We went on a spring break cruise this year after five years without cruising. We're Emerald level so we've been on a few cruises before, but we really noticed a change...and not for the better. The biggest areas we noticed were a drop off in quality of service and quality of food. My wife and I were asking ourselves was it that we were on such a big ship and they couldn't keep up? Or has RCCL dropped a bit in five years? We recall service levels on RCCL cruises as being consistently above average to great, especially when compared to service levels we get on land. However on Harmony we experienced several noticeable apathetic service experiences. About 50% of the crew seemed to be as professional and passionate about their jobs as we recall, but the other half seemed to be apathetic. It all started with the cabin steward when we boarded. When we got to our room our luggage was already there and we had received a sail away gift of beverages. There's a sign in the room that says get ice from your steward, so we unpacked and sat on the balcony a bit thinking the steward would soon come by to introduce himself. After a little over an hour I went out to the hallway and asked a steward if he was assigned to our room, and he said he wasn't but would tell our steward we wanted some ice. After another hour and a half I finally called room service and explained that we hadn't seen our steward and we wanted ice so they said they would send some up. About five minutes later our cabin steward showed up with ice and he proceeded to give me a small lecture about him being busy on the first day. Service issues like that occurred at the sand bar, at the photo shop, in Sabor, Jamie Oliver's, and with one of our shore excursions.

For the food, it was really in the main dining room and the Windjammer that we noticed a drop in quality that we recalled from previous cruises. Again, is it because this ship is just too big to handle the crowds? Selections were more limited, items not cooked properly (fish was way over cooked and dry, salad items dried out and wilting, hot items were lukewarm, cold items were also lukewarm, etc.). We tried almost all of the specialty restaurants and found them to be generally better food (we preferred Jamie Oliver's the most) but had mixed experiences in service. The first time we were seated at Sabor 20 minutes went by with no one coming to service our table. So I went up to talk with the manager and he sent over a lady who came out of the kitchen who wasn't suppose to be serving that day but she took great care of us. The first time at Jamie Oliver's we tried to walk in, and the host told us "no problem, come back in 30 minutes and I'll have your table for you". We came back in 30 minutes and he said, sorry, probably another 30 minutes or so. I'd rather he had told me in the beginning that he couldn't seat us.

The shore excursions were fine except in Mexico. My daughter and her friend who are both 17 snorkeled in Labadee and rode horses in Falmouth. But when we got to Mexico, we were told on the dock they couldn't go on the Dolphin Discovery because they were under 21. I asked why did RCCL accept the reservation (in their names, in their cabin), take the money and issue tickets in their names if they weren't allowed to go? If that's the policy in Mexico, fine, but tell me before you book the excursion and issue tickets, not when we're standing on the dock in Mexico with tickets in hand. Overall, we enjoy being on the sea, parts of the cruise were good, but we experienced enough disappointments this time that we left thinking that either the quality of RCCL has gone down in the last five years, or that Harmony is simply too big to handle the huge crowds.