We chose this cruise for our family Christmas present. Eight of us age 12,14,16 and five adults went. We chose it primarily for the ship activities and CoCo Cay, their private island. Best thing was the evening dining. Our wait staff was great and food was wonderful. The worse thing was the huge crowds at everything, standing in forever lines, the nickel and diming for every little thing, and total lack of cabin amenities. Also everything event required reservations that filled up quickly. After cruising, myself and husband, for more than 15 times on all types of ships, this mega ship was the worse. Then to make matters worse they decided to skip CoCo Cay, which they were advertising almost daily on TV and mass media. Their lame excuse was some weather problem. We checked our weather app which showed no disturbances around the area and when we asked the crew they said they had not stopped for 3 weeks! We feel their reasons were not truthful. A poor substitute was Labadee, which doesn't even compare. Three very disappointed kids. Also did one excursion, Accessible fort tour, that was very poor. Needless to say there will be no more RCCL cruises for us. Read Less

We wanted to cruise on a mega ship...we thought, yes, there’s a lot of people, but it’s a really big ship, and won’t feel crowded....big mistake! New York City at New Year’s Eve feels less crowded. After searching for a table at the breakfast buffet, bad seats at entertainment, not being able to find a lounger at the pool, long lines especially at the elevator, misinformed signage, and embarkation specials and raffle tickets being put in our room long after expiration, my partner finally said let’s pack and get off this thing. We, of course, are not doing that, and will try to make the most of it, but we will never do this again! The food is okay.....we’ve been saying that a lot, “it’s okay”. Jaimie Olivier’s was disappointing, but the main dining room was better than expected. Our stateroom is nice, although there is a little stain on the carpet. We bought “the key” which is supposed to get is the best seats at the shows. I guess we have a different opinion of what “the best” is. Be warned! Read Less

We have always cruised with Royal Caribbean and enjoyed all our cruises, but this time I felt I had to write this review. To begin with, the ship is way too big! You can't get from one end of the ship to the other without changing decks. We have always found our way around on ships by the first day, but this time it took forever! Central Park is a joke! We walked through it one time - nice if you like trees! There were so many people and kids, the lines to go anywhere were super long. And don't do anything out of the ordinary or you will have to pay for it. The royal shop was the smallest I have ever seen on a ship, and nothing there worth buying. CoCo Cay was a nice island, but it is mainly for young adults and kids; and again, expensive. Rotan was a horrible mess! They are still building the dock and all you see is dirt and construction workers! I must say that Costa Maye was one of the pretties ports we have every been at. Everything you wanted to do was right there, no need to go into town. Now - Johnny Rockets was a night mare, the staff was slow, the food was bad, and the wait was horrible. My advice, if going on a cruise, forget this one and go to the next size lower ship; like Freedom or Indepence, a lot better Read Less

We are experienced cruisers and have been loyal Holland America for a while. We went on this cruise because it was my high school reunion cruise. I have always said never on a BIG ship, well I now mean NEVER. Too many people pushing, cutting in front of, rude and crowded. Too many children, we wondered if we were on Disney by the large number of children who ranged from infants(how can you enjoy a cruise with an infant is beyond me), to teens, running, screaming, pushing all the elevator buttons, and more screaming. The noise level is above real, bring ear plugs. The only place we found some peace and quiet other than our cabin was the Solarium(adults only) and on some occasions Park Place. All the announcements, music, narration is beyond a human's hearing ability, so loud. The service in the Main Dinning room was very good. Our group had to eat at 5:30pm which is not what we wanted but in order to be seated together it was our only choice, Royal would not work with us on this. The food there was good and hot, I will not say delicious except for the escargot, onion soup, lamb chops and desserts. Royal is not a cheap cruise line, they will nickel and dime you to death, want to watch a movie in your cabin will cost you $11.99. The cocktails are all over priced and often only a half full glass, is Royal really that desperate for money?? Don't forget your umbrella, when it rains on this ship everything gets wet and all the passengers crowd into the interior. My biggest complaint is smoking is allowed in the casino. I like to play Black Jack and there was always someone smoking. This is a dangerous fire and health hazard, I don't want to breath second hand smoke. The life boat drill was a joke, they could never get all these bodies off this monster. The video they showed was a take off of James Bond and so poorly done. We could not hear this or see it from where we were seated in the Promenade. I don't know how Royal gets away with such a drill as the passengers kept talking through it all. We have sailed Royal years back and all I can say it was night and day difference from our last Royal cruise. Shoving in line at the buffet was so bad and you serve your self, a real potential for food contamination. We only ate there once and said never again. Again, too many children, why were they not in school at this time of the year is beyond me. Guess you can tell we were very unhappy on the monster and will be returning to Holland America for our next cruise. Read Less

