stephenkurucz

Wow what a view!!

The Old and New San Juan tour was a bit of a bust.
This started and ran smoothly.  I especially like the way they handle tours out of the port here.  Instead of lining up by station number, you just turn right at the end of the pier and they immediately start putting a van-load of passengers together.  When they hit capacity (15 in this case), off you go and they just start collecting people for the next van.  I was out there a bit early, along with more than 15 others who booked the same tour.  They launched us ahead of the scheduled time.
The tour was a little over 2 hours.  Our first stop was a short distance from the port, and we had 15 minutes to poke our heads into the Capitol building.  Good for a rotunda dome photo, a peek at the PR constitution, and a few historical displays.  Granted, the 10-bizillion-tiled dome is very pretty.

Next stop (um, drive-by) was the castle/fort Castillo de San Cristobal.  We drove up the mock entrance, and then straight back out.  No stop and absolutely no vantage from the van to photograph anything but a close-up of a limestone wall.  I’ll spare you.  As we were admiring the wall, I thought to myself, “Self — that might have been interesting to go inside and look around.”
Next stop was the Cementerio Santa Maria.  We stopped there for 10 minutes to admire the cemetery and ocean from afar, and to get a distant view of the rump-end of Castillo San Filipe del Moro, that we would also not be visiting.


Next we were let off at Plaza Colon. Mostly souvenir shops and restaurants.  Some people decided to tour the Marshall’s store.  I had a $16 Margarita and bought a colorful carved stone turtle to keep my towel animals company.
 
Having concluded our whirlwind tour of historic Old San Juan, we skedaddled across the bridge to explore New San Juan.  15 minutes later we arrived at a tiny park the size of two basketball courts, within a short walk to the beach behind the Hotel Coronado.  The main attraction here was the Ben & Jerry’s.  We had 25 minutes to admire the grass, the ocean view, and Ben & Jerry’s air conditioning while eating Coconut Seven Layer Bar ice cream.

Ocean view was pretty.

And, that was a wrap.  Back to the ship.
The one thing I really did like was our driver/guide Diego.  During our drive time, he did give us a lot of relevant history of all the interesting stuff we wouldn’t be experiencing.  I think I’m just cranky because Mr. & Mrs. Talksloud-Alot in the seats behind me were compelled to babble on continuously, loudly, and over Diego’s narration the entire time.  I wish I’d brought a couple of extra socks. I’m happy to report their good for nothing son will at least be helping install new window screens while they’re gone  
Departure was right on time.  Lucky for the 2 pier runners (had ‘em today!) who did the 100 yard dash at 12:58 to just squeak in under the 1PM all-aboard time.  Not so lucky for the other 3 of 5 people they’d been calling on the PA for since 12:50.  Oops.
Tip: get your spot on the starboard side rail early (like at least 15 minutes before departure) if you want to snap some great pics on the way out to sea.  The railing is really packed for this departure.

 

My husband always bids on RoyalUP whenever he has the opportunity.  I always tell him it will never happen.  Well, we are sailing on Anthem next week, and he received an email yesterday that our bid was accepted.  We originally booked a 2C (ocean view with large balcony) long ago.  I wanted a junior suite, but it was more than double the balcony price.  I kept checking the JS price, but it was never reduced.  We ended up with a J1 (junior suite with large balcony) for $1,000 (total bid).  We think it is well worth the upgrade.  We get a bigger cabin, better bathroom, giant balcony, plus dinner access to Coastal Kitchen.  We are hoping to get dinner reservations for CK every night.  We sailed on Ovation in March in a grand suite.  We had 5:30 dinner reservations every night in CK, and the place was practically empty.  We’re hoping for this on Anthem.  For those wondering about bid timing, he placed the bid on 7/29/19.  Upgrade email arrived yesterday 10/1.  Sail date is next week.
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Day 1 - Continue while I have connection .
After checking the silver dining room  we went to check the other side of the ship  to see if we were missing anything in the WJ  . 
We passed the Solarium , in this ship you have two , one for the suites/diamonds , it can be access  by using the sea pass card and one for everyone , its a big cover pool and lounge chairs around it , well like a solarium..



