Let me preface my review, by saying my trip was great. There truly wasn't anything wrong, it just did not meet my expectation. I would not discourage anyone from sailing Royal Caribbean or the Harmony as long as you know what to expect. Just so you understand my review and can be assured the Harmony is a good vacation and just not MY cup of tea... We sailed the Allure in 2017 and have since been ruined. The Allure is classy and beautiful, the staff makes you feel like you are the only and most important people on the ship, every staff member/entertainer/housekeeper/dining room staff went above and beyond, the only lines we encountered were on the first day while signing up for beverages, exploring the ship, etc. Basically 5,000 people corralled on to 3 floors? because the cabins weren't open yet, we received our SeaPass at check-in, entertainment was professional and top notch, Central Park beautiful and quiet with soft music and the sound of crickets, made reservations but got into every show at any time we tried without issue, food was amazing, service was out of this world everywhere on the ship, I never felt like there were 5,000+ people on the ship. HARMONY OF THE SEAS Embarkation: Easy, acceptable, quick, no issues Disembarkation: Easy off, long wait for luggage in terminal, customs quick and easy, no real issues -suggest carry luggage off if you are in a hurry Ship = OK - same general layout as Allure - paintings/decor appeared cheap, garish, odd, almost juvenile - lines for everything, long wait for elevator and then it would be full - very few ship announcements overhead and difficult to hear (we missed the announcement about the gangway being open in our first port and were late getting off) - Central Park beautiful, but noise level high with loud music and small children screaming - The Abyss, 2 dry slides, needs shirt with sleeves, fun - 3 water slides (2 reg, 1 funnel), fun Cabin = Great - Central Park Balcony -no issues, as expected - 1 half closet with shelving and 2 drawers, 1 full closet, 5 drawers, lighted mirror, couch Dining = Food & Service Great - wanted Main Dining Room, ended up with Anytime Dining, but requested and received same table and waiters at same time every night Entertainment = OK, disappointing - reservations difficult, shows full, very long lines for stand-by - Grease -best show on boat, very cute - Columbus satirical comedy, most bizarre show I've ever seen, but the performers were good - 1887 Ice Show, special effects were good Service - The Fine Line did not "wow" me, left early - Stand-up Comedy was very funny, glad I saw it Ports and Shore Excursion St. Maarten/St. Martin - ship remains on EST but the island is 1 hour ahead (8am on ship is 9am on island) - reserved non-ship excursion tour of island for $50/pp - it was good - reserved ship sponsored "Sea Trek" that was fabulous, had low expectations because I am a certified diver but husband is not, was still very enjoyable for me, too San Juan, PR - not enough time in port - grabbed a taxi tour when got off ship for $15/pp, good but had to wait on bus 20 minutes while driver filled bus before he could leave Labadee, Haiti - peninsula leased by Royal Caribbean - only food on island is served from 11:00-2:00 - average, limited choices - all beaches were over crowded with 6,700 passengers on the ship - Adrenaline Beach has more water movement that resembles waves but must have water shoes because of the rocks when you wade into water, lots of seaweed and trash in water - Columbus Cove is nice, but lots of kids and families since the water play area is there - Nellie's beach was my favorite, will rent a cabana there if we ever go back Read Less

I chose this cruise mainly for the ship. We flew in the day before and stayed at Fairfield Inn and Suites. Hotel was fine. Embarkation and disembarkation went smoothly. Found the ship to be gorgeous. It rarely felt crowded. There is so much to do. Our room was very nice. We had a balcony on deck 10 near the fore elevators. I found the beds to be very comfortable. Muster was on of my least favorite things. It was in the jazz club and way too small for all the people. Only the people who got there very early got seats. Packed in like sardines. Being on the short side I couldn't see the screens and I found the video dumb and too long. Would rather just receive the important information and be dismissed. On to more positive things! Loved all the food. We had the three night dining package. Loved Wonderland! Food was interesting and tasty. My favorite was probably the cones with Wasabi on the bottom followed by crab then avocado and the desserts. Found Jamie's to be meh, nothing special except the desserts