Harmony Trip Report April 8-15, 2017: A Cruise to Remember!

Introduction

Hello all,

I will be starting a trip report on my recent Western Caribbean cruise sailing April 8th through the 15th on Royal Caribbean International's Harmony of the Seas.

Our itinerary:

Day 0, Friday, April 7th: Travel Day from Hell (I'll get to that in my next post)

Day 1, Saturday, April 8th: Board the ship in Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Day 2, Sunday, April 9th: At Sea

Day 3, Monday, April 10th: Labadee, Haiti

Day 4, Tuesday, April 11th: Falmouth, Jamaica (That was the plan)

Day 5, Wednesday, April 12th: At Sea

Day 6, Thursday, April 13th: Cozumel, Mexico

Day 7, Friday, April 14th: At Sea

Day 8, Saturday, April 15th: Disembark in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and fly home :(

We did this exact same itinerary on the Allure in 2015 (minus the travel day from hell) and absolutely loved it! We did the Eastern itinerary on Oasis in 2014 and still would have gladly taken that if that had been the cruise the week we were sailing. But our spring break fell on a week during which Harmony was scheduled to sail the Western itinerary, which excited us nonetheless since we had just returned from the Allure and loved the itinerary. So we called Royal Caribbean and booked our Harmony sailing 2 years in advance! We also booked our 2016 Liberty cruise while onboard the Allure, and our 2018 Freedom cruise onboard the Harmony- you can say we got extra lucky in that my college spring break next year lines up with my brother's spring break here in the school district (I'm currently a high school senior preparing for graduation). Or maybe it's like that every year, which I doubt, but that would be nice as it would allow us to sail Symphony in 2019, which we are still hoping to be able to do!

Our family:

Me- Kevin, 18

My brother, Matt, 14

My mother, Beth, 46

And the planner of the whole thing- my father, Jeremy, 45 (he plans everything but I'm the one who got them into cruising!)

We love Royal Caribbean and had been on Monarch, Oasis, Allure, and Liberty prior to this. We went on the Disney Dream in 2013 and don't get me wrong, we loved it, but have come to love Royal Caribbean for the amazing ships they have! We have fallen in love with the Oasis-class design, although we also enjoyed our time aboard the Liberty so we booked Freedom for next year as we will get to experience a new ship and 2 new ports of call. We are from the Twin Cities area, living in a suburb of St. Paul, Minnesota and while the weather here was starting to warm up when we left, we all needed a vacation from life!

I will relife the "travel day from hell" in my next post which makes for quite a story, so stay tuned! Once we get past that I'll get into embarkation and Day 1! I hope you all enjoy my trip report, and I apologize in advance for my amateur reporting skills as this is my first TR. I encourage everyone to ask any questions you may have at any point along the way, and I look forward to sharing my experience with all of you here on Cruise Critic!

Subscribed! Thanks for doing a trip report!

Following! :D

Cant wait to read the rest.... Hope we are including pictures....

Thanks for taking the time. I'm Excited...

Following along :D

Look forward to your review. I am thinking of booking an extended family cruise in June 2019 on Harmony doing this same itinerary so very excited to read your thoughts.

I am really interested in this from your point of view. We will be sailing on the Harmony with a group of cousins ages 15 - 20.

