Writers John and Sally Macdonald based this independent review on their 7-night Caribbean/Bahamas cruise departing from Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Harmony recalls a golden age of glamour cruising. The décor exudes elegance, not glitz. The service is white-glove impeccable. The sequins and chiffon come out more evenings than not. Harmony and her sister ships, Serenity and Symphony, inhabit a niche as the most luxurious of the large cruise ships. But there’s nothing stuffy about this cruise. The crew is friendly and makes a point of remembering your name. The music ranges from classical concerts to surfer songs beside the pool. Harmony, launched in 1990, has aged well, and her public areas and penthouses were renovated in 2000 (her other cabins were renovated in 2002).

Why Crystal Harmony?

• First-class service: Uniformed waiters escort women arm-in-arm into the dining room. Cold washcloths are delivered poolside in the heat of the day. And no birthday goes unsung. Ours was noticed on boarding by an alert crew member checking passports and the cake showed up -- Surprise! -- at dinner that evening.
• Unexpected favors: Fresh flowers in a silver bud vase grace cabins and a bowl of fresh fruit is replenished every day. Crisp white hand towels in public restrooms are terry cloth, never paper. Soft drinks and bottled water in the room are free (beer, too, if you stay in a penthouse). An abridged version of The New York Times is delivered to each door daily, gratis.
• Innovative diversions: Repertory Theater at Sea, a sublime experiment in entertainment, features three actors with a repertoire of zany one-act plays and light drama. And Harmony’s own slick “Good Morning America”-like TV show -- with entertaining interviews with crew, chit-chat about ports of call, and announcements -- is piped into each cabin and rerun throughout the morning.

Who should go
Harmony is an excellent choice for passengers who want a traditional, more sophisticated cruise experience; for single women, who find the sheltered social life reassuring; and for 40-somethings who like to be pampered, wined, and dined. Because many itineraries are longer than a week, passengers tend to be older and retired. Many are well-traveled and seasoned cruisers who are loyal to Harmony. On our cruise, about 100 of the approximately 630 passengers were repeaters.

Who shouldn’t go
People who want a full-tilt activity program with boisterous pool games, climbing walls, and high-adventure shore excursions should try another cruise. Likewise, the more formal attire each night will not appeal to those dreaming of a casual vacation. And children may find there aren’t enough activities just for them.

Hits and misses

• Don’t miss: Head to the Mozart Tea for a trip back to 18th Century Vienna. Little finger sandwiches, Vienna sacher cakes, apple strudel, Linzer tortes, and exotic teas are distributed with a bow by servers dressed in brocade jackets, velvet knickers, and lace cuffs. Tres elegante!
• Best part of the ship: The Palm Court, a tropical courtyard amidships, evokes visions of plantation living with wicker settees and lazily revolving ceiling fans. It’s the venue for classy afternoon teas and recitals.
• Best experience: Repertory Theater at Sea’s wacky best effort is a lightning-paced spoof of Shakespeare’s “complete works,” performed in under 30 minutes. Actors have so much fun racing through an abridged version of the bard that they turn right around and do it again -- backwards.
• Best shipboard activities: Lectures and classes tempted even sun worshipers inside. Experts in international law and oceanography talked about Iraq and Caribbean geology on our cruise. The “enrichment” program includes Berlitz language classes (Spanish in our case), computer mini-courses, and music lessons in a room filled with portable Yamaha “grand piano” keyboards.
• Needs improvement: On a ship with this much class, who’d think the waiters would shout instructions to each other across our table? That’s what happens when someone needs a table set up or another glass of water in Prego, one of the ship’s specialty restaurants. Annoying.
• Activities to skip: Don’t stick around for the galley tour. The stainless-steel kitchen isn’t nearly as interesting in mid-afternoon when there’s no action as the fact-packed brochure you pick up before the tour. Who knew Harmony passengers consume 10 pounds of caviar every day?

How to meet the captain
The captain will be as familiar to you as your dining-room waiter by the time the cruise is over. He greets passengers at the door before formal dinners and cocktail parties thrown separately for repeaters and first-timers. But we also ran into him chatting with passengers in the Lido at breakfast, having a mid-afternoon coffee break in the Bistro, and catching the elevator down to the dining room.

Tip: Harmony’s computer classes can help you ratchet up your computer skills beyond calling up e-mail. With 25 up-to-date Dell laptops, instructors help both the Internet challenged and those who want to improve more sophisticated skills such as digital photo imaging or creating a Web site. Classes are free and provide plenty of hands-on advice.

