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A Review of Harmony's First Christmas!

rodenboy

By rodenboy,
in Royal Caribbean International

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rodenboy

rodenboy

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As I briefly touched upon earlier, the winds for the first few days were insane. We could barely go up to the top deck and walk across because the winds were so strong. Many of the Fine Line performances were postponed until later in the week. The winds never really calmed down the whole sailing, but they were particularly bad on the first three days. Overheard some cruisers say they had never seen anything like it. How many cruises they had been on though, were anyone's guess.

 

Still, the motion of the ocean made sure everyone slept like babies for the week!

 

 

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ColoradoGurl

ColoradoGurl

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Seems everyone already knows who he is ;)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To be fair, i'd buy one of those suits for a laugh which I guess is the thing Abe was going for. It isn't a flattering suit but I guess that's the point haha!

 

 

If you want a Christmas suit check out tipsy elves dot com. If you look right now they may have them on sale so you'll be prepared for next year, but they also may have pulled them from the site already, in which case you'll have to check back next holiday season and buy them full price. Great quality though, and well worth the price.

 

 

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rodenboy

rodenboy

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If you want a Christmas suit check out tipsy elves dot com. If you look right now they may have them on sale so you'll be prepared for next year, but they also may have pulled them from the site already, in which case you'll have to check back next holiday season and buy them full price. Great quality though, and well worth the price.

 

 

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I'll check it out, thank you!

 

 

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rodenboy

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Day 4: St Maarten

 

St Maarten is by far, my favourite port and once again we were not disappointed. This time we chose to explore more of the island than just Maho Beach and so we booked a tour through Bernards. I'm not sure as to whether we are allowed to advertise as such but I can give no higher recommendation to the company whatsoever. The staff were so friendly, so helpful and accommodating to our requests (we booked a Private tour) and the van, which was very spacious for five very tall guests, was also kitted out with adequate A/C and a cool box with a selection of alcoholic and non alcoholic beverages. We stopped at multiple sites including Marigot and Orient Beach (if that is the nude beach?) but I can confirm we did not comply with THAT rule haha! We also spent a good couple of hours at Maho before returning to the ship. We had been inside less than 20 minutes and the heavens opened and it poured with rain - the only rain we had the whole trip I think. One little observation - it always seems to rain in St Maarten when we stop here. Won't stop us coming back though! A wonderful day!

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rodenboy

rodenboy

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MDR time.

 

As you will no doubt remember, we asked to be sat with the same server all week, irrespective of time. Well, tonight we were sat with the same server as on Day 2. We were told that all the reservations with our Day 1 server had been taken and that she could accommodate no more guests.

 

We later determined this was a lie when she saw us at the MDR for breakfast one morning and we said that we missed her; she asked why we had chosen to move.... When we said we hadn't and that we had been told she was full, the lady was not impressed with the staff at the MDR entrance. (Nor were we, but hey... I digress.) I wish the MDR drama ended here. Wait until Day 7!!

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kdnurs

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Chops Grille that evening went better! We all love Chops, it's the family's favourite "for fee" restaurant and once again it didn't disappoint. Most of the party went for the 20 ounce Porterhouse adding the additional cost onto the bill. No worries from us, we made sure we had our monies worth in sides, drinks and desserts. Then of course the cake was presented and the wait staff did a wonderful job of singing to my brother, who of course was mortified - like a true British person should be!!

 

The cake was absolutely gorgeous, it was a white chocolate and vanilla cake and it was probably better than most of the desserts offered by MDR the whole week! It was well worth the money and the effort, to get it!

 

 

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I agree about the vanilla birthday cake!!! I had one on the same day as you as it was my birthday too :D The cake was simply heavenly!!!!

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kdnurs

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Day 3 also included the first of our two visits to the Comedy Club. Very funny, we had no issue with the fact that the comedian didn't like the Brits very much and found Indy sailings as well as the first Harmony sailing from the UK to be dire because the Brits and I quote "have a stick up their ass." I have never sailed from Southampton myself but my parents have and they find there is a huge attitude shift. The UK cruisers also don't like to hear about if you have sailed on a ship bigger than Indy. They really do love her over here!

