maryjaden Posted August 22, 2017 #1 Posted August 22, 2017 Every 3 – 5 years we try to get the entire family on acruise.This was the year.Our ports were Nassau, St. Thomas and St.Kitts. My DH and I are 51, our DD’s on the cruise are 15 and 20. Our group consisted of 24 people. There were 14 over age 35 and 10 that were ages 7-21. My Mother and Father, 4 of the 5 of their children (myself included) and our spouses,the grandchildren, my mother’s brother and his wife, their daughter and husband and their children. It was ages 7 – 77. We are from Wisconsin and Minnesota. As I start to write this I am realizing this may get lengthy. I am going to try and do this review by topic. Please forgive me if I wander off topic as I have a tendency to do that. I will most likely not get this finished in one day. This is the second review I have done and this time I am going to add photos (which I am new at). I will try to answer questions as I go along and will do random thoughts and tips at the end. There are many activities we did not do as this cruise was mainly just to hang out and relax. I will upload the cruise compasses at the end. I also have the new room service menus. I did not get photos of the MDR menus. I will try and remember to include the costs on our transportation, admissions and other costs with the cruise. We all had a beverage package of some sort we purchased in advance. Most of us were able to take advantage of one of the sales. One of the activities that we organized (mainly for the kids) was a scavenger/selfie hunt. We had over 50 things on a list from around the ship they had to take a photo of or a selfie with. We let them work on the list all week and they all had a blast doing it. They could work in teams. There were over 50 items on the list. We gave out prizes that we purchased on the islands or from the gift shop (everyone got a prize that participated, winners got to choose first). I will post the list at the end. We all flew into Fort Lauderdale the day before and stayed at the Crowne Plaza Airport & Cruise. Another reminder to fly in ahead….My Aunt and Uncle’s family had their flights cancelled as they were on their way to the airport and they were making frantic calls to get them re-booked. It all worked out in the end and they arrived in the evening. We used Crowne Plaza’s free airport shuttle to the hotel. This was a nice hotel. Very Clean and the staff was very personable. You can sit by the rooftop hotel pool and see the cruise port. They have a bar and a restaurant. One thing I did miss was I originally thought they had a continental breakfast in the morning, but they did not. They did have a buffet in the restaurant for $16.00/pp. As we were going to port by 11 am, we passed on that. They did have fresh fruit and cereal you could purchase in the gift shop area, so we grabbed some of that. The room prices were from $130 - $150/night. We took the shuttle provided by the hotel to the port for $8.00/pp. My sister’s family used Uber and were pleased with the service. I can’t remember exactly how much she told me it was, but I do remember that it was less expensive than the shuttle.
Crazy planning mom Posted August 22, 2017 #2 Posted August 22, 2017 Great start to your review. Beautiful family. Will be following.
maryjaden Posted August 22, 2017 Author #3 Posted August 22, 2017 Great start to your review. Beautiful family. Will be following. Thank you!
easyboy Posted August 22, 2017 #4 Posted August 22, 2017 I have seen large groups but not as a family like yours! I can imagine the fun each one of you had. Will be following along.
maryjaden Posted August 22, 2017 Author #5 Posted August 22, 2017 Embarkation & Cabin JS 6648 Even though we had a scheduled time of 1:30 – 2:00 pm to board the ship, we went at 11:00 am. We were staying in a JS for the first time. We have had cabins from interior to Royal Family Suite. We usually stay in a Grand Suite but felt that because most of our group were not in suites, the additional cost was not worth it as we would be less likely to take advantage of the extra perks with a grand suite. Even though my DDs and my parents were in a balcony cabins, they let us board together in the Suite line. We dropped our luggage and tipped the porters $20.00. Getting through security and check in was very quick. When we arrived at the area to wait to board the ship, the lady directing you to the area to sit was very rude. She kept trying to direct me to the Emerald seating when I knew we could sit in the suite area. I only bring this up because my mother recently had knee surgery and it was closer seating and I thought they might let us stay together. I eventually gave up trying to tell her we were in suite and just headed toward the emerald seating, no big deal. However the lady by the entrance to the suite lounge must have overheard and as we passed she motioned us over and had us wait in the suite lounge. I did tell her that my parents and DDs were only in balcony cabins. We waited there maybe two minutes and they started boarding. In all it only took about 20 minutes from the time the shuttle dropped us off until we were walking up to the ship. Our cabin was a JS 6648 and our DDs stayed in a connecting balcony, cabin 6650. The cabins were on the beginning of the aft hump, starboard, Deck 6. (hope I have my nautical terms correct...lol) I thought our JS was very nice and roomy. The bathroom had a tub/shower combination. We had the connecting door opened and the divider on the balcony opened as well. You can see the connecting door near the balcony door. I do love the large JS closet and the additional closet. I realize it looks like I packed for a “round the world” cruise, but when I run out of time packing I have a tendency to start throwing things in the suitcase without putting a lot of thought in to it. As long as I can keep it under 50 lbs. I figure I am good to go. And it helps that you can take two bags free with Southwest Airline.