Heard on the deck (by a man discussing shipboard activities with his wife): “No, I’m not gonna take the computer class. I have a hard enough time letting you give me advice on how to use the one at home, much less letting some teacher tell me what to do.”

Crystal Dining Room (main dining room)
Diners are assigned to two seatings, the last at a rather European 8:30 PM. Cuisine is billed as French with an American influence. While the food was very good, in a few cases it didn’t live up to its reputation for being superb. A meal at our table was whisked back to the kitchen when it was discovered that the steak was woefully underdone and the turnips almost raw. But the sauces were excellent, and the desserts -- works of art. The midnight buffet has been abandoned, and in its place a gourmet gala buffet is served one noontime in the dining room. Each day’s menu features a break out of suggestions for light, low-carb, and vegetarian meals, as well as a list of the chef’s suggestions for appetizers, soups, salads, pastas, entrées, and side orders.

Kyoto (specialty restaurant)
The menu is dominated by the requisite sushi, sashimi, tempura, and noodles -- not terribly special but good. The room itself exudes Zen-like sophistication. Décor is spare, with a few graceful orchids and bonzai trees and a dark Asian mural inlaid with mother of pearl and polished stones.

Prego (specialty restaurant)
The most popular specialty restaurant, Prego is classic Italian. Cherubs inhabit murals about the room, which is decorated in warm greens and pinks. The menu includes signature creations by Piero Selvaggio, owner of the ritzy Valentino restaurants in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Perhaps because the galley is smaller than the dining rooms, meals are done to perfection and served with a flourish.

Other dining options

• Lido Café: Breakfast and lunch buffets are highlighted by a special south-of-the-border buffet served one noontime, featuring such innovative temptations as Ecuadorian shrimp ceviche, grilled purple potato salad, vegetable chorizo and tomato tamales, and yummy guava glazed barbecued ribs.
• Bistro: This coffee/wine bar (depending on the time of day) features an old-fashioned ice-cream parlor décor and only about a dozen tables. Pastries, fruit, and light snacks are served throughout the day, along with coffee specialties and wine by the glass. You’ll only be charged for the wine.
• Trident Grill: Trident serves fresh-cooked breakfast for late-morning risers and hamburgers, wraps, pizzas, and snacks for pool hounds. Casual meals are also served on the pool deck some evenings.

Best dining

• Dish: Prego’s velvety mushroom soup served in its own little bread bowl is famous among repeat passengers (people buy the Harmony cookbook just to get that one recipe). But we LOVED the Italian restaurant’s version of an herby and fork-tender rack of lamb.
• Dessert: Ditch your diet for the creamy bread pudding served at the gala noon buffet in the Crystal Dining Room.
• Restaurant: Prego, which does such a good job of its regular gourmet fare, really doesn’t need the Valentino signature dishes it’s so proud of.

How to…

• Get a table for two: Request a private table when booking, or visit the maître d’ at any time during the cruise and he’ll try to accommodate.
• Celebrate a birthday/anniversary: Service on this ship means they’re on the lookout for celebrants. On your birthday, you’ll get a congratulatory card signed by the captain, an announcement in the daily cruise newsletter, balloons to mark your table, a special mousse cake for you and your tablemates, and a song by the dining room’s strolling musicians. For a private celebration, order a champagne-and-truffles gift pack through the onboard guest services desk for $52.
• Change seating: Early or late seating is assigned before the cruise, but on embarkation afternoon the maître d’ meets with passengers who want to change their assignments. Our request for later seating was granted for the first evening, and we were notified in writing the next day that the change was permanent.
• Dress for formal night: This is not the cruise to cheat on the formal wear. Full-length formals and party dresses are de rigueur for women, as are tuxedos and dark business suits and ties for men.
• Dress for informal night: Women don evening dresses, cocktail dresses, and pantsuits; men opt for sport coats and slacks, although ties are optional.
• Dress for casual night: Women choose pants outfits and casual dresses, and men choose polo and open-collar shirts and slacks.

