Leaderboard

Day 11 – Disembarkation day: Well this sad day arrived were we had to say goodbye to the ship , The process was very smooth , our numbered was called exactly the time they estimated (10 AM) and from the ship to the taxi (including Singapore immigration) and it took us 10 minutes , I wish every disembarkation process will be like that. The Taxi we took brought us in 5 minutes to the Marina Bay Sands hotel and we got our room much earlier than expected so we had enough time to change, go to the roof and enjoy the amazing infinity pool. Now for quick summary: Room – VB inside was excellent does not make sense to pay money for outside room, balcony is a different story. The Ship – well maintained, you hardy see the age on this ship and if I did not knew I would guess its age. The itinerary – very interesting, I do recommend to visit south East Asia on a cruise. The food – Ups and downs , mostly we were eating in the WJ which most of the time was good but repeated itself too much. The food in Giovanny was the best, Chops disappointed us , but mainly due to the service. Service in General – very good , no complain here. Pool area – Also very good, enough chair were empty even in sea days, if not on the first deck then on the second. Most missing - SABOR !!! Entertainment – Not the best , there were some ups and downs here also , Liked the ice show (as always) less liked the home productions.. Will I go on the Voyager again – Yes as long as it in an interesting route , for the Caribbean I will still prefer to be on one of the Oasis ships. I would like to thank my spouse for understanding all the times that I told her: “I must take the internet now as I need to updated the live blog” “Oh, don’t eat it yet, let me first take a picture of the plate” “Wait for me two minutes, this is a good picture that I can use for the blog” Thank you all for reading and comment, hope you liked it as much as liked written it, for me it was a very nice experience. And may your next cruise will come as soon as possible. Yuliya and Assaf

As a thanks for all of the information you unwittingly gave me over the last few months while I skulked in the corners of this site, here is my live blog from the Enchantment of the Seas - October 16-20. This is my first RCI cruise, so you won't be reading about any Crown & Anchor, Diamond, Platinum, or Adamantium perks. No special parties, free drinks, exclusive rooms full of puppies, etc. We don't have a suite. Or even a balcony! Just a large ocean-view room. But that's okay, we really don't know what we're missing. Travelers Me: 45, cruised with Disney 13 years ago. Lover of sunshine and palm trees. Mom: Old enough to be my mom, lover of sunshine and palm trees, first time cruiser. Mom and I usually travel to Virginia Beach for a week every summer. But this year she had an accident that resulted in surgery and hobbled her summer plans. She's 3+ months post-op and getting around well. She's using a cane on this trip. We're still taking it slow, though, mostly because I'm lazy. Mom eats gluten-free, I eat gluten-full. We take turns worrying about things. We get along swimmingly. I skipped the drink package because I can't keep that kind of pace for the entire cruise. Mom did, however, order bottled water to be delivered to the room. Our plans: Monday: Fly PHL to FLL, take shuttle to port, lie on deck with an alcoholic beverage. Tuesday: Nassau. No excursions planned. Lie on deck with an alcoholic beverage. Wednesday: Coco Cay. Rented 2 loungers & sunshade. Lie on beach with a bottle of water ... and an alcoholic beverage. Thursday: Key West. Conch Train hop on/hop off tour. Wander the town with a bottle of water ... and an alcoholic beverage. Eat a slice of Key Lime Pie. Friday: Get dumped off of the ship, shuttle to FLL, FLL -> MCO -> PHL. Mom has requested we eat from time to time and do things like "casino" and "shows" and "bingo." So demanding! I will update this as close to 'live" as I can get, considering I don't want to be tied to my tablet the entire time. On with the show!

You guys are awesome with all of your responses to this thread and others. As you may have been able to tell, I'm really big on planning. What makes this trip even more special is that the 3 kids have no idea that they're going on a cruise. Instead, they think that we are taking them out of school to hit a waterpark in PA and then visit some family. We only live about an hour from the pier so you can't beat Bayonne for convenience.

