Quick Review: Harmony of the Seas, March 2020

Harmony docked in CocoCay

We’re back from our 7 day Western Caribbean sailing on Harmony of the Seas.  This is our 3rd sailing on Harmony in the last 6 months.  We really love this ship and her crew.  Leaving from Port Canaveral is also very convenient.  Tampa is closer but doesn’t get the newer, bigger ships.

With all the hysteria going on surrounding the Corona Virus, we were not sure what to expect on this cruise.  The extra screenings were in place (except the mandatory temperature check, which was announced after our cruise) and check-in was actually pretty smooth.  You could tell Royal was taking the situation very seriously.  We found out later that, not only was the crew disinfecting everything constantly during the cruise, but also in between cruises.  During turn around day, the entire ship was disinfected by a team of crew members in full protective gear using a spray/fogger system to get every inch they can.  Passengers were also taking it seriously as we have not been on a cruise before this one where we saw people so determined to stay clean.  That’s a good thing.

Our cabin was a standard inside cabin which is fine for the 2 of us.  As I’ve mentioned before, the inside cabins on the newer ships like Harmony are quite nice and spacious.  Also, you can’t beat the price if you want to cruise on a budget.

Our stops on this cruise were the usual Western Caribbean destinations, Cozumel, Costa Maya, and Roatan.  We also made a stop at CocoCay, Royal Caribbean’s private island, which was one of the highlights of the cruise.  It was a bit cool and windy during our stop in CocoCay but I was determined to get off the ship.  Not to hang out at the beach or swim in the lagoon, no, I was on a mission to find the often talked about Crispy Chicken Sandwich and Bistro Burger at one of the “Snack Shacks” on the island.  There are Windjammer type buffets on CocoCay but the Snack Shack is kind of a hidden gem.  The Snack Shacks serve a small menu of burgers, fries, sandwiches and salads, all complimentary.  I have head of the them, but never visited in our 3 prior trips to the island.  This time I was determined.  My determination was rewarded when I finally located one of the Snack Shacks and I just had to sample the Bistro Burger, Crispy Chicken Sandwich, and an order or fries.  All I have to say is WOW.  First, the Bistro Burger is better than any burger you can get on the ship at the Windjammer.  It may even stack up with the ones at Johnny Rockets.  It is thick, juicy, and very flavorful as opposed to the gray, dry, bland ones you get at the buffet.  It came with full toppings, lettuce, tomato, cheese….etc.  The Crispy Chicken sandwich was also very good.  Nicely fried, thin, and tender chicken on a brioche bun.  I believe it’s supposed to come with some sort of “secret sauce” on it but mine did not have it.  Either way, it was delicious and there are condiments available to add to your liking.  It was one of the best lunches I’ve had in a while on a cruise.  Not sure why they can’t offer them on the ship….but I guess it will keep people coming back to CocoCay.

Boardwalk

That turned out to be the only time I got off the ship.  We were unable to dock at Costa Maya due to weather (2nd cruise in a row we missed that stop).  Roatan is still under construction and was quite busy.  It’s a pretty small port but there were 5 ships there that day.  Speaking of busy, Cozumel was crazy!  There were 8 ships in Cozumel when we were there…..we stayed on board.

Leaving Port Canaveral was unusually chilly, we had on pants and long sleeve shirts.  It was also cool and blustery in CocoCay but by the time we got to the Western Caribbean, it was in the low to mid 80s. We had pretty good weather for the most part but there was some “motion in the ocean”. Later in the cruise the seasickness bags made an appearance around the ship.

Dining wise we mostly stuck to the Windjammer and other free options, avoiding the dining room once again.  There were the usual “live” stations nightly in the Windjammer serving up stir fry, pasta, etc.  Also the fresh doughnuts made several appearances.  We did have some onboard credits to spend and we found ourselves at Izumi for some delicious Sushi.  Izumi never disappoints.

Elevator "Piano Guy"

Entertainment wise we spent our evenings moving around to different venues checking out the live music.  Unfortunately, our favorite band that played in Dazzles, “Temperature”, has moved to another ship (Symphony I believe).  In their place in Dazzles is a band we have seen before and enjoyed, “Southside”.  We did also get into one of the showings of “The Fine Line” in the Aquatheater, which was awesome, as usual.

We'll be back soon as we have another cruise scheduled for the end of April (hopefully) on Adventure and we also booked Harmony once again for June as soon as we returned home from this one.

Hits:

• Best ship and best crew in the fleet
• Entertainment
• CocoCay/Snack Shack

Misses:

• 90's dance party in promenade was a bit lame

Quick Review: Rhapsody of the Seas, January 2020

Sunset in Key West

Happy 2020 to all!  The holidays are over and we are back cruising.  We have just returned from a 7 day trip on Rhapsody of the Seas from Tampa, FL.  Tampa is our current home town so this was an easy one, and the price could not be beat (under $1,300 for two people in an inside cabin).  Boy, it's nice to be able to cruise during the "off season" when prices are reasonable.  This cruise featured stops in Key West, Grand Cayman, Cozumel, and Costa Maya.