Tips:

• Specialty restaurants are free, although reservations are required and a $6 tip per person is encouraged.
• You can make only two restaurant reservations the first day, one in each specialty dining room. After a few days, when all the guests have had a chance to reserve a spot, you can ask again.
• Although on our cruise there were only two formal nights, on longer cruises there may be three or more, plus several informal nights when dress-up is enforced throughout the ship after 6 PM. Dress is usually casual evenings after the ship has been in port, though casual never means shorts or jeans unless you stick to the pool deck.
• If you don’t feel like dressing up, room service is always available. Order from a set menu or, during regular dining hours, from the dining room menu.
• Ask to be seated at a large table on the off-chance that an officer may join your group on formal nights. Their crisp dress uniforms add to the festivities and you may learn something about the workings of the ship.

More than half of Harmony’s cabins have private balconies and most of the rest are oceanview cabins with picture windows. The smallest cabins can be arranged to have queen-size or twin beds and a loveseat. Closets are large and accommodate 32 wooden hangers -- more than enough for short cruises and an adequate number for longer ones. Bathrooms are woefully cramped, although all have a shower/tub that is wide enough to give showerers some elbow room.

Harmony has more penthouses than most ships, including four the size of small houses (each almost 1,000 square feet). The mid-size penthouses are suites with separate bedrooms; the smallest have beds that can be cordoned off from sitting areas. All have jacuzzi tubs (in the larger suites, the tubs are set into bay windows), separate showers, bidets, and toilets. Perks include a butler to make your dinner reservations, bring hors d’oeuvres, restock the champagne and scotch whiskey in the bar, see that your clothes are ironed, and even pack and unpack for you. Most cabins are done in identical creamy/mauvy shades, but the penthouses vary -- one may have peachy French florals, another beachy seafoam-and-sand tones.

Cabins for guests with disabilities
Four cabins -- two with picture windows and two penthouse suites with balconies -- have wide doors, fully accessible bathrooms, and wheel-in closets with low rods. Some suites also would be suitable for wheelchair users, although balconies have lips that would be difficult to negotiate. The theater is equipped with a special audio system for the hearing impaired. Guests who use wheelchairs must bring their own and someone to help them, and passengers who are dependent on oxygen may be limited to itineraries where medical help and equipment can be easily arranged.

Tips:

• Don’t be afraid to book the less-pricey cabins advertised as having picture windows with limited views. Many are blocked only by a post and still allow a full enough view of sunset and blue water. The walking deck outside is thoughtfully situated several feet below the picture windows so that no one can look in.
• Frequent Harmony cruisers say they compete for the least-expensive inside cabins. Because furniture doesn’t have to be set away from picture windows or doors to the balconies, they seem larger than view cabins, with longer sofas and drapes to cordon off the bed from the rest of the room. A large mirror takes the place of windows or doors.
• Pay attention to subtle cues to help learn the ship’s layout. Hallways to cabins on each deck are marked in different trim colors. Décor in fore and aft stairwells is an understated and identical gray and marble, but you’ll know you’re amidships by a huge mural of China’s Yangtze River gorges that extends behind the stairs from Deck 5 to Deck 11.
• Laundries on passenger decks are free, and detergent is furnished. There’s an iron and ironing board for passenger use.
• With the exception of drinks, tips are suggested, not added to your shipboard account unless you request it. Fifteen percent is tacked onto tabs for deck drinks for bartenders and servers, and 15 percent is added to wine and alcohol bills in the dining room for sommeliers. Fifteen percent is suggested for spa services; $10.50 per guest per day to be split among room stewards, waiters, and assistant waiters; and $4 per guest per day for the butler, should you stay in a penthouse.

Crystal Plaza, the ship’s elegant atrium, features a two-story crystal waterfall and gilt ballroom-dance sculpture, providing a worldly backdrop for canapés and cocktails in the lobby before dinner. There’s not a bad seat in Galaxy Lounge, Harmony’s main showroom, a one-story room that’s more Broadway than Vegas, with plush theater seats and no glittery neon décor. Club 2100, a more intimate showroom, switch hits as a dance club. Movies are shown afternoons and evenings in the Hollywood Theatre, which seats 270 in plush comfort and features a full theater sound system. The theater is also the venue for lectures.

Heard on the deck: “This is so much more relaxing than some of the other cruises I’ve been on. There’s not so much going on that I can’t do it all.”

Bars, lounges, and casino For a view of your future, head for the Vista Lounge and sink into a white leather bucket seat overlooking the ship’s bow. Mid afternoon, stop by the Palm Court for tea, crumpets, and classical strings. For a blissful cocktail hour, make your way to Crystal Cove, the lobby bar that features a pianist playing a clear plastic Baby Grand piano. After dinner, stop by the Connoisseur Club, a study in dark leather-and-wood sophistication, to light up a stogie or sip an after-dinner glass of medium-priced port (if price is no problem, there’s a shot glass of armagnac for $195!). And after that, there’s jazz in the Avenue Saloon, a dark and sophisticated piano bar; or a swinging disco at the bright-lights-and-loud-music Stars Lounge.