maryjaden Posted August 22, 2017 Author #6 Posted August 22, 2017 Connecting Balcony Cabin 6650 The connecting balcony 6650 was also a nice room. Please excuse the mess in my daughters’ cabin. The photo showing the bed is my husband and daughters watching a movie. By the way, movies are $11.95 to rent. There are closets on each side of the bed. The bathroom does not have a tub, only a shower. Both cabins had the couch by the balcony door. This photo is the connecting door open. The photo is taken from the JS looking into our DDs cabin. As this cabin was right at the start of the hump, the balcony has an angle on it.
maryjaden Posted August 22, 2017 Author #7 Posted August 22, 2017 I have seen large groups but not as a family like yours! I can imagine the fun each one of you had. Will be following along. We have a great family. We had a blast. One of my sister's and I usually cruise once a year on RCI, some of the others only on the family cruise. My Aunt and Uncle and their family have only cruised on Disney. We originally had 30, but my oldest daughter and family and my other brother had to cancel. We are looking at doing the next family cruise to Alaska.
az_2_nc2013 Posted August 22, 2017 #8 Posted August 22, 2017 Following! My husband and I are considering this itinerary on Harmony in May/June 2018!
maryjaden Posted August 22, 2017 Author #9 Posted August 22, 2017 Cabins Continued. I forgot to mention about our cabin steward, Ricardo. He was very good. We are pretty laid back, our only additional request is a bucket of ice. He did forget to do this the first two days, but after we mentioned it to him, we were never without ice, so he must of checked it a few times a day. My husband wanted to have a few shirts pressed that ended up being quite wrinkled and my formal had a stain on it. I noticed this the first evening after unpacking. I asked Ricardo if we could get it back in time for formal night which was the next day. He told me he would take care of it it the morning. There is supposed to be a 50% surcharge for same day laundry which of I didn't want to pay. Ricardo did take care of this. We received our pressed and cleaned laundry back and no surcharge. I agree with others that the cabin stewards must have more cabins they are responsible for. We did not see him as much as we have seen cabin stewards in the past. Never a chance to briefly talk which I always found interesting. My husband, Matt, even made mention of it. Though it did not affect how well the cabin was kept. It was always made up and clean. Except for the first day, we had a towel character each day. I say character because some days I wasn't quite sure what it was...lol. Our daughters loved them. You do have to keep a card in the slot by the door so the lights, etc. stay on. I took along an old rewards card I had and used that. I can attest that the air conditioning worked very well in our cabin. My husband had it set low and it was like an ice box. There is also a night light in the bathroom which was a nice addition compared to the other ships we have been on. I do not want to turn this into a tipping thread so this is just my preference. Everyone in our group prepaid their tips. I did make it clear to those that don't cruise often or first time with RCI that it wasn't necessary to give additional tips, however, we did tip our cabin steward an extra $100.00 for the week.
zanydoc Posted August 22, 2017 #10 Posted August 22, 2017 Thank you for your review-looking forward to the rest!
mad-dog74 Posted August 22, 2017 #12 Posted August 22, 2017 We were getting off the ship when you were getting on. Did you notice a lot of RUDE people? It's a wonder they didn't knock you down getting off while you were trying to get on... LOL! From the elevators, to chairs by the pool, to parents at the mini-golf letting their unruly kids interfere with the play of others... there were just lots of rude people.
