The interesting thing about Embarkation in San Juan is that it was very late. I believe the earliest possible check-in time was 12:30 PM. Aaron and I, as well as Stove and Judy had a 1:30 PM port arrival time. Rachel and Landon waited until like two weeks before the cruise, so they had a 3:30 PM check-in time. Rachel and I briefly looked into getting The Key, but it didn't seem like that great of a value, and we couldn't book it for six guest by the time we looked into it, anyway.

We had a 2PM checkout time at Aloft, so we weren't in a hurry to get up and get ready. Except for Landon who was stir crazy and I guess hungry... so he and Rachel set out on a mile walk to get a bagel, while Aaron and I stayed in the room and watched a totally unhinged adaptation of A Christmas Carol on BET (you know I had to look it up.... it's Christmas Deja Vu).

Also, our bag finally arrived! That morning, I got the notification on the Delta app that our suitcase had arrived. I checked the AirTag which confirmed. It took a few hours after that for our bag to make it to the hotel. Stove was out and about, so he volunteered to hunt it down. It wasn't at the front desk, but he's persistent... he walked around and found a room marked "Luggage Room," went inside and took the bag. Then an hour later, we got a call to the room from the front desk saying that they had my bag.... 

All aboard!! Hello, and welcome to my trip report for the Shinglebells' 11th Annual Christmas Cruise aboard Royal Caribbean's Harmony of the Seas!

Back in 2009, my family (the Shingletons - but during the holiday season we refer to ourselves as the Shinglebells.... as in Shinglebells Shinglebells, Shingle all the wayyyyyy!) decided to set sail on a cruise over Christmas, and it's been a holiday tradition ever since. We've sailed the Caribbean - Eastern, Western, and Southern, as well as the Panama Canal (one partial transit from Florida, and one complete transit from Los Angeles to Florida). Often, we'll choose our cruise based on the ports of call and where we would like to travel. However, due to work schedules, we were limited to a 7-day cruise, which meant that most ports of call on the itineraries would be places we've visited many times before. So rather than choosing our cruise based on ports of call, we decided to choose based on a ship we wanted to explore.



Are you new here? Need a refresher? Meet the "cast" of the Shinglebells -

Me/Victoria - I'm 28 years old and live in Los Angeles. I'm currently pursuing my license in architecture. I've also been sticking a camera in everyone's face to document and meticulously share our family vacations for over a decade.
Sister/Rachel - She's 26 years old and lives in Atlanta. She works in construction as an assistant project manager for a general contracting company. Rachel is the planner for our cruise vacations. She reads cruise blogs, reviews, and Cruise Critic!
Mom/Sharon a.k.a. Judy (it's her personality, she's a Judy... you'll see) - Not sure if she'd want me to say her age, but sorry, Judes, we're doing this for everyone.... 58 years old and lives in Anderson, South Carolina. A Judy is prepared for everything. Got a problem? A Judy will solve it.
Dad/Boyd a.k.a. Stove (his personality name... you'll get it) - He's 65 years old, living his best life with my mom in South Carolina. He was retired this time last year, but now he's back to consulting because a Stove doesn't slow down. You'll see him on the waterslides, zipline, and even the Flow Rider.

A more appropriate name for this trip report might be "The Shingleton's Most Shambly Cruise", as this may be the closest we've come to a National Lampoon-style vacation.

My dad and I booked this cruise in August.  That's some real advanced planning for us.  And that was also the only real advanced planning we would do.  After I moved to Los Angeles, I didn't feel much motivation to research ports and plan excursions.  St. Maarten, St. Kitts, San Juan, and Labadee are all ports we had been to before, and this wouldn't be the first time that we'd wing it once getting there.  So I didn't book a thing.  Had some ideas, sure, but no real plans.

A week prior to the cruise, I received the terrible news that my mother and sister had been in a terrible wreck.  We were incredibly lucky that they survived with only minor injuries.  But in the wreck, my sister hurt her left foot and was in a great amount of pain, so she was in a walking boot and on some wonderful pain medicine to begin our cruise.

And then I almost didn't even make it onto the ship for the cruise because I missed my red-eye flight from LAX.

Due to me barely making the ship, I'm lacking some of the typically Embarkation Day photos I typically have for my trip reports.  Thankfully, Rachel knew better than to mess up the bed before I could photograph the room.  I've trained her well.

Deluxe Balcony Stateroom (D3)

We had a D3 balcony stateroom on the sixth floor, room 6528.  It really is a spacious balcony stateroom in comparison to the deluxe premium balcony staterooms on Royal Princess, and the wave balcony staterooms on Norwegian Epic, though certainly not as contemporary and plush in furnishings.  I appreciated the large sofa which was so long that I'm certain it could convert into a twin-size bed.