which were delicious, tiramisu and warm brownie with ice cream. Really liked 150 Central Park. Especially the bread, brown and crunchy on top with melted butter, truffle oil, and garlic drizzled over. I had booked Izumi ala carte in the cruise planner but they convinced me to purchase the hibachi and I am glad I did. It was the best hibachi I have ever had. The rice was delicious. I got the steak and lobster and they were perfect. The chef was very entertaining as well. We ate dinner in the MDR once and it was very good. One thing that I did notice is that several of the restaurants didn't seem to have enough help. Waiters literally running and service slow at times. Also 2 tops seemed not to be as much of a priority compared to large parties. I ate breakfast at the MDR once and was ignored until the head waiter noticed. Enjoyed breakfast at Mini Bites. Never crowded. Omelets made to order. Nice being able to see the ocean while eating. They have a nice lunch there also. Burgers, chili cheese fries, nachos. Got a breakfast sandwich from Park café and did not like it. Cold with American cheese that wasn't melted. However, loved the roast beef sandwiches later in the day. Enjoyed Mongolian wok at the Windjammer one evening. We did the sushi making class and it was a lot of fun. You make a lot of sushi but you can't take any with you so you have to eat it all there. I traveled with my 23 year old son and his favorite place at night was Dazzles. He loved the band there. He also enjoyed the jazz club. Mini golf was fun. My son did the ultimate abyss. I chickened out. He also enjoyed adult dodge ball. I went to see Grease and enjoyed it. I think my favorite port was St. Martin. I did a tour with Bernard's and had "Mailman" as tour guide. He was very entertaining and knowledgeable. He took us to a gorgeous uncrowded beach. Tour with ship at San Juan was fine. Labadee was nice but the vendors are still very pushy. I really enjoyed the speciality coffees at Cafe Prominade every morning and wish that they had them at more venues as it got pretty crowded. I had purchased the ultimate drink package and found it worked out well with all the coffee drinks and adult beverages. The fresh squeezed OJ was delicious and was $8 without the package. Also was able to try weird drinks and didn't feel that I had to finish them if I didn't like them. Bar service was rather uneven with like half the bartenders knowing how to make a certain cocktail and the other half not knowing what it was. Planters punch and Goombay smash are examples. Also the same drink being different depending on which bar you went to. Bar service slow sometimes. Really liked Central Park. Relaxing in the evening listening to guitar music. I met a lot of great people on board. People were very friendly and interesting to talk to. Most of the crew were very friendly as were all the waiters. I have had better room stewards. She was rather abrupt and didn't seem genuine when trying to be friendly. Room was kept up fine though. I had a great time and would not hesitate to book this cruise again. Read Less

I had a cabin at very front of ship. Large but could have used some type of ipoljestered chair. Only had a desk Chair and sofa was too wide to sit comfortably. Too large of ship for me. Elevator service good. My time service not so good at least with one waiter. You can see how they have cut back on staff. Miss top deck lounge for drinks. Food was mostly good. Liquor too pricey! Too much to pay for a drink package!!! Kids in audience for Grease which I did not think was appropriate based on this version. Some of the stairways in Central Park area were a bit scary but were necessary vs walking far to elevator. Express departure was excellent. Best departure experience on any cruise. Windjammer some of the food trays by fried egg station always had cold or very lukewarm food. Loved the Bacardi shore excursion. Very disappointed San Juan stop was not longer!! Read Less

I just got back from a cruise with 56 people on the Harmony and it was awesome. We planned this trip for 889 days, read a ton of reviews, and tried to plan everything we could to maximize our time. The trip was great and we weren't able to do everything on the ship. Everybody in our group found their favorite things to do, places to chills, activities to win and bars to grab a drink at. Our dining room service was great because Maurice was awesome. I am not a foodie so the food was fine to me. A little cold one night, but I got two entrees so the other was fine and the 3 deserts more than made up for it. I only ate at the Windjammer one time. Breakfast was either Park Cafe or MDR. Lunch was mini-bites, park cafe, Sorrentos