Traveler

Have a great cruise , one day when all the stars will aligened we will be able to join a group cruise ?

I think it will be a while.  Many people like to disconnect on a cruise and lock the phone in the safe.  The numbers of such individuals require paper CC.  Maybe 10 or 15 years from now the numbers will shift but it's going to take a while to eliminate the paper or they'll face a revolt.
And that's assuming they get the app to properly represent the actual activities on the ship which could be 50 years away.

So some updates:
As I have not drive to Milan to pick my forgotten cellphone (we had much better time going to Cinque Terre) I been able to retrieve it last week which was good. Although I got alternative phone with the same numbers still for some reason some of my pictures were not transferred to the cloud so it's good I got them now. (Including some very valuable cruise pictures) . If you using Google photos , check if the backup is working from time to time.
Anyway as our next cruise is almost two months from know (Greek Islands) we decided to take my father's offer to join the for a long weekend in other par of Greece (so I can do so e research before the cruise and taste the local cousin , plus to find a good resturant for @mom2mybugs in Athens ? )
Here are so e pictures from Pielon Greece if anyone looks for a shore excursion ? . Although it's a sea it's feels more like a lake  , clear clean water




Day 2- Mallorca 
It is the fourth time we visit this Island but the first time we planned a shore excursion using RCL , during all the pervious visits we just took the shuttle to the city and roam by ourselves. The excursion meeting time was 8:20 am so yes another night excursion. Around 7:30 we woke up, quick treatment in the sarcophage ( or the tardis, although the last should be much bigger in the inside) which RCL refer as the shower and of we went to the first breakfast. We choose the park cafe as it is much less crowded than the WJ and we like the bagels option. We went to the meeting point and after around 5 minutes we did our way to the bus . The excursion took us to the north part of the island, the guide was from the school of thoughts of I "I must say something until we reach the first point even if I run out of what to say so I will just repeat what I said before" lucky for me she was also monotonic so I felt a sleep for a while. The first point of the tour was some old house which had a small museum and very nice landscape , we roam it for a while and went to the nice backyard to take some pictures.





Next we went to a local winery for a tour and wine tasting , I must say I have been to many wine tours around the world but this one was quite impressive as the tour was done inside the real winery and some visitors center that just demonstrate how to create wine. The winery guide was very good with excellent English.





After the tour we went for some wine and food tasting , wine was good and the food that came with it was interesting. In the excursion description it said we will have three wine to taste but we finish up with four , do you  think I should complain ? Something like " dear RCL I planned to have only three wines consumed for today and yet you have tricked me in drinking four, this really hurt my feeling and made me lost trust in your company and maybe even in humanity , shame on you , please some OBC " ? . Anyway we both liked this tour although I had to take another conference call, so bought some spices and nice strawberry vinigar . We went back to the ship to catch late lunch in WJ and get some needed rest. The daily visit to the Casino followed slice of pizza in Sorento , must say the pizza taste much better than on my last few cruises. We took a frozen mojito from the Casino bar and went to see what there is in the WJ as we knew we will miss the MDR to the aqua nation show. Food was interesting and contained all of the MDR menue for today (the first official night) including the duck orange and the lobster bisque. As I was full from the pizza I just took some berries they offered





 
We grabbed another diamond drink from the Sabor bar and went to watch the aqua show , they had a towel station near the entrance as it was quite cold and people used them to cover themselves , nice touch. The show was a limited show due to the technical issue the theater still have due to the incident but it was very energetic and impressive



Post the show we roam around ending in the Latin dance party , we even dance for a while , well my spouse danced and I did some movements while need to explain people I am not suffering from a stroke. 
After all tommorow is another day 
*Sorry for any errors , I am writing this directly on my phone while waiting for someone to finish shopping
 

