A Harmonic Voyage Home, a Harmony Transatlantic video series (& 18,000+ photos)

Time for another sailing media overload. Unfortunately unlike previous sailing I haven't gotten the photos uploaded yet, just sorted. The videos are starting to go live though so it's time to start the journey on the Harmony of the Seas October 23rd 13 night transatlantic sailing from Barcelona to Ft. Lauderdale, but for me it was a total of 24 nights starting on October 14th.

Itinerary:

• Friday 10/14: Depart Newark
  
• Saturday 10/15: London and the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel
  
• Sunday 10/16: Eurostar to Disneyland Paris
  
• Monday 10/17: Disneyland Paris
  
• Tuesday 10/18: Disney's Hollywood Studios
  
• Wednesday 10/19: Paris and the Louvre
  
• Thursday 10/20: Disneyland Paris
  
• Friday 10/21: Flight to Barcelona
  
• Saturday 10/22: Barcelona
  
• Sunday 10/23: Harmony of the Seas Departure from Barcelona
  
• Monday 10/24: Palma de Mallorca
  
• Tuesday 10/25: Day at Sea
  
• Wednesday 10/26: Malaga
  
• Thursday 10/27: Day at Sea
  
• Friday 10/28: Day at Sea
  
• Saturday 10/29: Day at Sea
  
• Sunday 10/30: Day at Sea
  
• Monday 10/31: Halloween at Sea
  
• Tuesday 11/1: Day at Sea
  
• Wednesday 11/2: Day at Sea
  
• Thursday 11/3: Day at Sea
  
• Friday 11/4: Three Sisters at Sea
  
• Saturday 11/5: Depart Harmony of the Seas for Hollywood, FL
  
• Sunday 11/6: Hollywood, FL
  
• Monday 11/7: Hollywood, FL then fly to Newark
  

So this was obviously a very long trip, about 3 days longer than last years mega west coast journey, which started with a cruise and ended with Disneyland. Since I'm waiting to edit the Disneyland Paris videos until the cruise videos are done and don't have pictures uploaded yet I'm going to save the land leg for the end and start with the cruise, specifically the end of it when the three sisters met. I'm not sure who thought it was a secret since Royal Caribbean emailed everyone about it a few days before boarding, but all cruise long their seemed to be a running theme of people asking about the worst kept secret that wasn't a secret. That of course was finally put to rest with the highlight of the sailing, the historic Three Sisters Meeting on Friday November 4th.

Leading up to the event the Captain had revealed some information on the timing, which varied by a few hours depending on the day it was mentioned, and that the layout that would involve the ships in age order with Allure of the Seas off our port side (Oasis of the Seas next to her) and fire-boats and Florida off our starboard side. This held true and on the day of the event the timing started to firm up with the expectation that they would be visible on the horizon at 3pm with Oasis waiting and Allure being the last to join with the official event taking place about 4pm and lasting an hour or so. In reality while Oasis had the simplest of reroutes to make the event she was last to arrive while Allure who went farthest out of her way was visible waiting on the horizon a little past 2pm.

It was an exciting day from then on as the top deck filled up with everyone wanting to watch the ships meet. Royal Caribbean even ran a photo contest on twitter and instagram with all guests being provided complimentary Voom internet from 5pm-6pm in order to participate. I did a lot of work all sailing getting interviews and filming every inch of the ship, so I was able to get a bit of a heads up on how things would operate during the event. While nearly everyone was packing the pool deck, the rest of the ship had a team of crew members trying to build the appearance of activity with FlowRider demos and the Aquatheater running. I also learned that the ships would form three positions, staggered with us farthest back, in parallel, and staggered with us in the lead. Knowing this I started out on the pool deck, then moved to my deck 9 balcony, back to the sports deck, and finally down to the Boardwalk which while nearly empty actually provided some of the most amazing and unique shots of the whole event. You can of course watch the whole event unfold and all the different locations (Aquatheater is about the last half hour) and arrangements in my video below.

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I hope you enjoy, and while I unfortunately do not have the photos uploaded yet to embed in this post they will be coming along with many more videos covering all the different events, arrivals & departures, and of course my signature ship tour and theCruiseView info vlog series. Stay tuned for more and of course if you have any questions please post and I'll try to answer! I had the opportunity to talk to a lot of people onboard and learn a lot of things (much of which you'll get to see in theCruiseView) so I'll try to help as much as I can while rolling out my videos and stories.