1992cruiser Posted August 22, 2017 #13 Posted August 22, 2017 Was there a curtain between the couch and the bed in the jr suite? We have a 1 year old that sleeps in a pac n play on the ship and we get a jr suite because you can close off that part of the cabin at night. We've been on Oasis and Allure and both of those ships had the curtain.
maryjaden Posted August 22, 2017 Author #14 Posted August 22, 2017 We were getting off the ship when you were getting on. Did you notice a lot of RUDE people? It's a wonder they didn't knock you down getting off while you were trying to get on... LOL! From the elevators, to chairs by the pool, to parents at the mini-golf letting their unruly kids interfere with the play of others... there were just lots of rude people. Even though we sailed with a full ship, I did not run into many rude people, excepting the elevators. There really needs to be a class titled Elevators 101 for adults and children. There were 1600 kids on board and for the most part they were well behaved. I will to into the chair hogs a little later...lol.
maryjaden Posted August 22, 2017 Author #15 Posted August 22, 2017 Was there a curtain between the couch and the bed in the jr suite? We have a 1 year old that sleeps in a pac n play on the ship and we get a jr suite because you can close off that part of the cabin at night. We've been on Oasis and Allure and both of those ships had the curtain. Our cabin did not have a curtain you could pull across. Please don't call me a bad parent, but would it be possible to put the pac n play in the walk in closet of the junior suite. I do believe there would be plenty of room. You could use a battery operated tea light as a night light in there.
maryjaden Posted August 22, 2017 Author #16 Posted August 22, 2017 Port of Call – Nassau Most of us that have sailed more than once have been to Nassau (often several times). My sister, Linda and her husband, stayed on the ship. Because of our kids and that this cruise already had 3 sea days, we opted to get off the ship. This would be my family, my parents and my niece and nephew. This port was only from 7:00 am and all aboard was at 1:30 pm. Due to the limited time and limited mobility of my parents, I hired Cheryl’s Tours and Taxis for transportation. There were six of us in a nice air conditioned van. My niece and nephew had a separate taxi. We paid $180.00 ($60/hour) to have them as a driver for the six of us from 9 am through noon. They provided water, soda and rum punch. We had a nice tour of the city, went to the Nassau Zoo and did the Pirate museum. We were on our own time schedule. I had forgotten what a long walk the pier was. This was a little tiring on my parents. Our first stop was the Nassau Zoo. Admission was $18 for adults, ages 6-12 was $9. This is a small zoo, but something different and the flamingos are pretty cool. It was interesting to see a raccoon and a barn owl at the zoo. These, of course, are common in the upper Midwest, but its easy to forget they are not native to Nassau. We joked that we flew and sailed and spent thousands of dollars to see a raccoon….lol. This zoo has mostly birds and small animals. The staff at the zoo was plentiful and able to answer any questions you had, though it was an older zoo and somewhat rundown. There was still some damage from the last hurricane. You can easily see the entire zoo and the flamingo show in 1 ½ hours. Next we went to the Pirate Museum. Admission was $13 for adults, $6.50 for ages 6 – 17. If you like museums (I do), this was actually a nice museum for all ages. It took us about 1 ½ hours to go through. You could probably do it in an hour, but I like to stop and read a lot. There is a replica pirate ship in the museum that you can walk through. There are many different exhibits and quite a bit of history. It is also air conditioned which is a plus. We arrived back at port at 1 pm. and started the long walk back to the ship. Cheryls Tours did not charge anything for the extra hour. We did tip the driver $10 per person. I did not realize it at the time, but there is a small bus which transports people down the pier. It is a free service and would have been helpful to know because of my mother’s knee. We didn’t realize this until we were almost to the ship. Overall it was a nice way to spend the morning. We did hear later though that our ship left 14 people at the port. I never did hear if they were able to catch up later. In talking with a waiter on St. Thomas he said that RCI leaves more people than any other cruise line, that could be just gossip but reminds me to always plan plenty of time to get back to the ship and to wear an actual watch set to ship time…lol.