or the Dog house. All of it was good and quick. We also ate a lot of pizza at 2:00 am on the way back to our cabin. Most of our group had a great time. My favorite parts was all the competitions during the day like basketball, dodge ball, volleyball and mini-golf. At night we would do dinner, take in a show and then go to the Game shows. Battle of the Sexes and The Crazy Quest were so funny. We also spent a lot of time at Dazzles hanging out with one of the bands dancing and singing along. The only negatives were the lines at elevators and restaurants during peak times. Everything else was awesome. I would love to do this cruise again although without 56 people I am sure it will be a different experience. Read Less

Just off Harmony of the Seas yesterday (10Feb19). Disclaimer: This was our 35th cruise. Wife and I have an agreement - as soon as one of us becomes one of those 'complainers', we're done cruising. We're continually astonished at some reviews out there...you probably know what I getting at. This doesn't mean there aren't areas that can be improved, and I'll certainly mention those, but big picture: If you're looking for a review that just slams whatever cruise line we recently traveled, skip this one and you won't be sadly disappointed. Embarkation: Arrived at terminal at 10am, proceeded thru security, and boarded (Diamond) at 1045am. Relatively painless, and well organized. Overall: Quite an amazing ship. 14 of us in our group. - Room: Ocean balcony. Spacious, w/ plenty of storage. Cabin steward was excellent, providing twice-daily room service, ice and 1 bathrobe. He did an outstanding job. - Entertainment: Water shows (fine-line and heist) were well done, as were both of the ice-skating shows(1887 and Iskate). Headliner (impersonator) was excellent/provided tons of laughs. Not a big fan of Columbus, but the talent was incredible just the same. Music throughout the ship was great, particularly the piano dude in the Schooner bar (nightly from 1045pm-1245am). Dance parties on promenade were well done. - Labadee: Nice beach day. Bbq lunch as well done as can be expected for the number of people to serve and the logistics involved to get it there. If it's not up to standard, there's plenty of food avail when you get back on board. - Dining: Ate in the Main Dining Room each day for breakfast, lunch (when at sea) and dinner. Was pleasantly surprised that all 14 of us were accommodated at one table for dinner (expected 2 table near each other). Food was great (hot/cold, fresh, plentiful and tasty). Not sure about those that complain about the food....had one appetizer I didn't care for, and certainly didn't have anything to do w/ the quality of the food. Service was impeccable, friendly and timely. Average breakfast time: 1hr (leisurely hour). Avg dinner: 1hr 30min. (Requested one evening to be out of there in an hour due to schedule show, and they more than accommodated our request....incredible). - Superbowl party in Aqua Theatre: Great venue, great turnout, and staff did a nice job filling in the 'dead time'. Only disappointment was 'selling' food (nachos, tacos, etc). Thought that was a bit tacky, but we just chose not to participate (we had 15 or so other food locations to choose from that didn't charge). - Cleanliness: Plenty of wash stations (and encouragement to use them). Constant cleaning/refreshing by the staff in all areas, from the theatre to the fantail, including stairway rails/carpets/tile/pool deck/etc. - Elevators: Probably busy at peak times...we take the stairs, particularly when traversing one or two floors. - Disembarkation: Incredible. Walked off at 0640, and we were in the car on the road by 0710. Overall rating of this cruise on a scale of 1-10 (compared to the other cruises we have taken, with a 5 being average), we would rate this an 8. Not the best ever, but certainly in the top 5. Thanks for reading. Hope this provides some valuable insight, particularly in light of all the negative reviews out there. Again, in my/our opinion, if you aren't enjoying a cruise, cruising might just not be for you. Read Less