Day 1 Barcelona ,
As always on a cruise day I got up  around 6 am just to realize that I am going to loose this time the endless battle of “should we go to the port early as possible or not”. My spouse was so tired , the fact she just came back from a business trip to  the US did not helped. Know  to recognize a lost battle I also went back to sleep (hey if you can not beat then join them and if you can not join them then run but I do not have this option anymore ? ) @Matt any good advice how to handle it ? . Around 9:30 PM we went down to eat breakfast , took our time there  and checked out around 10:45.
15 minutes after and 23 Euros we arrived the port , no traffic at all even inside the port. There were some lines to drop the luggage as many people missed to add the tags , but it was not more than 5 minutes. Only two lines for security were established , Diamond and above and all the rest , but no queues at all. Check in was separated to regular , gold , Platinum and above + the key . Check in took 5 minutes , 4 of them as I wanted to switch my CC  I used for online check in with another. All in all it took us around 10 minutes to complete all the process and get onto the ship , Love Barcelona port , everything simple. They offer some “champagne” on deck 5, we took our internet password and went to seat at park café for a light snack,

the next station was the WJ as no boarding day can complete without visit to the WJ, interesting , it was quite empty for 12:30 PM ,  maybe since many people are coming from Europe they were flying the same day (very bad advice) the WJ food was the same old lunch food.


We went to visit the diamond club , first time for us as we just got our diamond status, we tried the coffee and took some pictures which I shared yesterday , but that time the rooms were ready so we could drop our carryon. Our luggage arrive 5 minutes after, guess the tip helped (or at least I want to think like that so I can tell some people “told you so” ? ). It took me some time searching for the walking in closet to drop the suitcase just to realize I am not in a JS this time ☹ we are in a boardwalk balcony room  ,very near the back of the ship with wonderful view of the aqua theater , the plus is the Soda package that comes with the room (yes also free meal at JR but have not decided yet if it is a plus or not)

After we finish unpacking we went to do the usual tour at the different neighborhoods , although the ship  is few month before its refurb it really good maintained and not showing her age (well I am sure if I will look very hard I will find something to complain about but hey , its not that site ?)
It already 5 PM so we said we will go and check the diamond club happy hour , the club was not full at all , the second floor was empty and there were many available tables including the ones adjusting to the big window. We took some drinks and tip whenever we got them which made the drink stronger after the second time , or at least that’s what we felt. The club continued to be empty , that’s the advantage in a  non US cruises (yap , the biggest one , not the ports right ?) here is the list of the drinks , not sure it changed or not but I will put it here anyway.



The next station was the casino were I went to get my sticker for the free drinks , for some reason its not printed on the card automatically , well it was expensive sticker . Between the diamond drinks, the casino “free” drinks and the port intensive itinerary we thought we done good not to take the drinking package.
As we booked the cruise only few weeks ago the only available seating was 8:30 PM which mean we can not use the diamond drinks there (by the way in the letter we got it says you can use them in the MDR during happy hour) so we went to one of the bars at 8:25 took glasses of wine and went to eat. The food was Ok , some better some less , we took the onion tart (too eggy for me), the BBQ ribs (very good) and the Salmon, oh we took also the Waldorf salad which was mehhh (there was one tiny piece of apple in it) , I guess first day MDR stuff. I am missing the CK , maybe if I will go up and tell them I am a follower of @Lovetocruise2002blogs they will give us to enter for one night ?

As the dinner was late we missed cats , although I am a cat person (ask my neighbors  they will tell you ) I was not that sad for missing it. We went up to rest for a while and continued to the balloon drop party which was as always nice ,
Tomorrow early day at Mallorca .
 
 
 
 

