Harmony Of The Seas - Maiden Voyage - Live Blog

[Horshamflyer]

No you cannot book online before hand if you are in a JS. I was set to go up there and make reservations but they automatically appeared in my RoyalIQ.

 

I had also heard robes were on request but in both cabins they have been there waiting. Even got 2 when I was travelling with my first timer friend.

 

 

 

 

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Interesting to hear that. No reservations appeared in ours. It's only a little thing but we'll see if they appear on our next cruise on the 19th.

[BourkeBlogs]

Deck 5 Royal Promenade video

 

[Klstaack]

I know you say work is still going on, and the ship isn't completely finished. However, I think the ship looks great in your videos.

[BourkeBlogs]

Deck 8 - Central Park video

 

[kitty9]

An article in today's The Mail made it sound like the cruise from hell. Now, I don't know how much The Mail embellishes their stories, but the photos they published made the ship look really bad. One woman claimed that 90% of the children's areas were not operational. There was a photo of what looked to be a couple hundred unopened boxes stacked to the ceiling in a public venue. And people claimed that safety glass on the top deck wasn't installed. Another passenger said the cruise was sold as an inaugural cruise, but RCI now claims it was never advertised as such, but only as a shakedown cruise.

 

Another passenger claimed that they were offered £204 per cabin (They booked 5 cabins), as on board credit. She claimed that they weren't happy with that since they had an all inclusive cruise and could never spend that amount on board.

[BourkeBlogs]

An article in today's The Mail made it sound like the cruise from hell. Now, I don't know how much The Mail embellishes their stories, but the photos they published made the ship look really bad. One woman claimed that 90% of the children's areas were not operational. There was a photo of what looked to be a couple hundred unopened boxes stacked to the ceiling in a public venue. And people claimed that safety glass on the top deck wasn't installed. Another passenger said the cruise was sold as an inaugural cruise, but RCI now claims it was never advertised as such, but only as a shakedown cruise.

 

Another passenger claimed that they were offered £204 per cabin (They booked 5 cabins), as on board credit. She claimed that they weren't happy with that since they had an all inclusive cruise and could never spend that amount on board.

 

From what we have seen most of the children's areas are operational. We only saw the children's pool closed for a few days.

 

We have seen unopened boxes, but not seen that pile.

 

There is missing glass from the top deck, which is fenced off. I also watched the video from there and disagree with how the content has been portrayed. The zip line has been open, I know, I have been on it and uploaded the video. The opening times have been published in the cruise compass and I believe its only been stopped when its been raining. Also the video from the pool deck with all the contractors on, was I think taken between the 3 night and 4 night cruises when very few passengers were on as we also saw the work, and you will see this in the video tour of the pool deck.

 

However, the cruise was certainly not sold as a pre inaugural / shakedown cruise. We booked direct with RCI and they were advertising it as its maiden voyage and no mention of shakedown or pre inaugural. In fact our booking confirmation refers to it as a 3 / 4 night short break.

 

I think the key issue has been the lack of communication and that RCI should have emailed people in advance to confirm it wasn't finished, confirmed what was outstanding / not working and that there would be a large presence of workmen onboard. If you then had the opportunity to cancel or go anyway your expectations would have been set accordingly.

[moqui_girl]

 

 

 

The service was slow even when seated with the fries being served as a starter then you burger coming out 20 minutes afterwards. This was very odd, as I always expect my fries with my burger and to be brought out claiming they are a starter. The uncharge is $6.95 per person then shakes are an additional $5 each.

 

 

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This happens on all Jonny Rockets on cruises not just on Harmony. However, I've never understand why they do that.

 

 

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[BourkeBlogs]

This happens on all Jonny Rockets on cruises not just on Harmony. However, I've never understand why they do that.

 

 

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Thanks, I never knew that. Although on Anthem last year we were served all at once, however, it was more self service rather than restaurant

[roalina]

May 28, 2016

Hi everyone on Harmony Dec 10, 2016. We are Robbie and Tom from Las Vegas,NV

We booked an OV Balcony #7690. Looking forward to a meet and greet. Has anyone initiated one yet?

