Deedeelynn

Day 6 - continued...
Tempted by the Hooked Happy Hour I headed there at 5pm.  
The deck 16 elevator lobby view towards Central Park.



Hooked has a bar in the center flanked by seating on port and starboard.



The bar is a full service bar and on this night it honored Diamond Happy Hour drinks but I was more intrigued by the Hooked Happy Hour offer.  For $10 you can have the nightly happy hour appetizer and a beer or glass of wine.  Tonight's appetizer was 6 raw oysters.  The happy hour appetizer changes from night to night.



Oysters aren't my thing so I passed.  
The bar is open to the public as any bar on the ship is.  Given the lack of bars that have an outside view on Oasis class in general this is great bar albeit a little on the small side once the masses find it.
Here is the regular Hooked dinner menu:

Wine list:

This is the busiest I have seen the Solarium.  With the new layout it does feel a little smaller than Harmony's Solarium.  In some ways it's more open yet seating seems less to me.  I'll have to sail Harmony again to compare ?.

The hard glass/plastic ceiling works better than's Harmony's vinyl ceiling.

The pool on the lower level has a glass front with rippling water flowing over the face of the base.


The Solarium Bar remains closed due to construction.

Day 6 Update
Glorious day here somewhere in the Atlantic.  A perfect 72°F with little humidity.  Winds are from aft so with our forward motion there is very little 'felt' wind across the deck. 
With blue skies and full sun I took the opportunity to take some pictures.

Like Harmony there are port and starboard bridge wings. 
 
Port side features 'King of the World' like Harmony with a glass floor looking straight down to the sea.


Onward, straight to America!

The view aft:

Starboard bridge wing.

Thanks guys. I knew what the answer would be, but she had to see it for herself. No lv on this cruise ?
 

Day 5 continued
We hopped off the ship around 11:30 and walked around the port area a bit.  Pirate Republic Brewing company is just a short walk down the street, right before the straw market. 


 
 They offer a 3 beer flight for 8 dollars (You can only choose from the first 4 beers).  I had the Captain Kidd’s Kolsch, the Gold & Haze of Piracy and the Island Pirate Ale - all were very good. 

Afterwards, I had a pint of the coconut porter which I remember from last time we visited was my favorite, and it certainly didn’t disappoint this time.
A little more walking around, and we were ready to get back on the ship and hop in the Solarium pool which thankfully wasn’t very crowded.  After the pool, my wife and I had Johnny Rockets for lunch - it was very good, and the milkshakes included in the refreshment package and above were a nice treat.
Dinner tonight was in Jamie’s Italian. The food and service was excellent!  The waiter suggested that he bring out all the appetizers including a hybrid veggie and meat board for all of us to share. 

For entrees, the ladies both had the lasagna, I had the carbonara and G had the salmon.  The waiter even brought out an additional pasta entree for us to try. There was no way we were possibly finishing everything, especially since we knew dessert was coming.  Again, the waiter brought out a board filled with everything, and again everything was out of this world delicious. 

We couldn’t possibly finish it all, and the waiter boxed up my wife’s favorite, the cheesecake with meringue for her to take back to the room.
After dinner, I put my halloween costume on, and we headed down to the haunted house that they had set up in the Music hall.  The crew did a great job - they got a jump and little scream out of my wife, so job well done!
The halloween party was in 270 at 10 PM so we made our way over. They had a halloween themed projection on the screens at 270 which was really cool.

The party started out with a costume contest with three categories - scariest (which I entered), most creative, and funniest costumes.  So many people dressed up for tonight, I was surprised to see so much participation.  I was a finalist in the costume contest, so that was pretty cool!  My costume was a take on the plague doctor.

It was starting to get super crowded, so I decided to head up to the room change clothes and find a bar that was still open and not crowded.  G and I ended up at the Schooner bar until they closed.  We then found that the party had moved to the Music Hall where a DJ was performing club music.  G and I hung around there until about 3 in the morning getting the most out of our drink packages - ahh vacation.
Today is the first of two sea days, so I'm thinking we're just going to take it easy and relax.

It’s hard to capture with my IPhone, but the views from 270 of Nassau and Paradise Island are amazing.

