Carnival Cruiser, looking at Harmony of the Seas - compare with Carnival Vista

Hello all!

I am a loyal Carnival cruiser, most recently on the inaugural 11-day Vista Caribbean cruise out of NYC in November of 2016. That ship set the standard for me regarding things to do and food options to try out at least compared to all our previous cruises on smaller/older Carnival ships.

However, my wife is getting a bit bored with Carnival, especially the dining selections (she is a vegetarian) at dinner in the MDR and the specialty restaurants didn't really cater to her tastes. Over the course of that 11-days, I only paid for a meal 1-time in the Seafood shack, the rest were in the MDR.

However, we also went with my in-laws who thought the ship was very crowded inside, especially.

So we are looking at RCCL for our next adventure at the end of September, 2018. We would be going to St Thomas (went there on Vista, and did Coki - would likely do St. John/Trunk Bay), San Juan (Vista, again, went to El Yunque - not sure what else we would do, maybe stay on-board), Labadee (never been, we missed Amber Cove on our Vista trip - similar), and Nassau (never been).

We are looking at the Harmony of the Seas, as my criteria is if we went on the "best" and newest Carnival had to offer, I would like to see how the "biggest" and "best" and "newest" would compare on RCCL to see if we should branch out.

I would be going with:

Myself 36

Wife 34

Oldest daughter 11

Youngest daughter 3

MIL (55)

FIL (55)

We are not terribly adventurous or sporty, so rock climbing is not our thing nor is a stageshow like Grease. We do enjoy beach days, some sightseeing, trivia, arts/crafts, aqua show (definitely would like that), and my oldest daughter is happy as long as there is a pool. Vista had a great waterpark but small pools we never really used Our youngest was too young to swim/waterpark as she was still in diapers. My wife enjoys shopping and activities with the kids. My oldest daugher loves Camp Carnival/Ocean and is into art and making things (Adventure Ocean looks inviting to her). Youngest loved Dr Seuss, but she was too young for organized activities on our last trip on Carnival.

So, how might we fare on the Harmony?

1) I loved Guys Burgers and Blue Iguana. I lived on those for lunch. How does Harmony compare with deck food? I don't need a fancy burger (I liked the classic burgers from the grill just fine) but I like access to quality burgers and other deck goodies. Preferably without charging me every time....We would do Johnny Rockets but not every day.

2) Buffet - how does the Carnival Vista buffet compare to the Harmony in terms of selections, seating areas, general quality? I know that taste is subjective so will leave that out of the mix.

3) Other dining options - is there enough variety without having to shell out a small fee for a lot of things? It';s hard to get a real sense of this by looking. Again, on the Vista, despite the extra restaurants we never felt a need to go to the other restaurants except 1 time.

4) Activies during the day - wife loved the craft and similar programs on the vista. Did a ton of trivia. listened to deck music. How does this compare? We we also on a Journey's cruise on Carnival so had a lot more deck activities like the "old" days on Carnival my kids loved, like frog racing, horse racing, and other activities.

5) Entertainment - Carnival you could generally show up 30 minutes early and get a seat for comedy, lounge, etc. Do I have to pre-book everything before we go? I am most interested in the aqua show and the ice show with the kids.

6) Crowds - I know with 6k+ guests, the Harmony has a LOT of people. However, the ship is almost 80% larger than the Vista and does NOT have 80% more passengers. How are the crowds?

7) Shopping on board - my wife is a fan of logo wear shopping and just window shopping. Vista was a major letdown, I know shopping looks better on Harmony, but how does it compare with other ships?

I am sure I have more questions, but I could really use some help! Cost isn't a major concern as we can get cheaper cruises elsewhere and even on RCCL for the same date. As I said, I want to jump into the biggest/best/baddest that RCCL has to offer. Also, Vista lacked the WOW factor due to the small atrium. It was a beautiful ship, just not as impressive as the 8 story atrium on the Fantasy class, or 11 story on Splendor/Conquest class ships.