[pollux]

Read the European news.

The ship is a long way from being finished.

There is no room service pool closed ect.ect.

[roalina]

May 28, 2016

hi pollux can you please give me the link to european news? Thx

 

robbie and tom las vegas

[AtlantaCruiser72]

This happens on all Jonny Rockets on cruises not just on Harmony. However, I've never understand why they do that.

 

 

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At my local Johnny Rockets here in Atlanta the fries/onion rings always come out before the burgers unless you request them to hold them back. Typical American "diner" service is that food is brought to the table as ready, not as a set meal or defined courses. At Johnny Rockets, as fries and onion rings are almost always ready to serve they are brought out first, while the burgers are cooked to order. I've often had one burger come out several minutes before myself or my dining companions.

 

Go to most "diners" in the USA and food just randomly is delivered to the table, without rhyme or reason. Diners were the progenitors to true fast food places like McDonalds. It is all about fast turn times and getting people in and out.

 

Sounds like Harmony has a long way to go on speed of food delivery though :eek:

[aweller88]

Read the European news.

 

The ship is a long way from being finished.

 

There is no room service pool closed ect.ect.

 

 

Is it the daily mail article that you read? If so I wouldn't really class that as reputable news source it's more of a tabloid. I'd take it with a big fat pinch of salt!

[LisaT91403]

we then headed straight off to the afternoon showing of Grease we were booked into. Again this was a great show.

 

Question about Grease. I realize it is a show with adult themes -- the stage version even more so than the movie. But I am wondering just how "adult" the RCI version is. Are they publishing a warning in the Compass saying that it's for adults? Or did they make a family-friendly version? I know my DS(8) would love the singing and dancing, but I'm not sure if it is too risqué.

[BourkeBlogs]

Question about Grease. I realize it is a show with adult themes -- the stage version even more so than the movie. But I am wondering just how "adult" the RCI version is. Are they publishing a warning in the Compass saying that it's for adults? Or did they make a family-friendly version? I know my DS(8) would love the singing and dancing, but I'm not sure if it is too risqué.

 

 

 

Hi, although we don't have children we think it would be fine. There is no bad language, there are subtle innuendos but nothing offensive at all.

 

However, others may have different views to this.

[BourkeBlogs]

Donne last night was in the MDR and it was ok, although not the best we have had and the service was mediocre.

 

We didn't take a picture of the menu (as I forgot) and we only took pics of the mains which were sirloin and lamb shank. The lamb was a little dry though

 

 

 

The apple pie dessert had also spent some time in the microwave by the taste of it as the pastry was soggy.

 

Over the week we have eaten in 5 speciality restaurants and in the MDR once

 

in general I would say the service and quality in the speciality restaurants has been far superior, especially as the food is hot and fresh every time where as the MDR food seems to be warm rather than hot on an evening

[BourkeBlogs]

It's our last morning onboard and our departure time is scheduled for 07:30 - 07:45. We left our cases outside our room last night and we are all packed up ready to go.

 

For breakfast we decided to try park cafe as we hadn't tried it through the week. Unfortunately the poor breakfast theme has continued.

 

No concentrated juices are available, the dispenser has a sign on it saying out of service, whereby in reality i think the ship has run out based on the last few days. The hot water machine is also out of service and the hot water is in an urn similar to the coffee ones, so is not really hot enough to make tea with.

 

The English muffins looked great with bacon egg and cheese which were under a heat lamp. However when I got this it was cold and I'm not a fan of eating cold fried eggs so haven't bothered and went for a bowl of cereal instead.

 

Breakfast has been one of the biggest let downs for us this cruise as it has been poor every morning, which is disappointing as we both love a good breakfast.

[BourkeBlogs]

One other thing I mentioned a couple of days ago that the cabin toilet hasn't been flushing properly.

 

That issue never really got fixed and it was always delayed by 5 minutes today it's been really bad again and the delay is back to about 10 - 15 minutes from pressing the button to flush it.

