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Of COURSE @twangster would have a balcony cabin on the correct side of the ship to catch this! Thanks for sharing!

The cure.. eat every 3 hours, fruity drink by the bath tub, apply hand sanitizer as you enter every room, and finally... go to the nearest high rise building and just stare at an elevator....

Breakfast Update - ”I Told You So Moment“ I have been telling Lindsay and Reyd that Coastal Kitchen is a great breakfast choice for us. They have not fully embraced the benefits of star class and keep talking about Windjammer ? Well this morning off they went to Windjammer (I did not go) to grab breaky. According to them the experience was awful, it was jammed with people, lines everywhere, no where to sit. A total gong show. They walked out and into Coastal Kitchen ? They said Coastal Kitchen from now on. I told them they need to embrace the benefits of star class. ? Sadly they didn’t capture the gong show with a picture.

Andres goes above and beyond In our genie questionnaire I mentioned that Pepsi was a favorite drink of mine. Andres said he would try to get me Pepsi even though I assured him I was fine with coke. Look what was waiting for me. ?

I honestly don’t know where to start....today has been a whirlwind. But in a really good way!! So many firsts: getting to know the layout of Anthem, establishing rapport with Andres, unpacking and eating has kept us busy!! Transportation to Cruise Terminal Very impressed with Dial 7. Driver arrived 30 minutes early. Our pickup was set for 9:20am. Arrived at terminal within 30 minutes. Clean SUV. Driver drove safe. A big shout out to @WAAAYTOOOfor her advice on cruise terminal arrival and luggage. Our driver was stopped and redirected but I insisted that we were not leaving the SUV until we reached Zone 6. It worked!! We went on to Zone 6 and went directly into the terminal and met with the Star Class attendant The luggage was a bit strange as we were required to put our luggage through security screening device (We received an apology from the star class attendant; it sounds like they were short staffed and this isn’t the norm). Andres met us within 10 minutes or so, stayed with us until we boarded at around 10:30am. He toured us around the ship eventually leaving us at Chops for lunch. He picked us up at 1pm and took us to our stateroom. Sea Pass card and Wow bands Sea Pass cards for Star Class are purple and Wow bands are black. Wow bands complimentary. No lanyards included. We forgot our plastic pouches and had to buy the lanyard with pouch. 2 for $20. I think Royal could splurge for a couple lanyards for star class guests but that’s probably me comparing them to DCL Concierge. Lunch at Chops Our first experience at Chops was outstanding!! Alberta has some of the best beef and our standards are high but Chops didn’t disappoint. We had the Dry aged steak burger ?. Unfortunately for you guys I had eaten my Caesar salad and burger before realizing I hadn’t taken any pictures ? I will try to do better!

Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh! It’s FINALLY cruise time! We are headed to Hong Kong to board Spectrum for a back-to-back, 7 days to Japan and Philippines and then 4 days to Vietnam. Our bags are packed: We fly from Tokyo, where we currently live, to Hong Kong today on Cathay Pacific. The flight is about 5 hours with a one hour time change. Cathay Pacific is generally a solid choice for flying around the region and the weather forecast is decent, so we should have a smooth day <knocks on all the wooden things> One 22” suitcase, one 24”, and a backpack. The only reason for the backpack is to hold MisterZ’s work laptop (boo!) and his Child (otherwise known as his camera — details on this later if I can cajole him into giving me some photos for this blog). And we’re off!

One Sky The is a new Royal Caribbean original production. I found this an interesting show although I did struggle with the flow of the show at times or how it relates to the sky, or one sky. So I just looked at each segment on it's own without worrying about the overall message. Strong vocals and enjoyable as long as you are not expecting a story with a distinct beginning, middle and ending.

Onboard Activities Andres scheduled us for Bumper cars and I Fly today. It’s nice having preferred access to these. The lines for bumper cars was long. North Star: Closed again due to weather ? Here is Lindsay on his first I Fly. ???? IMG_1834.MOV

We made it in for the birthday cruise!

Lindsay said it should be called “PeopleJammer”. ?

lol'd at that! Have a great cruise!