Nice! Really looking forward to this. Love your detailed reviews and videos.

Interesting start. Will be following along.

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Another follower here.:)

Subscribed!

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This morning I've got the Captain's Corner from the transatlantic. This took place on the 25th, the 3rd night of the cruise and yes that is weird and great! If you've followed my previous cruises I've long complained about Royal Caribbean's unwillingness to differ from routine to make things work best for the individual itinerary, and that was certainly not the case with this sailing. Royal Caribbean as a company really disappointed me in 2014 with their level of stubbornness and lack of concern for the guests, but they pulled a complete flip flop with this sailing and that was clear starting with this event. I was actually so expecting it to be on day 2, a port day, that I had accounted for it in all of my planning and show reservations. Luckily looking in Royal iQ I was able to see future days and known they had moved it to day 3 and change my reservations around in time to accommodate it without any issue. I'll be touching on several of the things Royal Caribbean did that were a pleasant change from normal, but this was certainly one of the biggest IMO as it has been a long time complaint of mine and was certainly appreciated and made the entire night much easier to enjoy.

The event itself was rather empty. I'm guessing with so many C&A members onboard this event is low on many people's list, but I always enjoy them and the emptiness of the Promenade was certainly a welcoming change from the packed crowds it usually has. Compared to some of the other ones I've attended this was a really simple and brief event lasting just 10 minutes. The unfolding bridge is gone on Harmony so instead the captain stood above what was the Cupcake Cupboard on Oasis and the crew lined up along a walkway above the Boot & Bonnet Pub. The captain did all the announcements and the only other person to speak was the International Ambassador as they often do. We got some of the numbers on C&A members, but no overly detailed demographics like we sometimes receive.

Guests: 5,385

C&A: 4,401

New: 984

Countries: 63

Crew: 2,190

Countries: 79

The one thing that I noticed with this Promenade though starting with this event was that the lack of a folding bridge really was noticeable and had an impact. There were not big crowds for this event so it wasn't too bad, but if you were down by the Rising Tide bar on the other side of the band stage you would have had a terrible view of the officers. While the Promenade is big and can handle a lot of people, the lack of a bridge seems to severely limit it's functional viewing space to just a small area directly in front of the pub. Knowing their wasn't a bridge I asked in advanced to find out how the event operates to make sure I got a good spot, but there really weren't many compared to the rest of the fleet where the centrums and promenades have highly visible stages. You can watch the full event below, enjoy!

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I've got another video this afternoon, and Picasa needed to scan my library for a full day, so I haven't started uploading photos yet, but hopefully that'll happen tonight so I can start including photos to explain what I'm saying.

Following here too! :)

Hey DEI... I really hope all CC'ers follow this thread. Your Quantum thread was genius and one of the best series I have ever seen on Cruise Critic. I know how much work and time it takes to put together even simple reviews, so I thank you for all of your hard work and effort in putting all of this together for us to enjoy. :)

Btw... I loved about 1hr into the video when you panned over to the Viking Crown and had Allure's reflection on the windows, that was cool :)

Thanks everyone, glad so many people have enjoyed my past threads and are tuning into this one. I've got the second welcome event of the sailing, the Cruise Critic Meet & Mingle which actually took place the morning of the third day. This third day was our preview day of what was to come and while day 3 sounds like a while into a sailing; when day 1 is boarding, 2 is a port of call, day 3 was really feeling like the first day of the cruise and a tease of the 9 that would come later. So to start out the morning with a big event like the Cruise Critic Meet & Mingle and end with the Captain's Welcome Reception was a nice sandwich of a day.

I've got to admit I'm not a big M&M person. Social events just aren't my style, but every time I'm on a new ship I make sure I go as there often extra special events and stories shared. This was of course no exception and without a doubt the biggest I've attended. The event was so big they had to hold it in Studio B instead of the usual Dazzles. Prior to it I attended the David Kirkpatrick lecture in the Royal Theater and after leaving it was a standstill all the way to Studio B as everyone was trying to get to the event at the same time. I think it may have been the most crowded I saw any spot on the ship until the top deck during the Three Sisters meeting. Entering Studio B they had several of the officers greeting the guests and handing out raffle tickets. Then inside they had food setup along either side along with drinks including cans of soda.