It was very obvious that Royal Caribbean has cut costs on a lot of stuff. I am not sure if it was just this ship (should be the best since it was the most expensive) Or if Royal Caribbean just cut costs everywhere. Food quality was not good and was the same almost every night, Cleanliness of staterooms and ship where bad, Not kept up with maintenance, Hallways smelt like mold, Feces on my toilet after asking them three times to clean it from previous people, All the way down to not having towel animals made every day only 3 days of it (this does not cost money should do every day my kids enjoyed it). Staff did not have to work for tips since it is added on to EVERYTHING (even the electronic bar that made our drink) so they did not have to work for the money which definitely showed. There used to be different shows everything with NO reservations. Now there are reservations with the same 3 shows 2 of them being musicals which we do not enjoy we like more circus olay stuff. No seating the first day at breakfast so had to wait with food until someone stood up and we could get their seat. If I hadn't cruised with royal Caribbean before it would have been an okay trip. But VERY disappointed because I knew how good they used to be and it was not that great. Read Less

Not worth the money to go on this trip. Food and service in main dining was the only great areas. Not enough programs for amount of guest, dirty pool because of not enough crew cleaning all the drinks, elevators were a joke multiple empty ones would pass to have a full one stop. They just have to many guest and not enough crew. If you wanted to get somewhere leave a half hour early so you could stand a wait for a elevator then stand in line for whatever you wanted. You were always waiting in line for everything. Excursions were good. Crappy day at coco kay should some that up. Why would you have no shade and smoking where the tram would pick you up???? That one blows even my mind. Need to start all over with this ship. Either less passengers or more crew members, but I would do both to help you out. Just a thought. Read Less

We chose this cruise for our honeymoon as it came highly recommended. Unfortunately we were ver disappointed with our experience. Day 1 - we were not let into our rooms till after 1pmm this left many passengers holding onto hand luggage meaning activity options were limited. None of the bars had menus out and the staff were only intrested in selling the drink packages rather than service. Day 2 - coco cay was a pleasant island but there was a lack of communication around what activities would be available along the beach. There was very little signage to tell you what drinks you could buy or where advertises activities were being held. Dinner at Icon grill was also a mess. The servers did their best with a very overbooked restaurant, but we were kept waiting for 20 minutes for a pre booked table. Our food then took so long to arrive that we missed a show we had booked for 2 hours after our dinner reservation. It was too noisy to even have a conversation with the person across the table so we ate in silence. Day 3 - at sea. Entertainment offered was great, however there were not many activities offered for entertainment. Rather most seemed to be focused on seeing how much they could get you to spend. This made for quite a boring day aboard. Day 4 - getting off the ship in Mexico was a mess. There was no organisation of your groups, rather we were told to go to the end of the pier at a certain time. The timeframes given to get to the designated area was ridiculous as it was set for 15 minutes after we were able to leave the ship, meaning everyone else was also trying to get off at the same time. My husband and I had also purchased a dining package and were told we can dine at any specialty restaurants. After dining at hibachi we were informed this was not included. We felt very ripped off as nowhere on the ship website is this outlined. We were also told at the end of the dining experience, removing our option to choose. Extremely disappointed as we spent a lot of money on this cruise with expectations of a relaxing vacation, when really we were sucked into a money eating scheme and have yet to see the benefit of the cost. Read Less

I have been on a total of 5 cruises, this was my 2nd time on Royal Caribbean. This was by far the worst experience I have had. There are those experiences you look forward to once you finally make it on the ship. You hear people talk about the giant party at the beginning as you sail away from the dock. You can't wait to see it for yourself, well my family and I where all ready for the sail away party but NOTHING no music or dancing on the top deck just tons of people confused. Apparently on this ship they try to crame 6500 people on deck 5 where you can't even move or see anything. Just imagine being in a small mall like setting, trying to watch a concert or show. With 6500 other people. No bigger them a basketball court. Having little kids with that many people is not safe. So we missed out on a lot of activities on that floor due to the safety of my children. And of you are interested in food at anywhere close to that time you are out of luck if you want to sit and eat as a family on your family cruise. The food was just ok nothing blew me out of the water. I have been on other cruise lines where the food was fantastic this was by far the worst food. Same thing over and over nothing different and the same all of the ship. You want the same burger you have 4 different places to get it but nothing different. The desserts were pathetic!! The pop machine where broken so you get flat 2 litters of Sprite to drink!! I mostly come on cruises for the food and energy you get from all the music and staff that make it fun. But I didn't get that energy till the last day on the ship. Kids things this was by far my most frustrating part of this cruise. If you say you are going to have face painting from 230-430 and someone gets there at 345 and they tell you sorry that your kid can't get it done because the line is too long is not ok!! This happened multiple times to use and not just on the face painting. It also happened on the moon light rockwall climbing which we got there an hour before it was supposed to close and was told no. If you tried to rock wall climb in the daytime your hands got burned so needless to say that was out. But once we walked back by the face painting booth to see all the kids with face paint and see different people at the end made me furious. They picked and chose who got to get the face painting done. Not a happy momma!! I also purchased the Deluxe Beverage package for my husband and I. I did this so I could order whatever I wanted and not worry about the bill at the end of the cruise. We that didn't work because I would get charged anyway even with my package. So I would have to take time out of my day to go down and sit in the line to talk to the guest service and explain what I ordered. One day while i was at guest service ( which i had to go to at least 5 times) I asked about the wrist bands you could purchase instead of your card. I was told they didn't have anymore which I thought was crazy because it was only the 1st full day of the cruise. He told me the inventory was gone. I am sorry were we not just docked so you could restock your inventory?!? Don't have something for certain guest and not all 6500 people. If I want to purchase something then I should be able to purchase it. And if I waited till maybe day 3 or 4 and they had sold out, I would have understood. But don't say you just don't have enough for everyone. That is crazy to me. Don't plan on using their app to message back and forth while on the ship. You spend more time fighting to keep it up on your phone and miss out on the messages you thought sent. The TV in your room was pointless!! Other cruise lines give you some type of free movies to watch and decent TV. Not on this ship! This ship you get to watch Duggie Hauser family matters and cricket! And the next day can watch the same episode again!! For a ship to not have a huge sporting event on somewhere in the ship is crazy!! On the same cruise line I have been talking about throughout this post they put the the world series games on over the pool so anyone who wanted to watch could and also had a pub in side that had it on aswell. Which means people with kids could still let the kids play while they watched the game. But you could watch Cricket anytime of the day. So as my mom was sick in bed the last 3 and half days she hated the TV! The kids splash pad was great except you had no room to move on the deck around it. The chairs with stools where on top of each other and if you had time to stand up and move you would trip on the one next to you. Another problem I had was this all inclusive?? What does that mean?? Because you had to pay 2.50 per bag of popcorn the side of a juice box! How is this all inclusive??? Other ships give you blankets as much popcorn as you want and a great movie!! The Icecream was so monitored you couldn't even make your own cone!! The kids always look forward to coming back from dinner and seeing what animal they made well we only received 3 out of 7 nights. My other cruise line we received 7 or 7 ! It is all about how your staffs energy reflex on to us as passengers! We really looked forward to this cruise because it was geared more towards kids then before. I will say of you have young kids this is not the ship for you!! Go on the Carnival you will have the time of your life and worth every penny. I do want to say that I had one great experience on this ship and that was our very last night our server Joseph and his right hand man made my girls laugh so hard and finally got to see what I was hoping for the whole cruise! They did magic tricks and even got to see the "pet" mouse!!! They truly made the last night special. I even had to head back early to make sure our luggage made it out by the door in time. He helped my husband carry all of our desserts from the hall back to our room!!! Thank you for making that one night special!! Needless to say I will most likely not go back on this ship while my kids are young. Thanks Read Less