Sail Away Took advantage of our aft deck and stayed in our state room. Great views of Statue of Liberty and Manhattan. Andres had us scheduled to go up in North Star at 4pm immediately following passing the last bridge. Unfortunately, cold weather resulted in cancelling North Star for the day. We will try again tomorrow but we will miss out on the NY skyline. IMG_1745.MOV IMG_1764.MOV

Stateroom #10320 Grand Lift Suite After lunch at Chops Andres took us to our stateroom at 1pm. Timing wasn’t the best as the rooms were just opened to other guests. Because we are aft we had to navigate many people and luggage as we made our way to our room. But in the scheme of things not a big deal. We now realize we are going to make the walk from aft to midship elevators/stairs many times each day! If only Andres could grant my wish for elevators/stairs aft. ? Room didn’t disappoint: pictures below. Laundry: Filled 2 bags already. This is a new feature so I will let you know how it goes. Complimentary for star class guests.

The Legend about an hour before the assault occurred. Glory's original approach from a distance. Right after the crash the Legend had to reset some lines. This was after the crash and near miss as she circled around for a second try. She did a nice turn to expose her stern to us. If at first you don't succeed, try again. Round two the Captain's girlfriend wasn't at the helm so it went a little better. Practice makes perfect.

I understand based on news reports one passenger on the Glory was injured. Thoughts and prayers for that individual. Here is the video I shot from my balcony on Oasis. Despite the collision with the Legend, the bridge crew on the Glory did a pretty spectacular job avoiding a collision with the Oasis. When I first saw the bow of the Glory come into view it was close. Too close. It occured to me a collision was highly possible. As I was shooting the video I was keeping an eye on the stern of Glory. It was getting closer. I knew they couldn't apply a lot of stern thrust to keep the stern off us without driving the bow into the bow of Oasis. As the bow of Glory began to clear the bow of Oasis I could see them apply stern thrust to avoid impact. It was a tight near miss and excellent seamanship on their part to avoid a second collision. The wide angle lens is misleading. The people on Glory were close. I could have tossed them a bottle of water.

So, we've arrived in Miami to rain of almost biblical volumes. We've been told that it only rains heavily for about 11 days of the year here. Unfortunately, it looks like 3 of those are the 3 days that we're here before our cruise! Oh well, you can't do anything to control the weather so we're going to make the most of it, and the effects of the jet lag, by getting up early tomorrow and heading to Cape Canaveral for the day. Not somewhere that I thought I'd ever get to see and the boys (and when I say 'boys', you must remember that those to whom I refer are aged 40 and 46) are particularly excited about it. Tonight we've just checked into our hotel, where we were pleasantly surprised to receive vouchers for a free drink each in the bar and even more pleasantly surprised to find that cocktails were included. Then we went for dinner at a Cuban place around the corner called Bella Cuba. The drinks service was a little slow but the food came out pretty quickly and was really flavourful and pretty healthy.

Cruise day! I’m up by 6am, looking at the foggy Hong Kong sunrise. MisterZ is NOT interested in getting up yet so I’ll take the time to talk about the itineraries. Day 1 — depart Hong Kong Day 2 — at sea Day 3 — Okinawa, Japan Day 4 — at sea Day 5 — Ilocos, Philippines Day 6 — Subic Bay, Philippines Day 7 — at sea Day 8 — HK turnaround Day 9 — at sea Day 10 — Danang, Vietnam Day 11 — at sea Day 12 — arrive Hong Kong This is our first back-to-back. This is also the first cruise we have been on where the ship was the focus; we usually cruise based completely on the ports. This is also the largest ship we’ve been on. Explorer was the biggest before this. Lots of firsts!

What she ?said!

Someone had asked for information on teens. My son is not doing any of the teen activities so I thought this teen schedule may be helpful. I can’t seem to find their original post. Hope you are following and see this.

Aqua80 The new Aqua show is a big hit and very well done. It's a perfect mix of great music, water action and diving. What really makes this show is the music and if you are familiar with the Back to The Future movies you'll feel right at home with the opening song and hoverboard action. There are still some very artistic pieces but set to music of the 80's it's a good mix. Of course they have some slack line action... As well as some high wire thrills... With lots of core diving skills. All in all a very good show you'll want to see more than once.