7 day cruise life cycle
Day 1 

Day 8

Day 5 Rome (part one)
We arrived around 7 am  to the port , not that I know the exact hour as I was sleeping during the process. We had a train tickets to Rome which I have booked online for 9:16 am and did not cost much (19 $ I think). When we planned to go out I noticed I can not find the tickets so we spend around 10 minutes to find them but  no luck , we decided to use the online copy I had. Quick breakfast at the diamond club and  we rushed to the shuttle bus which took its time. By the time we were near the gates it was already 9:05 , quick look in Google maps show that it will take us around 19 minutes to walk to the station. Although there is a bus to take you to the station I could not seen it so we had to think what to do . One option was to try to catch the train maybe it has some delays (quite common in Italy considering it's was not the first station for this train) and if we miss the train just to take the next one which was 30 minutes after or to take a bus/taxi. We decide to approach one of the people that offer a ride to Rome (you have there a Bazar of offers  each one try to shout loader and offer a ride) they offer a bus ride which will drop us neat the Vatican , they want 19 for return trip and agreed to 18. We boarded the bus and after 5 minutes we started our ride . During the ride they offered skip the line tickets for the Vatican, HOHO tickets for the panoramic buss and Leonardo Da Vinchi museum , we took the museum tickets which cost 12 Euro .The ride took around 70 minutes and we done our way to the museum which is near the basilica.



The museum is small but interesting enough , it contain models of his inventions and copy of is famous paintings , you also get an audio guide with interesting information . Most of the models are build to be touched so I think it's a good option for children's during an hot day.
 




Next we started our way to Navona square were we found a nice restaurant to eat lunch


. I took the truffle pasta , mind , for a change it was not a facke truffle oil but the real thing , the waiter come with a truffle mushroom and shread it over the pasta , it was very good.

We started our way to the train station planning to pass near some of the famous places but it was a very hot day so after a while we decided to call for a taxi (not before getting tone of the supermarkets to buy some Italian wine) I used the local taxi application and after 30 seconds our taxi arrived. What a relief he activated the air conditioning , not something that common around here. After few minutes and 8 Euros we arrive to Tremini train station were we schedule to meet an old friend which we did not meet for many years,  he actually leave near Rome. So we had a nice meeting over a coffee and grappa until it was time to take the train back. It was super easy to find the train and it took less than 45 minutes to arrive to Civitavecchia train station, we took the 2Euro bus back to the port , it was only 5 minutes ride, by the way , I checked the price of trains to Rome , it was 4.5 Euros if you took the early 8:40 am  train  or the 9:45 train.
Strange , the port security did not told us anything about the wine bottles so we just took it with us to the ship.
We went back to our room to get prepared for chef table which will get it's own post.
 
 
 
 

Breakfast in Naples

Day 4 - La Spezia.
What a wonderful day , finally the weather was much better and finally it was a full day without any conference calls. As I shared at the beginning of this blog my main plane was to rent a car , drive to Milan and retrieve my cell phone from the airport lost and found, but since I already got a new cell phone and my numbers were duplicated I decided it can wait. We did not had any plans because of my cellphone so we decided to take it easy and just visit the city , let our legs take us wherever it feels like. We started to walk on the boardwalk of this nice city and we were stoped by some girl offering us to buyt tickets to Portovenere which is a nice town near the bay , we said thank you but skipped it as we already visit it last time. 200 m after another one offered us a private bought tour to the same place,  we refused that also until finally we came to something which looked crowded , apparently it was the ticket booth for the HOHO boat to Cinque terre , you pay 35 Euro for a full day boat services which allows you to get off in each of the villages and get on the boat again later for the next village. Just to compare, same excursion with RCL will cost around 120 $. As we saw its almost the time for the boat to leave, we had a short discussion between us if to take it or not as it's a full day activity and decided to go for it , my spouse told me "you want to take it so you will have many pictures for the blog right ?" Well I can not argue with her ?.

 
On the boat we took the time table we got and tried to calculate the best route and strategy to maximize the number of ports we visit (without drinking package) , we found out the best route for us.
 
We past Portovenere but decided not to go off there so we continued all the way to Manarola , a very lovely village with great views. We spent half an hour there.






we took the boat to Verenazza where we proamed around and ate quick lunch. 








Next we stopped at Riomaggiore as it was already in our way back...





 continued...
 