After 2 years of researching and saving up I decided on Harmony of the Seas. It had so many different options to satisfy my 9 year old daughter to my 35 year old fiance who is a big kid at heart. When I booked the cruise through Royal Caribbean, they strongly recommended I book our flights through Air to Seas. With all the research, almost everyone was saying to fly out a day early to make sure you make it to the ship before it sails. When booking through Air to Seas, I was reassured many times, that booking it this way, it would take the stress away. It didn't. It may seem excessive, but I called approx five times. Asking if they were certain we would make it on time. The flight that they booked us, had us arriving for 1:20pm. The last shuttle service left at 1:30pm. See my concerns? I told Air to Seas, that coming from Canada seems like to much of a risk flying the day of. Considering our unpredictable winter weather. I kept getting reassured, being reminded that booking your flight with Air to Sea guarantees you will make it. The day of, we flew out at 5:15 am. 2 hours to Toronto. Than, an hour lay over, which would land us at 1:20pm. When we got to Toronto. 1 hour was Not enough time. I literally had to yell in line, if someone would take 100$ US money to let us cut in line so we could make it to our flight on time. Just to find out, we would be waiting on a plane that needed to be fuelled up and de-iced. Putting us 2 hours behind. When I first called the emergency Air to Sea emergency line, the women said there was nothing she could do. I called an hour later and spoke to someone different who got in touch with the cruise line. I was so grateful. We rushed off the plane at 3:20pm. My fiance literally ran to find our luggage while I ran to find the Royal Caribbean rep. He gave 8 of us a choice. Since we only had 10mins to get to the port. The luggage was not taken off the plane in this short amount of time. Option 1. Stay behind, in a hotel and fly out to Jamaica and get to the ship than. Or Option 2. Go to the port, start checking in and the luggage would arrive possibly by 430pm or the next stop. Since Jamaica was day 4 of a 7 day cruise, we chose to rush to the Ship. We were guaranteed the luggage would get to us by the Royal Caribbean Rep. I asked so many times, I even recorded it since I was so anxious about leaving all of our luggage behind. Our summer clothes, our medications. We were on a fancy ship very underdressed. I had to cut my Jeans to make shorts and luckily my 9 year old had 2 pairs of sandals in her luggage, 2 sizes 2 small which of course cut my feet and caused infection. Because we were so underdressed, we weren't able to attend the entertainment. We kept being told our luggage would arrive in Jamaica. Day 4. I was only told on that day, because there were 70 suitcases, it was decided they would not fly any of the luggage because of no room. I don't want to place blame on the ship Harmony of the Seas, as it wasn't their fault. They gave the 3 of us 150$ credit to buy essentials on the ship. There are only 2 stores. That credit paid for 2 pairs of shorts and 1 tank top. By day 4 I was able to buy a swimsuit in Jamaica. Unfortunately, there were so many things we weren't able to experience because of not having the right clothing. For example, the Abyss, you need a t-shirt and longer shorts to avoid burns. The last night I had to settle the bill. I counted my money and I was short 940$ the Security came into the cabin and turned everything upside down, inside out to see if we were hiding the money. It was their procedure. Our safe didn't work properly. We had to get it fixed 3 times. After the first room clean, I had 2 brown envelopes with Cash. Devided, the bigger Bill's for shore excursions and the smaller Bill's for tipping in the other one. Since our days that we docked were spent rushing to pharmacies, looking for bathing suits ect... we didn't do any excursions. And because I was sick from not having my medications, and also in a bad mood, I tried to spend the least amount of money on the ship. Anyways, the first room clean, all my cash 3400$ was placed into one envelope. I quickly counted it, and 40$ was missing. Because of the situation, I thought I must of left the envelopes out, 40$ might have fallen out and he took a tip. I was just so grateful not everything was gone. Luckily, I had receipts for everything for insurance claims. When leaving Canada it was documented how much money I took with me. After the security was done searching the room and their questions, one of the Security came and found me at the smoking section and told me my story didn't make sense. Why didn't I report 40$ missing. If someone wanted to steal, they would have taken everything. I told her I don't know. I'm not blaming him. As, there were 3 different people who came in to fix the safe, and twice the toilet had to be fixed. Royal Caribbean is blaming West Jet for our terrible experience. But, I received false information from the people who booked our flights through Air To Seas. And the Royal Caribbean Rep for guarantee of our luggage making it to us. I really do not know how they can blame West Jet. I was convinced by a professional to book that flight. My sister works for West Jet. I could have gotten the flight tickets for super cheap, flown the day before, stayed in a hotel and still have saved so much money. They even charged me 45$ each (3 people) for Taxi services, while Royal Caribbean offers free shuttle service, which we ended up using. I could go on and on.. but I think if anyone actually reads this, they can learn from what happened to us. One more thing. I booked an inside balcony room over central park. Which had 3 beds. We got a small room, no balcony. 1 bed and one sofa that folded down to a bed. They were booked solid and couldn't fix that. I wasn't given back the difference. Read Less