Day 4 - Coco Cay
We woke up early and decided to skip conventional breakfast today. The cruise director stated the previous night that the Captain should have  us ready to tender early, and he did. After donning our swim gear and grabbing a cup of coffee, we were in line for the tenders.  On Anthem there are two tender locations, one aft, and one forward.  We were in the aft line when a crew member suggested we go forward as the first tender was there and it had plenty of space.  So we heeded his advice and headed on up.
We were indeed the first tender to make it to the island.  We immediately hopped on the cart to head to the bungalow area.  Once there, we checked in with the concierge and into our assigned bungalow by 9:15 AM.


You can tell I need some sun...

At this time in the morning, even though the sun was shining down, the water was freezing!  Once you "ripped the bandaid off" it wasn't horrible - just get everything wet at once.
On day 3, my wife noticed in the cruise compass that they offer a Swimming with the Pigs excursion. The excursion said that it lasted an hour and a half and left at 12:30. Even though we already had a bungalow, we all agreed that this was an experience we couldn't pass up. I never saw this excursion online in the cruise planner.  Come to think of it, a lot of excursions offered on board were never offered in the pre-cruise planner online... 
Our lunch was scheduled to be delivered to our bungalow between 11:30 and 12:00 so we knew we'd need to scarf it down pretty quickly to make our swimming pig excursion. Lunch arrived at about ten minutes til noon.  My wife had the chicken tacos, and the rest of us had jerk burgers.
With that, we headed back to the excursion desk to meet up for our swimming pigs tour.
We took a quick 5 minute boat ride to "Treasure Island" where we saw the crew coaxing pigs down the ramp to the beach area.

The swimming area was fenced in, and there were about 8 pigs that were willing to swim with us for apples.  After some brief instructions on how to hold the apples away from your body (pigs do bite) we were able to get down in the water.  Side note - if you do this excursion, I HIGHLY recommend water shoes - the area down to the beach was solid rock and it killed my tender bare feet.



We swam with the pigs for about 45 minutes when one of the crew members who was snorkeling came up with a small sea turtle!  They called him flappy.

The crew was very funny and entertaining.  All in all, it was a neat experience and we all had fun.
We were back to our bungalows around 2:15 and spent the rest of the afternoon swimming and relaxing.
The last tender back was at 4:45 and we opted to come back around 4.
Pier Progress:

 


After swimming with pigs, we decided to quickly shower and hop in the solarium pool - since pigs sometimes have accidents (which the crew quickly attends to) we figured the extra chlorine from the pool won't hurt ?
After yet another shower, we headed to Izumi fro dinner at 6 since my brother in law really wanted sushi.  The rest of us got ramen. After dinner we sat in the Schooner bar for some entertainment.  It was a long, fun day in the sun and we were all pretty wiped out so we retired to the room by 10 PM
 

Day 3 continued
Breakfast in the Solarium Bistro was a bit more organized and a lot less crowded- they of course didn't have EVERYTHING that the Windjammer had, but it was pretty close.
My inlaws decided to stay on the ship today and relax, so just my wife and I were getting off today. We decided to get off of the ship around 12:30 to give ourselves plenty of time to hail a drive share service and get to Kennedy Space Center to meet our friend there between 1:30 and 2.  There was a long line to get off, but it went rather quickly, and before we knew it we were on land!  We looked at both Uber and Lyft, and Lyft was a few dollars cheaper, so that's what we chose!  Once we requested a ride, the gentleman was at the curb at the port in less than 3 minutes.  The ride to Kennedy Space center only took us about 20 minutes, and cost around $32.00.  We arrived just a little past 1:00 PM.

Our friend arrived shortly after, and upon the suggestion of the lady selling the tickets, we opted to take the bus tour first.  This tour takes you through the restricted areas of KSC and some of the highlights are seeing the VAB or Vehicle Assembly Building - a huge 526 foot tall building where they build the rockets and launch towers.
Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB)

Launch Pad

We also drive by the SpaceX rocket assembly building and the launchpad that they lease from the space port (I believe the guide said that SpaceX has leased that building and launch pad for 20 years).  We also drove by several launch pads including those that sent the Apollo missions to the moon.
The bus tour then concludes at the Apollo/Saturn V exhibit.


Once back at the main visitors center, we ventured into the Space Shuttle Atlantis exhibit.  This exhibit opened in 2013 and houses the Space Shuttle Atlantis - it's quite a site to take in, and pictures do not do it justice.  It's something you need to experience in person.


