As this is my first cruise ever I selected to experience the largest and "best" on the seas and booked on Harmony of the Seas. I found the experience to be lacking. Before entering the ship I dropped off my luggage with my "porter" who offered little explanation of what their job responsibilities were but eagerly asked for cash tips. The process to get on the ship was relatively easy until you step onto the ship. It was a mad house and I found it difficult to navigate to my room with little to no signage present. Rooms were to be ready by 1 pm, 1:20 and the rooms were still not available. Before embarking on the cruise I received quite a few emails that encourage the purchase of a drink package. It seemed like if I didn't purchase a package I would be without anything to drink. On the cruise, it was a different tune since almost every restaurant offered free coffee, milk, juice, and water. This also caused a sanitation issue since many others didn't purchase a drink package they would fill their water bottle straight from the dispenser and on many occasions, their bottles would be touching the equipment.

My party dined as a group of 6 for the first two nights under - my time dining, which was great. Our server Jemar and Pedro were attentive, entertaining, personable and overall amazing! The rest of the time we dined with the rest of our party which was made up of 12. I understand serving 12 is difficult, but on average we spent 3 hours in the dining hall waiting for service, food, and beverages. The only saving grace was Jemar and Pedro who would occasionally come over to chat, make dining/wine suggestions and generally ask how our day was going.