I am a Celebrity guy, but we wanted to give a try on the biggest boat around,,, experience checked, I will return to Celebrity/Holland/Princess. The cabin 8698, balcony seaside, 8 th floor, Good room, bathroom and balcony size, shower with glass door and good amount of water. BUT bad sewage smell coming from the drain all the time and poor soap/rinse/shampoo quality in fact only ONE soap mixture dispenser for the 3 stuff. Bad bedding quality compare to Princess/celebrity and HAL Bad sliding door quality that keep whistling even in small wind. Stained carpet, and no chance to take to walk barefoot. Food,,, the worse buffet on sea, everyday pack full, never got good bacon /hash brown/ sausage /omelet the whole week, the toast station is also not good, need some 2 to 3 passes to get the toast right . No omelet station to have fresh omelet made. The buffet is way to small, no place to eat outside around the buffet, so they always call us to leave the place for others. Last cruise was on the Koningsdam where the buffet is super quality and super clean where nobody touch the food, the food display on the Harmony can be a messy place many times,, the food tray come at many places in two rows so people work over the first tray to get the food in the back tray, food spilling over tray to tray, service spoon handle laying down in the food, definitely not hygienic. We had 4 specialty restaurants package to be on the safe side, all were good, Chop, Sushi, Wonderland and the 150 the least good of them. The main dinning room was just OK, but good at the 2 formals nites with lobsters tails on the second formal night.They offered us free 9 onces fillet mignon because of a mistake on there menu announcement on the on room TV, thanks to them. All shows were good, Grease and Columbus OK, but the skating show was very good and the aquatic show fantastic. Dont forget to reserve before the cruise. This boat is great for family, tons of activities, but it is not the type of cruise I like. I do not feel being on a boat, you feel disconnected with the sea. No place to eat and have the sea view. To much kids running everywhere, I mean everywhere. Good thing to have the large solarium kid free in front. Good size Gym area with plenty of equipment, never had to wait for a treadmill the whole week and I go there twice a day (almost) The staff look definitely tired, most of them were gentle, but to many were not. I go on the Ovation of the Seas in April 2019 from Sydney to Honolulu. I hope my second experience with RCL will be better that time, I did also buy a 5 specialty restaurants package for that cruise because I dont trust to much the main dinning room Read Less

There are 3 of us. Myself, my wife and her sister who is in a wheelchair. We had cabin 12170. Excellent cabin with lots of room for the wheelchair. I slept on the couch which was made into a single bed. It was surprisingly comfortable. Lots of room in the bathroom and shower was great for disabled. Harmony is a busy ship with over 6200 guests. We decided to have breakfast in the main dining room which was on the lower MDR every morning. Excellent breakfast. We choose the line to be served but we could still use the buffet. Great service. We did go up to the Windjammer Buffet to look around. It was crowded but manageable. Our Main Dining Room was The Silk on the top level. We had my time dining but where able to go at the same time to the same table and waiter every night. I liked the variety and the quality of the meals was exceptional. We did try the other "free" eateries (I liked the Hot Dogs!) Johnny Rockets was good. The Solarium Restaurant had Kosher Food for this cruise as there was a large Jewish group on board. I learned a great deal about Kosher Food on this cruise. We parked ourselves in the Solarium bottom level every day. The pool was just too busy for a wheelchair. Solarium was quiet and relaxing. Went ashore in St Maarten and walked to Great Bay Beach area. I pushed the chair and it was only about 15 minutes. Great Board Walk buy 5 ships where there so a vey crowded beach. Did not go ashore in San Juan. Labadie was good. We were able to use a beach wheelchair and although it was crowded we had no trouble getting three loungers in the shade. Debarkation was easy but crowded. we were going to a hotel after so a cab was actually easy to get. Harmony was a great cruise. We liked Grease and Columbus. The skating show was well done although I had trouble following the story line. The Fine Line water show was good but delayed twice. We watched it from the level at the Rock Climbing Wall. Great view. Miller Lite was $9.99 a can. I could not buy a package since everyone in the Cabin has to have one. Probably will not cruise on such a large ship again but was good experience. Read Less

