This was our 45th cruise and the 8th with RCCL. We usually prefer Celebrity but we wanted to try this ship. We were previously on the Allure and the Oasis and had a good time except for the food. This ship was different. The food was excellent. We ate all our breakfasts and .dinners in the main dining room. .For breakfast and lunch the main dining room offered 2 choices. Full service or buffet. I usually do not like buffets, but the assortment and quality of the food was fantastic. Much, much better than the Windjammer buffet. Service throughout the ship was exceptional. Special kudos to Mimi, our waiter and Elaine Santos, the hostess in the Diamond Club. We booked an ocean view balcony cabin which was very spacious and clean! The entertainment was fantastic. The talented cast performed the show Grease which was totally enjoyable. In fact, we went back on the last day of the cruise to see it a second time. There was entertainment going on all the time. We saw 2 wonderful ice skating shows, and 2 wonderful aqua shows. There 2 comedy shows featuring 2 comedy in each show. Jim David was by far the better comedy. My wife and I were chosen to be on the Love and Marriage game show and we had a ball. The cruise director Michele was the best that we have seen. The only complaint was that there was no tables and chairs around the pool in the “no smoking” area. We usually like to sit at a table to read or play board games. We were unable to do this because all they had by the pool was lounge chairs. All in all, we were pleasantly surprised and are looking forward to our next RCCL cruise, especially since Celebrity has raised their prices drastically. Read Less

I cruised on the Harmony of the Seas November 25th thru December 2nd. This was only my second cruise ever. My first one was last year on the Carnival Vista so my review is mainly based on comparing the two experiences. I will group my review into sections in case someone just wants to skim through it. AIRPORT TRANSFER - 1 out of 5 stars Don't do it. I wasn't planning on it, but someone in our group purchased it for all of us. It cost $30 per person and involved waiting for 40 minutes at the airport to then get on a 20 year old coach bus, which took us to the terminal. The terminal is about a mile and a half from the airport! There was 4 of us, so the cost was around $120 round trip, so $60 each way. While waiting at the airport I checked Uber and it would have cost us under $20 for a Uber SUV with a 4 minute wait time! Bad start to our trip and a horrible first impression of Royal Caribbean. The return trip was a bit better, but we still waited on the bus for around 20 minutes for it to fill up. THE SHIP - 5 out of 5 stars The Harmony is an amazing ship and definitely more upscale than the Carnival Vista. Our stateroom was very nice and especially the bathroom was much nicer than on Carnival. Many bars, restaurants, and things to do. We were able to find 4 empty pool chairs next to each other at any time and in any part of the ship! The only time it felt crowded was after shows when everyone was leaving the Royal Theater or Aqua Theater, which I think is completely normal and to be expected. The pool decks were pretty much empty after 10pm and we got to have a hot tub to ourselves every night. This seemed very strange on a ship that carries so many passengers. After midnight the Promenade and all other parts of the ship seemed empty as well. The casino was never overcrowded at night. We never went to the night club so maybe that's where everyone hung out at night? It didn't seem like there were many kids on the ship and the ones we encountered were very well behaved and not a problem. THE FOOD - 4 out of 5 stars Contrary to many reviews on here, we thought the food in the Wind Jammer was fine. Many healthy options including salads, fruits and vegetables. Perhaps its a matter of expectations. My expectations were pretty low after reading all the negative reviews here and they were exceeded. Also contrary to most reviews on here, we never found the Wind Jammer to be crowded. There was a long line to get in at your typical 12-1 lunchtime so we either ate at a different time or went somewhere else. There are many other options. Not sure why someone would wait in a long line and then complain about the place being crowded. The Solarium was a great option for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Park Cafe was good as well. We used the coupon we got from Costco and went to Jamie's Italian. We were amazed. The entire experience and the food was excellent. Totally disappointed with Johnny Rockets. We also had a coupon from Costco to eat there for free. Thankfully it was free, because the food was horrible. Onion rings stuck together. Super greasy burger. Chilly Cheese Dog that looked nothing like we expected. We thought the burgers and fries at Small Bites were a lot better. ENTERTAINMENT - 5 out of 5 stars The Fine Line was AMAZING! Definitely see the show early, because as other people have stated, it often gets cancelled due to the weather/wind. Grease was great. Columbus was pretty bad. Went from ok, to weird to extremely cringy/embarassing. Turns out the whole thing was basically a Royal Caribbean advertisement. I read many negative reviews about it so my expectations were very low. If I went into it blind, I might have left towards the end. Our Headliner show was Earl Turner. Very entertaining and funny guy. CRUISE DIRECTOR - 1 out of 5 stars I wanted to comment on the cruise director Michele separately since I thought he was horrible. I'm sure that Royal Caribbean does customer research and the whole cruise director concept is catered towards what the majority of their clients want or expect. Firs of all, he was barely visible. I think it was day 2 of the cruise when I found out what the cruise director looks like and what his name is. He didn't seem to be a big part of our experience and he was also not very charismatic. The reason for my review might be that Carvinal set the bar very high. Our cruise director on the Vista was Matt Mitcham. Matt was unreal! Seeing him around and hearing his voice (deep voice with a British accent) was a big part of the whole cruising experience. He danced, he sang, he partied... He is definitely one of a kind and after doing some research it looks like he received a cruise director of the year award which is well deserved! THE DRINKS - 5 out of 5 stars We had the drink package and the first thing we noticed that you don't have to sign a receipt for every drink you got, as opposed to Carnival. This was awesome! The package already contains 18% gratuity and getting a receipt with an "additional tip" line seems like your being pressured into tipping more. We only got a receipt a couple of times in the casino bar. The alcohol selection was great and the drinks were delicious. Definitely not watered down, which we suspected Carnival of doing :-( OVERALL - 5 out of 5 stars The categories I rated lower didn't have a huge impact on our overall experience, which was fantastic! I might not go on the Harmony again (just because I would prefer to try out a different ship) but I would definitely recommend it to others. Read Less

