Currently on Harmony of the Seas

[epcotrulz]

Greetings from Harmony of the Seas! This is my first (and last) RCCL cruise. But while I’m here figure I would offer to get any info I could for my fellow DIS folks.

Here are my thoughts and opinions after three days

- Balcony is larger but room is overall smaller (12140) than a standard DCL balcony cabin; cabin is askin to a Hampton Inn. Split bed is uncomfortable.
- Venues are overcrowded, people sitting on the floor at quizzes, long lines for shows, etc
- Aqua show was canceled, haven’t seen it
- Haven’t seen Grease yet
- Solarium should be called “the green house” stays super hot with no breeze, age limit not enforced, same with Solarium Bistro, when I asked an officer about the age limit he shrugged
- Most of the ship common areas have zero view to the outdoors
- Smoke smell from casino makes its way into MDR
- Food in the MDR is decent, but nothing has wowed me. A step below DCL
- Spa staff rude and disinterested in helping me (after being place on hold for 15 minutes hung up and went down there to talk to someone)
- Toddler aged children running around the gym
- Called guest services about the third erroneous charge to my account, after 24 minutes on hold I was hung up on, had to go stand in a 20 minute line
- 30 minute wait for a milkshake at Johnny Rockets (I bought the beverage package)
- 20 minute wait for specialty coffee in the morning
- Asked to borrow a pen from cruise staff and that was met with “no”
- Most questions asked if the crew are met with confusion or wrong answers and no one ever offers to get you an answer.
- Chat feature with other guests on the Royal App is an up charge, $2/day, must buy for everyone in your cabin for entire cruise

None of this is exaggeration. I honestly keep trying to make the best of the situation but they just really don’t give a sh*t about guest experience they only care about finding ways to nickel and dime you.

This is a group trip and while spending time with my friends has been great, six of the eight of us agree this is not a great experience and none of us will sail RCL again.

 

[insureman]

Greetings from Harmony of the Seas! This is my first (and last) RCCL cruise. But while I’m here figure I would offer to get any info I could for my fellow DIS folks.

Here are my thoughts and opinions after three days

- Balcony is larger but room is overall smaller (12140) than a standard DCL balcony cabin; cabin is askin to a Hampton Inn. Split bed is uncomfortable.
- Venues are overcrowded, people sitting on the floor at quizzes, long lines for shows, etc
- Aqua show was canceled, haven’t seen it
- Haven’t seen Grease yet
- Solarium should be called “the green house” stays super hot with no breeze, age limit not enforced, same with Solarium Bistro, when I asked an officer about the age limit he shrugged
- Most of the ship common areas have zero view to the outdoors
- Smoke smell from casino makes its way into MDR
- Food in the MDR is decent, but nothing has wowed me. A step below DCL
- Spa staff rude and disinterested in helping me (after being place on hold for 15 minutes hung up and went down there to talk to someone)
- Toddler aged children running around the gym
- Called guest services about the third erroneous charge to my account, after 24 minutes on hold I was hung up on, had to go stand in a 20 minute line
- 30 minute wait for a milkshake at Johnny Rockets (I bought the beverage package)
- 20 minute wait for specialty coffee in the morning
- Asked to borrow a pen from cruise staff and that was met with “no”
- Most questions asked if the crew are met with confusion or wrong answers and no one ever offers to get you an answer.
- Chat feature with other guests on the Royal App is an up charge, $2/day, must buy for everyone in your cabin for entire cruise

None of this is exaggeration. I honestly keep trying to make the best of the situation but they just really don’t give a sh*t about guest experience they only care about finding ways to nickel and dime you.

This is a group trip and while spending time with my friends has been great, six of the eight of us agree this is not a great experience and none of us will sail RCL again.

Thanks for the info!

 

[tvguy]

Sorry to hear your disappointment. Been so long (35 years) since we cruise RCCL that none of the two ships we cruised on are even still in service. They used to be great.

 

[epcotrulz]

Sorry to hear your disappointment. Been so long (35 years) since we cruise RCCL that none of the two ships we cruised on are even still in service. They used to be great.

To be fair, my guess is that the smaller ships may be better? But the overall apathy of the crew is what I find the most shocking. They just don’t care. Don’t seem to have any pride in the ship and the service.