Check in: The check in on the cruise was not well organized- there were several lines with lots of staff not knowing what they were doing. We had to go to one area to get the kids bands for their muster station and this was chaos. The ship: Once we got onto the boat our room was already ready. The inside family cabin was great for our needs. It had a lot more room then I expected. We had a bed for myself and my husband, a seating area where we could watch tv and play and bunk beds for the kids that were curtained off. The ship itself was surprisingly not crowded in some areas and at some of the time, but had a number of flaws that led to crowded areas. The Windjammers was the worst as it was too small for the number of people on the boat and at number times they had to close it as there were too many people there. The elevators were also overly busy lots of times. There was an area on the upper deck you had to go through to get to windjammers that was the smoking area, which I think was a mistake. Also the Solarium (adult only area) was the only place to get kosher food, therefore it was often filled with kids as there were a number of Jewish families on board. The entertainment on board was very good. The big activities of surf simlulators, zip lining, ultimate abyass, and water slides were often not too busy so we got to do each of these things without waiting too long. The stage entertainment was very good. The water show did get canceled two times, but we got to see it and it was great. Overall the entertainers were well trained and sets/effects were good. The food on board was not the best we had on a cruise ship. We felt the food was better on Jewel of the Sea (maybe as they didn’t have to feed as many people)There were always good choices for food and no one complained about the food, it just wasn’t the best. Disembarkment: Disembarkment was not good. The lines were super long and it took a solid hour to get through. The lines were not organized. They stopped calling numbers of groups to leave the boat at one point and we had to go to an area that was displaying the numbers to find out which ones were being called. Overall I would say that the cruise ship was good but not the best I have been on. Disney is better, but you do get what you pay for. The ports of call: St. Marteen We overall enjoyed the catermarn shore excurision we did here. However, it did not start out great. Workers lined everyone up to get on the trip and it took them a long time to collect tickets, sign the waver, put bands on everyone and give a ticket to each person. This took a total of 45 minutes! This could have been done before hand and it started this trip on a bad note. However, after getting on the boat, we thought it would be packed, but it didn’t feel bad. Adam and I went snorkeling and were able to see a helicopter and fish as the guide coaxed fish out with food. We then went for a tour around and ended up on a nice beach. We saw lots of giant boats and we saw the planes landing. There was lots of drinks on this trip, but there was an issue with food. They were supposed to be feeding everyone sandwich lunches, but it turned out to be one very small sandwich each. This caused some problems given how much everyone on the boat was drinking. We also were able to get to the shopping area off of the boat. We had been to this area before, and we noted that this area is very much under construction and is not at the same level it was when we were last there before the hurricane. San Juan We spend the time in San Juan going to two fo the old forts We have been to San Juan before and we enjoyed this both times. We were able to walk from the boat to the old San Juan and the forts were not far away. We were lucky to be there on a day when the entrance to the forts were free. Everyone did enjoy forts. However, when we were walking to the second fort we were reminded of just how dangerous this area can be, which made me sad as it seemed safer the last time we were