“Hail, Caesar!” There’s plenty of action in Harmony’s Caesars Palace at Sea, a miniature version of the Las Vegas real thing, with busts of the big guy and 87 slot machines, four blackjack tables, a craps table, a baccarat table, a roulette wheel, and a three-card–poker table. Most voyages have several slot tournaments and blackjack competitions. Caesars Palace runs the room and employs the dealers.

Click to view a virtual tour

Swimming pools
On warm-weather cruises, afternoons revolve around two salt-water pools. The larger Seahorse Pool is surrounded by a wide shelf covered with an inch or so of water for a cool place to steam in the sunshine. Two hot tubs overlook the scene. For those who like a dip but don’t want to risk a sunburn, the smaller Neptune Pool is only three feet deep and is covered by a retractable roof. A Caribbean band sets the tone with a steel-drum beat during the midday rush to get a deck chair. After that, the music is a canned trip to surfer land.

Heard on the deck: “I’m so used to serve-yourself cruising on the other ships I’ve been on I don’t know what I can ask the waiters at the pool to bring me. This is going to take some getting used to.”

Shows
The ship’s ensemble of 10 singers and dancers have a repertoire of energetic Broadway-type shows that explore the Tony-est musicals, rock ‘n’ roll’s early years, and the works of composer Cole Porter. They’re accompanied by a six-piece orchestra that sounds more lush than the group’s numbers would suggest. On off nights, the performers often add a production number or two as backup to vocalists, comedians, or other guest performers.

Shore excursions
If you want to go deep-sea fishing or river rafting you may be on your own. Harmony’s attitude toward portside activities is cool to say the least. Tours are described in shore excursion talks, but the sell is decidedly soft and almost no one on our cruise attended. What tours are available to be booked onboard are limited -- on our cruise, only two were listed for Nassau. While tours at Cozumel included submarines, catamarans, and dolphins, the choices at Key West ran toward trolley tours and historic homes.

Looking for…

• Quietest spot: The “private” deck off the spa is a retreat for passengers who want to read or sun away from the crowds. Most people avoid it because they think they have to go through the spa to get there, but there’s an inconspicuous opening in the glass barricade off the promenade on Deck 12.
• Liveliest spot: Late-night karaoke brings out the rock star in everyone at Stars. The action lasts from after the late show until you can smell the breakfast bacon frying upstairs in the Lido.
• Most popular activity: Most everyone spends the afternoon relaxing around the pools. That’s the place to go if you want to run into someone you met at dinner or last night’s karaoke bash.
• Best view: The Vista Lounge has a wraparound view of the ship’s course. And if you want a birds-eye look at docking procedures, head for the deck out front, overlooking the navigation station where the captain and officers gather to help ease the ship to the dock.
• Best show: “Rock Around the Clock” -- a fast-paced, fab-'50s production -- features more than 100 songs and a dizzying number of costume changes in an hour-long show. It’s the centerpiece of a '50s retro evening featuring Name That Tune and a late-night sock hop.
• Best drink: Crystal Royal, a blend of peach schnapps, champagne, framboise (a raspberry liqueur), and a sugar cube soaked in Blue Curacao -- it’s the shade of the sea and just as refreshing.

Tips:

• Theme nights are sometimes scheduled and are celebrated by special shows in the Galaxy Lounge, refreshments in the Bistro, and theme dances in Club 2100. You can bring a costume for theme night (you’ll be told on your cruise documents if there is one), but you don’t have to. Who even owns a poodle skirt any more?
• Ambassador Hosts -- men who can dance -- are onboard to make evenings special for single women. They also join morning dance classes to help women whose husbands are shy about learning the cha-cha.
• The library features several thousand books as well as videos and CDs you can check out and play in your room. One section is devoted to large-print volumes. A librarian is there from early morning until late at night to help.
• Pipes and cigars are permitted only in the Connoisseur Club; in other lounges and bars, smoking areas are designated.
• Tours aren’t announced over the ship’s loudspeaker. It’s up to guests to meet at the time and place announced on their tickets or in the daily “Reflections” activity sheet.
• If you choose to book a tour on your own from one of the peddlers onshore, try to gather a group of fellow passengers to go along as a safety measure. A dockside tour operator is less likely to short-change you in time or money if you are part of a larger group.