To match the size of the crowd that attended the event instead of being hosted by the activities manager, with maybe an appearance by the CD if he has time, it was actually hosted by the CD Abe Hughes with the assistance of his AM Tino Jackson. Both were hilarious and had great chemistry for only their 3rd day working together. In addition to the two of them and all their fooling around Captain Gus Andersson made an appearance with his new segway like ride that he's sharing with Captain Johnny. I've attended several of these and never record them, but with how big the event seemed to be and knowing Abe would be hosting I knew I had to record it and it was certainly worth it with several memorable moments thanks to Abe's quick talking and Tino's quick legs.

My only regret is that I ate breakfast prior to the lecture and wasn't hungry because they had so many tasty snacks, including mozzarella sticks which I never saw again. I'm sure I could have said something to anyone and gotten some on the spot at any point, but I'll mention that a bit more later when I go into the food onboard.

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Hey DEI... I really hope all CC'ers follow this thread. Your Quantum thread was genius and one of the best series I have ever seen on Cruise Critic.

100% agree.

Anxiously following along. Thanks for taking the time to do the review.

I've got the photos uploaded. When adding the nearly 700 photos from my iPhone it crossed the 19,000 mark. I use picasa since it auto watermarks the photos on upload, which has now been folded into Google Photos. While the google photos interface is nice for scrolling through and looking at an album, they unfortunately don't have any kind of public listing of albums so you have to use the individual links to access each album.

• Europe - October 15, 2016 - London, England (480)
  
• Europe - October 16, 2016 - Disneyland Paris (430)
  
• Europe - October 17, 2016 - Disneyland Paris (819)
  
• Europe - October 18, 2016 - Disneyland Paris (561)
  
• Europe - October 19, 2016 - Disneyland Paris with Excursion to Paris (672)
  
• Europe - October 20, 2016 - Disneyland Paris (808)
  
• Europe - October 21, 2016 - Barcelona (581)
  
• Europe - October 22, 2016 - Barcelona (300)
  
• Harmony of the Seas - October 23, 2016 - Barcelona Embarkation (452)
  
• Harmony of the Seas - October 24, 2016 - Palma De Mallorca (1175)
  
• Harmony of the Seas - October 25, 2016 - Day at Sea (960)
  
• Harmony of the Seas - October 26, 2016 - Malaga (1628)
  
• Harmony of the Seas - October 27, 2016 - Day at Sea (744)
  
• Harmony of the Seas - October 28, 2016 - Day at Sea (324)
  
• Harmony of the Seas - October 29, 2016 - Day at Sea (412)
  
• Harmony of the Seas - October 30, 2016 - Day at Sea (455)
  
• Harmony of the Seas - October 31, 2016 - Halloween at Sea (975)
  
• Harmony of the Seas - November 1, 2016 - Day at Sea (1900)
  
• Harmony of the Seas - November 2, 2016 - Day at Sea (1260)
  
• Harmony of the Seas - November 3, 2016 - Day at Sea (1292)
  
• Harmony of the Seas - November 4, 2016 - Three Sisters Meeting at Sea (1368)
  
• Harmony of the Seas - November 5, 2016 - Ft. Lauderdale Debarkation (728)
  
• Florida - November 6, 2016 (573)
  
• Florida - November 7, 2016 (55)
  

There are a lot of photos here, obviously the European days cover what you would expect them to. For the ship days a lot of photos are from the shows. I got a new video camera that unlike my old one doesn't have a buffer period when taking pictures which means there is nothing slowing my trigger happy finger down. There are obviously photos of Harmony throughout, but the majority of my filming for the Complete Ship Tour and Neighborhood Tour videos occurred beginning October 31st and while filming those I'm continuously clicking off photos so you'll find pictures of every inch of the ship within those later albums.

Now that I have access to photos to touch back on the videos already shared and events mentioned. Here is a photo of Captain Gus on his new ride.

The team that made everything happen on this sailing.

And of course those mozzarella sticks I stupidly didn't make room for.

Then from our Captain's Welcome Reception we've of course got all of our officers above the pub.

And the captain above the shop.

One of the odd things about this area, while they didn't have an unfolding bridge, they did still have the pole that it comes to rest upon when open.