Being that we are about 30 minutes from the port, we arrived bright and early around 10AM.  Check-in was smooth and painless and we sat in the wait area until we were able to board by about 10:30.  The weather in Tampa was a little iffy so we found a spot to camp inside and wait for lunch.  On a side note, we heard from several people that the porters lad left a lot of luggage out and exposed when the clouds opened up and many people received wet luggage.  To their credit, Royal Caribbean, gave many free laundry service to cover that even though, technically, it's not their responsibility as the porters work for the port and not the cruise line.  Nice gesture from them there to take care of their passengers.

Basic inside cabin

Our cabin for this cruise was a basic inside cabin for 2 and it was sufficient for our needs.  Really only sleeping and getting cleaned up/dressed in there.  Bed was a bit of a torture device, but we lived through it.  Other than that, the cabin was basic but did the job.  Only real annoyance is that on this older ship, they don't have the "phone booth" type shower with the hard sliding door, but instead, there was a small square shower with a shower curtain.  That darn shower curtain would continually stick to me while showering which was both comical and annoying.

Leaving Tampa was "interesting".  As soon as we pulled away from the pier, the captain announced we would be returning to dock due to a medical emergency.  Guess someone had to be taken off the ship.  That has to be terrible, having a medical emergency before the ship has even left.  So we pulled away and went forward to the next berth where we came back alongside the pier and offloaded the passenger, delaying us about 30 - 45 minutes.  I hope the person was OK and had travel insurance.

This was our 2nd trip on Rhapsody and she's a nice ship, not the newest, but she's in pretty good shape.  Seems like she had some touch ups done since our last trip on her in 2018.  She doesn't have the "WOW factor" of the newer ships and there isn't a ton to do, but she'll do just fine if you want some R&R.  The ship choices leaving from Tampa are limited to what can fit under the Sunshine Skyway Bridge.  So it's usually a Vision Class or Radiance Class from Tampa.

Dining wise on this trip, we hit the main dining room on the first night and had dinner there.  It wasn't bad but we did decide to eat the rest of the week in the Windjammer.  Most of our meals in the Windjammer on this trip were pretty  good.  Lunch was the usual fare but no complaints there and they had some kind of "live station" each night at dinner, cooking Asian food, Pasta, Seafood, etc.  And one night, we found freshly made donuts….yummy.

Our first stop was the next day (Sunday) in Key West.  We've been there before by car (long drive) but never on a ship.  Key West is a fun, interesting place and a nice stop for a day on a ship.  We docked at about 11AM right downtown but getting off the ship was a bit of a hassle.  There is only one gangway available and even on a smaller ship like Rhapsody, it created some long lines.  On top of that, there appeared to be some kind of emergency that required an ambulance which held the line up as well.  It was quite cool for FL (mid to high 60s) but fairly comfortable to walk around town.  We strolled along Duval St. and found a nice place to grab some lunch then headed back to the ship for the afternoon.  

Busy day in Grand Cayman

Our first sea day was the following day (Monday) and we just relaxed by the pool.  Tuesday, we arrived in Grand Cayman.  I really like Grand Cayman, but the fact that everyone has to tender there, really kills my enthusiasm for the place.  More often than not, we decide to just stay on the ship and avoid the hassle of tendering.  That's exactly what we did here.  It was a busy day too with at least 4 other ships there at the same time. 

Wednesday morning we found ourselves at our 3rd stop, Cozumel, docked next to the very pretty and huge MSC Seaside.  First time seeing her up close.  Looks like a nice ship.  Again, we decided to stay onboard and take advantage of the quiet as we've been to Cozumel quite a few times before.  We were tempted to get off as this was the first time I can remember being docked at this location, more downtown.  Normally Royal Caribbean ships dock at a different location.  We were told by some friends we met on board that they went to a great little restaurant on the main street there not far from where we were docked and had a wonderful lunch and listened to some live music.  I don't recall the name but it's a "thatched" type building with 2 levels right there on the main drag.  Oh well, maybe next time. 

Our final stop was supposed to be Costa Maya on day 6 (Thursday), but the seas were rough and it was very windy.  At the last minute, the captain made an announcement and called it off.  Interestingly, we could see that there were at least 2 other ships docked there, one of which was an Oasis Class ship.  We heard a rumor that another ship arrived early and got our berth forcing us to use one that was going to be difficult to get to because of the high winds and sea conditions.  We would have had to maneuver around that ship to dock so, for safety reasons, the captain decided to make it a sea day.  Not a big loss, unless you had an excursion planned.  That's really the main thing to do in Costa Maya.  Sea conditions remained pretty rough and the sea sickness bags were out for the rest of the cruise due to the ship moving around so much.