maryjaden Posted August 22, 2017 Author #17 Posted August 22, 2017 Port of Call – St.Thomas – Coki Beach We arrived at St. Thomas at 9:00 am with estimate of ship being cleared at 9:30. I arranged for transportation for our group to Coki beach at 10:30 because our booking confirmation showed an arrival time of 10:00 am. I wish I would have known that sooner because we could have had an extra hour on shore. We decided on Coki Beach because it is right next to Coral World where several of us had excursions booked in the afternoon. A good place to meet is at this mill right at the end of the pier. According to what I could find prior to the cruise, taxi transportation was $22/pp round trip to Coki Beach. I did some research and Marley’s Taxi Services would transport our group for $15/pp round trip. They had good reviews on trip advisor and our entire group of 24 were going. It is about a 30 minute ride to Coki Beach. Now to be fair, they did get us to Coki Beach and Pick up us at Coral World on time and without issue. However, what we received for transport was quite a bit off from what I assumed (shame on me). But we generally take things in stride and this will be transport that we will remember longer than a nice air conditioned bus. At one point going up a hill, my husband said “This is what the old truck sounded like just before it blew up”. We arrived safely at Coki Beach and it was quite crowded on the beach, but not as many people in the water. There is no admission cost for this beach. One thing I did not expect was that Marley’s dropped us off at one of the beach bars and we were met by a person and waitress to get us a spot on the beach. I am sure they have a deal worked out between them, but it did work well for us. We rented chairs ($5 ea) and umbrellas ($10 ea). Two or three chairs could easily fit under 1 umbrella. They set them up for us all together and we had a waitress the entire time we were there. I tipped our “chair steward” $10.00 and our waitress $15. This was the day we were going to go snorkeling. I had purchased full face snorkel masks prior to the cruise which we took along. They were $39.99 ea on Amazon and worked wonderfully. My husband and I did not end up snorkeling because my nieces and nephews absconded with ours…lol. One of my daughters rented a vest and flippers ($15) but ended up not using them much. I also included this photo because you can see the relation of the beach to Coral World next door. The dome is actually an underwater aquarium where you can view the reef. The kids had an absolute blast. They saw a lot of fish and snorkeled through a school of zebra fish. This was their first time snorkeling. Also available at this beach was rental of the jet pack if you chose (we did not). It was $60 for 15 minutes. This was a beautiful beach with good snorkeling by the rocks. Our group had a great time. We left the beach at 1:00 pm to head over to Coral World. We got a taxi for my Mom and Dad (because it was so close the driver did not charge them, but Dad did give him a $10 tip). The rest of us walked down the beach and there were wooden stairs up to the entrance of Coral World.
LuCruise Posted August 22, 2017 #18 Posted August 22, 2017 Great review so far. Wonderful you all traveller together. Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk
maryjaden Posted August 22, 2017 Author #19 Posted August 22, 2017 Great review so far. Wonderful you all traveller together. Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk Thank you. The older I get the more I appreciate that we can all get together to do this every couple of years. We also try to do a big camping trip to a state park once a year.
maryjaden Posted August 22, 2017 Author #20 Posted August 22, 2017 Port of Call – St.Thomas – Coral World Ocean Park Coral World is a rescue and rehab center as well as an aquarium/ocean park with several aquatic pools and exhibits. We walked the short distance down to Coral World and used the beach entrance. Admission prices are $20 for adults, $15 for seniors, $12 for military and $11 for ages 6-12. If you do an excursion, the admission price is included. They have a grill there so this is where we all grabbed something to eat. For about $10 you could get a burger, fries and a soft drink which I didn’t think was too bad of a price. We were met by this iguana with a tail growing out of its tail. My daughters and two of their cousins did the Turtle Encounter. The price was $60/pp (including admission). It consisted of a brief educational talk and went through the safety of handling the turtles. I was pretty impressed with how the interaction went. The kids were not allowed to approach the turtles, but had to wait for the turtles to come to them which they did quite frequently. The turtles in this excursion were rescued as they had a defect in their shells that does not allow them to swim very fast so in the wild they would easily become prey. The kids all enjoyed this and said it was great. They were actually in the pool for the turtles for about 50 minutes. Some of the other nieces and nephews did the Sea Trek next to the underwater observatory. The Sea Trek was $80/pp for 13 and older and $71 for children. Children had to weigh 80 lbs. You could walk down a large spiral staircase in the observatory to watch them. There was an abundance of fish. They also had a great experience with this and enjoyed it very much. The excursions wrapped up about 3:00 and we spent time exploring the rest of the 5 acres of exhibits and stopped at the gift shop. We could purchase a USB Drive with photos on it from the Turtle Excursion for $34.99 which I didn’t think was a bad price so we bought that. We also picked up a few items for the scavenger hunt prizes. We had arranged for Marley’s to pick us up at 4:00 pm. They were waiting with our chariot right outside the exit. Our chariot had the hood open and they were pouring in water “just to keep it cool”. We again made it back to the ship safely and on time.