Cruised with 27 others. Had family, friends and Niece and Nephew 17&18. HOTS june 2019. We all felt the free food was excellent except for Solarium poor service & food. I reserved two times for free dinner every night, Solarium 6pm and then also My Time Dining 8:30 since we had no idea of show times & did not want to miss since dinner service is alloted 2 HOURS every night. The room attendants and food staff that we saw or spoke were almost all exceptional. There is an 18% tip already paid, we paid an extra 10 to 15% on top and could charge to our room. RC constantly nickel and dimed during the entire pre cruise, items that stated would be included were not get everything email led to you if they tell you something. Voom almost NEVER worked, no way to communicate with rest of our group, RC should atleast put dry erase boards on doors so we could tell everyone where wewent and in four hours where we will be. Print out your entire daily planner, to prove what you paid for and time you scheduld since their app hardly worked. I had to fight to get 1-arcade $ back, since card did not work( had already worked with attendant night before), 2- $ back from cancelled port RC excursion, 3- proof of dinner reservation # reserved and time 4-i have limited mobility and diarrhea was noted on my reservation and RC could not confirm where the $1200 Chill Island Cabana i paid for was..of course 2nd in line on Day one excursion CS had my reserved cabana the farthest last one as far away from bathrooms as possible to walk in 4 inch sand THANKS RC for working with me . 4- got $ back on voom since down so many days. 5- got $ money off cabana since items that should have been included were not - combination locking lid, speaker, usb outlet all none Existant. 6- Got bottle of wine since CS sold me personal Flowrider for my Fam of 3 (my Ipad blocked some drop downs for some reason and i never could read the excursion notes) but not the personal whole hour one on one, was only personal with 12 other guests. 7- RC sponsored excursion start time changed weeks ago, noth Ng noted on my stuff, noone informed us i guess they dont know how to pick up phone or knock on door but willing to interupt my meal to ask me to change my dinner time to 9pm for the remainder of the cruise. Oh the biggy, the weather was crummy, the second largest ship in the world swayed all day and night the first 3 days - in bed, during day, durring dinner, on top deck on bottom deck while walking, everywhere. It was not killer, but i have vertigo so it affected me more than others, but everyone was talking about it. Cool to watch the water swaying out of the pools though. So when it rains no Flowrider, mini golf, rockclimbing or ofcourse pool..could use hot tub since under cover. Since voom did not work, dinner reservation for everyone went out the porthole, first three nights instead of 2 hrs, took an extra 30 to 45/min to seat, so turned into 3 HOURS for dinner. Which dominoed into evening events , that were cancelled. Bummer again. Ps RC luggage tags are competely different, confirm size and shape before buying the cutesie tags. We had an okay time, expectations were high, being let down could have been avoided. Check out Rcblog to get good tips. 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