Day 0 - Friday, April 7th

Travel Day from Hell, Part 1

This is going to be a long and entertaining story, so grab the popcorn! As much as I don't ever want this to happen again, it all worked out in the end and it sure makes for a fun story to tell! Every year, we fly in a day before the cruise to ensure that we make the ship, and also enjoy the port city. Our plan was to arrive in Fort Lauderdale on Friday afternoon, spend the day at the beach, eat dinner, go for a night walk on the boardwalk before heading to bed to board the ship the next day. This has always worked out just fine for us in the past, but I guess our time for bad luck had come! During my free period at school, I am a student aide in the Principal's Office and was warned in conversation with the office secretary the previous day that there had been several delays and cancellations in Delta flights due to weather and that an administrator at the school was caught up in the debacle. So I immediately texted my parents and told them the news, only to have them tell me the weather where we were going was fine (which it was) and that we wouldn't be affected. Fast-forward to the next day. We arrive at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (I'll just call it MSP from here on out) with all our luggage, ready for a smooth trip and a fantastic vacation. We checked in and everything was good to go, so we went through security and proceeded to the gate. We checked the electronic board to see if our flight was on time, and couldn't seem to find it. Didn't say it was on time, didn't say it was delayed, didn't say it was cancelled, it wasn't on there at all. So we got to the gate ready to wait to board, only for the gate agent to tell us that the flight had been cancelled altogether and to go to the help desk. We should've known something was up when we saw someone giving out free drinks outside the gate :mad: anyway, the help desk line, as expected, was insanely long, so we waited. While my mother kept our place in the line my father attempted to use the wall phones to call Delta directly, which he eventually did but they were no help. What's funny is, remember earlier in this post when I mentioned how an administrator at my school was affected the day before? Well, I ran into her at the help desk line and we had a long discussion about how terrible the situation was and how badly Delta messed up! For the record, she didn't end up flying out that day either, we just simply had to figure something out to get to our ship so we were open to anything! They tried to put us on a flight on Saturday morning that would land in Fort Lauderdale (FLL) by 3pm, which obviously wouldn't have worked as muster would be at 3:45 followed by a scheduled 4:30 departure. So we called the Enterprise location at MSP and were preparing for a 25-hour drive to Fort Lauderdale, we had it reserved and everything. (We drove to the airport but weren't about to drive our own car that far). But with my mother's back issues, we didn't want to have to go through with this, so we tried other airlines to no avail- until American was able to get us on a connecting flight that would have us in Florida by midnight. Of course we got completely robbed on last-minute airfare fees, and because we were paying almost as much for the flight as we were for the cruise, we decided that we would have no choice but to remove our summer Wisconsin Dells trip from the budget. Luckily, Delta did end up reimbursing us for the difference between the 2 flights, so we will able to make that summer trip after all (another annual trip we do, as it's only a 3-hour drive from our area). To be continued...

Definately following but going out now so will check later on and each day...one question, I didn't start reading yet but what cabin were you in and did you find your cabin getting warmer during the night?

May I give you some advice?

Please break up your review with paragraphs. For most of us "older" people, it is very hard to read, very hard on the eyes.

Please continue, sorry for the interruption......looking forward to hearing more!!:D

Thanks for the review. Am so sorry to hear of your flight cancelled. That's awful. Looking forward to hearing more of your story and of your cruise. Nice that you've all cruised so much as a family.

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Day 0 - Friday, April 7th

Travel Day from Hell, Part 2

So we booked our connecting flight with American, and sighed a huge sigh of relief. It would land in Fort Myers at midnight with a layover in Dallas. So my father called back Enterprise and moved our reservation to the location at Fort Myers airport for a one-way trip across the state to Fort Lauderdale upon arrival in Fort Myers. The only problem: we had 3 bags (one for me, one for my brother, and a larger one for my parents to share). My brother and I held onto ours, but our parents checked theirs and somehow, they found room for it on another flight and flew it off WITHOUT OUR PERMISSION. Really Delta? Haven't you made enough mistakes today? So that was the only problem. We were assured it would be at FLL before we boarded the ship the following day, otherwise it would be brought to Port Everglades from FLL and they would have it delivered directly to their stateroom. So we ate lunch at MSP and boarded our flight to Dallas. Smooth flight, we ate dinner in the airport there and were ecstatic that we had made it after all (so far). Talk about a sudden stroke of luck! The evening came and we boarded our flight to Fort Myers, and enjoyed the night lights from the air. Around midnight Eastern time we arrived in Fort Myers, picked up the rental car and drove across Florida. We got to drive through the Everglades, but unfortunately could not see anything as it was the middle of the night. We arrived at our hotel around 2:30 in the morning, received a discount since we spent less time there than expected, and my mother, brother and I got settled in while my father dropped the car off at FLL and retrieved our missing luggage. So needless to say at this point we were all extremely relieved- we made it, we had everything we needed, and we were going on a cruise that we had feared missing less than 24 hours prior! Sidenote: on Day 4, my mother noticed a few guests with luggage and was told by a crew member that 14 guests had missed the ship on embarkation day due to flights. Scary to think that was almost us, since there's no airport in Labadee and we would have missed half the cruise! Anyway, with everything back under control, we went to bed knowing we had a big day ahead. Granted we each only got about 4 hours of sleep that night, so everyone was extremely tired by the end of the next day. Next up: exploring Fort Lauderdale before boarding the ship! I will say in advance, a fair amount of the pictures in this report will be from embarkation day, as this is when I was still connected and able to share. Since we don't pay for wi-fi on cruises, we all put our devices in Airplane Mode before setting sail and unplugged for the eeek, which is actually nice since it allows me to enjoy my vacation without worrying about notifications and such! So after we set sail I kept everything in the room and just enjoyed myself, although my mother always takes a ton of pictures on vacation so I will definitely share those as well. Thank you to all who have subscribed, I hope you enjoy it and apologize again for my amateur skills! I'll be back in my next post, which will be my last post that doesn't involve the cruise itself! See you all in a bit!