I think you will be happy with your O-T-W cabana choice. It is a wonderful experience. ....and think about it....how many people who booked cabanas, bungalows and clam shells for Coco Cay are going to NOT be able to get a corresponding experience on Labadee ? There are waaay more of these facilities available on CC than Labadee. Some people aren’t going to get them. Star Class WAS a huge advantage for this change of itinerary.

Sea Plex schedule attached. There may be slight changes due to our itinerary change but it should give you an idea. ?

Some Boardwalk fun and treats on our last sea day on the way back to Miami. Pretty impressive for a sea day with some minor motion.

Thanks for all of the detailed information. Although we do not get on Anthem until FEB, I am tricking myself into thinking we are on now. Your postings help me with that delusion. During the early to late evening, if you could notice where some of the better dancing opportunities are it would be very helpful. I think we have focused on the Music Hall, Boleros, and even the Schooner Bar in the past. We are most interested where they set up the live bands. We can pretty much dance to anything, so we are mostly interested where the live bands are. For some reason Two70 is never a real option (even though it could be quite a large dance floor). Any scouting is greatly appreciated ... Curt from Canada

Sugar Beach First appearing on Symphony of the Seas, now on the newly amplificated Oasis of the Seas. I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream... Some toppings for your ice cream if you want. You can order ice cream from the take out window directly on the boardwalk. Candy is priced at $0.93 per ounce. Take a bag and fill it with whatever tickles your sugar bone. Sugar Beach is a natural addition to a boardwalk.

2 weeks ago on Oasis, Dan had a white WOW band and I had a blue one. He used his, I did not. I don’t think there is a SC distinction for WOW bands.

Apparently some lawyer in the US has said that its carnivals own fault and they should be held accountable, as both captain and pilot used to do this type of thing when they were children playing in the bathtub with rubber boats.

The Bionic Bar New to Oasis this robot driven bar was first introduced on Quantum class and later appeared on newer Oasis class ships. R.I.P Champagne Bar that used to be located in this space. If you purchase the deluxe beverage package it does include the Bionic Bar.

30 minutes in a taxi and about $45USD-equivalent later, we’re in our hotel in Kowloon. L’hotel elan (lower case, with a ‘ over the e that I didn’t even try to make happen here) is a stylish mid-range hotel about 1km from the cruise terminal. The unrest in Hong Kong has definitely impacted the tourist industry. We got this room for about $85 for the night which is a screaming deal for this part of town. Breakfast is included.

Miami Day 1 The weather forecast for today had looked pretty grim with more rain on the cards so we'd planned to drive up to Cape Canaveral. However, there was really heavy traffic on the motorway/freeway/highway/interstate/turnpike (I don't really get the road system - luckily, I was only a passenger) as the police had closed the road somewhere north of Fort Lauderdale. So we changed our plans and went to the Everglades for an air boat tour. This is something that has been on my bucket list for years so I'm really glad we got the chance to go. Then we headed back to the hotel (via A-1-A whilst listening to Vanilla Ice on repeat ?), dropped off the car and went for a stroll along the boardwalk. We were originally planning on heading all the way down to the end to watch the ships sailing out - we'd seen our first cruise ship, Navigator, in port as we'd driven across the bridge earlier in the day - but unfortunately, we got way laid by some ridiculous cocktails! In the end, we just ended up strolling around and having a few more drinks and some tasty snacks before heading back to the hotel for the night. All in all, a good first day in Miami.

Supper at Jamie Italian Another great meal! Andres popped in to check on us. I was a bit better about taking pictures. I forgot the appetizers. ? The linguine Alfredo was not on the menu but they were happy to whip it up for me. Hubby says Caesar salad, garlic prawns and squid was very good. Reyd had meat plank. Evening pictures They had 3 or 4 backgrounds set up throughout the evening at midship deck 4.