Unfortunately we were running out of time as the Space Center closed at 6:00 PM. I had never been to Kennedy Space Center, and would definitely recommend going if you have any sort of interest in space travel - it was very informative, and we all had a great time.  
Our friend was kind enough to drive us to a dinner destination that he suggested - Dixie Crossroads restaurant in Titusville Fl which is a popular seafood destination.  I'm not a big fan of seafood, but I knew they'd have some killer chicken tenders, and they did!
All aboard was at 9:00 PM, and we arrived back at the port shortly after 8:00.  We had 9:00 PM reservations for Spectra's Cabaret.  I thought it was a very well-done show and really showcased what the 270 venue could offer - I would definitely recommend this show over The Gift. 

The cruise director announced after the show that there was an adult comedy show at 11:15 PM, so we decided to take it in.  The comedian did a great job, but I was pretty darn tired afterwards, so with that it was bed time.
 
Today is Coco Cay!  I'm excited.  We have a beach bungalow, and we also booked a last minute excursion that I'm really excited about!  I will blog about it later, but for now I need to get coffee and get ready to tender!

Day 2 Continued
We all decided to visit the Windjammer for breakfast this morning - the food was good, but boy was it crowded!  The only available tables were in the breezy, cold, aft outdoor seating area.
After breakfast, we decided to explore the ship a bit more and see what all she had to offer.


 
The Anthem really is a beautiful ship, but I've got to say - it seems to be the most crowded ship we've been on thus far. Since the weather is much nicer today, we figured the Pool area /Solarium would be crowded, but golly was that the understatement of the year!  My wife and I went back down to the music hall and found the self-leveling pool tables and played a round. We are both horrible at pool ?
We had reserved the Northstar for 11:00 AM today, but it had to be rescheduled due to winds - the only time they had left for us all to get on at the same time was day 7.
After exploring the Seaplex for a bit, My wife and I went down and sat in 270 for awhile.  The views there are absolutely breathtaking. 

Lunch in Cafe 270 opened around 11:30, so we grabbed a Kummelweck and some soup.  How do they make the bread taste so good??  We decided to check out cafe 270 for breakfast the next day.

After was more exploring, and then more relaxing.
The bartender at the Schooner bar insisted on taking my picture along with the oddly shaped bottle of rum that I wanted to try.

Dinner tonight was in Chops.  The waiter suggested that he likes to bring out a small bowl of each side (a total of 8 ) for us to share family style.  My sister-in-law and I had the filet, my wife had the chicken, and my brother-in-law had the prime rib.  We all really enjoyed our meal tonight.

After dinner we got changed and headed up to the Royal Theatre for "The Gift" at 8:45 pm.  The cast did a great job, but I was glad the show lasted only about an hour... I just didn't really get it.
The cruise director, Drew announced that the Led Zeppelin tribute band was performing at 10 PM in the music hall, so we made our way over there to catch it.  The band was pretty good!  But after a bit we decided that it was getting late and we decided to turn in for the night, but not before a stop at Sorrentos - yes they've definitely improved over what I remember on Oasis.  Especially if you get a nice, hot slice right out of the oven.  Is it the best pizza I've ever tasted? Hardly... but it's some darn fine cruise ship pizza.

Today is day 3, and we're due to arrive in Port Canaveral around noon.  We're heading to the Kennedy Space Center, and I've never been so I'm pretty excited.

Day 2
Seas are much calmer - the skies are much clearer.  
Here's my @twangster style balcony pic of the day

I'm going to get dressed and grab some coffee - we've got NorthStar booked today at 11:30... looking forward to it!  
Dinner tonight will be in Chops, and we also reserved "The Gift" a bit later tonight.

Embarkation day continued
Apparently there was a lot of logistical issues today which made me glad that we were able to get to port so early.  Muster drill was delayed until 3, and folks were still getting onboard at that point. We heard stories of the line of cars waiting to drop off just not moving at all. The weather was just nasty, so I know that wasn't helping.
It was a suuuuper crowded day one, owing largely to the weather I'm sure.  The elevators were a logistical nightmare, but as expected, that got better as the day progressed.  I'm sure once we get into some warmer weather it will be even better.
Our muster station was in Vintages, and after the drill we made our way to 270 and heard a reggae band setting up. We sat there for awhile and enjoyed some Bob Marley songs and sipped on some adult beverages.