We choose this ship because we are Royal Caribbean GOLD in Crown & Anchor Society, and our previous cruise were fantastic in Freedom and Quantum Class Ships. All family wanted to try Oasis Class ship, OUR MISTAKE. All starts at embarkation with our luggage, rude staff asking for tips before anything else..... This ship is beautiful, but it is to big for the crew and management, here details: - Food, in Windjammer food were the worst we have had in a cruise, only last 2 o 3 days before cruise finish quality goes good but not to better. - They call guest to clean their hands before entry to Windjammer but nobody from crew takes care to check if guest really clean their hands, they only stand at the entry, ask for clean hands is a formality, but not a real thing. - Guests left the tables made a mess, very dirty, and the cleaning work for next guest was not to good. - 150 Central Park Restaurant don't lose your money there. - Main dining Room run for your life...., food ok not more, but service forget about it. - After two days we understand the food business, poor food and service included to push you to go to paid restaurants, we talk with other guest and they thought in the same way. - Service from the bar at pools was to slow, we order sometimes but stop we have to wait to much. - towels, 3 stations but usually works only one, you have to walk to the open one, and the guys were talking between them, you have to wait for them before receive the towel. - Hot dog station, from a selection of hot dogs usually they hace coney island only. - SPA, they change your time as their convenience, and it's a scam, they sell you 75 minutes of relaxing massage, but those 75 minutes are like this, the first 15 minutes of waiting and talking time with your massage therapist, then 45 minutes of massage and to finish 10 or 15 minutes trying to sell you a lot of beauty expensive products. Imagine the 50 minutes offer....... And other many, many things out of the cruise of our or your dreams. Recommendation with your photo package, If you travel with more than one cabin in your reservation, and in the other cabins there are people (your son and daughter) over 21 years old, put all your photos under one cabin number, if not, when you are going to select your photos you will have to paid a lot of more money, A LOT!!!. They don't let you to put all the cabins photos together (all cabins under your reservation) to take all your photos for the best package rice...... Out standing from our cruise, Jamie's Oliver restaurant and Wonderland, food and service. We try it them (both) in Quantum class ship and were great to. Izumi restaurant is this ship a small and dark hole, so dark and dirty, bad service, very slow to receive food after order, in other way Izumi in Quantum class are excellent!!. Usually after a cruise we talk about crew and we fall in love with all of them, but in this cruise we remember only two lovely and outstanding service, they were Cristina from Jamie's Oliver restaurant and the waiter from Macedonia of Wonderland restaurant (sorry we forgot the name), only two..... so sad for a cruise experience. First cruise with no to much photos, It did not deserve it Read Less

We wanted to try a large ship. we have been on about 12 different ships. Harmony would be the largest. There are a lot of different areas on the ship and we were never felt crowded. We did not find any area that was quiet. Several things went wrong. We traveled with two other couples. One couple (who are travel agents) bid on an upgrade and two days before travel, got their bid accepted. When they arrived at dock, there was no record of their acceptance, and their previous cabin had been given away. Our friends showed the acceptance email, and after much looking around they shown to their accepted cabin. This caused them a two hour delay. There was a lot of confusion about documentation being wrong. This couple did not get all the amenities that went with their elite status. Some were sent to previous cabin. They never received their invitation to top tier Captain invitation. Our invitation said correct cabin but had someone else's name on it. We checked with 5 couples and three of them had something wrong. There was a lot of problems with dining room food. My spouse has severe allergies, so we ensure that everyone is aware ahead of time. We always choose assigned seating so we get same staff every time. All staff were aware, from kitchen, head waiter, waiter and assistant waiter. Even so, on three separate occasions, she was served food that would have caused a severe reactions. Totally unacceptable. Food in buffet was better and less of a risk. Read Less

Embarkation and disembarkation was very fast and smoothly. I got a Cabin with balcony,..although tight, it was enough for a family (2 adults / 2 kids). The initial shock was that the initial package only covers water & Maid lemonade & orange juice. The shows are way too late, so usually the kids would turn into THAT burden!! The first show with that guy spinning for 1h was the worse thing I have ever witnessed in my life, since I was born. The food was OK....but the drink was NOT covered, even wine!!!! The best time of vacation was the beach over HAITI. The worse was Jamaica, where you literally stop at the door of an OUTLET, with NO sand nor beach around. If you want to go to the beach, you must ride 15 miles on a bus or taxi (NOT included). We stepped out for 15 minutes only, noticed the strong tourist trap, and came back to the ship with dry towels. In Cozumel, they stopped the ship for the "whole day", till 6:30PM!! We decided to paid for a whole day "all inclusive", offered by Royal Caribbean Harmony of the Seas. Another trap = the bus bring you to the beach, but ....hahahahahahahah :) :) ... you must be back at the bus stop at 1:40 PM, so you can get the LAST bus back to the ship. I mean, you get at the beach around 10 AM...and come back at 1:40PM. (3:40 h of "All inclusive" at the beach in Cozumel). IT is clear that they could put the LAST BUS for 4:00 PM,..but... it is what it is. 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