Heard on the deck (after a craft class): “I’m no art critic, but I know what’s tacky and this necklace I made is really tacky.”

Spa and salon
Therapy begins at the door, when you enter an environment designed on feng shui principles (to keep good vibes in and everyday irritants out) and resonating with exotic waterfall music. You’ll be offered a white terry cloth bathrobe and slippers, a green tea or orange juice to sip, and an invitation to bake in gender-separated saunas and steam rooms. Treatments are a bit pricier than on most cruise ships, but there are also more ways to be royally pampered. A “Yin and Yang” massage seminar teaches partners basic massage techniques. And a complete spa treatment featuring body rituals, hair and scalp conditioning, and wax treatments for hand and foot costs over $500 and lasts more than six hours. But for a treatment that’ll give you bragging rights back home, try the “Respect for the Sun Ritual,” an hour-long regimen that begins with ginger and salt to exfoliate that old, ugly dead skin and ends with a light rubdown with a self-tanning cream. It costs under $150, with tip, for a head-to-toe tan. The results last about a week and rival anything the sun can do to set you all aglow. There’ll be a pitch for cream remedies for problem areas you might have, but you don’t have to buy.

Fitness areas
The fitness suite is not large, but there’s a bank of 10 treadmills, each with its own flat-screen TV; a full compliment of weights, fitness balls, and circuit training equipment; a Pilates bench; and space for a small aerobics class. Most classes are free, but individual Pilates instruction or personal training costs just over $80 an hour. Attendants will bring a clean white towel if you even look like you’re going to break a sweat. On deck there’s an open jogging promenade (once around is a quarter of a mile), a shuffleboard court, ping-pong tables, and netted areas for golf and paddle tennis (think tennis on a smaller court, played with a wooden paddle). Golfers can also take a lesson from a pro.

Tips:

• The best spa specials are offered on port days. A foot-and-ankle massage and mini-facial combo was offered one port day for $50; more involved versions of each on other days would run about $150.
• Join the free afternoon beauty seminars for makeup tricks and skin analysis and advice. One promised to show you how to achieve “that glowing Hollywood Goddess look.”
• A regular walking fitness program features special weighted vests and music tapes to walk by. When the cruise is over, you can buy a vest to take home.

Passengers can double the price of your cruise without much trouble in Avenue of the Stars, Harmony’s mezzanine shopping mall. A glittery pair of women’s pants on the half-off sale rack in one pricey boutique was marked $769. But other shops offer cocktail and formal wear for men and women and casual wear marked with the ship’s logo at prices you’d expect at nice department stores. Don’t hold out for the last-day sidewalk sale featuring cheap watches and gold-by-the-inch; it doesn’t happen.

Heard on the deck (in the spa, from a manicurist): “The people they hire to take care of kids on this boat have the best jobs of anybody. They don’t have much to do a lot of the time.”

Harmony doesn’t really cater to the younger set. On our cruise, there were only three children: An infant, a preschooler, and a boy whose grandmother said he was home-schooled. So Fantasia, the room reserved for day care, was being used to store pictures for the art auction. During holiday and summer cruises when more families book, Fantasia opens with a bank of computers and Sony PlayStations, tables for crafts and board games, and planned activities for preschoolers to high schoolers. Baby food, high chairs, and booster seats are available all the time, as is in-cabin babysitting, for an hourly fee.

Heard on the deck (from a mom trying to interest her four-year-old in a coloring book): “We actually thought there’d be other kids onboard. It would sure relieve the pressure on us. He’s usually okay, except at dinner, when he gets a little squirrelly.”

Throughout the year, Harmony roams far and wide on cruises that last 7 to 18 days, sailing the Caribbean, through the Panama Canal, up the Pacific coast to Alaska, down to the Mexican Riviera and Costa Rica, and across the South Pacific to Hawaii, China, and Japan.

Heard on the deck (outside the theater after a lecture): “I heard there’ll be six other cruise ships in Nassau when we’re there. Kinda makes you want to skip the tour and open up a shop, huh?"

• Total cabins - 480
• Passenger capacity - 940
• Private balcony cabins - 260
• Wheelchair accessible cabins - 4
• Square feet per passenger - 51.4
• Officers nationality - Scandinavian/Japanese