Harmony Review - August 12-19 - Eastern - Nassau, St. Thomas, St. Kitts

[maryjaden]

Wonderland – An amazing culinary dining experience and a fun place to spend a little time

 

This post will be about the Wonderland Bar. I will post the restaurant separately. Many people do not realize that Wonderland has a bar. You enter through a free standing gold door.

It is quite small but has a great atmosphere. It does not open until 5:30 though. This ended up being our “go to” place for our pre dinner drink each night. Victor was the bartender here and was great, awesome and fantastic at his job.

They do not have a blender at this bar. They specialize in signature cocktails and martinis. They also carry a selection of beer. Due to the unique décor of this venue, it is also a great place to get some photos. It has a few really eclectic chairs in the bar area.

 

Wonderland has a Martini Tasting each sea day. It consists of five, two oz. glasses of different martinis. This equals two and a half regular martinis. Victor goes through how to make each one and how different types of liquor, purees and fresh ingredients affect the taste of the martini. Victor prepares the ingredients into the glass then each participant does the shaking.

 

This was so much fun we ended doing this every sea day at 2:00 p.m. The class lasts a little over an hour, give or take 15 minutes. How much over an hour, I noticed, depended upon the amount of liquor that was used through out the class. We also met several very nice people in the class and most of them were repeat attendees as well.

The cost of the tasting was $19.00/pp the first day. If you attended multiple tastings the price went down to $15/pp the second sea day and $10/pp the third day. This was one of the most fun adult activities we did. I will continue with the Wonderland Restaurant tomorrow.

[Addictedtocruising]

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.

 

 

 

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We were on the same tour! My Husband and Granddaughter were sitting on the back of the cat next to you :)

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[maryjaden]

We were on the same tour! My Husband and Granddaughter were sitting on the back of the cat next to you :)

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

Yes I remember seeing you. I really enjoyed the catamaran sail.

[perfect match]

Thank you for a great review and pictures! We are sailing on Symphony in 2019, same itinerary as you. Of course there are no pictures or reviews of Symphony yet, so I'm devouring everything I can find on Harmony! I just know we're going to love our Jr Suite, and the rest of the ship as well!

 

I think it is wonderful that you are able to get so many of your family members together to cruise together! It looked like everyone had a wonderful time! Thank you for sharing your family's vacation with us. I hope you will be able to continue this wonderful tradition with your family. :D

[maryjaden]

Thank you for a great review and pictures! We are sailing on Symphony in 2019, same itinerary as you. Of course there are no pictures or reviews of Symphony yet, so I'm devouring everything I can find on Harmony! I just know we're going to love our Jr Suite, and the rest of the ship as well!

 

I think it is wonderful that you are able to get so many of your family members together to cruise together! It looked like everyone had a wonderful time! Thank you for sharing your family's vacation with us. I hope you will be able to continue this wonderful tradition with your family. :D

 

Thank you. My sister and her husband are booked on the Symphony next June in the Mediterranean. We are also hoping to continue with our tradition as well. One of the options we are looking at is Alaska in few years. I tend to like the warm weather, but as long as I am on a ship I think I can live with it...lol

[beeeg]

Many thanks..we leave on the Harmony on Saturday and have reserved Wonderland for our anniversary...looks as if we made a good choice. Cocktail hour sounds great, but 2.00pm wow. I suppose it gives time to "sleep it off" before dinner LOL.

[Clarea]

Very nice photos, thanks!

[wispud]

Wonderland has a Martini Tasting each sea day. It consists of five, two oz. glasses of different martinis. This equals two and a half regular martinis. Victor goes through how to make each one and how different types of liquor, purees and fresh ingredients affect the taste of the martini. Victor prepares the ingredients into the glass then each participant does the shaking.

 

Wow! Super fun sounding! I'll have to check my Cruise Compass for the 7/29 sailing to see if I missed this - definitely something I will plan on next time around if offered!

[jimbri]

Great photos!

[mbrownferrier]

Really enjoying your review and pictures. We have the same itinerary on the Harmony in May 2018 so am hanging on every word!! Lol

 

 

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[maryjaden]

Thank you all. Just an FYI. Most of our photos were simply taken with with my cell phone, Samsung 7. Even though the martinis are small, you could tell our group was more chatty toward the end of the tasting...lol

[Wingman2010]

Fabulous trip report and pictures!! We are looking forward to our upcoming Harmony cruise and reading about your vacation is making us even more anxious!!

 

Thanks for putting the time in on this....