here. Labdee Overall this was my least favourite port. I found the beaches very busy with people everywhere. The lines for food on the Island was also long. What I found most troubling about Labdee was the desperation of the Hattian people working on the Island. Everywhere I went someone was trying to get my attention and asking for money. It made me uncomfortable. Fort Lauderdale After the cruise we spent one overnight in Fort Lauderdale. We spent the day on the water taxis exploring the area. It was interesting to see the mega boats on the water and the expensive masions. Spending one day in Fort Lauderdale was okay, but I think the family would find it boring spending more time there. We seemed to be the wrong demographics as most of the people were older adults and young partying adults. The hotel in Fort Lauderdale was again okay for one night, but was very rough around the edges. We stayed at the Hilton Marina. I liked that the hotel was right on the water. We could get the water taxi right from the hotel and we could walk around the marina and look at boats. They had a pool but it was too cold to try it. The room itself was old and in bad need of a remodel. The doors were creaky with paint pealing off and the bathroom appeared old . Read Less

We have previously been on the Oasis and Allure. We were excited to go on the Harmony. As expected, the Harmony is a gorgeous ship. I love the Oasis class ships, as they are easy to navigate and all the neighborhoods help to spread the people out on the ship and help make it feel uncrowded. The shows on this ship are absolutely top notch. Grease was, by far, the best show we've seen on a ship and so fun! Every single show on the ship is just amazing. The ports were great, too. Between the ship, shows and ports, this had the potential to be the best cruise we've ever gone on. But... We usually go this particular week because it's between school breaks in the U.S. so we've found it a good time to cruise when there isn't many kids. Except this year! We were told there were 1,500 kids on the ship!!! That was way too many! Children were everywhere, even where they shouldn't be (solarium, bars and hot tubs). From what I understand, RC was offering a "kids are free" promotion that might have been the reason why it was so inundated with little kids. There was a Jewish holiday that week so there were certain things done that week to cater to the Jewish passengers (changing the Solarium Bistro to a kosher restaurant, for instance). It seems like it would have been better to set up the kosher restaurant away from the Solarium, since that brought kids into that area. Most of the other passengers on the ship were from Brazil. You can tell that customs are different there, as the entire time people (especially children) were cutting in lines and behaving in a way that most Americans would consider rude. We alternate between Royal Caribbean (because their ships are just magnificent) and Carnival (which really are a bit more fun). Whenever we go on Carnival, I find people turn their nose up about it and want to make comments about the kids or lower class of people on the ships. I can honestly say that this was the worst experience I've ever had as far as fellow passengers on any ship. Hot tubs were full of toddlers in swim diapers, leaving no room for adults. Some families had to be told over and over again that they couldn't have their kids in the Solarium. Kids were constantly cutting lines. I was kicked hard in the back in the pool by a bigger kid who didn't even take the time to apologize. Another thing we saw on this ship that we haven't seen before was 2-3 small dogs. Sorry, but a miniature poodle or a yorkie is not a real service dog and have no place on a ship! A couple we met in the hot tub (which we could only get in at night when people finally got their toddlers out of there) told us that one of the dogs was left in the cabin all day while the lady who brought it was on an island and it barked non-stop, causing them to avoid going to their room at all. In summary, I can only say that the Harmony of the Seas is a fabulous ship. It's a marvel on the sea. If RC continues on this quest to fill the ship with as many kids as possible, though, they're not going to remain our first choice. We get very little time off work and choose a cruise to relax. When you can't go into a pool without getting splashed and kicked, can't get into a hot tub during the day due to it being full of kids with floaties on their arms and swim diapers on and can't even escape to the Solarium without waiting for kids to be served sodas at the bar before you, it really deters from the relaxing trip we had hoped for. Read Less