Suite class

There are 3 levels of Royal Suite class; sea which are Junior suites, sky which are Grand suites, Owners suites, Crown Loft Suites and 1 bedroom Aqua Theater suites and Star class, which are Royal loft, Owners’ loft, 4 bedroom family suite, grand loft and 2 bedroom aqua theater suites.

I was originally going for a one bedroom Grand suite, but when I went to book it through Crown Cruise vacations, my representative Jay said we could do a 2 bedroom Grand suite for only $1,000 more, and I jumped at the chance. There are only four 2 bedroom grand suites on the Harmony of the seas, and they go quickly. I booked 18 months out from Easter break 2019, but when I tried to book the same ship on a different itinerary for Easter break 2021, even though the date had come out a week prior, they were already sold out.

There are several reasons to book a sky class suite:

  1. Larger rooms
  2. Access to Coastal kitchen for breakfast, lunch and dinner (table service restaurant exclusive to suite class guests.) Note that sea class guests can only use Coastal kitchen for dinner, and reservations are required. Star class guests also have access to the specialty restaurants for no added cost
  3. Free drinks in the Coastal Kitchen bar from 4.30-8. We also were never charged extra for specialty coffee, soda or alcoholic drinks during lunch or dinner either at Coastal Kitchen
  4. Pre-reserved seating for all the shows
  5. Priority boarding and disembarkation

My personal recommendation if you can’t get a 2 bedroom family suite would be to do an Owner’s suite; while only 1 bedroom they are significantly larger than the Grand Suite. The aqua theater rooms are at the front of the boat, and while overlooking the aquatheater is cool, some of those shows start at 10 pm, the rock walls run by the side of them, and the balconies are fully visible from the Boardwalk. They just weren’t private enough for my liking, especially for the price. The loft suites are all at the back of the boat, and while they are on the Coastal Kitchen level which is super convenient, I had a really tough time with the air pressure on the outward route, plus it’s quite noisy from the engines back there and the back rooms overlook the mini golf and sports court, again making it potentially noisy and not very private. The Owner and Grand suites are mainly mid-ship on various decks from 9-11.

Ship amenities

The Harmony of the Seas is a really impressive boat. I really didn’t feel like we were moving, although going out of Fort Lauderdale means you are much less at sea than going from Bayonne, where we have previously sailed from. I’ll highlight our favorite things on the boat from bottom to top:

Deck 3: houses the main dining room if you are doing an assigned sitting. If you are doing anytime dining you will eat in a dining room on deck 4 or 5

Deck 4: houses the Royal Theater, the casino and the ice rink. The Royal Theater was showing Grease and a tribute to Motown music during our sailing. At 1 hour 45 minutes, we felt Grease would be too much for the boys, so we only did the tribute show. My youngest Lauling slept through the whole thing and the rest of us thought it was just OK; it was probably what you’d imagine cruise ship entertainment to be like. The casino was super smoky and just unpleasant to have to travel through for us, but if you’re a smoker or a gambler I would imagine you would like it. We didn’t do an open skate session at the ice rink although the daily planner will tell you what hours it’s open to do that, but we did catch the show which was better than the last one I saw, with one guy who skated with a ring who was super impressive.

Deck 5: houses the promenade with a number of quick service restaurants, bars and shops. Café promenade is here which serves sandwiches, cakes and coffees throughout the day. I thought we’d spend a lot more time here than we did; somehow whenever we ventured down the cake selection wasn’t to our liking versus what you could get from Windjammers, the main buffet. The pizzeria we also didn’t end up frequenting because drinks options were limited and there was also pizza at the main buffet.

Deck 6: houses the gym and spa at the front of the boat and the Boardwalk at the back. The gym was a reasonable size but got pretty hot due to the number of people in a small space. I signed up for the class pass but would not recommend it as when I looked at the schedule they only offered classes on sea days and the Jamaica day where we docked later, so you really needed to be willing to go to at least 2 classes per day to make it pay versus paying as you went. I did 2 boot camps and 2 pilates classes, and none of them were full. The gym was packed on day 1 however but then got progressively quieter as the week progressed. The Boardwalk was one of our favorite places to be. It houses Starbucks, a hot dog grab and go stand, a small games area, Johnny Rockets, the Mexican restaurant, the rock wall, climbing area and a carousel (no extra charge to ride). It’s also where the ultimate abyss slide exits and where the aquatheater is. We went to both shoes at the aquatheater, but the fine line was the far superior show and mesmerized all of us. The guys that bounced on the elastic were truly amazing, the aerial stunts were fantastic and the ‘spinning guy’ at the start all kept us wanting more.

