Lauren

Cabin tour!
Standard balcony room, deck 6 forward.  Cabin 6122.



Most deck 6 balconies have an obstructed view due to the position of the life boats.  The exception are the forward cabins that are ahead of the life boats.

At we started our sail away we moved out of our slip and into New Your harbor.  You know its cold when the bouys have ice on one side of them.  

On my previous Anthem cruises we had delayed embarkation which pushed us behind schedule just a bit.  On this cruise we were right on schedule and the Captain informed us we would have a New York city harbor tour to start our cruise.  This amounts to turning North and heading towards the city rather than simply heading South and straight towards the Verrazano-Narrows bridge .

We sailed right past the Statue of Liberty.









We continued North towards the city.



Next we sailed past Ellis Island.

There were many boats in the harbor with tourists enjoying the views but our vessel was the largest.

We then turned 180° and started South.

NorthStar was operating.

We had amazing view of both sides of the Hudson river but most eyes were on lower Manhattan.

With NYC behind us we sailed past Lady Liberty on our way towards the ocean.


This was a pretty great way to start a cruise.  It was 37° F outside and with the sun going down it was getting colder.  Time to warm up.

If briefly said Adventure Seeker then it changed to "You cruise too much, we have no idea".

Done!

So I'm a bit slow... speaking of reactions, I just now realized that the little number under my screen name and above location is actually a sum of all reactions to my posts;  my online reputation.  Compared to others on the board, it seems that I have a relatively poor reputation...;  so what else is new    But the good news is that it is shown beneath my screen name.  Usually, my reputation precedes me

Done!

You forgot something MOST important when you first board.......exercising your drink package!

Like with a safe that one guest locks upon departing, changing inputs on TV can possibly cause grief for new guests.
Royal has announced plans to make cabin TV's available for streaming from personal devices.  The details have not been announced but from what was said it suggested it would be Airplay like and available for both Apple and Android.  I imagine new ships may launch with this capability at some point.  Not sure it that includes Symphony or Quantum Plus.  Older ships remain uncertain.  
No but a bank has robbed me.  Does that count?

You try to teach your local bartender to mix labadoozie. You are little sad when you kids celebrate is 12 years birthday, You compare every expense to Alcohol package/cruise fair/shore excursions prices – “Oh this is a nice couch, but we can book 7 night cruise in a GS with the same price” . Your coworkers are tired to hear stories why cruise is the best vacation. You always have one window open on the Royal Caribbean blog site. You are checking every week if a relocation to Florida is available. You cannot sleep on the night before embarkation. You are one of the first people to arrive to the port, sometimes before the porters. You are trying to buy swimsuit in the middle of the winter. You know exactly what you are going to do with your yearly bonus. In the gym you listen to a podcast of someone a very fast talker instead of music like everyone else. You are not interested in Gold or Platinum jewelries only Diamonds     When you return from a few days out of office someone always ask you, again a cruise? You know periscope is not something you find only in a submarine  You develop resilience for bad designed cruise company web sites When you a see a washroom the words Washi Washi and a certain animation song comes to your head (and stays for long time) .. When you consider to adopt a pet you first think who can take care of it for at least a 7 night periods. You still believes in fairies (well at least in the upgrade ones)  
So say yourself, My name is ……  and I am Loyal to Royal

The $7.95 is whole cruise.
Depending on your cell provider the on board cellular@sea may be an option to consider.  It tends to be expensive per minute for voice.  Turn off data roaming.
If you get a call and you need to talk longer hang up, buy Voom at that point and call them back with a wifi call. 

If you have a balcony cabin, you can pretty much go topless or bottomless whenever the fancy hits you.  However, I just wouldn't recommend doing that on a day the ship is in a port. 

This is what I got a few years ago when they first started the drink package thing. I think they ran out of the real things and were scraping the bottom of the barrel, so to speak.

Sadly, I'm not made of money like some of y'all.
Why do you think I'm still C&A Rust class?

O M G its cold on the pool deck.  Alaska was warmer.
Seas have settled down and we've slowed to 18 knots.  We've passed the entrance to the Chesapeake.   


