WAAAYTOOO

The wife knows ALL.  Hopefully you realize that now !
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Wow.  I guess I missed all of the excitement !

Back home now. 1 load in the washing machine, 2 waiting. Araceli isn’t here. But the Home Genie has made a reappearance. Sad news. 
Thanks again for following everyone ?

So glad you guys had a great time.  Great blog !  Thanks for taking us along.  Safe trip home.

Also remember that if you are dining in a specialty restaurant but there is something on the MDR menu that night that you really want (lobster tails or lamb shank comes to mind), you can always ask the specialty restaurant waiter to bring you something from the MDR.  We do this often. No need to miss your favorite MDR dish just b/c you are dining in a specialty restaurant that night !

When we were on Anthem a few weeks ago in Coco Cay they opened the casino in the evening but never during the day.  Would have been nice if they had, as I did not get off the ship either time !

Also remember that if you are dining in a specialty restaurant but there is something on the MDR menu that night that you really want (lobster tails or lamb shank comes to mind), you can always ask the specialty restaurant waiter to bring you something from the MDR.  We do this often. No need to miss your favorite MDR dish just b/c you are dining in a specialty restaurant that night !

I have found the slots on my last three RC cruises very very lucrative.  Won 11.5 thousand off 20 dollars I started with this last cruise—2500 points to get prime status — 25000 for next level.   I drink free for next year on all rc cruises.  Two free cruises total so far. 

With the suite lounge being directly above our room that means double the distance.  One trip from the room at the A$$ end of the ship to the stairs to go up to twelve and then another trip all the way back to the lounge.   So I’ll get two trips, for 10 calories total, and then back to the room for a grand total of 20, which means seafood tower every night!  
Or the other option could be to make our own shortcut.  We could cut through the ceiling of the bedroom to have instant access or bring some climbing gear and a glass cutter to acces the lounge from the veranda.

Serenade - 8/28/19
Navigator - 11/1/19
Navigator - 11/4/19
Symphony - 11/9/19
Symphony - 11/16/19

We rarely do MDR anymore but when we did, we always used MTD and we were almost always able to get the same table/waiters.  You do have to make those arrangements with the maitre d though.  On your way out of the restaurant on the first night, just stop by the maitre d kiosk and tell them that you want to keep your table and waiters OR if you want a different table and/or waiters, let them know that, too.  Our waiters have usually been very good but we've had a few bad experiences, too.

In the interest of full disclosure I'm not a big fan of Next.  
On more than one ship I've visited Next with my normal land travel agent on the phone and ended up booking with my agent over the phone as I walked away from Next.  
I still check with Next from time to time just to validate or see if I can get anything, even $50 in OBC better through Next.  Time and again I leave Next without booking anything.  Never hurts to check.
A lot depends on the category of cabin, how far out it is and if the stars align for you.  Now being Diamond Plus and receiving the reduced single supplement it seems so often I can do the same or better through a normal travel agent.  I tend to book refundable which is possible at Next but their refundable prices are not attractive in most cases.  They are all about NRDB.  
I've got three 2020 cruises I'm kicking the tires on and will check with Next again in April when I sail again but I'm not expecting much.

Once again made obsolete by a younger, smarter, prettier bot.  Sigh... sad robot ? 

I have a cruise the latter part of April and just put in my bids for the Royal Up program. Looking at my cruise it doesn't show any suites available so I am not thinking I have a high chance of getting one unless someone drops out. I have read where it has worked for some and not for others. I just plan on going into the room they gave me, and if that changes and I get a suite, then that works too.

Reyno did the same thing on our first SC cruise with him.  I do not have a FB page so he found nothing on me BUT Dan has a blog dealing almost exclusively with his Military service and military associations.  Reyno found that, recognized that Dan was a "milit'ry man" <in my best South African accent>.  Reyno was also a military officer (in the SA Army) so they had that kind of soldier-bond-thing going on from the beginning.  At the end of that cruise, Reyno gave Dan a solid bronze, antique ship's compass, which I thought was an extremely personal and considerate gift.  The Genies really do their homework and try and make your experience very very special.