We all had a My Time reservation for 5:30 in the MDR, so we decided to explore a little more of decks 4 and 5, which means I needed to sample a drink from each bar along the way :D.  The place to get your Wow bands, at least before the shops open, was Boleros.  We all purchased wow bands - they're pretty darn convenient!  No need to go rooting around for a sea pass card, and its much more convenient to open doors.
Before we knew it, it was time for dinner.  As we were getting ready to head out, we saw the Pilot boat coming in from our balcony... it was really struggling out there.

We were sat at a table for 4 in Silk.  Here's a horrible picture of the menu (lighting was tough in there!)

I had the mushroom soup which was good, and steak which was... meh at best.  My wife had the french onion soup chicken marsala, and I was a bit jealous, so she shared! G had the mushroom soup and fish of the day (I can't recall what it was - something tilapia-like) and C had french onion soup and the spaghetti which was pretty darn good.  The head waiter asked if we wanted after dinner shots. Sure!  I'm not sure what it was, but it was citrusy and pretty good.
Here's a pic of my definitely not Chops steak.

After dinner we decided to explore the ship a bit more and become a bit more familiar (most likely grabbing a drink along the way if my hand was empty).
The ship was really rocking last night - it was getting harder and harder to walk a straight line... and it wasn't even due to the drinks that I had!  I always enjoy that feeling though - sometimes you forget that you're actually on a ship, and what better to remind you?
Here's a view of the conditions yesterday afternoon from our balcony - we were passing a cargo ship.

My wife and I decided to try the hot tub in the solarium as it was pretty empty - it was definitely nice and relaxing.
After the hot tub, we showered up and headed to bed.
I'm not going to do this for every day, but to give you an idea of how beneficial the drink package is for me, here's a breakdown of day one:
Rum punch x 2, Captain and diet x 5, a "What's Kraken" x1, a Kraken Lava Flow x 1, Some sort of citrusy shot x 1 Goslings and diet x 1, an IPA at the pub.
I'm conservatively estimating a total of $110 for day 1 - about a third of the way for breaking even for the entire cruise. ?
 
 
 

Hi all!
I'm planning to try my hand at live(ish) blogging my upcoming cruise.  As of right now, I'm just 3 short work days (including today) away from setting sail!
Who's cruising
Myself (Phill), wife (K), Sister-in-law (C) and her husband (G).
We all caught the cruising bug back in 2014 when we enjoyed our first cruise on Explorer of the Seas - a 9 nighter out of Cape Liberty. Since we had such a wonderful time, we pretty much decided that cruising should be an annual event! This will be our 4th cruise (The wife and I didn't cruise in 2017 since we went to Disney & also St. Martin).  It's now just over 2 years since we've set sail, so needless to say, I am ready!
Cabin
Both couples are booked in balcony rooms right next to each other on deck 12 near the mid-ship elevators (12654 and 12656)
Itinerary
We live in Southern New Jersey across the bridge from Philadelphia, so Cape Liberty is about an hour and 45-minute drive for us.  G works in Newark so we will be able to park at his workplace and hail an Uber or Lyft to the port.  We embark Saturday the 27th, (just in time for the huge Nor'easter to roll in!) and will be at Port Canaveral on Monday the 29th, Coco Cay on the 30th, and Nassau on Halloween!
Cruise Planner Bookings
G and I both have the drink package (look out!) and my wife and her sister have the refreshment package.  We also booked the 3-night dining package starting on night 2.  We are thinking Chops, Jamie's Italian for sure, and the other night is up in the air!  I may get brave enough to try Wonderland... we'll see.  We are booked on NorthStar for day 2.  As far as the shows go, we booked The Gift on night 2, Spectra's Cabaret on night 3, and We Will Rock You on night 6. Whether or not we go to all of these shows remains to be seen, but at least we have the option!  We purchased the 2 device plan for Voom Surf and Stream to share between the four of us.
Excursions/Plans
In Port Canaveral, we are planning on hailing an Uber/Lyft and heading to Kennedy Space Center - we also have a friend that lives in the Orlando area who will meet us there.  For Coco Cay, I was able to get a great deal on a bungalow, so we booked that for the four of us - hopefully, we will be able to tender as this will be my first time at Coco Cay!  In Nassau, we will most likely walk around the port area and I will most definitely be hitting up Pirate Republic Brewing Company https://www.piraterepublicbahamas.com/  We visited when we were on our Oasis cruise in 2016 - they had some great brews!
Blogging
Most of my blogging will probably be done in the morning while my wife sleeps in and I'm sipping coffee on my balcony ?
Let me know if you have any Anthem questions and I'll try to answer them. Thanks for following along!