Please keep in mind i am reviewing the experience i had for the money I spent. We got the beverage package, excursions, internet, gift packages to our room, and a Jr Suite. I'll start with intermet. I am a tech guy, so I understand what it takes for satellite internet to be reliable for that many people. My voom internet service was great most of the trip. Our Junior suite was very nice, but we did pay a good bit extra for it. Room steward did a great job. Very nice bathroom, (when all is well). More on that later in the review. They have a lot of nice things to do on the ship, and they keep it clean and nice looking. We loved Central Park. The guy playing the piano by request in the Schooner bar at night is excellent. I think John Hyde is his name. Being a guy, I was not thrilled about having to go to the musicals and ice skating with the wife. I will admit, I thought they were all good. The Quest show was very funny and we enjoyed it. The Edge Effect show was not my thing. The Jazz singer in the Jazz bar was not so great. The band was good, but the lady singing was not great. The comedians in the attic bar were both good. The bionic bar is neat, but a cluster to order. It was very disorganized. No lines to take orders on the ipads. You have to be rude and pushy to grab one and order a drink. It could be a lot better with a llittle more organization. All the bars and bartenders were great and friendly. DO NOT get Sippy at On Air to make you his special. You will feel the boat rock all day. He was my favorite bartender. The casino was pretty good. I had fun. Very nice exercise track around the ship. Nice gym area.We scheduled a vitality spa massage. It was ok. I would suggest a deep muscle over the swedish. I needed a little more strength in my massage. They will try and upsale you on some $100 a bottle oils. Get a smoothie at the vitality bar to help with dehydration or hangovers. It really helped. I know this will bother some folks, but if you make rules, enforce them. If the solarium is for adults only, post it better and have someone walk around every hour or so. I would be sitting outside relaxing and sometimes sleeping and unwatched kids would hit my chair and wake me up. You have 80% of the boat set up kid friendly and you have to ruin my little piece. I saw folks come out and put towels in the big wicker chairs at 7am and literally leave them in all day, then go to eat, shop, and do whatever. They would come back 8 hours later and sit for the sunset for 30 minutes, then take the towel out and leave. Kids in bars, enough said. We were able to eat dinner at the Coatal Kitchen because of the JR suite. The food and staff were GREAT. It was nice and relaxing. Wait staff and host could not have been better. We ate once in the Main Dining hall. I got the wrong order after a long wait, and did not even say anything because they had my wife's correct and we had a show. When we were leaving my plate showed up out of nowhere? Park Cafe is nice for a roast beef sandwich and salad. Mini bites has good nachos, other stuff is like little league ballpark quality. Same for the hot dog place. The Windjammer buffet seemed like a cattle drive. Food looked ok, but we left because it was that crowded. I think the ship was full. I found myself drinking twice as much liquor because it was easier to find than the coke machines. Johny Rockets is all inclusive, so you should get the whole meal. My wife wanted onion rings with her roast beef from Park Cafe, and it was still $11. I will say, they gave us a truck load of them and the wife said they were delicious and worth every penny. Sorentos Pizza was pretty decent. Right across from On Air bar when you need something to soak up the liquor. So here was the biggest Royal Carribean problems I had. We had issues with our toilet the first full day of the cruise. We called service and then left the room. We came back and it was flushed, so we thought all is well. We ate dinner and caught a show, then ready for bed. The toilet again did not flush and it was around midnight and the wife was undressed and ready for bed. We called again and they said they were having issues that would be resolved. She ended up having to get dressed again incase staff came in to fix it. They did not, and we had to use public facilities during the night/morning. And for those wondering, we did not put anything weird in it to break it. My thing was, they said it was fixed, but they knew it was not. We then used it and had to call again with an unflushed toilet in a cabin. This was frustrating. Not great communication, not to mention an embarrassing issue to deal with. By halfway point it was fixed, but we were kind of paranoid about it. Another bad customer service issue was we had a shore excursion get cancelled, then they automatically rebooked another one, without even asking us. Once we found out, they would not give us our money back because I did not give them enough notice. I stated i have proof and a receipt showing i did not book that excursion. They said to read the "fine print on the back of the ticket and it shows we can cancel and rebook at our leisure. I stated that is wrong, and why not give me a phone message, email, text, notice under my door, or anything telling me of the cancellation. I was told they could give me a bottle of wine. No thank you. Whenever we had an issue I tried to be polite and calm but then the customer service and staff seemed to be very matter of fact about it. I dont like to get ugly or dramatic to keep from getting taken advantage of. I was told by one staff member, "Well, now you know". I really do know. I know ill look elsewhere for my next trip. Read Less

