twangster

In my experience people from NJ/NY (where the majority of Anthem guests are from) aren't shy when it comes to expressing their feelings, right or wrong.  
I got eye rolls from people in the Aqua Theater on Allure when we slipped into a few remaining seats in the Sky Class reserved section just before they opened it up.  Like somehow we were doing them wrong by using a benefit we paid for.  Oh well, pay for a purple card next time...

We all want more and new but few are willing to pay higher cruise fares to get it. 
The Broadway shows on Royal ships are a pretty significant investment that are licensed and tightly controlled by the original content holder.  Royal goes to great lengths to adapt them to work on a ship but all of that is under the control of the folks who own the rights to the shows.  Royal can't even move a show from one ship to another without modifying the contract, much like moving a Broadway show from a theater in Denver to a theater in Chicago.  Not all Broadway shows can be adapted to work on a ship or the people who own the rights to a show may not approve set changes required to make it work on a ship or even a different class of ship.
I loved 'We Will Rock You' and enjoyed it more each time.  I've heard they were trying to negotiate to add it to another ship.  As you can imagine it's much less expensive to duplicate an existing show compared to all the developmental costs to add a new show. 
'We Will Rock You' has a cast of 16 if I recall.  Each cast has an 11 month contract and will be replaced by another cast who begins to rehearse in Royal's Miami studios 2 months before they reach the ship to replace the current cast.  There is a separate cast of 11 for the shows in Two70° on Anthem.  Think about that for all the Broadway and other shows and all ships that have them. That's a staggering amount of human capital involved across the fleet.  On Anthem the same cast does 'The Gift'.  On Liberty the cast doing 'Saturday Night Fever' also do the Aerial show which is a completely different skill set. 
The cost for the cast alone is pretty significant for these shows that are included in the base cruise fare.  Invest millions more to bring a new show to a ship like Symphony or leverage a previous investment such as Hairspray?  Considering many cruisers are not even Broadway show fans and will pan any show I can understand why it's Hairspray.

Sad robot, made obsolete by a human blogger.  Sigh...

Too many maybe and what if stuff for me.   While we know that Mariner and Navigator will spend some time in the short cruise market we don't know for how long.  Royal is very good at watching and understanding sales trends.   If the desired effect doesn't happen they'll be moved again. It will be interesting to see if they can fill these ships cruise after cruise or if they'll just be filled by local FL top tier C&A scoring cheap fares which I doubt is the goal.   
The long term plans for the smallest and oldest ships has always been in question. Old ships aren't fuel efficient.  They lack space to add newer activities and venues many cruisers seek.  Regardless if they can continue to operate them making a profit they likely will.  If they begin losing money, they'll likely go.  Royal is a business not a museum for old ships.  
As far as Freedom class speculating about their future is fun but just that - speculation.   We could all throw out wild guesses and predictions most of which will be wrong.  They can go places OA class cannot.   Fleet upgrades and modernization has always been and will continue to be part of cruising.   A couple of years ago (2013ish) Carnival announced Fun Ship 2.0.   They are still rolling that out to the fleet through upgrades and modernizations.   Only time will tell what happens to Freedom class but they too will be reimagined just like voyager and radiance class.  
Like an airline, they need to right size the ship on each itinerary otherwise ships will sail too empty to maximize revenue.  The airlines stopped using 747 on domestic routes a long time ago.   An all-Oasis class fleet is highly unlikely.  

They need to like all cruise lines do and not just 'millennials' which is an over-used stereotype IMO.  Looking towards the future they need to begin cultivating the next generation of guests beyond my life expectancy.  Otherwise they'll have only a diminishing customer base.
While I enjoyed Celebrity I sail Royal because of the young vibe, family orientation and lots of things to keep an old guy like me young.  There are cruise lines out there that are well suited to an older, refined crowd that has no interest in water parks and slides. 
To each their own, but I'm looking forward to it even if some things are beyond my activity levels.  It's fun being around people having fun. 

I tried to record some on my phone for you but the screen broke.

Calling all Alaska group cruisers!  This is your mission.

I tried to record some on my phone for you but the screen broke.

If you hear me singing it indicates there has been excessive alcohol consumption.  In that event I can only promise that you'll truly appreciate the ship's entertainment and probably karaoke that much more.

If you hear me singing it indicates there has been excessive alcohol consumption.  In that event I can only promise that you'll truly appreciate the ship's entertainment and probably karaoke that much more.

Well done!