vrock Posted August 22, 2017 #21 Posted August 22, 2017 Nice review we will be on board in December for our first b2b. Thank you for taking the time to share your family vacation. :)
maryjaden Posted August 23, 2017 Author #22 Posted August 23, 2017 Nice review we will be on board in December for our first b2b. Thank you for taking the time to share your family vacation. :) Thank you. We really enjoyed the cruise and the Harmony.
maryjaden Posted August 23, 2017 Author #23 Posted August 23, 2017 Port of Call – St. Kitts– RCI Rail and Sail – RCI ATV and Beach Tour Part I - Sugar Train Scenic Railway Tour This was the only port we did excursions through RCI. It was the Rail and Sail (7 adults, 1 teenager, 2 children). The Rail and Sail tour was $143/pp for adults. I cannot recall what the under 13 price was. This portion is Rail part, a scenic railway tour. The train was built to service the island’s sugar cane plantations back when this was the island’s primary source of income. Now it is tourism. We were picked up on the pier by a very nice air conditioned newer bus. It was about a 20 minute ride to the starting point of the rail where we boarded the train. The rail cars were double decked. The bottom was enclosed and air conditioned and the upper was open air. We all chose to sit in the upper deck, even my parents were able to get up the narrow circular staircase to the deck. There is a bathroom on each car in the lower deck. The cars do rock back and forth, (not terribly, but noticeable) so if you are prone motion sickness keep that in mind. This tour traveled 18 miles along the coast and through the country side. It does go through very poor areas of the island. The guide on this tour was very good along the way and told many stories and the history of the island. This is also the only day it rained most of the day off and on (more on than off). It really poured, not just an easy rain. When the wind picked up and we were all getting soaked the guide went down to the lower deck as to not get soaked. What she neglected to tell us is that there were plastic “windows” that could be unrolled to keep the rain out. This we discovered after we were already wet…. We were provided with a snack muffin which was very good and unlimited water, soda, rum punch, frozen drinks or beer. There was also a group of three singers that went from car to car and were very entertaining. Though it was a unique experience, I would not do it again. The landscape, while pretty in parts, was very much the same for the entire 18 miles. It also did not hold much interest for the younger children. The train ride portion of this tour took about 2 hours. We were picked up at the end by the busses to be transported to the Sail Portion of the tour which was a catamaran ride along the coast.
maryjaden Posted August 23, 2017 Author #24 Posted August 23, 2017 Port of Call – St. Kitts– RCI Rail and Sail – RCI ATV and Beach Tour Part 2 – Catamaran Sail This was the sail portion of the RCI Rail and Sail. The catamaran was about 50’ long, well maintained and had a crew of 5. There was a netting in the front and you could lounge on this or a covered back portion where there was additional seating and a bar. There was also a bathroom "below deck". Water, soda, rum punch, limited mixed drinks and beer were available. The also had bags of chips. These were all complimentary. This catamaran could have easily held 40 – 50 people. There were about 25 of us on this part, so it was very comfortable. As I said before there was rain on and off. We also ran into heavy rain on the catamaran. We all easily fit in the covered portion. Even though it was very rainy and windy, surprisingly the motion on the catamaran was not bad at all. The last 20 minutes, the sun came out and it was beautiful. We were able to view the coast easily and it was very pretty. The catamaran took us to a pier that was actually very close to the pier that the Harmony was docked at. A very short walk back to the port area. I left a $20.00 tip for the crew. I think next time we would skip the rail and do a catamaran tour which despite the rain was very fun. Part 3 – ATV Tour and Beach Break My husband, oldest daughter and one of our nephews did an ATV tour on a Sugar Plantation then a beach break. The cost was $108/pp and through RCI you had to be over 18. There are not many photos of this because they only stopped at the top of the point where you could see the Harmony in the background. When I mentioned how clean they were when they got back, they said they only received a little rain during the ATV portion. My husband did comment that once you get up into the hilly areas, there are several places that are being developed into upscale gated neighborhoods. I did not see any developments along the coast during our train ride. They had an enjoyable time during the ride. They are experienced ATV riders, but the riders on this tour went from first timers to experienced. They said everyone had a great time. They did get the pouring rain while at the beach. They left a $20 tip for their guide. After the ATV ride and beach it was a short ride back to the pier area where we met up with them, did a little shopping and headed back to the ship.