Day 3 - Marseille
No big plans for today  , we visit this port at the past and I had many planned conference calls (some that I lead so I can not just  come to the call and stay mostly  on mute while saying every few minutes "yes we should handle it , or let's take it ofline"). My spouse wanted to visit the city for  few hours so she can buy some french cosmetics and other stuff as  it was a quite cold day with s good chance to rain so less outdoor activities . There are few ways to get from the port to the city: 
The firs is to take a shore excursion , the second is to take a taxi (25 $ each way) the third will be to use RCL shuttle which cost 20 $ per person (which mean taxi is cheaper for 3 + people) and there is the hash hash secret option which no one from RCL will tell you about - free shuttle from the port gate. All you need to do is to follow the green lane until you arrive the port gate were you will see a covered waiting area with a big sign "free shuttle to the city". We decided to try it as we had enough time and so I will have some content for today blog . 10 minutes walk (which we follow other people that seem to know the way or maybe they also  just followed other people that  they thought  knew  the way) we got to the station

, I guess we just missed the shuttle which should go every 20 minutes as we were waiting for quite a while until it finally came. Here is the time table:

10 minutes ride and we were in the city, nice option. My spouse did some shopping while I located a quite place and started my conference calls, once they were done I still had time to update the blog (and to add funny spelling / Grammer mistakes) so it was time well spent ? . We did learn one big lesson regarding bring your passport with you while going of the ship : When you buy several things  (besides food)  over 175 Euro in one shop or one mall you can claim the taxes back by fillings a form in the shopping center desk and with the sign form you can claim it in the exit point from the EU. Good thing , but we did not  bring the passports with us so we could not claim anything ....  Oh well lesson learned. We went back to the free shuttle station , this time we only waited 3 minutes until it came , 10  minutes ride and 10 minutes walk we arrived back. We went up to the diamond club got few drinks and continued to the C&A event were the sand artist gave some nice demo 

. 150 Diamonds, 120 D+ and 15 pineapples , top cruiser had  1570 points. Later we went to eat dinner in Solarium Bistro. Food was good and the service excellent , they also accepted the Diamond vouchers. The cost , well nice round 0 , nice option indeed.



 
 




 Next  day at La Spezia

A YOLO moment brought us here , will have more info later

Day 8 - back to Barcelona ? 
We woke up at 5:30 am , much to early but we had a flight to catch at 9:25 and we wanted to play it safe. quick breakfast and WJ (which was open from 5:30 AM) and a coffee from the coffee machine in the diamond club. we finish to pack the leftovers and started our way with the suitcases to the embarkation gate.from the time we left the room to the time we took the taxi it was less ten minutes, another 20 minutes and we were at the airport just to find that check in counters were not even open (yes , we could spend another hour sleeping). Check in was done 30 minutes after and we waited to catch our flight for our connection. Connection was way too long , but we decided we both will work during the connection time so we can catch before coming to office. at 2 am we landed back home , tired but happy  to return home.
Few things we learned during this cruise :
1. Even if it is the fifth time we are doing this route there is always something else to see.
2. No need to be afraid taking a cruise for a ship that is due to refurbished , the ship looked great.
3. If you know what you want to do in port  you can save allot of money doing it without RCL, we done the Cinque  Tere by our own which cost us 38$ comparing to 120-130 RCL wanted , we went to Rome using a bus and a train which cost us around 30 $ comparing to 60$ RCL wanted for transfer , we could even made it 20$ if we did not missed the train. There is a free shuttle in Marseilles port gate comparing to the 20 $ shuttle that RCL is offering. Many other examples ,  One exception will be if you want to see Florence, its just too far to take any risk.
4. No issue to take early flight from Barcelona , the ship most of the time arrives way before the official time.
5. It was the first time we have done self embarkation , it was very easy and smooth and we will try it again. 
6. Its bad tell people at work you will be available if needed , people do not know to decide what is real emergency ...
7.We need at least one more sea days to enjoy the ship.
8. We love Oasis class , can not wait for the new Oasis ship.
9. Cats is not becoming better when you watch it for the second time.
10. Drinking package dose not make much sense with Med cruises without sea days.
11.  Always do a WJ recon , you never know what you will find.
12. 7 days is not enough , 10 days or B2B should be considered ?
 
It was another fun experience , thank you for following. See you next time  over Rhapsody at the end of August and Spectrum of the Seas during October.  