I can add:

- Food from mini-bites (poolside buffet) is not good, threw away a chewy quesadilla and rubbery nacho chips (no topping on them yet, for some reason they are refrigerated)
- the salad bar and potato salad at Solarium is good

 

[ZerasPride]

I am sorry to hear about your experience. We sailed on the Harmony for our 25th anniversary right before Covid. Maybe that has something to do with your negative experiences as we had a nice time. I still prefer Disney cruises over RCCL but we did not experience any of these issues. It is disheartening knowing you still have days and days to go. I hope things improve for you and that you can find aspects of the cruise to enjoy. Grease was a nice performance and so was the ice show.

 

[epcotrulz]

I am sorry to hear about your experience. We sailed on the Harmony for our 25th anniversary right before Covid. Maybe that has something to do with your negative experiences as we had a nice time. I still prefer Disney cruises over RCCL but we did not experience any of these issues. It is disheartening knowing you still have days and days to go. I hope things improve for you and that you can find aspects of the cruise to enjoy. Grease was a nice performance and so was the ice show.

Thank you, I’m trying to enjoy it for what it is and just focusing on the things that I do like … I probably come off as someone hard to please when in fact DCL manages to do jaut that and normally exceed my expectations… so I’m not one of those people hell bent on being miserable…

 

[tvguy]

To be fair, my guess is that the smaller ships may be better? But the overall apathy of the crew is what I find the most shocking. They just don’t care. Don’t seem to have any pride in the ship and the service.

I can add:

- Food from mini-bites (poolside buffet) is not good, threw away a chewy quesadilla and rubbery nacho chips (no topping on them yet, for some reason they are refrigerated)
- the salad bar and potato salad at Solarium is good

I guess "better" is a relative term. Different may be a better term. But I took my first cruise 42 years ago on a small ship and things have changed soooo much. I was working on a TV show and we did some shows on cruising on the MS Mermoz, a 500 passenger ship. My tiny outside stateroom would have cost $5,600 in 1980 dollars if I had to pay for it. That's like $19,000 today. My last cruise on Celebrity for a much larger balcony in October 2019 and it cost $600. Back in 1980 there was one seating for dinner at 6 pm and it was a 3 and half hour production. No other dining options, no room service. One seating for breakfast and for lunch. Suits and ties were required for dinner, tuxes required on formal night. The night club didn't even open until 1:30 am. Clothing was optional on the Sun Deck. I don't think a cruiser today would put up with no options.

 

[epcotrulz]

Oh, VOOM internet was down for about a day and half due to “clouds”. Yes, it was cloudy, and that was the official answer. The next day, they fixed it and said it was a technical problem. I love being lied to by someone you are PAYING.

 

[insureman]

Oh, VOOM internet was down for about a day and half due to “clouds”. Yes, it was cloudy, and that was the official answer. The next day, they fixed it and said it was a technical problem. I love being lied to by someone you are PAYING.

Yes everyone knows satellites don't work when its cloudy.

 

[insureman]

I guess "better" is a relative term. Different may be a better term. But I took my first cruise 42 years ago on a small ship and things have changed soooo much. I was working on a TV show and we did some shows on cruising on the MS Mermoz, a 500 passenger ship. My tiny outside stateroom would have cost $5,600 in 1980 dollars if I had to pay for it. That's like $19,000 today. My last cruise on Celebrity for a much larger balcony in October 2019 and it cost $600. Back in 1980 there was one seating for dinner at 6 pm and it was a 3 and half hour production. No other dining options, no room service. One seating for breakfast and for lunch. Suits and ties were required for dinner, tuxes required on formal night. The night club didn't even open until 1:30 am. Clothing was optional on the Sun Deck. I don't think a cruiser today would put up with no options.

Come on @tvguy you can tell us was the TV show the Love Boat?

 

[a1tinkfans]

Greetings from Harmony of the Seas! This is my first (and last) RCCL cruise. But while I’m here figure I would offer to get any info I could for my fellow DIS folks.

Here are my thoughts and opinions after three days

- Balcony is larger but room is overall smaller (12140) than a standard DCL balcony cabin; cabin is askin to a Hampton Inn. Split bed is uncomfortable.
- Venues are overcrowded, people sitting on the floor at quizzes, long lines for shows, etc
- Aqua show was canceled, haven’t seen it
- Haven’t seen Grease yet
- Solarium should be called “the green house” stays super hot with no breeze, age limit not enforced, same with Solarium Bistro, when I asked an officer about the age limit he shrugged
- Most of the ship common areas have zero view to the outdoors
- Smoke smell from casino makes its way into MDR
- Food in the MDR is decent, but nothing has wowed me. A step below DCL
- Spa staff rude and disinterested in helping me (after being place on hold for 15 minutes hung up and went down there to talk to someone)
- Toddler aged children running around the gym
- Called guest services about the third erroneous charge to my account, after 24 minutes on hold I was hung up on, had to go stand in a 20 minute line
- 30 minute wait for a milkshake at Johnny Rockets (I bought the beverage package)
- 20 minute wait for specialty coffee in the morning
- Asked to borrow a pen from cruise staff and that was met with “no”
- Most questions asked if the crew are met with confusion or wrong answers and no one ever offers to get you an answer.
- Chat feature with other guests on the Royal App is an up charge, $2/day, must buy for everyone in your cabin for entire cruise

None of this is exaggeration. I honestly keep trying to make the best of the situation but they just really don’t give a sh*t about guest experience they only care about finding ways to nickel and dime you.

