twangster

Games start 7am this Sunday, followed by 10:25am. Sleep in and you've missed most of it. Might make spouses happier though. Still lots of daylight for the honey-do list afterwards.

@Oliver is correct. No reservations required on Indy. First come, first seated. It's generally not a problem on this size of size. Reservations were first introduced on the mega ships because of the numbers of guests versus seats in the venues.

@mpoole3's cruising days are over. If we can wait a decade, he might start cruising again.

Engines are out of their control, Boeing doesn't make engines. Speaking of engines, they are the most expensive component on a wide body jet. Know what the 2nd most expensive item is?

Assuming the girls aren’t paying for their cabin this seems like a reasonable approach.

That door is so big it covers the whole bed when closed.

Nights 2, 3 & 4. While the ship's master clock has changed, the itinerary channel and the billing system is slower to catch up. Diamond drink coupons have to be entered manually at the bars since the billing system doesn't think it's diamond happy hour when it is.

Starts in Canada so not an issue. Last year on the Adventure snowbird migration several hundred debarked in Port Canaveral. There is a small admin fee, like $75 or something.

Quantum class does deviate from the previous evolution of Royal ships. No Viking Crown Lounge, Promenade replaced by Esplanade. MDR isn't one large space but four distinct rooms. No slides. However they have other features no other ships in the fleet have. IMO people don't like change or different. In their mind different = bad. I personally love these ships.

Welcome to the message boards! See this page for details and contact info: https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/partial-cruise-request

Every 5 years all ships must go into dry dock. It's mostly technical work below the waterline. Scraping growth off, repainting the hull. Replacing seals, cleaning bilges. Boring stuff for the average cruise guest but something all ships have to do on a periodic basis. While cruise passengers think of dry docks as a time when guest areas get updates, the truth is dry docks occur on all ships, cargo, container, tanker, cruise ship and so on. Their true purpose is marine maintenance. It is required every five years or their insurance certificate to operate will be revoked. For older ships since the ship is out of service they will often use this time to perform updates in guest areas. The ship is empty of guests so it's a good time to do work in guest areas. On a newer ship like Anthem there is not as much work to do in guest areas. They'll drain pools and repaint them, replace worn carpet, fix small things like any broken tiles in the floor. Most guests will never see the small things they do. Launched in 2015 so 2020 is a mandatory dry dock and her very first routine dry dock. Her next one will be in 2025.

RoyalIQ has been hit and miss for years. I think that's why they gave up on it and created the new app a few years ago. I could take your description and post it verbatim for an Anthem cruise in 2017. The new app is missing massive amounts of cruise compass items. That too is consistent with my new Royal app experience on other ships over the past 12 months. It's a work in progress. One day I hope to no longer need to say that. Any year now...

New experience for me - the Monday Night Football game was shown in the pub and on channel 40. We've crossed so many time zones and changed times enough that the game started at 3:45pm. I'm used to watching MNF in the evening. It was kind of bizarre walking past the pub and seeing football on TV. Who knew? An afternoon, MNF game :) Just wait until Thursday and this coming Sunday when we've moved the clock a few more times.

Day 4 - Sea Day Quick update on position and conditions. Temperature around 72°F and some sun today (yesterday was overcast). Calm seas with a gentle swell from the West. Our position on day 4. Voom holding up well, 4Mb down, 2Mb up. For these sea days I'm basically working much like I would from land. I'm holding back from posting a lot until we get to Hawaii. There is a lot going on around the ship. Enrichment talks continue. Shows are going on. Bumper cars are bumping, North Star is doing it's thing. Weather getting warmer with each passing day as we sail South, supposed to be high 70's tomorrow. Time changing 1 hour each night. Next update in a day or maybe two.

Yes.

3 night cruises have the most expensive DX rates, followed by 4 night, then 5 night and so on. It seems 2020 rates are high because it's far out. 2021 rates even higher. They are protecting themselves and hoping to catch folks that don't know to watch for sales. Expect these to drop as they move closer, watch for "sales".

The tour is $25 booked directly. I paid $82 on sale through Royal, regular price was $109 but that includes transportation both ways. I looked at Uber while there and it was $87 one way. For me solo it made sense booking it through Royal as I couldn't get there and back for the $57 difference. For a family a rental car for the day might make more sense combined with buying the tour directly. They do have a height requirement though so small kids wouldn't be able to go and would probably be bored. It was popular enough to warrant two excursion times. There were 50 guests on the 8am time slot. Unsure about the later time. No traffic on the way there on a Saturday morning but we hit traffic on the way back. It's Seattle, so traffic is a thing even on weekends.

Enrichment talk in Two70° today. History of Owahai, the original name for Hawaii. Very interesting historical information. I really appreciate these types of sessions being offered. I understand there are more coming building on today's lecture.