Deck 8: houses central park which is a leafy, glass topped area home to various specialty restaurants, bar and the park café, a quick service open for breakfast and lunch which made for a quieter experience than going up to Windjammer if you were OK with continental options.

Deck 14: houses the kids clubs and the puzzle room, which looked interesting but we didn’t do as it stated you needed 1.5 hours to do it. There were a few kid movies and puppet shoes on the daily planner up in the kids club so keep an eye out even if you don’t intend to put your kids in the club

Deck 15: houses the pools, water slides and the back deck which has mini-golf, ping pong tables, the flow riders and the entrance to the ultimate abyss slide and the zip lines. We didn’t go on the water slides, but they are all accessed from one staircase. The pools were always full except for first thing in the morning. They were not heated but not as cold as on our cruise out of Bayonne. The ice cream stands are also on this level.

Tip: The ice-cream stand to the right as you head to the back of the boat is always quieter than the one to the left! The Laulings loved playing mini-golf after breakfast when it was usually pretty quiet with only 1 or 2 other sets of people playing. The abyss slide is also best done first thing when it opens at 9 am on sea days.

Tip: you must be wearing a proper T-shirt at least on the Abyss; you cannot ride in a tank top or spaghetti straps due to risk of burning your shoulders on the slide so take a cover up or change because the worst thing is to get to the front of a long line to be told you can’t ride!

You can also access the suite sun deck and hot tub from a staircase using your key card from this level.

Deck 16: houses windjammer, the main buffet. While it always had an impressive array of choices, I never find eating there enjoyable due to the hussle and bussle and sheer number of people. Expect it to be especially busy on port days as everyone is eating early, and on embarking and disembarking day.

Deck 17: houses Coastal kitchen and the suite lounge. Believe or not, it took me at least 2 days to realize that Coastal kitchen and the lounge were actually the same room, and you could enter through either door! There is a concierge in the lounge at select times, but I would not advise going on day 1 unless you have an emergency as there was a long line and people trying to book a full week’s worth of dining and activities!

The restaurants

The main dining room is a perfectly fine experience and we had a great table by the window. We ate there twice; on the second day and the last day. There is a small selection of appetizers, main courses and desserts and a separate kid’s menu. On our two previous cruises, we didn’t do the specialty restaurants because our youngest Lauling was only just 1 and was not very good at sitting through long dinners, but as the boys were now 8 and nearly 5, we felt we could risk it this time!

Laulings tip: Book your dining reservations online in advance to get the best dates and times. I didn’t realize until it was a bit late that you could do this. You do have to pay up-front, including for the kids at full price, but when you get to the restaurant you can ask them to reverse the adult charges and switch to the kids price ($10).

Coastal kitchen: We ate at Coastal kitchen twice for dinner (day 3 and 6), and on 2 sea days for breakfast and lunch. The service was attentive and just the right pace, the waiters were charming and entertaining; it was a fabulous experience, and never felt rushed. The breakfast menu was the same each day but offered various pancakes, French toast, omelets, eggs etc. and we all found something that was really enjoyable, and everything was very well cooked except the French toast was a bit soft for my liking. Lunch and dinner varied each day, but there were often some duplication between days, so I don’t know that I would have wanted to have eaten there for lunch and dinner every day, as it appeared some people did (unless they just happened to pick the same days as us to eat there!) The kids menu didn’t rotate at all, so with only a select number of options for them, it would definitely have got a bit boring. I will say that they were happy to do pasta just in a tomato sauce or with butter even though it wasn’t on the menu.

Izumi Japanese:  The Japanese was personally my least favorite food. We did the Hibachi, and had a 5.15 reservation for the first day. You are seated at tables of 8 and our table mates did not arrive until 5.45. When they finally arrived, they wanted to sit with another set of people so we were held up for nothing in the end. The Laulings did a good job of being patient, but given it’s a $49 per person cover cost I felt they should have started without them given 1 table was empty through our session. The cooking ‘show’ was fun and was the first time the Laulings had been to this kind of restaurant, but the food was just ‘so so’. I wouldn’t do it again.

Johnny Rockets: We chose this for lunch on the first sea day to treat the kids to milkshakes. While it’s a limited menu, service was speedy and the food was hot and as you would expect for a Johnny Rockets, definitely worth a visit on a sea day.

Jamie Oliver’s Italian: We chose to sit outside (it’s in central park) as inside the restaurant was pretty noisy. The time for the food to come out was slow, and it was by far the busiest restaurant we went to, but the food when it arrived was great.

Saber Mexican: This one is on the Boardwalk and more casual than the others. The service was fast and the food was good (it’s more tex-mex than real Mexican however).

So overall I would highly recommend this boat, especially with younger kids. With teens you might prefer to look at one of the boats with the go karts. See my other blog on our itinerary and experience on Harmony of the seas