maryjaden Posted August 23, 2017 Author #25 Posted August 23, 2017 Restaurants, Main Dining Room and Wait Staff I am not much of a foodie so I do not have a lot of photos of the food except for Wonderland where I will post on that restaurant separately. Overall, with a few exceptions I will note, the food was very good throughout the cruise. Not 5 star, but still very good. Windjammer– I only ate at the Windjammer on boarding day. I don't know why we continue to put ourselves through this, but it is a tradition for us. There is a hand washing station as you enter and a hand sanitizer. There was a line to get into the Windjammer. I actually believe this is more due to the fact that they are tunneling people through an area that has only four hand washing stations. Though it was busy, we did not have a problem finding a table for 5 of us. A waiter came right away and took a drink order. The food was actually pretty good and was warm. Mini-Bites– We ate breakfast here on one day. It was buffet style, though much smaller selection of food and you could get made to order omelets. This was also good and was warm. They were not busy at all. Park Café –A few of the days we had lunch here. I had the wonderful roast beef sandwiches. I love these. Others had the made to order salad and the paninis were very good. Though their flavored waters seemed to be not flavored at all. Johnny Rockets– The kids went here for breakfast on a few days which they said was very good. I stopped in one day to grab an order of cheese fries and milkshake for a fee of $7.95. All was served quickly, was hot (fries) and good. Sabor – We had lunch at Sabor one day. There is a $19 charge for this. This was fantastic. It was for anything on the menu with no limit. Twelve of us ate there that day. They did not have any trouble accommodating us. The waiter suggested he would bring out a variety of appetizers and serve them family style which worked very well. We all ordered a main item for our meal. Everything again was very good. Our waiter was very pleasant and very prompt. I feel like I'm sounding like a broken record. Izumi Hibachi– Ten of us had lunch here one day. Though it is our own fault for not checking more closely, I found it surprising they did not have more of a lunch meal. The lunch is the same meal as the evening meal. Which also means it is the same price as the evening meal. It was $45 or $49 per person depending what you ordered. All the other specialty restaurants have a separate lunch price. Like I mentioned, this was our fault and just wanted to inform others. Beyond that the meal was very good and our chef was very entertaining. Main Dining Room– We had traditional dining at 6:00 pm. in the American Icon Room. We were seated at three tables of eight people and rotated tables throughout the cruise. Though the kids ended up at the same table every night. I have to say the food was very good. I had some apprehension prior to the cruise about the quality of the food after reading some of the current reviews. Though the only item I really did not care for was the crème brulee which I normally really enjoy. I was disappointed you could no longer get the scallops as an appetizer. Our wait staff, Olenka and Buya were outstanding. They had cheese plates and our drinks waiting when we arrived each evening. Even when we were switching things around. Several of us carried on wine to the ship which we took to the main dining each night. We were never charged the $15 corkage fee. Chops – My husband loves to eat at chops one night during the cruise. While the food has been good (not outstanding), I have found that during our last three cruises the service in Chops has been consistently getting worse. I ordered a house glass of Pinot Grigio. It took them almost 20 minutes to serve. The waiter apologized for the delay saying they were out of it and had to go to another bar to get some….. We were in the restaurant for 40 minutes prior to our orders being taken. They were very slow between courses. Our waiter seemed very rushed though the restaurant was not that full. I am not sure we will continue with Chops as the price keeps going up, it is $49 now, and the service keeps going down. Wait Staff– With the exception of Chops, we had very good luck with the wait staff that served you table side on the ship. They were all very personable and efficient. I will say that some of the food servers behind the counters in the places like Park Café, Windjammer, etc. looked mildly annoyed most of the time.
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