Entertainment wise there wasn't a ton of stuff to do on board.  We played some trivia, won some, lost some.  Didn't see any shows but we did enjoy the live bands both in the Centrum and by the pool.  Service onboard was great, as usual.

That's about it for this one.  We have 2 more sailings coming up in the next few months.  First will be our 4th voyage on Harmony of the Seas in March, then we'll be on Adventure of the Seas in April.  I'm sure there will be more to come after that.  Reviews will follow shortly after.

Hits:

• Price
• Convenience
• Meals in Windjammer
• Live bands were good

Misses:

• Weather conditions later in the week
• Missing a port of call
• Older ship, not a ton to do

Quick Review: Harmony of the Seas, October 2019

Harmony docked in Labadee

This time we were back on Harmony for the second time in just under 2 months.  The prior one was quite an adventure (link to prior review) but this one turned out to be just a nice, relaxing cruise on-board one of our favorite ships.

This trip, leaving from Port Canaveral, stopped in Labadee, San Juan, and St. Maarten.  As usual, we arrived nice and early at Port Canaveral and, once again, we were lucky enough to have "expedited boarding".  This is absolutely the best and we were on-board in a flash!  We were on-board and headed to the Park Café (gotta get my Royal Kummelweck roast beef sandwich) by about 11:30AM.  I think total time from parking the car to biting into my sandwich was no more than 30 minutes.

For this trip, we stayed in a standard inside cabin.  I mentioned it before on our first trip on Harmony when we had the inside cabin with the "virtual balcony", these are some of the nicest, roomiest inside cabins we've ever seen.  More than enough space for two people and their stuff.

The weather for our trip was pretty nice however there was some "motion in the ocean", as Capt. Johnny put it, for most of the trip.  The first night was particularly rough.  It doesn't bother me much, I actually enjoy it, but if you are sensitive to this type of motion, I imagine it wouldn't be much fun.  It's funny because our prior cruise during Hurricane Dorian was much, much smoother all around.  I believe the Captain said the ocean conditions this week were caused by a storm far away in the Atlantic that was creating swells somewhere in the area of 3 - 5 meters.  Our cabin was on deck 7 all the way forward, so we were definitely feeling it.

Afternoon arrival in San Juan

As I mentioned earlier, our first stop was Labadee, and while I do like it there, it really has been overshadowed by Coco Cay.  I wonder if Royal has any plans for Labadee.  It was renovated not too long ago so I'm not sure they want to do anything further there for a while.  It's still a nice, quiet place to hang out though.  I got off the ship and did a lap walking around to check things out before heading back on-board to relax.  Mostly, I wanted to get some pictures of the island and the ship.  The next day was San Juan, Puerto Rico.  Our arrival was scheduled for 2PM I believe but we did arrive a bit early.  The upper decks were packed with people watching us arrive as it's pretty uncommon for the ships to dock in the afternoon.  Usually I'm still fast asleep when we dock in the mornings, so it was nice to see.  We did not get off the ship in San Juan since it was such a late arrival and we had evening plans on-board.  Sail away was at 9PM and nighttime sail away is always cool to see.  Our final stop was Philipsburg, St. Maarten.  We did get off here and decided to walk from the pier to downtown.  In all the years we've been coming here, we never tried that as it always seemed like a very long way.  Normally, we just take the nearby water taxi.  Surprisingly, the walk isn't that bad.  I'd say it took us maybe 20 minutes to walk to downtown, not too bad at all.  However, by the time we got there we were ready to head back to the ship because it was pretty hot.  I guess we are getting old but it never seems to be a comfortable temperature in the Caribbean no matter what time of year we go.

Cantral Park at night

For our meals on this trip, once again we avoided the traditional dining room and opted to just nibble here and there at many of the free and "specialty" dining locations.  Normally we so at least one visit to Izumi, but this time we changed it up a bit.  We decided to do Jaime's Italian for the first time.  We've dined at and enjoyed both Portofino and Giovanni's on other ships but never tried Jaime's.  Our opinion of it was, it was OK.  The appetizers were good.  We had the antipasti plank, shrimp, garlic bread, and black truffle arancini which were all tasty.  For a main, my wife had the braised short rib, which was very good.  I had the lasagna which, like the rest of the pastas we had, (I think they brought out a small plate of each) was kind of mushy and just not that great.  Oh well, we actually got a good deal (2 for 1) on the price because it was a port day and they were desperate for business.  The next day, we decided to have some Mexican at Sabor.  We haven't been there in a couple of years, mostly because the quality had gone down in our opinion.  But we decided to give it another try and it wasn't too bad.  Quality at Sabor has definitely gotten better since our last visit.  The highlight again were the appetizers.  We split a beef empanada and the chicken stuffed jalapeños wrapped in bacon.  Both were yummy.  Along with the fresh guacamole, which was very tasty, we were already stuffed.  Our main course were some taco samplers.  We each ordered one chicken, one pork, and one shrimp taco.  My mistake was getting them with corn tortillas.  At home, I enjoy homemade tacos on soft corn tortillas, and for some reason assumed that was what I was getting here.  Unfortunately, they were the hard corn shells, but I suffered through.  Aside from all that goodness we had some very tasty Margaritas.  I had a couple of Jalapeño Cucumber and my wife had one of those and a Grand Margarita.  They were very good!

