I'm onboard Royal Caribbean's Harmony Of The Seas this week for an Eastern Caribbean cruise
and just a few months ago I was on the sister ship: Allure Of The Seas
So, this is a great opportunity for me to compare how Oasis and Allure Of The Seas compare to the new big sister, Harmony of the Seas.
And there have been a lot of changes. Some of them were minor...
and I'm not even going to really concern myself with most of those on this video.
Like, you know, they moved Starbucks from the Royal Promenade down to the Boardwalk.
No big deal. So, we're not even going to talk about that kind of stuff.
We're going to talk about the BIG changes.
And I saw four big things this week that were different from my experience on Allure Of The Seas a few months ago.
The first one was changes that they made to the "Solarium" section of the ship.
It's the adults-only area at the front of the ship.
Very relaxing! A lot of Jacuzzis up there. A lot of loungers.
And a good place to catch some sun and relax without a bunch of kids around.
Now one of the big differences on the Harmony Of The Seas is that they added an entirely new level to it.
Previously on Oasis and Allure the Solarium area was on two levels and now it actually covers three levels.
There's a new lower level that the older ships don't have...
and there's a Jacuzzi down there and a bunch of daybeds and loungers.
So, its bigger now than the Solarium on the older ships and that makes it better right there because that makes it a little less crowded.
The video that you're seeing here was shot at about 9:30 in the morning before it got very crowded.
So, this video kind of portrays a false picture of what it would really be like in the Solarium later in the day when it gets much more crowded than this.
But what really struck me about the Solarium on Harmony Of The Seas...
I was hoping on Harmony Of The Seas they would do what they did on Anthem Of The Seas...
and fully enclose the Solarium in glass to completely protect against the wind.
They didn't do that. Pretty much they've styled it in the same way as Allure and Oasis...
which is to leave it about half open and half glassed-in.
Because this area is so open to the wind it gets really windy up here when the ship is in motion.
You don't have that problem on Anthem Of The Seas.
And I was hoping that they would do the same thing here on Harmony, but they didn't.
It's pretty much the same, as far as the covering, as Oasis and Allure...
but larger, because of the addition of the third level. So, that is great.
The other big area that I noticed that is different on Harmony Of The Seas compared to Allure and Oasis...
is improvements that they've made in the cabins themselves.
We're staying in pretty much a standard balcony cabin on Harmony Of The Seas...
and it's much like the cabins on Anthem Of The Seas.
They've got all those kind of improvements, that you don't have on Allure and Oasis.
So, what are those improvements? You're probably wondering!
Well these are not big things but they're little things that are pretty cool...
Like more electrical outlets at the desk. USB charging outlets there at the desk.
And an electrical outlet over by the bed...
which is great if you want to plug your cell phone in to charge at night but still have it next to you...
Or also if you have to sleep with a CPAP machine... it's great to have an electrical outlet there next to the bed.
Another big improvement on the cabins on Harmony of the Seas is that they separated the closets.
On Allure Of The Seas and Oasis, the closets are right next to each other.
So, if two of you are trying to get ready at the exact same time
like for dinner or something like that... you're bumping into each other.
But on Harmony Of The Seas just like they did on Anthem Of The Seas they've spread the closets out.
One is on one side of the couch... the other is on the other side of the couch.
It gives you a lot of separation and makes it a lot easier for the two of you to get ready at the same time without interfering.
Another nice little thing that they did in the cabins is something that I first saw on Anthem Of The Seas...
and now they've got it on Harmony Of The Seas, too.
They put the drapes on two tracks.
So, there's a left drape and a right drape and they overlap when they meet in the middle so that you get a great seal.
So, if you want to take a nap in the middle of the day...
Or if you like to sleep in in the morning, well past sunrise...
The drapes overlap each other. It's totally black in the room.
Much better than the single track system that they used to use on the older ships.
Then the third big area of improvement on Harmony Of The Seas is the addition of water slides.
Royal Caribbean just has never been into water slides before.
They didn't put them on any of their ships up until just recently...
And you know, Carnival has had them for a long time... Norwegian Cruise Line's had water slides...
And so, finally, Royal Caribbean has seen the light and is adding it to their new ships
and retrofitting some of their older ships with water slides now, too.
So, there's three water slides on Harmony Of The Seas
and then there's a slide that is not a water slide at all...
but that is, of course, the much-hyped "Ultimate Abyss"...
which starts way up at the top of the ship and Curly-Q's down
and then you end up down here at the Boardwalk, just behind me.
And at first I didn't really realize how brilliant it was... until I went on it!
And then I realized how much better it is to have a slide that's not a water slide, because...
(Laughing) YOU DON'T GET WET! (Still laughing)
So, you get off that slide and you're not wet and you're not cold
and you didn't have to put on a bathing suit or any of that stuff
and you can take the elevator back up to the top and then go down it again as many times as you want!
So, a big thumbs-up from me on "The Ultimate Abyss"...
a great addition to Harmony Of The Seas!
Then the fourth big area of improvement on Harmony Of The Seas
that I noticed over my previous Royal Caribbean cruises
and I suspect this would actually apply now to just about any cruise on Royal Caribbean out of Fort Lauderdale
is that they've changed some things in the embarkation process to really speed it up
so that it's very, very quick now... From the time you get out of a cab or an uber, or park your car...
from that time to the time you're actually on the ship is really, really fast!
Faster than it's ever been before because they cut out two big time hogs in the embarkation process.
One was they used to stop and take a picture of every passenger for their security photo.
And now they have you take that picture at home and send it in electronically.
And then the other big thing that they did to speed up the embarkation process there at the check-in
is that they don't give you your key card down there anymore when you're checking in.
The key card is waiting for you outside your cabin door when you actually get on the ship.
It used to take a lot of time for them to actually find your key card there
at the check-in desk and that slowed things down for everybody.
So, now they don't have to go through that at all.
The key card is just waiting for you when you get up to your cabin.
That was a nice little improvement.
Between that and the other big thing about the photos... It has really sped up the process.
So, Royal Caribbean, I salute you!
You really thought that process through and you did a great job in speeding it up.
One other teeny little thing that I'll just mention that I thought was pretty cool... (and about time!)
I don't know why they didn't figure this out a long time ago.
In the buffet, they finally have a freezer for the ice cream.
You know, they scoop ice cream up for you for dessert.
And on the other ships I've been on, they didn't have a freezer to keep the ice cream in.
On some ships they just put a five gallon tub of ice cream out on the counter
and it just starts melting immediately and they're scooping from that.
When we were on Allure Of The Seas a few months ago
they finally started keeping the 5 gallon tub of ice cream in an even bigger tub of ice...
to help keep it from melting quite so fast. But it still melted.
And now, finally, on Harmony Of The Seas they really thought it through
and they have a freezer for the ice cream in the buffet.
So, good job! Royal Caribbean finally figured it out!
So, those are the big differences that I noticed on Harmony Of The Seas compared to her sister ships, Oasis and Allure.
I'm Jim Zim. If you subscribe to my YouTube channel,
you'll get notified when I post new videos about the cruise ships I've traveled on.
Later this year, I'll be on Carnival Vista...
and next year I'm looking forward to a cruise through the Panama Canal on the brand new Norwegian Bliss.