Day 3 - Mon - 10/30/2017 - Labidee , Haiti

This morning we woke up at 7am as the Harmony of the Seas was in its final process of docking at the RCI 'Island' of Labidee. In reality, the RCI area is just a leased peninsula near the old fishing village of Labidee. It's about seven miles from the second largest town in Haiti. But there are no roads that connect the two!  

The really highly developed little development has a number of beaches and other activities to separate the passengers and their money. RCI also served a free BBQ during the lunch hour. Disembarkation occurred using 3 doors and went smoothly and quickly. It was actually quite impressive.  

Once on the island we had a short walk to our meet up point for our first event of the day which was a walking tour of the complex and historical commentary. Our guide, Remy, was local and appreciated the opportunity to have a job. He shared a bunch of history with us as we walked. At the conclusion of the tour we had to walk back to the main pier area to start our second activity, a snorkeling trip to a nearby reef.

We had a full boatload of snorklers and the reef was located just a short distance from the ship. Since we brought our own mask and snorkel, all we had to do was get fins and a life vest. The water was warm and there was lots of coral plus a number of small black and yellow striped fish. Angela followed the guide, while I independently snorkeled. I was among the last back on board for the short ride back to the pier. At the pier, we partook in a BBQ lunch before setting out to explore the flea market. Unfortunately the vendors were way too aggressive and wouldn't let us just look at their wares, so we quickly walked by them and made a loop back to the pier where we reboarded the ship. The reboarding process was as quick and smooth as the morning's disembarkation.  

After showers to rid ourselves of the salt, I watched the sail away from deck 16 at just a bit after 4pm. A rain cloud was rapidly enveloping the ship. I also enjoyed some nachos before heading for the Silk dining room. Dinner was excellent (escargot, shrimp cocktail, and baked haddock). Carlos was our waiter once again, and we ate dinner and dessert in less than an hour. RCI is certainly scoring points in my estimation with the Main Dining Room!

Afterwards we tried to watch Monday night football in the ON AIR lounge, but the ambient music noise from the mall area was SUPER loud so we went to the room for some peace and quiet. It seems there was some sort of Shrek event, but the music was double what we would consider to be loud.

A while later we returned to find the noise level had abated, so we watched football until a game show '60 seconds' started up. It was a fun show to watch. Participants had to do certain tasks within 60 seconds. There were cool prizes as well. Super Kareoke followed, but we couldn't stay as we had reservations for the headliner act, a ventriloquist named Ronn Lucas. He was really good. We hope to see him tomorrow. We ended our evening having tea with a couple from Sedro Woolley. Tomorrow we dock in Jamaica.

Day 2 - Sun - 10/29/2017 - At Sea to Haiti

It was a very lazy day today. We were both exhausted and didn't get up until 10am. Outside our balcony down on deck 6 was a major reward time for elite level RCI cruisers with lots of music and photo opportunities with the Captain and crew.

We ate a late breakfast in the Windjammer on Deck 16 before watching paddle boarders and surfers ride the wave. Several surfers were really good! Afterwards we spent the afternoon watching football in the OnAir venue. Our Seahawks pulled off a victory late in a tight game. While it was formal night, the Main Dining Room menu was not appealing plus it cost extra for surf and turf (which is free on HAL). So we ate back in the Windjammer and it was really good. The lamb riblets were really good. We were joined by Heidi from the Seattle area. She's a presenter at the travel agent conference going onboard this week. We had a good chat about differences in cruise ships and cruise lines. She had lots of years with HAL. We then watched a few innings of the World Series.

I should mention that for the first time in many cruises I purchased their UNLIMITED internet access for both of us for the rest of the cruise. It's fast and way cheaper than HAL's abysmally slow pay by the minute access. RCI certainly knows what their audience wants. If we were doing a longer cruise, I don't think I would purchase the package, but would probably only purchase it for the last week of a long cruise. Our portable internet device doesn't cover the Caribbean, but it does work for most of the rest of the world.

 Also RCI doesn't put a hold on one's credit card, but puts through a $50 charge to test the account and then a second charge for the balance of the purchase. It seems like an amateur hour approach to me. HAL puts a hold on for x dollars times the number of sailing days, and then charges the actual amount at the end of the trip.