Thank you for this. (first post). We somehow got 10324 Anthem as a last minute booking. At first I thought we missed out booking a corner suite but by your blog see that's not the case. Cruising next month. Thanks for reporting in. :) 
 
 

I guess I left that out !  We did eat at CK -twice. It was the first night on both legs - filet night.  I really don’t mind the CK.  I guess when you get specialty restaurants complimentary, you just tend to visit those first.  Quite honestly, I kinda forget about the CK as a dinner spot since we almost exclusively use it primarily for breakfast. You’re right, of course.  It certainly is a good option as their menu changes nightly rather than being static. 

What did we do on the ship ?
So I had a bit of a break as I was on a biz trip last week but I have one more installment to complete this very short cruise blog. ?
We were on B2B cruises on Anthem with almost identical itineraries.  The only difference between the 2 was that on the first leg we went to Nassau first and Coco Cay second and on the second leg we went to Coco Cay first and Nassau second.  Our other stop was at Port Canaveral.  I will make the descriptions of what we did at our ports of call very simple.  Other than getting off at Port Canaveral to conduct some quick business, I did not leave the ship. Dan got off briefly on the first leg at Coco Cay but that was it.  Nothing to see here...
While on the ship, we thoroughly enjoyed the shows, specialty dining, dining in our suites and of course, the casino.  We skipped many of the headliner shows, only seeing 2 comedians and a juggling/magic act which was pretty lame.  We saw The Gift once.  Once was enough.  Also pretty lame.  But we LOVED We Will Rock You.  We went to see that twice - once on each leg. The first time Yen sat us right up front, which is where Dan usually wants to be.  The second time I asked her to move us back some and I enjoyed that location much more than being right up front.  I think Dan still prefers to be up front.  We each got what we wanted.  Always a good thing.
There were 2 tribute bands - 1 on each of the legs.  The first one was a Journey Tribute band (can't remember their name) and we saw them at 270.  I thought they were ok but I wasn't overly impressed. I was in a constant panic that the lead singer was going to lose his trou.  They were so low and so loose that every time he would hop about, he would have to grab them to keep them from going to his ankles.  He once jumped from the floor to an raised area on the stage and I thought it was all over for sure.  He barely caught them in time !  The second tribute band was Wanted, which was a Bon Jovi cover band.  I enjoyed that one much more, which is odd b/c I am much more of a Journey fan than I am a BJ fan but I just thought the second show was better.  We saw that show in the Music Hall.  Of course, Yen reserved prime viewing seats for us for both of these events (recalling that she was hesitant to do so at the Music Hall, but did anyway, in the end).
We went to see the Spectra Cabaret twice (once on each leg).  That was a very interesting and different kind of show.  We thoroughly enjoyed it.  We really liked 270, period.  I think it is a GREAT venue and we liked going there during the day, at night and during shows.
We ate at every specialty restaurant except for Wonderland, which we detest.  Next time, however, I AM going to get one of those World things !!!  The food was consistently good at Chops and when I finally found something that I really liked at Jamie's (mushroom fettuccine) I enjoyed going there, too.  It shouldn't be a big surprise to anyone that I enjoyed the mushroom fettuccine....it is nothing more than a thickened version of the cream of mushroom soup, poured over fettuccine noodles.  LOL  It is good though !  I also liked Jamie's tiramisu.  I think it is much better than Giovanni's...and it is the ONLY thing that I think Jamie's does better than Giovanni's.  