Harmony of the Seas is one of the largest cruise ships in the world by Royal Caribbean.
In this article, you will find some reviews that will look at what it’s like to travel on this impressive ship.
I’ve selected the most detailed ones that include both pros and cons and consider many different ways of traveling: family vacations, couple’s trips, or solo adventures.
Hope this will help you to decide if the Harmony of the Seas is the right choice for your next cruise.
Review 1
This is a review from an adult couple’s perspective (no kids sailing).
First of all, we had a very enjoyable time. But I will share the good & the bad.
STATEROOM:
It was a balcony with an ocean view.
The beds are so hard! Even with pads. There is only a hair (shampoo) & body soap combo in the shower. You may want to bring your own. There is an electric outlet beside the bed.
I loved the design of our room. It had 2 closets. They will bring an ice bucket with ice every day. Wish I had asked earlier.
The refrigerator is only a cooler but keeps water cool enough. They no longer do “turn down service” or leave chocolates on pillows and clean the room only once a day.
Towel animals 3 times for the week. Our balcony was pretty dirty. The floor but also the glass. I also found it odd that they did not leave beach towels in your room for shore days. You have to check towels out on deck 3 before you go.
SODA ONLY PACKAGE:
We don’t drink alcohol much, so we choose to buy drinks a la carte. The drinks we ordered were from $10-$20 each! But we did purchase the soda package.
On the first day, you go to any bar & they will give you a refillable cup. It has a microchip on the bottom that works with the freestyle soda machines.
There are only 3-4 machines throughout the ship. The cups are not insulated well. I preferred going to a bar & ordering a soda (still free) & just dumping it into my own cup.
You can also do this with water, tea, juice, etc. They will not give you a can of soda.
WATER BOTTLES:
We ordered 24 1-liter bottles for the trip to be able to have them for shore excursions. Also wanted to have water on board.
They were ALL in our stateroom when we arrived. Just know that takes up a lot of space. We had 6 left over that we left in the room. We didn’t need them on board. 12 would have been plenty!
SMOKING:
My husband enjoys cigars. We found the smoking area to be in a very odd place! It is mid-ship on deck 15. The same deck as the pools & hot tubs. Not enjoyable for anyone!
The non-smokers & kids for obvious reasons, but also for the smokers that don’t want all the kids & commotion of the pools. You can also smoke in the casino if you are actively gambling. (But not cigars)
RESTAURANTS/FOOD OPTIONS:
We loved the main dining room and ate there every evening. The servers were great.
Food choices were okay. I always order a couple of choices of entrees. We also tried it for lunch and it was great! Very easy and pretty quick.
We loved the Park Cafe for the roast beef sandwich and salad.
Sorrento’s Pizza is some of the best pizza I’ve ever had! It’s mid-ship on the Royal Promenade, so it’s easy to pop in and grab a slice. They also have a soda machine.
Cafe Promenade has pre-made sandwiches, but I went there for the cookies & desserts.
Mini Bits is the place for tacos, nachos, and quesadillas. There is usually a long line.
Solarium Buffet: Mediterranean. I was excited about this, but they only served hummus for dinner.
Dog House: My husband liked the bratwurst, but I was not impressed by the regular hotdogs.
Windjammer buffet: There will be a long line during prime times due to the sink station! That’s right! They have 4 sinks on each side for everyone to wash their hands. Hand sanitizer would be more efficient.
ENTERTAINMENT:
I really enjoyed the multiple entertainment options!
The ice skating shows (two) were my favorite.
The water show was less high dives & more dancing, which I loved! They had another scheduled for the last day but had to cancel.
The adult comedy was good too. Sometimes it can go too raunchy for my taste, but this one did not.
KARAOKE is my jam! They had Family Karaoke & Adult Karaoke every day. sometimes, they would add kids or teens. I did get frustrated with the kids in Adult Karaoke.
The daily compass has gone digital. They no longer leave a paper copy in your room. I believe you can request one but, you should use your app. THEY CHANGE THE THE SCHEDULE THROUGHOUT THE DAY.
Review 2
Our trip on Harmony of the Seas was amazing. Here are some highlights and things that worked for us. Family of 5 (kids ages 13, 16, 19).
Boarding the ship was very easy. We did have passports. We had the earliest boarding time (11am), which we did not pay extra for. Just signed up for it, when it was time to check in.
We got to the terminal early, about 10:15. We were on the boat and enjoying the first day by 10:30.
The room was ready by 1 pm and the bags were at our room by 3 pm.
SHIP GENERAL:
My kids quickly found the flow rider and that was a must on the first day. It isn’t as crowded, but honestly, even with the ship being sold out, the crowds were not out of the ordinary.