Monday: Woke at 4:30, picked up mom at 4:47 to head to the airport. The rain was falling at a steady clip. Things I hate: > Driving in the rain. > Driving to the airport. > Driving over the Walt Whitman Bridge. Unfortunately, sometimes we must do things we hate in order to get what we want. We arrived at the airport without incident at 5:15 for a 6:55 flight. The gas indicator bonged when we were almost there - I'll deal with that Friday. Parked in Economy, took the shuttle to the terminal and was greeted by the longest security line I've ever seen in my years of travelling out of PHL. My gut shook. It snaked out of security, down the hall, around the corner, and down toward the parking lot entrance. "Always fly the night before!" the Greek Chorus of message board people said in my head. The line moved at a decent clip and at about halfway, we were pulled to the front of the line because of Mom's cane. We got through (no taking off jackets, shoes, or removing the baggies of liquid from the bags!) but we literally walked up to the terminal and into the A line and onto the plane. SWA flight to FLL took off without incident. Coffee was great! WE flew to FLL and took Miami Port Express to the terminal. The line was long, but well worth it. They were selling lanyards at the terminal for the SeaPass cards (7.00 for regular ones and 9.99 for sports team branded ones) but we had some freebies from a meeting I attended so we skipped. We had the boarding pictres taken because we are cruise noobs. Gah, what a pretty boat. Totally gorgeous! We stood in the Centrum for a while, overwhelmed. Then our stomachs took over and we went to the Windjammer which was jam packed with people and some typically crappy tourist behavior, like taking over tables with suitcases and camping there until the cabins opened. Boo! Mom found the gluten-free corner and was very pleased with the offerings. I had a hot dog and fries because I'm a classy broad. The rooms opened at 1pm and we love our room! It's perfect for two people who don't hate each other. We have a large ocean view cabin, deck 3, beds separated. Next we toured the spa and entered the drawing. The spa is lovely and smelled great. Sat in the solarium and was kicked out to go to the muster drill. The spa drawing was at 4:10 and you had to be present to win. We ... didn't win. Sail-away party! We found some chairs on deck 10 and bid adios to Miami with the help of a Bahama Mama. We had zero problems with feeling movement or seasickness. Zero. It's beautiful. Our dinner seating is at 6pm and we arrived at MDR to encounter a GIANT line. It went quickly, though, and one of the waitstaff escorted us to our table. It was a six-top and ... full. Hm. Turns out there was a party of 4 adults who were split between 2 tables and rather than go and get that fixed, they decided that nobody would notice if they took our seats. We were willing to switch to the other table, but then one of them copped a HUGE attitude with the maitre'd and you know what? Nah. I want my table. You all are wrong so you can move. All four stalked off to another table and we had a great time chatting with the two who remained. DINNER WAS GREAT. You know, I was nervous about MDR because I read things but the food was great. I had a good Caesar salad, the strip steak and a warm chocolate hazelnut cake for dessert. All of the gluten free food was clearly notated on the menu and Mom had no problem at all. She also had the steak, cooked to super well done as she requested. (I prefer a bit of moo left in it.) Her dessert was a gluten free blueberry and peach cobbler, which was great. It was all great! IT'S ALL GREAT! Mom got a sneak peek at tomorrow's menu. The waitstaff is phenomenal. We went to the casino after dinner because I am weak. I ended up $5 up. Then we went to bingo in Boleros. It was $33 to play for a jackpot of $300. For that $33 you get 36 electronic cards (on a tablet - they keep track of the numbers themselves!) and 3 paper cards for us olds who like dabbing things. Buy 2 packages and you got the third for free, which we did. And then they had a free raffle for the remaining tablets and I won one of those. AND WE STILL LOST!! There were 2 winners who split the jackpot. But the hosts where hysterical and we had an expensive good time. By then were were completely feeling the long day. We stood outside and experienced the ocean at night (spoiler: dark) before going back to our room, where I fell into my tiny bed. It's a little firmer than what I'm used to but it really didn't matter. Day 1: A++

The same reason my cancelled sailings still show on my list of cruises...