Day 7 - Sea day (and the last day).
We had plans to sleep later today as we came back to the room around 2:30 am the day before. Well it was a good plan until the Captain used the in room  announcement system at 8 AM , he apologized and ask some lady to call guess services , I guess she did  not came back to her room and the team wanted to make sure she is OK. Since the captain did not looked for her again I guess she was found and everything was OK , I am sure  she was happy that cruises do not go with  name tags as many wanted to know who is the lady who woke them up.
As we could not go back to sleep we decide to try breakfast at the MDR, apparently many other thought the same as the lines were quite big , specially to the  a la Carte  option. We went to the buffet side , it was nice with some order to cook omelets. At 9:30 am there was the meet and mingle meeting but it did not make much sense to do it on the last day so we decided to skip it. We did went to WJ just to take a mimosa (there is a limit to how many times we can eat breakfast). we tour the ship although it was quite cold and windy outside. I went back to the room to complete some work and got a mail saying I need to go to Italy this week again and another email saying I need to go to Australia ASAP so i need to figure out what to do considering we already plan a few days vacation Greece with my father, lets see how I would be able to do it this time. lunch was JR as it was the last day we could use the boardwalk balcony perk, oh well , it was eatable but could not find much different to the one you can get in the WJ without extra payment. at the end of this post I will add my do it yourself burger option , its so easy to do and much better. We took some needed coffee and gave cats one extra chance , have not changed my mind about it. Next we so the splash aqua show , as always its enjoyable , finally I used the balcony for something else beside freshen my Jeans. I must say the balcony soundproof door is really working.
Some bar drinks (it was happy hour) and a quick recon to the WJ to find the lobster claws, always check the WJ , I wonder were the rest of the lobster gone , as I did not saw any lobster in the MDR menu , maybe CK ?. We tried our luck in the Casino, somehow one of the slots machines was nice to us , but all in all most of them were the typical "you have no where else to run , we can give you bad odds" , same for most of the times I tried the table game s  oh well at least the drinks were "free" ?  Back to the room again to start and pack our belongings, around 10  PM we decide to call it for the night as our flight leave Barcelona at 9:30 am . 
Last days of the Dazlles 

This guy was watching us for the last few days

 
JR 

]d
 
 

Sometimes it's good to check the WJ , you never know what you will find

And it's the real ones @twangster ?
 

Day 6 Naples.
This is the easiest port as it's located very near the city , just a convenient walking distance. We actually slept a while during the morning , I guess all the wine from Chef table helped ?. We  skipped breakfast as even the WJ was already closed and we did our way to the city. It was again a very hot day so after a while (and the must coffee in Naples) we went to find a good Pizza. I checked the app (the fork) for  what is around and found a nice restaurant which offered 50%  discount for all the  items in the menue  and got good reviews (most in Italian). The restaurant was less than 400 meters from us so we got there quite fast. It's located inside a very narrow old  street but the restaurant itself quite modern with a big pizza oven.


The most important thing they had air conditioning.
They gave  us a tablet for order whatever we wanted, very traditional I must say. We ordered two pizzas, water , diet soda (no they are not accepting the soda packages) and waited for the food. The pizzas arrived after 10 or 15 minutes then we understood the big mistake we have done again , we should have ordered only one to share , they were quite big (maybe we thought about Sorento) after fighting with the pizzas (which were very good)



we order a traditional Naples cake and two coffees . All in all after 50% off and service charge it was 16 Euros, added some tip and we went away to walk some more in the city before heading back to the ship after buying some  balsamic vinegar to take back home.



Quick beer at the diamond club , and a fruit dinner in WJ (could eat anything else , too much food). 




We went to see the "come fly with me show" the acrobatics act was very good , the singers on the other hand could practice some more. We spent some time at the casino and went to see the quest , this time it was in Blaze and not studio B which made it hard to track what happened but still nice with decent amount of participants.

