 12:15. Scheduled check-in time was 1:00pm.

Well - we crossed the street all set to walk it... And one of the Port agents was heading in and offered us a ride. It would have been perfectly fine for us as we are in our low 40s, but would not recommend it for everyone.

We have received a couple notices saying traffic will be bad and give yourself extra time. Our Uber driver even said walking would be the better option. Here is a photo from our room at Hyatt Place where you can see traffic backing up between the trees.

We were flying from Columbus, OH to San Juan, PR with a layover I'm Baltimore. In Baltimore we were next in line to depart, pulled onto the runway and got diverted. We couldn't fly through the direct airspace that the military were using and by changing the route, we needed more fuel. Then due to the route change, our flight crew were going to be scheduled over 8 hours so we had to switch flight crews. We got delayed for two+ hours and our flight time was extended by 30+ minutes.

If taking the train, fly in a day early. You don't want to get stuck on the tracks for hours due to a "trespassing incident". Yes I know that probably barely (if ever) happens, but of course it happened to us. We were heading up a day early and had planned to explore Vancouver, but the three extra hours on the train took all our energy out of us.

We might cheat a bit. We are staying the night before in the Hyatt Place that is just at the entrance to the port. While I don't like the idea of walking down the road between the airport and the bay, if the traffic is backed up, it might be easier for us to just hoof it down to the terminal.

We will be boarding Voyager in SJU this Sunday - I'll try to grab pics of what I can.

I only know of one reason - Ben and Jerry's Sweet. We received Cowcierge lounge access at an inside stateroom rate. I don't know if they still do that for "Sweet" lounge access.

While in Houston, check out Goode Company BBQ and Pappas BBQ. Goode Company had the best pecan pie, but in our opinion Pappas had the better meats.

Miami - you have the choice of two airports, Miami or Fort Lauderdale. We normally fly Southwest which has a much larger presence in FLL so we transfer often. Only about 30 minutes between the two cities. The drive from Orlando to Port Canaveral is a bit over an hour - but it is a VERY easy drive. Just bring a roll of quarters for the tolls. Houston to Galveston - again flying Southwest, they go into Houston Hobby airport. Again a bit over an hour between HOU and Galveston BUT do the research on how you are getting there. There is only Enterprise rental cars in Galveston and for a while they were not open on Sundays (then for a while they were when more ships were in, then they were closed on Sundays again... check the current status). Also dropping off / picking up a car in Galveston is expensive. There is a spot in Texas City, but then you need a Uber/Lyft to get to the port. Also - traffic between Houston and Galveston can be a pain. Expect possible delays. (maybe it was an accident when we were there, but traffic was really backed up).