Another crummy iPhone pic of the sunset. 

And with that its time for a glass of red wine to warm me up.  Vintages here I come...

Quantum didn't have the coffee bar; nice addition.  But what I don't see is the amazing bakery area that Quantum has.  We spent many a visit standing in front of the ovens, waiting for those hot cookies to come out and be transferred to the serving counter.   Hot cookies, yummmmm.  The chef would tell you what kind were baking, and would even hint as to when they'd be planning on baking other varieties.  The smells in that area alone were worth the wait, even if it wasn't one of our favorites baking. 

The BOGO coupons do not apply to drink packages. If you want to take advantage of BOGO offer, you'd need to pay for the drink outside of the drink package benefits.

Yes!  I suspect I may need to stop at a truck scale to weigh myself out of fear of breaking my regular bathroom scales at home.
 
I've never felt it to be too narrow so maybe it's just the camera angles.
 

Let's talk Windjammer.

Located on deck 14 towards aft with entrances on port and starboard.  The Windjammer shares the starboard side entrance with the Coastal Kitchen, the suite restaurant. 
There is ample seating from what I've experienced




The food areas are central to all the seating and generally duplicated from one side to the other.




Near the Pan Asia section are omelette stations on each side during breakfast hours.

There are drink stations on both sides and in the rear sections as well.

The dessert stations are mixed into the seating near the windows on each side.


There is a coffee bar within the Windjammer.

There is also a regular bar on the starboard side where the fresh squeezed orange juice can be found (included with the deluxe drink package).

A feature I like is the outdoor Windjammer seating area aft.  I've eaten many meals out there.  They typically don't open the rear seating sections including the outdoor seating right when the WJ opens in the morning to reduce the footprint that the cleaning staff have to tend to but as crowds build those sections do open up.

Having spent 17 nights on the Anthem I am quite satisfied with the Windjammer for breakfast and lunch.  I've eaten dinner mostly in the MDR so I haven't visited the WJ in the evening.  I've never had an issue finding a table and the flow of traffic around the food serving areas has never been an issue.

Day  -2  ,
As I suspected I woke up around 3 am due to the jetlag which mean I only slept  3 hour.
To avoid waking up my spouse I moved to the second room to watch some TV and go over emails I guess getting the upgrade at the hotel was useful.
The hotel itself is very near Universal, almost a walking distance, we consider this option (walking) but somehow we picked the coldest day so far in Orlando and it was rainy (we actually brought the cold front with us) . I was waiting until 7 am for the guest service to open so  I could reserve the shuttle ride to the park.
The early shuttle was already full  I had to settle for the next one which I did not like too much as I wanted to be there early to avoid some of the crowds, the other option was to use the car but I remembered it will take more time (queue , parking , walking).
After quick breakfast we took the shuttle to the park (5 minute drive) and walked to the entrance.
There is some magic with those park (if I am allowed to use the word magic for Universal) I mean, if you come with the right mode, allowing yourself to leave any cynical feeling at the gate (not easy for me I admit) and just have fun it can be a great  experience , in other words, let’s face it you can  feel like a child again for few hours.
We went directly  to the Diagon alley which was under contraction last time we visit the park (too long ago I guess , shame on us well mainly on me) , the waiting time for the ride (the escape from Gringotts)  was less than 10 minutes so I even did not bothered to use the express pass I bought.
I enjoy the ride although I think the older ride at the other park (the Forbidden Journey) is still better.
After the ride we went to drink the warm butterbeer , yes they serve it warm also and the cold day was perfect for that, another thing you need to forget when you are at a theme park is  counting calories (you start to see the similarity to a cruise right ?) .
We wanted to take advantage on the short lines during the morning so we jumped on the Hogwarts express to move to the adventure island.
We reach there just on time to do the forbidden journey ride as the waiting time was again only 10 minutes, I love to go to a theme park when it’s cold and rainy, lines are much better !
We went and did all the other attraction we planned to do there, took something to eat and did again (this time using the express pass) the forbidden journey, although on a full stomach it’s a different experience, still loved it.
We took the train back to Universal studio to do the rest of the attractions we skipped before, including some of my favorites like the mommy revenge and the new ride with Jimmy Fallon which was hilarious.
We did again the escape from Gringotts just in time to see the Macys parade.
Although it was still quite early we were both tired and since we done already most of the attractions we wanted we headed back to the hotel.
It was a perfect day
 

