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Last food pic (although I brought home enough ranger cookies for a few more days, lol)…

My parents went to the thing today and actually had to sign an NDA. So they haven't even told US what it was about.

Mini golf was fun but hot, and I screamed the whole way down the Ultimate Abyss. Much faster and darker than I expected. Cute towel animal, and next to it was a note saying to return luggage that is not yours. Crepes in WJ tonight! And I love this stairwell landing.

First of all, it is windy and the boat is rocking and rollin. In spite of this, the ice skaters put on a tremendous show.

Interesting Windjammer setup. Half on each side of the ship.

Crown Lounge. Empty of guests. Guess I slept too long. We are tied up at Cococay today. This lounge is large, with a lot of seating, and very nice. There has been some recent discussion of the automatic coffee machines. I crafted my own Americano with an extra espresso shot, with this new coffee machine and it is quite good.

I wouldn't wait. The price is likely to go up and negate your discount anyway, and your choice of rooms won't be as good.

A picture is worth a thousand words...

I've been thinking more about HiRO and the two places I felt a little bored were when the drums went on for a long time, in the same rhythm, with not much other action. And once I realized that, I also thought that those spots were an interruption of the story - so I guess I do think there was a little story. Spoiler alert! It seemed like there were three groups, different colors of clothing (red, black and white), and they were fighting. Then some stuff happened, including disco dancing and a visit from a being above (the "walking" lady who might also have been a spotted cat?) who helped bring them together. Then at the end, everyone was wearing clothes that were red, black and white all together so they now were peaceful together?

So we went to go to dinner last night in the MDR and on the way down, we looked at our table number. With the huge embarkation delay and running around all afternoon, we hadn't stopped to check before. We have all been linked since we booked, but somehow we were all assigned to different tables! The kids were on a different floor!! The manager fixed it for us and found three two tops to push together and we ended up by the window so we ended up with a really nice table, but we still can't understand how that happened.

UPDATE: Due to the fact that one of our port stops was cancelled and replaced with a sea day, we were able to get lunch reservations at Izumi Hibachi for that day once on board the ship. It was excellent and the kids had a blast!

I am having a really nice time. No plans so far. It's nearly noon and we have just finished breakfast. We may wander into Perfect Day.

I guess I'm an outlier as I really enjoyed OceanAria (Allure). I really do not enjoy the aqua shows that just do a bunch of stomping and splashing. I thought OceanAria had more diving and swimming than the others....but in the end, they are all pretty much the same, anyway. I recall thinking that the one with the all-female cast (is that Symphony ??) was a little underwhelming but I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that the cast is female....it was just a way for me to recall which show seemed less impressive than the others.

Love the little orange and black magnet guys! I'm really hoping to see Hiro as Symphony is on my short list of next cruises, it looks great!!! An NDA?? Now we really wanna know! lol

Went to comedy tonight. Decently funny - it was Lester Briggs & Brad Mastrangelo. Thought about going to Battle of the Sexes but decided to just get ready for bed since we have Falmouth tomorrow and a morning excursion.

Oh, I forgot to say, we sat on the deck late last night and nibbled at the cheese & crackers, the cake and the cupcakes. The chocolate cake was pretty good @Ampurp85! It was moist, which I find many of Royals' cakes are not. It had chocolate decorations on top too which added even more flavor. I wouldn't say it is the best cake I've ever had but it was better than most of the included cake on the ship. (I did not care much for the vanilla cupcakes - they were a bit bland).

Random Thoughts - Cabin Attendant We’ve honestly never had a bad one. They have ranged from quiet but efficient to extremely friendly & exceptional. This was only our 2nd cruise with once/day service though… and our cabin attendant was exceptional. I already mentioned meeting him early on day one & receiving extra hangers within 10 minutes of asking even though we told him no rush. We also saw him at least twice a day, he brought fresh ice each evening even though we had morning service, and we never had a problem catching him in the hallway for a minor request like extra towels. He even snuck my wife some of the peppermint bar soap they have in suites b/c she told him how much she likes it. Honestly, the only difference for us with once/day service is no one re-makes the bed in the evening… and we couldn’t care less. Oh, and I guess a few plates/cups may sit in the corner for a little longer than before… also not remotely an issue for us.

