twangster

I booked my parents to cruise with us December 2018 on Anthem. This is a present for my Dad who's retiring after working for over 60 years. Woohoo Dad!!! Mom is a retired teacher. So grateful to be able to do this for my parents.

As I sit here writing this it dawns on me this feels like a completely different cruise.   You might be thing thinking, DUH!  it is a different cruise!  
We have different entertainment acts on board.  I saw some folks with instruments in the terminal waiting to board so I knew we would be getting some different acts.  From the comedian in the Welcome Aboard Show to the band in the Music Hall. 
Something I missed the last cruise was a Two70 show at 9:45pm on day 1 to illustrate what the venue can do.  The show is called 'Two70 Tonight' and it's a sampler of different types of Two70 entertainment .  It's quite an amazing venue that cost $37M.
Eighteen individual projectors that need to be synched.

Throw in some aerial artists...


Then some awesome projected effects...

Plus a Symphony.  Hmmm,  Symphony... sounds familiar for some reason.

Then some singers and a band...

More aerial artistry.

Then Dance In a Box.  Too hard to explain but it really shows what the robotic flat panels can do.


Some aquarium time...

You have to see this live to get it.  Quite impressive to a geek like me.
Off to the Music Hall.  The Journey cover band has been replaced by a Led Zeppelin cover band.  Cool!


I thought I would be able to skip some stuff assuming it would just be repeats from last week.  Yeah, that's not going to work.   I better get some sleep.

As I sit here writing this it dawns on me this feels like a completely different cruise.   You might be thing thinking, DUH!  it is a different cruise!  
We have different entertainment acts on board.  I saw some folks with instruments in the terminal waiting to board so I knew we would be getting some different acts.  From the comedian in the Welcome Aboard Show to the band in the Music Hall. 
Something I missed the last cruise was a Two70 show at 9:45pm on day 1 to illustrate what the venue can do.  The show is called 'Two70 Tonight' and it's a sampler of different types of Two70 entertainment .  It's quite an amazing venue that cost $37M.
Eighteen individual projectors that need to be synched.

Throw in some aerial artists...


Then some awesome projected effects...

Plus a Symphony.  Hmmm,  Symphony... sounds familiar for some reason.

Then some singers and a band...

More aerial artistry.

Then Dance In a Box.  Too hard to explain but it really shows what the robotic flat panels can do.


Some aquarium time...

You have to see this live to get it.  Quite impressive to a geek like me.
Off to the Music Hall.  The Journey cover band has been replaced by a Led Zeppelin cover band.  Cool!


I thought I would be able to skip some stuff assuming it would just be repeats from last week.  Yeah, that's not going to work.   I better get some sleep.

Our arrival back to Bayonne:






Now I know how Super Mario felt when he told me on Freedom "Get Off My Ship!". 

 
B2B process:
We were asked to be in Boleros at 9:15am.  At 9:45am they escorted us off.  They collected our SeaPass cards as we scanned them to leave the ship.  As a group they held us in the terminal waiting for our new SeaPass cards before seeing customs.  After 20 minutes we formed a single file line for a separate customs officer and then a u-turn back in the direction we came.  We never did enter the terminal where I waited to board the first cruise.  We were now in the area where you would get your luggage and queue up for customs.  The doors to customs area now closed we were in a vast mostly empty section of the building where they set up rows of seats and escorted Sky Class to sit.  It was like we were on display with a crowd of zoo visitors curiously looking at us from their seats.  I'm sure they were wondering 'who are these people?'.  Right around 11am they allowed us to re-board.   That makes it 1h 15m off ship.  
I immediately went to Guest Services to get my Wow band re-coded to my new room.  Since I had the same muster station I was able to re-use mine from the first cruise.  I knew that was the case and why I paid the $5 to buy one.  For my Anthem cruise in January I'm far forward on port.  I suspect I'll be A2 so my E2 Wow band won't be re-useable.
It didn't take long for the crowds to build and with folks pushing, pulling or dragging their carry on luggage it felt very crowded and very slow to get around.  
Originally the signs said cabins would be ready by 1pm but at 1pm the same signs now said 2pm.  
Consecutive cruisers were treated to a sit down lunch in The Chic restaurant ay noon.  Quite tasty.

Muster drill didn't use scanners to record guest presence like it did on cruise 1 for some reason.  Instead they were writing down everyone's cabin number on paper.  This slowed it down a lot.  At least I was in Two70 sitting down.  It was about 25m long and immediately after releasing us we began to push away from the pier.
Anthem muster locations:

It took roughly 30 minutes to reach the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.  It was much colder this time, 49 degrees and our cruise director staff were absent from the pool deck doing the bridge countdown.