Service by crew members was exceptional. Disembarkment could have been better. A lot of confusion . Windjammer had great assortment of food but crowded no matter when you ate. Entertainment forms to suit everyone. Statement staff could not have been better. Cabin could use more outlets ( especially one in bathroom). Our Waiter in dining room was great. Only bad thing about Labadee was constantly being bothered to purchase services or items. Of course pools can be crowded and deck chairs at a premium. Never seen so many empty toweled chairs. In order to do every activity and see all the entertainment offered you would probably need another 7 days. If you have children this would be a very good cruise for them. A ton of things for them to do. Pools, slides, tennis court, miniature golf, ping pong tables and much more. All in all a good time for our group of 20. Read Less

We just got off our Thanksgiving cruise. This ship is really large. There are many different things you can do onboard; mini golf, 3 waterslides, 1 large slide (Ultimate Abyss) with lights and sounds, and 20 restaurants. As part of our room package, we received a bottle of wine and a specialty lunch. The ship was sold out so we had a hard time booking Jamie's Italian but part of that is because we had dining at 5:30. We decided to eat at Johnny Rocket's and it never disappoints. We traveled with a total of 6 adults and I love how you can spend as much or as little time together as you prefer. The last night we had dinner at Chops Grille and that restaurant is fabulous. The filet mignon was cooked perfectly and I enjoyed how the sides are served family style. We had a fabulous time and look forward to our next cruise on the Serenade of the Seas! The casino is large on this ship, it felt larger than other ships. We fully enjoyed the art auction as well. It is fun even if you do not buy any art. I like getting the experience of attending an auction and learning all about it. Read Less