Housekeeping items... O3b internet is back! While in Alaska Ovation used the old legacy satellites. Now that we are staying within range we are using the newer O3b satellites. Yay! I asked the hostess at Coastal Kitchen about Junior Suite access for dinner. It's accommodated on a space available basis. NFL coverage. Two stations added to the channel line up. Channel 40 and 41 have East/West games. Channel 40 is labeled Sunday/Monday/Thursday. Channel 41 is Sunday only. Early games Jets/Patriots and Ravens/Chiefs. Late games Texans/Chargers and Saints/Seattle. We changed time last night. Current time is 4 hours off Eastern time. We change time again tonight. By the numbers (of guests): Australian 367 Brazil 27 Canada 860 China 41 Germany 91 Great Britain 41 Ireland 18 Israel 15 Mexico 70 New Zealand 55 United States 2,588 Children on board 238

Day Three - Sea Day We have a gentle swell coming at us broadside from the West. This is basically what my view will be for the next five days. Not bad.

After dinner I caught a sunset over the Olympic Mountains. Always beautiful. Following the Joy out towards the Pacific. I seem to gravitate to the North Star bar. Solarium at sunset.

Dinner in the Solarium Bistro. Dinner is part buffet style and part full service for entrees. Order your main entree then grab your own appetizers from the buffet. I was able to use a Diamond happy hour drink for a glass of wine. There are two items, Lobster Tails and Lamb Chops that cost extra. Other than those extra cost items the meal is included in your base cruise fare. The New York Strip is not of my favorite cuts of meat but in the name of the blog I thought I'd sample one here. Not bad as New York Strip steaks go. All in all a nice "free" dinner experience as an alternative to the MDR.

Back to the ship around 1:30pm in time for lunch and a picture of the ongoing loading of supplies for the long repositioning cruise. With no luggage to load they could devote the entire day to loading cargo and supplies. Some sail away drama as four returning guests were missing. You know what that means... pier runners! As it turns out some of these guests are a few doors down from me. I saw security knock and then enter their cabin looking for them. They were documenting everything with their body cameras. On a another cruise I learned the process they follow that most of us never see when guests are late returning to the ship. The security officers stayed outside the cabin waiting for instructions to retrieve passports and wallets from the safe. Those would be left with the port agent at the pier should the ship leave without the guests. We waited for them and left 70 minutes late. A dock worker played the Sax as we pulled away from the pier. Finally underway now following the NCL Joy that should have been long after us.

Future of Flight and Boeing Factory Tour Meeting in the theater we eventually led out to our bus for the ~45 minute drive North to Everett, WA. They don't allow cameras or phones on the factory tour but you can use them in the tour entrance building and outdoor observation deck. Historic Paine field where many wide body Boeing jets have taken their first flight after leaving the factory assembling building to the left and the paint building near center across the runway. There are over 30 finished planes waiting for delivery to their future airlines. The gray planes are refueling tankers for the Air Force. The white planes with their wing tips turned up are early 777X test planes. The 777X will release next year, it's currently in development. The plane uses extra long composite wings for increased lift but to fit in at existing airports the last 11 feet of the wing turn upward on the ground so they can fit at normal gates. Another early model 777X clad in the green protective vinyl coating that is applied during the assembly process to prevent dings and scratches on the factory floor. The two paint buildings where all wide body jets made here are painted. Inside the tour building they have some displays including a full size 747-8 tail. Up close you realize just how massive it is. The next generation of the popular wide body 777 will be the 777X. Tail section of fuselage from the inside. What the wall of the plane looks like without the decorative panels we all see when we fly. This 787X has been clad with a body wrap graphics instead of using paint. Paint adds significant weight that is carried like cargo. By reducing weight over the lifecycle of a plane airlines can save money. Free lockers are provided for personal items since nothing is allowed on the tour. The factory tour consisted of a bus ride over to the factory assembly buildings We walked through a tunnel to a freight elevator where we went up to an observation floor overlooking the factory floor. It's amazing to see so many very large wide body jets being built. First up was the 747 and 767 assembly lines. Next we went to the 777 assembly line. Pretty mind blowing. Unfortunately no pictures. The tour lasted 90 minutes before we were bussed back to the tour entrance building.

Day Two - Seattle We arrived early at around 5am. A low cloud cover hung over the city like a fog. They had a lot to load onto the ship. While we loaded passengers and luggage in Vancouver we didn't load any other supplies or fuel in Vancouver. Instead that would be done today. The cruise goes on past Hawaii to Sydney. I suspect they have loaded as much frozen and non-perishables as they could to minimize having to re-supply everything in Hawaii. Instead they'll take on perishables and fresh fruit there but much of the frozen supplies and beer/wine/alcohol would be brought on in Seattle.