The "pool"


 

The second covered pool area :


The open pool : 



 
 
After the second cover pool area you have an open pool area and finally the most hectic place in the ship the WJ, it was packed as expected but RC trying to control it by adding assigned lane for each busy station , for example you have a lane to form a queue for the carving station , I did not notice a real issues , everyone were queuing , the only issue was that although the WJ is huge I did not saw too many empty seats , well first day after all. could not take too many picture but here is a very nice cake for the 70 China celebrations :

Sorento pizza is located adjust to the WJ , its the only place open later (until 3 am everyday) , believe me I check it (Only fro the research) , the Pizza are from the new better kind (the one that use cheese) 

We went to enjoy our new UDP at the pool bar , we were the only people there beside the bartender that was happy to talk to someone , so we started with the first lava flow.

The rooms were ready by now so we went back and collect our suitcases from the corridor , they arrived very fast , the muster drill was in the 270 which I love , it was quick and contained the "James Bond" movie , please RC , even airline companies update their safety movie from time to time ...

Anyway it seem the Spy lady learn to speak Mandarin. post the muster drill we went to drink some coffee and tea in the tea house just to wait few minutes until elevators will still be available. We went up again and enjoyed the Chinese parade which was showed on the big screen pool.

Our dinner was at the Silver dining room , they offer buffet style for the starters / dessert  and a fix menu for the main dish , this menu is not changing for the full week , remind you something ? yes , this is actually the solarium bistro on other ship ...

"Diamond Lounge" small plates.


I also found the menu of the Golden dinning room , this menu is changing every day and its without buffet , yap , this is the CK on other ships.

 

 
I think that what will happen when such ship will be outside Asia is very simple , the Silver dining room will become solarium  bistro , the silver lounge will become the diamond lounge (already now diamond are welcome to this lounge and happy hour is served there) and the Golden dining room will be the Coastal kitchen .
We went back to the room , at that time we already were very near Miatag , the mighty Typhoon -" it was very rough - The sea was angry that day, my friends - like an old man trying to send back soup in a deli." , Finally I can use this quote ?
Lets said its the first cruise I actually took a sea sick pill just to be on the safe side. 
I went to check the balcony , got a free quick shower and we are on deck 13 ... 

It was quite hard to stand or to walk , but I can tell you that when we went down to deck 3 , it was much more stable.
Anyway we are after the storm . 
 
 
 
The most important bar

So, a miracle occurred.  Our food tour was supposed to start at 10AM.  By 9:50, everyone was accounted for and we started early instead of standing around baking in the sun waiting for stragglers.  Good job, shipmates!  Off to an excellent start.
Our driver would be Serge (funny and informative guy), and our tour guide would be Ankie — a self-professed 55 year old hippie who sold her bar in the Netherlands 11 years ago and moved to Dutch St. Maarten.  Even more funny and informative than Serge.  Both were great.
Our first stop this morning was the Amsterdam Cheese Store.  Cool.  I do cheese.  We turned left out of the port, drove like 100 yards, and pulled into the parking lot of the Amsterdam Cheese & Liquor Store after an arduous 30 second trek.  Hrm.  Eyebrow goes up.  I’m game though.

Inside, the 15 of us were ushered to a corner of the store with a display table made from a Dutch merchant’s bike, where TJ (with the assistance of a volunteer passenger) would be taking us on a little Dutch Gouda tour.
We started off with with introductions, a glass of champagne, and passed around some toothpick cheeses as TJ described them to us.  First was a young cow’s milk Gouda (~6mo) followed by young sheep’s milk Gouda, a pesto Gouda, and finished with a ~2 year aged Gouda).  All were tasty.  The pesto Gouda also got an eyebrow raise from me, but it was a nice surprise with a balanced amount of basil to it.  It was dark green, which 6 year old me loved.
The 2nd half of this 30 minute stop would be the passenger-assisted preparation of a pasta dish using 3 of the cheeses we’d tried.  TJ brought out a couple of casserole dishes with cooked bow tie pasta in them.  That was seasoned with a little Italian seasoning, black pepper, and then each of the cheeses was laid out in a stripe across the top so we could taste the pasta with each individually.