God I love Central Park !

I’ve never bought a drink package and always drink whatever I want. For my wife and I, we usually come out ahead by $400-500 by buying individual drinks. If your itinerary is port intensive, then it’s much harder to break even than if you have a sea day heavy itinerary.

Two of my favorite spots... love the double coffee machines and re-design of the WJ.

Us too! Symphony has been elusive for us! I'd have to agree with you RE: OceanAria and inTENse... our favorite show of the 3 we've seen to date is Aqua80 (Oasis) by far. With that said, we will never miss an Aqua Theater show!

The balcony discount gets better as you climb higher up the CAS ladder. Unfortunately it is not a fixed amount off all balcony fares. The balcony discount is often not combinable with other sales promotions and you will likely find that, depending on the ship and sail date, at the lower levels of the Crown and Anchor Society other sales and promotions can yield a better fare. It all depends on the ship and sail date so maybe it will work out for you on one cruise but not another. As you climb higher the discounts increases and more frequently it becomes effective. As advised I would not wait 3 months to find out. If you see a cruise you like I'd suggest booking it now.

When I booked mine Sep 21 Liberty cruise. Original offer was Balcony, At the time, Spacious Ocean View Balcony was cheaper, so I booked the spacious Ocean View Balcony. Then couple days later, I saw GTY Suite was $80 more, so I upgrade to GTY suite. Then the price dropped. I called in and got my upgrade $ back. So I got my GTY Suite for free from my original balcony booking.. Sometime just need to at the right time at the right place.

I do love my shrimp cocktail. And because I am supposed to forego a traditional dessert, another shrimp cocktail will do me nicely.

Random Thoughts - Crowds Despite being over 100% capacity with almost 2000 kids or something, we didn’t have any significant issues other than that one night at WJ when we were in port late. I was even taking the elevators which I rarely do b/c for whatever reason they weren’t nearly as crowded as usual. We really got that “where is everybody?” feeling. Obviously I know how well Oasis class can handle crowds but that’s still a lot of people. I’ve hypothesized in the past that sailing with a bunch of kids b/c of my wife’s teaching schedule wasn’t the worst thing b/c they congregate where we don’t (like the pool deck) so maybe that’s it. Some venues were obviously busy but nothing really felt painfully overcrowded. If I had to complain about anything it would be trivia/game shows in Spotlight Karaoke & the Schooner Bar being standing room only at times. I prefer On-Air to Spotlight Karaoke.

We are onboard. The suite check in was incredibly easy and fast.

Onboard the Anthem sailing from Bayonne NJ… Last night (day 1) in the casino there was an issue with the player card recognition system on the slot machines. Only the machines…not the tables. When players tapped their cards, the receiver turned green and screen said ‘Welcome Guest’ instead of ‘Welcome (players name)’. Because the receiver turned green, many players thought their card was accepted and the points would count. However, although the points played would count on the display…they would not be applicable to the player. The casino host had to keep making announcements over and over as the casino became more crowded after dinner. Apparently, there was an IT issue resulting in all of the player’s information being deleted from the system. The onboard technical members were working with shoreside to manually enter each player’s information into the program and that was taking quite a bit of time. The casino host kept telling people to take a photo of their points before leaving a machine. Otherwise, there would be no way for them to post the points to the player’s account when things got back to normal. As time went on, the host kept announcing how many more players had their information restored and kept asking for patience from those still in the queue. Wondering if this was just on the Anthem or were other ships affected.

I have to respectfully disagree. This is not fraud. The OP got exactly what they were promised. The promise was to go to PDCC, utilize the cabana, beach club, etc. It was not a promise that they would be there 8-5pm. There is no money back guarantee that anyone will have the exact hours of time at any given location, that is stated in the cruise contract.