 

 

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John, the original guy was sick and didnt make it. They comedian we saw was a sub...I didnt care for him either. I was disappointed that the one we were suppose to see was a no show :(

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rodenboy

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On this night we had arranged to see the Headliner, but we got sidetracked by the Country music in Dazzles. I wouldn't normally post about this as it was just a few talented singers singing songs by the likes of Shania Twain. It was here that my sister, who had a Select Package booked before they changed the packages, was refused a sale of a $9 glass of wine because she "didn't have the appropriate package."

 

Needless to say, this was not the case. We checked our bill and noticed that over the course of the two or three days, any wine or beer that we had chosen as part of the select package, we were being charged for. Guests with the Premium Package were not.

 

Another visit to Guest Services. The staff there removed the charges for all beers and wines and stated that this was an error because "the Select Package is still available to UK cruisers." It isn't??Either way, it seems Harmony is having lots of trouble following the drinks package rules.

 

They had a new rule implemented on our sailing which was "any cocktail over $15 dollars is not included in the Premium Package." Not sure if they are still going with that? Isn't it the deluxe Beverage package now? What does that include??

 

RCCL wonder why people abuse the drinks package rule when they can't get it right themselves. For the record, we all had our own drinks package. This wasn't the end of the drinks package issue - stay tuned!!

 

 

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rodenboy

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Day 5: San Juan

 

What I liked about San Juan was that it was American enough to give it a sense of familiarity, but it was unique enough to recognise as a standalone port. We hopped off the ship and onto a bus tour. We intended to do the ATV adventure but when the cost of that for four hours is higher than Disney Magic Kingdom for a day, you know you are being ripped off somewhere. We had the pleasure... :rolleyes: ... of being on this bus with some.... (whispers) Carnival cruisers. I am saying nothing other than... you knew.

 

Sadly, we did not see the infamous chancer... if you are a regular on the San Juan port section of this forum, you'll know.

 

We visited Old San Juan, the fortresses etc. We then went into New San Juan which reminded me a bit of Miami, and then back to the shops.

 

Overall there was no problem with this port, if we didn't see it again we wouldn't be too fussed.

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rodenboy

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Main Dining Room again on Day 5. No issues to report, we were put with the same serving staff as on Day 2 and 4 so it was great we were able to get to know those staff a little bit.

 

That evening, the Headliner - Abbacadabra. A choice made by Abe if you go by what he mentioned in the Captains Corner about them. He had a point, who doesn't love a bit of Abba? Second best selling album in the UK of all time, biggest Swedish pop export, biggest band globally at the time since The Beatles - it was a fair shout.

 

The songs were great for a tribute act, no problems. There was an issue with the guest sat directly in front of us in that there were no strobe light warnings so during one of the songs... Voulez Vous springs to mind.. when they had strobe light effects, he had to cover his eyes. He was visibly uncomfortable for the rest of the show.

 

The issue that I had with it was that even in between songs, the people still "acted" like the members of Abba making jokes about "their marriages" and how "they" wrote the songs. It turned what was otherwise quite a good tribute into something quite cheesy.

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rodenboy

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Huge apologies about the delays on this folks, had a few unexpected hospital trips and randomly got myself a new car this week so all that paperwork etc was taking up more time than I hoped.

 

Hopefully I will be able to finish this at the weekend :)

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grandmarnnurse

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Main Dining Room again on Day 5. No issues to report, we were put with the same serving staff as on Day 2 and 4 so it was great we were able to get to know those staff a little bit.

 

That evening, the Headliner - Abbacadabra. A choice made by Abe if you go by what he mentioned in the Captains Corner about them. He had a point, who doesn't love a bit of Abba? Second best selling album in the UK of all time, biggest Swedish pop export, biggest band globally at the time since The Beatles - it was a fair shout.

 

The songs were great for a tribute act, no problems. There was an issue with the guest sat directly in front of us in that there were no strobe light warnings so during one of the songs... Voulez Vous springs to mind.. when they had strobe light effects, he had to cover his eyes. He was visibly uncomfortable for the rest of the show.

 

The issue that I had with it was that even in between songs, the people still "acted" like the members of Abba making jokes about "their marriages" and how "they" wrote the songs. It turned what was otherwise quite a good tribute into something quite cheesy.

 

Many people have issues with strobe lights. They can trigger seizures in some. I suffered a concussion one year ago, and have been affected by post-concussion syndrome since. I cannot look at strobe lights either. For that matter, I have to limit my time on my iPad, or it throws me off! Not fun!

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