It looks like we are headed to the new world.  
What have you guys done to Miami while we've been gone?

Day 6 - Sea Day
A quick morning update.  Beautiful day, calm seas, sunny and 72°F.

Our progress...

Cruise distance 1,689 nm 

I need to get just a little bit of work completed then I'll head up to check out the pool deck.

Sorry, but whatever a radicchio is, it looks vile.  I’m sure it tasted better than it looked !
??

After breakfast the sun was shining which has been rare on this cruise so far.



On deck 7 port I found several chairs on the aft deck right below the first Aqua Theater suite balcony.  I can't recall if her sisters featured this somewhat hidden public deck or not.

Since I had my fish eye lens on I was wondering how a round scrunched up car in the shape a sphere would look with a fish eye at close range.  It pretty much looks like it does in person.

Time for lunch and with Sorrento's right there...

Barbecue Chicken on the menu today.  This was actually pretty good on Adventure recently.  
I found Symphony's variation a little too cheesy for my liking.

I thought I might as well take some more ships photos instead of walking in the rain.
MDR Entrance

MDR


I ran into some friend's and one drink led to another, so...

Day 3 - Malaga
After a visit to the Thermal Spa I had this great idea to walk down along the pier and get some pictures of the ship.  As I stepped off the ship and on to the gangway the skies opened up and the rain came down.  
Normally with a fish eye lens I can capture most ships at this range.  Not so with the largest cruise ship in the world.

I had to at least check out the terminal.

There are a series of shops including duty free liquor and wine.

I didn't feel like taking another shower today so I headed back to the ship. This would be as close as I came to Malaga on this day.

There was a 40' truck with supplies that were being transferred to the ship.  St. Francis and Decoy wine among other supplies.  I think we'll be fine making it across.

Day 2 - Ice Skating Show "1977"
No cruise is complete without checking out the ice skating show.  Royal has put a lot effort incorporating technology into entertainment and "1977" benefits from this trend.  They've amped up the projection technology on Symphony.

The show starts out with dozens of drones hovering over the ice and flying in formation as each changes color independently at times and as a formation.  You can't capture this in still images, you have to see it live.

All the little purple and blue lights are individual drones.













A very memorable part involves fast wardrobe changes for one skater incorporated into the routine almost before our eyes. 
Impossible to display in still photos, another thing best viewed live. 
While the storyline strays a little at times when taken in it's entirety it is a great show to watch.  Oh yeah, they made it snow during one part of the show.  Amazing. 

Hooked
As others have already posted the menu and remarked on the atmosphere I’ll limit this to our food choices and impressions. Gotta head off to the Mo5aic show soon – Aquanation was unfortunately postponed due to low temperatures and waves/wind.
 
For starters, I chose the Maryland Crab Cake, Michael got the Shrimp Cocktail. I loved my appetizer, Michael didn’t like his one very much. To be fair, this is mostly due to a misunderstanding. In Germany, shrimp cocktail is more of a shrimp salad and not just a few boiled shrimp with sauce.
Our second course was the New England Clam Chowder for me and should’ve been the House Salad for Michael. Instead, we both got the Clam Chowder and to make up for it, hubby got the House Salad after the soup. We both liked the Clam Chowder very much, unfortunately I can’t say it was the best one I ever had. This honor is reserved fort he one I had in Killarney on our honey moon – sorry Hooked ? Hubby also liked his salad with shrimp skewer.
As main course, Michael chose Surf & Turf while I got the Captain’s Platter – we both didn’t dare try the whole lobster that was also offered J Sides: fries and coleslaw for him, lobster mac & cheese form e. We both loved the lobster tail and hubby also liked his steak, although parts weren’t quite medium any more. I also liked the grilled shrimp skewer but didn’t care much for the fish fillet, I was full anyway. Regarding the sides, fries and coleslaw were fine, I didn’t like the mac & cheese – this has less to do with the mac & cheese themselves, I just don’t seem to get what Americans like about it but I had to try at least once.