This is no longer the case! In the latest version of the app, released within the past week, there is now an option to edit check-in. These struggles are now over!!

Rather doing yet another trip blog since there have been a couple of really good ones already, I'm just going to do a photo dump in this thread to showcase the newly amplified Oasis of the Seas. I've got a couple of weeks of photo ops to gather my collection of pictures so over the next little while I'll update this post with different areas around the ship. I may bounce around a little but that's just the drink package effect. Without further delay, here is the new Oasis of the Seas fresh off a $165M makeover.

No. You can wear flip flops. You are on a mat and your feet are tucked inside the mat. I've always used the provided rock climbing shoes.

Omg LMAO on laundry comment. ?

The WJ on Anthem is one of the worst ones out there.

Labadee historical been cheaper on the Cabanas. Sure you'll not have an issue getting one. Two advantages working in your favor. Barefoot Beach is Suite and Pinnacle only. Then Star class normally gets priority on Cabanas.

Sea I think is blue green color, that is what I got on Symphony. Silver will depend on ship: Navigator is using that for full suites. While Mariner is using gold. Flipping back to Navigator Pinnacles are given gold cards. Standard has been JS given silver card (non Royal Suite class ships). Card from Symphony

That's pretty much what I have heard from others too lately. Although, slight change of topic, I am sort of bothered that Oasis class ships have rolled out a different colour scheme for Sea, Sky, Star seapass cards. It messes with the collection. That's the Type A in me talking. First world problems, I know.

Ooooh have fun!

You will have complete access to both Silver and Gold areas of the ship, as well as all the suite perks. The Golden Suites Program may not be RSC but it is really special and you’ll have a great time.

They are so cute !

Balcony area is not totally private. You will definitely hear your neighbors and the partitions do not go all the way to the ground nor to the bulkhead, so there is a gap. Smoking is not allowed on any balconies. If you are at the railing you will see neighbors, above below and next to you. As far as valuables, I would not leave anything of value out there. I normally only leave a bathing suit or towels out there.

I went on this excursion in CocoCay on Wednesday, I’ve always wanted to do this but the prices in Nassau to me was insane. So for $110 per person to me was worth it. They take about 30 people over, first they go over all the rules and teach you how to properly feed the pigs apples on these long skewer sticks without harming the pig. They then take everyone down to the beach area which isn’t very big, one guy stays in the water with the bucket of apples and hands each person apples as needed. They have several men all around and very attentive to the pigs to make sure the larger ones don’t get excited and hurt anyone. They have the pigs trained to sit on command and the love belly rubs. Many baby pigs running about the beach, if you sit down they will climb all over you looking for apples. There was an opportunity to sit on one of the very large pigs for a photo if you choose to do so. There is also an option to have one of the pigs do a piggy back ride on your back in the water for a photo. If one of the pigs happen to poop in the water they have one of the men quickly clean it up with a net. All in all I had a great time, I feel it was definitely worth the money as I would never pay the 350 like they want in Nassau.

He's the cruise line industries version of an ambulance chaser.

It's surprising the family didn't thank him for his concern and support and then retain an experienced, successful attorney. This guy's credentials are laughable, he's definitely third tier and surely no match for the firepower of Royal's internal / external counsel.

Honorable mention to the Rising Tide Bar. I can't remember if it always had high tops or not but it is otherwise unchanged including the water features that remain below it.

The new Oasis Dunes.

For being so helpful and nonjudgmental even when asking a lot of questions! This forum is very helpful for cruises! I will recommend it to everyone!

One thing to get out of the way. The general decor of Oasis was not updated in all places. Hallways, elevator lobbies, many cabins were not changed to use the newer decor that Harmony and Symphony have. I can understand why. The decor goes beyond carpet. Floor tile, wall panels, the color of doors, the wood panels and marble elements would all need to be changed to adopt and match the Harmony and Symphony decor. That would be a massive change that would take a lot of effort and expense. My cabin was not updated. However that's okay with me. There's nothing wrong with my cabin and replacing the cabinets, wall panels, carpet and curtains would be a huge undertaking for what purpose? My cabin is fine.