May I give you some advice?

 

Please break up your review with paragraphs. For most of us "older" people, it is very hard to read, very hard on the eyes.

 

Please continue, sorry for the interruption......looking forward to hearing more!!:D

No worries! I will do that for future reference, so thank you very much for the suggestion and I sincerely apologize! I should know that as I am currently in a college-level writing class at my high school that can be quite stressful but extremely beneficial at the same time! (And clearing a college credit for me). I promise I'm smarter than I may seem now that I look back on my posts :D as is my first trip report so I have a lot of learning to do, and appreciate your feedback! Thanks for subscribing, and my apologies again!

Definately following but going out now so will check later on and each day...one question, I didn't start reading yet but what cabin were you in and did you find your cabin getting warmer during the night?

Hi, we were in 10206 and 10207. I will most definitely go into detail on the cabins later but to answer your question, I did not seem to notice anything, but can't speak on behalf of people in other areas of the ship. I will say the ship seemed very well air-conditioned, as have all the other ships I have been on. I hope this helped, thanks for following along!

Looking forward to continuing to read your report! Travel day is always an adventure and you never quite know how it will go ahead of time. Glad you made it!!!

Barbara

Day 1 - Saturday, April 8th

Morning in Fort Lauderdale

Fort Lauderdale is by far our favorite port to sail out of. While we were disappointed in having to forgo our planned day there the day before, we were still able to enjoy our morning as usual and were just happy we'd made it and the worst was behind us. After breakfast at the hotel, we took a walk on Fort Lauderdale Beach and except for the first photo, which was taken by me, all of the following photos were taken by either my mother or father. Please excuse my photography skills as well, it's hard to do quality work when you're so excited!

A good chunk of the beach was blocked off due to a country music festival taking place that weekend that was apparently hosting several big artists. Here's me and my mother:

After our walk, my father and I went across the street and made our usual trip to tour the International Swimming Hall of Fame.

They have two competitive pools, each I believe 50 meters long (long course) and 25 meters wide (short course), as well as a full-size diving well with springboards and platforms. One of the competitive pools has the lanes configured for long course, and the other for short course. The long course pool, as you can see here, was undergoing maintenance at the time. I would have done some laps myself if I didn't have a ship to board an hour later!

We went back to the hotel and got everything packed to board, filled with excitement! We took a shuttle to the port and in about 15 minutes, we had our SetSail Passes ready and were preparing to embark on our Harmony of the Seas adventure once and for all! Next up: embarkation. Stay tuned, and thanks again to everyone who's following!

It appears my photos are not showing up. For those CCers who are more experienced than me, how do I effectively place photos from my camera roll into a thread? Sorry again for my lack of experience, again, first time! Thank you all very much for your help and patience!

Never mind, I figured it out with the help of a resizing app. Here are the photos:

Day 1 - Saturday, April 8th

Embarkation

We showed up at the terminal around 11:00 AM, as we had scheduled our arrival appointment during the 11:00-11:30 window and had it printed on our SetSail passes. We went through security, got our individual photo taken, and then family photos in front of a fake photo of the ship, and then we were on the gangway and ready to board!

Having been on Oasis and Allure before, I knew exactly what to expect but was still nonetheless Royally Wowed when we boarded onto the Royal Promenade on Deck 5. I was full of excitement at this point! We went straight to the Windjammer for lunch, then I went around the ship to take photos and live stream before the staterooms were ready- I will share the photos later.

