In this post I want to tell you about two cruises we went on this Christmas and New Year. I will try to compare two very different ships we sailed on: Harmony of the Seas Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Eclipse.
I thought for a long time about which photo to put first in this post. I looked through all our photos and realized that I couldn't find anything better than this one:
Let me say right away that this is not my photo. It was taken on January 5 in the Mexican port of Cozumel, where both ships were moored at the same berth. But let's start from the beginning.
Harmony of the Seas.
Harmony of the Seas is a new Royal Caribbean liner designed to amaze. The liner has joined the Oasis class, surpassing Allure and Oasis in size, and therefore has become the largest in the world. On board is the fabulous infrastructure of the Oasis class: "Central Park" with living trees, Aquatheater, "Zip-line" attraction, Broadway musicals, the first Starbucks coffee shop at sea.
But that's not all. The Harmony of The Seas liner has three-story water slides (the first in the Royal Caribbean fleet), interior cabins with virtual balconies, and a bar with robot bartenders. If for you the concept of "rest" means a kaleidoscope of events and entertainment, then you will love this liner.
The ship simply shines with cleanliness and newness. It made its first voyage about six months ago: May 29, 2016, but sales of cruises on it began much earlier than this date. For example, I booked this cruise in February of last year, that is, three months before the ship was built.
We arrived in Miami on December 16th in the afternoon and by midday the next day we were already on board the largest cruise ship.
It's only when you step aboard that you realize the ship is truly gigantic. It has 18 decks and can accommodate more than 5,000 passengers and 3,000 crew. By comparison, a regular-sized cruise ship, like the Celebrity Eclipse we sailed on on our second cruise, has half the capacity.
Let's start getting to know the ship from the inside. I ordered two neighboring cabins with a balcony overlooking Central Park. The cabins were located on the eleventh deck. They are completely identical: Yana and I lived in one, and the second was given to the children.
The cabin is quite spacious (for two): a large king-size bed, a sofa, a desk, a toilet with a shower.
View from the balcony to Central Park. All the trees and vegetation below are real.
Since cabins 11603 and 11605 were next to each other, on the first day we asked our steward to open the partition on the balcony, and now we could get from one cabin to the other through the balcony. Very convenient, since we did not have to go out into the common corridor.
Each balcony has two chairs that can be transformed into a sun lounger. In the evenings, Yana and I often sat on the balcony with a bottle of wine, listening to live music from Central Park.
Speaking of wine, alcohol on board is quite expensive. The cheapest bottle of wine on the ship costs $29. The same bottle costs $8-10 at Walmart. According to cruise line rules, alcohol can only be brought on board at the very beginning of the cruise: one bottle of wine per adult passenger. Alcohol cannot be brought into ports of call. It is confiscated upon boarding the ship and returned on the last evening before arrival at the final destination.
Since Harmony of the Seas is a new ship, a surprise awaited passengers in each cabin to celebrate the occasion: a bottle of red wine from Royal Caribbean. And since we had two cabins, we got two bottles. In general, we clearly did not experience a shortage (there was even one bottle left).
In the mornings, when Yana and I were still asleep, the children would go out onto the balcony, lie on the sun loungers, and play with toys.
The fifth deck is called the Promenade.
There are cafes, shops, bars, lounges, excursion stands, Guest relations and much more.
It's always crowded here and everything reminds you of Christmas:
There are public iPads throughout the ship that only run one Royal Caribbean app.
All you have to do is hold your ship card up to a special reader, the system will recognize the passenger and offer to reserve a seat in a paid restaurant, view information and buy an excursion in any port along the route, and also reserve a seat at evening (and daytime) shows. Yes, since the ship is huge, there are several shows every day, and all of them are in different places. And to avoid crowding, there is a reservation system, when you can (absolutely free of charge) choose the shows you are interested in and book seats. 15 minutes before the start of the show, everyone who has a reservation is allowed in, and 5 minutes before the start, the doors open for everyone. Thus, those who have a reservation get the best seats.
We didn't go to many shows: a water show in the aqua-theatre and a Broadway musical. The rest of the days we just walked around the ship. It wasn't boring at all!
And this is a local photo studio:
Here, too, everything is electronic, unlike other ships we've been on. While on other ships, the photos of guests that professional photographers take during the day are printed out and posted for everyone to see in the hopes that they'll sell for $20-$30 a piece, here it's different.
There are monitors on which you can see only photos related to you and your group. A facial recognition system is used, which links each photo taken to one or more groups of vacationers, and viewing the preview of this photo is available only to them. The future is already today.
But that's not all. One of the ship's special features is the Bionic Bar, where cocktails are made not by people, but by robots:
Please note: there are bottles of various alcoholic drinks hanging above. There are several iPads in the bar where you can order a cocktail. You can either choose something from the menu or create your own unique recipe, but the proportion of strong alcohol should not be more than a third of the glass. Such a cocktail costs $12, and you can get it by holding the same card that was used to pay.
Well, for those who prefer to order drinks the old-fashioned way, there are plenty of regular bars.
Source: travel.ru