Sometimes, people forget basic manners, but as I told my kids, it takes less time to be nice than it does to be a jerk.
I always seemed to end up by the smoking area, which I hate. So, on deck 15, I finally figured out how to avoid it. No offense to smokers, it just isn’t anything I want to smell or walk by.
The towel checkout is pretty easy. Just try to keep track of them. I also asked a few times through the week if we were showing any towels missing.
Do all the things, flow rider, slides, dry slide, zip line, mini golf. All of them are fun.
We reserved our shows in advance, but there is a line for those without reservations. The shows are amazing. A couple of them we saw twice, and had no problems getting into the line w/o reservations.
We had 2 rooms on different floors so we got a lot of steps throughout the day. We had an ocean-view balcony and a boardwalk-view balcony (that was for the kids).
OTHER PARTS OF THE SHIP:
The gym and Deck 5 track are great. Pro tip, if you are looking for somewhere to enjoy a quiet coffee in a relaxing environment, the cafe in the gym is great. I had the coffee card and used it here each day.
Solarium Cafe was the best spot for us for breakfast. Do try the windjammer and you will appreciate the solarium even more.
All of the staff were so great. We ate in the main dining room every night. The food was really good.
Already looking for our next holiday cruise, I hope this helps others!
Review 3
Our family has thoroughly enjoyed this cruise with Harmony of the Seas.
We have 9 (almost 10) year-old twin girls who like to do different activities.
One totally enjoyed the FlowRider. Both loved the dry slide (Abyss). Both enjoyed time at the kid’s camp (Ocean Adventure) and asked to go! Both enjoyed the water slides!
They are addicted to searching for the hidden ducks left by passengers and this has truly made for a memorable experience for them. We will be bringing ducks for our next cruise and hiding some we found before leaving.
They had so much fun with the piano player on the elevator that we rode up and down several times. Of course, they love the soft-serve ice cream!
They love dancing on the pool deck and just relaxing on our balcony. The towel animals in our room are another highlight that we are appreciative of.
The staff have all been so incredibly friendly and added so much joy to our trip. We have enjoyed 2 shows so far on this cruise. Grease was fantastic! All the entertainers were fabulous. I particularly loved the actor who played Rizzo. She was the star to me!
I truly only have one negative and that is that our bed is not comfortable. In fact, I have been sleeping on the couch because it feels better than the bed. That one negative is not ruining our trip. We are making memories of a lifetime this week! I will update you as we explore more!
Review 4
This is my review for our cruise on Harmony of The Seas by Royal Caribbean!
EMBARKATION:
Was so easy! we dropped luggage off first then parked and walked. Our check-in time was not until 11:30 but we got there early and they let us right on. No lines hardly. They checked passports, took pictures of all 8 of us, and went through security and onto the ship within 15 minutes! It was honestly seamless!
SERVICE:
Was fantastic. Every single worker on the ship is friendly and HARD WORKING. I swear the workers on the ship never sleep! We never had an issue with any request or accommodation requested. Tip them, even if you already paid your gratuity.
KIDS ENTERTAINMENT:
They have 2 arcades which were fun for my 5 and 4 year old and we spent way too much money in them. I would suggest pre-paying for arcade cards before your cruise at a discounted price, which we did not do.
The Boardwalk is great for everyone but we liked the carrousel and the climbing wall after dinners.
The kids’ pool area and toddler slides were a hit for us especially for the baby. It was nice that he could play in the water even though he was in a swim diaper.
TEENS:
Our cruise had a teen group before embarkation and all the teens met up at the teen club. We were all chopped liver after that. We never saw our 16-year-old after that. She made friends and had a blast! So if you have teenagers, I would highly recommend they enter or start a group chat with others on the ship and socialize.
THE FOOD:
The food for the most part was great.
Breakfast was always awesome. The pastries had a choke hold on me and the coffee was amazing too. I’m a big coffee drinker and almost purchased the specialty coffee punch card, but glad I didn’t because the included coffee that is all over the ship was AMAZING.
Lunch at the buffet was good but finding a seat was kind of hectic during peak lunch hour.
Mini bites by the pool were really good for something quick and easy.
We had my time dining. I didn’t know we had to make reservations when having my time dining but thankfully this was never an issue getting in. They always accommodated us and found us a table within minutes.
For the food itself, I would give a solid 7 majority of the nights…but for Mexican night I would give a 4. I would suggest the buffet or specialty dining that night.
Room service- I have 3 under 5, so long days called for room service for a few nights. It sometimes took a few minutes to get a hold of anyone to order but the food itself never took longer than 20-30 min to arrive at the room and was actually pretty good.
I’m pretty sure it comes from main dining so no complaints there.