This was my first time ever cruising and probably my last with Royal Caribbean. Most of the restaurant servers are wonderful, very friendly and professional. Most of the housekeeping staff are great and the rooms and the ship are impeccably clean considering there's 6000 people on board. The cruise director was hilarious. Everyone else needs to return to customer service training or get a better understanding of their jobs... customer service! Perhaps spend some time distance learning with Las Vegas hotel staff, they know how to treat guests. The lack of communication on the ship was the most irritating part of the whole cruise. I thought that they would be, literally, running a tight ship, but events, restaurant times, etc were all poorly communicated to us. Even more annoying that staff would look at you like you were crazy for not knowing what time a restaurant closed. Also, it seems that most things on the cruise close after 7pm! This makes for a very boring time unless you like go dancing or drinking (which still closes around 1:30 am). The times we stayed in each port were extremely short. We only stayed in the Bahamas for 5 hours! You don't have much time to do much in any of the islands except go one shore excursions and lie on the beach for a couple of hours. Maybe if you're a beach bum, this is fine, but I would've liked to explore the islands and visit different places while on the shores. However, all cruise lines may not be able to stay in ports for long and maybe I just need to fly to these islands rather than cruise to truly enjoy them myself The shore excursions were okay. The only one that was questionable was the 5 Star Island tour in the U.S. Virgin Islands since all they did was take us to shops and drop us off at the beach. But, I will cut them some slack since so much of the U.S.V.I. is still damaged by hurricanes Irma and Maria and the tour may not have been able to show us everything they usually would. Most of the food on the ship needed salt. But I guess you can't expect excellent food when it's being mass cooked. And one huge problem I had with the ship was how small the pools are. They are about 2 inches long with so many people stuffed inside them trying to swim. Being on a ship is a fun way to travel, but after this experience, I'm definitely not itching to go on another cruise, especially not another Royal Caribbean. Read Less

Terrible food in the free and paid venues. Imitation crab in crabcakes, low quality ingredients evident in all dishes and just cheapeness everywhere Chops is $49 usd a person and quality of steak is on par with outback, add an extra $19 on top of $49 for lobster. Had a fish filet as well and the cheapest red lobster fish entree is better. Had jumbo shrimp cocktail and flavorless and clearly frozen. Awfu for price 150 central park is better but it's still not worth the upcharge they want and quality on par with Applebee's The free venues like the MDR and windjammer are terrible and blatant recycling of food from previous meal service in dishes. Shrimp cocktails have shrimps smallest I've ever seen and thought they forgot the shrimp cause the lemon wedge was bigger than the 4 shrimps and hid them. Cheap ingredients, too few servers so windjammer is always just dirty tables that are empty Overall, paid restaurants are on par with Applebee's and outback or Olive garden for $49 a head . Free venues are food court or school cafeteria quality Didn't see anyone cleaning carpets, walls, or public areas all week other than vacuum. Stains in carpets in common areas service shaky and below other cruise lines for cheaper prices . The good + Pizza, fries and nuggets, room was a good size, gym was sufficient size and had good variety of equipment ..that's about it Read Less

I chose Harmony because I always enjoyed sailing on Allure of the Seas. This was my thirty-sixth (36) cruise and I usually go Solo. I enjoyed my cruise experience because of the many wonderful and interesting people I met, not because of the ship itself. As a returning Diamond member, I received three cookies from Royal Caribbean to welcome me back; 3 cookies I could have picked up from the WindJammer. I returned the cookies to the Diamond Consierge with a note that read "Really!" This ship might have been trying to outdo its predecessors Oasis & Allure, but missed the mark, in my opinion: 1) While a beautiful ship, it was lacking the warmth and character other ships have; 2) The Solarium was hot, had poor air circulation, and there was NO POOL; 3) In the WindJammer Cafe, RC cut back on the number of food stations, limited available food choices, and the quality of the food was mediocre to bad. For 3 days I thought they cut out bagels and bread but it turned out these items were now behind the counter, you had to ask for it then wait for it to be toasted. I did not eat in the main dining room, and was not going to throw away good money at Specialty Restaurants because the included restaurants served mediocre food. On NCL I ate in at least half their Speciality Restaurants because their regular restaurants served such good, quality food. Why was food in Cafe Promenade so bland and tasteless? And RC can learn a thing or two from Carnival when it comes to a Mongolian Wok. Service was friendly but a little slow when making tables available. Although I've been on many large ships, this one did not manage crowds very well. Outside Lounging Areas - RC took away the tables and chairs, replacing them with Adirondack-type, wood composite, low-slung non-adjustable chairs that were too uncomfortable to sit in for any period of time. Was there a fire sale on these chairs? And moving through these areas was a bit confining. On the Central Park Deck they crowded in much more plant-like material, left out the bird statutes and bird sounds Allure & Oasis has and generally made the area feel less open and airy-with narrower pathways. I was truly disappointed in that. But there were definitely more exclusive shopping stores to take more of your money. Embarkation was easy; disembarking was slow through customs for some reason I cannot imagine why. Comments on cabin and shore visits to follow. After taking cruises on smaller NCL and Carnival ships earlier this year, I've decided to go back to sailing on smaller ships after this Harmony experience. I want to feel like I'm being recognized as a valued customer, treated as such, and not viewed as a $ sign. I miss the way cruising used to be and will pay even more money to get some of that feeling back. Read Less

Have been on many RCI cruises and on Oasis and Allure. So we were excited for Harmony. Its been 2 years since being on RCI and things have changed for the worst. The crowds and lines on Harmony were everywhere. The other mega ships after the muster drill people disperse and don't have big issues with lines. The staff is great and very helpful. Embarkation and disembarkation were very good, no issues with crowds at all. It was on the ship that crowds were an issue, dining room for lunch and breakfast had lines out to elevators every morning. Finding chairs around pools were impossible. The solarium is so hot and needs a pool badly. The entertainment is top notch, Grease, Fine line, and Columbus were all excellent. Food quality has gone down significantly was told by waitstaff that a lot of food is not made on board, most desserts and crab cakes are purchased pre-made. They try and pass off Tilapia fish for sole. The diamond lounge is now on deck 4 with no windows and is very small. There were only a few diamond members on cruise so the lounge was not crowed. Gym is on Deck 6 and has porthole windows but is very hot, AC is not adequate for the space. I would not recommend Harmony of the Seas and would think twice about RCI. I enjoy Celebrity and Princess much better. The cruise cost is almost double that of Celebrity Equinox out of Miami and is far inferior in quality of food, and ship board space. We were on Equinox in June and had a much better experence Read Less