[maryjaden]

Many thanks..we leave on the Harmony on Saturday and have reserved Wonderland for our anniversary...looks as if we made a good choice. Cocktail hour sounds great, but 2.00pm wow. I suppose it gives time to "sleep it off" before dinner LOL.

You will love Wonderland!

[maryjaden]

Wonderland – An amazing culinary dining experience and a fun place to spend a little time

 

I don’t even know where to begin in reviewing the Wonderland Restaurant. We went to dinner with my younger brother, his wife and their two sons (ages 9 & 11). They are foodies and his wife has to eat gluten free. She also does not eat pork, but that is a preference not medical. We had two separate reservations of 4 through our planner. When we boarded the ship I went to the restaurant to combine the reservations which they did without a problem. My DH and DDs and I are not foodies and are more “meat and potatoes” people, though my oldest DD and I like to try new things which is why we did this. All I asked out of my husband and youngest DD was they at least take one bite of what we are served.

 

This is a partial photo of the kitchen and the main dining area. The balcony at the top of the photo is the bar area. In addition to the booth like seating there is also table seating.

 

To begin the meal the waitress starts out with her introduction about the welcome to Wonderland and the unique experience. She hands us our blank picture frames.

With the stroke of a wet brush our menus magically appear. The menus are based on the elements.

She also took our drink orders and I ordered one of the martinis I learned about earlier in the afternoon at the martini tasting.

 

She asked if we had any diet allergies or items we strongly disliked. After some brief discussion, she suggested that she choose the starters served family style. If there was something we really disliked, she would bring something else. We agreed to do this.

Even though my husband mentioned he was not a big fan of seafood, this is the first starter she served. Though my DH is not a fan of shrimp, even he thought this was very good. She brought out eight of everything so we could all try each one that was served.

 

I will continue this with the next post...... work interferes....lol

[maryjaden]

Wonderland – An amazing culinary dining experience and a fun place to spend a little time – con’t.

 

Continuing with the Wonderland Restaurant, I will make mention of my DSIL gluten free diet. They were very accommodating in serving her gluten free choices. I believe only one or two of the choices our waitress bought to the table did they bring her something different. Most of the items were the same as ours, except that they were gluten free. Our waitress was very specific in pointing out which one was for my DSIL. This impressed me.

 

This was one of my favorite starters, it was a deconstructed caprese salad. I am not sure how to explain the food in Wonderland. For example, many of the items you see do not actually taste like how you would normally expect them to taste. So you take a bite into something thinking it will taste like a tomato only to find out it does not taste like that at all. The large tomato in this photo had the liquid extracted and then it was “replumped”(for lack of a better word) with another liquid. It tasted sweet and had almost a jelly type consistency.

 

In these test tubes was the liquid that was extracted from the tomato. It had a salty flavor, but not really like a tomato. The white top of the test tube tasted kind of like a buttery cream cheese. The mix of flavors in many of the dishes seemed strange to me, but were wonderfully delicious.

These cones were filled with horseradish, crab and topped with a creamy avocado topping. One of these was filled with peppers instead of crab as my DH is not a fan of seafood. This was probably my least favorite. I will note that the portions were not overly large, however I think we had a total of five starters so I did not request something different as I knew we had yet to have the main course and desert.

We also had the smoking hardboiled egg. I am not a fan of hardboiled eggs, but as I had told my DD she had to try everything, I tried this also. It was awesome. It did have a very smoky flavor and rich creamy filling.

On to the main course. There was a choice of chicken, beef rib, pork and fish. Again we had her bring two of each to the table and we ate family style with each of us trying each dish. She informed us if we did not like one and wanted something else she would he happy to bring it. These were all fabulous. The fish entrée would have been my least favorite and the chicken was my favorite. The photo is of the spare rib and the chicken.

These last two photos were two of the deserts. We also had the chocolate melting ball, but I do not have a photo of that as my daughtertook a video. It is difficult to describe the tastes, but trust me, everything was exceptional.

I will make a note about children. Yes, they do offer a children’s menu for $10. However the food is the basic children's menu as it is in the MDR. This was not explained to my DB when he booked his family. Not a big deal as he was prepared to pay full price for his children because they like this type of food.

 

I do think though that as this restaurant is promoted as a dining experience I believe it should be limited to ages 6 and up. This is a long time to sit at a table. A table that was near us had a two or three year old that after the first 45 minutes became very cranky and vocal and this did kind of cut into our enjoyment of the atmosphere of the restaurant, but not the wonderful flavors of the food. In fairness though, we had early dinner reservations (5:30 pm), so it is very possible later in the evening this would not have been a concern.