Into the oven the casseroles went.  While they were getting all melty, TJ gave us a little more background on the cheeses we had tasted.  The casseroles came back 10 minutes later (someone has a combi oven back there), had fresh cherry tomatoes added on top, and we each got about a 1/2 cup serving of each.  Not gonna lie.  It was good.  After that we got a few minutes to look around the shop (oddly enough, great selection of Dutch cheeses, treats, and booze).  Then back to air-conditioned bus bliss.
Our next stop, Zafiro Beach Bar & Restaurant, was also on the Dutch side of the island, about 20 minutes distant and maybe 200’ off of the south side of the runway at Princess Julianna Airport.  To get to and from it, we’d cross the famous stretch of Maho “Beach” that people adore getting a sandblast facial from jets on.  Having been tempted to visit this spot myself, I can now tell you I am thrilled to have seen it from a bus on the way/from a good meal.  It was packed.  The “beach” portion is a tiny slip of a thing, while the rest of the shoreline is made up of the artificial locking blocks folks use to protect harbors from pounding waves and invading Germans.  The rest is just less-invasion-proofing boulders.

This would be our main meal on the tour.  Creole chicken with plantains and a rum punch.  The pic doesn’t make it look very pretty, but it was excellent.

Nice view of the beach from the restaurant.

And, for those who may regret not getting the direct jet BJ along the Maho Beach fence, the restaurant has an observation deck nearby where you can watch airplanes approach and land without mussing up your hair or being blown out to sea.

Next stop: The aptly named Carousel for a gelato making demonstration (by the owner), a tasting of said made gelato, then two scoops of whatever you wanted from the regular counter outside of the “lab.”  Then, well, get on the damn carousel at Carousel, you cad.



Escorted off the property by an iguana.

10 minute ride back to the port with a little more narrated history.  Tour ran like clockwork.  Out of the coach at exactly 2PM.

I can see why this tour is 5-starred to death on TripAdvisor.  Fun & tasty with a nice side dish of history.

Into CK at 7:45AM.  1 order of eggs Benedict later and I was out by 8:20.  Bennies were textbook & tasty.
The view of Great Bay from the ship is much improved now that the sun isn’t blasting into the camera.  9:45AM show time on the dock for the 10AM start of the Royal Fun Family Food Tour. Operator is Flavors of St. Martin Food Tours.  Looks like they get a lot of love on TripAdvisor:
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g147347-d8721899-Reviews-Flavors_of_St_Martin_Food_Tours-Philipsburg_Sint_Maarten_St_Martin_St_Maarten.html

 

You shouldn't have any issue.  I'd suggest that you book the other two nights as soon as you get on board so you'll have more times to choose from.

Captain Fancypants reversed our way to the dock.  Ship didn’t make that beep-beep-beep backup warning sound.  They should just do that as a joke.
Our neighbor this morning is the MSC Seaside.
Breakfast in CK now.

 

Day -1 , Shanghai.
Today we foght to get up early to enjoy the breakfast which I heard it's very good at this hotel, the rummers were true. There are two main Islands , one western food and one eastern. The western includes fresh egg station , salads station and many fresh worm options.


The eastern contains many kind of dumplings, soups, fried vegetables and other good things.


I took one plate from each island 


Now that can be useful for busy days at the WJ buffet , just think oh simple life would be if we had this option

After the big breakfast we went to check the big  shopping street of Nanjin, my spouse wanted to buy some pearls  for her mother, we went to a pearls mall, found something we thought is nice and started to negotiate. I must it's easier for me to negotiate with our clients than the sellers there but we got a good price for two chains which per our request combined to one. The street itself very impressive.



We also passed this Royal Caribbean Blog caffe

We walked all the way to the famous  Bund street which as a perfect view on the Pearl tower and the other to towers.

This area includes also some monuments and nice small gardens




We wanted to cross to the other side of the river so we took the new small under the river train were we bought combo tickets for the Bund tunnel and Shanghai tower observation. The small tunnel trains take you into a tunnel full with light effects , nice but not a must:



We got out from the tunnel and haded to the tower (around 20 minutes walk) passing near the impressive pearls tower, near buy you also have the aquarium and many other tourist attractions which we decide to pass 

We finally got to the second biggest building in the world , the Shanghai tower , it's around 650 meters high with 128 floors. The amazing thing that in one year from now it's going to be only number 5 or 6 in the world.