I agree... that was inTENse on Wonder with the all-female cast. They're all so talented, but the show was not as varied as OceanAria and Aqua80. Not as much diving as others mentioned from what I recall.

Sorry you ran into this situation. As others pointed out, in retrospect, always deal with problems like this onboard. Start with the shore excursion team, escalate to their manager if necessary. If that doesn't get what you want, I'd ask to speak to the Hotel Director. If you're in a suite, you could start with the suite concierge. Unfortunately, once you're off the ship it's tough to get resolutions for an issue like this.

California residents must wait until 2pm to board

You're more likely to get sideways glances or rude comments about not dressing "well enough" for the MDR on "formal" night than for your gender identity or health challenge. Don't worry about the few who may judge and just enjoy your vacation.

Thanks for the info, Ashley. I had JUST about decided to cancel and go with the terminal parking, but now I feel confident in keeping what I have ! Very helpful.

Lots of us have seen unexpected balances due when cruise planner changes were made after final payment, but for a sailing 8 months out this seems to be a brand new example of Royal IT incompetence.

I enjoyed 365 because of Red Rain, anytime someone uses that song, they are A+ in my book But wow, those shrimp cocktails look big and fresh.

Maybe but everyone likes what they like. I may have been influenced by having seen Wonder’s ice show a few months before Blades… and seeing it again a few days ago confirmed that it is easily my favorite. I’m not a big show guy anyway. I’ll see anything once (except broadway due to length). If I don’t like it, oh well. I was gonna sit somewhere having a drink anyway. 45 mins of anything is never gonna ruin a cruise.

Maybe more cost cutting? Less time for people to eat and drink free.

I'm going with Monarch of the Seas

Finally made it home. We left ship around 730ish with wonderful Norman and Kenny concierge escort. On road before 8am and arrived home after 500 plus miles of driving around 430pm. I’m smoked and have added joy of work tomorrow. Did I mention I wish I was retired? awesome week with getting to meet @OCSC Mike and his lovely bride and seeing matt briefly twice. Wonder is just an awesome ship. Crew killed it as always. Royal for the win! Next cruise is icon in August. y’all thanks for following our posts.

Huge... And 10 minutes later, Voom is still struggling with these photos. Finally!

Random Thoughts - Ship Movement Very smooth sailing this week. I didn’t notice the ship move once (other than during docking) until overnight of day 5 as we started our journey back to PC from St. Martin (and that movement was minor). Even as we sailed through the storms that were dumping water into different areas of the ship, the sea itself was mostly calm.

These rooms are really well designed and it is clear that this is a newer ship than Allure. We're off to mini golf and the dry slide. Oh, and my husband created a WhatsApp group for the "Morning People" - my mom, my daughter and him, so I created one called "Party Animals Up All Night" for my son, my Dad and me.

We went to HiRO last night. I'm not sure how I feel about this show. There were parts I really enjoyed and parts that were a little boring. Does it have a story line? The only other aqua show I've experienced was Ocean Aria on Allure which had a lot more diving but not as much of the tightrope. The "walking" was pretty cool.

This is a tremendous, wonderful, beautiful, and modern boat!

Our first view of Wonder of the Seas.

100%... we've long since unpacked and I've already been to the supermarket so my wife will have a lunch to pack for tomorrow and we have some dinner stuff for the week. Getting back to the real world so quickly sucks but that would happen either way. It was nice to get away during spring break for the first time in a while and no one wants any cruise to end but it's definitely more relaxing for us in the summer since we're still kind of on vacation.

Thanks Patty! I sent an email to both Bayley and Liberty and I got a prompt response from the executive office. I have a call set up with a representative of the executive office this upcoming week. Hopefully this will have a happy ending and I dont get banned or something, lol. Much obliged to all for the help and advice! Rick

I just want to see people having a good time, while being respectful of all other cruiser's. How you look, dress, etc, is not of any importance to me. How you treat fellow passengers and respect the rules of our shared experience is all that matters to me. It's your life, you get to live it, nobody else. I cruise on Royal Caribbean and that's how this passenger thinks.