@Sabrinaklai, I was only using CDP to get an easy estimate of how many cabins of type X are normally available. Beats going through Royal's deck plans and manually counting! I guess at least part of this is due to their new price integrity policy, where they can't lower it below the initially offered price. But you'd think that they'd just leave it at the original price from when the itineraries were announced, instead of jacking it up and jacking it up. But here's the thing -- do we really know what that "original" price was? Just like every other week of the year, a promo was active then. So the "baseline" price could still be some higher number behind the scenes than what we ever see publicly. I'm just doing mock bookings on a private tab and seeing what's available for the different classes. Honestly, if I hadn't already been checking the current WOW sale to see if my JS was going to drop any in price or net me some OBC, I wouldn't have likely gone to quite all the bother as that. When you pick a room category, Royal shows you on the room selection page how many rooms of that type are available on which decks, so I just tallied it up and compared to the "total cabins of this type" number on cruisedeckplans.com's page for Anthem.

JL & Sabrina, How are you check the cabin/suite availability, what is the "data checker" you use? Not that I'm challenging your data, I would like to check my bookings for next year..Thanks!

Did you try unplugging your computer and then waiting 2 minutes, then turning it back on?

Just get the Delux Drink package for those kids...they will enjoy it and thank you later ????

You are SO lucky, oh wait, you live in Northern NJ......never mind

Here's a current cut & paste from the RCI website under the Itinerary Updates, some really good news! October 16, 2017 at Noon EDT (next update Friday, 10/20 at 5 PM EDT) Royal Caribbean leadership recently returned from visits to St. Thomas and San Juan and will be visiting St. Maarten on Wednesday. We continue to be impressed with the progress the islands are making to rebuild, and are excited to announce our return to St. Thomas with the Adventure of the Seas on November 10. In the next few weeks, working in conjunction with the local governments, we will announce the specific dates in November for our return to San Juan and St. Maarten. Upon arrival in St. Thomas guests will be able to enjoy a vast array of activities, dining and shopping. Downtown shops are open and have full power, the majority of restaurants and bars are also open, and the boats and catamarans that are used to enjoy the waters of the Caribbean are ready for guests. We are also partnering with the USVI government to restore Magen’s Bay, one of St. Thomas’ most popular tourist attractions. The beach will have its grand re-opening coinciding with Adventure’s arrival on November 10. Magen’s Bay will be joined by Secret Sands Beach, Secret Harbor Beach Club, Lindquists Beach, Honeymoon Beach on Water Island, and Abi Beach – all open for guests to enjoy. We anticipate no further changes to our scheduled calls in St. Thomas, San Juan and St. Maarten for sailings December 1, 2017 forward.

I just learned about Zacapa from my Swedish friends on my last cruise. I'd never drank rum straight before, it's lovely.

The wife and I being happily retired take cruises about 3 times per year. We go out of Miami at least once or twice per year. Had some horrendous experiences with off site parking companies in Miami in the past until we found JetPort Park & Ride Center of Miami. We've used them 6 times already and had great experiences with them. Would recommend them highly. Their website is www.miamiportparking.com and someone always answers their phone, 888-510-1317. No run arounds with these folks. By the way, I got a mailer from them saying they'll be opening a location to service Fort Lauderdale seaport and airport in January 2018.

In the Caribbean, it's easy to use USD as it's accepted everywhere. In Europe, fewer places accept USD, but Euros are accepted nearly everywhere even in non-Euro countries. Keep in mind though that you'll always get the best deal outside of the Caribbean by using the local currency.

Yep agree with DocLC - they often offer discounts for dining if you stay on the ship and eat there - but again you will not usually know this in advance as its driven by the ship and the sailing. Waterlot Inn in Bermuda is a good steakhouse fyi

When we had to overnights in Russia on the Serenade, they were advertising 20 or 25% off as we reboarded the ship, but it wasn't advertised in advance. It is common, though, for the dining rooms to be open seating in those nights.