At the ground floor you have some exhebition of how the build it plus the future and the past of skyscrapers. From there we took the super fast elevator (10 M per second) to the observation platform (118 floor) to watch the very nice view .






After the Shanghai tower visit we went back using the Bund tunnel to the other side and walking to the hotel , lots of steps . It was already evening so we went to the lounge to eat something , lots of options, I do recommend to book a room with access to the executive lounge.  

I must say we found Shanghai to be very beautiful

Day 2.  Both today and tomorrow are sea days.
As usual, I woke up early. Popped down to Cafe Promenade for coffee and a pastry.  I was surprised to see Guest Services open and 2 people working the desk at 0530.  Nobody was in line, so I took the opportunity to see if I could straighten out my erroneous Voom charge and figure out where my missing shore excursion ticket for Phillipsburg was.
For the Voom charge, they sent an email off to someone in corporate to see if they could remove it.  My shore excursion was cancelled.  No notification, but I do see that the money was refunded to my credit card.  Off to the Excursion desk later today to book something else.
Weather is very nice, but it was windy AF earlier this morning.  We’re doing ~18 knots directly into a 10-15 knot gusty breeze.  I was down on the pool deck and a lady opened one of the now-famous windows to stick her iPad mini (with a cover opened like a book) out to take a pic of the sunrise.  That worked out just about as well as you might imagine.  Some dolphin is probably playing Angry Birds on it now.
Ate at Windjammer.  Being an early bird has its merits.  One of which is not having to elbow my way to the trough through a crowd.

Following! Going on Allure Feb 2020 with @kuruczpa and our S/Os. 

Following! Going on Allure Feb 2020 with @kuruczpa and our S/Os. 

If you're into a beach break, Magen's Bay was beautiful and easily accessible by open-air taxi in the port. $10pp/way, also $5 adult entry to Magen's. Beautiful beach, no waves with a restaurant/bar and beach waiter service. Highly recommend packing a small float for ultimate water relaxation! 

Cabin
Another story here….
After our Anthem of the Seas cruise in 2018, my wife, now unashamedly, is a suite snob. Frankly, I whole heartedly support this as well. So, when we booked this cruise, we booked a grand suite. The price was decent, done. The Owners suites were more than what we wanted to spend, and the 1 Royal Suite was WAY more. After the cruise was booked, I kept an eye on prices, made some adjustments here or there and the waiting game began. We thought, who knows, maybe we can try to see what could happen with a Royal Up bid
A few months ago, while doing a routine price check, I see a 2br grand suite is now available. A quick phone call to Royal, and we are now sailing in a 2br grand suite for about the same price as what we booked the cruise for originally.
A few weeks ago, we did get the Royal Up email. We had the option for an Owners Suite or the Royal Suite. We bid on the Royal Suite, but I’m not going to hold my breath since looking now, all the suites are sold out.
Pre-Cruise
Like I said, we are flying in a few days early. Friday 9/20 we are flying into FLL. Southwest flights were much cheaper and had more convenient times than flying to MIA. So, the plan is we will rent a car to use for the couple days prior to be able to explore around etc without a ton of Uber/Lyft charges. Embarkation day I will drop the family off at the port around 10, bring the car back to MIA and take the enterprise shuttle back to the port. I looked at dropping off at other locations near the port, but this was the most cost effective.
We are staying at the Gates Hotel South Beach. We picked this hotel due to its proximity to south beach and Heather wanted direct beach access without having to pay a super-premium price. She is a Hilton member through her job, so that also narrows the choices. This hotel also includes its own area for chairs and other activities too on the beach.
Post Cruise
This is where it also gets fun. After disembarkation, we will be taking the shuttle to MIA for another rental car which we will drive to Orlando with. Friday evening, we have tickets to Magic Kingdom for Mickey’s No So Spooky Halloween Party. Heather is a huge Disney fan and is really looking forward to this. Much to my dismay, she has us all wearing Hocus Pocus themed shirts for that night….yay…
Saturday, we have tickets to Universal Studios. Gotta check out the new Hagrid Ride…. And again, we have matching themed shirts. At least this time, they are Hogwarts/Harry Potter ones.
Sunday, we head home.
The Surprise
Like I said earlier, this whole trip will be a surprise for the kids. The plan to make this work is that we will be packing in secret. We will drop the kids off at school on Friday, then load up the car. We will pick the kids up at dismissal at school and go straight to the airport. At this point, We will let them in on a little bit of the surprise, which will be we are just going to Florida and will be on the beach. On cruise day, we will pack up the car and say we are headed to another hotel, but not tell them that the hotel is the cruise ship.
This is going to be so much fun. I plan on writing about our experiences at Disney and Universal as well so grab the popcorn and wine, its going to be a wild ride and thanks for following along!