We were a group of 15 friends and family (hence Framily) on the 8 night Harmony of the Seas Cruise. We had previously cruised twice each on the Allure and Oasis. It was very obvious that Royal had learned a lot from the two elder sister ships and incorporated much of that learning into Harmony. Embarkation was a breeze. We arrived at the port around 10:15 and were on board by 10:45. Quick and Easy. The only line we stood in was at the metal detectors, but it moved very quickly. Though Harmony is essentially the same as Allure and Oasis, the spaces seemed more well thought out and the traffic flow was much improved. Even the small changes to the room layout made the staterooms seem larger. I cannot think of a single time other than during debarkation that we stood in any lines or felt crowded during the week and we had over 6000 passengers on board. We were in JS 7640 and it was a great room! Lots of space and lots of storage. In fact for the first time ever we had an entire empty set of drawers and a small coat closet that we didn't use (other than the safe). Our room steward was very attentive, yet not overly intrusive. She made sure we had all we needed. We did notice that the room stewards were much less visible on this cruise than they had been in the past. Not sure if this a a change Royal has made of just a by chance occurrence. This was not a bad thing as when we needed our room steward she always seemed to be available, but we did notice that overall we seemed to see less of her throughout the trip than others int he past. The shows in the Theater, Ice Rink and Aqua Theater were good. Grease was well performed, but the hairline mic placement on the cast was both poor and distracting. Columbus the Musical was fabulous and probably my second favorite Royal performance after Mama Mia on the Allure. 1887 was well performed, but the I found the story line to be slightly lacking. Food overall was very good. Complimentary food options on the past few Royal cruises we have been on left something to be desired, but Harmony more than made it up. Food was properly cooked, well seasoned and well presented. The only complaints would be that service the first night in the MDR was EXTREMELY slow and that throughout the 8 night cruise our drink orders in the MDR were regularly mixed up or just plain wrong. We did 4 specialty restaurants: 150 Central Park, Izumi Teppanyaki, Chops and Wonderland. All 4 had great food and fabulous service! The best part was Izumi and Chops were the only two restaurants that our whole group went to together and both happily accommodated us! Bar service was great at some bars and meh at others. The Boot and Bonnet Pub on Deck 5 was spectacular. The Bonic Bar was a cool phenomenon but slow and had some glitches. Unfortunately, the bartender assigned there was new and struggled a little with the system. Vintages had a great selection of wines and the staff were good, but definitely the least engaging Vintages staff of any ship we have cruised on. One call out to Royal's staff is the spectacular manner in which the accommodated unexpected things. On Day 3 we did a pub crawl with a bunch of other cruisers. We started at the Boot and Bonnet and moved around the ship. Royal did a great job of surging bartenders to the locations we were moving to to accommodate the sudden influx of people and then the sudden drop off as the group moved on. The ports were great! We didn't do any cruiseline sponsored excursions except for the Dragon's Breath Zipline in Labadee. In St. Thomas we spent the day at the Cruzan Beach Club at Secret Harbor Beach. Even with 3 other ships in port the beach was not over crowded and we had a blast (even in the rain). We were able to rent Paddleboards for a couple of hours from Aqua Action Watersports. None of us had ever been to St. Kitts, so we did the Grand Island Tour through Thenford Grey and got to see so much. Basseterre, Caribelle Batik, Brimstone Hill Fortress, Timothy Hill (where the Atlantic meets the Caribbean) and then the Shipwreck Beach Bar and Grill. From Shipwreck, some of our group headed back to town to shop and some stayed for lunch. The tour guide and driver happily came back to get those that stayed for lunch and got us back with plenty of time to shop before departure. In San Juan we booked the most AMAZING waling food tour through Old San Juan with Spoon Food tours. Food was awesome and Pedro our tour guide was fun, informative, enthusiastic and just plain great! He was probably the best tour guide we have ever had on ANY tour anywhere. In Labadee we spent most of the day at Nellie's Beach. A couple of us headed out to the swim up bar at Adrenaline Beach. Be sure to take your Seapass card with you. We remembered, but a lot of people did not and had to go back to shore to get them. The Dragon's Breathe Zipline was great. Checked in, Quick intro into your gear, test ride on the baby dragon and then hop in the trucks and head up to the top. The view is breathtaking and the ride is beautiful. Over all a great day! Debarkation was easy! Since we were flying out that evening we did the Luggage Valet service. I cannot say enough about this program. You put your luggage out the night before as normal, but don't pick it up again until you arrive at your home airport. The $25 charge for the service is well worth not having to lug anything more than our carry-ons to the airport. That being said, we could disembark at anytime. There was a constant line to get off the ship itself and to get down to the area where you could pick up your luggage. We down loaded the CBP Mobile Passport App and once me made it downstairs were put in a separate line that allowed us to be through customs and out the door in 5 mins. Overall, this was a great trip and Harmony quickly became the favorite ship of everyone in our group! Read Less

This was my first cruise anywhere and I had no idea what to expect. I was in awe when I stepped foot on the ship. There was so much to do, that I didn’t get to see everything on the ship. Our rooms were always kept clean with some towel animals left on our bed. The Guest Service dept was incredible!! If you ever had a issue (minor or major) they would call and ask to come up to our cabin to make sure they made it right. The activities were all incredible and offered something for everyone. My only issue was if I was in my room at the time of announcements, I couldn’t hear them. Also, we were a bit confused about our “My Time” dining, but finally figured that out (part of being a newbie to cruising). Already booked our next cruise while on the ship. If you’re going, you’ll have the best time !! Read Less