Final verdict: We really liked Hooked, even though hubby is not a fan of fish. Food portions were way too much for us – we’d have prefered smaller portions in order to easily try out more different things. On the quality, taste & presentation side, we felt it was on a par with the TUI Cruises MDR (that’s indeed a high compliment). In the TUi MDR lobster tails are only available for an upcharge, so this could be a fair comparison. Hooked offers a daily special from the bar during happy hour – we might come back for lobster rolls.

@Matt, can you get a confirmation on this?? Puuuurrrrrtttiiiieeee pullleeeaazzeeee?!?!?

Day 2 - Sea Day
Moving South and West as we somewhat hug the coast of Spain.  Windy today, top decks closed.  The ship is handling great, minimal movement.
After staying up into the wee hours of the morning on my photo shoot last night I slept in today.  Up in time to make the Windjammer for breakfast.  It's a been a while since I've sailed Oasis class and I've got to remember there are other options for breakfast.
Lazy day, just the way I like them.  I didn't take a lot pictures as I am still exploring the ship.  Plenty of sea days to come for me to take pictures when hopefully it won't be as windy.
Random thoughts and observations
As offered before we boarded due to the large numbers on board, the Diamond/Diamond Plus area incorporates the "Entertainment Plaza".  The Diamond Lounge, Jazz on 4 and The Attic.  They have been pretty busy during happy hour times.  The Attic is the only venue with a walk up bar where the other two have wait staff walking around taking drink orders.  Staff at each door check cards.
The latest version of the Royal app incorporates a personal calendar.  It now displays entertainment reservations but not My Time Dining or spa reservations.  
Being so close to the Abyss slide is interesting.  When someone slides down it makes a sound.  Four dongs followed by a whoop sound.  Often people scream.  While the patio door does a good job blocking most sounds, those make it through.  I might make it a ring tone, it's burned into my psyche. 
No water bottles were in my cabin from C&A.  Some sparking wine and a beer based on my preferences.  Today a bottle of Chandon was dropped off in ice with two flutes.  Nice.  
When I boarded one of the letters in my cabin addressed my transfer to Serenade after this cruise.  It will be provided by Royal.  I was planning to use Lyft or Uber so Royal offering to provide the transfer is very much appreciated. Loyalty does pay.
The thermostat in my cabin was on high when I arrived.  I had to turn it down from 'bake' last night so I could sleep.
My account in the Royal app fixed itself overnight.  I can now see my folio and charges to my account in the app.  
I dropped by the loyalty desk.  Based on points I qualify for a glass block on this cruise.  My Adventure points just posted Friday.  He didn't have me down for a block and thanked me for stopping by.  He'll add me to the list.  Over 280 glass blocks being handed out this cruise.  They'll go out for delivery to our cabins day 5 or 6.
I skipped lunch today.  I'm still burning off the calories I picked up on Adventure not long ago.  If my belly gets any bigger I might need to start picking out names.  Well past a baby bump, I've entered the third trimester.  At this rate I'll qualify for and become a rock start in the belly flop contest by the next cruise. Where's that gym?

We've been cruising with Royal since the 80's and watched them nickel and dime their loyal repeat passengers (their "bread and butter" as they like to say) and have also cut back loyalty perks.  The final straw was this last May when we sailed on the Adventure and the Loyalty Ambassador completely overlooked us, we didn't receive a single communication or invite from him (even after we stopped off at the Diamond Lounge and mentioned to him that it was our first cruise as Diamond Plus).  So now we show Royal the same loyalty they show us, we're booked on the MSC Seaside in February, MSC actually matches passengers loyalty status from other lines (see link below).  The best part, we're paying for the cruise 100% with our Royal dividends we recieve!  Like Royal obviously thinks about it, nothing personal, it's just business!
https://www.msccruisesusa.com/en-us/MSC-Voyagers-Club/Loyalty-Match-Program.aspx
 

Is that less than 19 days?? Otherwise, I'll let everyone know as I'll be on the JotS. ?