Harmony of the Seas Review
Rating by category
Additional details
We were a group of 15 friends and family (hence Framily) on the 8 night Harmony of the Seas Cruise. We had previously cruised twice each on the Allure and Oasis. It was very obvious that Royal had learned a lot from the two elder sister ships and incorporated much of that learning into Harmony.
Embarkation was a breeze. We arrived at the port around 10:15 and were on board by 10:45. Quick and Easy. The only line we stood in was at the metal detectors, but it moved very quickly.
Though Harmony is essentially the same as Allure and Oasis, the spaces seemed more well thought out and the traffic flow was much improved. Even the small changes to the room layout made the staterooms seem larger. I cannot think of a single time other than during debarkation that we stood in any lines or felt crowded during the week and we had over 6000 passengers on board.
Cabin Review
Junior Suite
We were in JS Cabin 7640 on the Starboard side of the ship. The room was well laid out with lots of space and more than enough storage. The walk-ink closest was great and provided plenty of room for our luggage and our clothes with room to spare. The bathroom had a tub and this odd glass half wall in place of a door or a curtain. It worked well but water did end up on the floor sometimes.
The room location was great as we had rooms both above and below us so there was no noise from any public spaces. The balcony was spacious with two chairs with foot rests and a small table. The privacy of the balcony made it a great alternative place other than public decks to watch the ship dock and/or leave port.
We generally prefer being a little closer to the elevators, but this did not impact our experience. We have been in Junior Suites before, and felt the improvements to layout and space utilization on the Harmony were great! Our room steward Ruth was awesome and attentive without being intrusive!
Port Reviews
St. Thomas
We spent the day at the Cruzan Beach Club at Secret Harbor Beach. We had done this same thing 4 years ago on the Oasis. We docked at Crown Bay and got off the ship and found a gentleman with an open sided truck with bench seats that could take our entire group of 13 to the beach for $10 each. We hopped in the truck and headed across the island. We were at the beach by 10 AM local time and claimed ourselves a table. We spent the day swimming, eating, drinking and just enjoying the day. Even though there were 4 ships in port, the beach was not crowded. As part of the Secret Harbor Beach complex is Aqua Action WaterSports. We were able to rent a couple of paddleboards for a couple of hours and a few from our group that are SCUBA certified were able to do a shore dive.
We opened a tab and just ordered drinks and food throughout the day as we wanted to. The staff at the Cruzan Beach Club was wonderful. IT started to rain around 14:00 island time, but it did not ruin our day. We wanted the storm roll in across the cove and were able to sit under cover of the bar when the storm got a little stronger. Around 15:30 island time, our same driver that dropped us off came back and for another $10 each took us back to the port.
Back at Crown Bay, we did a little shopping, but as compared to when we were there in 2014, many of the shops were still closed after the effects of the 2017 hurricane season. There was a decent amount of carts and vendors but for example, there was nowhere at the port to buy any rum.
Overall it was a great day and Secret Harbor Beach is definitely a place we will return in the future.