Yours has more views and I would argue is better.  Mine just has fancy photos :)

You can also check out the live blog just completed last week (in March) by @Sabrinaklai
https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/5780-anthem-of-the-seas-march-9-17-2018/

Hello Everyone, 
I recently cruised on Allure of the Seas in February and filmed a video of our trip. Please take a look and let me know your thoughts!  We had a wonderful time and enjoyed perfect weather sailing the Western Caribbean!
Thanks,
Ryan
 
 

From time to time I see people asking about what drinks are included in the Coca-Cola Freestyle drink dispensers. 
@Matt has written blogs on the Freestyle machines.  Here is one from 2015:
https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2015/07/20/coca-cola-freestyle-machines-royal-caribbean
While I am on Anthem I have some free time so I grabbed some pictures of all the Freestyle drink menus.  
Let's start with the main menu:
 
From here you can see the types of drinks available in each category.  First are two pages for the "All Drinks" category:
 
 
Here are the types of drinks available within each option:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
And of course plain water:
 
The same drinks are sorted by "Low/No Calories" options:
 
The same drinks sorted by "Caffeine Free" options:
 
Finally the same drinks are sorted by flavor:
 
Here are the Cherry drinks:
 
 
Orange drinks:
 
 
Raspberry drinks:
 
 
Grape drinks:
 
Lemon drinks:
 
 
Peach drinks:
 
 
Strawberry drinks:
 
 
Lime drinks:
 
 
Fruit Punch drinks:
 
Vanilla drinks:
 
Cherry Vanilla drinks:
 
Mixed Berry drinks:
 
For those that are asking what is a Freestyle drink dispenser?  
Certain Royal Caribbean ships have these Freestyle drink dispensers.  See the blog above for a list of ships that have them.
 
Freestyle dispensers work only with special cups provided with beverage packages.  The souvenir cups have a chip embedded in the base that is read by the machine when you place the cup into the machine.  There are various designs that are provided.
 
When a cup is first used it is registered in the system and an expiry date is assigned.  The expiry date is usually a few days longer than your cruise.
 
The machines also function as ice dispensers.
Lastly, these menus were captured in January 2018.   It's possible that menus will vary over time and by ship.   
 

The sales are really for new cruisers who don't know any better.  The marketing campaigns are aimed to draw attention and they do.  I see newbies on other forums claiming how they just got a cruise on sale.  It's very competitive and Royal is just keeping up with the competition who does the same thing.  I had to unsubscribe from NCL for this reason - spam emails basically. 
If you are lonely and desire for your phone to ring, sign into NCL Latitudes, browse some cruises then don't book.  Within 24 hours a cruise specialist will be calling to assist you - guaranteed.    At one point I changed my number in my profile to a bogus number.  Apologies to who ever has 867-5309. 

@Floski and @Skid thank you for your kind words.  I had so much fun with it! Normally on a cruise, my family would do stuff and I would find quiet moments to read. This time, I just replaced those moments with blog time. It was much more enjoyable! 
As far as next cruise, you know where I'll be, you could always come with, it would make for an even more interesting live blog lol!

It's way warmer in Colorado today than Bayonne.  Running errands in a t-shirt around town.  

Exactly,  which is why they seek the warmth of the Caribbean, not the snow of New Jersey.

Royal Caribbean has 'suggestions' but not a strict dress code.  Depending on cruise length there is often 1 or 2 formal nights, sometimes a smart casual night and the rest are casual nights.
Here are some blogs @Matt wrote on the subject:
https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2017/01/02/5-questions-about-what-wear-royal-caribbean-cruise
https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2018/01/01/everything-you-need-know-about-formal-night-royal-caribbean-cruise
https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2017/04/06/royal-caribbean-updates-dining-room-dress-code-again-and-removes-shorts
This is a heated topic on many cruise forums with some people taking the suggestions and becoming highly opinionated about people who don't follow them versus many people who view a cruise as a vacation away from suits or business wear and they intentionally do not bring anything 'formal'.
 

Exactly,  which is why they seek the warmth of the Caribbean, not the snow of New Jersey.

Too many maybe and what if stuff for me.   While we know that Mariner and Navigator will spend some time in the short cruise market we don't know for how long.  Royal is very good at watching and understanding sales trends.   If the desired effect doesn't happen they'll be moved again. It will be interesting to see if they can fill these ships cruise after cruise or if they'll just be filled by local FL top tier C&A scoring cheap fares which I doubt is the goal.   
The long term plans for the smallest and oldest ships has always been in question. Old ships aren't fuel efficient.  They lack space to add newer activities and venues many cruisers seek.  Regardless if they can continue to operate them making a profit they likely will.  If they begin losing money, they'll likely go.  Royal is a business not a museum for old ships.  
As far as Freedom class speculating about their future is fun but just that - speculation.   We could all throw out wild guesses and predictions most of which will be wrong.  They can go places OA class cannot.   Fleet upgrades and modernization has always been and will continue to be part of cruising.   A couple of years ago (2013ish) Carnival announced Fun Ship 2.0.   They are still rolling that out to the fleet through upgrades and modernizations.   Only time will tell what happens to Freedom class but they too will be reimagined just like voyager and radiance class.  
Like an airline, they need to right size the ship on each itinerary otherwise ships will sail too empty to maximize revenue.  The airlines stopped using 747 on domestic routes a long time ago.   An all-Oasis class fleet is highly unlikely.  

Exactly,  which is why they seek the warmth of the Caribbean, not the snow of New Jersey.

The NY/NJ harbor is pretty busy and most times a harbor tour isn't authorized by the port authority.  It isn't that Royal wouldn't love to make this a standard part of the cruise, but it's out of their hands and in the hands of local officials.  Of 3 Anthem cruises It happened once for me.  I documented it in this live blog:
https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/5387-anthem-11919-9-night-bahamas/&do=findComment&comment=54519