For entertainment, we spent most of our time in Dazzles enjoying one of our favorite bands "Temperature".  We did want to catch the Aqua Show again on this trip, but it was cancelled quite a lot due to the fairly rough seas.  There were a couple of "silent disco" nights which are always fun.

Once again, a great cruise, with a bit less drama this time around.  Now we wait for a few months until our next trip in early 2020 on Rhapsody of the Seas.

Hits:

• Expedited boarding is the best
• Temperature band
• Sabor has improved
• Captain Johnny is the best

Misses:

• Bit of a bumpy ride most of the week
• Jaimie's Italian was disappointing

"Not So" Quick Review: Harmony of the Seas, August 2019 (AKA "The Dorian Adventure")

Harmony in Costa Maya

OK, so let me start off here with a couple of things.

First, I want to send our prayers out to everyone affected by this nasty hurricane.  Particularly those in the Bahamas.  I can't imagine what it was like to have a storm just sit there for almost 2 days with 150+ mph winds.

Second, kudos to Royal Caribbean on how they handled this.  They made the best of the situation and always kept us informed.  The shipboard team, led by Capt. Johnny, was outstanding as were the communications and decisions from Royal's home base in Miami. 

Royal is committing $1 million to Dorian relief and matching every employee and guest donation as well.  They have also already begun carrying supplies to the affected islands in the Bahamas.  RoyalCaribbean's relief efforts.

Now, on to the review:

Full disclosure, we don't cruise during hurricane season anymore (wonder why?).  The kids are out of the house so there is no need to.  This time however, we were cruising with family who have children which dictated the timing. 

So we arrived in Port Canaveral on Sunday 8/25, dropped off our luggage and parked the car by 10:50AM.  We walked down the stairs of the parking garage, over to the terminal, and absolutely breezed through check-in / security (expedited boarding baby!) and we were onboard by 11:05AM.  You can't beat that.  Fairly soon after we boarded, there was an overhead announcement that our itinerary had changed.  This was supposed to be an Eastern Caribbean cruise with stops in Perfect Day Coco Cay, St. Maarten, and St. Thomas.  The itinerary was changed to Western Caribbean with stops in Cozumel, Roatan, and Costa Maya.  The stop at Coco Cay was still happening since it was close by and we were to be there the next morning, well ahead of the storm.  Remember, at this point, Dorian was just a tropical storm and it was predicted to hit Hispaniola and break up over the mountains.  Royal made the decision to switch to the Western itinerary just to be safe and avoid any weather related issues.  Boy, was that a good call.

Our cabin for this cruise (12630) was a Jr Suite, our first on an Oasis Class ship, and it did not disappoint.  Loads of room and a great layout.  Very generous storage, walk in closet, shower with tub, and a nice size balcony.  Very nice cabin.  Some of our travel companions on this cruise had one of the Loft Suites and we got a quick tour of that.  It was nice, but not a big as I imagined.  It appeared to be narrower than our Jr. Suite, but the big plus is the 2 levels (2 bathrooms too) and the giant wall of glass and large balcony.

Perfect Day Coco Cay

So after departing Port Canaveral we awoke the next morning (Monday) in Coco Cay and the weather wasn't too bad.  A passing shower here and there, but nothing crazy.  We spent some time at the lagoon and then headed to get a bite to eat.  The food was good again and even though we were on a much bigger ship than last visit, the island still didn't feel too crowded.  We really, really like Coco Cay.  Glad to hear that they didn't sustain too much damage there as a result of the hurricane.  Also, the bird problem I mentioned in my last review seems to be a bit more under control.  Not sure what they did, but the birds were much less of a nuisance this time around.

Day 3 (Tuesday) was a sea day and by then, the news about Dorian was becoming more and more ominous.  We were headed for what would be our first of 3, yes 3, stops in Cozumel on this journey. 

We arrived in Cozumel on Day 4 (Wednesday) and it was packed with ships.  The storm was by now causing problems with most of the Caribbean itineraries and ships were searching for available ports.  There were at least 6 ships docked in Cozumel that day.  We did not get off the ship because we have been there before and just wanted to stay onboard and relax.  Seemed like it was going to be very crowded on shore.