And in even more unrelated news I booked the Symphony TA in October as soon as I re-boarded at the Next Cruise desk.  Symphony, here I come!  Somebody stop me!

And in even more unrelated news I booked the Symphony TA in October as soon as I re-boarded at the Next Cruise desk.  Symphony, here I come!  Somebody stop me!

Last night (or early this morning) I commited a PUI.  Packing Under the Influence. At some point last night I lost the lens cap for my fisheye.  Might have been the whisky, might have been the gin.  Could have been the 2, 4 or 6 pack.  I woke when we started backing into our slip in Bayonne.  
I'm sitting in Boleros waiting to do the B2B customs process.  There are roughly 30 to 40  of us here.  My battery is dead on my laptop but I have some NYC sunrise photos I'll share once I'm back on board.  

I don't always live blog my cruises,

 
But when I do I live blog on RoyalCarribeanBlog.com.  Live from my balcony.
Note to @Matt - need a full screen logo ?
 

Christmas decorations went up while we were in Nassau.  I caught this photo earlier in the day while they were assembling the tree.

Note they also placed a Menorah to the right of Michael's.





They were starting to add festive bling to Guest Services as I headed off to bed.

 

Tonight's show was "We Will Rock You" in the main theater.  Given how quick the MDR was tonight I had time to run to Vintages for a glass of wine before the show.  
The show started off a bit slow for me and I was wondering what I got myself into.  As it progressed I began to warm up to it more and more.  Roughly halfway through I was really enjoying it and by the end I was on my feet applauding with the rest of the theater.  Don't miss it, especially if you like Rock and the music of Queen.
I plan to go again next cruise but from the upper level so I can see the band who sit in four boxes stage left and right on the second level and were hard to see from front and center.

Fine.  But no steenking pictures of a gym or any other workout area!!!
 
I'm pretty sure I've gained about 10 pounds just reading your blogs!!!!

We are planning Alaska on Ovation in 2020.  My oldest graduates college that year and we want to do something special. Going to be awesome!! 

Woohoo!  See @WAAAYTOOO it pays to be a suck up! 
Since I've still got nearly two weeks on board Anthem I've been thinking how to blog this out.  I think I'm going to focus on various venues making each one the highlight of post.  Windjammer one day, Solarium another day, SeaPlex, Two70, Vintages, pool deck, etc.  They say a picture speaks a thousand words so I'll try to let the photos do the talking. 

Woohoo!  See @WAAAYTOOO it pays to be a suck up! 
Since I've still got nearly two weeks on board Anthem I've been thinking how to blog this out.  I think I'm going to focus on various venues making each one the highlight of post.  Windjammer one day, Solarium another day, SeaPlex, Two70, Vintages, pool deck, etc.  They say a picture speaks a thousand words so I'll try to let the photos do the talking. 

A short video covering some of the new technology RCCL is working on. Really loving their plans for the app.
(Despite the joke in the title it is 100% safe for work)
 

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

I don't always live blog my cruises,

 
But when I do I live blog on RoyalCarribeanBlog.com.  Live from my balcony.
Note to @Matt - need a full screen logo ?
 

I resemble that remark!

omg twangster the photos thankyou I am planning my cruise on the anthem WOW your pictures I wish I could see pix from our freedom cruise nov 11

I don't always live blog my cruises,

 
But when I do I live blog on RoyalCarribeanBlog.com.  Live from my balcony.
Note to @Matt - need a full screen logo ?
 

Day 5 - Nassau
I woke early while it was still dark out and spotted a couple ships in the distance lining up to arrive into port.
As the sun rose I could make out the familiar shape of an RCI ship in the distance.

As she entered the harbor I realized it's Majesty of the Seas who we met upon our arrival in Port Canaveral a few days ago.

I'm trying to arrange a cruise on her but since she only does shorter cruises and I have to fly to Florida so I am struggling to find the right combination of ships and dates as I plan a 'Tour de Petite Ships'.

An NCL ship also arrived into port this morning.
I have a smile on my face today.  While many on board are waking up to the realization they only have two nights left, I still have two weeks.  

I don't always live blog my cruises,

 
But when I do I live blog on RoyalCarribeanBlog.com.  Live from my balcony.
Note to @Matt - need a full screen logo ?
 

I don't always live blog my cruises,

 
But when I do I live blog on RoyalCarribeanBlog.com.  Live from my balcony.
Note to @Matt - need a full screen logo ?