Great ship wonderful time on our 8 night cruise. This ship looks very similar to Oasis and Allure only newer so if you like them you will enjoy this ship as well. The food is really good but by the end of the cruise I was really ready to have more choices but that is with any cruise for me. I bought a soda package but would not recommend doing so unless you spend your time around the sports deck. The only cola machine I saw was at the basketball area. If you go to a bar to simply get a soda refill it takes forever and the roving bar service team for the most part seem irritated to bring a coke. Most got a long face when asked to bring a coke. One even asked is that all? One guy took the order and never brought the drink. No more soda package for me. The reason for my review is to warn others about the unsanitary conditions at the barbecue on Labadee. I have eaten from these venues many, many times over the years but no more. In the past I go to the barbecue when the line is long and I guess the volume of people keeps the flies away from the food. I was one of the first in line last week and noticed all of the wrappings were removed from the food containers. As I proceeded through the line I was disgusted to see hundreds of flies just covering all of the food. The hd hb buns were covered with flies and I guess that had been the case since the wrap was removed. I will never eat at one of these barbecues again until better preparation is done to keep the food enclosed and sanitary. My wife and I returned to the ship early to eat a late lunch. The swarm of flies all over this food still makes me sick to think about it. Read Less

We had a Junior Suite 14230. There was a little foot traffic above us caused by the pool but it was all quite by 9:00 pm and not really a problem. The balcony was spacious and had 2 chairs with feet rest and a table. I ordered a room decor and a case of water which was in our suite upon arrive as well as all of our pre-booked excursion tickets. It was amazing that it did not feel crowded as there was over 6,300 people on board. Only ran into lines on excursion points. The food was very good as we eat all dinners at Coastal Kitchen or Specialty restaurants. Only real issue was disembarkation as the line was slow and a few customs agents only worked until 9:00 which seems weird and our agent went on break at 9:30 and we were his second to last persons cleared. We heard as we left that there was still over 1,000 people not cleared so why there was several stations without agents was baffling. We used a taxi this time as the past 3 trips we used Ubers but that lot is not designed well and waiting 35 minutes on average for an Uber was not worth the extra $7 - $12 dollars of savings. Read Less

This was our first cruise so really had no idea what to expect. Everything far exceeded our expectations. The ship itself is amazing with more activities than you will ever be able to get to in a week. Cabin was comfortable and roomy for the two of us. No issues with storage. Food choices and quality was excellent. Be prepared to pack on a few pounds. The most noticeable feature of this ship was absolutely the crew/staff/performers. Every last person we interacted with was friendly, professional and genuinely concerned that we were having a great experience. Our ports of call were St Thomas, St Kitts, San Juan and Labadee. We chose not to book excursions but instead explored each place on our own. Wonderful ports to visit. Our first cruise was so enjoyable, we booked our next one while still on the ship. Will look into booking excursions for our next trip. Read Less

We have cruised with RCCL several times. Our most recent cruises were on Oasis of the Seas. This time we decided to cruise on Harmony of the Seas. The entertainment on the cruise was fantastic. We particularly enjoyed the Reggae music. The band was amazing. We also enjoyed the food and balcony room it was very spacious and decorative. Our room attendant June was excellent! Our disappointment was in the service across the ship. The manager over the jewelry store was not customer friendly,only concerned with completing the transaction. The dining room management was not very flexible. However, there was one head waiter - ALANA that was AMAZING! We also enjoyed Vintages wine bar! They had an amazing staff. The other areas on the ship were very transactional and only interested in completing the task, not like the other ships that I have been on that created an experience. Even the bar tenders at the pool were rude. I was also disappointed in the number of kids I saw in night clubs and the solarium. I believe I should not have to share my adult experience with kids in the night clubs. I was diappointed that this was not enforced. The HARMONY OF THE SEAS needs to work on creating an EXPERIENCE, not just a TRIP! I think I will go back to OASIS OR ALLURE of the SEAS, all the upgrades are not worth the poor experience I received. Read Less