Roatan, Honduras

The next day, Day 5 (Thursday), we arrived in Roatan, Honduras.  Never been here before but it looks like it may become a more popular stop in the coming years.  We did not get off the ship because there did not appear to be much at the port at this point.  A lot of the port area was still under construction and a bit of a mess.  But, I think, once it's completed, it should be a nice little port.

Next up was Costa Maya on Day 6 (Friday).  We’ve been there before but decided to get off and walk around a bit.  We did that because, at this point, it was already clear we were not getting back to Port Canaveral on Sunday.  The storm was getting worse and worse and all predictions of it breaking up or weakening were completely wrong.  We were still hopeful we'd be back home maybe Monday which would have been fine with me because I had to be back at work on Tuesday.  Yes, this blog does not pay the bills.  In fact, it doesn't pay any bills. 

Of course the storm had a mind of it's own, and decided to completely stall for almost 2 days over the Bahamas.  So instead of heading back to Port Canaveral after leaving Costa Maya on Friday, we headed back to Cozumel.  We spent Day 7 (Saturday) in Cozumel and then left at night, drifted around and returned the next day to Cozumel.  The captain explained that we needed to leave port at night because we had to take on water to be desalinated and purified for drinking and other uses as no fresh water in the amounts that a ship like Harmony needs is available at the port.  Also, this is speculation on my part but, I imagine extra port fees would have been charged and they also could not open the casino at night if they had stayed in port.  So then next day, Day 8 now (Sunday, 9/1), we awoke once again in Cozumel.  Again, there were many ships docked at the port trying to avoid the storm.  Next to Harmony was Mariner of the Seas and we noticed (later confirmed by Capt. Johnny) that some items were being taken off of Mariner and loaded onto Harmony to resupply us for our extended voyage.

So after 2 days in Cozumel, we departed for good and spent Days 9, 10, and 11 of our cruise at sea.  If you looked at the chart of our trip on the TV in the cabin it looked like a child's scribble.  There were loops from going to Cozumel several times.  Then there were zig-zags on days 9 and 10 just south of Cuba waiting to hear what was going to happen and when we could start our return trip to Port Canaveral.  Once the storm started heading North again, we were finally on the north side of Cuba and headed back towards Florida on Day 11, still not sure if the port was going to be open in the morning.  Luckily, Port Canaveral did not sustain any significant damage and it was officially reopened just in time, on the night of Day 11 (Wednesday 9/3).

Finally, on Thursday 9/4, 12 days after we boarded Harmony, we awoke to a beautiful sunrise above Port Canaveral.  There were some minor issues such as one of the gangways suffering damage to it's electrical system from the amount of rain they had at the port.  This made getting off the ship a bit frustrating.  The self-debarkation always seems be more of a problem/challenge on the Oasis Class ships.  It was pretty disorganized.

As frustrating and stressful as this was for us, first worrying about the hurricane and whether it would hit home in FL, to then worrying about getting back to work in time, the cruise itself was actually quite enjoyable.  We had great weather for most of the trip.  The seas in the Western Caribbean were smooth as glass.  You wouldn't have known there was a monster hurricane not too far away.  Service was outstanding, especially the staff in the Diamond lounge.  They are the best.  The food was OK in the Windjammer.  Solarium Bistro wasn't bad and we tried Izumi Hibachi for the first time instead of the Sushi and we enjoyed it, but we'll probably go back to the Sushi in the future.  We also visited Coastal Kitchen for the first time.  It's open to Suite and Pinnacle guests exclusively but passengers in Jr. Suites have access for dinner only.  We enjoyed the meals there.  Entertainment wise, the diving show, The Fine Line, was outstanding.  Best we've seen.  One of our favorite bands, Temperature, was playing all week in Dazzles.  We love them.  To top things off, we reached a milestone of 140 Crown & Anchor points and we were awarded with a certificate of appreciation and our first "Crystal Block".  For those who don't know what that is, you receive your first block at 140 points and then every 70 points after that.  The block is exactly what it sounds like, a crystal block etched with the image and name of the ship you happen to be on at the time you hit the milestone.

Crystal Block

As I said earlier, the crew on Harmony was absolutely terrific and we were never in any danger.  Sure some passengers were very frustrated, first complaining of the original itinerary changes, then about extending the trip.  Some demanded that they try to get back to Canaveral ahead of the storm, or even put us off at another port.  Some did decide to leave in Cozumel and take their chances catching flights home.  I imagine it must have been very frustrating and stressful if you had flights arranged or had a long trip home.  A lot of the decisions though were out of Royal's hands as the ports on the East Coast of Florida were closed by the Coast Guard due to the storm.