Thanks!!!

Other RC vs Vista threads:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2560949

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2521103

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2496456

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2500973

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2447200

There is truly no easy comparison between the 2 ships. We have been on the Vista, our LEAST favorite of all the CCL ships....very closed in, cheapened décor, no WOW factor at all with closed in atrium, awful theatre with many obstructions, movable seats, very, very croweded.....lines EVERY WHERE on Vista (from Comedy show to Lido buffet). We have sailed on a lot of CCL's ships and are CCL fans, however, we went on the Allure OTS last year and leaving in 2 days to go on Harmony (sister ship to Allure/Oasis).

Don't even know where to begin, from the major WOW factor of the ship. Yes, it carries 6K+ pax, but you would never know it. There are so many 'neighborhoods' and venues to be at, that none are particularly crowded (with the exception of the parade down the Promenade - there is only 1 parade, so that gets croweded, and the Lido on embarkation day). Your family may not partake in plays etc, but there is so much to do on this class of ship, that it is ridiculous to even compare it to CCL. You can still go the beach on the port days.....it is the ship itself that I am comparing.

I do feel CCL has better food overall, however, on the Allure OTS it was very good, on par if not better than CCL with their new more limited menus and very tasty overall (but no so on all RCI ships that we've been on).

Try this class of ship for yourself and see....no one can really speak to your own likes and dislikes...all you can do is try it for yourself and see!!

There is truly no easy comparison between the 2 ships. We have been on the Vista, our LEAST favorite of all the CCL ships....very closed in, cheapened décor, no WOW factor at all with closed in atrium, awful theatre with many obstructions, movable seats, very, very croweded.....lines EVERY WHERE on Vista (from Comedy show to Lido buffet). We have sailed on a lot of CCL's ships and are CCL fans, however, we went on the Allure OTS last year and leaving in 2 days to go on Harmony (sister ship to Allure/Oasis).

Don't even know where to begin, from the major WOW factor of the ship. Yes, it carries 6K+ pax, but you would never know it. There are so many 'neighborhoods' and venues to be at, that none are particularly crowded (with the exception of the parade down the Promenade - there is only 1 parade, so that gets croweded, and the Lido on embarkation day). Your family may not partake in plays etc, but there is so much to do on this class of ship, that it is ridiculous to even compare it to CCL. You can still go the beach on the port days.....it is the ship itself that I am comparing.

I do feel CCL has better food overall, however, on the Allure OTS it was very good, on par if not better than CCL with their new more limited menus and very tasty overall (but no so on all RCI ships that we've been on).

Try this class of ship for yourself and see....no one can really speak to your own likes and dislikes...all you can do is try it for yourself and see!!

We are Platinum with Carnival but are thinking of a change. The slow service in the dining room is one reason and same itinerary of Carnival is another reason. After reading a lot on this site, it seems like many of the ships have the problem of slow service in the dining room. I don't want to switch cruise lines and not be happy. We went on one RC cruise years ago but felt like Carnival had better food. We are not hard to please and may end up staying with Carnival-love the free laundry. In your opinion, do you think the Allure would make Carnival cruisers happy? I am not sure we would like the size of the ship. Our favorite large ship is the Dream and we also liked the size of Splendor and Legend. Our next cruise we are going Mexican Riviera 2019 for the first time but I am thinking about January 2020 cruise after that. If we stay with Carnival, I would consider the Carnival Magic for the first time or possibly the Fascination out of San Juan going to some ports we have never been to. Not sure if we would like the Fascination though. People are booking so early now and to get the balcony rooms we want, we have to book earlier. Do you think Carnival cruisers would like the Allure or should we stay with Carnival?

We sailed CCL 5 times and have done our last 9 cruise on RCCL. I have no complaints about CCL, but RCCL offers so much more...especially when you are talking the Oasis class of ships.