CABINS
We had boardwalk cabins. I know these rooms are controversial but we actually liked our rooms. There are pros and cons to them.
Pros:
- We have little guys and felt it was a little safer ( at least in my brain) than a ocean view or a higher deck balcony.
- We also liked that we had a perfect close-up view of the aqua theatre for shows and movies from the balcony.
- We could still see the ocean from our balcony.
- Rooms have a lot of storage for a cruise cabin.
- Deck 8 was a great central location for all things food and kid related whether you wanted to take the stairs or elevators.
Cons:
- The rooms at night are loud. Noise doesn’t bother my kids at night but that would be something to consider if it does.
- Our bed was HARD! Not sure if that’s across the board or just ours.
Review 5
Just got off Harmony today, and wanted to leave my review while it was fresh.
BOAT
The ship is clean and well-kept. It’s easy to learn your way around and there are bathrooms conveniently located in the same spot on each of the floors you spend a lot of time on.
There is enough space that you usually don’t feel too crowded anywhere, save for a few shows/activities in venues too small for the demand. We don’t usually enjoy public pools, so I can’t say much there.
But they look too crowded for us, despite there being several. I’ve heard complaints that there is no pool in the Solarium – I can see that being a bummer if you want to swim child-free.
FOOD
On our last trip, we got specialty dining and ate 2 dinners for several nights. The reason was we LOVED Main Dining and our servers and didn’t want to miss that.
We were SO over-full. But the specialty dining was PHENOMENAL, so glad we tried it.
This trip, we did not do specialty, so I’ll compare the main dining.
The big menu change was shortly after our last trip, and I am really sad about the change. The theme nights are a little lame, in my opinion.
Like, I don’t need a white tablecloth, 3-course Mexican dinner. For starters, the Mexican food was not impressive. The “enchilada” was a burrito. Furthermore, there is a Mexican restaurant already on the boat, Sabor, and it’s delicious.
But Mexican night wasn’t the only disappointment for me. Several entrees I or my husband had were not great, dry or poor quality. The NY Strip, for example. Stringy, gristly, way undercooked, and I like my steaks pretty rare.
We did have several dishes I loved. The Butter Chicken, Braised Lamb, and lobster were very good. And all the appetizers we had were excellent. We aren’t huge dessert people, but loved the creme brulee and the cheese plate.
PARK CAFE
I somehow missed this place on my WHOLE first trip. But I loved it this time.
I love soups, so I enjoyed that. They also make paninis, salads, and Beef on Weck. The beef on weck was okay, but nowhere near the real deal in NY. But the paninis were great.
One thing I wish is that there were more meat panini options, instead of mostly veggies paninis. The Cuban one was fantastic.
SERVICE
This is where cruising just blows my mind, especially with Royal Caribbean. I am so impressed by the amazing, above-and-beyond service we get.
Our server, in the main dining, was so much fun. Great company and did whatever he could to help. He kind of tried to talk me out of the enchilada without saying “It sucks”. But I got it anyway.
He then brought his favorite dish of the night to me, when he could tell I wasn’t impressed. It was the best meal I had. We had a fantastic wait staff last year too, so this wasn’t a surprise, but we were shocked by how much we got to know and love our bartenders.
SOLARIUM ON HARMONY OF THE SEAS
I like the idea of this, a kid-free zone. But that place is like a greenhouse, and I’m not a tropical plant.
It is so hot and sticky in that place. I never spent more than a couple minutes for it, except at night. Not only is it uncomfortable, but you can tell others find it uncomfortable too.
As I mentioned before, there is no Solarium pool, which is kind of a bummer. There are hot tubs, which might be nice if it weren’t already so uncomfortable hot!
ROOM
So, I should start by saying, we aren’t picky here, assuming it’s clean, which it always is.
Last trip to Harmony, we had an ocean-view balcony, which was amazing. But we only splurged for our honeymoon that time, and would usually prefer to travel cheaper and more often.
This time, we booked an interior cabin but were assigned a room on the 7th floor with a boardwalk window. The room was much larger than other interior rooms.
I’ve been in, but we’d have preferred it be smaller and have no window rather than have one in the boardwalk. The boardwalk is not a view I cared for. We had to keep the curtains closed all the time.
And while I know this isn’t Royal’s fault, we had the noisiest neighbors I’ve yet experienced.
PEOPLE
We met people from all backgrounds and cultures, and every last one of them just enjoying their vacation together and spreading smiles.
This is why I love cruising.
Reviews Discalimer
These reviews are true to the best of my knowledge and they have informational purposes only. To protect privacy, names and personal details have been omitted or anonymized, and certain parts may have been edited for clarity, brevity, or to meet our editorial standards.
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