Our complaints list is not very long.  This was our first trip on Harmony as Diamond level in Royal's loyalty program and we did not like the Diamond lounge.  The staff there are absolutely wonderful, fantastic service.  The problem is, while it is a nice room, with decent space, it is down on deck 4 with no windows.  On most of the other classes of ships, the Diamond Lounge is near the top with great views.  On Oasis and Allure, the Diamond Lounge is huge (largest in the fleet), spanning 2 levels with giant windows looking out onto the Boardwalk area of the ship, but on Harmony and Symphony, it is down on deck 4 with no windows.  And once Oasis and Allure go into drydock, their Diamond Lounges will also be moved down to deck 4 so that extra cabins can put in the current Diamond Club's place.  I don't like that.  

Now I've known about this for a while but what made it worse on this cruise was that, for the first time, we were able to access the Coastal Kitchen which is up on deck 17 and shares space with the Suite Lounge.  On all other classes of RCCL ships, this would be the Viking Crown lounge.  The Viking Crown Lounge is open to everyone and usually provides some of the best views on board.  On the Oasis ships, this is off limits to all but the Suite passengers and those with Pinnacle status.  As I mentioned earlier, as Jr. Suite passengers, we were allowed access for dinner in Coastal Kitchen which shares space with the Suite Lounge and it was a shock.  The Suite Lounge is beautiful and the service and benefits are outstanding.  Now, here is my problem with this.  Why should someone who has booked a Suite have so much nicer an experience than those of us who are, as they say, "Loyal to Royal"?  My wife and I have cruised exclusively on Royal for almost 20 years but we get to sit in the basement while people who may have never cruised with the line before, get an amazing exclusive lounge with wonderful views just because they spent more on their cabin.  It doesn't make sense.  I'm not saying take this away from the Suite passengers, I'm just saying the experience should be better for those of us who have spent way more time and money over the years on Royal.  Don't get me wrong, Royal treats their loyal passengers very well, I just think that the disparity between the Suite Lounge and the Diamond Lounge on the Oasis class ships is too wide and they are focusing more on money than loyalty.  Just my 2 cents…rant over.  I'll put it on my survey and we'll see what happens.

That's that.  This one was truly an adventure.  We're back on Harmony in just about a month, so expect another review soon.

Hits:

• Diamond lounge service/staff.  The best.
• Temperature Band in Dazzles, awesome.
• Weather was actually great.
• Captain Johnny and his crew did an outstanding job considering the circumstances.
• Ship is as beautiful and amazing as ever.

Misses:

• Stupid hurricane Dorian.
• Windjammer was so-so.
• Too wide a gap between the experience in the Suite Lounge and Diamond Lounge on Oasis ships.

Quick Review: Mariner of the Seas, July 2019

Mariner docked in Coco Cay

Just back from a short 4 night trip on Mariner of the Seas from Port Canaveral and the big story for us was it was our first visit to Royal Caribbean's "Perfect Day Coco Cay".  More on that in a bit. 

This was our third trip on Mariner and second since she got the "Royal Amplified" treatment last year.  The ship still looks great and now that she leaves from Port Canaveral, it's much more convenient for us.

Embarkation in Port Canaveral was unbelievably fast.  Somehow, when we checked in online we were given "expedited" boarding.  We didn't select anything special, just got lucky I guess.  Reps at the terminal mentioned this was a new system they were testing out.  After we arrived at the terminal, we dropped off our bags with the porter, went around and parked, and then headed inside to check in.  The people there looked at our pass and sent us to an empty line marked expedited.  From there, we went through to a "facial recognition" system that took a few seconds each and then on to a representative with a tablet to complete the check in.  We were given a "pass" to show on the way through to the ship and in no time, we were onboard.  In all, I'd say it took maybe 10 minutes.  Really nice.

As I mentioned, the ship is still in fine shape, having had a fairly major update last year.  Our cabin on this one was a Promenade View inside cabin, first one we've ever had.  We had booked a simple inside guarantee so I guess this was technically an upgrade.  It took till almost a week prior to the sailing to finally get an assigned cabin which was the longest we have ever waited on a "guarantee" booking.  The cabin was nice and the promenade view was somewhat of a novelty, however we didn't really take advantage of the view much.  One thing we did notice with this cabin was the noise from the promenade.  We stayed out fairly late at night and noticed that they did seem to quiet things down in the promenade at about 12AM, so that wasn't much of an issue.  However, in the mornings, the overhead music in the promenade started at about 8AM and it was loud enough to be annoying and wake us up earlier than we wanted.  Our only other complaint was there was a bit of a "funky" smell in the hall outside our cabin the first couple of nights, but it seemed to go away after a while.  Oh well, not a huge deal and nothing that will ruin our fun.