I wanted to try one of the mega boats as my previous experiences have been with mid-large sized boats. I've cruised with Carnival, Celebrity, HAL, NCL, Princess and RCI and have mild expectations but RCI was a terrible disappointment for food (free and specialty dining), easily worse of any cruiseline I've been on. Dining MDR - Food temperature, taste and overall quality of ingredients and selection was disappointing, crab cake was just a gooey mess, salmon was always hard as a puck, pasta was overcooked and sauce watery and bland. Soups were always way too salty. Service was good when the servers were around, but they are of course usually too busy Windjammer - Slop, cheap food court quality and selection. Easily the worse buffet I've ever had on a cruise ship, everything is not fresh and just sat in a heating tray before served, very cheap ingredients and selection. Never saw any fish other than Basa and occasional Talapia. no shrimps, squids, no smoked salmon, breakfast was like a holiday inn express affair. Lunch and Dinner are boring, dried up cold food.. Always crowded, tables not cleared timely due to lack of staff and too many guests. Park Cafe - good for quick bite and grab stuff to go, prepackaged salads were poor, but they can make you a salad with basic ingredient which was nice for lunch. Sandwiches and wraps are what you get at a gas station qualitywise Chops - worse than ponderosa, highway robbery for the $49USD they charge with the food they serve. Had a filet and ribeye, sides were terrible. Appetizers like colossal shrimp was hard and had no taste. Additional up charge for lobster or seafood appetizer 150 Central Park - best of the paid restaurants I've tried on board (but that's not saying much), had the grilled scallops and cod as main, standard chain restaurant affair. Appetizers were forgettable but not terrible at least. Jamie's - basically olive garden quality for appetizers, pasta was fresh and good but sauce was watery and/or salty (had the carbonara and Shrimp linguine). Even olive garden has better sauce did I say $$$ for everything that's free on other cruises? and very in your face selling all around the ship there's no deck space to simply sit and have a bite to eat except for crowded small area by the Bites snack bar. Cabin - Best part of my trip, cabin was spacious including bathroom, too bad the tv had nothing to watch and won't even let you connect your own content as it's locked down Shows - watched Finish Line, 1887, Grease. They were fine, as expected for a cruise (don't compare to land based show), finish line is supposedly the feature show on the ship with the diving, but they stretched 4 dives and basically 5mins of content into a 50min headscratching show that was just weird Gym - went to gym daily, it was a good size and you won't have too much problem finding a free machine to do resistance training (may not be one you want but there's ones free), though the free weights area/benches were always crowded. good amount of cardio machine Read Less

This was my third cruise with Royal Caribbean. Each has gotten progressively worse and cost more each time. Excursions: The port of calls were short (approx 3 - 6 hours in port). If you debark the ship make sure you bring your sea pass and photo ID. Once on the pier it is like herding cats. In our first port, there were three tours assembled at the same time and no one knew where to go. Be prepared, if you do decide to take an excursion everything is extra. For example if you take the safari/beach excursion ($115 per person), and want to use their beach chairs and umbrella, it will cost you $10 for each chair and $10 for the umbrella (by the way you are only there for 45 minutes). If you go on the ship sponsored shopping tour in St Thomas, you pay the $8/person bus fare to go to/from town. For the Blue Lagoon beach excursion ($115 per person) swimming out to the float is additional. Dining: Breakfast and lunch in the windjammer is first come first serve. When you and your partner go, ensure one saves a table while the other gets their food. The hot food is cold and the pastries and bread are hard. Dinner is great, though. You eat a lot (too much actually) and it tastes great. Make sure you book your diner time immediately when you arrive to ensure you get a seat. We ate at 7:30 but if you have to make a change the staff is very flexible. Just ask. Embarkation: no problems. Just make sure you have a photo ID and your passport. Everyone is helpful. Entertainment: The shows were the highlight of the cruise. Make sure you sign up the first day for all your shows. You have to have reservations to get in. Again, arrive early. It is first come first serve seating. Onboard experience: Crowded. Lots of kids. The elevators are packed. A trick: the pool is located on deck 15 so if you are going down, go up to the next level and then take the elevator down. Less people and you will be one of the first ones on. The wait staff is friendly but will try to get you to buy a beverage card. Everything is additional. Also, men, dont be surprised if young ladies get preferential treatment by the staff. Overall, I was a disappointed. Read Less

