SweetPea

Loving your pics. Your daughter is adorbs!

Can I just tell you.... That Mariner cruise was for my folks' 60th birthdays. They booked a Junior Suite, so Batman and I upgraded them to a GS so I didn't feel bad about taking advantage of our perks without them. ? Their 50th Anniversary is next year. Star Class and Oasis out of NJ is totally in play! (If I can get my non-cruising brother to agree.) I don't even care about the crummy itinerary. That would be more about the ship. Prices seem pretty high for the NJ sailings at the moment, and the SC suites are wide open for pretty much all dates. We'll see!

Everyone is so nice and supportive here! Derick has been great so far via email. I'm sure we'll get along famously!

Totally! If that were the only suite left, I'd still take Star Class in that over a Sky Loft, but still. Trying to figure out why folks choose those corner rooms when they have options. I'm guessing that 3rd balcony is the selling point?

Hi Raye, I've read your B2B Anthem Star blog too. ? I You Tubed some of the corner suites. They seem way smaller and I am not a fan of the split bath downstairs at all. Were they sky suites that got reclassified? (You probably mentioned that in your blog!) I've heard Yen Lee is on vacation now. We have Derick and I heard Agostina is there also. Can't remember the third, but I will surely let you know!

I totally hear you. We are quite lazy cruisers who spend lots of time in the room. My parents who are cruising Anthem for their 3rd time in June are disgusted. "We can book 3 cruises with what you paid for that!" Says the retired couple with unlimited vacation time.... See you onboard!

' I'm doing the Single Digit dance now, baby, and we all know that's when the pregaming starts. ? Hello! And welcome to Dipping our Toes in Royal Waters, Part Deux. Part Deux, you ask? Where is Part Un?! Briefly, Part Un was in August 2008, aboard Mariner of the Seas. We were in a Grand suite. We didn’t know why we booked a suite; there was no priority anything and practically no suite perks because the number of eligible Crown & Anchor members on that sailing who had the same access to the lounges completely overwhelmed the services and offerings as well as the concierge team. Not that I begrudge anyone their loyalty benefits but combining loyalty perks and suite perks into one pool just meant completely watered-down benefits for everyone. Lines were everywhere. Free drink? Wait in line. Want a seat in the lounge to eat your appies? Wait for a seat to open. Need something from the concierge? Carve about an hour out of your day to get help. It took me practically that long to ask the concierge to book us the single thing we wanted (Ice Show tickets). I should’ve just gone to Guest Services or wherever, but I was chatting with people in line. For forking out suite $$, it was completely unremarkable and unimpressive in every other way I won’t bore you further with here. (This is a fan site after all!) However, due to that completely lackluster cruise, we haven’t sailed with Royal since. In the interim, we became Platinum Plus on Norwegian (all Haven or suites), Platinum on Disney (all Concierge), and 3* Mariners on Holland America (all Neptune Suites). I don’t like to say we’re suite snobs, but rather we have “Super FOMO.” Fear of Missing Out. What is not available to us if we don’t book a suite?! What will we be missing out on?! Not that we are “do it all” peeps. But we like to know we can, if we want to. Most of the time we don’t want to, but what if we do? (This makes sense in my head.) Plus, the secret to a happy, successful marriage? Separate bathrooms. We don't share a bathroom at home. If we can help it, we don't like to share while on vacation either; hence our suite life propensity. Fast forward to mid-March 2019 when our original vacation plans fell through while still being locked in to a specific vacation week at work. We scrambled to find a substitute vacay. What to do, where to go? WHAT. TO. DO??! (Heaven forbid we stay home and work on the house. YOLO, baby!) We of course checked the Norwegian Escape Haven first (one of our faves). This ship is approximately the same size as Anthem of the Seas, departs from NYC, and spends 2 overnights in Bermuda. In other words, about as apples-to-apples on paper as you can get. The lowest priced (and rather small in comparison) Haven room was 2K$ more than SC on the Anthem. I’m crazy, but not that crazy. The Anthem for the same week had a single SC room left for the week we needed: one Grand Loft suite. I called my TA who immediately held the suite for me for 24-hours while the hubs and I chatted over our new last-minute vacation plans. Spoiler alert: we did not need 24 hours to decide. Stateroom nerd warning: before jumping any guns, I needed to know if we were going to be stuck with everyone’s last choice room. My crack whip research showed that Anthem 10324 is a great room and has no negative factors. In fact, we thought we were totally lucky to get it (last minute cancellation perhaps?). A quick review of Star Class Service Perks (which was the real game changer), and I was sold. It took the hubs a couple more hours to come around. But come around he did. Mariner OTS, bygones are bygones. We’re ready to come back to Royal! Let’s do this! Juicy Deets: Me (SweetPea) and the Hubs (Batman) sailing on the Anthem of the Seas, 4/27, Grand Loft Suite 10324 (SC), departing Cape Liberty, NJ for an overnight in Bermuda and then up to Boston for a full day before heading back to the armpit of my great state on 5/4. (NJ born & bred here. I’m allowed to say this. My accent only comes out when I’m annoyed, thankfully, though CA born & bred Batman argues differently. However, it’s not an accent; we all know Newark, NJ is pronounced “Nork.” End of. Do not argue this with me. I’m 100% right.) So, if you’ve indulged me this long (and God bless you for that), stick around for my quasi-live review from a born-again Royal to see if it measures up to our usual haunting grounds. Will it? I can hardly wait to see myself! Hopefully, I don’t get frustrated blogging from my phone (I'm not finding uploading and captioning pics here and inserting them between text intuitive at all. Any hints are appreciated. Not having any "preview post" functionality isn't helping me either. ?) If i figure it out, be forewarned: there may be an episode or five of PUI. For those unfamiliar with that term, that is Posting Under the Influence [of the drink package] … I should probably test the edit/delete functions of this message board first. After all, #TeamSuperFOMO’s motto is “It seemed like a good idea at the time.” Who knows, at the rate I'm not figuring this out, you may just get random pictures with separate posts of me trying to explain them to you later. Out of order. What fun! Up next: submitting your DNA test results, current blood pressure and cholesterol levels, your Superhero and Soap Opera names, and the last time you cried at a movie to your Genie. And why you should never let Batman submit said Genie survey on your behalf. Stay tuned.