Really enjoying this blog. Hope you are continuing to have a fantastic cruise!

OK, statements like that bring out the data checker in me. You've been forewarned. For my sailing on Oct 13, 2018, there's about a third of the JS level rooms left to book; I was seeing about 15 J4's available, out of the 42 that cruisedeckplans.com says are available (although I'd say those numbers are suspect; CDP says there are four Owners Suites on Anthem, but RCI site shows 5 available to book). Interestingly, the rooms that are listed are different depending on whether you choose a refundable or non-refundable deposit for a JS. Basically, non-refundable gets you an on the hump J4 (deck 7 only), or right next to it; while refundable still has you mid-ship but much closer to the aft or forward sections. Grand Suites, I'm seeing a bit less than 50% availability -- 8 rooms left out of 20 total. Everything higher than GS doesn't seem to be sold yet. So maybe when final payment comes, I'll be able to score an Owners Suite for just a couple hundred more than my current deck 7 J4.

Probably why he's so anxious to get out of town!

Your whit and sense of humor, are certainly at home here!

Will never forget Spring Break South Beach about 20 years ago. Myself and 3 friends and we made friends with 2 other guys who arrived in Miami before their cruise left that afternoon. Our hotel was on the strip so they asked if they could stow their bags with us in the room as we bar hopped. Clevelander, Wet Willy's, and a few other places. By mid-afternoon we were toast and somehow the other two guys became separated from us. We looked all over and couldn't find them. Everything was in their bags, including passports. This was before everyone had a cell phone. In fact, I still had a pager. Moral of the story, don't get hammered on the morning of your cruise and leave your bags in a room you won't remember to find your way back to.

i will be following this live blog. I love the way you explain your day. u have a real talent! Plus me being a south jersey-ian and all....

Love this, thank you for posting!

Not aware of snacks, but they have upgraded seating.

Check out this blog post about communicating while onboard: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2016/07/27/how-stay-touch-someone-your-royal-caribbean-cruise

I have to assume it's the RC website being the RC website

Comfy couches. No snacks. There's usually water, but I didn't see any this last time around. Then again, I was only there for 15 minutes or so.

It's one of the secrets of the Internet.

You can do that, but don't do that.

Is getting Mom rip-roaring drunk at Senor Frogs out of the question?

Thanks KW! Found a good bike ride tour for Wellington - well two different tours - one with normal bicycle and one with an electric motor bicycle which may be the better option as it includes a mountain climb for a great view of the city! Definitely looking at the bridge walk/climb as a cousin did it and said it is amazing. Much appreciated.

Hi Bazza, I've been to Wellington for a brief overnight stay and just enjoyed walking around town. Loads of restaurants, bars and cafes. However the Te Papa Museum comes highly recommended. Next time I visit I intend going there. Can't help you with the other ports unfortunately (except Sydney, do the Bridge Climb!).

It's time Anthem of the Seas gets down to FL!! I do think they are having some problem filling this ship, I mean have you seen the rates on this ship? (Well non-suite rates)

Ok loving your blog! And loving that you are loving your cruise! Hope Tuesday was as awesome as Monday! Jane

HA!! The return on investment for that is not worth it. They will forget about the trip we just went on and go back to being 9 and 11 year olds right after we get off the ship...

I always bring one of those mixer bottles when I travel. You will have to use the provided plastic cups to dispense the flavoured water and then pour it into your bottle for hygiene reasons. There are signs posted to do this but I have seen many people ignore it. On ships with the Freestyle machines, I like getting the Powerade and pour into my bottle to bring with me when I go off the ship.

GREAT live blog ! Keep ‘me comin’.

I see what you did there! Really liking this live blog. Totally appeals to my sense of humor!

I'm loving this Live Blog ...... A Very Dry Sense of Humor --- Perfect.

Nice job. Love your writing style.

Also, some cash to tip the room service folks, if you order anything. We usually get coffee and a roll in the morning (it's free) and I tip he room service person $2.00.