It was our 2nd year. After the first year on this brand new ship was amazing we thought for sure the second year would be too. The service was TERRIBLE- the food decent but not like it used to be. an overall disappointment. The pool staff was rude, the decks super slippery, staff members pretending to work, The spa manager is the worst- please bring back the one you had last summer- she was fabulous. The new one is rude, doesn't smile and sets a very negative tone, the dining room used to go out of their way to make you feel special, remembering your drink orders, making the kids feel special, now asking for more dinner rolls is like asking to win the lottery- we always felt awkward asking for something- the staff always looked inconvenienced. The soda machines for the soda package were constantly out ... what the heck... we pay upfront, therefore we should not have to deal with empty machines- there are not enough soda machines.... again, we pay an upfront fee, we should not have to go all over the ship to find 1 that is working and has been re-stocked. Never enough ice... the machines were dirty..... clean them please. When I think about the service I am sad..... it used to be great.... now it's terrible.... Read Less

i choose this cruise based on friend advice ,and after checking online ,i found that the harmony of the sea is the biggest and most luxurious cruise ship ,and because its my first cruise trip ,i wanted to try the best,and idid my reservation through costco thinking i will have the best experience ever,but i had the worst experience ever,very bad coustmer service ,almost same menu every day( food and desert) The pools are very crowded ,you cant move either ways because you will hit some body,we have to wait more than half hour at the main dining room to get our starters,one of the dining room manager humiliated us because we asked him to change our table,and if you want to have a good food you have to pay for it even in the main dining room,and on the last day morning my 8 years old daughter told me dad you wasted your mony on this trip which made me feel very bad after spending that much mony to make her happy Read Less

Loyalist.. Emerald & Diamond members. The service overall was just poor at best. The ship was absolutely unreal. Plenty for everyone to do and the entertainment was on point. The free food was below average and the Johnny Rockets was great. Makes you wonder if they are trying to drive guests to the dinning you pay for verses the free. Pools & hot tubs are great and there are plenty. I also think the have a great ship that holds a lot of guests but can the staff handle that many. They looked very frazzled compared to my previous cruises I have been on. I did address all these issues with the guest services and they gave me chocolate covered strawberries. I will say the stateroom attendant was great for us. Overall I think I will go to an island or figure out something else for vacation verses getting horrible service. Read Less

My parents cruise often and were impressed with the features of the largest ship in RC’s fleet: Harmony of the Seas. We had a party of 7, including 5 adults and two children. First off, the beds are solid slates of rock. We immediately engaged the staff the first night about our concern over the mattress hardness and they reassured us housekeeping would do their best to soften the bed. Unfortunately, this involved placing a thin mat that was thinner than a blanket under the fitted sheet. This was the only solution the staff could come up with, so my father and husband who were side and stomach sleepers accepted that sleep would be an uncomfortable affair. During the course of the cruise, we found many damaged decorations, elevator buttons, and punched in trash cans as well as crashing royal IQ terminals and printers that were unplugged and non functional from their terminals. Excursion tickets had to be reprinted by guest services. During our evening dining experiences, we dis not experience a single night that did not contain some sort of catastrophe with the food. The first night while eating my baked potato, I bit into a pebble that was hanging onto the skin. Management came over and expressed concern, which was reassuring and insisted this was not the norm. However, we consumed many baked potatoes on the trip and the two children with us each found one in a similar manner on later evenings. There was also a strange seaweed type substance baked into an appetizer tart that was not supposed to be there. Each evening, beverages were frustrating. I drink sparkling water, and had my glasses filled frequently with other clear beverages. This happened with our cokes, unsweetened ice teas, and often beverages were forgotten or incorrect. This also applies to the coffee. Several evenings my parents would order espresso, and it would either arrive in unappropriate cups, cold, or never arrive at all. The staples of the dinner were also inconsistent. The creme brule is served every night and every night it came out different: “barely crisped top, completely charred top, perfect top, fruit scraped off the top and with visble remains left of a berry” top, and so forth. The buffet had several frustrating issues with it as well. I fully support the cruise line’s mission to encourage the washing of hands, but I would suggest they open more than 4 stations if that’s their intent. The 4 stations of handwashing created a huge bottleneck on days the ship were cruising, creating lines that passed the stairwells. Food was often refilled when platters were half empty and on more than 1 occasion was tugged away from our teens when they were reaching for a food item. Food items line pancakes and waffles were disappointing given that they were premade and warmed under a heat lamp or not warmed at all. Our final evening we dined at 150 Central Park, and expected to be wowed given the $50 per head pricetag. Our waiter made us weight nearly 40 minutes to take our order, and they were incredibly apologetic, but the evening continued to ha r some bumps. A glass shattered in my husbands hand, dousing him in his ice tea, but luckily he was all right. The table was cleared with great speed and all was done to ensure he was all right and the cut on his finger was taken care of. The waiter at this point started bringing out many dishes to try and appease us but it ended up overloading our table. The Quality of food however, was excellent. And we had baked potatoes again, alas with no rocks! The resturant also refunded us our head charge, which we appreciated greatly. The staff there was phenomenal, particularly Francisco who completely charmed my 11 year old niece and all of us with his wit and caring disposition. My overall impression of 150 Central Park was mixed, but overall positive. I think if i cruise again, i would take advantage of the dining packages and avoid the main dining room. The wait at the dining rooms and constantly changing waiters make it difficult to create repoire with your waiter and staff. I miss the days when you were sat at the same table each night and had the same wait staff for the duration of your trip. Read Less