At 10:30pm we watched a really good high wire and aqua show called Fine Line in the Aqua theatre. We could have watched it from our balcony. Coming back to the room we saw game 5 of the World Series was still on, so I watched the last 3 innings while writing this update. And so ended day two.

Day 1 - Sat - 10/28/2017 - Embarkation Day

We had an 11:30am bus pickup time to deliver us to the cruise terminal. The buffet breakfast was good and we had the chance to meet more of our fellow cruisers in the Travel With Alan group. Plus we had a chance to walk around the hotel grounds.

At the pier, we were impressed by the smooth check in! Given that over 5,000 guests were boarding, it went fast. Check in was by ship deck number and there was only a scan of our print at home boarding pass and scan of our passports and we were free to board. It all took less than 1/2 hour. Incidentally, they had us fill out the health questionnaire at the check in desk as compared to HAL's filling it out in advance.  

Once on board, we couldn't have access to our stateroom until 1pm, so we wandered around a bit. The ship is huge with multiple malls and lots of shopping. Once we had access to our room, we were impressed that even though it was an inside stateroom with a balcony with an ocean view plus a view of the aft stage. This would work.

After waiting in our room for over an hour for assistance in getting our safe to work, we eventually left to walk around the ship and get a late lunch up in the Windjammer buffet. Back at the room, finally someone showed up and reset the safe electronics.

The ship was delayed in departing until 5:20pm due to weather delays which prevented passengers from landing at the nearby airport. We found a nice viewing location in the solarium up front and watched the sail away including seeing the Nieuw Amsterdam and Carnival Conquest depart in the rain.

We shared a table in the Silk dining room on deck 5 and met another TWA couple from Ottawa. Earlier, we met a couple ladies who are also on our upcoming European river cruise. We ended up watching Grease with the Ottawa couple. The dinner was excellent and the service was prompt and took only 1 1/2 hours.

The evening's main stage show of Grease was superb. Entry to the show was by reservation and a scan of one's Sea Pass. After the show we walked through the huge and smokey casino. We spent the bulk of the rest of the evening watching some really good kareoke in the On Air theatre. And we made it back to the room around midnight totally exhausted. And so ended day 1. Whew!

Day 0 - Friday - 10/27/2017 - Travel to Ft. Lauderdale

Our United flight from Seattle to San Francisco departed on time and was totally full. We watched a couple programs on a Netflix series, 'The House of Windsor' on my Kindle Fire. Our arrival in SF was early and the pilot parked the airplane 18" to close to the terminal so we had to wait for a tug to push us back. Once we were properly at our gate, it took another 1/2 hour to deplane. It was not impressive. We made it to our next gate with a stop at Burger King for a quick lunch. Our flight departed on time and Angela gate checked her rollabout. We watched the remainder of the Windsor series. It was impressive.

After collecting our luggage in Ft. Lauderdale, we turned our rollabouts over to Luggage To Go who handled transportation of it to the ship where we wouldn't see it until 5pm onboard the ship the next day. It was then a 45 minute wait for our shuttle bus to the Westin. It was now 10:30pm and we were told the buffet at the Westin was being held open, but that did not happen. After checking in we were able to order off the menu in the bar and the Cuban Sandwich and fish tacos were excellent although it was close to midnight before they were served. Our room on the 9th floor was nice and a good night's sleep was highly anticipated. And day Zero was over.

Prologue

This year we've already taken 3 cruises totaling over 2 months on board Holland America ships. When we received an offer from Travel With ALAN for a great deal on a Royal Caribbean ship, Harmony of the Seas, we decided it was time to not only try another cruise line. We would also be sailing on the world's largest cruise ship.

I had learned that it was important to book onboard entertainment before boarding the ship. When TWA couldn't provide our reservation number 3 weeks from sailing, I called Royal Caribbean directly and on the 3rd try, I obtained our reservation number. I was able to check in and choose all of the entertainment options. I also made our shore excursion reservations. I found those to be reasonably priced compared to HAL.

So we were set! Now it was just a waiting game. A week and a half before sailing we finally received our documents electronically and learned we would be flying to Ft. Lauderdale via SF on United Airlines. We hadn't been asked for our TSA precheck numbers, but I was able to email those to TWA. It is going to be an all day set of flights with a 9:30pm arrival time the night before departure.