This was quite a dining experience. It took about 2 – 2 ½ hours from start to finish and the entire experience was exceptional. I will probably book my next cruise based on whether or not they have a Wonderland Restaurant….lol. Again I will reiterate that the food may not taste as it appears and that even the pickiest of eaters, keeping an open mind, will enjoy this restaurant!

 

 

[maryjaden]

The Shows and a few Events

 

We went to all of the shows that required reservations. I do have to say all of the productions were very good. I do not have photos of the shows.

 

Grease - The first night we saw Grease. This was done very well and my family enjoyed it much better than Cats because they could follow it better. I was familiar with Cats so I like them equally but I thought the dancing in Cats was better. It is my understanding that the current performers just started their rotation a few weeks ago. There is some adult content in the production and RCI does note that it is for mature audiences. Nothing over the top, but teens would notice, under 10 probably not.

 

Adult Comedy –The second evening we went to the Adult Comedy Show. We always catch this show on sailings and have not been disappointed. The comedian was Jim David. This is the first time I have seen him and thought he was very funny. Simeon was the Host. I have seen Simeon as the host before and he is hilarious. I would go to a show just to watch him.

 

The Fine Line –This is the aquatic/diving show. We were scheduled to see this show on the third night and it was cancelled due to technical difficulties. This was also the night the boat was noticeably rocking so that may have played a part in it. It was rescheduled to Thursday night at 7:15. I always found 7:15 to be an odd time to have a show. Difficult to see this time frame if you have traditional dining at either the early (6:00) or late (8:00) seatings. We skipped dessert to make it to the show. While I can appreciate the athletic and artistic elements of the show, it does not really make a whole lot of sense. One tid bit here….if you are facing the stage, on the left hand side there is a stair case that leads up to the rock wall. You can sit on this balcony to view this show and not many people know about it.

 

The Headliner – Comedian Juggler Adam Kario – I was prepared not to like this show very much. My thinking was how entertaining can a juggler be for an hour…. However, I was pleasantly surprised that he was funny and very entertaining.

 

Columbus, The Musical – This show made absolutely no sense to me. However I did find it very entertaining. The song, dance and the set were very well done!

 

1887 – A Journey in Time – This was the ice show. I could follow the storyline and the skating and artistic elements were exceptionally well done. I am always amazed at how well the skating is considering they are doing this on a moving/rocking ship. There was a Bubble Artist about half way through the show. He was very good also. I would say the Ice show was my favorite one of the cruise. This will have been the 4th ice show I have seen and feel this was the best one.

 

Captain’s Corner – Captain Gus Richardson was our captain. This event was very well attended and it was interesting. The Head of the Motel Management was also there along with Director Bobby. We had a few Alpha, Alpha, Alpha codes during our sailing. One of the attendees asked what the Alpha,Alpha, Alpha message stood for and Captain Gus replied only that it was a confidential way to relay information to the crew and that if someone really wanted to know, they could join the crew .I found that answer interesting as you can simply google this to find out.

 

Meet & Mingle – Even though we had over 50 signed up for the meet and mingle, only about 30 showed up. This was disappointing, but they did give out a few nice prizes: Dinner at Jamies, bottles of wine, bingo play gift certificates and a few gift bags with RCI Hat, water bottle, wine, pen, paper all in one package.

 

Escape the Rubicon– Between my Sister and I we had 8 reservations for Escape the Rubicon. We were not going to do it ourselves, but felt like at least this many in our group might so we put them all under our name. It was not a problem to switch the names to who actually wanted to do it once we were on board. Our group solved the puzzle with 2 minutes to spare. They said they had a great time and would do another one. The price was $8.95 per person. It is for ages 14 and over. They were pretty strict on the age.

 

Next up "Around the Ship"

[Addictedtocruising]

 

Meet & Mingle – Even though we had over 50 signed up for the meet and mingle, only about 30 showed up. This was disappointing, but they did give out a few nice prizes: Dinner at Jamies, bottles of wine, bingo play gift certificates and a few gift bags with RCI Hat, water bottle, wine, pen, paper all in one package.

 

"

 

Haha there we are again! I am loving your review and couldn't have said it better, everything is spot on. :D

[maryjaden]

Haha there we are again! I am loving your review and couldn't have said it better, everything is spot on. :D

I had to chuckle when I posted this because I saw you again, I wish I would have noticed before. I would have loved to talk to you!

[lbjen]

I'm loving this review, Harmony is my next 'big' cruise dream. You've definitely sold me on the Junior Suite!

[hollon]

Loving the review! God Willing I'll be on her Sept 23 - yay - can't wait to see more pictures

[Wingman2010]

Thank you for the wonderful review and pictures! WE are sailing on Harmony in a couple of weeks and appreciate the additional info. Your review also made up our minds to try Wonderland (we were on the fence before)...