There is actually a bridge or two like it in Europe that I've seen, but they were all made just before or around the original pair. I'm wondering if they saw that bridge and got them made for Oasis and Allure, but now that it's later couldn't get another on made for Harmony.

Today I've got a pair of question and answer session starting with the Captain's Corner this morning. This event took place on November 2nd and was actually the fourth of the captain's information sessions following the three Nautical Notes lecture sessions.

This event featured the Food & Beverage Director Catalin Buta, Chief Engineer Ivo Marenic, Captain Gus Andersson, and in a change from the usual instead of the hotel director or environmental officer the Cruise Director Abe Hughes was an official part of the panel rather than just the host. This was one of the odder and more humorous captain's corners I've attended. I'm happy to say that (likely due to the number onboard) nobody started their statement off with their crown & anchor level. There were also very few if any angry complaints, more just genuine questions and a lot of really wacky statements. I think this event may have offered the least amount of actual technical information because of the question set, but it was certainly interesting and funny to watch. It all ended with a special surprise from the Captain that you'll have to watch to see.

Here is the video guide:

*) Introductions (00:57)

1) Can we go faster to get to the US satellites by the Cubs game tonight? (03:13)

2) Why are the swimming pools filled so high they overflow? (04:36)

3) Why can’t we get a baked potato? (06:02)

4) How do you determine who gets a lifeboat? (07:50)

5) Could you tell me about your scooter? (09:58)

6) Could news feeds be made available on Royal iQ (11:43)

7) Do any of you cruise when not working, if so what would you ask at the Captain’s Corner? (13:19)

8) How do you determine the height of the waves, and what were the biggest? (16:10)

9) Any plans to sail around the horn again? (19:48)

10) Any plans to Americanize the Boardwalk Dog House in the Caribbean? (21:10)

11) What are some demographics on the guests this sailing? (23:42)

12a) Do you still shoot stars? (25:14)

12b) Are you the senior captain for Royal Caribbean? (25:30)

12c) Why do you run out of chocolate ice cream and splenda? (25:42)

13) Captain, did I meet your cousin? (28:13)

14) Why is the ships time wrong? (30:57)

15) Isn’t it better for muster stations to be at the lifeboat? (32:38)

16a) Fixed vs rotatable azimuth pods? (35:15)

16b) Can the European shipyards sustain the growth of the industry? (38:03)

17) How do you plan for all the turnover and changes? (41:29)

18a) Why is there no pool in the solarium? (44:39)

18b) Why is there no Freestyle Coke machine on the Boardwalk? (46:44)

19a) Why do you use brown eggs? (47:41)

19b) Is the lemonade sugar free? (48:26)

20) Are we still going to meet with the sisters? (48:42)

21) The first time cruiser mentioned that the captain needed to be pointed in the right direction. (52:00)

22) Could iFly be added to Harmony 2? (53:02)

*) Close (55:08)

*) Captain wants to play with the band (56:10)

[YOUTUBE]8Rw4OjHJ6lg[/YOUTUBE]

spoiler

spoiler: really wish Cruise Critic had the spoiler function like many other forums.

spoiler: hope you've already watched.

The captain ended the event by doing a quick performance with the band. It was certainly a special way to end it and I certainly wasn't expecting it. I can't tell how much Abe was acting vs actually not sure what the Captain was able to do but he certainly knew how to entertain an audience. If anyone has ever sailed with Captain Gus before I'd love to know if this is something he does at every Captain's Corner or truly something rare.

You can of course watch the whole event unfold and all the different locations (Aquatheater is about the last half hour) and arrangements in my video below.

 

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This is incredible. The sounds make it even more wonderful, feel like I'm on the ship too. Sadly I was not :)

Thank you so much for this!!!

The second question and answer sessions that I've got is the Meet the Stars event held on November 3rd. This one took place in the Aquatheater under a very hot sunny day. I filmed a pair of interviews up on deck 7 just prior to it and stuck around up there thinking I would have a nice unobstructed view of the stage, but they ended up sitting on the edge of the pool so I had a bit of a harder angle than I would have liked. I also have to apologize about the audio on this one, the pool is a bit noisier than I expected, I'm not sure moving somewhere else would have helped this one.