Since we departed, there has been some serious motion in the ocean. The captain said it was a combination of the effect of Hurricane Humberto and a high pressure system. It’s not terrible l, but now and then you get a big wave that feels like we swerved to miss a whale. 
The captain had to make a follow-up announcement that it should start getting better by 1am. 
Dinner tonight is at Jamie’s Italian. Made a reservation onboard and had no issues getting the time I wanted. 







I ordered a glass of wine and the waiter brought the bottle and let me have it all.  Umm, ok!

Look under the Internet & More section for the VOOM options.  They are currently running a sale.  When you purchase VOOM, opt for the Surf & Stream and usually you can save by getting a multiple device package.  You can log off of a device and log into another one, so it doesn't require a dedicated device.  When you purchase the multi-device VOOM, you only need to select one name for the package.  If you are purchasing a 2-device package and you choose two names, you will end up with 2 of the 2-device packages (a total of 4 devices).
You will be assigned a dining room and it will be on your SeaPass card.  This is the dining room that you will dine at whenever you choose to eat.  All 4 of the dining rooms serve the same menu; they just have different decor.  With MTD you can make reservations if you want or you can just show up when you want to -- same as any restaurant on land.  You may or may not have a wait if you don't have reservations already.  You can make reservations when you get onboard for the entire cruise or one or two days or you can just wing it and show up as you like.  MTD offers flexibility.  
The drink packages are on "sale" all the time but it doesn't really mean much other than it is a discount relative to the price you pay when you get onboard.  Whether or not it is worth it will depend on how much you expect to drink.  Most alcoholic drinks run $8-$13 each, sodas are $3-$4 each, bottled water is $3-$4.  You also have to take into consideration any days where you aren't on the ship -- you won't have as much time to take advantage of the package.  Remember that every passenger over the age of 21 in the same cabin has to purchase the beverage package, so if the two adults are booked in the same room both will be required to purchase.
There's a teeny fridge in the cabins.  It is more of a cooler than a fridge as it will keep drinks that are already cold at a cold temperature, but it won't quickly chill a room temperature drink.

February 2020 Allure of the Seas out of FLL. Very first cruise!

February 2020 Allure of the Seas out of FLL. Very first cruise!

February 2020 Allure of the Seas out of FLL. Very first cruise!

Just set sail a bit ago and recently returned to the cabin with a final cocktail for the night as we are running on about 1-1.5 hours sleep since 6am PST Saturday. Hopefully sleeping early tonight will reset my internal alarm for early natural rising on AST! 


The clouds here are unreal

Aft port panorama

Day Two!
Good morning from St. Thomas! ??
Today is our no strict schedule day so we are lazily rising as we dock at Crown Bay. I assumed we’d be docking at the other side of Charlotte Amalie at Havensight so we will see how taxi prices compare over to Magen’s Bay in a bit! 
Had my first taste of morning Windjammer and understand why some people stay far from here. haha





The size of this logo is very impressive

Ready to start the day! With my nerd necklace that I always tried to remember to remove the second we got off. 

We are onboard, had some food, registered little man for Ocean Adventure kids club and we are waiting for our room to be ready.  Oh...we met Super Mario as well...sitting in his private cabana.
I have a grouchy 9yo because he didn’t listen to his mama when I said wear your bathing suit onboard. Now he’s grouchy because he wants to swim and has to wait. ?‍♀️
 

As @tiny260 indicates, it's added during the check out process, either on the ship or in the cruise planner.
There is no escaping the 18% gratuity.  If you buy your drinks on board one at a time, 18% is added to each drink.  If you buy a drink package in the cruise planner, 18% is added to the package price.    If you buy a drink package on board, 18% is added to the package price.
One way or another, you are going to pay the 18%.

Following, bucket list cruise for me so will learn at your expense :)