 

So some updates:
As I have not drive to Milan to pick my forgotten cellphone (we had much better time going to Cinque Terre) I been able to retrieve it last week which was good. Although I got alternative phone with the same numbers still for some reason some of my pictures were not transferred to the cloud so it's good I got them now. (Including some very valuable cruise pictures) . If you using Google photos , check if the backup is working from time to time.
Anyway as our next cruise is almost two months from know (Greek Islands) we decided to take my father's offer to join the for a long weekend in other par of Greece (so I can do so e research before the cruise and taste the local cousin , plus to find a good resturant for @mom2mybugs in Athens ? )
Here are so e pictures from Pielon Greece if anyone looks for a shore excursion ? . Although it's a sea it's feels more like a lake  , clear clean water




So some updates:
As I have not drive to Milan to pick my forgotten cellphone (we had much better time going to Cinque Terre) I been able to retrieve it last week which was good. Although I got alternative phone with the same numbers still for some reason some of my pictures were not transferred to the cloud so it's good I got them now. (Including some very valuable cruise pictures) . If you using Google photos , check if the backup is working from time to time.
Anyway as our next cruise is almost two months from know (Greek Islands) we decided to take my father's offer to join the for a long weekend in other par of Greece (so I can do so e research before the cruise and taste the local cousin , plus to find a good resturant for @mom2mybugs in Athens ? )
Here are so e pictures from Pielon Greece if anyone looks for a shore excursion ? . Although it's a sea it's feels more like a lake  , clear clean water




Who’s Going?
The usual crew:  Hubby, our 2 girls, D10 & D12 (a month shy of 11 &13), and myself.
Flight
Our plan is to fly from DTW to EWR two days before.  Since it is our summer vacation and we are not pressed for time, we are taking an extra day to take our girls around Manhattan the day before the cruise.
Pre-Cruise Stay
I tossed around the idea of staying in Manhattan because the pre-cruise meet up is there but then we decided to book Embassy Suites again in Elizabeth, NJ.  A few friends from our group cruise are also staying there.  At the last minute, and by that, I mean only 3 weeks ago, it dawned on me that I overlooked a very important point.  We booked a one-day tour with Viator for NYC that leaves from Times Square.  I realized that going into NYC on a Wednesday morning from NJ would be a bit of a problem with rush hour.  Not wanting to stress about being stuck in traffic or risk missing our tour, we went ahead, and canceled Embassy Suites and our stay now is at... 

the Intercontinental New York Times Square! 
We realize that this adds a bit more cost and travel time on embarkation morning, but our girls are so excited to stay in Manhattan and we are steps away from the pre-cruise meet up and our tour pick up point.  The advantages far outweigh the disadvantages.
Itinerary
This 9-night sailing takes us to Bermuda, St. Maarten, San Juan, and Labadee.  We have no real plans for this sailing other than relaxing.  June was such a busy month for all of us.  I am simply burnt out and looking forward to sitting and staring out at the open waters. 
In Bermuda, we booked the Bermuda Island Drive By Minibus Tour through Royal.  In San Juan, we plan to walk around for a bit on our own.  Lastly, for St. Maarten and Labadee, we may not even get off the ship.  Hubby and I will be back at these same ports (minus Bermuda) in a few weeks on Symphony and it’s better to visit “That Yoda Guy” without the kids.
Cabin
We are booked in the exact same cabin category as last cruise.  Formerly a Family Junior Suite (FJ), it has now been re-categorized as a J3.  This cabin makes the most sense for our family as it has the pullman bed and 1 ½ bath.  This time around, we grabbed one on Deck 8 instead of 9 in hopes that it might be slightly better for motion.  Not sure if it will make much of a difference.  See my 2018 live blog for pics of this cabin. 
Pre-Cruise thoughts
-    First Group Cruise!  So excited!  Need I say more?!
-    Because it is a Group Cruise and our kids have started venturing out on their own, we grabbed the VOOM for 3 devices plan this time.  This way, we will be able to contact D12 anytime if needed, especially if we split up from them for group activities.
-    This is also my way of giving Anthem a second chance.  As noted in my previous Anthem blog, there were two things I really did not enjoy about the previous cruise.  One was that crowds did not flow well throughout the ship.  The second was that I vowed to never sail from NJ again in the colder months as it was not enjoyable for us.  We will see if sailing in July makes a difference.
-    Finally, my disclaimer is that this blog may not follow my usual style.  I can’t even promise how “live” it will be this time around.  And there will be many things I may not post to avoid being redundant from my last one.