This event is a little rarer. I've only been to it one other time when it was held on our Independence of the Seas Transatlantic in 2012 and during that sailing it was a very small and intimate even held in one of the conference rooms and only open to Crown & Anchor members. The only other time I've seen something like this would be the Two70º Technology Tour on Quantum of the Seas which featured a brief talk about the venue and then an open Q&A with some of the cast and crew of that theater. This even though was open to the public and featured only performers with no stage crew involved and brought all 3 casts together to talk.

Cast Members (top right to bottom left):

*) Royal Theater Cast: Nick Hayes

*) Royal Theater Cast: Laura Sillett

*) Royal Theater Cast: Joe Giacone

*) Ice Cast: Klabera Komini

*) Ice Cast: Steven Groussard

*) Aquatheater Cast: Sydney Brown

*) Aquatheater Cast: Audrey Houle

Questions:

*) Introductions (01:19)

1) Sandy, a friend of yours is my boyfriends niece. (03:26)

2) Do you take your ice skates on and off for costume changes? (04:07)

3) When is the iSkate show, what is it? (05:03)

4) What are your future goals? (06:22)

5) I thought you were going to be Cinderella? (08:59)

6) What happens after your contract ends? (09:47)

7) I wish a Grease soundtrack was available. (13:40)

8) Is Hideaway Heist going to happen? (14:15)

9) Do you aspire to Broadway and is this a stepping stone? (16:58)

10) What’s it like being away from your family? (20:08)

11) Difference in ice skating from start to end of show? (21:22)

12) Ice skaters, what’s the biggest risk for you? (23:22)

13a) What do you do when not performing? (24:56)

13b) Do you pay royalties for the music in Columbus? (25:18)

14) What is the shortest costume change time? (27:50)

15) The shows on this ship is second to none. (31:50)

16) Do you ever have trouble falling back into your English accents? (33:43)

17) Do you know what the next new show will be? (35:30)

*) Close (36:59)

Ironically while these were the entertainers there was no surprise performance at the end, though the Aquatheater cast did immediately go into some testing and practicing in preparation for Hideaway Heist later in the day. As you can see from the question list this event was shorter than the captain's event, but still had some interesting tid bits. It would be great if this became as standard an event as the Captain's Corner, even if only on Voyager+ ships, as the casts do have a lot of talent and interesting details from each show to share. On land people go out to see a show and then go home. It's unique to the cruise industry that we can see a show, and unique to Royal Caribbean that the shows are of such quality, and then live in the same small space as the talent that performed in it. We get to bump into these cast members throughout the sailing in the various dining venues or even on the pool deck, sometimes without even realizing it, but it's not often they get a formal setting to actually sit down and talk to the guests about just what is involved in these incredible shows that they put on several times each sailing.

Well I'm guessing it would have helped if I actually included the links to the Meet the Stars video yesterday.

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Today I'll be sharing the three lectures that Captain Gus Andersson gave as part of his Nautical Notes series. These were held every other day at 2PM starting on the 27th and actually flowed into the Captain's Corner on the 2nd at 2PM for a fourth event.

Captain Gus was the take out captain for the Harmony of the Seas so he had a blend of photo and information slides, along with construction videos from Royal Caribbean, and his own personal stories and details from his experience. It's not often a captain gives a lecture series, and it's even rarer to be able to here about the construction and delivery of a ship by the captain responsible for taking her out so this is a special event and was well attended.

The lecture lasted about 30 minutes and was followed by a question and answer session that actually went on for nearly an hour. The questions were supposed to be based around the construction of the Harmony of the Seas, but as you'll see in the video it ended up morphing into a Captain's Corner preview session. During the next two lectures Captain Gus was very clear about it not being a Captain's Corner, but during this first one it really did become a bit of one.

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Thanks for taking the time to post all your photos and videos.

My husband and I were on this cruise and had a great time.

I still haven't had a chance to put my review together, but hope to get around to it this weekend. (I've been sick since the Tuesday after we got home. :( )

Thanks for taking the time to post all your photos and videos.

 

My husband and I were on this cruise and had a great time.

 

I still haven't had a chance to put my review together, but hope to get around to it this weekend. (I've been sick since the Tuesday after we got home. :( )

I've been sick since the cruise and still have some stuff going on. For the first week I couldn't get anything done. It seems like almost everyone has been sick since the cruise. I had an annoying cough onboard the ship, but completely lost it in Florida and it came back with vengeance on the last day when we headed to the airport. I'm really curious what the numbers are because so many people have commented and said they've been sick since then that I have to believe it's a rather high number.