One really cold and rainy day on our way back on the final leg, I wanted Johnny Rocket's but since the JR on Anthem is a store front only it was much too cold to eat there.  So we ordered our food and then asked Yen to have it delivered to our suite - which she did, joyfully.  I visited Starbuck's every day in the AM before they divested themselves of the yummy chocolate croissants and even had Dan drinking hot chocolate with me there before the end. Neither of us are coffee drinkers but I do enjoy a good cappuccino.  I even broke "the cappuccino rule" and had one after 10:00AM a few times.  I found out, from my many trips to Italy over the years, that it is considered very bad form (especially for MEN !) to drink cappuccino after 10AM. Who cares.  I'm not Italian !  We ate at Izumi a LOT b/c that is probably  Dan's fave restaurant.  I will say....after 16 days of eating at the same 4-5 restaurants, it was getting a bit tiresome.  I never thought I would say that out loud...but I do think it's true.  We never went to the MDR but we did go to the WJ twice (both times for lunch) !  We had room service most mornings for breakfast and had room service for dinner a couple of times.  On the last night, Dan had the lamb shank and I had a Maine lobster - delivered to the suite.  It was kind of like a "last supper".  Very somber affair....
We did the bumper cars once on the first leg.  Once was enough for them.  Yen took us to the front of the line, we got in, bounced around for a while and got out.  'Nuff said.  We did North Star 3 times.  Once in the open ocean (boring), once in Port Canaveral (better) and once in Coco Cay, which was the best, IMO.  We really enjoyed going up in the NS.  I am really not that brave and I thought I might be afraid but it was so smooth that you hardly even notice that it's rising.  The last time we caused something of a stir, I guess.  I didn't know this until it was over but apparently they were running a bit behind schedule and there were some people who had been waiting over 30 minutes for their "reserved" ride on NS.  Of course, Yen just walked us up to the front and put us on the next evolution and apparently there were some who were not too happy about that.  I had no idea.  I certainly wouldn't have minded waiting if I had known that they had been waiting for a while.  Dan did not do the iFly even though he is a very experienced sky diver.  I don't know why he didn't do it...he just didn't.  Maybe it's for the same reason that he had no interest in doing the flight simulator in Nassau.  I guess once you do the "real thing" a simulator just doesn't do it for ya.  Whatevs...
As a gift, Yen gave us a sushi making class on the last day.  We didn't have the heart to tell her that we had already done this once on Grandeur so we went.  I was much better at it the second time than I was the first time so maybe doing a second time wasn't a complete waste of time !  I absolutely hate that dried seaweed (YUK!) so I decided that this time I was NOT going to use it.  My rolls were a bit - um - flaccid - because of the lack of the seaweed wrap but they sure tasted better !
The casino was the casino.  Not much more to say there.  The staff was very good...we made good friends with all of the pit bosses and a few of the dealers.  We lost money - as we always do but much less than normal, especially considering that it was a 16 day mega gambling spree. These were the final 2 casino events for this casino year.  We will not be on another cruise until after the new casino year starts on 1 April.  We both qualified for Prime several cruises back but never even came close to qualifying for the next higher tier, which is Signature.
It was a great B2B Star Class cruise.  We enjoyed it so much that we are doing nearly the exact same itinerary next year.  We are starting 1 week earlier than we did this year but will still be doing 2 Grand Loft Suites on 2 consecutive weeks in February 2020.  YIPPEE !!!!