-    Once again, in the spirit of a live blog, please do not hesitate to ask any questions.  I will do my best to find out whatever I can for you.

-    When responding to a post with a series of pictures, please do not include the pictures in your reply.  It just makes for easier scrolling.

-    Lastly, I will do my best to bring the cruise to you LIVE through Periscope – you can follow me @LoveToCruise2002.
 

Cruising with Greatness – Anthem Group Cruise – July 4-13, 2019
Anthem of the Seas the Reboot (aka Anthem, The Lite Edition).

For those of you who have been around for a while, you know that we cruised Anthem back in 2018.  For a more in-depth blog of Anthem, check out my blog from March 2018.
This is going to be the “Lite Edition” for several reasons.  I wasn’t even going to blog this cruise as I am not sure how much more I can add to it that would be different from my previous one or the ones that @twangster, @JLMoran, @SweetPea, or @TheHobbys have done.  And…it’s my first Group Cruise!  I might be just a tad busier than usual.  However, the conclusion that I came to is that it would be irresponsible and inconsiderate of me to not blog it because it was the blogs and scopes from last year’s Royal Caribbean Blog Alaska GC that finally pushed me into booking this one.  Again, the best part of live blogs is learning from each other and to pay it forward.
Let’s back up the story a bit on how this cruise came about for us.  I saw this GC as soon as @Matt announced it back in the Fall of 2017.  The itinerary stood out right away for me as it was 9-night sailing that goes to Bermuda (we have never been).  To make it even better, the dates for this GC landed on dates that were actually doable for me.  However, during that time, I was more focused on securing my Symphony July 2019 booking and with both cruises in July, only weeks apart, I decided it wasn’t going to be possible for Anthem. 
In March 2018, we sailed Anthem, and I had very mixed feelings on that sailing with the ship itself.  I usually enjoy most cruises we go on, but Anthem did not sit well with me.  You can see my initial thoughts of Anthem in my previous Anthem blog. 
Fast forward to June 2018, the RC Blog gang went to Alaska, and it looked like so much fun that I truly wanted to try out a GC myself.  Many of you know that I am teacher and my vacation dates are not flexible.  To have the Anthem GC fall over our summer break was an opportunity that I felt I could not let pass.
Booking this cruise was essentially embracing the true YOLO spirit.  As far as our (I mean Hubby’s) bank account goes, booking this one and Symphony to sail in the same month was not wise and made for a very expensive April!  On the bright side, this is going to be our shortest dry dock ever between cruises!  This is the cruise that we probably should not have booked but could not turn it down for the reasons already listed and the best reason of all…Who can possibly turn down an opportunity to meet “Mr. YOLO Book It!” himself?  True Greatness?  Our Fearless Leader? Obviously not us!  So here it goes…

So true! But the towel animal gets to read it before me! ?

I have the feeling that it will not take long for the CC paperwork to be by request only, now that you have the app and other way to get the info from . Maybe it will start as a discount for internet  pakage to whoever give up of getting the hard copyi . I will miss them as there is something special about comming back to the room every evening and find out what are the next day activities but it still allot of waste (even if most of it being recycled)

I heard they are going to change the name of the cake to Sweety cake ?

I am using the art auctions  papers to wrap my wine bottles before packing them on the last day , very useful

I also take them home.  I actually prepare a skinny binder for every cruise that fits in my carry-on (a backpack).  I file excursion receipts, invoices, cruise compasses, etc.  The binder helps organize what would otherwise be a zillion scraps of paper I receive before and during the cruise.  I toss the extra ads before I return home.  How many free raffle tickets to the art show do we need, and how many VIP shopping cards....?

I heard they are going to change the name of the cake to Sweety cake ?