[LisaT91403]

Hi, although we don't have children we think it would be fine. There is no bad language, there are subtle innuendos but nothing offensive at all.

 

However, others may have different views to this.

 

Thanks for your quick reply and opinion. Subtle innuendo will go right over my son's head.

 

Thanks again for sharing your trip with everyone, and for taking the time to provide so much great info! Safe travels home.

[BourkeBlogs]

I'll put a comment on once we get off to confirm how the departure process was and will also drop the links on to the blog pages when I complete them over the next few days.

 

I wanted to say thanks to everyone who has been following this thread and thanks for all your comments. Apologies if I didn't answer something specifically but if I missed anything let me know and I may know the answer.

 

Our final thoughts on the cruise is that we will never, ever do another inaugural cruise after this experience. I think going on the ship after a few months would be a much better idea.

 

We also wouldn't go on an Oasis class ship again based on this experience. Despite the ship being huge there seems to be a lack of space in public areas and restaurants leading to some very long queues and poor service. Whilst I realise service may improve over the next few weeks the lack of seating in bars etc is not something that will improve. If anything this will probably get worse as the contractors depart and more passengers board the ship.

 

I also don't think we go on another cruise for some time. The amount of scheduling and booking required for shows and restaurants is very restrictive and we do like to relax on holiday and take it as it comes rather than work to a specific schedule.

 

For those of you who are joining the ship today or over the next few days it's not as bad as reported, it's getting better day by day and is in a much better state than it was a week ago when we departed.

 

I would also like to mention the staff onboard have been working so hard to try and make the cruise enjoyable. They have been given something that hasn't been finished and are having to deal with the consequences of this. In fact the guest services manager who we spoke to yesterday said she felt the ship was not ready to sail and should not have had guests on during this time.

 

You can find some useful information on the links below:

Cruise Compass: http://www.bourkeblogs.com/hotscruisecompass

Menus & Info: http://www.bourkeblogs.com/hotsmenus

[IsanTom]

Great info!

[BourkeBlogs]

Departure was a breeze, 10 minutes from leaving our cabin to deleting the ship, collecting our luggage and being outside.

 

There was no immigration on customs so a really quick process

[Geoffa30]

Departure was a breeze, 10 minutes from leaving our cabin to deleting the ship, collecting our luggage and being outside.

 

There was no immigration on customs so a really quick process

 

Was the ship really that bad? Don't think the people boarding today are going to be too pleased!

 

Thanks for doing this live from, the blog and videos. Have enjoyed them all.

[BourkeBlogs]

Was the ship really that bad? Don't think the people boarding today are going to be too pleased!

 

 

 

Thanks for doing this live from, the blog and videos. Have enjoyed them all.

 

 

 

Funnily enough we were just talking about how people must be feeling who are due to board today after all the media attention.

 

It's not that bad, the biggest issue in our view was not that there were items outstanding it was the fact that this was never communicated in advance exactly how much work was still to do and the number of contractors onboard.

 

It was never sold as a shakedown or preview cruise but as an inaugural / short break. At no time was it advertised it was uncompleted and the price per night is in line with any 7 night cruise. A number of staff also said passengers should not have been onboard and that lessons should have bee learnt from Quantum.

 

One of the main features of the ship, the aqua theatre had remained closed throughout the cruise.

 

Service has been slow, we have had some really bad cold meals, queues have been big but on the flip side we have had some great meals especially in the speciality restaurants and have received great service from our stateroom attendants and some of the restaurant staff.

[cruisemeister8]

I just wanted to say thank you for taking your time to post all the updates, commentary, and beautiful pictures. I have really enjoyed the inside look at Harmony through this thread and your blog.

 

I particularly enjoyed your video tours of the different areas of the ship. You remind me of me, and the way I do video tours! You walk along, loop around the space, peek inside places, look left, look right, look up at signs - it's great! The video tours were just like being there, and they gave me a good sense of what to expect when (hopefully!!:confused:) we get to ride on Harmony someday.

 

I'm usually a quiet reader, but I just had to chime in so you knew your efforts were read and appreciated. Have a great day.