I guess I left that out !  We did eat at CK -twice. It was the first night on both legs - filet night.  I really don’t mind the CK.  I guess when you get specialty restaurants complimentary, you just tend to visit those first.  Quite honestly, I kinda forget about the CK as a dinner spot since we almost exclusively use it primarily for breakfast. You’re right, of course.  It certainly is a good option as their menu changes nightly rather than being static. 

So now for the good stuff ! The days in between coming and going.
The Genie.  Yen Lee is from Malaysia (not China, as I had first assumed...you know what they say about assume...).  She is a little whisp of a thing...probably 75 pounds, tops and she has a "bop".  Bop is really the only name I have for the cute little half curtsey, half bow that she does when she walks up to you.  It's kind of a knee bend, bouncy thing.  So cute.  She is ALL business.  Personable ?  After you to get to know her (and she gets to know you)....yes.  At first we were a little concerned b/c she is very formal.  After a while she will laugh with you but it took a while to see that first smile.  Efficient ?  Hell, yes.  I think the rest of the crew is scared of her.  Nah...not really.  I don't think...  Everyone knows her though and she can quite literally do anything.
Of course, she did the usual and expected things: made (and changed) our dining reservations, saved our seats for performances, escorted us on and off the ship when asked or needed, arranged a party for us in our suite, made sure we had anything we asked for (food, drinks, etc.) in our suite.  But a good Genie will go beyond that.  Here are a couple of things that Yen did for us that really MADE our cruise.
In our pre-arrival email exchanges I had mentioned that Dan loves Modelo Negro beer and asked her to please have some in our suite, on ice with some fresh lime.  She wrote back and apologized...saying that the Anthem no longer stocked Modelo Negro.  No big deal, I told her.  Corona will do just fine.  Thank you.  So when we came on board, we had a whole bunch of Corona on ice with fresh lime all ready to go.  Dan was in heaven.  About day 5, Yen came to our suite with a tote bag over her shoulder.  This was somewhat unusual as she only came to our suite, unannounced, maybe 2 times in 17 days.  We were happy to see her (as we always were) and she started pulling Modelo Negro bottles out of the tote and she kept pulling out more and more and more bottles until we finally had about a dozen bottles of Modelo Negro that she had "found" somewhere - only God knows where. It was just such a sweet and over-the-top kind of thing to do. I couldn't believe that she even remembered that from 1 email weeks before we even boarded.  Dan was now truly in love with her.
...and regarding the special abilities of Genies.  You may recall that I had made kind of a big deal about how busy it had always been on our previous SC cruises - the deliveries, door bells ringing, phones ringing constantly.  I have no idea HOW she did it but that phone never rang ONCE and the door bell never rang ONCE for about the first 4 days of our cruise.  For all I know, she was standing guard out there and threatening anyone coming close to our suite but however she did it, it was a major miracle.  I will say that, as time went by, we started getting a few visitors and calls but it was NEVER like we had it on previous cruises where they were coming and going at all hours.  She definitely had performed some kind of intercession for us.  It was wonderful.
The other very special interdiction that Yen did for us was during our first stop at Port Canaveral. As we were sailing towards the port (wee hours of the morning.  I recall looking at my iPad and it said 1:50 AM) the Captain came over the all hands comm and told us that passengers had reported seeing someone go over the side.  He sounded very distressed.  He asked that if anyone in your party could not be accounted for, to please call 911 and report them missing.  No more comms on the subject - for now.  Once we docked at PC, we got up, got off the ship for a while in Port Canaveral (Terminal J...way the F* on the other side of the port...in fact, we used a Carnival terminal.  Ugh...whatever).  When we got back to the terminal, it was slam packed full of people.  Some people were in wet bathing suits.  It turns out that they had never been able to get a reliable head count so they made EVERYone disembark, including crew so that they could account for everyone.  In the end, there were no pax or crew missing so it turned out to be a false alarm...but they had to be able to verify that with the Coast Guard AND the local police, who were now involved and flittering around going on and off the ship in packs.  Tempers were beginning to flare and mobs of people were jamming what would soon be the entrance back onto the ship.  I sent a text to Yen saying, "come save us".  Maybe 5 minutes later, I saw her beautiful little self coming down the escalator and I knew we were going to be ok !  (joke).  She shoved her way through the madness at the entrance (BTW, I saw her shove that little body through more than one traffic jam !  She may have been pint sized but she had the determination of a 340 pound linebacker !) Dan whistled and got her attention and she drug our asses back through that mass of people, up the escalators and back onto the ship.

Totally jealous. 
This is why everyone should go on RoyalCariibeanBlog.com Groups cruises!
 

I guess I left that out !  We did eat at CK -twice. It was the first night on both legs - filet night.  I really don’t mind the CK.  I guess when you get specialty restaurants complimentary, you just tend to visit those first.  Quite honestly, I kinda forget about the CK as a dinner spot since we almost exclusively use it primarily for breakfast. You’re right, of course.  It certainly is a good option as their menu changes nightly rather than being static. 

This afternoon we had the Bridge tour. Again, Star Class had their own session and Araceli accompanied us the whole time. Pics will be later on this as it is on Hubby’s camera.
We asked Araceli to stop by just before the tour to give her this:


I am hoping that she liked it.
Trying to find every excuse possible right now to not pack. Dinner is later at Jamie’s again. That’s all for now. 

Just to add to this research, I have placed on hold 2 B2B cruises with MEI. The price comparison is:
Anthem 11 night Caribbean cruise from Port Bayonne 26th January 2021, Spa Junior Suite
Current UK price: £6,494
MEI / US price: £4,106 (using conversion of £1 = $1.30)
Anthem 8 night Bahama cruise from Port Bayonne 6th February 2021, Spa Junior Suite
Current UK price: £3,292
MEI / US price: £2,108
This is a direct comparison as the UK price for 2021 does not include any additional offer - not even wifi. I noted, though, that 2021 pricing, is much higher than the same cruise on the same ship in 2020. So, there may be lower prices or drinks packages offered in the future. I will track this and report back.
Total saving at current prices and exchange rate is: £3,572.
That's a bit of a no-brainer!
Thanks to Stephanie at MEI for a very quick response.

Those in the aft tend to be Star Class so that's a whole other conversation right there.
One difference is the extra 96,000 steps you'll be putting on your favorite fitness tracker doing the daily hike to the back.