Last year when we sailed Liberty out of Galveston, she was undergoing a Coast Guard inspection that resulted in delayed boarding, and my phone died that first day. I did not want that to happen this year so, thanks to the advice of an extremely helpful user here on CC, I got a portable battery pack. However, it was in the suitcase with my parents in the WJ so when my phone died shortly before the rooms were ready, I just stood in the stairwell lobby on Deck 10 waiting for them to open up. Soon a crew member opened up the corridors and I made it to my room and got my SeaPass card. I was on my balcony when the announcement was made informing guests that the cabins were ready.

The attached photo shows my SeaPass card, which I rarely used due to the convenience of the WOWband. More on that later. Notice how the date on the card is the day we disembarked (the day it is invalidated) as opposed to the day the cruise begins (the day it becomes valid). Next up: cabin, photos & other embarkation day stuff!

Enjoying your report.

We just sailed Allure and booked Harmony for April 2019. I'm looking forward to reading more of your report and hoping to learn some things about Harmony!

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Thank you all for subscribing! I am writing this report not only because I enjoy reliving it in memory and sharing my experiences, but it also helps get my mind off of the current situation- it's a complicated situation, so why not share?

Shortly after returning from the cruise, my mother noticed a small bump on my cat's eye and immediately scheduled a surgery, which went well. However, test results confirmed it to be a rare and aggressive form of feline melanoma, which, if it has spread, may be untreatable which is why I hope and pray that when she goes in for an x-ray on Monday, that it hasn't spread, in which case she will likely still live a few years! (She's 12). She has been acting healthy and recovering quickly from the surgery, and in addition to having a weak blood flow to the tumor, has also not been exhibiting the signs associated with the spread of her cancer so we're trying to stay optimistic, but want to prepare for the worst so that if, God forbid it has spread, the news will not come as nearly as much of a shock. That's why we pray! We lost another cat unexpectedly 4 and a half years ago at only a year and a half old due to a sudden sickness, which was absolutely heartbreaking to say the least. This cat that has cancer now was my 6th birthday present and has been my little girl for the past 12 years, so the news has really hit me hard and this helps me forget about it! I hope she will get better, our family and our healthy 4-year-old cat love her very much!

Sorry for going off topic, just explaining how much this helps relieve the stress and sadness I'm going through! There is plenty more to come and I noticed that for my photos, you have to click on a link. If anyone knows a way to insert photos from my camera roll get them to just show up right here on the thread, please let me know! Otherwise the current method will be fine, I just don't want to inconvenience you but still want you all to see the photos from my vacation! So thank you all for your understanding.

And lastly, what do you think of my method of dividing it up into sections? I feel like breaking it down makes it easier for me to write and for you to read. Let me know what you think, always looking for ways to improve with this being my first trip report! Thank you all again for following, and stay tuned!

We just sailed Allure and booked Harmony for April 2019. I'm looking forward to reading more of your report and hoping to learn some things about Harmony!

 

 

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Thanks for following! I loved the Allure (and Oasis) as well. I mentioned earlier how I help out daily in my high school office, well our principal and her friends all celebrated 40 on the Allure in January and I gave her tons of tips before she left and she came back telling me about how great of a time she had! They did the Eastern itinerary. So we've had a lot of conversation comparing our Oasis-class experiences, and I'm a little jealous she got to sail over my birthday! :D Maybe someday I'll get to do that...

I'm glad you enjoyed your trip. Seriously, pretty much everyone I've talked to who has sailed Oasis class has loved it, I mean how could you not? Stay tuned for more of my Harmony experience and feel free to ask any questions you may have! April 2019 will be here before you know it, and I can say with confidence you'll love it!

I am really interested in this from your point of view. We will be sailing on the Harmony with a group of cousins ages 15 - 20.

They will love it! I never really use the teen clubs, but have heard all about it and seen photos and videos and it is AMAZING. They will have a blast. Additionally, there are activities around the ship for everyone. I promise they will not be let down. Please let me know if you have any other questions, and I would be happy to give you the information you need to ensure you all have the best time possible!