Oasis Lagoon on Coco Cay

For this trip, all of our evening dining was done in the Windjammer.  Our only trip to the dining room was for the buffet lunch on the one sea day we had.  That is a favorite of ours.  Windjammer was fine, with the usual fare.  We did notice that they seem to have improved the burgers in the "jammer".  Normally, I don't particularly enjoy the burgers, the meat quality is somewhat questionable and they just don't have much flavor or nice burger texture.  I'm a bit of a burger connoisseur by the way, so I notice these things.  On this cruise however, the burger patties were much thicker and flavorful.  They also came on a nice roll instead of the usual "wonder bread" type rolls you would get at Walmart for your back yard BBQ.  So that was a nice surprise.  Mariner also has the "Dog House" which we really enjoy on the Oasis ships, so I had to make at least one stop there.  There were also some special offerings at the grill on Coco Cay.  There were yummy Cuban Sandwiches as well as mini "shaved" steak sandwiches with peppers and onions on rolls available.  I may have had a couple of each, and fries, and possibly a hot dog.

Entertainment wise, there wasn't anything that really caught our eye as far as shows go.  What was cool was that there were 2 separate nights of the "silent disco" which is quickly becoming one of our favorites.  Lots of fun.  Nice that they had 2 on this short cruise.

Coco Cay

Since I've mentioned Coco Cay twice now, I'm sure you are dying to hear about it, let's get to the ports of call.  The first couple of days of this 4 night Bahamas cruise were sea days.  On day 3 we stopped in Nassau which was fine.  Been there, done that.  It was very hot so we didn't walk around for long before heading back to the ship.  Day 4 was finally Coco Cay.  We docked at about 8:00AM and assumed there would be a bit of a rush to get off the ship so we waited until 9:30AM to stroll ashore.  Once ashore we headed to the left to "Chill Island" which I assumed would be least crowded since it's away from the tram path and away from the water park.  We were pleasantly surprised that there was plenty of room for everyone on shore.  We had no trouble finding some chairs with shade.  The area wasn't crowded at all and the beach was very nice.  In fact, the whole island had plenty of room for everyone.  I did a quick walk around the island while my wife sat in the shade and there was ample seating everywhere I went.  

After my sightseeing tour, we decided to get a drink and move to the Oasis Lagoon where we quickly found a shady spot on some loungers under an umbrella.  I really like the Oasis Lagoon, it's huge and fresh water.  Couldn't resist taking a dip since it was pretty hot out.  There is a huge swim up bar there but I didn't try it out since we were at the opposite side of the lagoon.  Wouldn't have been too hard to get too, I was just feeling lazy and wanted to stay out of the hot sun as much as possible.  

Oasis Lagoon swim up bar

When it came time to grab a bite to eat, there were 3 different locations to choose from on the island.  We went to Skipper's Grill, which is near the lagoon.  Again, to our surprise, there was no real crowd and finding a seat was extremely easy.  If you've been to Labadee, you know that sometimes it's a complete zoo at lunch time trying to get food and find seating.  Not so on Coco Cay.  Don't know if it's like this all the time since we were the only ship there.  The island can accommodate 2 ships at a time, including Oasis Class ships which hold more people, so there may be times it's much more crowded.  As I mentioned earlier, the food was quite good as well.  The only real issue was the birds.  They are very aggressive trying to get food.  I did see some "kites" flying around the island that look like birds.  I assume they are there to mimic predators to scare off the other birds.  Not sure how well it's working or what, if anything, can be done about it.  One somewhat funny scene was when a young teen came from the buffet and put down a burger he just got on a table.  Then he decided to go to get a drink and as soon as he left that table and turned away, dozens of birds descended on the burger and it was gone in seconds.  Staff did their best to shoo them away, but no luck there.  With that said, as long as you were at the table with your food, the birds did not bother you.  What was a bit annoying were the people intentionally feeding the birds and drawing more and more to the area.  Not helpful.

So, there you have it, our first experience at Perfect Day Coco Cay.  It really did exceed our expectations.  As usual, another great trip on Royal Caribbean.

Hits:

• Coco Cay.  Exceeded our expectations.  Everyone we talked to had a great time and loved it.
• Expedited boarding.  From curb to ship in about 10 minutes.
• Food improvements.

Misses:

• Noisy Promenade cabin
• Ravenous birds!  Not much Royal can do about it.  If you stay at your table and DON'T FEED THEM, they won't bother you.

Expect some new reviews coming soon!

So, this is happening:

Yeah, 5 upcoming cruises.  First time the wife and I have had more than a couple booked at once.  They seem to just keep multiplying!

So, keep an eye out for some new reviews.  First one is soon.

Quick Review: Adventure of the Seas, April 2019

We're back from our first trip ever on Adventure of the Seas.  That leaves just Navigator of the Seas as the only Voyager Class ship we have never sailed on.  These days, Voyager Class ships are considered "average" in size, but I remember when they first came out and were the largest cruise ships ever built.  How times have changed.

Adventure is one of the older "first generation" Voyager Class ships and she was last refurbed in 2014 and received the water slides and "flowrider" in 2016.  She showed some "wear and tear" in some areas (carpets, furniture, public rooms) but, for the most part, she is in pretty good shape considering she hosts around 3,000 passengers a week.  Our standard inside cabin was just fine and we had no complaints or issues.