[maryjaden]

Around the Ship

 

Sorry about the delay in posting. Don’t you just hate in when life gets in the way of my cruising time….

 

The Pools – All of the pools had life guards. I spend very little time by the pools, but when I did I spent my time by the adults’ only pool. RCI did a good job of keeping the adult pool to just adults. Just by walking around, I could see the chair hogs were out in full force if you wanted to be right next to the pool. However, you could find a random chair if you wanted to sit back a few rows. There were always chairs available in other areas. One other note about the chair hogs. I did not see RCI policing this at all and I did see one morning a man walking away from the towel checkout at 7:30 in the morning with a stack of 12 towels. What did the attendant think he was going to do with all these towels except save chairs? If RCI is really serious about not saving chairs, they might want to limit the number of towels you can have checked out at a time….just a thought. I also noticed that several nights the pools were closed by 8 pm.

 

I also thought the kids’ pool was a very nice area.

There were lifeguards and life jackets available as well as signage to keep an eye on your children posted in all of the pool areas.

 

DreamWorks Characters– I noticed several times throughout the day there were random siting’s of the DreamWorks characters as well as official ones posted in the Cruise Compass.

 

Slides – I did not go down the water slides but our kids did. On Sea days the lines to the slides were very, very long. The kids said they were fun, but not thrilling. It seems that they may need to work on the water pressure in the slides a bit. Several adults I spoke with said they had to kind of scoot at the end of them.

 

The Abyss – Even though I meant to, I never did get down to the Abyss. Of course, this gives me something to do next time I go on the Harmony!

 

The Spa – We generally do not go to the spa. My daughters had some of their own money from working this summer and both of them wanted a pedicure and manicure. I know and they know you pay much more on the ship as you do on land, but we were on vacation and they wanted to do it. We did the spa tour and they were able to get the girls appointments on boarding day with a discount. I went also and had a pedicure done as I did not have time before we left. It actually was a very good pedicure and the women that were doing them were very professional and very pleasant. I told them up front that they could tell me about the products they use, but not to give me a big spiel as I was probably not going to buy anything. I also half-jokingly mentioned that the more I spent on products the less I would have to spend on a tip. I did end up buying one of the scrubs and still left a very nice tip for the three of us.

[maryjaden]

Around the Ship – Continued

 

Stowaway Piano Man – We saw him several times around the ship. We always got a kick out of seeing him and he was very entertaining. We ran into him in the elevator twice and he was usually outside one of the dining rooms for the early traditional dining.

 

The Casino and smoking – I did spend some time in the casinos and even ended up ahead. I did notice the machines seems to pay out more the first few days. Also I feel the layout on the casino is better than some of the other ships. There did seem to be more of a division between the smoking and non-smoking sides of the casino. There seemed to be more people playing both the machines and at the tables in the non-smoking side than I have noticed on some of the older ships. It did not seem as smoky in there as I noticed on our last cruise which was the Adventure. Maybe on the newer ships they have a better ventilation system. One thing I did notice was that the smoking section on the pool deck 15 was usually full during the main part of the day. To the point there were not any chairs to sit in. This may be some of the reason that people are going into the casino just to smoke as I saw quite a few people doing that.

 

The Arcade – Our kids spent a little bit of time in there as a group. They had fun, but didn’t elaborate a lot. One thing to mention is prior to the cruise we could purchase an arcade credit through the cruise planner. Once I realized our kids were going to be in the arcade I went to guest services to inquire about purchasing one on the ship and was told you could only do that in advance through the cruise planner.

 

Service Dogs – Let me state up front that I have no problem with legitimate service dogs and welcome them. I love my dogs. There were two dogs I saw on this cruise. One of them was easily a legitimate service dog. It was traveling with a very nice young woman in a wheel chair. I saw them several times around the ship. The dog stayed right beside her. If she was at a table, it was laying at her feet and was very well behaved from what I saw through out the cruise. I am not going to pass judgement on whether the other one was or not, but it was always in a cart, dressed up and was yippy around people. Below is the area set up for the service dogs to do their "business".

 

Artwork – This ship has some beautiful artwork all around the ship and in the neighborhoods. The décor through out the ship was beautiful and fresh.

[ptf2009]

Thank you for your review. We go in 2 1/2 weeks:)

 

Speaking of service dogs, we have been on cruises with service dogs being strolled around in baby strollers...and of course "all dressed up."

[Dennis#1]

One of the most detailed and best reviews I have read. We are looking forward to our cruise next year on the Harmony. Thanks.