This is a group trip and while spending time with my friends has been great, six of the eight of us agree this is not a great experience and none of us will sail RCL again.

Ugh.. that’s awful. The last 2 cruises with rccl, the Non Age Enforcement was present as well. A TOTAL disappointment to us. Honestly, the Patents are equally to blame.. selfish and inconsiderate . We re sailing celebrity and hoping for better. Thx for ur review! Try n Get the Most out of the rest of ur sail!!

 

[epcotrulz]

Ugh.. that’s awful. The last 2 cruises with rccl, the Non Age Enforcement was present as well. A TOTAL disappointment to us. Honestly, the Patents are equally to blame.. selfish and inconsiderate . We re sailing celebrity and hoping for better. Thx for ur review! Try n Get the Most out of the rest of ur sail!!

I’ve heard good things about Celebrity, fingers crossed for you!! I will be sticking with DCL for the foreseeable future. I was wondering if DCL was charging too much, and I can say without a doubt after this experience that DCL is a good value. You pay for what you get ….

 

[tvguy]

Come on @tvguy you can tell us was the TV show the Love Boat?

Well, the boss approved the trip because the Love Boat was hot then. But we were an NBC affiliate, and The Love Boat was on ABC.
And ironically, other than the 12 of us working on that show, and a crew of 4 from a similar show on Canadian Broadcasting who were also on board, not many people under the age of 65.

 

[epcotrulz]

Oh, the Central Park area is lovely. My favorite area of the ship. I wish it just had a view to the ocean. But I find that views out to the ocean are at a premium. You only get them from your room or the upper decks.

 

[holula]

The food on Royal is honestly the one thing that makes me not want to sail with them again. It’s at least two or three steps below Disney IMO.

 

[tidefan]

We were on Oasis in January and were underwhelmed. Followed that up with Independence in early May... that was the worst of 30+ cruises that I have done. The (included) food on RCCL is terrible IMHO.

Contrast that with our Princess cruise that we just got off. Food was very good. More options (like a poolside grill) and the International Cafe (the 24/7 place) is light years better than Cafe Promenade. Movies are free (they were $11.99 on Royal) in the stateroom cabin, room service is included, and you don't have to check out towels. In fact, "Room Service" is expanded. You can have Room Service and drinks delivered to you anywhere on the ship thanks to the Medallion. We ordered Room Service and drinks to the rear patio to watch sail away from Juneau. Also, the "Princess Plus" that included wifi, gratuities, and the drink package was only $40 per person, per day. A way better value than RCCL. To top this off, the cruise was cheaper with all this than the comparable Quantum of the Seas sailing to Alaska...

 

[epcotrulz]

Oh yeah, if you want to just relax in your stateroom and watch tv or a movie, you have basically two blurry channels to choose from …. Replaying CBS crime series and mostly old obscure movies. On demand is $12 and a handful of movies to pick from. No way to stream from your device to your TV.

 

[jeffporfirio]

Thanks for your review.
This is what kept us from cancelling our Northern European on DCL (even with the crummy-updated schedule), and switching to a cheaper RCL.
I feel that after cruising with DCL, everything else will feel subpar.
Like going from a good steakhouse to a fast-food joint.

 

[epcotrulz]

Thanks for your review.
This is what kept us from cancelling our Northern European on DCL (even with the crummy-updated schedule), and switching to a cheaper RCL.
I feel that after cruising with DCL, everything else will feel subpar.
Like going from a good steakhouse to a fast-food joint.

Literally what I said to others, Disney is Ruth Chris and RCL is Applebee’s (barely)

 

[lilsonicfan]

I haven't tried RCCL yet and am sorry you are having a bad experience. I am one of those who can't really justify DCL pricing any more. Probably in part b/c we are 5 people and that always substantially increases the costs, so DCL is at least double on most itineraries. We have been on many other lines and do not see DCL as being miles ahead of any of them, though.