Inquiring minds want to know... Did you make eye contact and conjure the performers in Eden? On a scale of one to awkward, I would have to place that at one of my students telling me in front of the class that my dress was on backwards... I mean, wouldn't it feel rude to be eating while they're performing?

Yes! (BTW, I know you weren't on Oasis. I meant Oasis class! Oops!). A nice 10 night itinerary would be my sweet spot, but I'd do a B2B...where we probably still would not get to do everything!

Thanks for your review. So much to do, so little time on Oasis class, it seems. A longer cruise would be lovely on these ships. Loved your pics!

Total Newby here. Scrolling through 8 pages of info, and here is the first chance I can respond with something helpful. :) We live in NJ, but have annual passes to Universal and go frequently. We never drive on vacation. We've been using Tony Hinds for years. If this isn't too late, drop him an email. He serves Port Canaveral with grocery stops to wherever you're going in Orlando. http://www.taxi-mco.com/Drivers/Tony Hinds.htm

Like I said, I loved this blog. It's clear you adore Oasis class, so I'm curious to see how (if) we like Quantum Class, because I read your blog on Anthem too. I've been lurking for the past month. ? I'm getting ready to write my blog this upcoming week as we return to RCI after 10+ years on Anthem ourselves. But know that thanks to you, I'm researching Star Class on Oasis when she comes to NJ. Thank you again. ?

Hi there! I loved your blog on Harmony.

Does this mean you get on the ship tmw? I'm living vicariously through you for now. ? Star Class for us 2 weeks from today.

I have no idea what ship you're getting on, but I'm following along for funsies! Duh. Just saw the ship name in the title. ?️?