Out of the three lectures that Captain Gus Andersson gave this was probably farthest from his wheel house, and it was ironically famous navigators. During this lecture he talked about the different navigators that sailed around the world and discovered new lands. He explained some of the routes they took, the different water ways, and how technologies have changed. He once again ended the lecture with a much shorter question and answer session that stayed more on point.

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The third and final Nautical Notes lecture took place on October 31st, and like the first took the focus back onto the Harmony of the Seas and back into the captain's wheelhouse. This lecture was all about the ports of call that the Harmony of the Seas has made up to this point. It featured a fairly defined pattern of a technical navigation diagram of the port so that the captain could explain the procedures for docking as well as any oddities or concerns with it. For most ports he had a story or other information to share about the times that Harmony has made the maneuvers under his command. From there he then went through a photo tour of some of the tourist attractions in that port of call. He did this for each of the ports that the Harmony of the Seas docked in starting with the departure from Saint-Nezaire France, through Southampton and Rotterdam, and the usual 7 night Mediterannean route to end with our one off port of call in Malaga. Afterwards he did a brief preview of some of the ports of call that Harmony will have to make once in the Caribbean.

At the end he once again went through a question and answer session on the ports of call. This started out with a rather uninformed guest who was later referenced in the Captain's Corner. You'll have to watch the start of the question and answer section to see.

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Spoiler

Watch the video before seeing the spoiler

Don't spoil the fun of seeing Leroy

With tomorrow being Thanksgiving, while the Harmony of the Seas doesn't "celebrate" it, they do celebrate nearly every other holiday in the Let's Celebrate! parade on the Royal Promenade. They put this parade on twice during the Transatlantic sailing. This video is from 7:30 PM on October 26th and was filmed on deck 5 by Sorrento's. People started getting their spot for the parade hours in advance. Halloween was even crazier, but the fact that it was for a parade was surprising. Similar to the Captain's Welcome reception though, the way the Royal Promenade is designed severely limits the viewing area even though it is so large. The floats and performers travel the entire promenade, but only perform in the area in front of the pub and Sorrento's. If you at the Cafe Promenade or closer to the Rising Tide Bar, or at the other end by Boleros and On Air your not going to see very much. That leaves a rather small area, that ironically since they don't have parades due to their size, is about the size of the main square of the Royal Esplanade on the Quantum class ships. I remember watching the parades on Oasis from the end of the Promenade and the view being just OK since the angle was so sharp, but this seemed much worse since it was entirely on ground level in one area with nothing really elevated unlike Oasis's parades.

The parade starts out with the "police" (mainly sports staff) blowing their whistles as they walk the route ensuring that everyone is clear of the performance area. They then head to the end of the Promenade and things begin with them riding through on bikes.

The parade follows a more traditional on land parade feel with a pair of hosts commentating all the festivities and a series of floats with dancers creating each segment to represent the different holidays.

The big finale is when cruise director Abe Hughes surprisingly joins the party on the Rising Tides Bar to do a New Years Eve countdown to end the celebration.

Not everyone enjoys the often corny parades, but I always do. I think Let's Celebrate! was certainly a step above the others in terms of quality and concept. It's a rather simple concept on the surface but it felt like a much more polished "performance", rather than the usual themed atmospheric event with people walking the route.

You can check out the video from deck 5, and I'll have a video from deck 6 looking over the second performance of the parade this afternoon.

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The second performance took place at noon on November 4th, just after the captain's noon announcement (yes, they are back on Harmony after moving to the TVs on Quantum). I'm not sure if they typically perform the parade twice or it was just because the sailing was so long, but the second performance was noticeably emptier and people showed up closer to the actual parade time, about 30 minutes early without issue. It was a beautiful sunny day out so that could have been the reason for the smaller audience as well.

For the second showing I was on deck 6 at the top of the stair case to the Focus Camera shop. From up there you get a great view over the entire performance area and can even see down to the staging area at the other end of the Royal Promenade.

This is likely the only spot that you can get an almost clear view of the entire performance area. The Schooner Bar on the other side can't see the commentator stage as well as this area can.

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Nice photos. Following along.

Looking forward to it.