THANKSSSS!!! This is great info! I'll go take a look at Matt's blog post.

Never knew this was an option.

Day 10 – Last day Sea day. Well even for a ten days cruise there is an end, although it is the last day I don’t really feel that bad as I used to feel on the pervious cruises last days , maybe because we are not flying back yet , maybe since 10 days is the perfect amount of days , not sure. For a sea day it was a perfect Sunny day, the sun was shining all day long while temperatures were not really high. We took advantage of it and went to do last effort to get some tanning (otherwise no one will believe us we were on vacation) , the wind was blowing lightly which helped to feel better on the deck. Today again the clock was changed, now we are back in the original timing as we approaching Singapore, First time for me that they are changing the clock like that on a cruise but it make sense for many activities. I took advantage of the extra time and finally completed the book I brought with me, I considering leaving it here contributing to the library to reduce the weight we need to carry. We did the packing as always which did not took much but we tried to organize it in a way we will not require to repack after the two days we are planning to spend in Singapore. Our schedule departure time is 10 am but I do hope it will go quicker although we don’t have big plans for tomorrow yet. The WJ toady finally served sea food, not lobsters but shrimps, Calamari rings and mussels, it was nice but due to heavy demands they did not allow to take it ferly but served it to your plate (you could get more if you wanted later). After dinner we went up to the deck to catch the final sunset overt the ship Also we saw this creature neat the closed towel deck , seem he was heaving fun. Tomorrow I will final summary but this was a very good cruise and I enjoy almost every minute.

I've never used anything but USD (except in Cuba).

I recommend you rent a van/SUV (one way) from Hertz at the Orlando airport. Drive to Cape Canaveral/Cocoa Beach and stay at the Residence Inn on Astronaut Blvd (8959 Astronaut Blvd). The hotel and the Hertz rental office share a parking lot so when you are ready to turn in the van all you have to do is park it, drop the keys in the drop box and walk 50 steps to the hotel. There is a shuttle to take you to the port the next morning. The nice thing is, you get to use the van all day and as long as you want into the evening. You can go see the sites, visit the Cape, have some dinner at one of the GREAT seafood restaurants down near the port or do whatever you want and turn in the car after the Hertz office closes. Returning, we usually just take the royal bus service from the port to the airport. I know a lot of people don't like the bus service but we find it to work fine and it seems a reasonable price. Speaking of price, the hotel will run you about $300 for the night. We paid this price for a 2 BR, 2 bathroom suite so I'm sure you wouldn't need anything more than that. The 1 way car rental was $118 plus some taxes, I'm sure. I can't remember whether there was a charge for the hotel shuttle to the port but I assume there was. Probably $10-$15. I think the bus shuttle from the port to the airport is $75/pp. Maybe doing a 1 way car rental back the other way may work better for you. Good luck !!

Thanks again everybody - much appreciated. Craig - I am hoping they allow the 6 bottles based on a post I saw where 2 per cruise seemed ok - even if they take the 4 off us initially and deliver 2 each time we 'start' a new cruise! And 30kg is heavy until you see my wife's handbag and shoe collection!!! Twangster - I will keep looking an hoping that Thanksgiving Day next month does indeed offer a Black Friday super sale (as well as the Cowboys winning on the Thursday!).

Hooked... Just hope it isn't Seafood Shack/Rita's Crabshack 2.0

I first read that as washy washy. Ship on the brain. Okay - my favorite is FHPSLEUH1HE

We've never used anything other than USD. Just take enough on an excursion that you think you need and leave the rest in the safe. I wouldn't be too keen on using a credit card unless I reallllly had to. From a point of view of 'issue avoidance' leave it in the safe...helps prevent a $10,000 cash advance transaction that's not yours from giving you a migraine. Also, many credit cards also have a service fee tacked onto a foreign exchange transaction. Just have an awareness of what the general exchange rate is so that you know you're not getting ripped off. Going beyond that and it turns into more worry than a vacation.