Almost drunk post before going to bed.
I met some very nice people in various places tonight.  It started in the Diamond lounge.  I met some nice folks then moved over to the bar area as seating opened up and talked with some more nice folks who will be on my next Anthem cruise mid-January as well.  I warned them I'll likely forget their names and they jokingly promised to do the same (I'm bad with names).
Later in Michael's Pub at the bar I met more nice folks and as usual Suzie the bar manager kept us all happy. 
This is what I love about cruising - even solo, you meet all sorts of nice people. 
'We Will Rock You' was playing in the main theater and I'm glad I saw it for a second time.  For Sky/Star class guests, reserved seating is on deck 5 center upper balcony with great site lines.
Tonight we change our clocks back to Eastern time so we get the hour back that was stolen from us (in the Captain's words).
We've slowed a bit down to 20 kts.  I fear long pants during the day is soon upon us.  A tweet from a guest on Grandeur in Baltimore showed a cruise ship with snow on it.  What? Really?  I know someone on that ship so hopefully the snow melts soon during that cruise.  Also hoping they took the cruise ship snow quota for the year, otherwise I'll likely be in the Solarium hot tub watching it snow outside from this point forward. 

Some housekeeping items...
I know @Sabrinaklai has an early departure from Anthem on a future cruise as do I from this cruise.  Anthem offers a "Self Carry" option.  There is a note in cabin paperwork to book it by day 8 of this 12 night cruise.  You can visit guest services or book it as an excursion in the RoyalIQ app.  There are three times offered, 6:30am, 7:15am and 8am.



I don't know what happens if you don't book it.  I think its just a way for them not to have to drop off luggage tags in your cabin and to know how many might be taking this option. 
RoyalIQ has been buggy for me but with the new app coming I'm not too worried about it.
You can't sign out pool towels using a Wow band.  They tried 4 times before they gave up and just used my cabin number.  Same trying to return them.  Here's hoping it didn't record 4 towels out and only 1 back.  I'll have to watch my account on the last morning.
From a wind and waves perspective we've had it pretty good.  Last night before we tucked back into the Caribbean Sea we had some swells and everyone was walking like a drunken sailor.  Not very bad, just enough to cause a few wobbly steps.  I use an app called 'Windy' that forecasts winds and it's seems we may have some to contend with on the sea days back to Bayonne.  I'm okay with it, it doesn't bother me but I'll take it easy on drinks.  The wind forecast for next Tuesday calls for that red area off the East coast. 
 
Voom hasn't been as good for wifi calls on Anthem as it was on Freedom a couple weeks ago.  Several call drops and having to re-dial and several 'can you hear me now" moments. For other use beyond wifi calls it's been pretty good and consistently 4M down, 2M up - the new Voom Surf and Stream standard it seems (except Harmony).
Having access to Diamond perks especially the nightly drinks has been great.  After having the drink package on the first cruise drink fatigue is real and I haven't finished my own bottles of wine I brought with me.  It's nice being able to get bottled water in the Diamond lounge during evening happy hour and the concierge there is a great asset.    

Day 2 Sea Day
Mixed weather today.  Mostly cloudy.  Rain at times.  Sun trying to peak through at times.  
Jumped into Northstar again. Northstar had a little bit more of a bumpy ride today. 

In completely unrelated news, I am going to nominate @twangster for message board user of the year!

Don't forget about the $10 watch sale.  My wife buys one every year because it's cheaper than buying new watch batteries.  Me, I don't wear one.  My wife tells me where to go and when.  :-)  

Between the wonky IT and confused RC agents thank goodness we all have each other on this site lol!