Flowrider and slides on Adventure

This cruise was an 8 day Caribbean sailing that took us from Ft. Lauderdale to Labadee, San Juan, St. Maarten, and St. Kitts.  We have been to most of those islands several times but we were pretty excited to see St. Kitts on the itinerary since we have never been there before.

Ft. Lauderdale is about 3.5 - 4 hours from home so we left bright and early and arrived at about 11:00AM.  Boarding was already underway by then and we were on board by around 11:30.  Once on board, we grabbed lunch at the Windjammer and then waited until 1PM for the rooms to be ready so we could drop off our stuff and have a walk around the ship to check everything out.

After our ship tour and muster drill, we were off to the Diamond Club for the evening "Happy Hour".  Unfortunately, there were some issues here during the week that caused a bit of a stir.  For some reason, Royal Caribbean was "testing" changes in the Diamond Lounge requiring people to get in line and present their cards for every drink.  Normally, the Diamond and above nightly happy hour is open bar (select menu) and you are waited on at your table by staff.  Your sea pass card is never taken or scanned because the drinks are free and you need your card to access the lounge.  So if you are not Diamond or above, you can't get in.  This week, however, they were swiping everyone's cards for the drinks (one drink per card) and there was a bar set up in the room that you had to stand and wait on line for.  That caused lines out the door of the lounge which also blocked access to the small buffet they have set up.  No one we talked to had ever seen this on Royal before and the staff, who didn't seem too happy about it either, mentioned it was something new the line was experimenting with on a few ships.  No one knew exactly what the reasoning behind it was but some staff did mention that it was for inventory tracking.  Others thought it was to try to prevent people from taking drinks out of the lounge and giving them away.  We did still see some people "sneaking" drinks out of the lounge and apparently giving them to family members or friends who are not Diamond or above.  Whatever the reason was, it did cause some confusion and lots of complaints.  Even with all that going on, we still got great service in the lounge and the crew was trying their best to keep everyone happy.  Once again, we met some great new friends and mostly enjoyed our time there.  We just hope this isn't something they are planning on doing fleet wide.  Hopefully it's also not a sign that more changes are coming to the lounge/happy hour.

St. Kitts

If you have read any of my prior blog posts, you know we've been all over the Eastern and Western Caribbean.  We've been to several of these islands multiple times, but one we haven't been to is St. Kitts.  So we were pretty excited to check it out.  That stop was on day 6 of this 8 day cruise.  We didn’t have any excursions or anything planned so we just got off the ship and explored a bit around the port area.  There is a lot of shopping in the port "village" there so we popped in and out of a lot of the shops to check out their stuff and get into the A/C.  We didn't venture much outside of the port shopping area but we would love to come back to St. Kitts and check it out further.  Maybe next time we'll do a tour.

Lunch in the dining room

For our meals we just kind of "winged it" on this cruise.  We had late seating in the dining room, but we wound up not going there at all for dinner.  Some days we would eat breakfast at the Windjammer, then skip lunch and eat later in the evening at Café Promenade or in Windjammer or we would skip breakfast and have lunch and late night snacks.  On seas days though, we did not miss lunch in the Dining room.  This has become our new thing and we love it.  Lunch in the MDR, is available on sea days and consists of a host of selections from a menu as well as a large buffet which usually includes some sort of fresh station where the staff will make you a pasta dish or salad to order.  There is always also a huge selection of desserts as well.  On this cruise, one of the special lunches was seafood themed and there was a whole table full of mussels, crawfish, and shrimp.  Really good if you have the time to sit down and don't want to run the gauntlet at the Windjammer.  We also had our required meal of Sushi at Izumi and, as usual, it was fantastic.  Izumi on Adventure is unusual as it is located in the Royal Promenade along with the other shops and the pub. Great for good food and some "people watching".

Entertainment wise we didn't go to any shows, nothing really caught our eye.  We did find a great band, "Funk it Up", that we enjoyed and checked out their sets whenever we could.  We dabbled in some more trivia contests and did OK, coming away with a few goodies.  Aside from that, we entertained ourselves and relaxed.

Debarkation in Ft. Lauderdale was fairly smooth.  We usually do the self-debarkation early in the morning and we have noticed that more and more people are opting for this as the line are getting longer and longer.  One minor complaint about Ft. Lauderdale is that where Adventure was docked, there is no parking garage.  You have to take a shuttle to and from the garage which does cause a bit of a delay and it somewhat of an annoyance.  We had the same issue with a couple of cruises on Freedom of the Seas from Ft. Lauderdale in the past.  It's just that one location at the port that does not have a garage you can walk to.  All other berths are fine.  As I mentioned, it's a minor annoyance and nothing that will ruin our vacation.

That's it for this one.  Next up is a couple of cruises on Harmony of the Seas later this year.